THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
PARIS
UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION
OF 1878.
HANDBOOK
TO THE
BRITISH INDIAN SECTION.
BY
GEORGE C. M. BIRD WOOD, C.S.I., M.D. EDIN.
(SECOND EDITION.)
OFFICES
OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION :
LONDON ; I PARIS :
CANADA BUILDINGS,
KING-ST., WESTMINSTER.
40, AVENUE DE SUFFREN,
CHAMP DE MARS,
PARIS
UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION
OF 1878.
HANDBOOK
TO THE
BRITISH INDIAN SECTION,
BY
GEORGE C. M. BIRDWOOD, C.S.I., M.D. EDIK.
(SECOND EDITION.')
OFFICES
OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION:
LONDON :
CANADA BUILDINGS,
KING-ST., WESTMINSTER.
PARIS:
40, AVENUE DE SUFFREN,
CHAMP DE MARS.
Price One Shilling.
PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878.
BRITISH COMMISSION.
PRESIDENT :
H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES, K.G., G.C.S.I.
BRITISH INDIAN SECTION.
COMMITTEE OF HER MAJESTY'S COMMISSIONERS
APPOINTED BT
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRESIDENT
15 JANCAKY 1877.
THE EAEL OF NOETHBEOOK, G.C.S.I., CHAIRMAN".
GEN. SIR A. H. HOESFOED, G.C.B.
MAJOR-GEN. SIR HENEY EAWLINSON, K.C.B.
SIR EUTHEEFOED ALCOCK, K.C.B.
SIR LOUIS MALLET, K.C.B.
COLONEL ELLIS, C.S.I.
EXECUTIVE.
THE SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION.
OFFICIAL COMMERCIAL AGENT.
C. PURDON CLARKE.
CLERK IN CHARGE OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS' COLLECTION.
J. MANSEL BRETT.
SCIENTIFIC COLLECTION OF EAW PEODUCTS SPECIALLY
OEDEEED BT THE GOVEENMENT OF INDIA.
ARRANGED BY P. L. SIMMONDS.
WOOD SPECIMENS AND FOEEST PEODUCTS
ARRANGED BY COLONEL GEORGE PEARSON, R.E.
SPECIMENS OF TUSSEE SILK AND NATIVE DYE STUFFS,
ARRANGED BY THOMAS WARDLE, LEEK, STAFFORDSHIRE.
PEE FACE,
EARLY in 1877 His Royal Highness, as President of the Royal
Commission, communicated to the Secretary of State for India
the proposed arrangements for the forthcoming Exhibition at
Paris, at the same time offering to lend the valuable collection
of presents, then lodged at the Bethnal Green Museum, which
had been made to His Royal Highness by the Princes and Chiefs
of India.
The question of the part which should be borne by India in the
proposed Exhibition had already been under the consideration
of the Council of India, owing to communications made by the
French Ambassador to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
and it had been decided that the advantage to India did not (more
especially at a time when there was unusual pressure on the
finances of the country) justify so large an expenditure from
Indian revenues as had been incurred on former exhibitions ; and
it was considered sufficient that contributions of Indian articles
should only be made somewhat on the scale adopted in the recent
instance of the Philadelphia Exhibition, when a selection of raw
products and manufactures was entrusted to the care of the Com-
missioner representing the British Government.
As the collection so liberally offered by His Royal Highness
would in the opinion of the Council more than sufficiently repre-
sent the higher Art manufactures of India, it was considered
necessary on the part of the Indian Government to contribute
only a scientific collection of the raw products of the country.
The Committee therefore determined to invite the co-operation
of such leading importers as were in a position to illustrate the
principal Art manufactures of India.
There remained to represent those articles of Native pro-
duction, which, though low in intrinsic worth, were as standards
of art industry of great interest. Some classes of these Native
productions were fully represented in private collections offered
by their possessors to the Committee (the peasant jewelry of
Mrs. Rivett Carnac, over 6,000 objects, a remarkable instance),
and only supplementary collections of ordinary pottery, metal
work, chintz printing, &c., had to be made to complete a fairly
perfect display of the principal products of the Indian Empire.
To obtain these specimens from the different localities His
H 22. Wt. B 343. A 2
Royal Highness the President, through the courtesy of the
Marquis of Salisbury, wrote officially to India inviting the assist-
ance of Lord Lytton, Viceroy and Governor- General of India ;
the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Governor of Madras ;
Sir Richard Temple, Governor of Bombay ; Sir George Couper,
Lieutenant-Governor of the North- Western Provinces ; Mr.
Egerton, Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab; and Mr. Rivers
Thompson, Chief Commissioner of British Burma, asking them
to direct the expenditure of several small sums of money to be
furnished by the Committee upon such objects as were noted to
them.
The selection thus made consisted of :
Bombay and Sind pottery.
Madras pottery.
Punjab pottery and metal work.
Azimghur pottery.
Tanjore and Madura metal work.
Masulipatam chintzes.
Benares brasswork.
Burmese wood carvings and tin articles.
Lucknow muslins.
Towards the end of 1877 these objects began to arrive, and
with them certain Jeypore vases of remarkable size, and the
carved Burmese door from the Government House at Calcutta,
lent by the Viceroy.
The Maharajah of Kashmir then notified his desire to con-
tribute to the collections; also the Maharajah of Oodeypore, the
Maharajah of Patiala, the Rajah of Jind, and the Rajah of Kabha.
The prospect of the Indian collections assuming a scale larger
than at first contemplated in the arrangement made by the Com-
mittee, induced His Royal Highness, the President, to personally
ask the French authorities for a not less important position than
the western half of the grand transept or vestibule ; this being
granted, the Indian section obtained the post of honour among
the foreign departments in the Exhibition of 1878.
C. PUBDOX CLARKE.
BRITISH INDIAN SECTION.
The various objects exhibited in the Grand Yestibule of the
Palace of the Champ de Mars, number over twelve thousand
specimens arranged into the following collections :
1. The Indian presents belonging to his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales, and other private collections lent to the
Indian Committee.
2. Articles of Indian manufacture exhibited by the principal
importing firms in London and Paris, exhibited in the Indian
Pavilion.
3. Supplementary collection of native art manufacture exhibited
by the Indian Committee (objects priced for sale at the close
of the exhibition).
4. Eaw products, and food substances, woods and forest specimens,
dyes, &c.
LIST OF EXHIBITORS.
ART LOAN COLLECTIONS.
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.
THE PRINCE OF WALES, K.G.
EARL OF NORTHBROOK, G. C.S.I.
LADY EMMA BARING.
COLONEL EARLE, C.S.I.
MRS. RIVETT CARNAC.
A. HALIBURTON, ESQ.
C. C. PRINSEP, ESQ.
COLONEL J. MICHAEL, C.S.I.
GERALD S. V. FITZGERALD', ESQ.
COMMERCIAL COLLECTIONS.
Exhibited by
THE MAHARAJAH or KASHMIR.
THE MAHARAJAH or PATIALA.
THE MAHARAJAH OF OODEYPORE.
THE RAJAH OF JIND.
THE RAJAH NABHA.
G. TERRY, School of Art, Bombay.
H. KIPLING, School of Art, Lahore.
VINCENT ROBINSON & Co., 34, Wigmore Street, London.
FARMER AND ROGERS, 171, 173, 175, and 117, 119, Regent Street,
London.
WATSON AND BONTOR, 35, 36, Old Bond Street, London.
J. WATSON AND SON, Moorgate Street Chambers, London, E.G.
vi
MESSRS. DESCHAMPS & Co., Madras.
GEORGE HOLME, Bradford.
VERDE DELISLE, 80, Eue Eichelieu, Paris.
LES FILS OULMAN & C IE , 2, Eue Drouot, Paris.
XORMAND ET CHANSON, 82, Eue Eichelieu.
DALSEME, Eue St. Marc, 21.
SHOENE, KILBURN & Co., Jubbulpore School of Industry.
Saw Products ; Food, 8fc.
THOMAS WARDLE, Leek, Staffordshire. Dyed and Tssser Silk.
INDIAN TEA AGENCY. Teas. A. BURRELL, Secretary, 2, Jermyn
Street.
HENRY BERXERS AND E. V. DOYNE, Proprietors of the Amgoorie
Tea Estate, Sibsagor, Assam. Tea.
DARJEELIXG TEA ESTATE. Tea.
KOUSANIE TEA COMPANY. Tea.
ASSAM COMPANY. Tea.
GOWHATTY TEA COMPANY. Tea.
DOOM DOOMA GARDEN. Tea.
MESSRS. EAJEEB, PAUL & Co. Tea.
ECONOMIC MUSEUM, Calcutta. Tea.
EASTERN CACHAR TEA COMPANY. Tea.
COLONIAL TEA COMPANY, Assam. Tea.
MANOCKJ-POONJIDJI & SONS. Pickles and Preserves.
EusTUMJi-BiKflAJi & SONS. Pickles and Preserves.
S. F. WYEED, Kurrachee. Pickles and Preserves.
TRAMJI NOUROJI. Pickles and Preserves.
NEWSON & Co., Calcutta and London. Pickles.
MURREE BEER COMPANY. Bottled Beer.
MINCHIN BROTHERS, Aska, Madras. Sugar and Spirits.
C. FOSTER & Co. Bookbinding and Printing.
MAHOMED HUSSEIN SAHIB. Embroidery.
ORAGANTI TIRNPETTY EAJU. Triplicane Embroidery.
TABLE OF CONTENTS,
Page
INTRODUCTION , - 1
The Indo-Germaiiic Shore - 1
The Settlement of the Old World - - 4
Historical Dates - - 7
ANTIQUITY OF THE INDIAN TRADE - 20
ROUTES OF INDIAN COMMERCE - 36
Caravan Routes - - 36
Persian Gulf Route - 39
Red Sea Route - - 42
MASTER HAND CRAFTS OF INDIA - - 55
Gold and Silver Plate - 59
Metal Work in Brass, Copper, and Tin - - - - 61
Damascened Work - - - 63
Enamels - - - 64
Arms - - 65
Jewelry - - - 69
Art Furniture and Household Decoration - - 76
Bombay Blackwood - 77
Bombay Inlaid Work - 78
Vizagapatam Work - 79
Mynpuri Work - - 79
Inlaid Work of Agra - 79
Sandalwood and other Wood Carving - - 83
Carved Ivory and Horn - - 84
Carved Stone - 84
Clay Figures - 84
Lac Work - - 85
Miscellaneous Small Wares - - - - 86
Trappings and Caparisons - - - 87
Musical Instruments - 88
Woven Stuffs, Felts, Needlework, and Carpets ... 88
Cottons - 93
Silks - - - 101
Embroideries - 108
Carpets - - 110
Pottery - - 120
THE KNOP AND FLOWER PATTERN - - - - 124
VANITAS EST PRAESENTEM VITAM SOLU&I ATTENDERE :
* * * QUIA NON SATIATUR OCULTTS VISU,
NEC AURIS IMPLETUR AUDITU. VANITAS EST
DILIGERE QUOD CUM OMNI CELERITATE
TRANSIT, ET ILLUC NON FESTINARE, UBI
8EMPITERNUM GAUDIUM MANET.
De Imitations Christi.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT,
PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION,
18^78.
INTRODUCTION.
The Indo- Germanic shore, or litus Arianum.
A COMPARISOX has often been drawn between the outlines
and the civilisations of the three continents" of Europe, Asia,
and Africa. The continent of Africa, the first peopled of the
three, presents the most uniform outline, as it does the most
monotonous surface. Its coast line is almost unbroken by gulfs
and bays, or even by any considerable river estuary or other inlet
of the sea affording access to the interior, and, shut up within its
harbourless, unapproachable mass from the rest of the world, its
tribes and nations stfll remain in their primitive state of savagery,
or have advanced only to barbarism. Europe is penetrated in
every direction by prolonged bays, gulfs, and inland seas;
separating it into distinct and very diverse natural regions, all in
easy communication with each other and with the numerous
islands surroiindiug the coast, continuations of the netted
mountain chains the upheaval of which determined the com-
plicated, or, as it might be expressed, highly elaborated figure of
this continent ; which, although the latest peopled of the three, is
the most advanced in civilisation. The coast line of Asia is
scarcely less varied, but its peninsulas and gulfs are on so large
a scale as almost to form continents and oceans! in themselves.
Indeed the mountain systems of Europe culminate in the stupendous
plateau of Central Asia, and Europe is really but the greatest
peninsula of Asia. Burma, Siam, and Anam are more than seven
times the area of Turkey in Europe and Greece ; India is fourteen
times the area of Italy, and Arabia is more than five times the area
of Spain and Portugal. India is as large as Europe, exclusive of
Russia, and the whole continent of Asia is larger than Europe and
Africa put together. Upheaved in such colossal proportions,
whatever advantages of communication it offers along the shores of
2 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
its boundless seas, internally it presents, in its dull, tame, and in-
hospitable distances, and impassable, icy heights, even greater
obstructions to human intercourse than inner Africa ; and though
the civilisation of Asia is far before that of Africa, it has
never advanced beyond its semi-civilised as distinguished from
its barbarous stage, while Central Asia still remains barbarous,
and in some regions almost savage ; its inaccessibility having
given rise to the mediaeval legend of the Shut-up Nations.
It is a remarkable coincidence that Europe should repeat on
a smaller scale the main features of the coast line of Asia. The
peninsula of Arabia is repeated in the Iberian peninsula ; Asia
Minor and Persia in France ; India in Italy ; Burma, Siam,
Anam, and the Eastern Archipelago in Turkey, Greece, and the
Grecian Archipelago; and the Chinese Empire in Russia ; while
Japan is placed on the east of the Euro- Asian continent sym-
metrically with the British Isles on the west. The parallelism
between India and Italy is very striking; the Himalayas are
repeated in the Alps ; the Indus and Ganges in the Rhone and
the Po ; Karachi is Genoa or Marseilles ; Calcutta, Venice ;
Delhi, Milan ; Bombay, Naples ; Ceylon, Sicily ; and the Laccadive
andMaldive Islands are the mountain peaks of a submerged Corsica
and Sardinia.
If we indeed forget for a moment the arbitrary, although con-
venient, division of Europe and Asia into two continents, and view
them as one, we shall not fail to observe the manner in which its
elaborately broken coast line stretches obliquely from the British
Isles, in the temperate zone, gradually southward through a dis-
tance, as the crow flies, of from 8,000 to 9,000 miles, until it ends
in the Eastern Archipelago, under the Equator, thus inviting the
nations along its entire length to mutual commerce, not simply by
the facilities it gives them for intercommunication, but also by
the infinite variety in the productions of the temperate and tropical
zones, which passed on from country to country, they have to
offer one another. Once settled by the human race, it was inevi-
table that a great commerce, with its perennial sources in the
fertility of the Eastern Archipelago, " the world's green end "
of Homer's "blameless ^Ethiopians," should spring up every-
where along this remarkable coast line. The renown of the
riches of the trade in spices and other aromatics with the islands
of the Eastern Archipelago was propagated all over Asia and
Europe in the Legends of the Land of Gold, and the geographical
and other myths of fable and folk-lore are the vague, broken
traditions of an immemorial trade, in its prehistoric beginnings,
pursued along these shores of old romance. For centuries this
commerce was carried on, not directly between one country and
another, but through innumerable intermediate agencies, so that
distant countries knew each other only by their productions and
the strange " travellers' tales," which grew in wonder as they
were passed from mouth to mouth between the East and the
West. The very name of India remained unknown among the
nations of the Mediterranean Sea for centuries after its costly
perfumes had been in daily use in the service of the Jews'
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 3
Tabernacle at Shiloh and Jerusalem, and earlier still for embalm-
ing the dead in Egypt.
The southern coast line of Europe and Asia is interrupted
between the Mediterranean and Red Sea by the Isthmus of Suez,
and as, from this point, the peninsula of Arabia extends for about
1,500 miles southwards into the Arabian Sea, the Isthmus of Suez
really presents the length and breadth of Arabia as an obstruction
to the direct course of the trade between the Mediterranean and
Indian Ocean. As jt is twice as long from Suez to Aden as
from the Mediterranean to the head of the Persian Gulf, the com-
mercial advantages of the Red Sea route, even after the discovery
of sailing to India by the monsoons, have always been nearly equalled
by the comparative shortness of the route by the Persian Gulf
and Euphrates Valley. From time immemorial these two lines have
competed on almost equal terms for the commerce of India, and
the competition between them is the true key to the history of the
successive states and empires which rose and fell along their
course ; rose as they gained the trade of India ; fell when they
lost it. So great an obstruction was the Isthmus of Suez found
to be, that the rulers of Egypt twice or thrice endeavoured to cut
a canal between the Red Sea and the Nile, while, in the hope of
avoiding the circumnavigation of Arabia, the daring attempt
was successfully made to circumnavigate the continent of Africa
itself.
So important are the positions in connexion with the Red Sea
and Persian Gulf routes, that not only was there always a rivalry
between the nations on the Persian Gulf and those on the Red
Sea, but it was a vital question among- the latter whether the
Indian trade should go by the Gulf of Akaba or the Gulf of Suez.
The rivalry between Assyria and Egypt, and Assyria and
Phoenicia, and between Jerusalem and Tyre on the one hand,
and Jerusalem and Petra on the other, which finds such startling
expression in the prophetic denunciations and lamentations of
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, had largely for its origin the
competition for the monopoly, or at least a share, of the riches
of the commerce of India and the Eastern Archipelago. The
overwhelming vantage ground of the Semitic races, and, par-
ticularly, of the Arabians and Phoenicians [for the Hebrews were
somewhat unfortunately placed between the Idumaeans and the
Phoenicians], was that, from the dawn of history, they were
already in possession of all the lands separating the Medi-
terranean from the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and Indian
Ocean. This gave them their start in the civilisation of the
world. The Phoenicians in the Mediterranean, and the Arabians
in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean, at once en-
grossed in their own hands the whole of the trade between
the Mediterranean countries and Southern Asia, the Arabs keep-
ing it without interruption until Da Gama opened up the route
to India by the Cape of Good Hope. Ultimately the Phoenicians
and their colonies were forced to succumb to the rivalry of
Assyria, Greece, and Rome ; yet Tyre was not finally destroyed till
taken by the Crusaders, who would appear to have been often
4 PARIS UXIVEBSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
strongly influenced by commercial motives, or were at least ever
ready to advance the commercial interests of the mediaeval
Italian States in the 12th century. During the 300 rears
subsequent to Da Gama's successful enterprise the Red" Sea
and Persian Gulf routes gradually fell into disuse, but now are
regaining their former importance ; and to secure them against
all danger, as the future highways of the rapidly increasing
commerce of Europe and America, with Asia and Australasia,
has become one of the highest political .duties of our age.
Commerce always sets steadily towards the shortest routes, and
under the pressure of the competition of modern Europe for
the commerce of the East, the Euphrates Valley, which is the
shortest road between the Mediterranean and Persia and India,
will, within another generation, become the chief commercial road
between these countries and the West. Commercial supremacy,
the only sure foundation of political supremacy, is absolutely
dependent on the opportunity of roads and markets, on strate-
gical points and communications, as military men call them.
Indeed war is only another form of commercial rivalry, seeking by
violence the same advantages which commerce often far more
surely wins by its slower, deadlier sap. It was of comparatively
little consequence, that the Egyptian government and the Medo-
Babylonian monarchy were overthrown, or that ancient Tyre was
twice razed to the ground, for, while the commerce of India still
went by the Red Sea and Euphrates Valley, the people prospered ;
but when the Portuguese outflanked these routes by doubling the
Cape, Egypt became " a base kingdom," and Babylon " a refuge
for the wild beasts of the desert," and Tyre " a place to spread
nets upon." If
" Peace hath her victories
No less renown'd than war,"
its defeats also are more terrible and crushing, and far more
enduring in their disastrous results. The discovery of Da Gama
made the whole of Western Asia a desert, and impoverished all the
countries of the Mediterranean for nearly three centuries.
The Settlement of the Old World by the Human Race.
The early civilisation of the world was thus developed along
the course of the Indian trade, which grew up in consequence
of the facilities the coast-line of Southern Europe and Asia
presents for intercommunication, and the direct inducements
to commerce offered by the prodigal diversity of the natural
productions to be found along it. The earliest civilisations arose
in those countries Arabia, Egypt, Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylonia
and Phoenicia which are situated about the point where it is
interrupted by the Isthmus of Suez, the inhabitants of which
naturally became the land-transit agents of a trade, of which
the Arabians and Phoenicians were at last the general sea car-*
riers. Science is only now beginning to conjecture whence and
how these countries were peopled -by the human race. We know
only that, when the Aryan races first began, between B.C.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 5
3000-2000, their westward migrations from their primeval home
in High Asia, there were yellow Turanian races everywhere
behind them and on their right, and black Turanian races every-
where on their left, and that the Semitic race was already in
possession of the mountains of Kurdistan and Armenia, and
settled in Mesopotamia, Syria, Canaan, and Arabia. Few now
pretend to doubt the common origin of mankind ; and the genea-
logies of Genesis are recognised to be in the strictest accordance
with the results of the latest ethnological science. They present
indeed a real geographical picture of the world as it was known
to the Hebrews during the period between their bondage in Egypt
and the Captivity. If therefore we broadly accept the Bible
account of the creation of man, and take into consideration the
present localisation of races on the globe, and the fact that
the distribution of land and water on its surface is constantly
changing, and that nowhere in the known continents of the
world do we find a truly aboriginal, autochthonous race, we shall
have little difficulty in also accepting the hypothesis that the human
race first appeared on a continent, named Lemuria by Sclater,
since sunk somewhere in the Indian Ocean, which once united
Africa to Southern India and the Malayan peninsula, and from
which it is quite possible the whole world was peopled ; Eastern
and Central and Northern Asia by way of Burma and the gorges
of the Brahmaputra ; Semitic Arabia and Western Asia, and
Northern Africa from the mountains of Kurdistan [Ararat] and
Armenia ; and Aryan Asia and Europe from the valleys of the
Hindu Kush and Western Himalayas. The mountains of Armenia,
the Elburz. Hindu Kush, and Western Himalayas may be generally
identified with the earthly Paradise of the Semitic and Aryan
races. It was one race which wandered forth from Lemuria
to the utmost ends of the earth, and under the influence of
diversified physical circumstances became many races, and reached
at last its highest intellectual development in the Semitic and
Aryan races. The higher civilisations seem always to have ori-
ginated in the contact or mixing of different races. The con-
tact and ultimate mingling of the Aryan with Turnaian races pro-
duced the simple, intellectual civilisation of India. On the other
hand, the mingling of the Semitic Avith Turanian races, under later
Aryan domination, produced the imposing material civilisation of
Assyria ; while the elaborately symbolical religious civilisation
of Egypt would seem to have been the result of the mixture of
a Semitic element with the original Turanian race of the higher
Nile valley, and probably of an Aryan influence, received indirectly
through Assyria and India. The consummate artistic civilisation
of Greece was the effect of the contact of a pure Aryan race with
the already advanced civilisations of Phoenicia and Egypt. Every-
where the keen, bright, energetic Aryan race excited the other races
to a higher civilisation, and only the civilisations in which the
Aryan element is pure or predominant have proved progressive;
those in which it was overwhelmed by the Turanian races having
always been unprogressive, as in India, Egypt, and Assyria.
The development of civilisation in its higher forms is, in fact, in
6 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION', 1878 :
the order of the Aryan exodus. The emigrants who had, between
B.C. 3000 and 2000, made their way into India first settled on the
Upper Indus [Vedas], where they appear to have quarrelled among
themselves [Mahabharata], when some of them moved on to the
Ganges and ultimately descended into the Deccan [Ramayana].
Others turned westward, and, following the southern slopes of
the Hindu Kush and Elburz, and constantly joined by fresh
emigrants from High Asia, first settled Media [the modern pro-
vince of Azerbijan], where they came into contact with the Semitic
populations which had already occupied Mesopotamia, Arabia, and
Syria to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and afterwards
Persia.
