Alfalfa (Sino-Iranica)

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ALFALFA

I. The earliest extant literary allusion to alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is made in 424 B.C. in the Equites ("The Knights") of Aristophanes, who says (V, 606) :

"Ἤσθιον δὲ τοὺς παγούρους ἀντὶ ποίας μηδικῆς. "The horses ate the crabs of Corinth as a substitute for the Medic."

The term "Mēdikē" is derived from the name of the country Media. In his description of Media, Strabo states that the plant constituting the chief food of the horses is called by the Greeks "Mēdikē" from its growing in Media in great abundance. He also mentions as a product of Media silphion, from which is obtained the Medic juice. Pliny intimates that "Medica" is by nature foreign to Greece, and that it was first introduced there from Media in consequence of the Persian wars under King Darius. Dioscorides describes the plant without referring to a locality, and adds that it is used as forage by the cattle-breeders. In Italy, the plant was disseminated from the middle of the second century B.C. to the middle of the first century A.D., — almost coeval with its propagation to China. The Assyriologists claim that aspasti or aspastu, the Iranian designation of alfalfa, is mentioned in a Babylonian text of ca. 700 B.C.; and it would not be impossible that its favorite fodder followed the horse at the time of its introduction from Iran into Mesopotamia. A. de Candolle states that Medicago

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sativa has been found wild, with every appearance of an indigenous plant, in several provinces of Anatolia, to the south of the Caucasus, in several parts of Persia, in Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and in Kashmir. Hence the Greeks, he concludes, may have introduced the plant from Asia Minor as well as from India, which extended from the north of Persia. This theory seems to me inadmissible and superfluous, for the Greeks allude solely to Media in this connection, not to India. Moreover, the cultivation of the plant is not ancient in India, but is of recent date, and hardly plays any rô1e in Indian agriculture and economy.

In ancient Iran, alfalfa was a highly important crop closely associated with the breeding of superior races of horses. Pahlavi aspast or aspist New Persian aspust, uspust, aspist, ispist, or isfist (Puštu or Afghan spastu, špēšta), is traceable to an Avestan or Old-Iranian *aspō-asti (from the root ad, "to eat"), and literally means "horse-fodder." This word has penetrated into Syriac in the form aspestā or pespestā (the latter in the Geoponica). Khosrau I (A.D. 531-578) of the Sasanian dynasty included alfalfa in his new organization of the land-tax: the tax laid on alfalfa was seven times as high as that on wheat and barley, which gives an idea of the high valuation of that forage-plant. It was also employed in the pharmacopoeia, being dealt with by Abu Mansur in his book on pharmacology. The seeds are still used medicinally. The Arabs derived from the Persians the word isfist, Arabicized into fisfisa; Arabic designations being ratba and qatt, the former for the plant in its natural state, the latter for the dried plant.

The mere fact that the Greeks received Medicago from the Persians, and christened it "Medic grass," by no means signifies or proves at the outset that Medicago represents a genuinely Iranian cultivation. It is well known how fallacious such names are: the Greeks also had the peach under the name "Persian apple," and the apricot as "Armenian apple;" yet peach and apricot are not originally Persian or Armenian, but Chinese cultivations: Iranians and Armenians in this case merely

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acted as mediators between the far east and the Mediterranean. However, the case of alfalfa presents a different problem. The Chinese, who cultivate alfalfa to a great extent, do not claim it as an element of their agriculture, but have a circumstantial tradition as to when and how it was received by them from Iranian quarters in the second century B.C. As any antiquity for this plant is lacking in India or any other Asiatic country, the verdict as to the centre of its primeval cultivation is decidedly in favor of Iran. The contribution which the Chinese have to make to the history of Medicago is of fundamental importance and sheds new light on the whole subject: in fact, the history of no cultivated plant is so well authenticated and so solidly founded.

