Millets in Ancient Texts & Traditions
Millets are among the oldest cultivated crops in human history, with archaeological evidence of domestication stretching back 8,000-10,000 years in both China and Africa. Far from being forgotten crops, millets were documented extensively in the sacred hymns of the Vedas, the poetry of ancient Tamil Sangam literature, the oracle bone inscriptions of Shang Dynasty China, the agricultural treatises of Rome, and the scriptures of the Hebrew Bible. These references reveal that millets were not merely survival food but were woven into the religious, cultural, literary, and economic fabric of civilizations across the ancient world.
Yajurveda (Shukla Yajurveda, Vajasaneyi Samhita)
“Priyangu (प्रियङ्गु), Anu (अणु), Shyamaka (श्यामाक)”
The Yajurveda lists Priyangu (foxtail millet), Anu (barnyard millet), and Shyamaka (little millet or barnyard millet) among the grains offered in Vedic fire sacrifices (yajna). These millets are enumerated alongside rice and barley in the "grain-offering" hymns, indicating their status as sacred and essential food crops in Vedic society.
Significance
This is one of the earliest known textual references to millets anywhere in the world, dating to the late Bronze Age. The inclusion of millets in Vedic ritual sacrifices demonstrates that they were not merely peasant food but held sacred, ceremonial importance. It proves that foxtail and barnyard millets were cultivated in the Indian subcontinent at least 3,000-3,500 years ago.
Source: Vajasaneyi Samhita (Shukla Yajurveda), Chapter 18, Verse 12; also referenced in Taittiriya Samhita
Charaka Samhita (Sutra Sthana)
“कुधान्यवर्ग (Kudhanya Varga)”
The Charaka Samhita classifies millets under "Kudhanya Varga" (the group of lesser or small grains) and describes their properties systematically. Koradusha (kodo millet) is described as dry (ruksha), light (laghu), and cold in potency (sheeta virya), beneficial for pacifying kapha and pitta doshas. Priyangu (foxtail millet) is classified as astringent in taste, light, and useful in conditions of excessive thirst and burning sensations.
Significance
The Charaka Samhita is one of the foundational texts of Ayurvedic medicine. Its systematic classification of millets with specific therapeutic properties — rasa (taste), guna (quality), virya (potency), and vipaka (post-digestive effect) — establishes a 2,300-year-old framework for using millets medicinally. The term "Kudhanya" has been mistranslated as "inferior grains" but more accurately means "small grains," reflecting grain size rather than nutritional value.
Source: Charaka Samhita, Sutra Sthana, Chapter 27 (Annapanavidhi Adhyaya)
Sushruta Samhita
“कोरदूषः लघुः रूक्षो मधुरो वातकोपनः (Koradushak laghuh ruksho madhuro vatakopanah)”
Koradusha (kodo millet) is light, dry, sweet in post-digestive effect, and aggravates vata. Sushruta describes millets as useful in the dietary management of conditions involving excess kapha and medas (fat tissue). He recommends them as therapeutic foods for prameha (urinary disorders, including conditions resembling diabetes), sthaulya (obesity), and kaphaja rogas (kapha-dominant diseases).
Significance
Sushruta, known as the father of surgery, applied millets therapeutically in post-operative dietary recommendations and metabolic disease management. His prescription of millets for prameha (diabetes-like conditions) and obesity is remarkably consistent with modern research showing millets have low glycemic indices and high fiber content. This represents perhaps the oldest "prescription" of millets for metabolic health.
Source: Sushruta Samhita, Sutra Sthana, Chapter 46 (Annapanavidhi)
Bhavaprakasha Nighantu
“कोद्रवो मधुरस्तिक्तो रूक्षो ग्राही कषायकः। लघुश्छर्दिहरो बल्यो मेदःश्लेष्मविनाशनः॥”
Kodrava (kodo millet) is sweet and astringent in taste, dry, light, absorbent, and alleviates vomiting. It strengthens the body and destroys excess fat and kapha. Bhavamishra provides the most comprehensive medieval classification of millets, individually describing the properties of Kanguni (foxtail), Cheena (proso millet), Koradusha (kodo), Shyamaka (barnyard), and Ragi (finger millet) with precise therapeutic indications.
Significance
The Bhavaprakasha Nighantu represents the most detailed pre-modern pharmacological classification of millets. Written by the physician Bhavamishra in the 16th century, it synthesizes knowledge from the Charaka and Sushruta traditions while adding observations from contemporary practice. It lists five distinct millet species with individualized properties, proving that medieval Indian scholars had a sophisticated taxonomic understanding of the millet family.