As other tribes pressed forward, Armenia, Pontus, Paphla-
gonia and Bithynia were occupied, and, crossing the Bosphorus,
the "earth-born Pelasgians" planted their colonies in Thrace,
Macedonia, Thessaly and Epirus, in the islands of the JEgean
Sea, in the Peloponnesus, and in Italy. A parallel emigration of
Aryas and Semites would seem to have advanced in successive
waves along a more southerly route, through the Cilician and
Pamphylian mountains [Mount Taurus] into " sheep-feeding
Phrygia," and the plains of Lydia, " distant Lycia," and Caria,
and across the JEgean to Rhodes and Crete. Later the Hellenes,
probably a predominant tribe of the Pelasgi, spread from Thessaly
over the whole of Greece. In Central Europe the Celts came
first, over the Caucasus and round the head of the Black Sea,
and followed by the Teutons were pushed on into Gaul and
Britain, Northern Italy and Spain. Calais, formerly written in-
differently Caleys and Waleys, indicates the spot whence the surplus
population of one of these Celtic settlements first crossed over to
Britain. Wales is the " Pays de Galles " : and Galicia in Austria,
and Wailachia in Roumania. are said to have been the settle-
ments of the Celtic horde which, three hundred years before Christ,
pillaged Rome and Delphi, and, crossing the Bosphorus back into
Asia, gave its name to Galatia.* The Sclavonians, who had advanced
from beyond the Caspian and the Sea of Aral far towards Central
Europe, were displaced eastward by the Teutons, of which race,
also, were most of the tribes whose repeated irruptions at last
broke up the fabric of the Roman Empire. But they were Aryas,
whose destiny it was to purge civilisation, and not destroy it as
did the later Turanian conquerors of the Eastern Empire.
As Rome fell the nations of modern Europe rose, developing
with their rise a wider prosperity and, in many respects, a
broader and more even civilisation than Greece and Rome
ever knew; till in the 16th and 17th centuries they began
to overflow the bounds of Europe, and to go forth to subdue India
and the Eastern Archipelago, and to colonise America and
Australasia, where now, at last, along all the shores of the Pacific
* Galata, a suburb of Constantinople, regarded by some as a vestige of the
passage of this horde, is thought by others to be the Arabic kilah, a fort,
found in Alcala in Spain, Calata in Sicily, and Khelat the capital of the
Indian province of Baluchistan. See Taylor's " Words and Place?."
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 7
Ocean, they are again brought face to face with that same domi-
nant yellow Turanian race which has dogged their steps from the
first day that they began their westward emigration from the
high table-lands of Central Asia, which has held Constantinople
against them and the whole pressure of the Sclavonic Aryas
for 400 years, and which, some warning prophets threaten us,
may yet subvert Aryan civilisation throughout the world as it has
in India and Persia and over all Western Asia.
Five thousand years ago we see the Aryas first strike their
tents on this momentous westward march, advancing always until
they reach the shores of the outer Ocean stream ; and after halting
there for two thousand years, once more setting forward on afresh
migration, this time across the vast waters of the Atlantic, to search
out that commerce of India, the tradition of which, probably, never
altogether lost by them, would attract them even more than the
actual commerce then in the hands of the Venetians.
Historical Dates.
More clearly to appreciate the relative force of the influences
which have determined the character of Hindu and Indian art, it
is necessary to review in somewhat greater detail the history of
the states and nations of Southern and Western Asia, and the
Mediterranean, with which India is connected, and this may per-
haps be most conveniently done by a rapid enumeration of some
leading dates. It will be recognised that the earlier of them are
approximate only, and that many must be purely conjectural, and
are given simply because it is often advisable to fix a time-mark.
There is little connected, or even consistent, history before
B.C. 1000, and few dates anterior to B.C. 500 can be accurately
determined. Even stone monuments sometimes bear testimony
rather to the falsehood of those who set them up than to the truth,
which should prevail in history. Indeed, the longer they were
likely to endure, the more inducement was there for falsifying
them.
The Phoenicians are said to have first appeared on the shores
of the Mediterranean from the Persian Gulf about B.C. 3000.
Of the contemporary Egyptian and Babylonian kingdoms, which
were the earliest political organisations, the date of the first native
Egyptian dynasty is fixed about B.C. 2500, and of the Semitic
Shepherd kings (Hyksos) B.C. 1750, and the restored (18th)
native dynasty B.C. 1500. The commencement of the first, or Tura-
nian period of the Babylonian kingdom, has also been fixed about
B.C. 2300 ; and that of the Semitic period at B.C. 2000 ; Nineveh is
said to have been founded B.C. 2200 ; and Babylon was captured
by the Assyrians B.C. 1300, which is the date assigned for the
commencement of the Assyrian Empire. Media was conquered
by the Assyrians about B.C. 710, but was constantly in revolt,
and B.C. 625 Cyaxares razed Nineveh to the ground, and reduced
Assyria to a Median province. Babylon revolted under Nabo-
polassar B.C. 610, and was taken by Cyrus (who had already
subjugated Media) B.C. 538 ; and the Persian Empire, which
8 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
Cyrus founded B.C. 559-529, was the first universal empire.
Thothmes III. of the 18th Egyptian dynasty, and Rameses I. of
the 19th, both led expeditions into Mesopotamia. Rameses the
Great (II.), the grandson of Rameses I., and known also by the
name of Sesostris, made the first canal between the Red Sea and
Nile, which Pharaoh Necho, and Darius, and Ptolemy Philadelphus
each afterwards attempted to re-open. About B.C. 1020, " Hadad
being but a little child," having escaped from the slaughter of
his countrymen, the Edomites, by King David, " fled unto Pha-
raoh, King of Egypt ;" and about B.C. 1000, Jeroboam " fled
" into Egypt unto Shishak, King of Egypt, and was in Egypt
" until the death of Solomon." Solomon kept the peace with
all his neighbours, Phoenicia, Edom, Egypt, and Assyria, even
though carrying on the closest commercial competition with them ;
but B.C. 971, in the fifth year of Rehoboam, Shishak invaded
Judah, and pillaged Jerusalem. About B.C. 730, Sabaco, the So
of the Bible, made a treaty with Hoshea, which, involving the
refusal of the King of Israel to pay the tribute to Assyria
exacted by Tiglath Pileser and Shalmaneser, led to the taking of
Samaria by Sargon, and the captivity of the ten tribes, B.C. 721.
During the reign of Tehran, the Tirhaka of the Bible, Sen-
nacherib attempted to invade Egypt, when Tehrah advanced into
Syria and defeated the Assyrians. During the reign of Psam-
metichus, B.C. 671-617, there was an extraordinary development
of the commerce and prosperity of Egypt, consequent on his
wise policy in throwing its ports open to free trade ; and,
under his son Necho, a Phrenician fleet accomplished the circum-
fjavigation of Africa twenty-one centuries before the glorious
enterprise of Bartholomeo Diaz and Vasco Da Gama. Necho
also invaded Syria, and, being opposed by Josiah, King of Judah,
slew him at Megiddo, and returning victorious from Carchemish
took Jehoahaz captive into Egypt, leaving his brother Jehoiakim
king in his stead. Four years later Nebuchadnezzar retook from
Necho all that he had conquered, from the river of Egypt to
the Euphrates. His son was the Pharaoh Hophra of the Bible,
with whom Zedekiah, who had been set up as King of Judah
by Nebuchadnezzar, made a treaty, in the hope of throwing oif the
yoke of Babylon. Pharaoh Hophra besieged and took Gaza and
Sidon, and obliged the Babylonians, " the Chaldaeans that be-
sieged Jerusalem," to retire ; but, on his having immediately to
withdraw his own army, Nebuchadnezzar returned, and capturing
Jerusalem, B.C. 606, led Judah away captive into Babylonia,
whence, after seventy years, they were restored by Cyrus B.C. 536.
Nebuchadnezzar sacked Tyre B.C. 586, and invaded Egypt.
Cambyses conquered Egypt B.C. 526, and Xerxes subdued the
revolt of Egypt B.C. 414. It successfully revolted under Amyr-
tseus against the Persians B.C. 411, was again reduced by Ochus,
B.C. 350 ; and finally conquered by Alexander the Great,
B.C. 332.
Of the four great tribes of the Hellenes, the JEolians, ad-
vancing from Thessaly, had occupied a great part of central
Greece, as far as the Isthmus of Corinth, and of the western
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUKT. 9
coast of Peloponnesus ; the Achasans established themselves in
Mycena?, Argos, and Sparta, and the lonians chiefly in Attica
and Doris. The Dorians were originally restricted to Doris j but,
just as the Hellenes had become the predominant tribe over
the Leleges, Caucones, and other Pelasgian tribes, so the Dorians
became the predominant tribe over all the other Hellenes ; and
when they entered the Peloponnesus, about B.C. 1000, and
overthrew the ancient Achsean monarchies of Homer's epics, many
of the lonians sailed away to Asia Minor, and founded colonies
at Miletus, Ephesus, and other places on the coast of Lydia, while
the fugitive Achseans founded the -ZEolic colonies in Lesbos,
and along the coast of Mysia. Smyrna was originally an ^Eolic
colony, but afterwards became an Ionian city. Subsequently, the
Dorians established colonies in Rhodes and Cos, and founded the
cities of Halicarnassus and Cnidus, on the opposite coast of Cai'ia ;
and later still the Ionian [Phocsean] colonies were extended through-
out the Mediterranean as far as Marseilles and Nimes, the Milesians
encircling the Black Sea with their commercial establishments.
Herodotus [Bk. I., ch. 163] says that the Phoco?,ans of Ionia
(originally from Phocis), were the first of the Greeks who made
long voyages, and it was they who first made the Greeks acquainted
with the Adriatic, and with Tyrrhenia, with Iberia and the city
of Tartessus, (a colony of Tyre, the name of which signifies in
the Phoenician tongue " the Younger Brother,") afterwards called
Gadira, and now Cadiz.
Croesus, the King of Lydia, made himself master of the Ionian
cities, B.C. 550, and was himself subdued by Cyrus, and Lydia
made a province of the Persian Empire, B.C. 546. The Ionian
cities were not disposed to submit, but were unable to make
common cause against their enemy. Some were abandoned, and
the rest, one by one, yielded, sacrificing their liberties and
prosperity, as Bias told them, to their mutual jealousies. Thus
having subjugated both Phoenicia and the Ionian colonies, Persia
at once became a great naval power, threatening the rising com-
mercial supremacy of .Athens in the Mediterranean. When,
therefore, Miletus revolted, B.C. 500, the Athenians immediately
sent 20 ships to the assistance of Aristagoras, and the Eretrians
two, and their troops uniting with the revolted lonians burnt
Sardis. At the battle of Lade, B.C. 496, the whole navy of the
lonians, 353 ships, was destroyed by the Phoenician navy ; and
then, having first reconquered the cities on the Ionian coast, the
Persians determined to take vengeance on Athens and Eretria for
their share in the burning of Sardis. The first expedition, under
Mardonius, against Greece, B.C. 493, failed shamefully. The
second, under Darius, B.C. 490, was defeated at Marathon. For
the third, B.C. 480, Xerxes collected an overwhelming force, and
it was only after Thermopylae had been lost, and Athens burnt,
and Salarnis and Plata3a won, that Greece was saved by the
courage and energy of Athens, and the patriotism of the minor
States of the Peloponnesus, which had become accustomed to act
together under Sparta, But for this Greece would have perished
like the Ionian colonies.
H22. B
10 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
When Joshua, about B.C. 1450, led the children of Israel into
Canaan or Phoenicia, Sidon was already "great Zidon." and Tyre,
" the strong city of Tyre." He was opposed by a confederacy of
the native states, led by the king of Hazor, whom he overthrew
with great slaughter, and chased to the borders of Sidon [pre-
viously mentioned, Genesis x., 19, and xlix., 13 1 , until he left
none remaining ; when he turned back and took Hazoi", and
slew the King thereof, " for Hazor aforetime was the head
of all these kingdoms ; " " and Joshua took all the land, the hills,
" and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and
" the valley, and the plain, * * * from the Mount Halak that
" goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon
" under Mount Hermon " [Joshua, ch. ix.]. Subsequently
Israel became tributary to the Philistines until the time of King
David.
A year before the fall of Troy [B.C. 1183] the Sidonians also
were defeated by the Philistines, and forced to seek a refuge in
Tyre ; and it is from about this time that the history of the Phoeni-
cians ceases to be mythical and gradually becomes authentic.
From Abibal, the father of Hiram, to the foundation of Carthage, we
have a regular succession of reigns and dates. The splendid reign
of Hiram commenced about B.C. 1000 and lasted 34 years. His
son reigned seven years and his grandson nine, when he was put
to death by a usurper who reigned 12 years, and was then deposed
in favour of the legitimate heir, Hiram's great-grandson, who
reigned 12 years. He was succeeded by a brother who, after
reigning nine years, was murdered by another brother, who, after
a few months, was in turn assassinated by Ithobaal, a priest of
Astarte, the " Ethbaal, King of the Zidonians " of the Bible, and
father of Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, who sought to restore the
worship of Baal and Ashtoreth and of " the groves " in Israel
[1 Kings xvi., 31]. He reigned 32 years, and was succeeded by
Badezor, his son, who reigned six years, and he by his son Mutto,
who reigned 32 years ; and was followed by his son Pygmalion,
the father of Elissa or Dido, the founder and Queen of Carthage,
about B.C. 878-793 : the date of the foundation of Rome being
fixed at B.C. 753. This was the great period of the maritime
ascendancy of Tyre in the Mediterranean. About the end of the
eighth century B.C., however, it became a fixed object of the
Assyrians to obtain possession of Tyre, a policy which was pursued
also by the Babylonians and Persians. Shalmaneser endeavoured,
without effect, to reduce it by blockade ; and its siege by Nebu-
chadnezzar, extending over 13 years, is one of the most memorable
in history, and proved a terrible blow to the greatness and power
of the Pho?nicians.
Phoenicia was the fifth of the twenty satrapies into which the
empire of Darius was divided, but its relations with the Persians
would appear to have been those of an honourable alliance rather
than of absolute subjection, since, while the Tyrians assisted
Cambyses against the Egyptians, and Darius and Xerxes against
the Greeks, they refused to make war on the Carthaginians,
;< their own children ; " and Cambyses could not force them,
" because upon the Phoenicians all his sea service depended ; "
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAX COUET. 11
tl and so it was that the Carthaginians escaped, and were not
" enslaved by the Persians" [Herod. III., 19].
It was the Phoenicians who first adventuring from inlet to inlet
along the coast of Asia Minor with the precious freights of their
eastern traffic, and from island to island across the hitherto un-
trampled floor of the blue ./Egean, at last found themselves in
Hellas, where the fair beauty of the women, when they were not to
be enticed away to Sidon, tempted many a gaberlunyie Arab to
remain : and thus the commerce and the arts of the East were
introduced into Greece, and the civilization of the West began.
The legends of lo, Europa, Medea, and Helen [Herod. I., 1-4], of
the Argouautic Expedition, and of the wanderings of Cadmus and
Harmonia, and of Dido, are all mythical fragments of the early
commercial and colonial history of the Phoenicians and the Hel-
lenes in the Mediterranean. From Canaan, the Phoenicians, origin-
ally from the Persian Gulf, were early beckoned onward by the
mountains of Cyprus, which long preserved its Phoenician name of
Kittim or Chittim, in that of Citium, which, with Paphos and
Gorgos, were the chief seats of the worship of Astarte, lo, or
Venus Urania, the great goddess of the Sidonians. Rhodes also was
early colonised by them, being mentioned in Genesis x, 4 (circa
B.C. 1500), under the name of Dodanin, or as some read it Rodanin,
along with Javan (Greece), Elishah (the coasts of Asia Minor), and
Tarshish, (here probably Tarsus, but generally identified with
Tartessus, in Spain.) They also established their market-havens
[" banders" or " chippi/iff-ha.\ens," Copenhagen], factories or
agencies, and settlements or colonies in Cicilia, Lycia, Caria, and
Bithynia, in the Cyclades, Chios, " olive planted Samos," and
Tenedos, where the Tyrian Hercules, Melcarth \_malik " Lord," and
cartha "city"], was worshipped under the name of Melicertes ;
and in Imbros, Thasos and Lemnos, where the local myth of the
forges of Hephaestus was of Phoenician origin. Cadmus and his
Arabs are said to have crossed from Chalcis in Euboea into
Boeotia, and the name of Onca, by which Minerva was worshipped
in Thebes, is pure Phoenician. Under the myth of the flight of
Daedalus, a name of Hepha3stus, from Crete to Italy [Cumae]
and Sicily, we have the story of the Phoenician colonization of
Sicily. They early occupied Malta [in Phoenician Melita, " the
Place of Refuge"], and the other little islands leading to their
settlements on the opposite Lybian coast, Utica [i.e., Uti-
Cartha " the Ancient City "], Hippo [" walled], and Carthage
[Cartha-hadtha, "the New Town," as in the Kirjath of the
Bible]. Corsica in Phoenician means " the wooded." Sardinia
was originally colonised both from Tyre and Carthage, and/Tar-
tessus, afterwards Gadira [an " enclosure " ] by the Tyrians, as
the emporium of their trade in tin with Andalusia. The name of
Spain, from which we derive the words Spinach and Spaniel, is
itself derived from the Phoenician span, a " marten." Medina
Sidonia, as the name given to it by the Saracen Arabs denotes, was
a colony of Phoenician or Canaanitish Arabs, which was settled in
Spain nearly 3,000 years before the establishment of the Western
B 2
12 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
Caliphate. " The Pillars of Hercules," the name given to the
mountain of Calpe or Gibraltar [jibel el Tarik, Tarik's Hill," of
the Saracens] on the Spanish side of the fret um Gaditanuw, and
to Abila or Ceuta [jebel-el-Mina] on the Moorish, were so named
from the temple of Melcarth, which marked the furthest western
limits of the geographical knowledge of the Greeks down to the
time of the Persian wars. But far beyond the Pillars of Hercules
the Phoenicians had a station at Cerne on the Hesperidian coast
of Africa ; and the Carthaginian Hanno certainly reached the
Gaboon country, and knew the untamable gorilla of Du Chaillu by
its native name, even if he did not complete, as his Phosnician pre-
decessors under the orders of Pharaoh Xecho had done, the cir-
cumnavigation of the African continent. The Phoenicians gave
its name t to the Tagus, the " River of Fish," the word having the
same root as the name of their " Fish God " Dagon. They traded
to the Cornish coast for tin, and to the Baltic for amber. The
frequency with which the names Phcenice and Phrenicus are
found in classical lands, as in Egypt, Crete, Lycia, Lydia, Laconia,
and Sicily bears witness to their presence everywhere in ancient
times throughout the Mediterranean basin ; while the name of the
Cassiterides, derived from the Sanscrit word for the tin, which
they first received from the Indian Archipelago, probably long
before they quitted the Persian Gulf for the narrow coast of
Canaan, and the fact that the Spanish town of Malaga near Gib-
raltar, and the Strait of Malacca, near Singapore, are so called
from the same Phoenician word malacca, meaning " salt," prove
how far reaching was the maritime and commercial enterprise of
a people, whose history now survives almost only in the magic of
a few geographical names, and the charm of the immortal fables of
Greek mythology.
From its position Carthage commanded the whole western basin
of the Mediterranean, and, when Tyre began to decline, Carthage,
to which city the Tyrian refugees from Nebuchadnezzar fled, was
in the zenith of her commercial prosperity and greatness. On the
eve of Salamis indeed, the Mediterranean might be described as
literally a Phoenician lake. While the Persians were advancing
upon Athens, the Carthaginians, in concert with Xerxes, landed an
army of 300,000 men under Hamilcar at Panormus,to simultaneously
crush the Greeks in Sicily. The Persian (Phoenician and Cyprian)
fleet was destroyed at Salamis, and the Carthaginian army utterly
routed at Himera, with the loss of 150,000 men slain in the battle,
nearly all the remainder surrendering immediately after. Twenty
ships alone of all their armament escaped to Carthage with the
fugitives; "and by a dramatic propriety," observes Mr. Bosweli
Smith (in his book on " Carthage and the Carthaginians," just
published), " which is not common in history, whatever it may be
" in fiction, this double victory of Greek civilisation is said to
" have taken place in the same year and on the very same day."
In her long struggle with Rome (B.C. 264 146) Carthage
gradually lost resources, prestige, and one dependency after another,
until at last Cato's inexorable "Delendaest Carthago" was fulfilled
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIANT COURT. 13
to the very letter. Indeed, if Rome was to be saved, Carthage
must needs be blotted out. It was not, however, through any
failure of her population, or of their enterprising spirit, or of the
skill and genius of her generals, that Carthage finally fell. It was
entirely in consequence of the narrow commercial policy and
personal animosities of her party leaders. During the Punic wars,
almost to the end, the material advantages were with the Cartha-
ginians ; and over and over again Rome was brought to the verge
of ruin, and the empire of Europe, as of Africa, lay in their
grasp. But at every crisis of the melancholy history, in spite of
their superior material resources, they were always paralysed by
the fatal rivalries of their political factions ; and it was thus that,
from one humiliation to another, they step by step succumbed
before the persistent policy and military organisation of the
irresistible moral power of Rome ; until the once mighty city of
Carthage was literally ploughed into the desert sands out of which
it had arisen like a bright exhalation of the morning.
Alexander the Great destroyed Tyre, and made himself master
of Egypt B.C. 332, and took Babylon and finally subjugated
Persia B.C. 331. He invaded India B.C. 327, and to this ex-
pedition we owe all our real knowledge of Indian history in
ancient times. Before Alexander's invasion we have only the
Vedas, dating from about B.C. 1400, the Code of Menu,
B.C. 900-300, the sacred legends of the Ramayana, B.C. 400-350,
and the Mahabharata, B.C. 500-250, to depend upon. Even the
later Puranas, composed during the revival of Brahrnmism,
between the decline of Buddhism and the Mahommedan conquest,
which gives us the dynastic history of India from the time of
Chandragupta, the Sandrocottus of the Greeks, treat princi-
pally of mythology and doctrine. Neither by Homer, Pindar,
nor Euripides, are India or its people mentioned by name.
^Eschylus mentions "the wandering Indians," and Sophocles
"Indian gold-" but although they knew its name they really
knew nothing of the country, and it was not until the Persian war
that the Greeks became aware of the existence of the enormous
peninsula lying east and southward of the Indus. It is more than
probable, however, that Homer confounded India with Africa
under the general name of ^Ethiopia, Avhile by later Greek writers
sometimes Ethiopia is called India. Alexander believed that he
would find the sources of the Nile in India. The first Greek who
speaks of India by name is Hecatasus of Miletus, B.C. 549-486.
The knowledge of. Herodotus was limited to the satrapies of
Darius, the twentieth of which included the part of India subject
to Persia. In the Bible the first and only mention of India by
that name is in the Book of Esther \_circa B.C. 450, ch. i. 1, and
ch. viii. 9] wherein we are told that Ahasuerus reigned "from.
" India even unto Ethiopa, over an hundred and seven and
" twenty provinces." This Ahasuerus was Xerxes, and the feast
he held "in Shushan the palace," in the third year of his reign,
was to arrange the invasion of Greece ; and it was to console him-
self for the defeats of Salainis, Plateea and Mycale, that he took
Esther into his " house royal," and made her Queen instead of
14 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
Vashti, in the seventh year of his reign. It is evident that India
only became generally known during the course of the Persian
wars with Greece, and most probably it was during the wars of
Cyrus that its name was first heard in the West. Ctesias, B.C. 400,
wrote 23 books on Persia and one on India, all of which are lost
except the fragments in Photius, to whom also, and to Diodorus,
we owe the extracts which they have preserved from the work of
Agatharcides, B.C. 146, on the Erythrean Sea.
All our real knowledge of India dates from Alexander's in-
vasion of the Punjab, where he crossed the Indus at Attock
in April B.C. 327, the first authentic date in Indian history.
