EXPRESSION OF AGRO-ECOLOGICAL WISDOM FOR FARMERS:

AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF PUNJABI INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM THROUGH PROVERBS

Abstract

The present research started from the presumption that Punjabi proverbs are rich with agri-cultural information and have a lot of guidelines for the farmers. When the research started, it was found that the area of Punjabi agricultural proverbs was still unexplored. A sample of 362 agriculture related Punjabi proverbs was collected, from a Punjabi dictionary of proverbs, Saa-day Akhan (Our Proverbs) (Malik, 2004). Through the use of purposive sampling, proverbs were chosen with the help of Punjabi farmers and the students of an agriculture university. The short-listed proverbs were then translated into English and divided into major and sub-categories based on their thematic content. Linguistic anthropology and Eco-Linguistics are used as theo-retical frameworks. A mixed approach of using both the quantitative and qualitative methods has been applied for the analysis of the data. The findings of this research show that apart from the historical relevance of Punjabi agricultural proverbs, a lot of proverbs guide about various aspects of agriculture, such as proper time for sowing, use of fertilizers, plowing, hard work, selection of farms etc. Punjabi proverbs also foretell the weather on the basis of certain symbols and observations of the environment. Rainfall at the proper time and out of season rainfall affects crops very much. This research concludes that apart from historical relevance, Punjabi proverbs are rich with agricultural information even for the contemporary agriculturalists. These proverbs contain enormous information for farmers to gain good yield of crops so these agricul-tural proverbs should be made a part of the syllabus of the students of agriculture in order to sensitize the younger generation about the efficacy of these proverbs in the field of farming.