Source: Bhavaprakasha Nighantu, Dhanya Varga (Grain Section), Verses 48-62
Tolkappiyam (Porulatikaram)
“முல்லை, குறிஞ்சி, மருதம், நெய்தல், பாலை (Mullai, Kurinji, Marutam, Neytal, Palai)”
The Tolkappiyam codifies the "Tinai" system — a literary and ecological classification that maps five landscape types to specific flora, fauna, occupations, and emotions. Mullai (pastoral forest) is associated with millet cultivation, particularly Italian millet (thinai/foxtail millet) and varagu (kodo millet). Kurinji (mountain/hill tract) is linked to thinai (foxtail millet) cultivation on hill slopes through slash-and-burn agriculture.
Significance
The Tolkappiyam is the oldest extant Tamil grammar and literary treatise. Its Tinai system is extraordinary because it integrates ecology, agriculture, and literary aesthetics into a single framework. The fact that millet cultivation defines entire landscape categories (mullai and kurinji) demonstrates that millets were not peripheral but foundational to the Tamil conception of land, livelihood, and culture. This is arguably the world oldest agroecological classification system.
Source: Tolkappiyam, Porulatikaram (Section on Subject Matter), Agattinai Iyal
Sangam Literature (Kuruntokai, Purananuru, Ainkurunuru)
“தினை புனம் (thinai punam — the millet field)”
Across Sangam poetry, the "thinai punam" (millet field on the hillside) is a recurring image associated with young love, secret meetings, and pastoral beauty. In Kuruntokai poem 34, a young woman guards her family foxtail millet field from parrots and wild birds, and it is there that she meets her lover. In Purananuru, warriors are praised for protecting the millet harvest from raiders. Varagu (kodo millet) and samai (little millet) appear in descriptions of hill-tribe cuisine.
Significance
Sangam literature provides the richest pre-modern poetic corpus centered on millets anywhere in world literature. The "thinai punam" is one of the most iconic images in Tamil poetry, and the act of guarding the millet field is a metaphor for innocence, duty, and the threshold between childhood and adulthood. These poems prove that at least four distinct millet species were cultivated in Tamil Nadu over 2,000 years ago and were deeply woven into the emotional and economic life of the people.
Source: Kuruntokai (Poem 34, 142, 218), Purananuru (Poem 159), Ainkurunuru — Sangam Anthology
Chinese Oracle Bone Inscriptions (Jiaguwen)
“黍 (shǔ — broomcorn/proso millet), 粟 (sù — foxtail millet)”
Oracle bone inscriptions from the Shang Dynasty capital at Yinxu (modern Anyang, Henan) contain divination records asking about the success of the millet harvest. The characters for shu (broomcorn/proso millet) and su (foxtail millet) appear frequently in questions posed to royal ancestors: "Will the shu harvest be bountiful this season?" and "Should the king order the planting of su?" These are among the earliest Chinese characters to be identified.
Significance
Oracle bone inscriptions are the earliest form of Chinese writing. The prominence of millet-related divinations proves that millet was the primary cereal of Shang Dynasty China (not rice, which was a southern crop). The character su (粟, foxtail millet) later became the generic word for "grain" and "salary" in Chinese, reflecting the centrality of millet to early Chinese civilization. Archaeological evidence from Cishan and Peiligang confirms millet cultivation in northern China from ~8,000 BCE.
Source: Yinxu Oracle Bone Corpus; Keightley, David N. "Sources of Shang History" (1978); Lu, Houyuan et al., PNAS (2009)
Shijing (Book of Songs) — Hou Ji Hymn
“誕降嘉種，維秬維秠，維穈維芑 (He brought down the excellent seeds: black millet and double-kernelled millet, red-sprout millet and white)”
The Shijing hymn "Sheng Min" (Birth of the People) tells the mythological origin of Hou Ji (Lord Millet), the legendary ancestor of the Zhou people. Hou Ji was miraculously conceived, survived abandonment as an infant, and grew up to teach the people agriculture. He is specifically credited with bringing down from heaven the different varieties of millet — black millet, double-kernelled millet, red-sprout millet, and white millet — and teaching humanity how to cultivate them.
Significance
Hou Ji (Lord Millet) is one of the most important figures in Chinese mythology — the divine ancestor of the Zhou Dynasty and the culture hero who gave agriculture to humanity. That the Chinese chose millet (not rice, wheat, or any other grain) as the sacred crop brought by a god reflects the absolute primacy of millet in the foundational myth of Chinese civilization. The hymn preserves varietal names suggesting sophisticated millet breeding in the early Zhou period.