In the inscription of Persepolis, King Darius says, "This land Persia which Auramazda has bestowed on me, being beautiful, populous, and abundant in horses — according to the will of Auramazda and my own, King Darius — it does not tremble before any enemy." I have alluded in the introduction to the results of General Čaṅ K'ien's memorable expedition to Central Asia. The desire to possess the fine Iranian thoroughbreds, more massively built than the small Mongolian horse, and distinguished by their noble proportions and slenderness of feet as well as by the development of chest, neck, and croup, was one of the strongest motives for the Emperor Wu (140-87 B.C.) to maintain regular missions to Iranian countries, which led to a regular caravan trade with Fergana and Parthia. Even more than ten such missions were dispatched in the course of a year, the minimum being five or six. At first, this superior breed of horse was obtained from the Wu-sun, but then it was found by Čaṅ K'ien that the breed of Fergana was far superior. These horses were called "blood-sweating" (han-hüe <>), and were believed to be the offspring of a heavenly horse (t'ien ma <>). The favorite fodder of this noble breed consisted in Medicago sativa; and it was a sound conclusion of General Čaṅ K'ien, who was a practical man and possessed of good judgment in economic matters, that, if these much-coveted horses were to continue to thrive on Chinese soil, their staple food had to go along with them. Thus he obtained the seeds of alfalfa in Fergana, and presented them in 126 B.C. to his imperial master, who had wide tracts of land near his palaces covered

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with this novel plant, and enjoyed the possession of large numbers of celestial horses. From the palaces this fodder-plant soon spread to the people, and was rapidly diffused throughout northern China. According to Yen Ši-ku (A.D. 570-645), this was already an accomplished fact during the Han period. As an officinal plant, alfalfa appears in the early work Pie lu. The Ts'i min yao šu of the sixth century A.D. gives rules for its cultivation; and T'ao Huṅ-kiṅ (A.D. 451-536) remarks that "it is grown in gardens at Č'aṅ-ṅan (the ancient capital in Šen-si), and is much valued by the northerners, while the people of Kiaṅ-nan do not indulge in it much, as it is devoid of flavor. Abroad there is another mu-su plant for healing eye-diseases, but different from this species."

Čaṅ K'ien was sent out by the Emperor Wu to search for the Yüe-či and to close an alliance with them against the Turkish Hiuṅ-nu. The Yüe-či, in my opinion, were an Indo-European people, speaking a North-Iranian language related to Scythian, Sogdian, Yagnōbi, and Ossetic. In the course of his mission, Čaṅ K'ien visited Fergana, Sogdiana, and Bactria, all strongholds of an Iranian population. The "West" for the first time revealed by him to his astounded country men was Iranian civilization, and the products which he brought back were thoroughly and typically Iranian. The two cultivated plants (and only these two) introduced by him into his fatherland hailed from Fergana: Ferganian was an Iranian language; and the words for the alfalfa and grape, mu-su and p'u-t'ao, were noted by Čaṅ K'ien in Fergana and transmitted to China along with the new cultivations. These words were Ferganian; that is, Iranian.4 Čaṅ K'ien himself was

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very well aware of the fact that the speech of the people of Fergana was Iranian, for he stated in his report, that, although there were different dialects in the tract of land stretching from Fergana westward as far as Parthia (An-si), yet their resemblance was so great that the people could make themselves intelligible to each other. This is a plain allusion to the differentiation and at the same time the unity of Iranian speech; and if the Ferganians were able to understand the Parthians, I do not see in what other language than Iranian they could have conversed. Certainly they did not speak Greek or Turkish, as some prejudiced theorists are inclined to imagine.

The word brought back by Čaṅ K'ien for the designation of alfalfa, and still used everywhere in China for this plant, was mu-su <>, consisting of two plain phonetic elements, anciently *muk-suk (Japanese moku-šuku), subsequently written <> with the addition of the classifier No. 140. I recently had occasion to indicate an ancient Tibetan transcription of the Chinese word in the form bug-sug, and this appears to come very near to the Iranian prototype to be restored, which was *buksuk or *buxsux, perhaps *buxsuk. The only sensible explanation ever given of this word, which unfortunately escaped the sinologues, was advanced by W. Tomaschek, who tentatively compared it with Gīlakī (a Caspian dialect) būso ("alfalfa"). This would be satisfactory if it could be demonstrated that this būso is evolved from *bux-sox or the like. Further progress in our knowledge of Iranian dialectology