A number of Alexander's officers wrote descriptions of different
parts of his route, and thus the ancients became possessed of
the separate narratives, most of which have since perished, of
Beton, Diognetus, Nearchus, Onesicritus, Aristobulus, and Cal-
listhenes. Onesicritus is the first western writer to mention
Ceylon, which was actually discovered for Europe by Almeyda,
the first Portuguese viceroy of India, A.D. 1507. Subsequent to
Alexander, in the early part of the third century B.C., the west
coast of India was visited by Patrocles, the admiral of Seleucus,
who also sent Megasthenes as his ambassador to Sandrocottus, and
Daimachus to his successor Allitrochades at Palibothra or Pata-
liputra, the modern Patna. Ptolemy Philadelphus also, sent
Dionysius on an expedition overland through Persia to India, soon
after the time that Megasthenes was at Patna ; and Ptolemy
Euergetes, B.C. 145-116, sent Eudoxius on a voyage of discovery
to the western coast of India. It is to the information collected
by these officers of Alexander, Seleucus, and the Ptolemies, con-
densed, extracted, and reduced to a consistent shape by Diodorus,
Strabo, Pliny, and Arrian, during the first century before and the
first century after Christ, that we owe most of our knowledge of
ancient India. Arrian, the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean
Sea, almost a contemporary of Arrian the author of the " Indica "
and the " Anabasis Alexandri," gives us a minute account of the
sea-borne trade of India and of the coasts of the Erythrean Sea
generally. Alexander's expedition and the embassies of Seleucus
carried our knowledge of India from the Punjab to the mouths of
the Indus and the valley of the Ganges ; " the Periplus of the
Erythrean Sea " extended it to the whole Malabar coast, and the
Coromandel, as far as Masulipatam. Eratosthenes, the Alexandrian
geographer, B.C. 276-161, describes India fully. Hipparchus,
B.C. 150, the astronomer, follows Megasthenes, Daimachus, and
Patrocles, and with Ptolemy, A.D. 139-170, our knowledge of
India from classical sources ends. The Egyptian merchant, after-
wards monk, Cosmas, called Indicopleustes, who traded about
A.D. 535-550 in the Red Sea, gives a very definite account of
the commerce bet\veen India and Egypt and Ceylon in his day,
and the Chinese travellers, Fa Hian, who visited India A.D. 399-
414, and Houang-Tsang A.D. 629-645, and the two Arabians who
visited India arid China in the 9th century, and whose travels
were published in Renaudot's " Ancicnnes Relations," A.D. 1718,
have added largely to our knowledge of India. But still the history
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUET. 15
of Strabo is really the best general account we have of India until
the travels of Marco Polo (b. 1254, cl. 1324) and Ibn Batuta of
Tangiers in 1341, and of Stevens and Fitch, and Bernier and
Tavernier, and others in the 16th and 17th centuries. Vansleb's
" Present State of Egypt," a narrative of his travels iii that
country in 1672-73, the English translation of which was published
in 1678, gives as minute account of the trade of Egypt, at that
critical period in the commercial history of India and the East, as
Cosmas Indicopleustes and Arrian give respectively for the sixth,
and first and second centuries after Christ. The India of Strabo is
the India of the Maurya dynasty of Magadha, or Bahar, B.C. 325-
118, the most brilliant and best known of the early Indian dynasties,
to which Saudrocottus belonged, whose grandson, Asoka, esta-
blished Buddhism as the State religion of India, B.C. 250, at which
date the most intimate relations existed between India and Syria
and Egypt, and the arts and literature and science of India
reached their highest perfection.
After Alexander's death the Seleucidae succeeded to the
monarchy of Syria, B.C. 306-312 to B.C. [Tigranes] 79-65.
Bactriana and Parthia revolted from them, B.C. 250. The
Parthian Empire was overthrown by the revived native, or
Sassanian, dynasty of Persia, A.D. 226 ; and the Graeco-Bactrian
kingdom was destroyed by an eruption of the Scyths, congeners
of the Parthians, Mongols, Tartars, and other Turks, about
B.C. 90 ; and, from the overthrow of Bactriana, to the Portuguese,
Dutch, English, and French conquests, no European power
again acquired dominion in India. But India had been
deeply influenced by Alexander's conquest : and Cosmas Indico-
pleustes states that in his time, A.D. 535-550, nearly every large
town in India had its Christian church under the archbishop of
Seleucia. It was about this date that Buddhism began to
decline in India. The Maurya dynasty had been succeeded by
the Sanga or Kanwa, and this by the Andhra, B.C. 31 to
A.D. 429, after Avhich Indian history once more almost disappears,
until the advent of the Mahommedans, A.D. 639-750, and again,
A.D. 1001, under Mahmud of Ghazni. For 600 years India was
now devastated by a succession of Afghan and Mongol conquests,
and for 200 years more was torn by the contentions of the Mahratta
confederacy, until delivered by the rise of the British power in
India, alike from Mahommedan oppression (1803), Mahratta
anarchy (1819), and invasion panics (1839-42).
Even under the Parthians the commerce through the Euphrates
Valley with India was'uninterrupted, and, after Syria had submitted
to Rome, B.C. 65, Palmyra continued free for 300 years, until
Zenobia was defeated by Aurelian A.D. 272273, and was the
great emporium between Rome and the Parthian and afterwards
Sassanian kingdoms and the East. Egypt, on the death of
Alexander, fell to the Ptolemies, B.C. 323, B.C. 30. Arts, com-
merce, manufactures, agriculture, and navigation obtained a most
extraordinary development under them. They more than revived
the ancient glories of Thothmes, Rameses-Sesostris, Psammetichus,
and Necho ; Alexandria became the first mart in the world ; and
16 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 187S :
when Egypt iii its turn became a Roman province, it was governed
direct as a prefecture by the Emperors, not by the Senate, and
was never in strict propriety a Roman province at all. The
Romans were jealous to guard its privileges, and preserve the trade
the wise policy of the Ptolemies had drawn to it ; and no Roman
was even permitted to enter the country without the express
permission of the Emperor.
The Roman Empire reached its greatest extent during the age
of the Antonines, A.D. 96-180, and may be said to have included
within its limits all the countries of the world within the Rhine
and Danube, the Tigris and Euphrates, and the Great Desert of
Africa. Behind the Rhine and the Danube were the Franks,
and Germans, and Goths, and other Teutonic tribes, who were
destined to overthrow the Roman Empire ; and behind the Tigris
and Euphrates were the Parthians and Persians, the successful
rivals of Rome in Asia. Two centuries more and Odoacer had
taken Rome, A.D. 476, and the fall of the Western Empire was
complete. But Rofae still ruled the Eastern Empire from Con-
stantinople, and Rome and Persia still continued their struggles
along the border lands of the Tigris and Euphrates for supremacy
in Asia.
It was at this time, A.D. 622, that Mahommed began to teach
the revolutionary religion of Islam, and within one" hundred
years from his death every nation and tribe of the old Roman
and Persian Empires, and nearly the whole known world, were
almost simultaneously assailed by the Saracen Arabs. Egvpt
and Syria were both conquered between A.D. 632 and 639 ; and
Persia, when the Sassanian dynasty was overthrown, between
A.D. 632 and 651. Twice the Saracens besieged Constantinople, and
twice they were repulsed, in A.D. 673 and A.D. 716. They con-
quered Africa between A.D. 647 and 709, and in the latter year
crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and conquered Spain. They then
invaded and advanced into the very heart of France, until they were
met and beaten at the great battle of Tours by Charles Martel,
A.D. 732, ami forced to recross the Pyrenees. Spain they held for
700 years. They completely dominated the Mediterranean, and it
was their ambition and their threat to preach the unity of God in
the city of Rome itself. They had, however, already exhausted
their aggressive virtue. In A.D. 750 the Ommiad dynasty of Da-
mascus was overthrown by the Abbassides, who established them-
selves at Damascus [A.D. 7501258], and one of the Ommiades
escaping to Spain there re-established the Ommiad dynasty of
Cordova [A.D. 755-1051], and thus was Islam divided between
the Eastern and Western Caliphates.
The Saracens were an inquisitive, energetic, and ingenious race,
and, in contact with the Greeks of Byzantium and the Jews, now
scattered through every country in Europe, and round the Me-
diterranean, grammarians and philosophers, great chemists and
physicians, mathematicians and astronomers rapidly rose among
them, with a highly cultivated literature, and a new architecture
and decorative art. Manufactures, especially that of silks, which
had been recently introduced from China by the Emperor Justinian,
HANDBOOK TO TI1E INDIAN COLET. 17
were carried to the highest perfection, and Baghdad and Cordova
became everywhere famous as seats, not only of the most pro-
sperous commerce, but of the highest learning and refinement.
But soon the Mongols and other Turks began to press on
the Eastern Caliphate and Empire. Persia was ravaged by
Togrel Beg and the Seljukian Turks, A.D. 1038. Chingiz Khan
devastated all Asia, A.D. 1206-27. His son Octai pushed on into
Europe, through Poland, to the confines of Germany ; and his
grandson Baton, at the head of the Golden Horde, overran and
permanently barbarised Russia. The Western Caliphate had
already been overthrown, A.D. 1051, by the Moors, and when
Baghdad fell to Hulaku Khan, the nephew of Chingiz Khan,
A.D. 1258, the splendours of the Saracenic Empire of the Arabs
were finally eclipsed.
While the Eastern Caliphate was in confusion the trade of
the East by way of Alexandria had gradually fallen into the
hands of the Venetians, and Constantinople had also become the
emporium of a considerable eastern trade by way of Asia Minor
and the Euxine; and, after the capture of Constantinople by
the Crusaders, A.D. 1203, the Venetians, who were jealous of
the commercial competition of Constantinople, and had always
helped the Crusaders, both against the Saracens and the Greeks,
obtained the grant of a portion of the Peloponnesus, with several
of the best islands in the Archipelago, thus securing to them-
selves the monopoly of the trade by the Euxine. But, when the
Greeks rose and expelled the Latin Emperor, they bestowed on
the Genoese, who had helped them, the suburb of Pera as a reward,
thus transferring the monopoly of the Euxine overland trade
to the Genoese, and forcing the Venetians to revisit Alexandria
in order to carry on their commerce in the productions of the
East.
Step by step the Ottoman Turks advanced slowly but surely
on the fore-doomed Eastern Empire. They took Adrianople
A.D. 1361. All the Greek possessions in Asia were lost by
A.D. 1396. Bajazet laid siege to Constantinople A.D. 1402,
but was called off to oppose an invasion of Tamerlane, a
descendant of Chingiz Khan, and the progenitor of the Mogol
Emperors of Delhi, and it was not until A.D. 1453 that the
city fell to the assault of Mahomet II. The Turks conquered
Egypt A.D. 1617, and took Baghdad for the last time A.D.
1638 ; and, ever since then, have remained the masters of three
positions of imperial command, which would have given any other
race the dominion of the world. For more than two centuries
they have held possession of all the overland routes to India, by
Alexandria and the Red Sea, by Baghdad and the Persian Gulf,
and by the Euxine, Bayazid, and Persia, and in Constantinople
have occupied a position which absolutely safeguards them all, but
they have held them only to obstruct. The Eastern Question in
its widest sense is, indeed, the question whether the civilisation
of Europe, which was so strongly established by the Greeks in
Persia and India, and has for a thousand years been cut off from
18 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878
those countries by repeated irruptions of savage hordes, is to be
for ever barred in its free course eastward along all the great
historical overland routes between Europe and Asia.
The Crusades [A.D. 1096-1291] were not altogether dis-
interested efforts to deliver the Holy Places at Jerusalem from
the hands of the Moslem infidel. They were also largely in-
fluenced, at least the later Crusades, by the spirit of commercial
enterprise. They were, in this character, an unsuccessful attempt
to reopen direct communications with India. But the energy
of Europe was not to be baffled. The fortunes of Venice, the
universal mart of the splendid traffic of the East, excited the
Spaniards and the Portuguese to seek out India for themselves across
the vast Atlantic Ocean, and, in seeking it, the Spaniards found
America, the West Indies [A.D. 1492], on the way ; while the
Portuguese, by sailing round the Cape of Good Hope, discovered
the true India [A.D. 1497] of Byzantine and Venetian commerce,
and of the legendary histories and romances of Alexander. The
Turks, beset by the Portuguese behind them, and the Austrians
and Hungarians before, would have been fast driven back across
the Oxus and Jaxartes again, but that popular emigration from
Europe was attracted to America. Thus the regeneration of
Greece, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Persia, was delayed for 200
years ; but Seneca's famous line was fulfilled, " Nee sit Terris
ultima Thule," and the ever energetic Aryas hastened forward
with the setting sun to people a new Atlantis.
" Westward the course of Empire takes its way ;
The first four acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day ;
Time's noblest off-spring is the last."
The discovery of Bartholomeo Diaz and Da Gama, although not
mortal, was the first blow struck at the Turkish power. Deprived
of the trade with India, their naval supremacy in the Mediter-
ranean was undermined, and they were never really able to
recover from the effects of the battle of Lepanto, A.D. 1571,
when the combined fleets of Spain, Venice, Genoa, Malta, and
Pius V., commanded by Don John of Austria, defeated the whole
maritime force of Turkey. The Portuguese discovery also had
another beneficial effect. While it impoverished all the Mediter-
ranean countries until the establishment of the " Peninsular and
Oriental Company " and Waghorn's new " Overland Route " to
India, the Atlantic countries of Western Europe were propor-
tionally enriched, for, even before they began to participate in it
directly, they, rather than Lisbon, reaped the profits of the
Portuguese trade with India, and thus the triumph of religious
and political freedom in Europe was made secure.
The Eastern and the Western Empire had passed away,
and the wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had
established the independence of the states which have since
exercised a preponderating influence in Europe, when the Dutch
and English, following up the maritime discoveries of Spain and
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 19
Portugal, began those obscure movements of colonisation, com-
merce, and conquest in tlie new world and the old, beyond seas,
in the far East, which, in two hundred years, have given Europe
the dominion of America and the Indies, and the lead in the trade
and civilisation of Southern Asia, from Constantinople to Pekin,
a position of advantage not be ovei'looked when the thoughts of
statesmen and of nations are perplexed by fear of the things which
are coming on the world.
20 PABIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE INDIAN TRADE.
The earliest, most valuable, and fullest notices of the Indian
trade are in the Bible ; and the collection of the vegetable, animal,
and mineral productions of India sent by the British Government
to the present exhibition illustrates in a very interesting manner
the proofs the Bible affords of the immense antiquity of the
trade. Moses, about B.C. 1500, in Genesis ii. 11, 12, describing
the first head, Pison, of the river of Eden, says, " That is it
" which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is
" gold * * there is bdellium and the onyx stone." Bdellium
is the gum resin of the Balsamodendron JMukul and B. pubescens
of Stocks, both natives of Scinde ; and, if the Hebrew word bdolacli,
translated by Bdellium in this passage, really means Musk, as
Lassen argues from the description of " bdellium " [bdolacli] in
Numbers xi. 7, and from the affinity of the Hebrew word bdolach
with the Sanscrit word madalaka, which he thought meant musk,
but which I believe to mean Bdellium, the mukul and gugul of
the Arabs and Hindus, all the same, as Bdellium is, so is Musk
peculiarly an Indian product, the Musk deer being a native of the
Himalayas and Western China. The connexion of the " onyx " in
this passage with Bdellium recalls Pliny's description of Bactrian
[Indian] Bdellium : " It is shining and dry, and covered with
" numerous white spots resembling the finger nails." Such
Bdellium would appear to be the 8e'X>.ij ovuf of Damocritus, an
obscure medical writer quoted by Saracenus in his Scholia in
Dioscoridem, and of Galen as quoted by Salmasius in his PliniancE
Exercitationes. Salmasius distinctly states, 200 years before
Stocks' discovery, that from these Greek words ^Se/jcox and ^aXa^^
the Arabic molochil and mukkul are derived. Of course we now
know that these Greek words are derived from the Sanscrit, through
the Arabic and Phoenician ; which, however, only strengthens the
argument against Lassen's identification, and conclusively confirms
the correctness of the identification of bdolach with Bdellium in
the authorised version of the English Bible. The " onyx " in
the passage is the Hebrew shohem and not the Hebrew shechcleth,
and although there is nothing in the context here, or elsewhere
where shohem is mentioned [Ex. xxviii. 9, 20 ; 1 Chron. xxix, 2 ;
Ezek. xxviii. 13] to help us to determine its signification, and
there is generally the greatest difficulty in identifying the precious
stones mentioned in the Bible, there can be little doubt, taking all
the passages, in which shohem is mentioned, together, that the Onyx
is meant.
From Ex. xxx. 22-38, we find that myrrh, and " sweet cinnamon,"
" and sweet calamus," and cassia were used in the preparation of
" the holy anointing oil " for the service of the Jews' Tabernacle,
and stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, " with pure frankincense,"
in the preparation of " the holy perfume." Here " onycha " is the
Hebrew schecheletk, the " odoriferous shell," the operculum of
a species of Strombus or Wing Shell, formerly well known in
HANDBOOK TO THE ES'DIAX COUKT. 21
Europe under the name of Blatta Byzantina, which is procured
both in the Mediterranean and Red Sea, and is occasionally .to
be seen at the Custom House in Bombay, where it is imported
to burn with frankincense in the temples, not so much on
account of any pleasing odour of its own, as to bring out the
odours of other 'perfumes. Galbanum \chelbonaJi\ is a product
of Syria and Khorassan. Stacte or Storax [_nataf~\ was in
classical times the product of Styrax officinale, a native of
Palestine, Syria, Greece, and the Levant, but at present is obtained
in Europe only from Liquidambar orientale, a native of Cyprus and
Anatolia. Myrrh [mor, from the Arabic, Psalms xlv. 8 ;
Prov. vii. 17 ; Song of Solomon i. 13 ; v. 5 ; Esth. ii. 12 ; Matt. ii.
1 1 ; Mark xv. 23 ; John xix. 39 ; and lot Gen. xxxvii. 25 ; xliii. 11]
and frankincense \lebonah from Arabic liiban Ex. xxx. 34 ;
Song of Sol. iii. 6 ; iv. 14 ; Isaiah xliii. 23 ; Ix. 6 ; Ixvi. 3 ;
2 Chron. xxvi. 16, 18, 19; Lev. xvi. 12, 13; Jer. vi. 20 ; xvii. 26]
are both products of the south of Arabia ; Cinnamon [kinnamon,
also Prov. vii. 17 ; Song of Sol. iv. 14 ; and, Ktvapupw, Rev. xvHi
13] of Ceylon ; while " sweet calamus " [keneh bosem ; the " sweet
cane," kaneh hotteb, of Jer. vi. 20 ; and calamus, kaneh, of Song of
Sol. iv. 14 ; andEzek. xxvii. 19] ihe'Andropogo?i Calamns-aroma-
ticus of Royle, is exclusively an Indian plant, the Roosa grass of
Anglo-Indians, closely allied to A. 'muricatus, the fragrant roots
of which are made into Cuscus fans and discus tatties. The
Calamus aromaticus of the older pharmacologists is the root of
Aconts Calamus, the Sweet Flag. The Hebrew word, in
Exodus xxx. 24, translated Cassia, is kiddah (in Ps. xlv. 8, it is
ketzioth) ; and here, undoubtedly, Cassia lignea is meant, a product
of India and China.
In Numbers xxiv. 6, Balaam compares the camp of Israel
to " a garden by a river side, as the trees of lign-aloes which
" the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters."
The better kind of Lign-Aloes [Hebrew ahalim, ahaloth ;
Ps. xlv. 8. ; Prov. vii. 17 ; Song of Sol. iv. 14, and dxfa
John xix. 39.] is produced by the leguminous tree Aloea-ylon
Agallockum, a native of Cochin China, and the inferior by
Aquillaria Agallocha, a native of India beyond the Ganges, the
Malayan name of which is the root of most of the synonyms of
this most precious of all perfumes, viz., the Sanscrit agaru t
the Hebrew ahalim and ahaloth, Portuguese Poa d'aaila,
English Eagle wood, and Aloes, and Aloe wood, and the old com-
mercial and pharmacological names Lignum Aquilae, Agallachum,
and Agallage. It is also called Calambac, from Kalambok, the
Malayan name specifically for the wood of Aloexylon Agallochum.
Balaam had probably never seen Lign Aloe trees, but he pictures
them from the renown of their perfume, the result really of disease,
as in glory like unto the cedars of Lebanon.
In the Song of Solomon (circa B.C. 1000) iv. 13, 14, mention is
made, besides myrrh, aloes, cinnamon, frankincense, and calamus,
of camphire, saifron, and spikenard. Here, and also in i. 14,
camphire, the Hebrew copher, is the Egyptian hennah, Lawsonia
inermis, a native of the East Indies, but cultivated from the
22 PAKIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
beginning of history in India, Egypt, North Africa, Syria, and
the Levant. It is Pliny's " Cyprus in Egypt," and the women of
Egypt and other eastern countries tinge their hands and feet with
its ruddy dye, whence probably proceeds the designation of Aurora
as " rosy-fingered," [jSaSoSaKTuAo,- ^]. In Egypt, on one of the
nights before the wedding, hennah is applied with linen bandages to
the hands and feet of the bride until the next morning, when they
appear of that celestial rosy red which is love's proper hue, and
this night, in the order of the marriage ceremonials, is called " the
night of the hennah" Saffron is the stigmata of Crocus sativus
in Hebrew karkam, the karkum and zafran [" yellow "] of the
Arabs, the Sanscrit kunkuma and the Kpo'/csf of the Greeks, a
native of Cashmere ; and Spikenard [Song of Sol. i. 12, and va/jSo,-,
Mark xiv. 3, John xii. 3, 7], the root of Nardostachys Jata-
mati.fi, exclusively a native of Nepal and Bhotan at great eleva-
tions ; and Costus, the Hebrew ketzioth [Ps. xlv. 8 translated by
"Cassia" in the English Bible, and sometimes by "Orris root,"
so largely used by the Greeks and Romans in perfumery, and for
which Macedonia, and Elis, and Corinth were so famous], and
Sanscrit Root, the root of the Aucklandia Costus of Falconer, ex-
clusively a native of Cashmere : and these three famous pi-oducts
of the Himalayas, with Bdellium, the Vine, Pomegranate, Lign
Aloes, Salep, ajid Hemp, and Musk, and the Balas ruby, Lapis
Lazuli, and Turquoise have probably been known from the earliest
associations of the Aryas with India, whence the Saffron Crocus and
Hemp plant have followed their migrations everywhere through-
out the temperate zone of the globe. Sir William Jones was the
first to identify Spikenard with the root of N. Jatamansi. The
word nard he found to be Persian, and the Persians, as the over-
land carriers of Jatamansi between India, and Kirman, and
Gerrha, and Mesopotamia, had communicated their name for it
to the Hebrews [nerd], and Greeks [va/>8&?], and Romans [nar-
dutn^. Spikenard is Spica 2fardi. It is strange that the iden-
tification was so long overlooked, for Avicenna uses the word
sumbul as the synonym of yapSo? ; and Persian books give among
the synonyms of sumbul, Arabic, sunbul ; Greek, narden ; Latin,
nardoom ; and Hindi, jatamansi and balchar.
The algum trees " out of Lebanon," of 2 Chron. ii. B and
ix. 11, and almug trees "from Ophir " of 1 Kings, x. 11, 12
[both references being of about B.C. 500], have been generally
identified with the true Saudalwood, Santalum album, of the
mountains of the Indian peninsula and Eastern Archipelago,
because one of its Sanscrit names is evidently the same word as
the Hebrew algum, or almug. But considering the use to which
Algum or Almug wood was put by Solomon, for flooring and
pillars, and to make musical instruments, I believe that it was
probably not Sandalwood, but some hard, close-grained wood like
shisham or sissoo [Dalbergia sps.], well known as " Bombay
Blackwood," or the Red Saunders Wood, Ptcrocarpus Santalinus,
of the Coromandel coast, Palghat, and Ceylon, of which most of
the musical instruments in India are made. Nevertheless, Sandai-
wood is used in India for the pillars and doors of temples. The
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUItT. 23
famous gates of the temple Sortmath, carried off to Afghanistan
by Mahmud of Ghnzni A.D. 1025, anil restored to India by
Lord Ellenborough in 1842, were found, on examination, not to
bo, as was generally said, of Sandalwood, but Deodar. They
are still lying in the fort of Agra. Sandalwood is possibly the
j-v'/.x 5-ayd,}.iva. of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, and is cer-
tainly the r^avSava of Cosmas Indicopleustes. It is mentioned in
the earliest writings. Ebony, mentioned in Ezekiel [circa B.C. 600,
ch. xxvii, 15, hobnim,~\ is produced in India by Diospyros mcla-
noxylon, and in Ceylon and the Moluccas by D. Ebenum. The
tree which produces African Ebony is unknown.
The word " cotton " is not used in the English translation of the
Bible, but in the passage of Esther [circa B.C. 450] ch. i. 6 :
" where were white, green, and blue hangings;" the Hebrew word,
trauslated "green," is ftarpas, identical with the Sanscrit karpasa,
and Hindi hapas, cotton (in the pod), an aboriginal Indian pro-
duction. The passage should be read, " Where were white and
" blue (striped) cotton hangings," like the sattrangis made all
over Hindustan at the present day. Karpasa is the origin of the
Greek /caairao-o?, and Latin carbasus, flax, having probably the
same root as /capiro'?, fruit, and carpo, I pick, pluck, gather (i.e., the
fruit, the cotton pods), and as KO.^ and carpus, the wrist the
hands, with which the Aryan race gathered and wove cotton from
the dawn of history, and carried the weaving of cotton, wool,
hemp, and flax with them into all lands. Cotton is the Arabic
kutii, and Egyptian kotn.
The Egyptians are known to have cultivated and woven Cotton
from the earliest times. They used also Cassia, with " the purest
bruised myrrh," and " every sort of spicery except frankincense"
in embalming their dead [Rawlinson's Herodotus, ii. 86]. The
sacred Indian Lotus also, Nclumbium speciosum, while every-
where represented on the later Egyptian sculptures, is never
seen on the earlier, and is now nowhere found in Egypt.