Source: Shijing (Book of Songs), Da Ya section, "Sheng Min" (Birth of the People) hymn
Pliny the Elder — Naturalis Historia (Natural History)
“Milium inter frumenta laboris minimi est... Panicum ex uno grano DCCCC farinam reddit. (Millet among grains requires the least labor... Panic grass from one grain yields 900 grains of flour.)”
Pliny describes millet (milium, probably proso millet) and panic grass (panicum, probably foxtail millet) in Book XVIII of his Natural History. He notes that millet requires the least labor of any grain crop, yields abundantly, and is stored with remarkable ease — "it keeps longest of all grains, and weevils do not attack it." He records that the Sarmatians and other peoples make porridge from millet, and that Campanian farmers make a particularly white bread from it.
Significance
Pliny Natural History is the most comprehensive encyclopedic work of the Roman Empire. His description of millet as low-labor, high-yielding, and pest-resistant matches modern agronomic assessments precisely. His observation about millet resistance to weevils is scientifically confirmed — millet small grain size and tight husk deter stored-product insects. This text documents millet cultivation across the Roman Empire from Campania (Italy) to the Sarmatian steppe (modern Ukraine/Russia).
Source: Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, Book XVIII, Chapters 24-25 (77 CE)
Columella — De Re Rustica (On Agriculture)
“Milium et panicum siccis locis et soluto solo bene proveniunt. (Millet and panic grass grow well in dry places and loose soil.)”
Columella, the most systematic Roman agricultural writer, provides detailed cultivation instructions for millet in Book II of De Re Rustica. He specifies that millet should be sown in spring after the equinox, in dry, loose, well-drained soil. He recommends a sowing rate and notes that millet can be grown as a catch crop after an early-harvested legume. He also describes its use as animal fodder and as flour for bread and porridge.
Significance
Columella provides the most detailed agronomic manual for millet cultivation from the ancient Western world. His instructions reveal that Roman farmers understood millet drought tolerance, short growing season, and versatility as a catch crop — the same traits that make millets attractive to modern climate-adaptive agriculture. His work proves that millet was not a marginal crop but an integral part of Roman agricultural systems.
Source: Columella, De Re Rustica, Book II, Chapters 9-10 (~60 CE)
Kanakadasa — Ramadhanya Charithre (The Story of Lord Rama Grain)
“ರಾಗಿಯು ಬಡವರ ಕಣ್ಣ ಬೆಳಕು (Ragi is the light in the eyes of the poor)”
In this allegorical narrative poem, Kanakadasa stages a debate between Ragi (finger millet) and Rice before Lord Rama court. Rice boasts of its whiteness, softness, and presence in royal kitchens and temple offerings. Ragi responds humbly, describing how it feeds the poor, grows in harsh soil without irrigation, strengthens bones, and sustains laborers through long days of work. Lord Rama ultimately rules in favor of Ragi, declaring it the superior grain for its selfless service to humanity.
Significance
Ramadhanya Charithre is a masterpiece of Bhakti literature and one of the earliest works of "food justice" literature in the world. Kanakadasa, himself from a low-caste shepherd community, used the ragi-versus-rice allegory to critique social hierarchy — rice representing upper-caste privilege and ragi representing the dignity of the marginalized. The poem remains hugely influential in Karnataka and is cited in modern millet revival movements as a cultural touchstone. It has been called "the millet manifesto."
Source: Kanakadasa, Ramadhanya Charithre (16th century CE); published in B.R. Rajam Iyer (ed.), Kanakadasa Sahitya Darshana
Dogon Cosmogony — Fonio as the Seed of Creation
In Dogon cosmology, the creator god Amma formed the universe from a single primordial seed called "po" — identified as fonio (Digitaria exilis), the smallest cultivated grain in the world. The Dogon word "po tolo" (seed of fonio) is also their name for the star Sirius B, a white dwarf that is the smallest visible star, mirroring the fonio seed tininess. According to the creation myth, Amma planted the po seed in the cosmic womb, and from its germination all life unfolded. Fonio is thus the seed of the universe, the primordial atom of creation.
Significance
The Dogon cosmogony places a millet species at the very origin of the universe — an extraordinary theological elevation unmatched in any other grain mythology. The association of the tiniest cultivated grain with the tiniest visible star reflects a deep philosophical principle: that the smallest things contain the greatest creative potential. This myth has attracted significant anthropological attention since Marcel Griaule published "Conversations with Ogotemmeli" (1948). Fonio remains the most sacred grain in Dogon culture, used in ritual offerings and reserved for special ceremonies.
Source: Griaule, Marcel. "Dieu d'eau: Entretiens avec Ogotemmeli" (1948); Griaule & Dieterlen, "The Pale Fox" (1965); Cisse, Youssouf. Dogon oral tradition documentation
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