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will no doubt supply the correct form of this word. We have to be mindful of the fact that the speech of those East-Iranian tribes, the advance-guard of Iran proper, with whom the Chinese first came in contact, has never been committed to writing, and is practically lost to us. Only secluded dialects may still harbor remnants of that lost treasure. We have to be the more grateful to the Chinese for having rescued for us a few words of that extinct language, and to place *buksuk or *buxsux on record as the ancient Ferganian appellation of Medicago sativa. The first element of this word may survive in Sariqolī (a Pamir dialect) wux ("grass"). In Waxī, another Pamir idiom, alfalfa is styled wujerk; and grass, wüš. "Horse" is yaš in Waxī, and vurj in Sariqolī.

Bretschneider was content to say that mu-su is not Chinese, but most probably a foreign name. Watters, in his treatment of foreign words in Chinese, has dodged this term. T. W. Kingsmill is responsible for the hypothesis that mu-su "may have some connection with the Μεδικὴ βοτάνη of Strabo." This is adopted by the Chinese Dictionary of Giles. This Greek designation had certainly not penetrated to Fergana, nor did the Iranian Ferganians use a Greek name for a plant indigenous to their country. It is also impossible to see what the phonetic coincidence between *muk-suk or *buk-suk and mēdikē is supposed to be.

The least acceptable explanation of mu-su is that recently propounded by Hirth, who identifies it with a Turkish burčak, which is Osmanli, and refers to the pea. Now, it is universally known that a language like Osmanli was not in existence in the second century B.C., but is a comparatively modern form of Turkish speech; and how Čaṅ K'ien should have picked up an Osmanli or any other Turkish word for a typically Iranian plant in Fergana, where there were no Turks at that time, is unintelligible. Nor is the alleged identification phonetically correct: Chinese mu, *muk, *buk, cannot represent bur, nor can su,

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*suk, stand for čak. The entire speculation is deplorable, and we are even expected "to allow for a change the word may have undergone from the original meaning within the last two thousand years"; but there is no trace of evidence that the Osmanli word has existed that length of time, neither can it be reasonably admitted that the significance of a word can change from "pea" to "alfalfa." The universal term in Central Asia for alfalfa is bidā or bēdä, Djagatai bidä. This word means simply "fodder, clover, hay." According to Tomaschek, this word is of Iranian origin (Persian beda). It is found also in Sariqolī, a Pamir dialect. This would indicate very well that the Persians (and it could hardly be expected otherwise) disseminated the alfalfa to Turkistan.

According to Vámbery, alfalfa appears to have been indigenous among the Turks from all times; this opinion, however, is only based on linguistic evidence, which is not convincing: a genuine Turkish name exists in Djagatai jonuška (read yonučka) and Osmanli yondza (add Kasak-Kirgiz yonurčka), which simply means "green fodder, clover." Now, these dialects represent such recent forms of Turkish speech, that so far-reaching a conclusion cannot be based on them. As far as I know, in the older Turkish languages no word for alfalfa has as yet been found.

A Sanskrit <> sai-pi-li-k'ie, *sak-bi-lik-kya, for the designation of mu-su, is indicated by Li Ši-čen, who states that this is the word for mu-su used in the Kin kwaṅ miṅ kiṅ <> (Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra). This is somewhat surprising, in view of the fact that there is no Sanskrit word for this plant known to us; and there can be no doubt that the latter was introduced into India from Iran in comparatively recent times. Bretschneider's suggestion, that in