Whether Nepenthe, the fdppaKw vy-Kcvfes of Homer [Od." iv,
221-229] be Opium (the //.ij/cawv of Theophrastus) or hashish,
the extract (of which no Greek or Roman writer on drugs makes
any mention) of hemp, it must have been originallv obtained from
India, the Opium Poppy, Papaver somnifcrum, and the hashish
Hemp, Cannabis sativa, var. indica, both being cultivated Indian
varieties of plants, of which the Hemp is also originally a native of
the Himalayas, Hindu Rush, and Caucasus. The Greek Ka-^a.^^
and Latin cannabis are both identical with the Sanscrit kanam. as
well as with the German hanf&nd English hemp. More directly
from cannabis comes canvas, made of hemp or flax, and canvass,
to discuss, i.e., sift a question, metaphorically from the use of
hempen sieves or sifters. From hashish, a herb, comes assassin,
through hashishin, i.e., "hemp eaters" [Hemp being par excel-
lence the herb, as Opium, OTTO?, is the juice, Bark, (Chinchona)
the bark, and Musa, (Plantain) the taste, flavour, whet, relish,
or gusturn], the infamous sect of assassins formed in Persia and
Syria in the llth century, who used to intoxicate the fedavi, or
" devoted ones," before sending them forth on their murderous
24 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
errands, with hashish. The phrase " to run amuck " [Pope]
comes similarly from the amuki of Malabar, young men. among the
Nairs, " devoted " to defend the King's life by their own [Yule,
" Marco Polo," ii. 284], through the a-rmik of the Malays, who
under the influence of Opium sometimes become so wild that they
rush forth into the streets, yelling " a-muk ! a-muk /" and stabbing
at all they meet.
The phrase, "Open Sesame!" is from the Indian Oil Seed, til,
or Sesamum indicum, the cultivation of which was carried in
the earliest ages into Mesopotamia and Egypt, where it became
known under the name of Semsen ; and " Open Sesame !" is
equivalent to " Bring in the candles," " Light the gas ;" bring
light, which opens everything, which neither wheat nor barley
could give Cassim Baba, but only the Oil Seed Sesamum.
Several other exclusively Indian vegetable productions, or of
the Eastern Archipelago, are mentioned by the earliest Greek and
Latin writers on drugs, which, although not mentioned in the
Bible and Homer, it is desirable to enumerate on account of the
light which they throw upon the intimacy and antiquity of the
intercourse between Asia and Europe.
The CITRON, Citrus Medica, the pyXoy M&KOV of Theophrastus,
a native of the Himalayas, and cultivated apparently from
the time of the earliest Aryan settlements in Media, whence
it derives its Greek and specific scientific name. Media also
gives its name to Medic, or Lucerne grass, Medicago sativa,
which was introduced from Media into the Balkan peninsula
during the Persian invasions of Greece under Mardonius, and
Darius, and Xerxes ; as haryali grass, Cynodon Dactylon was
introduced by the British -Persian Expedition of 1856-57 from
India into Fars and Khusistan. Citrus wood, so extravagantly
prized by the Romans for furniture, is the Thyine wood, vXw
Outvov of the Book of the Revelation xviii, 12, the Callitrus quad-
rivalvis or jointed Arbor Vitce of botanists, which yields also the
resin Sandarach.
PEACHES and APRICOTS are natives of Persia. Apricots also
are wild throughout the central mountain range extending across
Asia from the Pacific to the Mediterranean, and reappear
along the Atlas Mountains on the shores of the Atlantic. The
JPeach is the pyKia. vfpa-iKy of Theophrastus and Dioscorides,
*and the Persica, whence Peach, of Pliny. The Apricot, the
//.TjXe'a a^evtax:^ of Dioscorides, and mains Armeniaca of Pliny, is
the ?r/>a</c/coK/a, and prcecocia, i.e., early Peach ; whence the Arabic
al-burquq, Spanish a Ibaricocque, Italian albicocco, French abricot,
and English Albricock (old form) and Apricot.
RUSOT, the Xvxiov btitKov of Dioscorides, is the extract of Berberis
L,ycium and B. aristata, both natives of the Himalayas. The
esteem in which it was held by the Greeks and Romans is shewn
by the classical vases which yet remain, in which Lycium was
kept, bearing the name of the seller of the extract.
IXDIGO, old English Indico, the Indicum of Pliny, and
i'y&iKov fia.yiK'w of Dioscorides, is the prepared juice of Indigofera
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 25
tinctoria, the Sanscrit name of which, nil, appears through the
Portuguese anil in " aniline."
GUM LAC and LAKE are thought to be mentioned by Ctesias.
Lac is the resinous exudation produced on certain Indian trees
by the Coccus Lacca or Lac insect, and Lake, the dye soaked
out of the resin, that is, soaked out of the female insect imbedded
in it. The name Lac has been given to it by the Hindus
because of the hundred thousand the multitude of these small
insects found in it, and from lac, a hundred thousand, thus come
Gum Lac, Lake, and Lacquer.
GUM DRAGON. This is certainly the Kivi/dfiapt; of Dioscorides
and Indian cinnabaris of Pliny. Dragon's Blood, or Gum Dragon,
is obtained from the Calamus Draco, one of the Rattan Palms
of the Eastern Archipelago, and Draccena Draco, a liliaceous
tree of the Canary Islands and Madeira ; and Pterocarpus Draco,
a leguminous tree of the same genus as the Indian Kino tree, is
believed to be the source of the Gum Dragon of Socotra, the dam-
ul-akhawcin of the Arabs. It was probably the Dragon's Blood
of the Canary Islands, which the Greeks and Romans knew, or first
knew, for we have complete evidence from the Periplus of the
Erythrean Sea that about the first century A.D., they knew also that
of Dioscorida, the classical name of Socotra, corrupted, as the name
Socotra also is, from the Sanscrit dvipa-sukadara, " the abode
of bliss," which, contracted into diuscatra, became Dioscorida
among the Greeks and Socotra among the Arabs. The pa.Ka.puv
vy, " the islands of the Blessed " of Greek fable, were supposed
to be somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, and when the Canary
Islands were discovered, the Romans at once named them the
Fortunate. Insulce. Also Pliny, Book xxix, ch. 8, distinguishes
it as Indian Cinnabar, when he speaks of the fatal mistakes often
made by physicians in giving " cinnabaris nativa" or "minium"
for it to their unfortunate patients. This reference has been
altogether overlooked by those who deny that the Greeks and
Romans knew the Gum Dragon of the eastern trade. From
miniaria, Minium mines, comes the word mine itself.
CASTOR OIL. The plant is the /o'*< of Herodotus and Dioscorides,
and Kffjiuv of Hippocrates, Theophrastus, and Dioscorides ; supposed
also by some to be the kikayon " Jonah's Gourd " of the Bible,
and hence called Palma Christi. St. Jerome and St. Augustine
are said to have disputed this identification so hotly that from
the force of argument they passed to the argument of force, and
actually exchanged blows on the subject. It is exclusively
indigenous to the East Indies.
BLACK PEPPER, exclusively indigenous to Travancore and
Malabar, the Sanscrit maricha, and Persian pilpil, the origin of
all its western synonyms. It is the TreVep* a-rpoyyvt.oy of Theo-
phrastus, the ire'irp jueXa-/ of Dioscorides, and piper of Pliny, and
Piper nigrum of botanists.
LONG PEPPER, Charica Roxburghii, a native of the Eastern
Archipelago, is the irewepi paxpov of Dioscorides and piper longum
of Pliny.
CUBEBS, the berries of Piper Cubeba, a native of the Eastern
Archipelago, is thought by some to be the y.\>p*'&y.vvj of Hippo-
H22. c
26 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
crates ; but the first who unequivocally mention it are Masudi of
Baghdad, about A.D. 915-920, and Edrisi about A.D. 1153. It
was used as a spice down to the middle ages "but the importation
" had long ceased, when its medicinal uses became known during
" the British occupation of Java." [Yule. " Marco Polo," ii. 326.]
CARDAMOMS also are first unequivocally mentioned by Edrisi.
Theophrastus and Dioscorides both mention a Myfttyuywy, and
Dioscorides an af/Mfuv, and Pliny an amormtm and a cardamomum,
but it is impossible to distinguish what they mean. There must
needs be great confusion, unless their natural characters are very
marked, in identifying the numerous pungent berries and dried
buds in use in India as condiments, many of which are seldom seen
in commerce, as Cassia buds, nagkiser, the flower buds of Calysac-
cion longiflorum, tejbul, the seeds of Xanthoxyon hastile, and many
others ; and Pliny always makes any confusion more confounded,
from his habit apparently of leaving hired clerks to compile his
extracts from previous writers, just in the all-devouring, lazy,
and uncritical way in which I have seen learned Hindus con-
ducting their philological and antiquarian researches.
CLOVES were certainly known to the Greeks and Romans.
They are the dried flower buds of the myrtle bloom Eugenia
Caryophyllata, a native exclusively of the Moluccas, and are
without doubt the garyophyllon of Pliny and Ka,pvofv\Kov [etymolo-
gically "nut-leaf,"] of Cosmas Indicopleustes and Paulus JEgineta,
A.D. 600 700, although Sprengel says they are first mentioned
by Simeon Seth, A.D. 1000-1100. The passage in Pliny is, " est
" etiamnum in India piperis grani simile, quod vocatur garyo-
" phyllon, grandius, fragiliusque .... advehitur odoris gratia."
The objection is that the clove is not larger than a peppercorn
but longer. But both Cicero and Juvenal use the words grandis
epistolaim a long letter; and the Indian Bazaar Fonanee, i.e.,
Greek synonym, for Cloves, is kurphyllon.
TURMERIC, Curcuma longa, is the Kfattfo*; *VS</co? of Dioscorides
and " Cypria herba indica " of Pliny.
GINGER, Zingiber officinale, is the fyyyiftipt; of Dioscorides
and zingiber of Pliny, derived through the Arabic or Persian
zingibil from the Sanscrit sringavera.
SWEET FLAG, the root of Acorns Calamus, a plant indigenous
to all the countries of the north temperate zone, or Cestus belt, in
the old world and new, is the aKopov of Dioscorides, the Arabic
akaron, and from the earliest times a medicine of great fame in
India, under the Sanscrit name of vaka, and Hindi bach. The
/caXajwo? apu^siTiKoi; of Dioscorides, and /ca/.aus? of Theophrastus,
and " calamus " and " sweet cane " of the Bible, formerly identified
with the Sweet Flag, were identified by Royle, as already stated,
with the Indian Roosa-Grass, Andropogon Calamus aromaticus.
SALEP, the tubers of several species of Orchis, natives of
Central Europe and the slopes of the Taurus, Caucasus. Hindu
Kush, and Himalayan mountains, which, through the influence
of the doctrine of signatures, have ever held a fabulous reputation
throughout the East for their restorative virtues ; and that this
reputation was extended at a very early age from the East to the
West we have sufficient testimony in the name they bear.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUET. 27
RHUBAKB is the pa or ffiw mentioned by Dioscorides as brought
from beyond the Bosphorus, and the rachoma of Pliny, which
he says was brought from beyond Pontus. It is a native of south-
eastern Thibet and the western and north-western frontiers of
China, and is said to be mentioned by Chinese writers B.C. 2700 !
The Eha, which came into Europe by the ancient caravan routes
from Northern China by Bokhara and Asia Minor, was naturally
called Rha-ponticum, and that by Russia and the Danube Rha-
barbarum. The designations Turkey, Russian, East Indian,
Canton Rhubarb merely indicate the commercial channels through
which Rhubarb has been derived in modern times. It is a good
illustration of the obstructions which are still put in the way of
the trade of India with Thibet and Western China, that if the
Viceroy and Governour-General needs a Rhubarb pill, instead of
getting it at once through the Himalayan passes, he receives it
round about by way of Kiachta, St. Petersburg, London, and the
Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The Rhubarb now obtained from
Haukau is the root of Rheum officinale, of Baillon, a native of
Mongolia, but undoubtedly the true plant, the source of the best
Turkey, or Russian, Muscovite or Kiachta Rhubarb, is Rheum
palmatum, the Sharo-moto of the Mongols, and Djemtsa of the
Tangutans
The writer of the Book of Job (circa B.C. 1500) ch. xxviii,
15-19, mentions silver and gold, "the precious onyx," the sap-
phire, rubies, coral, pearls, " the topaz of Ethiopia," and in xxxix,
13, "the goodly wings of the peacock, and ostrich feathers."
True coral is undoubtedly here meant by ramoth, the Hebrew
word used also in Ezek. xxvii, 16, obtained from the Red Sea or
Persian Gulf; and true pearls (gabish), either of the Persian
Gulf or Ceylon. It is impossible to identify what is meant by
the words we have translated as rubies [Prov. iii, 15 ; viii, 11;
xxxi, 10 ; and Lament, iv, 7], and sapphires [Ex. xxiv, 10 ;
xxviii, 18 ; Ezek. xxviii, J3]. By sappir possibly Lapis Lazuli
is meant, found in many places in Central Asia, and particularly
in the mines at Lajward, in Badakshan, whence its several
names Lajwardi, Lazuli, L' Azure, and Azure ; called also Ultra-
marine, because brought into Europe from beyond the sea. The
rubies may be either of Ceylon or Balas rubies, which derive
their name from Badakshan, Balakhsh, Balas. [Yule's " Marco
Polo " 1, 149-52.] By sappir may also be meant Turquoises,
or Turques, as called in old times, from Turkey. Ostriches
are several times mentioned in the Bible by different Hebrew
names, often translated by " owl " in the English version, and
correctly by " ostriches" in Lament, iv, 3. In the above passage
from Job the Hebrew word renanim, translated " peacocks,"
should have been ostriches, and the word notseh, translated
" ostriches," should have been feathers " gavest thou goodly
feathers unto the ostriches." The peacocks mentioned in 1 Kings x,
22, and 2 Chron. ix, 21, along with ivory and apes, '.are true
Indian peacocks, as is proved by the Hebrew word used for
them, tuhhiyyim being identical with the Sanscrit word tokki for
peacocks. The Hebrew word tukhyyim has been also thought
C 2
28 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
to refer to Indian parrots, and whether this be so or not, the
singular tukki possibly reappears in \l/t-rra,Ko^ and a-maxi). The
Hebrew word koph here used for apes is also the Sanscrit kapi,
The gems on Aaron's breastplate enumerated in Ex. xxviii,
17-20, are in the English version named as the
Sardius, Topaz, Carbuncle,
Emerald, Sapphire, Diamond,
Ligure, Agate. Amethyst,
Beryl, Onyx, and Jasper.
It would be vain to discuss their identity, and in conuexion with
India it is only necessary to say that the diamond, which in the
old world is exclusively an Indian production, cannot be the
stone meant by the Hebrew yahalom [see also Ex. xxxix., 11 ;
Ezek. xxviii, 13] and shamar translated "diamond" in Jer. xvii, 1 ;
for the diamond was not known in the Mediterranean countries
until after the invasion of India by Alexander the Great."
Iron is frequently mentioned in the Bible under the Hebrew
name of paldah, which is the Arabic fulad, and indicates
Indian iron. Tin is also mentioned, but it is impossible to say
from its Hebrew name \jbedil, Numbers xxxi., 22 ; Ezek. xxvii.,
12 ; Zech. iv., 10 ; Isiah i., 25], whether the tin of the Eastern
Archipelago or of Spain and Cornwall is meant. But Homer
mentions tin, by its Sanscrit name, kastira, /cartr/repo? [II. xi.,
25, 34; xviii., 474, 565, 574, 612; xx., 271; xxi., 592; and
xxiii., 503, 561]; and the Phoenicians, who first learned the name
from the trade through the Arabs with India, afterwards gave
the name of Cassiterides to the Scilly Islands and Cornwall,
where it still survives in Cassiter Street, Bodmin. Homer's
epfMiTa, r/j/yXijj'a /w.o,so>Ta [II. xiv., 183; Od. xviii., 298], " t ripple-
gemmed earrings " are supposed to be pearl earrings ; and Theo-
phrastus and the Latin writers call a pearl by its Sanscrit name,
maracata, or /xapyp/Tj? and margarita, whence the French
Marguerite, the Daisy, the pearl of green fields.
These facts prove the origin of the Indian trade with the West
to be pre-historic ; and it originated, through Persia, Media,
Mesopotamia, Syria, and Asia Minor, with the exodus of the
Aryan race from Central Asia. Probably all the main caravan
routes in Asia from China northwards through Russia into
Europe, and from India through Persia to the shores of the
Mediterranean, follow in the general lines of the original migra-
tions of the Aryan race westward, and of the yellow Turanian
race eastward and northward, in search of food and settlements.
The evidence we have of the slowness of the development of the
trade with India and the East also affords a proof of its pre-
historic age. The diamond was not known in Europe until after
Alexander's conquests, nor Chinese silks before the time of Julius
Caesar; and of the following remarkable Indian or Eastern natural
productions the greater part were first introduced into Europe by
the Saracens.
ORANGES and LEMONS. The Orange is derived from the wild
Citrus Aurantium, a native of Gunvhal, Sikkim, and Khasia,
and Ihe T,emon, Lime, and probably Citron also from the wild
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 29
Citrus Limonum, a native of Sikkim and Kumaon. The word
Orange is simply the Sanscrit narunga, Hindi narungi, and
Arabic narung ; and Lemon, the Sanscrit nimbuka, Hindi nimbu
and limbie, and Arabic limun. The Persian and Arabian
writers on drugs derive the Persian and Arabic names for the
Citron, uturuj and turunj, from the Syriac atrogha.
PLANTAINS, Musa Paradisiaca, have nothing to do with Musa
the physician of Augustus, or the Muses, the generic name
Musa being simply the Arabic muza, taste.
The NUTMEG, Myristica fragrans, a native of the Moluccas,
and MACE, derived from its kernel, were both unknown to the
ancients; and Nutmeg is first unequivocally mentioned by
Masudi, who visited India A.D. 916-920.
GAMBOGE, the gum resin of Garcinia Morella, a native of
Cambogia, Siam, Cochin China, and Southern India, and Ceylon,
was first introduced into Europe by the East India Company,
1615, from Cambogia. G. pictoria, and G. Travancorica, both of
Southern India, also yield good Gamboge.
GAMBIER and CATECHU, Terra Japonica, were introduced
into European commerce during last century. Gambier is the
extract of the leaves of Nauclea Gambir, and Catechu or Cutch
of the wood of Acacia Catechu, and kernels of Areca Catechu,
and this substance is generally called Terra Japonica from its
once being supposed to be Japan earth.
GUM BENJAMIN, or BENZOIN, the resin of Styrax Benzoin, of
Java, Sumatra, and Siain, is first mentioned by Ibn Batuta,
A.D. 1325-49, under the name of luban djawi (Java Olibanum,
or Frankincense), given to it by the Arab traders, and of which
Benjamin and Benzoin are corruptions.
ROSE MALLOES, the Liquid Storax of Liquidambar Altingia, a
magnificent tree of the Eastern Archipelago, derives its English
name also from a corruption of the Javanese name, rasamala, of
this exquisite perfume. In the same way the Jackass Copal of
Zanzibar is so called from the Arabic shikasi, that is, " fresh,"
Copal, from the tree, which they thus distinguish from the infinitely
superior half-mineralised Copal which is dug out of the ground
once covered by extinct Copal forests.
CAMPHOR, produced from Cinnamomum Camphora, the Camphor
Laurel of China and Japan, and Dryabalanops aromatica a native
of the Eastern Archipelago, is first mentioned by Aetius,of Diarbekr,
A.D. 545, and derives its name from the Sanscrit karpura, through
the Arabic kafur. Aetius is also the first to mention Musk
unequivocally, and is thought to allude to Nutmegs by his nuces
Indicts.
WOOD OIL, or Gurjun Balsam, obtained from various species
of Dipterocarpus, natives of Chittagong, Tennaserim, Burma,
Siam, the Eastern Archipelago, the Philippine Islands, Andaman
Islands, and Ceylon, has only recently become an article of
commerce.
ELEMI, the resin of an unknown tree of the Philippines, was
formerly thought to be the etcufwt of the Greeks and enhcemon
of Pliny, a word from which undoubtedly the word Elemi is
30 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
derived, as also the word Anime. But the enhcemon of the
ancients Hanbury has identified with luban mcyeti, the lemon-
scented Frankincense yielded by Boswellia Frereana. Elemi is
also yielded by other trees, natives of America and elsewhere.
KINO, the gum of Pterocarpus Marsupium, of Southern India
and Ceylon, was first introduced into commerce within this
century by the East India Company. Butea Kino is the product
of Butea frondosa, the splendid palas tree of India, which gives
its name to the plain on which the battle of Plassy (palasi) was
fought.
SAPPAN, the wood of Ccesalpinia Sappan of the East Indies,
formerly known as Brazil wood, from the colour, braise, or hot
coals, of its wood. But when on the discovery of the Brazils
a similar dyewood was found there, the name of the Indian
wood was given to the new-found country and the new-found
dye, and the Indian wood is now called by one of its two
principal native names, the other being bakam. [Yule's " Marco
Polo," ii., 315-16.]
BONDUC NUTS, the seeds of C&sa/pinia Bonduc, are first
unequivocally mentioned by Ibn Baitar in the 13th century,
under the name of bunduk-hindi, or Indian Filberts. The
Saracens received filberts from Venice, and called them biinduk,
after Venice, and these seeds being like filberts they called them
also bunduk. Bullets and cross-bows, which they also received
from Venice, they also called bunduki, or Venetian, and to this day
bullets are called bindiJti in Egypt ; and the Hindi for a musket is
bunduk.
TAMARINDS, from the Arabic tamar hindi, Indian date, are
mentioned in the earliest Sanscrit writings, but among western
writers are first named by Avicenua, Serapion, and Mesue. The
tree Tamarindus Indica was once supposed to be exclusively a
native of India, but is now considered to be indigenous to Central
Africa also, where, however, it is not unlikely to have been
introduced by the Arab immigration.
CASSIA FISTULA, the fruit of Cathartocarpus Fistula, first
became known in Europe during the 13th century A.D.
SENNA, the leaf of Cassia acutifolia, and Cassia angustifolia,
the name of which is said to be derived from Mt. Sinai, was first
brought into medicinal use by the great Arabian physicians of
the 9th and 10th centuries A.D.
STAR ANISE, the fruit of lllicium anisatum of Yunan and the
south-western provinces of China, was first brought to England
by sea A.D. 1588. It had previously been brought into Europe
overland by way of Russia and was then called Cardamomum
Sibcriense. The fruit of /. religiosum is burnt as incense in the
temples of Japan, and its branches are laid on the graves of the
dead.
Cuscus or Vetti-ver, the aromatic fibrous roots of Andropogon
muricatus,\\sed for Cuscus tatties, or screens, which, kept watered,
diffuse a cool and fragrant perfume through Indian houses, and
for fans and other ornamental small wares, is not mentioned by
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN* COUBT. 31
any known writer. Cuscus is derived from the Persian Khas,
and Vetti-ver is the Malyalim name.
COCCCLUS INDICUS, the fruit of Anamirta Cocculus, is first
mentioned by Ruellius, A.D. 1536, under the name of Coccus
Orientis. It may be the meizeragi of the Arabs.
NDX VOMICA, the seed of Strychnos JYux-vomica, is first
unequivocally mentioned by Cordus A.D. 1540, although it has
been supposed also to be the drug called mechel by the Arab?,
and Nux vomica in the Latin translations of their works.
SAGO was first brought to Europe by Marco Polo.
SOAP BERRIES were first made generally known by the Dutch.
They are the drupes of several Indian species of Sapindus, which,
when bruised in hot water, form a detergent lather, which the
natives use for washing the hair and silk. It gives the hair a very
beautiful lustre. The ancients were not familiar with the use of
soap except as a pomade, and used instead a number of substances
from the mineral, vegetable, and even animal kingdom, and among
vegetables the plant called vrpudiov by the Greeks, and radicu/a,
and Herba lanaria by the Romans, and identified by some with
the Gysophila Struthium of botanists, and by others with the
Saponaria qfficinalis, both Cloveworts. The word " soap " in the
English version of the Bible is the equivalent of the Hebrew
borith, which is supposed to refer to the same plant as the a-T^Ow
of the Greeks.
TEA and COFFEE. Coffee was introduced into Europe at Venice
about 1615, at Marseilles 1641, London 1652, and Paris 1657.
