The Story of Ahalyaa : Agricultural Engineering.

For the uninitiated, this is who is Ahalyaa.

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The Symbolic story : Once upon a time lived a beautiful woman named Ahalyaa. Her Husband was Rishi Gautama. Once, she was tricked by Lord Indra (The God of rain and thunder); and subsequently was cursed to become a rock. Gautama deserted her. She remained as rock for many centuries. When Prince Rama touched her, she became the alive woman again and her social status was restored.

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Hal        =  Plough. (Fig.1)

Hal-yaa =  Feminine adjective derived from the verb 'hal', meaning to plough. Land is treated as a female in Indian culture.

Halya     =  plough-able and cultivable land. (Fig.2)

  A         =  negation prefix.

A-Hal-yaa = Ahalyaa = the land which cannot be ploughed (hence cultivated).

 

                      Fig. 1                                           Fig. 2

The Missing Link : The land has been personified as a a woman. In Indian wisdom, Land is treated as Mother.

The Engineering Story (In brackets)

• Ahalyaa was tricked by Lord Indra (The land faced severe droughts : no rainfall, no river.)
• Ahalyaa had turned into a rock. (Land had become rocky due to lack of irrigation.)
• Gautama deserted her. (Go-tama or the cattle-rearing farmers left this land for more fertile and cultivable areas).
• Ram touched Ahalyaa, Fig.3. (As a part of the socio-economic reforms, the government sponsored the reclamation of the land, in order to make it cultivable to support the food-grains demand of the population.)
• Ahalyaa became alive again. (The land became fertile again. Cultivation was re-started after many centuries.)
• Ahalyaa's social status status was restored. (The land became attractive to settlers once again where agriculture began to flourish.) 

                  Fig. 3                               Fig. 4

Later, agriculture was supported by the Monarchy Government of Gujarat under Rohini-nandan Balaram Vaasudev of the Yadu Dynasty (Fig. 4). The King personally endorsed the Hal (Plough), symbolizing that the economy was strongly dependent on agriculture.

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Footnote : Quaintly, in our epics, everything has been expressed symbolically; making it difficult for the common man to logically interpret it. On a lighter note, the epics would look somewhat different if scientists and engineers compiled them; instead of poets and bards. (Wink!)

Reference : (Last page)