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Kabul the Trifolium giganteum is called sibarga, and Medicago sativa is styled rilka, is unsatisfactory. The word sibarga means "trefoil" (si, "three;" barga = Persian barak, varak, "leaf"), and is Iranian, not Sanskrit; the corresponding Sanskrit word is tripatra or triparna. The word rilka is Afghan; that is, likewise Iranian.1 Considering the fact that nothing is known about the plant in question in early Indian sources, it is highly improbable that it should figure in a Buddhist Sutra of the type of the Suvarnaprabhasa; and I think that Li Si-5en is mistaken as to the meaning of the word, which he says he encountered there. The above transcription occurs also in the Fan yi min yi tsi (section 27) and answers to Sanskrit gaka-vrika, the word caka denoting any eatable herb or vegetable, and vfika (or baka) referring to a certain plant not yet identified (cf. the analogous formation qaka-bilva, "eggplant"). It is not known what herb is to be understood by qdka-vfika, and the Chinese translation mu-su may be merely a makeshift, though it is not impossible that the Sanskrit compound refers to some species of Medicago. We must not lose sight of the fact that the equations established in the Chinese-Sanskrit dictionaries are for the greater part merely bookish or lexicographical, and do not relate to plant introductions. The Buddhist translators were merely anxious to find a suitable equivalent for an Indian term. This process is radically different from the plant-names introduced together with the plants from Iranian, Indian, or Southeast-Asiatic regions: here we face living realities, there we have to do with literary productions. Two other examples may suffice. The Fan yi min yi tsi (section 24) offers a Sanskrit botanical name in the form fl| W. j&I len-Vou-kia, anciently *tsin(tin)-du-k / ie, answering to Sanskrit tinduka (Diospyros embryopteris) , a dense evergreen small tree common throughout India and Burma. The Chinese gloss explains the Indian word by Si ffi, which is the well-known Diospyros kaki of China and Japan, not, however, found in ancient India; it was but recently introduced into the Botanical Garden of Calcutta by Col. Kyd, and the Chinese gardeners employed there call it lin ("Chinese"). 2 In this case it signifies only the Diospyros embryopteris of India. Under the heading kan-sun hian (see p. 455), which denotes the spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi), Li Si-Sen gives a Sanskrit term i^r ffl B£ k'u-mi-Fe, *ku-mi-£i, likewise taken from the Suvarnaprabhasasatra; this corresponds to Sanskrit kunci or kuncika, which applies to three different plants,— 1. Abrus precatorius, 2. Nigella indica, ____________________

1 There are, further, in Afghan sebist (connected with Persian supust) and dureSta.

8 W. Roxburgh, Flora Indica, p. 412.

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3. Trigonella f&num graecum. In this case the compromise is a failure, or the identification of kunci with kan-sun even results from an error; the Sanskrit term for the spikenard is gandhamamsi.

We must not draw inferences from mere Sanskrit names, either, as to the origin of Chinese plants, unless there is more substantial evidence. Thus Stuart1 remarks under li ^ {Prunus domestica) that the Sanskrit equivalent M ^ $E kii-lih-kia indicates that this plum may have been introduced from India or Persia. Prunus domestica, however, is a native of China, mentioned in the Si kin, Li ki, and in Mon-tse. The Sino- Indian word is given in the Fan yi min yi tsi (section 24) with the translation li. The only corresponding Sanskrit word is kulinga, which denotes a kind of gall. The question is merely of explaining a Sanskrit term to the Chinese, but this has no botanical or historical value for the Chinese species.

Thus the records of the Chinese felicitously supplement the meagre notices of alfalfa on the part of the ancients, and lend its history the proper perspective: we recognize the why and how of the worldwide propagation of this useful economic plant.' Aside from Fergana, the Chinese of the Han period discovered mu-su also in Ki-pin (Kashmir), 8 and this fact is of some importance in regard to the early geographical distribution of the species; for in Kashmir, as well as in Afghanistan and Baluchistan, it is probably spontaneous. 4

Mu-su gardens are mentioned under the Emperor Wu (a.d. 265-290) of the Tsin dynasty, and the post-horses of the T'ang dynasty were fed with alfalfa. 6

The fact that alfalfa was used as an article of human food under the T'ang we note from the story of Sie Lin-<H I? & £., preceptor at the Court of the Emperor Yuan Tsun (a.d. 713-755), who wrote a versified complaint of the too meagre food allotted to him, in which alfalfas with long stems were the chief ingredient. 6 The good teacher, of course, was not familiar with the highly nutritive food-values of the plant.