In 1688, Ray observes that London might rival Grand Cairo in
the number of its coffee-houses. It was in use in Persia A.D. 875,
and Avicenna fully describes it circa A.D. 1000. Tea was intro-
duced into Europe at the end of the 16th and beginning of the
17th century A.D. It is first mentioned (except of course by the
Chinese) in an Arabian itinerary [Renaudot, " Anciennes Rela-
tions"] of the 9th century A.D.
SUGAR was introduced into general use in Europe by the Saracens,
and through the Crusades. It is incredible that it was not known
to the ancients, as Salmasius, Sprengel, and Fee maintain. They
knew honey and date sugar (thejaggeri of India) of course, but
Salmasius asserts that the (rdK^ap, araK^ce.^, or a-a/c^a^ai/, of the
Greeks and the Latin Saccharoa was not sugar but tabashir, the
silicious deposit found in the joints of Bamboos, " beyond all con-
troversy." One would think that Pliny's description left no room
for doubt, yet Salmasius by changing a comma alters its whole mean-
ing. Pliny says, " Saccharon et Arabia fert, sed laudatius India ,
" est autern mel in arundinibus collectum, gummiura modo candi-
" dum, dentibus fragile, amplissimum nucis avellanas magnitudine,
" ad medicinae tantum usum." But, says Salmasius, " Ita haecdis-
" tinguenda, collectum gummium modo, non ut est vulgo, gummium
" modo candldum. Haec omnia prorsum quadrant in tabascir, vel
" saccharum mambu."
Dioscorides says that c-a'^a/jov is a concrete honey, found in
reeds in India and Arabia, in consistence like salt, and brittle
between the teeth like salt, and dissolved in water it is agreeable
32 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
to the stomach. It is absurd to suppose that Dioscorides'
description can apply to flint stones like Tabashir, or to any-
thing but sugar : or Lucan's [A.D. 65] well known line
Quique bibunt tenera dulces ab arundine succos,
to anything but the Sugar Cane. The Bamboo is certainly not a
" tenera arundo." It is evident, however, that it was very little
known to the ancients, and that Pliny, copying transparently
from Dioscorides, probably confused it with Tabashir, as he con-
fuses the peach (Persica) with the Persea. I would place a full
stop after " India," as if Pliny, on mentioning sugar, at once
dismissed a subject so familiar through date sugar and honey,
and then went on to describe in detail so unfamiliar a substance as
Tabashir Est autem mel, &c.
Besides, all the European names for sugar are derived from the
Sanscrit sharkara through the Arabic shakar, the Hindu name
of sugar, but in no language in India of tabashir. Yet the
popular names in India for sugar are for the coarser kinds ckini,
that is Chinese, and for the finer misri, that is Egyptian. Un-
doubtedly sugar was made from time immemorial in India, but
probably not in a perfected state, but in the form of gula, by
which Hindu name sugar is known throughout the Indian Archi-
pelago. The Arabs are known to have first taught the Chinese
to crystallise sugar, and they themselves carried its refining in
Egypt, in the middle ages, to great perfection. The first un-
deniable mention of sugar by western writers is by Moses
Choronensis in the 5th century A.D. : but if, in spite of the argu-
ments of Salmasius, we accept the conclusion of common sense that
the Greeks and Romans really knew cane sugar, we shall at once
recognise much earlier allusions to it than even the descriptions of
Pliny and Dioscorides. Nearchus, quoted by Strabo [xv. 1, 20],
says that in India " reeds yield honey, although there are no bees."
Eratosthenes, also quoted by Strabo, speaking of the plants of India,
says : " The roots of plants, particularly of large reeds, possess a
" sweetness which they have by nature and by coction ; for the
" water both from rains and rivers is warmed by the sun's rays."
Varro also, B.C. 68, a writer on agricultural and rustic subjects,
in a fragment preserved by Isidorus, evidently alludes to cane
sugar. Arrian, in the " Periplus of the Red Sea," enumerates
amongst the imports at Opone, one of the East African ports,
" honey in reeds, called saccharon." JElian, about the same time
in his Natural History of Animals, speaks of a kind of honey,
which was pressed from reeds that grew among the Prasii, a people
that lived near the Ganges. Alexander Aphrodisiensis, A.D.
212, says, " that what the Indians call sugar, was a concretion of
" honey in reeds, resembling grains of salt, of a white colour, and
" brittle." This is simply the description of Dioscorides, which,
while it confirms the conclusion that Dioscorides knew cane sugar,
proves also that even down to the third century A.D. it was still
very little known. Moses of Chorene, [Geogr. p. 364] describes
the sugar cane as he saw it growing in his time on the banks of
the Euphrates. The next mention of sugar is by the Arab writers,
Abusadi in the ninth century, quoted by Renandot, Abulfeda,
HANDBOOK TO THE 1NDIAX COUKT. 315
Edresi, and Ebu Alvam of Cordova, quoted by Sprengel ; and by
tlie historians of the Crusades. They found the plant every-
where in Syria, Sicily, and Africa, (introduced by the Arabs), and
describe it under the name of Cannamcles and CaUamelum.
About A.D. 1420, the Portugese carried the cultivation of the
cane from Sicily, to Madeira, and the Spaniards shortly afterwards
to the Cansiry Islands. In 1506 it was carried to St. Domingo.
The Dutch first introduced the manufacture of sugar into Brazil.
The English did not make it at Barbadoes until 1663. Thus the
Arabs spread its cultivation and manufacture throughout the Medi-
teranean countries, and the Spaniards, Portugese, Dutch, English,
and French throughout tropical America. Sugar-candy is the
Arab shakarkhand, and Barley sugar the French Sucre brule.
Caramel is said to be derived from carob-sugar [Ceratonia Siliqita,
Algaroba bean, or St. John's Bread, Locust], medieval writers
enumerating three kinds of sugar, mcle cli ape, melc di canna,
and Hide di carrubo. But possibly Caramel is really a corruption
cf Cmmameles.
We often see the Aloe, Cactus, Maize, and even the Pine-
apple, introduced by artists in their pictures of ancient life and
history. They are all American plants. The ancients of course
knew only the Aloes of Socotra, which is produced by a very
different species from the American Aloe, always figured by these
artists, simply because it has spread in modern times with the
Cactus and Maize all through the Mediterranean countries and
India. Tobacco and Chilies, the Earth-nut, Cashew-nut, Guava,
and Custard apples now found everywhere in India, and popularly
supposed to be natives of India, are also all natives of America.
Most of them were introduced by the Portuguese, who with the
Arabs must rank amongst the greatest benefactors of mankind, in
diffusing the fruits and grains of different countries throughout
the world. India and Africa owe the Maize and Tapioca entirely
to the Portuguese. The introduction of the Custard apple in the
Ajunta Cave paintings is an extraordinary example of anachro-
nisms in pictures. These paintings are, I believe, dated by Mr.
Fergusson not later than the 7th or 8th century A.D. The
Custard apple could not have been introduced into India until
the beginning of the 16th century A.D., yet the fruit represented
in the paintings is undoubtedly the Custard apple, and it is re-
presented over and over again. The probable solution of the
enigma is that it is a misrepresentation of the Jack fruit \_Arto-
carpus intcgrifolia], which is so profusely portrayed on the
Bharhut sculptures.
There is an unidentified fruit represented on the sculptures of
Assyria which has been conjectured to be the Pine-apple. It is
figured in Kawlinson's "Ancient Monarchies," Ed. 1864, vol. ii.
912. Whatever it may be, it certainly cannot be the Pine-apple,
which has not been known in the old world for more than a
century. I believe it to be a branch of dates conventionally repre-
sented, as on the date Horn.
The persistence of the classical names of vegetable produc-
tions, derived through the Arabian writers, in the East is most
34
PAE18 UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
remarkable. In the most outland
bazaars of Western India
we find :
Opium
under the
name of ufium.
Cherries -
jirasya.
Liquorice -
asalasus.
Caraways -
i
carwiya.
Cumin
,, kimun.
Camomile, [a'y0e ( <x.iY]
at n a m is.
Maudragora
,, mirdangiya.
Hyssop
.
zz/? yiabas.
Lavandula Stcechas
t
tistakhudas.
Salvia
>
salbia.
Plantago, f\J<^XXwy]
>t
fusliun.
Laurel, [Sofvv;]
u
//.
Mezereum
maziryun.
Hemp, [icawa3u] -
}
,, kinnub.
Scolopendrium
j
iskuiikundriun.
Dryopteris
>
,, dunditaras.
Pteris
sarkhas and bitaras.
Polypodium
i
,, bulukinbun.
Polytrichum
3)
bulutingin.
In Bombay the name ircT/joo-eXjvoy has been transferred from Parsley
to the seeds of Pangros pabularia.Jiturasulium, but in Bengal the
native butlers still call Parsley Peter-silly, but through the Dutch,
not the Arabs. Sometimes in the case of substances having two
Latin or Greek names, one is corrupted and the other translated.
Thus, Behen album becomes safaid bah/nan, White Behen, and
Behen rubrum, Lal-bahman, Red Behen, and literally white and
red Brahmin. These surprises, of daily, of almost hourly occur-
rence, make one of the charms of life in India.
The Vine, Pomegranate, and Soma, although not directly con-
nected with the development of the Indian trade, are three
famous Eastern plants, the history of which cannot be overlooked
in noticing a collection of Indian vegetable productions. The
Pomegranate, the Punica Granatum of botanists, is a native of
North-western India, whence it was carried by the earliest Aryan
emigrations into Media and Syria, and afterwards by the Phoeni-
cians and Carthaginians, from whom its Latin name, Punica
Granatuai t was derived, just as the Greek and Latin name of the
Date Palm, f omf. Phoenix, was derived from the Phoenicians, into
all the countries of the Mediterranean. Later the Saracens and
the Portuguese naturalised it throughout the northern sub-tropical
zone in the old world and the new. It is constantly represented
on the sculptures of Assyria and Egypt, with grapes and peaches,
and is frequently mentioned in the Bible [Ex. xxviii. 33, 34 ;
xxxix. 24-26 ; Numb. xiii. 23 ; xx. 5 ; Deut. viii. 8 ; 1 Kings,
vii. 18; Song of Sol. iv. 3, 13 ;], its Hebrew name being rimmon.
from which the Arabic rumman is derived, and the name also of
several places in Palestine. Rhodes derives its name from ptiw,
the ancient Greek name of the flower, afterwards called jSaXavVrjsy.
Its vermilion blossoms, and handsome fruit, were sacred to Venus,
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 35
and to the Syrian God Rimmon. The Vine [Gen. ix. 20 ; Numb,
xiii. 23 ; Song of Sol. i. 14 ; Isa. xvi. 8-10; Jer. xlviii. 32, 33 ;
Ezek. xxvii. 18 ; Hos. xiv. 7] is indigenous to the Caucasus, from
the slopes of which it must have spread with the migrations of the
Semitic and Aryan races into all the dry, serene countries of the
Mediterranean Sea, the lands of the Almond and Fig, Cypress and
Pomegranate,
" Where the pale Citrons grow,
The golden fruits in darker foliage glow,
Soft blows the wind that breathes from that blue sky,
Still stands the Laurel and the Myrtle high."
The Soma, Sarcostigma brevistigma, the renowned som of the
Vedas, and horn of the Zendavesta, is indigenous to the Punjab
and Bolan pass, Candeish, and the Ghats of Western India and
Coromandel coast; and from the sacred rites and rejoicings which
accompanied the drinking of its fermented sap in Vedic times,
and which are still celebrated among the Brahmins of India, it
evidently was the first intoxicant discovered by the Aryan race.
The division between the Indian and Persian Aryas was the
result of a dispute over the use of sow a as a religious service,
particularly in the ceremony which symbolised the intoxication of
the Gods, which the Persians resolutely resisted. In the Caucasus
mountains and Armenia the use of soma gradually passed into the
use of wine [Gen. ix. 21], a fact which suggests an explanation
of the Indian origin of Bacchus, and of the Dionysiac rites of
ancient Greece. In the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, the
sap of the Date palm, particularly, was substituted for that of the
som, or horn, as an intoxicating drink. There is a verse in the Rig
Veda, ix., celebrating the virtues of soma, a finer Bacchic burst
than is to be met with among the most enthusiastic of the poets
who have sung of Wine : " The purifying soma, like the sea,
" rolling its waves through my heart, has poured forth songs, and
" hymns, and praise."
36 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 I
THE ROUTES OF INDIAN COMMERCE.
The Caravan Routes.
The earliest trade between the East and West was carried on
by caravans, and, long after the sea routes by the Red Sea and Per-
sian Gulf began to be used, the land trade continued to be more
important than the sea-borne. The earliest of these caravan
routes were those between Egypt, Arabia, and Assyria, and the
first notices we have of them are in the Bible. In Gen. ii. 11,42,
we are told, of the land of Havilah, that there was gold there, and
bdellium and the onyx stone. Havilah is in Arabia Felix to the
north of Ophir, and the passage simply indicates the route through
which the Bdellium or Musk of India was received in Egypt in
the time of Moses. The passage, Psalm xlv. 8, " All thy gar-
" inents smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces,
" whereby they have made thee glad," is generally supposed to
allude to the tablets and alabastra, or scent bottles, in which per-
fumes were kept in ancient times. But it may also be translated
' Out of the ivory palaces of the Minaeans," a people of Arabia
Felix, who, like their neighbours, the Sabsoans, and the Gerrhseans
on the Persian Gulf, were the chief carriers of the Indian trade,
and renowned in all ancient times for their fabulous opulence and
luxury. In Gen. xxxvii. 25, we read that the sons of Israel
sat down in Dothan to eat bread, " and they lifted up their eyes,
" and looked, and behold a company of Ishmaelites came from
" Gilead with their camels, bearing spicery (Gum Tragacanth),
" and balm (produced by Balsamodendron Opobalsamum and
" Gileadense), and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt," and
that as the " Midianites, merchantmen " passed by, " his brethren "
" sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites," who were probably travelling
by the immemorial caravan route, through Canaan and Edom and
Midian, from Chaldaea into Egypt, the route by which Israel after-
wards sent his sons into Egypt with balm and honey, spices and
myrrh, nuts and almonds, for a present to " the man," their brother,
who was now Governor over the land. Many beautiful and sublime
scripture images are taken from this trade, as in Isaiah Ixiii. 1,
" Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from
Bozrah ? " and in the Song of Solomon iii. 6, " Who is this
" that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, per-
" fumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of
" the merchant ? * * * they all hold swords, being expert
" in war, every man hath his sword upon his thigh, because of
" fear in the night ; " passages giving also a vivid picture of a
Mecca caravan of the present day, and of the dangers besetting
it, with its rich merchandise of China, India, and Persia.
As we learn from the account of the wars, both of Moses and
of Gideon with the Midianites, they were a very wealthy Arab
people, living partly by predatory incursions into the neighbour-
ing territories, and partly by carrying on a caravan trade, across
HANDBOOK TO THE IXDIAX COUKT. 37
the intervening deserts, with the powerful states of Egypt and
Chaldsea.
There was an immemorial commerce between India and the
nations of the Mediterranean, and of the three principal routes
it in different ages followed, thai by Kirman, Gerrha, and
Petra was probably the oldest of all. There was no other route
between India and Europe where so small a space of sea had to
be traversed, and the coast of Arabia is visible over the Straits of
Ormuz from Kirman. The produce of India came to Kirman
and Ormuz, and was thence carried across the Persian Gulf to
Gerrha, the emporium of the pearl fishery still carried on among
the Bahrein islands, the ancient Tylos and Aradus, which, with
Muscat, were the original seats of those seafaring Arabs, who
afterwards established themselves in Phoenicia, and carried their
settlements from port to port along the eastern, southern, and
western shores of the Mediterranean from Tyre and Sidon to the
coasts of Mauretania, and Andalusia. The Indian caravan routes
extended across the peninsula from Masalia, now Masulipatam, by
Tagara, now Dowlatabad (Deoghir),and Barygaza, now Baroach, to
Puttala, now Tatta, on the Indus. Pattala was in communication
with the great port of Barbarike, at the mouth of the Indus, and
with Taxila in the Punjab, the Takhsasila of the Hindus, and
evidently represented by the vast ruins surrounding the modern
Manikyala. It was near this city that Alexander crossed the
Indus, at the ford where the Emperor Akbar, A.D. 1581, built the
fortress of Attock, "the Limit" or "Barrier;" and it was a place
of great importance, as the point at which all the caravan routes in
India and leading into India converged : for the route from Pattala
was here joined by one from Palibothra, the modern Patna, the
continuation of a line from China across the Himalayas ; and
here, also, the different lines from Seres or China, through the
Cashmere valley, and from Sarmatia [now Russia], Media, and
Mesopotamia, through the Bamiau and ivyber passes first entered
India. There was another route from Carmania (Kirman) through
the Bolan pass, connected with the route between Taxila and
Pattala. The Indian caravan traders appear to have known nine
routes through Afghanistan and Baluchistan to Herat and Can-
dahar, where they fell in with the roads leading to Ecbatana, or to
Persepolis and Shushan, according as their destination was the
northern portion of Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, or the southern.
Besides Barbarike, Barygaza, Musiris and Masalia became great
places of export, when once the sea was opened to the trade
of India.
The caravan trade which the Arabian merchants of Gerrha and
Sabaa collected at Petra, the Edomites, orIdumaeans,orXabata3ans,
as they are later called, carried thence into Egypt and Canaan,
and the Phoenician Arabs distributed round the shores of the
Mediterranean. Their chief cities, Sidon and Tyre and Tarsus,
rapidly became great. Sidon and Tarsus must have first risen
into notice. Homer does not mention Tyre, but he constantly
alludes to, and describes the metal work, jewelry, and other art
wares of Sidon [II. vi. 290-291 ; xxiii. 743 ; 6d. iv. 84, 618 ;
xiii. 285; xv. 118, 424.] In the xvi. Book of the Odyssey he
38 PAKIS UK1VEKSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
gives an exact description, of inestimable value, of the first meet-
ings of the Greek farmers with the Phoenician merchants on the
coasts and among the islands of ancient Greece ; and of the manner
in which the Phoenicians conducted their early trade in the ^Egean
Sea.
" Freighted, it seems, with toys of every sort,
A ship of Sidon anchored in our port,
What time it chanced the palace entertained,
Skilled in rich works, a woman of their land.
* * * * #
A. year they traffick, and a year they load.
Their stores complete, and ready now to weigh,
A spy was sent their summons to convey."
" An artist to my father's palace came
With gold and amber chains, elaborate frame :
Each female eye the glittering links employ,
They turn, review, and cheapen every toy.
He took the occasion, as they stood intent,
Gave her the sign and to his vessel went.
She straight pursued, and seized my willing arm ;
I follow'd, smiling, innocent of harm.
* * * * *
Arriving then, where tilting on the tides,
Prepar'd to launch, the freighted vessel rides,
Aboard they heave us, mount their decks, and sweep
With level oar along the glassy deep."
The rape of lo by the Phoenicians, those of Europa and Medea
by the Greeks, and that of Helen in the next generation, all
clearly shew that from the beginning the famous merchant princes
of Tyre and Sidon were notorious among their neighbours for
piracy. The prophet Joel, in the 8th cent. B.C., the great period
of the maritime ascendency of the Phoenicians in the Medi-
terranean, long before Herodotus, and only a little later than
Homer, bears testimony to the same fact, when [chap, iii., v. 3
to 8], in denouncing God's judgments against the enemies of
Judah and Jerusalem, he writes : " And they have cast lots for
" my people, and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl
" for wine that they might drink. Yea, and what have ye to do
" with me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coast of Palestine ?
it * * # The children also of Judah and Jerusalem have ye sold
" unto the Grecians, * * * and I will sell your sons and your
" daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they
" shall sell them to the Saboeans, to a people far off", for the Lord
" hath spoken it." This quotation proves also how greatly the
system of barter prevailed in this primitive commerce of the
Phoenicians and Greeks, a practice which Homer has described
with great minuteness, II. vii. 467-475 :
" And now the fleet, arrived from Lemnos sands,
With Bacchus' blessings cheer'd the generous bands.
Of fragrant wine the rich EuncBtis sent
A thousand measures to the royal tent ;
Eunoeus, whom Hypsipyle of yore
To Jason, shepherd of his people, bore.
The rest they purchas'd at their proper cost,
And well the plenteous freight supply'd the host :
Each, in exchange, proportioned treasures gave :
Some brass, or iron ; some an ox, or slave."
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUKT. 39
The Phoenicians of Tarsus finding abundance of wood close at
hand in Mount Taurus, the excellence of their ships gave them
for a long time the pre-eminence in the navigation of the Medi-
terranean, and passed into a proverb. This seems to be the
simple explanation of the expressions " ships of Tarshish " and
" navy of Tarshish " so often occurring in the Bible, which
still puzzle many people, who suppose that ships trading with
Tarshish in Spain are meant. Milton's picture of " a ship of
Tarsus " may be fitly hung beside Homer's of " a ship of Sidon :
" A stately ship
Of Tarsus, bound for th' isles
Of Javan or Gadire,
With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,
Sails fill'd, and streamers waving ;
An amber scent of odorous perfume
Her harbinger."
Homer's description of the first attempts of the Greeks to
trade^in the Mediterranean is another proof how commerce,
in its beginnings, is little better than piracy ; indeed it is
very slowly that men discover that it is more profitable to get what
they want by peaceful means than by violence and robbery and
war ; and still longer does it take them to. learn the value of
honest dealing in trade. In the xvii. Book of the Odyssey the
Greeks, who were not then so civilised as the Sidonians, are
described as running up the mouths of the Nile, landing, ravag-
ing the villages and towns of the Delta, within reach, and rapidly
retreating to their ships with their booty.
" By Egypt' s silver flood, our ships we moor ;
Our spies commission'd straight the coast explore,
But impotent of mind with lawless will
The country ravage, and the natives kill.
The spreading clamour to their city flies,
And horse and foot in mingled tumult rise.
*****
Jove thunder 5 d on their side : our guilty head
We turn'd to flight."
Thus the Greeks began, as the Arabs before them, plundering
where they dared, and, where this was impossible, trafficking, until
they were gradually changed from wandering pirates into wealthy
merchants, and public-spirited and patriotic citizens, and Athens
became the mother of arts and eloquence.
Four hundred years after the time of Homer, Miletus, the
Queen of the Ionian cities, had become the rival of Tyre,
and with her colonies at Cyzicus, Sinope, Tanais, Olbia, and
Miletopolis, the modern Cherson. monopolised the Asiatic trade
through Asia Minor and the Black Sea. Though Miletus was
destroyed on the suppression of the Ionian revolt, it rapidly
regained a considerable portion of its old importance, until the
conquests of Alexander the Great and the foundation of
Alexandria, ruined its commerce for ever.
The Persian Gulf Route"
The first reference we have to the trade by the Persian
Gulf is in the Bible, in 2 Chron. viii. 4, where it is written
40 PABIs LTaVEBSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
that Solomon built "Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the
" store cities which he built in Hamaih," by which he hoped
to divert a portion of the Persian Gulf trade to Jerusalem.
It was through this trade that Nineveh and Babylon, Seleucia,
Ctesiphon, Al Modayn, Bussora, and Baghdad, in succession,
rose to empire in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates : and it
was this trade which chiefly contributed to the power of Tyre
when at the height of her greatness and fame. From the
cities of the Tigris and Euphrates, the produce of China, India,
Persia, and Arabia, was carried by Tadmor and by Hamath
and Damascus, into Canaan, and Edom, and Egypt. This line
supplied also Tyre and Sidon, to which there was a more
northerly route also by Emesa and Heliopolis or Baalbec.
Another line led north-west by Chalcis and Beraaa, and through
the valley of the Orontes to Haleb, or Aleppo, and Antioch,
and Seleucia, now Suadeia, and thence, over Mount Taurus
through Asia Minor, to the cities on the Ionian coast. These
were also in communication with Assyria by a more easterly
route, connected with that leading between the Black Sea and
the Caspian Sea, over the Caucasus into Sarmatia, which again
was quite distinct from that leading from Sarmatia beyond the
Sea of Aral to Bactriana and India. The trade of Tyre is de-
scribed by Ezekiel with the greatest accuracy, and is the
fullest account we possess of the commerce of the old world
about B.C. 600. Tyre is represented, in chapter xxvi., as
rejoicing against Jerusalem. " Aha, she is broken that was
the gates of the people, she is turned unto me: I shall be
replenished now she is laid waste." " Therefore," says Ezekiel,
thus saith the Lord God ; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus,
and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the
sea causeth his waves to come up, and they shall destroy
the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers. I will also
scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of
the sea :" and then, in the next chapter, the prophet goes on to
describe the trade of Tyre, a description which freshens one in
reading it like a walk in the face of the sea breeze on the
Cannebiere, among the shipping round the old port of Marseilles.
