ਦਾਤਰੀ

What does datri mean in Punjabi? Datri (ਦਾਤਰੀ) means a sickle. It is a hand tool with a crescent-shaped blade, sharp on the inside of the curve, fixed to a short wooden handle. Across Punjab it is the classic tool of the harvest, used to reap grain crops and to cut green fodder for animals.

What does a datri look like?

A datri is made to be worked with one hand. Reference works describe the sickle as a single-handed tool with a variously curved blade, the cutting edge on the inside of the curve so the stems are caught and sliced as the tool is drawn in. Blades come smooth or serrated, and the serrated, toothed edge is the kind that has long dominated the reaping of grain. In many Punjabi homes the same tool is also called daranti (ਦਰਾਂਤੀ), the name used for the sickle in accounts of the Punjab wheat harvest.

How is a datri used at harvest?

Before the harvest the blade is sharpened, traditionally on a wet whetstone, and the handle is checked so it is not loose. Hand cutting in Punjab traditionally starts early in the morning, when a little dew still keeps the stems flexible and fewer grains shatter and fall. The cutter grasps a fistful of stems in one hand and pulls the datri towards the body with the other, cutting the stems low, then lays the cut stems in rows to be tied into sheaves. It is slow, skilled work, and the rhythm of handful, cut and lay sets the pace of the whole harvest day.

What else is a datri used for besides grain?

The same tool cuts succulent forage for livestock, whether the green fodder is fed fresh or dried as hay, and it handles the small jobs a machine cannot reach: the edge of a field, a patch of fodder near the house, a bundle of grass along a path. That is why a datri is kept in farming homes all year round, long after the wheat harvest that made it famous is over.