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1 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 358.

1 It is singular that A. de Candolle, in his Origin of Cultivated Plants, while he has conscientiously reproduced from Bretschneider all his plants wrongly ascribed to Can K'ien, does not make any reference to China in speaking of Medicago (pp. 102-104). In fact, its history has never before been outlined correctly.

3 TsHen Han Su, Ch. 96 A.

• A. de Candolle, op. cit., p. 103 ; G. T. Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, Vol. II, p. 455.

6 S. Matsuda & EB /£ lK< 0° Medicago sativa and the Species of Medicago in China {Botanical Magazine fl| 4$? ^ $j| fji, Tokyo, Vol. XXI, 1907, p. 243). This is a very interesting and valuable study written in Japanese.

a Cf. C. Petillon, Allusions litteraires, p. 350.

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According to the $u i ki *& H Ifi, written by Zen Fan & B# in the beginning of the sixth century, "the mu-su (alfalfa) gardens of Can K'ien are situated in what is now Lo-yan; mu-su was originally a vegetable in the land of the Hu, and K'ien was the first to obtain it in the Western Countries." A work, Kiu Vi ki ffc %& ffi, 1 says that east of the capital there were mu-su gardens, in which there were three pestles driven by water-power.

The Si kin tsa ki 15 M H I22 states, "In the Lo-yu gardens M%tM (in the capital C'ah-nan) there are rose-bushes Jfc $&$$ (Rosa rugosa), which grow spontaneously. At the foot of these, there is abundance of mu-su, called also hwaifuh Hi US. ('embracing the wind'), sometimes kwah fun Jfc $&< ('brilliant wind'). 3 The people of Mou-lin ]3c Wt* style the plant lien-U ts'ao 3* t£ ^ ('herb with connected branches')." 6

The Lo yah k'ie Ian ki $& 8» f&H III 12, a record of the Buddhist monasteries in the capital Lo-yan, written by Yan Huan-ci tfk $r 1<£. in a.d. 547 or shortly afterwards, says that "Huan-wu Jl 3£ is situated north-east of the Ta-hia Gate ^cSPI; now it is called Kwan-fun Garden Jt %, ^, producing mu-su." Kwan-fun, as shown by the Si kin tsa ki, is a synonyme of mu-su.

K'ou Tsuh-Si, in his Pen ts'ao yen i, a written in a.d. 1116, notes that alfalfa is abundant in Sen-si, being used for feeding cattle and horses, and is also consumed by the population, but it should not be eaten in large quantity. Under the Mongols, the cultivation of alfalfa was much encouraged, especially in order to avert the danger of famines; 7 and gardens were maintained to raise alfalfa for the feeding of horses. 8 According to Li Si-cen (latter part of the sixteenth century), 9 it was in his time a common, wild plant in the fields everywhere, but was cultivated in Sen-si and Kan-su. He apparently means, however, Medicago denticulata, which is a wild species and a native of China. Forbes

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1 T'ai p'ift yii Ian, Ch. 824, p. 9.

2 That is, Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital (C'an-nan in Sen-si), written by Wu Kiin jj| $£] of the sixth century a.d.

1 The explanation given for these names is thus: the wind constantly whistles in these gardens, and the sunlight lends brilliancy to the flowers.

4 Ancient name for the present district of Hin-p'in ^ ^ in the prefecture of Si-nan, Sen-si.

B T'ai p'in yii Ian, Ch. 996, p. 4 b.

6 Ch. 19, p. 3 (ed. of Lu Sin-yuan).

7 Yuan Si, Ch. 93, p. 5 b. 8

Ibid., Ch. 91, p. 6 b.

9 Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 28, p. 3 b.