Among other imports are enumerated ivory, and ebony,
" emeralds," purple, and broidered work, fine linen, and coral,
and agate, bright iron, cassia, and calamus, precious cloths for
chariots, precious stones and gold : and Haran, and Cauneh, and
Eden (Aden); the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Cliilmad were
her merchants " in all sorts of things, in blue clothes and broi-
" dered works, and in chests of rich apparel bound with cords,
" and made of cedar, among thy merchandise." This is completely
an Indian trade, as is still more clearly seen in the literal
translation of the chapter by Michaelis. The trade of Babylon, as
described in the Book of the Revelation, ch. xviii, about A.D. 100,
is the same trade still between Bombay, the Persian Gulf, and East
African coast " the merchandise of gold and silver, and precious
' stones, and of pearl?, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIA* COURT. 41
" scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner of vessels of ivory,
" and all manner of vessels of most precious wood, and of brass,
" and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments,
" and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat,
" and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves."
After the destruction of Tyre and Jerusalem by Nebuchad-
nezzar, and the subjugation of Egypt by Cambyses, Babylon
monopolised the trade of India ; but, when the Medo-Babylonian
Empire was overthrown by Cyrus, the trade returned to Tyre, and
Tyre again rose to greatness, until a second time destroyed by
Alexander ; and again, through the encouragement of the Euphrates
valley trade by the Seleucidas the Parthian Arsacidce, and Persian
Sassanidae, and of the Red Sea trade by the Ptolemies, Tyre
recovered itself, until destroyed a third time by the Crusaders
A.D. 1 124. Babylon was succeeded by Seleucia under the
Seleucidoe, and by Ctesiphon under the Parthians, and Al-
Modayu, as the twin cities were now called, under the Sassanidae.
Abulfeda's account of the sack of Al-Modayn by the Saracens
simply repeats the account given in the Book of the Revelation
of the merchandise of Babylon, purple, and royal apparel, and
broidered garments, costly furniture, and hangings, and carpets,
silk, and precious stones, and gold, and silver, and camphor,
and frankincense, and spices. Under the Saracens, Bussora,
founded by the Caliph Omar, A.D. 635, and Baghdad, founded
by Al Mansoui', about A.D. 762, almost rivalled the fame of
Babylon and Nineveh. When the Caliphs fell, these towns
were repeatedly taken and retaken by the Turks and Persians
and gradually fell into decay ; and when the Portuguese occupied
Ormuz A.D. 1508, the Persian Gulf Indo-European transit
trade was finally extinguished. But, by this route, India had
been in communication with Europe for more than three
thousand years, and through the Greek colonies on the Ionian
coast and the Milesian colonies in the Black Sea, their inter-
course by the Persian Gulf was far more close and continuous
than by the Red Sea ; and from the time of the Persian invasions
of Greece and Alexander's conquests, to the first attacks of the
Saracens on the Eastern Empire, the intercourse between Europe
and India, through Egypt, through Syria and Mesopotamia, and
through Asia Minor, and by Bayazid through Persia, was most
intimate and familiar. The importance of the Persian Gulf route
in ancient times is very significantly shewn by the fact that the
Greeks and Romans should have continued, even after the voyage
of Scylax, and down to the time of Ptolemy Euergetes and
Claudius Cassar, to believe that by sea India could be reached only
by way of the Euphrates valley and Persian Gulf. Its importance
is not understood so fully in Europe as in India. From Europe India
seems far off indeed, but Europe appears much closer from India, as,
in fact, the next peninsula beyond Arabia ; the valley of Meso-
potamia seems, through the Straits of Ormuz, to be at the very
doors of India ; and it is felt, that in a commercial, political, and
aesthetical sense, the Tigris and Euphrates flow into Bombay
Harbour and the other ports of Western India. We shall never
H22. D
42 PAKIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
understand the arts of India properly if we overlook these patent
physical and historical facts, which have become obscured only
through the Portuguese discovery of the Cape route, and the
neglect of the Tigris and Euphrates valley route under Turkish rule.
The Armenians, moreover, continued the local trade they had
always carried on, from the earliest ages, between Persia and
India ; and at present there are not less than five thousand
Armenians, in India, engaged in this trade.
The Red Sea Route.
The earliest notices of the Ked Sea route are in the Bible,
1 Kings, ix. 26-28 : " And King Solomon made a navy of ships in
" Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea r
" in the land of Edom ; and Hiram sent in the navy his servants,
" shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of
" Solomon ; and they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence
gold." And 1 Kings, x. 11, 22: "And the navy also of
Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir
great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones." " Once in
three years came the navy of Tarshish (as we might say, ' the
Indiamen '), bringing gold and silver, and ivory, and apes and
peacocks." In 2 Chron. ii. 8 ; viii. 17, 18 ; andix. 10, 11, 21, we
have similar notices of this trade. The ships of Solomon and
Hiram did not sail direct to India ; it was a thousand years more
before the Arabians first learned to strike direct across the Indian
Ocean by the monsoons between India and Arabia.
Solomon and Hiram were nearly contemporary with Homer,
and we have seen from Homer that the Phoenician trade of the
Mediterranean was at that time a coasting trade, and how a year
was spent in one place trafficking and loading. Solomon's ships
would take a year in reaching Ophir, which is placed south of
Havilah, and in fact near Aden, and a year in trafficking and
loading there, with almug wood, and apes and peacocks from
India, and ivory from Africa, and gold, " the gold of Ophir " and
" Havilah," from Nubia, which derives its name from noub, gold,
and is " the Land of Gold," compassed by the River Gihon, or
Nile. Indian gold also was doubtless included in the gold of
Ophir, that is, transmitted by the merchants of Ophir, and even
in " the gold of Havilah," for it was celebrated from the earliest
times, and from its Sanskrit name sona comes the German and
English name of the sun. In India the moon is called ckand, and
silver chandi, and so with us nitrate of silver is "lunar caustic."
The "Gold of Parvaim" [2 Chron., iii. 6], with which Solomon's
Temple was " garnished," would certainly include Indian gold,
if Parvaim is really the Sanscrit purva or " East," signifying the
countries of the East generally.
Solomon's object in establishing a port at Ezion-geber was to
share with Elath (Elana) and Edom (Petra) the profits of the
Indian trade, and, through his alliance with Hiram, he shared also
the profits of its transit through Judah and Israel, the merchan-
dise of the East having previously always been shipped to Tyre
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COTJKT. 43
from Khinocolura, the frontier town at the mouth of the brook
e Arish, "the river of Egypt," which marked the boundary
between Egypt and Canaan. These friendly arrangements between
Solomon and Hiram would in fact seem to have been established
on the basis of a formal commercial treaty. Solomon agreed to
furnish Hiram [2 Chron. ii., 10] with 640,000 pecks of " beaten
wheat," 640,000 pecks of barley, 1,500,000 gallons of wine, and
1,500,000 of olive oil; and also to cede to him [1 Kings, ix.
11, 13] "twenty cities in the land of Galilee," "Galilee of the
Gentiles," or " strangers," one of the richest and most beautiful
districts of Palestine ; of which we are told, that when Hiram
came out of Tyre to see them, they pleased him not : "And he
" said, What manner of cities are these that thou hast given me,
" my brother ? And he called the land Cabul [i.e., ' dirty ' or
" 'shabby'] until this day." In return Hiram" sent Solomon
" six talents of gold," and master craftsmen, " to cut timber on
" Lebanon," and to prepare it for the "great and wonderful" temple
which he was building, and pilots to assist him in the direct trade
he desired to open with Ophir. In these transactions we perceive
the relations that would naturally grow up between a manu-
facturing and maritime, and a pastoral and agricultural people ;
out of which also, as has been shewn, the first intercourse of the
Phoenicians with the Greeks arose. Hiram's letter to Solomon
affords us almost as vivid a description of such a commerce as the
contemporary story of Eumaeus in the Odyssey, and in greater
detail : " Then Huram the King of Tyre answered in writing,
" which he sent to Solomon. And now I have sent a cunning
" man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father's, the son
" of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man
" of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron,
" in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen,
" and in crimson ; also to grave any manner of graving, and to
" find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cun-
" ning men and with the cunning men of my Lord DaA r id thy
" father. Now, therefore, the wheat, and the barley, the oil,
" and the wine, which my lord hath spoken of, let him send
" unto his servants, and we will cut wood out of Lebanon as
" much as thou shalt need ; and we will bring it to tb.ee in
" flotes by sea to Joppa; and thou shalt carry it up to Jeru-
" salem." These arrangements, however, did not long survive
the death of Solomon. " The ships in Ezion-geber," we read,
" were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish," in
the reign of Jehoshaphat, circa B.C. 896-889; but the rivalry
between Jerusalem and Edom, or " Mount Seir, " continued
to find striking expression in the Bible throughout the whole
period of prophetic development among the Hebrews, as in
Isaiah xxxiv. 5, 6 : " For my sword shall be bathed in heaven :
" behold, it shall come down upon Idumea For
" the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter
" in the land of Idumea." And Jeremiah, xlix. 13-22,
" Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and
" acurse. . . . Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride
D 2
44 PAEIS UKIVEKSAX EXHIBITION, 1878 :
" of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock,
" that boldest the height of the hill : though thou shouldest make
" thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from
" thence, saith the Lord. Also Edom shall be a desolation :
" every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at
" all the plagues thereof. . . . The earth is moved at the noise of
u their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red
" Sea." And in Ezekiel, xxv. 13, 14; and xxxv. 15, "As thou
" didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because
" it was desolate, so will I do unto thee : thou shalt be desolate,
" O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it ;" and Amos i.
10-12, "I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, which shall
" devour the palaces thereof. ... I will send a fire upon Ternan,
" which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah."
Rameses-Sesostris, who cut the canal between Memphis,
Bubastis and the Red Sea, also sent an expedition against the
Idumaeans, whose country, Nabata3a, as it was called in later
times, was believed by the classical writers to be the source
of all the precious commodities of India and the East, as
Ophir was supposed to be by the writers of the Old Testament.
The Canal was cut to divert the trade of the Red Sea exclusively
to Egypt. Necho, who sent a Phoenician expedition round Africa,
began to reopen the canal, and, 70 years later, Darius, son of
Hystaspes, who sent the expedition of Scylax from the Indus
into the Red Sea, tried to complete Necho's project, but was
forced to abandon it. Ptolemy Philadelphus reopened it for
37 miles from Bubastis to the Bitter Lakes, when it was stopped
short owing to the supposition that it was several feet below
the Red Sea, and if completed, would inundate the delta of
the Nile with salt water. The Arabs themselves always pre-
ferred to land their Indian goods for Egypt as far south on the
African coast as possible, in order to avoid the strong head winds
which blow down the Red Sea for nine months in the year, and
with which little vessels could not safely contend. Thus in the most
ancient times, they landed them on the coast at Cosseir, and
thence transported them to Thebes, reputed the oldest city in the
world, the fame of whose splendour, as the capital of Egypt, and
chief seat of the worship of Ammon, "great city of Zeus,"
" Diospolis Magna," had already reached the Greeks in the time
of Homer. Ptolemy Philadelphus built the new port of the
Troglodytic Berenice (which gave its name to varnish), 200 miles
south of Cosseir, and thence the bales of Indian merchandise were
transported, past the Smaragdus mountains, from which the
Smaragdus, or emerald, took its name, to Coptus, on the Nile,
20 miles below Thebes. By another route they were brought to
Myos Hormos (" Harbour of the Mussel," so called from the
Pearl-mussel found there), at the mouth of the Gulf of Suez, and
transported thence, between the Alabastrites and Porphyrites
Montes, which give their names respectively to alabaster and
porphyry, to Arsinoe, on the Nile ; and, by a third route, they were
sent by Arsinoe or Cleopatra (also built by Philadelphns), now
Suez, at the head of the Gulf of that name, across the desert to a
HANDBOOK TO THK iNDIAN COUKT. 45
station on the Nile north of Memphis, which afterwards became
Grand Cairo. Ptolemy Philadelphus built also the lighthouse on
the island of Pharos, and, desiring to extend the trade of Egypt,
and stimulated by the fame of the voyage of Nearchus from the
Indus to the head -of the Persian Gulf, sent Dionysius through
Persia into India, where he arrived soon after the time that the
embassy of Megasthenes from Seleucus was there, and wrote the
report on that country already noticed.
Carthage had grown great in the trade with Egypt, and, while
she was carrying on her deadly struggle of a hundred years (B.C.
264146) for the empire of the world with Rome, Rhodes in its
turn rose to greatness, and it was during this period that, owing
to the confusion into which the Persian Gulf route] was thrown
through the quarrels of the successors of Alexander in Syria,
Egypt for a time commanded the monopoly of the trade with
India, and reached the height of her commercial prosperity
under the Ptolemies. But the trade was still a coasting trade, as
we may infer from Virgil's account of the wanderings of JEneas
before he reached La Hum, and as is still more plainly shewn
by St. Paul's memorable voyage to Rome [Acts xxvii.-xxviii.]
St. Paul, with his fellow-prisoners, was put, at Caesarea, into a
ship of Adramyttium, now Adramyti, the Thebe of Homer, a city
on the Ionian coast, formerly of great trade. The next day they
touched at Sidon, and when they had launched from thence, sail-
ing under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary, they came to
Myra, a city of Lycia. And there the centurion, finding a ship
of Alexandria sailing into Italy, put St. Paul and the other
prisoners therein. And when they had sailed slowly for many
days, the wind not suffering them to enter Cnidus between Cos
and Rhodes running under the lee of Crete, they made, with
difficulty, the port called " The Fair Havens," a few miles to the
west of Lasea, a town the ruins of which were discovered in 1856.
But, "because the haven was not commodious to winter in," they
" loosed thence " and made for Phenice, still further westward on
the south coast of Crete ; and, while running past the little island
of Clauda, were caught by the tempestuous north-east wind,
Euroclydon, and after being tossed about " in Adria " for a
fortnight were driven on- the island of Melita, now Malta.
Here St. Paul and his companions were transferred to a ship
of Alexandria, " which had wintered in the isle, whose sign
" was Castor and Pollux," bound for Italy. After three months
they sailed from Melita, and, landing at Syracuse, stayed there
three days, and thence sailed to Rhegium, and the next day to
Puteoli, in the Bay of Naples, the great landing-place for pas-
sengers from Africa and the East, whence they went on by
Appii Forum, and the Tres Tabernag, where their friends came out
to meet them, to Rome. The Castor and Pollux, after lauding
also all its costlier merchandise at Puteoli, probably continued its
voyage to Rome, calling, with its cargo of Egyptian corn and piece
goods, at all the intermediate ports between the Bay of Naples
and the Tiber.
That the trade of Egypt with India was still carried on between
port and port round the coasts of Arabia, and thence along the coast
46 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
of Persia to Barbarike, Barygaza and Musiris, is proved also
by the astonishment created at Alexandria when, during the reign
of Ptolemy Euergetes [B.C. 145116], a man was found on the
Egyptian coast of the Red Sea in a boat by himself, speaking in
an uakuown language, who was afterwards discovered to be an
Indian, whose ship had been wrecked. The dangers of this primi-
tive navigation are attested by the name given to a prominent
headland on the south-east coast of Arabia of ras-el-Kabir-Hindi
" The Cape of the Indians' Grave ; " and to the Strait of Bab-
el-mandeb, " The Gate of Tears." This castaway, on being taken
to Alexandria, offered to pilot an Egyptian ship back to India by
the voyage he had himself made, and Eudoxus was sent on this
voyage of discovery, and reached India and returned safely to
Egypt with a cargo of spices and precious stones. But it was
only in the reign of Claudius Csesar, A.D. 41-55, when Egypt
was completely under Roman rule, that the Red Sea route to India
became really known, through the discovery of the Monsoons, by
Hippalus, about A.D. 47. After this discovery the Egyptian
merchants fixed the departure of their Indian ships from Arsinoe,
Myos Hormos and Berenice, at the time of the heliacal rising of
the Dog Star, about the middle of July, and, in about 30 days,
reached Ocelis, near Aden, or Kane, the modern Maeulla, whence,
trusting to the south-west monsoon, they sailed confidently across
the "black waters" of the Arabian Sea [the "'Erythrean Sea"],
and reached the Malabar coast in 30 or 40 days more, or about
the middle of September, when the rejoicings of " Cocoa-nut Day "
still proclaim that, with the close of the south-west monsoon, the
navigation of the Arabian Sea is again open to the outward-bound
native craft of Western India.
The Egyptian ships left India on the return voyage at the end
of December, and were back at Berenice by the north-east mon-
soon in about 70 days ; and from Alexandria to the Malabar coast
and back the exchange between the productions of Europe and
Asia was effected in less than a year. It was by this course that
the trade by the Red Sea was now conducted for nearly 1,500
years, until the establishment of the Portuguese, Dutch and
English trade with India, and so great was it that Pliny calculates
the value of the gold and silver sent every year from Egypt to
India, in exchange for Chinese and Indian goods, which were sold
among the nations of the Mediterranean at over 4,000,000/. ;
" in no year does India drain our empire of less than five hundred
" and fifty millions of sesterces, giving back her own wares in
" exchange, which are sold among us at fully one hundred times
" their prime cost." [Pliny, vi. 26.]
Arrian, in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, has described
this trade in detail. I shall give only the exports and imports of
the principal ports, following generally Vincent's translation.
AFRICAN PORTS.
At Adooli Massouah Bay.
Exports.
Ivory, and Rhinoceros Horns.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COTJET. 47
fmportb.
" Cloth with the nap on, of Egyptian manufacture, for the
Barbarian " (a word derived originally from Berbera on the
Somauli coast) " market."
Made-up Apparel, the manufacture of Arsinoe, or Suez.
Piece Goods, dyed, in imitation of stuffs of a superior quality.
Linen.
Striped Cloths and fringed, [8w^oW*a].
" Glass, and Glass Vases, in imitation of Murrhine Vases,"
that is the Agate Cups of Cambay and Broach.
Some Alloy of Gold, cut into pieces so as to pass for money.
Brass, Iron, Hatchets, Adzes, Knives, Daggers, Brass Bowls,
Roman Denarii.
Wine of Laodicea (not the great Laodicea [Revelation iii. 17]
near Colossae in Phrygia, but the Syrian port the present Latakia
south of Antioch) and Italy.
Oil in great quantity.
Gold and Silver Plate, made up in the fashion of the country.
Coats, and Cloaks, and Coverlids.
" Indian Steel [<n%c? 'IvS</co'?] ; Indian Cottons [o0<mav 'IvSjKoVj,
wide and plain," of the sort (Bruce, iii. 62) still imported into
Abyssinia from Surat.
Cotton for stuffing couches and mattresses.
" Sashes \jicep^w^ara] in great request," as they still are.
" Cotton Cloths of the colour of the Mallow flower," made
nowhere but in India.
Fine Muslins [o-v8oV?] and Gum Lac, yielding Lake.
The Muslin and Mallow-colored Cottons, and the Gum Lac,
here are Indian, as well as the goods specified as such by Arrian ;
while it is interesting to observe that Egypt competed by its
imitations of glass, and made-up apparel, with the genuine Indian
manufactures, just as Manchester and Birmingham do now ; and
the Egyptians Avere cunning in all the tricks, such as " sizing " of
these imitation manufactures, for, among the piece goods imported
at Barbarike, Arrian notices " a large assortment of plain cloth,
" and some of fraudulent (bastard, base) manufacture " : //xaTcr/*5?
At Abalites and Malao, Bay of Zeyla.
Exports.
Aromata, Ivory, Tortoise Shell, Myrrh, Frankincense, Cin-
namon, and Cassia, Koy/ca/xov [" Decamalli Gum " of Bombay
Bazaar ?], Ma//> [not Mace], and Slaves.
Imports.
Flint Glass, Aiso-waXi-n^ V? a f (some sort of Sauce, apparently
rob of grapes,) " Barbarine Cloths," Corn, Wine, Tin
" Brass and Copper prepared to imitate Gold."
Iron, and Specie, but not much.
48 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 !
It was in reliance on this list of exports that I sought the
botanical sources of the Frankincense of commerce in the
Somali country, and through Colonel Piayfair's zealous and
disinterested cooperation, they were found there. See my paper
" On the Genus BOSWELLIA," Lin. Soc. Trans. Vol. xxvii. (1871).
At Mosullon, Berbera.
Exports.
Inferior Cinnamon, Aromata and fragrant gums [t^Sea],
Tortoise-shell, Incense [^O/C^O'TOV]], Frankincense, Myrrh, Ivory.
Imports.
Glass, Iron, Silver plate, &c., as at the previous ports.
At Tabai, south of " Aromata Promontorium," Cape Guardafui.
Imports.
As at the previous ports.
Exports.
Cassia, Cinnamon, Aromata, Frankincense.
At Opone, south of Tabai.
Imports.
Corn, Rice Ghee [jSoi/'-rt^ov], Sesamum Oil [&a*oi/ 2-qo-apivov],
Cotton woven and for stuffing, Sashes, SUGAR [/-teX* TO /caXa^t/,
TO Xeyojwfvov 2/<%a/J.
Exports.
Cinnamon, Aromata, Tortoise-shell, and Slaves of a superior
sort, and chiefly for the Egyptian market.
All these imports are from India, and exactly such as are
exported in native boats from Bombay and Surat to the East
Coast of Africa at the present day.
At Rhapta, north of Zanzibar.
Imports.
Javelins of Moosa in Arabia, Hatchets, Bills, Knives, Awls,
Glass.
Exports.
Ivory, Rhinoceros Horn, Tortoise-shell, and Cowries ?
ARABIAN PORTS.
At Moosa near Mocha.
Imports.
Purple Cloth [itopfvpa'], " Made-up apparel in the Arabian
fashion," Saffron, Turmeric, Muslins. Quilts, Sashes, Specie, Wine,
and Corn.
HANDBOOK TO THE IXDIAX COUKT. 49
Exports.
Myrrh of the choicest quality [a-ptpva. IKXEACTJKIJ], Dra/cr^
a,3#**v/a [some sort of perfume of Minrea], AvySo? [Loadstone,
i.e., Lydian stone], "with all the articles that are imported from
" Adooli, on the opposite coast." Arrian also mentions Dragons'
Blood, Kivyaj3a.pt, as a product of Dioscorida, Socotra. Nothing
is said of Coffee. The word abir in India is used like the word
atar for any mixed perfume ; and the obir of Bombay is com-
pounded of sandalwood, violets, orange flowers, rosewater, musk,
and spikenard.
At Kane, Moculla.
Imports from Egypt.
Wheat, Wine, Cloths for the Arabian market, Adulterated
Cloths (already noted under Adooli) in great quantity, Brass,
Tin, Coral, Storax. Also " Wrought Plate," " Specie for the
King," Horses, Carved Images, Cloth of a superior quality.
Exports.
Frankincense, Aloes (from Socotra). It was here that Carter
found the Arabian Frankincense plant named after him, Boswellia
Carterii.
INDIA.
At Omana, in Gedrosia, Beluchistan.
Imports.
Brass, Sandalwood, or perhaps Teak, sag [jAv
Horn, Ebony in round pieces [paXdyyuv 'EjSev/vwv],
'Z-ria- au.lv uv (Bombay Blackwood ? in planks).
Exports.
Pearls, to Arabia, and Barugaza, Purple, Cloth, Wine, Dates in
large quantity, Gold, Slaves.
At Barbarike, at the Mouth of the Indus, corresponding with the
modern Karachi.
Imports.
Apparel, very fine Cottons, Topazes, Coral, Storax, Frankin-
cense, Glass Vessels, Plate, Specie, Wine.
Exports.
Costus, Bedellium, Rusot (Av/asv), Spikenard, Emeralds, Sap-
phires, Furs and Silks from China, Indigo ('I
At Barugaza, Baroach.
Imports.
Italian, Laodicean, and Arabian Wine, Brass, Tin, Lead, Coral,
Topazes, Storax, Sweet Lotus, White Glass, Perfumes, Stibium
for tinging the eyes, Cloths, and Sashes.
50 PAKIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
Exports.
From up country, Saffron, Spikenard, Costus, Bdellium Myrrh,
Rusot, Ivory, Onyx, Cottons of all sorts, mallow-coloured Cotton,
Silk Thread, and Long Pepper (from down the coast ; also Murr-
hine, i.e., Cambay Stones, and Baroach Agate Vases).
At Nelkunda, near Musirs (Mangalore).
Imports.
