Ullid, Kullit And Chinrge

So, when our ancestors left their homes across the Sahyādri around 1,500 BCE, they were definitely not hunter gatherers. This is not to rule out the existence of hunter-gatherer communities among them; there definitely were; as they existed even in much later times. But by and large they were settled cultivators and animal herders. They grew crops like uḷīda(black-gram / ullid), mūṁga (green-gram / mung),kuḷīta(horse-gram / kullit), vāla(hyacinth bean /val), masūra(lentil /masur), vāṭāṇôṁ(grass-pea /vattannom), nācaṇī (finger millet /nachnni) and varīcā tāṁdūḷa (vari rice / varicha tandull). They reared cattle, goats and sheep – and where possible, water buffaloes.[Dutta, 2006 :A Critical Review of the Economy of the Chalcolithic People of Inamgaon, 128]Wheat and barley were perhaps added later, brought in by the cattle caravans from the Indo-Gangetic plain. Rice cultivation is conspicuous by its absence. Could it be that they learned the art of rice cultivation after descending into the coastal plains ? In any case, rice was difficult to grow in the arid climate back in Deccan, even with the limited irrigation that they had innovated. From whom did they learn the art of rice cultivation when they began cultivation in their new land on the coast ? Were they helped by some migrants who came from rice growing regions ? We still do not have answers for these questions.