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and Hemsley1 give as Chinese species Medicago denticulata, falcata, 1 and lupulina (the black Medick or nonsuch), M. lupulina "apparently common, and from the most distant parts," and say with reference to Medicago sativa that it is cultivated in northern China, and also occurs in a wild state, though it is probably not indigenous. This "wild" Medicago saliva may be an escape from cultivation. It is an interesting point that those wild species are named ye mu-su ("wild alfalfa"), which goes to show that these were observed by the Chinese only after the introduction of the imported cultivated species. 3 Wu K'i-tsun4 has figured two ye mu-su, following his illustration of the mu-su,—one being Medicago lupulina, the other M. denticulata.

The Japanese call the plant uma-goyali ("horse-nourishing"). 6 Matsumura6 enumerates four species: M. sativa: murasaki ("purple") umagoyaU; 1 M. denticulata: umagoyaH; M. lupulina: kometsubuumagoyaH; and M. minima: ko-umagoyaH.

In the Tibetan dialect of Ladakh, alfalfa is known as ol. This word refers to the Medicago sativa indigenous to Kashmir or possibly introduced there from Iran. In Tibet proper the plant is unknown. In Armenia occur Medicago sativa, M. falcata, M. agrestis, and M. lupulina. 8

Under the title "Notice sur la plante mou-sou ou luzerne chinoise par C. de Skattschkoff, suivie d'une autre notice sur la menie plante traduite du chinois par G. Pauthier," a brief article of 16 pages appeared in Paris, 1864, as a reprint from the Revue de I 'Orient. 9 Skattschkoff, who had spent seven years in Peking, subsequently became Russian consul in Dsungaria, and he communicates valuable information on the agriculture of Medicago in that region. He states that seeds of this

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1 Journal Linnean Soc, Vol. XXIII, p. 154.

1 Attempts are being made to introduce and to cultivate this species in the United States (cf. Oakley and Garver, Medicago Falcata, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bull. No. 428, 1917).

8 We shall renew this experience in the case of the grape-vine and the walnut.

4 Ci wu min H t'u k'ao, Ch. 3, pp. 58, 59.

8 In the same manner, Manchu morxo is formed from morin ("horse") and orxo ("grass").

• Shoku butsu-mei-i, Nos. 183-184.

T The flower of this species is purple-colored.

8 A. Beguinot and P. N. Diratzsuyan, Contributo alia flora dell' Armenia, PS7-

9 The work of Pauthier is limited to a translation of the notice on the plant in the Ci wu min Si t'u k'ao. The name Yu-lou nun frequently occurring in this work does not refer to a treatise on agriculture, as conceived by Pauthier, but is the literary style of Wu K'i-tsun, author of that work.

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plant were for the first time sent from China to Russia in 1840, and that he himself has been active for six years in propagating it in Russia, Livonia, Esthonia, and Finland. This is not to be doubted, but the point I venture to question is that the plant should not have been known in Russia prior to 1840. Not only do we find in the Russian language the words medunka (from Greek medike) and the European Vutserna (lucerne) for the designation of Medicago sativa, but also krasni ("red") burkun, lefuxa, lugovoi v'azel ("Coronilla of the meadows"); the word burkun, burundHk, referring to Medicago falcata (called also y&morki), burunlik to M. lupulina. It is hard to realize that all these terms should have sprung up since 1840, and that the Russians should not have received information about this useful plant from European, Iranian, or Turkish peoples. A. de Candolle1 observes, "In the south of Russia, a locality mentioned by some authors, it is perhaps the result of cultivation as well as in the south of Europe." Judging from the report of N. E. Hansen,1 it appears that three species of Medicago (M. falcata, M. platycarpa, and M. ruthenica) are indigenous to Siberia.

The efforts of our Department of Agriculture to promote and to improve the cultivation of alfalfa in this country are well known; for this purpose also seeds from China have been introduced. Argentine chiefly owes to alfalfa a great amount of its cattle-breeding. 8

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1 Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 103.

8 The Wild Alfalfas and Clovers of Siberia, pp. 1 1-15 (Bureau of Plant Industry, Bull. No. 150, Washington, 1909).

• Cf. I. B. Lorenzetti, La Alfafa en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1913, 360 p.)»