Specie in large quantity, Topazes, Fine Cloths and Plain
Cloths, Stibium, Coral, Glass, Brass, Tin, Lead, Wine, " as pro-
" fitable here as at Barugaza," Cinnabar, Arsenic, and Wheat,
" not for sale, but for the use of the crew."
Exports.
Pepper, " which is the staple of the country," " the best Pearl "
(brought from Ceylon), Ivory, Silk (from China), Spikenard from
the Ganges, Betel, Diamonds, Rubies, Tortoiseshell " from the
" Golden Chersonese and the islands (Laccadive and Maldive) off
Limurike (Malabar)."
Arrian observes, " There is a great resort of shipping to this
port for Pepper and Betel."
At Masalia, Masulipatam.
Here he simply mentions that " a great quantity of the finest
11 Muslins are made."
More than three centuries had passed away, and while the
masses of barbarians were crushing into the Western Empire,
and later, while the Saracens were establishing themselves in
Damascus, Cairo, Baghdad, and Cordova, Constantinople became
the entrepot of the trade of the East, which came to it not only
through Egypt and Mesopotamia, but from Central Asia and India
through Persia by Bayazid and Trebizond, and through Russia by
Olbia and Cherson. Lying between two great continents and
two inland seas, and the Danube, and the Nile, and Euphrates,
Constantinople is the natural emporium of the trade of Europe
and Asia, and commands absolutely, in the hands of a powerful
government, which its position alone should ensure it, all the
overland communications between the East and the West by
Egypt, by Mesopotamia, and by the Danube and Persia. Had the bar-
barians come into Europe in a peaceful immigration, and gradually
renewed the vigour of the colossal Roman Empire, that empire
might have continued to the present day, with all the Indo-
Germanic nations of Europe and Asia included within its limits,
in one undivided Aryan family, ruling from Constantinople, as the
crowning city of the Old World. For a time it seemed as if the
fortune of Constantinople would indeed prove equal to its unparal-
leled position. The introduction of the manufacture of silk into
Europe, and the rapid development of Saracen civilisation, gave a
: HANDBOOK TO THE IXDIAN COURT. 1
great stimulus to the commerce of the Mediterranean ; but with
the extension of the military dominion of the Ottoman Turks
over the whole area of the Eastern Empire, the Indian trade was
again thrown into a disorder which now proved incurable.
During the Crusades the splendours of the Indian trade had
for a brief while been revived by Venice.
" Once she did hold the gorgeous East in fee,
And was the safeguard of the West ; the worth
Of Venice did not fall below her birth-
Venice, the eldest child of Liberty."
But at last the systematic determination of Prince Henry the
Navigator to discover a way to India round by Africa was
crowned with success, and the trade of the East was permanently
diverted from the Mediterranean nations to pour its wealth into
the cities of Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, and England.
Vansleb has left us a record of the commerce of Alexandria in
1672-73, after the trade with India round the Cape had been
thoroughly established, and that of the Mediterranean had already
begun to decline. He says : " The Trade of the French Mer-
chants with this City is the greatest that they have in all the
Eastern Parts, for there is no place in Turkic where so many
French ships come as into this Haven. From the beginning of
the Year 1672 to the month of June there was no less than
nineteen French ships that came hither, and in the month of
June I reckoned fourteen. This is a considerable number, but
" not to be compared with the number of Vessels that visited this
" Haven heretofore, for Monsieur Lucasole, that did the Office of
" Chancellor of the French Nation, told me that he remembered
" there have been at Alexandria in one Year ninety-four French
" ships."
Then he gives a list of the imports and exports of Egypt.
Exports from Egypt.
Gums. Benjoiu, Bdellion, Arabic, Adragant [Tragacanth],
Lack, Turick, Myrrh of Ethiopia, Frankincense in tears;
Storax.
Juices. Aloe Cicotrin, Aloe Epatick, Opium, Indigo named
Serquis, Indigo of Bagdat, Indigo of Balluder, Cassanad, Sugars
in great loaves, Sugars in little loaves, Sugar-Candy, Sugar-
Soltani; Sorbet.
Wood. Sandal-wood, Citron-wood, Turbit-wood, Ebene-
wood ; Brasil-wood.
Rinds. Cinnamon of Conchi, Cinnamon of Malabar!, Cinna-
mon of Zeilani.
Fruits and Seeds. Cassia, Coco of Levant, Coriander, Coffev,
Dates, Mirabolans Kebus, Mirabolans sirnamed Balludri, Mira-
bolans sirnamed Citrin, Nutmegs, Nuts to vomit [Nux-Vomica],
Cardamom, Ben, a fruit of the Indies \Moringa pterygosperma,
Saigut of Bombay], Tamarindis, Coloquinte, Pepper, Cloves.
Herbs. Flax or Hemp of Menuf, Flax or Hemp of Squi-
nanti, Black Flax, Flax or Hemp of Fium, Hemp of Forsett,
52 TAEIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
Hemp of Oleb of the Bezantins [Russian Hemp from Olbia ?}
Sene.
Floivers. Spikenard; Saffron of Nambrosea ; Saffron of Said;
Cotton ; Cotton in Thread ; Cotton in Eamo or Branches.
Roots. Hermodats ; Roots of Sine [Sene or Senna ?] ; Ginger;
Citrouart ; Rhubarb ; Salsepareille.
Teeth. Elephants' Teeth.
Wool. Unwashed and Washed.
Feathers. Austrich ; Austrich of the Tails ; Austrich of the
Back, Sharp [?], Sharp of the Wings.
Fish and other Sea Commodities. Lizard, green; Pearl shell ;
Salt Fish.
Mummies.
Salts. Ammoniac [so called from Temple of Jupiter Ammon,
i.e., of Jupiter in the Sands] ; Nitre [so called from Nitria] ; Rock
Alum.
Linen. Blue Linen; Blue of Alexandria, of Menuf ; Great
Blue of Inbab ; Little Blue of Cairo, of Alexandria, of Col ;
Painted Linen (Chintzes ?) ; Battanones ; Magrabenes ; Messalines ;
Lizarde ; Cambrasine.
Stuff's. Wrought Stuffs of Cairo, of Damietta, of Alexandria ;
Girdles of Rosetta (Arrian's sashes ?) ; ordinary Girdles ; Fine
Handkerchiefs ; ordinary Handkerchiefs ; other ordinary Hand-
kerchiefs.
Bladders. Musk.
Carpets. Fine Carpets, 2 piasters or 1^ the ell ; Coarse
Carpets, ^ a piaster the ell.
Imports from Europe.
Minerals. Agarick ; White Arsenick; Yellow Arsenick;
Archifu ; Orpiment ; Antimony ; Sublimated ; Quick-silver ;
Vitriol ; Vermillion ; Cinaber ; Salsepareille ; Fine Cine.
. Flowers and Herbs. Nardum Celticum ; Spiknard.
Iron, Steel, Copper, Lead, and Pewter. Copper Thread ;
Beaten Brass ; White Iron or Tin ; Steel of Venice ; Lead ;
Pewter.
Seeds. Cochenelle.
Paper.
Silk Stuffs. Sattin of Florence.
Clothes. Of London ; of Bucioche ; of the Holy Bridge of
Rome ; of Holland-fashion ; Scarlet ; Caps of Marseilles ; other
Caps ; Caps of perfect make.
Corrals, $c. fyc. Of Messina ; Taraille ; Corrals wrought ;
White Tartre ; Red Taitre ; Brasil ; Rock Alum.
This is almost the Indian trade of the present day, and exactly
the trade which the Portuguese and Dutch and French found
going on along the coasts of India ; and so it remained until the
extinction of the English East India Company's monopoly ex-
posed the natives of India to the stark competition of Man-
chester and Birmingham.
The following list of eastern commodities in which the English
Company traded, is taken from their sales and account books, and
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 53
other manuscript records preserved in the India Office, and well
represents the commerce between Europe and the East round the
Cape of Good Hope during the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies A.D. 1671-1734. The spelling of the original documents
is preserved :
Accoris ; Acchar in jars ; Aggats ; Ambergreece.
Alices Socotrina ; Alices Epatica.
Ammoniacum ; Assafetida.
Auri pigmentum.
Benjamin ; Bezoar Stones ; Borax or Tincal ; Buffaloe
hydes; Bulgar [i.e., Russian] hydes.
Cabinets ; Camphire ; Canes and Rattans ; Carmania Shells
[query, Shawls] ; Carmania wool ; Cambogium.
Cardamoms ; Cassia Fistula ; Cassia Lignum ; Catechu.
Charran oyl (?).
China Fans, Images, and Pictures.
China-root ; China Ware [in immense quantities] ; Cinna-
mon ; Cinnamon de Matte ; Cinnamon Tramboon.
Civet ; Cloves ; Clove Bark ; Cocculus Indicus ; Coffee.
Cordivants and all sorts of leather.
Cotton Yarns ; Cornelian Rings; Corrall; Couries.
Cubebs ; Cypris Longa [Cypris Roots] ; Cytern.
Dates ; Diamonds ; and all Precious Stones.
Draconis Sanguis.
Earth Red ; Ebony Wood ; Errendy Yarn [Wild Silk].
Estrich Feathers.
Floretta Yarn [Floss-silk ?]
Folio Indico [Malabathrum],
Galbanum ; Gallingall ; Goa Stones (?) ; Gold.
Gum Arabick ; GumSarcaball [Sarcocolla ?] ; Green-Ginger.
Hard Wax.
Indico ; Indico of Lahore, and flat ; Iron.
Jappan Copper ; Jappan Ware.
Kagnes Cambojium.
Lacks of all sorts ; Lacquered Ware ; Lapis Lazula ; Lapis
Tutia ; Long Pepper.
Mace ; Mangoes ; " Match " (?) ; Merabolams ; [also spelled
Mirabolans] ; Myrrhe [also Mirrh] ; Musk.
Nuts Conduca [Bonduc ?] ; Nutmegs ; Nux Vomica.
Olibanum ; Opium ; Opoponax ; Orpiment ; [Ostriches
Feathers, see Estrich Feathers ; Oyl of Mace.
Pepper; Pertian Yarne [Persian ?] ; Pound Cattroon (?)
Quilts.
Red Saunders [also as Reed Wood].
Rice ; Roman Vitriol (?) ; Rubarb [and Rhubarb].
Sago; St. Helena hides ; Salamouiack ; Safflower ; Salgem ;
Saltpetre ; Sandalwood ; Sal Prunella ; Sappan ; Scamony ;
Sealing-wax ; Sena.
Silk (Raw, Bengal, and China).
Skreens, Spices, and other oyles.
Spicknard (and Spikenard) ; Sugar and Sugar Candy ;
Suttadas(?).
54 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
Tea [Thea in list of 1671] ; Tamarine ; Tincall, [see Borax];
Tortois Shells ; Turbeth ; Tumerick ; Tutenague (?) ; [and
Tutenage].
Vermillion.
Wax [see Hard Wax] ; Wormseed ;
and piece goods of upwards of 200 leading denominations.
Atlases [Sattins], Baftas, Canvas, Chintzes, Diapers, Dimities,
Ginghams, Gauzes, Longcloths, Mulmuls [Muslins], Quilts, Sail-
cloths, Taffaties, and Muckinuls [Velvets], all of which are given
in detail under the section on Cotton Goods.
The devotion of Waghorn, and the genius and heroic enterprise of
De Lesseps, are destined to restore to Egypt and Italy and Greece
the greatness of their ancient trade with India ; and, owing
to the development of trade with the eastern coast of Africa,
the Suez Canal will now always remain the great channel of com-
mercial intercourse between the East and West. But, stimu-
lated by the immense discoveries of gold and silver in the
present generation, and the use of steam carriage and electricity,
modern commerce is returning to all its overland routes between
Europe and Asia. It is not deserting the more modern way by
the Cape of Good Hope, but is simply flowing into every channel
that is opened to it, and the next generation will probably see all
the old cities of the Tigris and Euphrates valley again rising from
the dust and oblivion of ages ; and Petra, Jerusalem, Palmyra,
Tyre, and Sidon, Aleppo, Antioch, and Tarsus, once more par-
ticipating in the returning prosperity of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Not in all cases the same cities, but new ones corresponding with
them in situation and greatness. Owing moreover to the intrusion
of Europe into Asia, through the conquests of Russia, the area of
the transit lands between these continents is being extended
further eastward ; and, as commerce seeks the shortest routes,
and always finds them at last in spite of every obstacle, a new line
of communication is sure to be formed between Southern Asia
and Europe nearer to India than either the Suez Canal or the
Tigris and Euphrates valley. A great overland trade must again
spring up in the tracks of the old caravan route between India and
Russia, having its emporium possibly at Merv; again must com-
merce flow between India and the Black Sea, by Bayazid,
Erzerum, and Trebizond ; and when the use of the Persian Gulf
route is revived Mahammerah will probably eclipse the fame of
Baghdad and ancient Babylon. The shortest line, however,
between almost any part of Europe and India leads through
Russia, the Caspian Sea, and Persia. From Astrakhan to Bandar
Abbas is a perpendicular line of some 1,400 miles, of which one
half lies through the Caspian Sea : it is barely 200 longer to
Karachi. As sure as the fall of a plummet will the commerce of
the future between India and Europe gravitate to this new line.
From Bandar Abbas it will run through Kirman, by Yezd, Julfa,
Ispahan, Kashan, Kum, Teheran, Kazvin, and Kesht, and along
the western shore of the Caspian, to Baku and Astrakhan, whence
it will branch off to every part of Europe.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. OO
THE MASTER HAND CKAFTS OF INDIA.
The present collection of Indian handicraft consists principally
of the presents made to the Prince of Wales during his recent
visit to India. It is therefore primarily not a systematic collec-
tion of Indian handicraft, bnt of objects of Indian art suitable
for presents. Many things, therefore, indeed whole classes of
some of the most interesting and instructive of the traditional
industries of India, which we have been accustomed to see at
previous Exhibitions, are absent from the present Exhibition.
But, on the other hand, many objects are now shewn of the
highest artistic value, but which are so costly, and have
required so long a time for their production, that there
would never have been an opportunity of seeing them out of
India, except among the rich and rare offerings of its greatest
Chiefs and Princes to the heir to the British Throne and Empire.
Her Majesty's Commissioners for the Paris Exhibition have, how-
ever, been enabled to exhibit some of the classes of Indian handi-
crafts not represented in 'the collection of the Prince's presents,
partly by purchases made under their own orders in India, par-
ticularly of pottery, one of the purest traditional arts practised in
that country, and still more largely through the cooperation of
the leading London importers of Indian hand-wrought goods,
the house of Vincent Robinson & Co., Messrs. Farmer & Rogers,
and Messrs. Watson & Bontor, who, with the Maharajah of
Cashmere, together contribute the most extensive and most in-
structive series of Indian tissues, stuffs, broidered work, and
carpets ever displayed in Europe.
The Government of India has also sent a complete collection
of the natural productions of India, which have been so admi-
rably arranged by Mr. Simmonds that it is not necessary to say
anything more about it than I have already done in drawing
attention to the light it throws on the antiquity and historical
development of Indian commerce. The collection of woods, and
other forest productions made under the direction of Dr. Brandis,
the Director-General of Forests, is of the highest scientific, as well
as commercial, interest. I have added, as Appendix B, a special
memorandum on Chinchona cultivation in India.
It is impossible in describing Indian handicrafts to follow the
classification adopted at European Universal Exhibitions of Art
and Industry, based as it is on the broad distinction that must be
drawn between art and industry, when industrial productions
are no longer hand-wrought, but " turned out," as it is aptly
phrased, by machines. Thus, the very word manufacture has come
at last in Europe to lose Avell nigh all trace of its true etymo-
logical meaning, and is now generally used for the process of
the conversion of raw materials into articles suitable for the use of
man by machinery. Even sewing such sewing has come to
be done by machines. Work thus executed, in which the invention
56 PAKIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
and hand of a cunning workman have had no share, must be
classified apart, and under the most intricate and elaborate divi-
sions. Machinery and mechanical processes cannot be applied
to any artistic work, except the frank and avowed imitation or
copying of great art works, not for the aesthetic enjoyment of
such copies, which is almost universally impossible, but simply for
the purpose of art instruction, although it is possible that not
even thi^ advantage is gained.
In India everything, as yet at least, is hand wrought, and
everything, down to the cheapest toys and earthen vessels, is
therefore more or less a work of art. On the other hand, it is
impossible to rank the decorative art of India, which is a crystal-
lised tradition, although perfect in form, with the ever living,
progressive arts of Europe, wherein the inventive and creative
genius of the true poet, acting on his own spontaneous inspira-
tions, asserts itself, and which constitute the Fine Arts, as they
are called. The spirit of fine art is everywhere latent in India,
but it has yet to be quickened into creative operation. It has
slept ever since the Aryan genius of the people would seem to
have exhausted itself in the production of the Ramayana and
Mahabharata. But the Indian workman, from the humblest potter
to the most cunning embroiderer in blue and purple, and scarlet
[Ex. xxxviii. 23], is a true artist, although he seldom rises above
the traditions of his art.
It is very necessary also to bear in mind that we have in India
several distinct and indigenous varieties of decorative art ; the
savage arts of the original black and yellow Turanian tribes of
the peninsula, now found only in the hills, or in the most inac-
cessible parts of the plains; and Hindu art, derived from the
contact and subsequent mixture of the Aryan immigrants with
the local Turanian races ; and, lastly, the art which resulted from
the influences of Arabian and Persian arts in India, which is
peculiarly distinguished as Indian art. Indian collections are
now also, unfortunately, becoming, at every succeeding exhibition,
more and more overcrowded with mongrel articles, the result of
the influences on Indian art of English society, missionary schools,
schools of art, and international exhibitions, and, above all,
of the irresistible energy of the mechanical productiveness of
Manchester and Birmingham, and Paris and Vienna. No collec-
tion from India has ever shewn this great and growing evil
so flagrantly as that of the Prince's presents. It was desired
to do the Prince the utmost honour, and the native chiefs
and princes, in many instances despising their own arts, had
literal copies executed, in solid silver, of the latest Birmingham
patterns in teapots (which came originally from India) and
paper weights, and centre pieces, as the most acceptable gifts
they could lay before the Prince. It was fortunate that they
did so, for an evil which has been made so conspicuous will
be checked. The natives have, indeed, a great genius for imita-
tion. Thus Nearchus [Strabo, xv. 1, 67], producing proofs of
their skill in works of art, says that, when they saw sponges in
use among the Macedonians, they imitated them by sewing hairs,
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 57
thin threads, and strings inextricably through flocks of wool,
and, after the wool was well felted together, drew out the hair and
threads and strings, when a perfect sponge remained, which
they dyed with bright colours. That is exactly what a native,
under a happy inspiration, would do. There quickly also appeared
among Alexander's Indian camp followers manufacturers of
brushes for scrubbing the body, and of vessels for oil, which
they saw the Greeks using.
Terry, in his "Voyage to the East Indies," 1655, in describing
the people of India, writes : "The natives there show very much
*' ingenuity in their curious manufactures, as in their silk stuffs,
" which they most artificially weave, some of them very neatly
" mingled either with silver or gold, or both ; as also in making
" excellent quilts of their stained cloth, or of fresh-coloured
" taffata lined with their pintadoes [prints or chintz], or of their
" satin lined with taffata, betwixt which they put cotton wool,
" and work them together with silk. . . . They make likewise
" excellent carpets of their cotton wool, in mingled colours, some
" of them three yards broad and of a great length. Some other
" richer carpets they make all of silk, so artificially mixed as
" that they lively represent those flowers and figures made in
" them. The ground of some others of their very rich carpets is
" silver or gold, about which are such silken flowers and figures
" most excellently and orderly disposed throughout the whole
" work. Their skill is likewise exquisite in making of cabinets,
" boxes, trunks, and standishes, curiously wrought within and
" without ; inlaid with elephants' teeth or mother-of-pearl, ebony,
" tortoiseshell, or wire. They make excellent cups and other
" things of agate or cornelian, and curious they are in cutting of
" all manner of stones, diamonds as well as others. They paint
" staves or beadsteads, chests or boxes, fruit dishes or large
" chargers extremely neat, which, when they be not inlaid as
before, they cover the wood, first being handsomely turned,
with a thick gum, then put their paint on most artificially made
of liquid silver or gold or other lively colours which they use,
and after make it much more beautiful with a very clear varnish
put upon it. They are also excellent at limning, and will copy
" out any picture they see to the life. . . . The truth is, that the
" natives of that monarchy are the best apes for imitation in the
" world, so full of ingenuity that they will make any new thing
" by pattern, how hard soever it seem to be done, and therefore
" it is no marvel if the natives there make boots, cloaths, linen,
" bands, cuffs of our English fashion, which are all very much
" different from their fashions and habits, and yet make them all
" exceedingly neat."
We therefore incur a great responsibility when we deliberately
undertake to improve such a people in the practice of their own
arts, and hitherto the results of our attempts to do so have been
anything but encouraging. The Cashmere trade in shawls has
been ruined through the quickness with which the weavers have
adopted the " improved shawl patterns " which the French agents
of the Paris import houses have set before them, and presently we
H 22. *
58 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
shall see what the effect of the teaching of our Schools of Art
has been on Indian pottery, the noblest pottery in the world until
we began to meddle with it. The great dread" of coarse is of the
general introduction of machinery into India; that, just as we are
beginning in Europe to understand what things may be done by
machinery and what must be done by hand work, if art is of the
slightest consideration in the matter, in India, owing to the
operation of certain economic causes, machinery may be gradually
introduced for the manufacture of its great traditional handicrafts,
resulting in an industrial revolution which, if not directed by an
intelligent and instructed public opinion, and the general prevalence
of refined taste, will inevitably throw the decorative art of India
into the same confusion of principles, and of their practical appli-
cation to the objects of daily necessity, in the use of which we
should have delight, which has for three generations been the
destruction of decorative art and of middle-class taste, in
England and North-western Europe, and the United States of
America. We therefore incur a great responsibility in attempting
to interfere in the direct art education of a people who already
possess the tradition of a system of decoration founded on perfect
principles, which they have learned through centuries of practice
to apply with unerring truth.
The social and moral evils of the introduction of machinery
into India are likely to be still greater. At present the industries
of India are carried on all over the country, although weaving
is everywhere languishing in its fast failing competition with
Manchester, and the Presidency Mills. But in every Indian
village all the traditional handicrafts are to be still found at work.
Outside the entrance, on an exposed rise of ground, the hereditary
potter sits by his wheel moulding the swift revolving clay by the
natural curves of his hands. At the back of the houses, which
form the low irregular street, there are two or three looms
at work, in blue, and scarlet and gold, the frames hung between
the acacia trees, the yellow flowers of which drop fast on the
webs as they are being woven. In the street the brass and copper
smiths are hammering away at their pots and pans ; and further
down, in the verandah of the rich man's house, is the jeweller
working rupees and gold mohrs into fair jewelry, gold and
silver earrings, and round tires like the moon, bracelets and
tablets and nose rings, and tinkling ornaments for the feet,
taking his designs from the fruits and flowers around him, or
from the traditional forms represented in the paintings and
carvings of the great temple, which rises over the grove of
mangoes and palms at the end of the street above the lotus-
covered village tank. At half-past three or four in the afternoon,
the whole street is lighted up by the moving robes of the
women going down to draw water from the tank, each with
two or three water jars on her head : and so going and return-
ing in single file, the scene glows like Titian's canvas, and
moves like the stately procession of the Panathenaic frieze.
Later the men drive in the mild grey kine from the moaning
jungle, the looms are folded up, the coppersmiths are silent
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 59
the elders gather in the gate, the lights begin to glimmer in
the fast-falling darkness, the feasting and the music begin, and
the songs are sung late into the night from the Ramayana or
Mahabharata. The next morning with sunrise, after their
simple ablutions and adorations performed in the open air before
their houses, the same day begins again. This is the daily life
going on all over Western India in the village communities of the
Deccau, among a people happy in their simple manners and frugal
way of life, and in the culture derived from the grand epics of a
religion in which they live and move and have their daily being,
and in which the highest expression of their literature, art, and
civilisation has been stereotyped for 2,000 years.
But of late these handicraftsmen, for the sake of whose
works the whole world has been ceaselessly pouring its bullion
for 3,000 years into India, and who, for all the marvellous
tissues and embroidery they have wrought, have polluted no rivers,
deformed no pleasing prospects, nor poisoned any air ; whose skill
and individuality the training of countless generations has de-
veloped to the highest perfection, these hereditary handicraftsmen
are being everywhere gathered from their democratic village
communities in hundreds and thousands to the colossal mills of
Bombay, to drudge in gangs at manufacturing piece goods, in
competition with Manchester, '.in the production of which they are
no more intellectually and morally concerned than the grinder of
a barrel organ in the tunes it turns out.
I do not mean to depreciate the proper functions of machines in
modern civilisation, but machinery should be the servant and never
the master of men. It cannot minister to the beauty and pleasure
of life, and can only be the slave of its drudgery. It should be
kept rigorously in its place, in India as well as England. When in
England machinery is no longer allowed, by the force of cultivated
taste and opinion, to intrude into the domain of art manufactures
(as they are called by a present contradiction of terms), which
belongs exclusively to the trained mind and cunning hand of
individual workmen, wealth will become more equally diffused
throughout society, and the working classes, through the elevating
influence of their daily work, and the growing respect for their
talent and skill and culture, will at once rise in social, civil,
and political position, raising the whole country, to the highest
classes, with them ; and Europe will learn to taste of some of
that measureless content and happiness in life which is found
even to-day in the pagan East, and was once found in pagan
Greece and Rome.
GOLD AND SILVER PLATE.
The first objects among the Prince's presents which strike
the visitor on entering the Indian Court are the cases of gold and
silver plate, A silver-gilt service for pan and atar (betel leaf
and perfumes), from Mysore, is a good example of pure Hindu
work, and the elaborately chased goblets (sarai) and rose-Avater
sprinklers, some in ruddy gold, and others parcel-gilt, are almost
E 2
60 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
perfect examples of the exquisite goldsmith's work of Cashmere
and Lucknow ; the work of Cashmere being distinguished by the in-
troduction of the shawl pattern cone in the chasing. This " ruddy
gold " also is only seen in Cashmere and Burmese work. All over
India, elsewhere, gold is stained deep yellow, except in Scinde,
where the jewellers often give it a singular and very artistic tinge
of olive-brown. By the side of these elegant and comely vessels of
silver and gold are to be found some of the most glaring illustra-
tions of the debasement of Hindu and Indian art under European
influences in the whole collection. The obtrusive gold vase
from Mysore was probably modelled after a spurious [George IV.]
Adam's vase. There are two gold chargers and a tea service,
which are mere copies of the worst Birmingham patterns, and
a pair of mounted bison's horns, a monstrous product of the
attempt to combine Indian with European designs in decorative
art. In a tea service from Madras the Prince of Wales' Plumes
and the Royal Arms of England are mixed up, not in their
heraldic, but in their naturalistic forms, with the strictly con-
ventionalised swami work of that Presidency, in which the orna-
mentation consists of figures of Hindu gods in high relief,
either beaten out from the surface [repousse~\, or fixed on to it,
whether by soldering, or wedging, or screwing them in. The
Greeks called the art of working metal in relief fopevr^, and the
artists in such work in Rome went by the name of crustarii, from
the crustce, or small ornaments in relief, with which they en-
crusted their wonderful productions; while the larger reliefs,
which were fastened on to them in such a way that they could be
removed at pleasure, as can be done with the larger of these
Madras swami figures, were called emblemata. Nothing could
be worse than the tea tray and tea pot, and sugar and milk
bowls, in this Madras tea service. The cups and saucers are un-
objectionable perhaps, while the spoons, which are Hindu in
character, are decidedly pleasing. The silver desert service from
the same Presidency is so elegant in design and so finished in work-
manship, that no incongruity is seen in the application of native
ornamentation to European forms. The hammered repousse silver
work of Cutch, Lucknow. and Dacca is all of foreign origin, the
former Dutch, and the latter Saracenic and Italian ; but it is nearly
always good, as in almost all the examples in the Prince's collec-
tion. The centre-piece of Cutch (Dutch) work must, however,
be excepted. It represents a conventionalised Pine-apple, the
body of which conceals a liqueur bottle, the crown being shaped
to hold flowers, and four griffins support the whole. It is a
strange object, of German origin probably, though Dutch descent,
but thoroughly naturalised in India, and the genuine design of an
Hindu artist, although good neither in form nor decoration.
The fine Cutch work exhibited by Lord Northbrook, is by
Umersi Mauji, a silversmith of Buj. Lord Northbrook also
exhibits a case of Burmese repousse silver of the highest excel-
lence in design and workmanship. From Hyderabad, in the
Deccan, there is a parcel-gilt vase, an example of the pierced
work (the opus interrasile of the Romans), of the Nizam's domi-
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 61
nions. The shape is Indian, but is not happy, being an imperfect
combination of Hindu and Saracenic forms. A very noble example
of this grand Avork was exhibited some years ago by Sir Seymour
FitzGerald in the Indian Court at the Annual International Exhi-
bition at South Kensington.
There are three cases entirely filled with the chased parcel-gilt
work of Cashmere. Its airy shapes and exquisite tracery, graven
through the gilding to the dead white silver below, softening the
lustre of the gold to a pearly radiance, give a most charming effect
to this refined and graceful work. It is an art imported by the
Mogols, but influenced by the natural superiority of the people of
the valley of Cashmere to all other Orientals in the elaboration of
decorative details of good design, whether in metal work, ham-
mered and cut, enamelling, or weaving. The candelabrum from
Srinagar, both in form and decoration, is evidently derived
through Persia from a Turkish original. The arts of Cashmere
have also been largely influenced by the characteristic architecture
of the valley, as the local arts of Madras have been developed from
its architecture.
The Indian goldsmith has sometimes to execute his work on the
grandest scale, reminding one of the gold work done for Solomon's
Temple and household. If a Hindu has to undergo purification,
one of the rites is to step through the yoni, the mystic symbol of
female power. This is often done by sitting for an instant in the
scar of any tree bearing a similitude to the sacred yoni. Some-
times the. scar forms a true matrix, and may even penetrate the
trunk of the tree, when the Hindu will step into and out of it
again, or, which is holiest, pass right through it, in sign of his
regeneration. I once saw an unending succession of Hindu
pilgrims being " born again " in this way, hopping through the
trunk of a great tree faster than they could be counted, rather as
if they were " May-gaming " than going through the performance
of a purificatory rite. But when the two Brahmins, whom
Ragunatha Rao [Ragoba], the Mahratta Peishwa, sent to England
in 1780, returned to India they were compelled to pass through a
yoni made of the finest gold before they could be readmitted into
caste. Ragoba himself, on his defeat and expulsion from his
capital, had a cow of gold made, and was passed through it, in the
hope of bettering his fortune. The king of Travancore about the
same time, wishing to atone for all the blood he had spilt in his
wars, was persuaded by the Brahmins that it was necessary for
him to be born again, when a cow of gold was made of immense
value, through which the king, after lying in it for a certain time,
was passed, regenerated, and freed from all the crimes of his
former life.
METAL WORK, IN BRASS, AND COPPER, AND TIN.
Vessels of brass and copper, dishes and bowls, lotas, caudle -
sticks, images of the gods, and other mythological emblemata,
sacrificial spoons, censers, and temple bells, and other sacred and
domestic utensils are made all over India ; and of the same
62 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
patterns as we find in representations of them on the oldest
sculptures and cave paintings. The lota is the globular bowl,
sometimes melon-shaped, with a low narrow neck, universally used
in ceremonial and other ablutions, and its name is the same word
as lotus, the water lily, and the Latin lotus washed, and English
lotion a wash. It is found plain, and chased or graven, and
encrusted. Very good brass work is made at Ahmednagger and
Ahmedabad in Western India, and at Benares in Northern India ;
but that of Madura and Tan j ore in the Madras Presidency is
superior to all, and in its bold forms and elaborately inwrought
ornamentation recalls the description Homer gives of the work of
Sidon in bowls of antique frame. Some are simply etched, and
others deeply cut in mythological designs, and others are dia-
pered all over with crustce of the leaf pattern, seen in Assyrian
sculptures, copper on brass, or silver on copper, producing an
effect often of quite regal grandeur. Castellani possesses the finest
specimen known of silver encrusted on brown waxy copper. In
the Prince's collection are several small Tan j ore and Madura
lotas, but none of superior excellence. The most interesting of
all Indian lotas is one in the India Museum, of about A.D. 200-
300, discovered by Major Hay in 1857 at Gundlah in Kulu, where
a landslip exposed an ancient Buddhist cell, in which this lota
with others had been lying buried for 1,500 years. It is exactly
of the shape now made, and is enchased all round with a repre-
sentation of Buddha, as Prince Siddhartha, before his conversion,
going on some high procession. An officer of state, on an elephant,
goes before ; the minstrels, two damsels, one playing on a flute
and the other on a vina, follow after ; in the midst is the Prince
Siddhartha, in his chariot drawn by four prancing horses, and
guarded by two horsemen behind it ; all rendered with that gala
air of dainty pride and enjoyment in the fleeting pleasures of the
hour which is characteristic of the Hindus to the present day, as
if life were indeed .
" musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns."
Benares is the first city in India for the multitude and excellence
of its cast and sculptured mythological images and " emblemata"
not only in brass and copper, but in gold and silver, ivory and
wood, which it will be more convenient to consider as sculptures,
under the head of Ivory and Wood Carving ; but in the Prince's
collection are eight little, brass figures from Vizagapatam, which
for skilful modelling and perfection of finish, and a certain irre-
sistible grotesqueness of expression, are the finest I have ever seen.
They look as if the artist had been inspired by a study of Gustave
Dore's illustrations of Don Quixote. The temple bells of India
are well known for the depth and purity of their note. Besides
the ordinary brass, a variety is used in India like that called by
the ancients CBS candidum, which is mixed with silver, and a still
rarer, like the ancient <zs Corinthium, which is mixed with gold.
The dark " bronzes " in India are not of true bronze, a mixture of
copper and tin, but of copper without alloy.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUKT. 63
At Moradabad, in the North- West Provinces, tin is soldered on
brass, and incised through to the brass in floriated patterns,
which sometimes are simply marked by the yellow outline of
the brass, and at others by filling in the ground with some black
composition of lac, something after the manner of Niello work.
Similar work, in the shawl pattern style, is sometimes seen from
Cashmere, and the Earl of Northbrook exhibits a variety of it in
two or three dishes, which is very rare in England. They are
studded all over with little flowers, Avhich shine like frosted silver
out of a groundwork of blackened foliated scrolls, delicate as the
finest Chantilly lace. It is very pretty and attractive.
DAMASCENED WORK.
Damascening is the art of encrusting one metal in another, not
in crustce, which are soldered on or wedged into the metal surface
to which they are applied, but in the form of wire, which by
undercutting and hammering is thoroughly incorporated with the
metal which it is intended to ornament. Practically, damascening
is limited to encrusting gold wire, and sometimes silver, on the
surface of iron, or steel, or bronze. This system of ornamentation
is peculiarly Oriental, and takes its name from Damascus, where
it was carried to the highest perfection by the early goldsmiths.
It is now practised with the greatest success in Persia and
in Spain. In India damascening in gold is carried on in
Cashmere, and at Gujerat and Sealkote in the Punjab, and in the
Nizam's dominions, and is called kuft work ; and damascening in
silver is called bidri, from Bider, in the Nizam's Dominion,
where it is principally produced. There is a cheap kuft work
done by simply laying gold leaf on the steel plate, on which the
ornamentation has been previously etched ; the gold is easily made
to adhere to the etching, and is then wiped off the rest of the
surface. Except among the arms, to be presently noticed, there
is very little kuft work in the Prince's collection. In the solitary
separate example of it, the fern-like ornament, characteristic of
the work of Sealkote and Gujerat, is applied to a sort of masonic
emblem, a column with a ball on the top, labelled up and down
its length with such words as " Fidelity," " Loyalty," &c., in
modern English letters. Surely the force of British Philistinism
in art could not possibly go further than this. Yet the articles
in bidri, the highest art in India after enamelling, are even in
worse taste, being copies in bronze of the lowest florid style of
Italian alabaster vases, covered with Italian flower scroll patterns
in beaten silver. The worst example of all is a washing basin
and jug copied from a Staffordshire ware pattern. In bidri the
metal ground is an amalgam of copper, lead, and tin, made black
by dipping in a solution of sal ammoniac, saltpetre, salt, and blue
vitriol. An inferior kind of bidri is made at Purneah in Bengal
and other places. The art was originally imported from Persia
by the Mahommedans.
64 PABIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
ENAMELS.
Enamelling is the master art craft of the world, and the enamels
of Jeypore rank before all others, and are of matchless perfection.
There are three forms of enamelling followed.
In the first the enamel is simply applied to the metal as paint
is applied to canvas ; and in the second, translucent enamels are
laid over a design which has been etohed on, or hammered
(repousse') out of the metal. Both these are comparatively modern
methods. The third form of enamelling by encrustation is very
ancient, and is known under two varieties, namely, the cloisonne,
in which the pattern is raised on the surface of the metal by
means of strips of metal or wire welded on to it ; and the champ-
leve, in which the pattern is cut out of the metal itself. In both
varieties the pattern is filled in with the enamel. In all forms of
true enamelling the colouring glaze has to be fused on to the metal,
There is indeed a fourth form of enamelling, practised by the
Japanese. They paint in the pattern coarsely, as in the first
form, and then outline it with strips of copper or gold, to imitate
true cloisonne enamels. The Jeypore enamelling is champhve.
A large plate in the centre of the case is the largest specimen of
it ever made. It took four years in the making, and is in itself
a monument of the Indian enameller's art. Near it is a beautiful
covered cup and saucer, similar to one belonging to Lady Mayo.
The bowl of the spoon belonging to Lady Mayo's cup is cut
out of a solid emerald, and as in all Hindu sacrificial spoons, from
which it was designed, is in the same plane with the handle.
It is perfect in design and finish, and is surely the choicest
jewelled spoon in existence.
Another exquisite example of Jeypore enamelling is the little
perfume box, or atardan, something like a patch box, with a
cone-shaped cover, belonging to Mr. W. Anderson, in the South
Kensington Museum, having a representation of Krishna, sur-
rounded by cows and calves, and shepherdesses in a grove, with
birds singing among the branches, all round the box ; and of
Krishna dancing with the fair shepherdesses, on a green ground
of hills and valleys, dales and fields, all round the cover. It was
surmounted with a yellow diamond, in perfect harmony with the
colours of the green and white, blue, orange, and scarlet enamels,
but the owner has replaced it by a perfectly inharmonious stone
of the purest and most brilliant water. Of all the Prince's enamels
the daintiest device is a native writing case, or kulumdan, shaped
like an Indian gondola. The stern is figured like a peacock,
the tail of which sweeps under half the length of the boat,
irradiating it with blue and green enamels, brighter even than
the natural iridescence of a peacock's tail. The canopy which
covers the ink bottle is colored with green and blue, and ruby
and coral red enamels. It is the mingled brilliances of its greens,
and blues, and reds which, laid on pure gold, make the superlative
excellence and beauty of Jeypore enamelling. Even Paris cannot
paint gold with the ruby red and coral red, the emerald green,
and turquoise and sapphire blues of the enamels of Jeypore, Lahore,
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 65
Benares, and Lucknow. In Lady Mayo's spoon the deep green
enamel is as lustrous and transparent as the emerald which forms
the bowl. Close to the gondola are some fine examples of old
Jeypore enamelling. The handles of the yak's tails, and of the
sandalwood and ivory horse wisps, and of the peacock's tails,
which, like the yak's tails, are symbols of royalty throughout the
East, are magnificent examples of the grandest of the art crafts
of India, and truly regal treasures. The art is practised every-
where in India, but nowhere in such perfection as at Jeypore.
It is probably a Turanian art. It was introduced into China,
according to the Chinese, by the Yeuechi, and was carried as
early, if not earlier, into India. From Assyria it probably passed
into Egypt, and through the Phoanicians to Europe. Sidon was
as famed for its glass, as was Tyre for its purple ; and the Sido-
nians were not only acquainted with glass blowing, but also with
the art of enamelling in glass in imitation of the precious stones.
Among the Prince's presents are several specimens of the charm-
ing Cashmere enamels, in which the ground of the usual shawl
pattern ornamentation, cut in gold, is filled in with turquoise blue.
Sometimes a dark green is intermixed with the blue, perfectly
harmonised by the gold, and producing a severely artistic effect.
The late Sir Digby Wyatt possessed a remarkably fine goblet
in this style of Cashmere enamel.
At Pertabghar extremely effective and brilliant trinkets are
made by melting a thick layer of enamel on gold, and, while the
enamel is still hot, covering it with a network of thin gold,
minutely cut into the shapes of elephants, tigers, peacocks, doves,
and parrots, trees, and floriated scrolls, which are afterwards
etched over with the graver, so as to bring out the most charac-
teristic details of flower, foliage, bird and beast. Beautiful glass
bracelets, or bangles, are made at Rampur, [hence nicknamed
Rampur maniharaii], near Meerut, and at Bellary and Mysore,
in Madras. The glass phials for Ganger water, seen all over
India, are made at Savvansa, in the Pertabghar district.
ARMS.
The interest of the Prince's presents culminates in the arms. For
variety, extent and gorgeousness, and ethnological and artistic value,
such a collection of Indian arms has never been brought together
before, not even in India itself, and it fairly defies description.
No man was so poor but that he could present the Prince with a
bow and arrow, or spear, or sword, or battle-axe, and, in fact,
everyone who was brought before the Prince gave him an
arm of some sort. The collection thus represents the armourer's
art in every province of India, from the rude spears of the
Nicobar islanders, to the costly damascened, sculptured, and
jewelled swords and shields, and daggers and matchlocks of Cash-
mere, Lahore, Sealkote, Gujerat, Cutch, Hyderabad, Singapore,
and Ceylon. Good arms are also made at Monghyr in Bengal,
and at Kuduru and Vizianagram in Madras. Indian steel
was celebrated from the earliest antiquity, and the blades of
66 PAEIS UXIVEESAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
Damascus, which maintained their pre-eminence, even after the
blades of Toledo became celebrated, were in fact of Indian iron.
Ctesias mentions two wonderful Indian blades which were pre-
sented to him by the King of Persia and his mother. The Onda-
nique of Marco Polo's Travels refers originally, as Col. Yule has
shewn, to Indian steel, the word being a corruption of the
Persian Hundwaniy, i.e., " Indian steel." The same word found
its way into Spanish, in the shapes of Alhinde and Alfinde first
with the meaning of steel, and then of a steel mirror, and finally
of the metal foil of a glass mirror. The Ondanique of Kirman,
which Marco Polo mentions, was so called from its comparative
excellence, and the swords of Kirman were eagerly sought after
in the 15th and 16th centuries A.D., by the Turks, who gave
great prices for them. \Ye have seen that Arrian mentions Indian
steel, o-8ij/)6? 'IvStKos, as imported into the Abyssinian ports; and
Salmasius mentions that among the surviving Greek treatises was
one vefi j9</>?is 'IV&KOV er&qpov, " on the tempering of Indian steel."
Twenty miles east of Nirmul, and a few miles south of the
Shisha hills, occurs the hornblende slate or schist from which the
magnetic iron, used for ages in the manufacture of Damascus
steel, and by the Persians for their sword blades is still obtained,
The Dimdurti mines on the Godavery were also another source
of Damascus steel, the mines here being mere holes dug through
the thin granitic soil, from which the ore is detached by means
of small iron crowbars. The iron ore is still further separated
from its granitic or quartzy matrix by washing ; and the sand thus
obtained is still manufactured into Damascus steel at Kona
Sumundrum near Dimdurti. The sand is melted with char-
coal, with no flux, and is obtained at once in a perfectly tough
and malleable state, and superior to any English iron or even the
best Swedish. The Persian [Armenian] merchants, who in
Vbysey's day still frequented the iron furnaces of Kona Sumun-
drum, informed him that they had in vain attempted to imitate,
in Persia, the steel formed from it. In the manufacture of the
best steel f of Sumundrum ore is used, and ^ of Indore, which
is a peroxide of iron.
The most striking object among the Prince's arms is a suit
of armour made entirely of the horny scales of the Indian
Armadillo, or Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) encrusted with
gold, and turquoises, and garnets. There is another splendid
suit of Cashmere chain armour, fine almost as lace work. The
style is essentially Persian and Circassian, and is identical
with that of the armour worn in Europe in the 13th century.
The damascened casque is surmounted with a plume of pearls.
There are many other suits of armour with damascened
breast plates, gauntlets, and greaves, which carry one back
to the Crusades, and legendary history of modern Persia.
Some of the sword blades are marvellously watered, several
are sculptured in half relief with hunting scene?, and others are
strangely shaped, teethed like a saw, and flaming (flamboyant) ;
although for mingled cruelty and grotesqueuess of appear-
ance none match the battle-axes of the Sowrahs and Khouds.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUKT. 67
Here are the kukri of the Gorkhas, the adyakathi of the Moplas,
the tiga of the wild tribes of Central India, and the knife
used in the Meriah sacrifice. We have also the great sword
of Mahmud Chand Sultan Shah of the date of 1707, and
the sword (No. 1439) of the famous Polygar Katabomma Naik,
who defeated the English early in the present century, and most
interesting of all the sword (No. 74) of Sivaji, the founder of
the Mahratta dominion in India.
The rise of the Mahratta power was almost contemporary with
our own appearance in India. The Mogol Emperors of Delhi
were in the habit of taking the Hindu Princes and Chiefs into high
employ, and amongst the Mahratta families in their service were
the Bhonslas, whose tutelary deity was the goddess Bhowani of Tul-
japur. It was of their family that the renowned Sivaji was born,
at Sewnere, near Junir, about twenty miles south-west of Poona,
in the very heart of the mawuls or valleys, which lie on the landward
side of the Western Ghats between Poona and Sattara. The hilly
land between the Western Ghats and the sea is called the Concan.
This is the cradle of the Mahratta race, and it was with the hardy
maivulis, or people of these inland and seaward valleys of the
Western Ghats, that Sivaji laid the foundation of the Mahratta
Empire, which at one time extended its sway over the whole Deccan.
The Mahratta country indeed in its widest sense almost corresponds
with the area of the Chalukyan style of temple architecture in India,
as defined by Mr. Fergusson in the recent edition of his great work
on " Hindu Architecture." It is the whole country between the
Malabar and Coromandel coasts watered by the Nerbudda, Tapti,
Godavery, Bhima, and Kistna. North of the Nerbudda lies Mr.
Fergussou's area of Indo-Aryan architecture, and south of the
Kistna the Dravidian. There is really no authentic history of
Southern India, but to the Hindus Sivaji was not so much the
destroyer of the hated Mohammedan supremacy in the Deccan
as the restorer of the half mythical Hindu state of Salivahana,
and hence the great power of his name all over India, which can
be understood only by those who have some knowledge of the
notions universally received by Hindus of their traditional his-
tory. As the British power grew in India, it was at last
brought face to face with the Mahratta Confederacy, and between
1774 and 1818, we had to wage four harassing wars against them,
signalised by the great battles of Assaye and Kirki, in which last
their power was finally overthrown, although it was not until 1819
that their last fortress was taken. Their fortresses among the
spurs of the Western Ghats were their strength, and everyone of
them has its legend keeping alive the spirit of nationality and
patriotism among the hardy and romantic mawulis. Sivaji (nick-
named by Aurungzebe, " a mountain rat "), seized Tornea at the age
of 19, and with the spoils built Raighur, where he was subsequently
enthroned, and where he died. After building Raighur, he took
Singhur and Purandhur, and it was from the Concan hill fort of
Pertabghur, opposite Mahabaleshwur, that he issued, after receiving
his mother's blessing and offering his vows to Bhowani, to perpe-
trate, by an act of the most detestable treachery, the assassination
68 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1 878 :
of the generous and too confiding Bijapur General, Afzul Khan.
He enticed him into a secret turning in the road leading down
the hill side, and there, in pretending to embrace him, ripped
his bowels open with the icagnak (" tiger-claw " ) concealed in
his right hand, and then stabbed him to the heart with the bic/nca
(" scorpion " dagger) held in his left. He is the great national
hero of the Mahratta Hindus, and his descendants are held in the
highest reverence throughout the Deccan. Every relic of his, his
sword, his daggers, and seal, all have been religiously preserved at
Sattara and Kolhapur. Mr. Grant Duff in his " Notes of an
Indian Journey " has described the worship of his famous sword.
Bhowani, at Sattara. The sword in the Prince's collection is
not this deified weapon, but the one that has always been kept,
since Sivaji's death in 1680, at Kolhapur. The political value
of the gift is simply incalculable. It was a family and national
heirloom, which nothing but a sentiment of the profoundest
loyalty could have moved the descendants of Sivaji to give up,
and which has been sacredly guarded for the last 200 years at
Kolhapur, as the palladium of their house and race, by the junior
branch of the Bhonsla family.
All these historical weapons, the symbols of the latent hopes
and aspirations of nations and once sovereign families, were
literally forced on the Prince's acceptance in a spontaneous trans-
port of loyalty, and their surrender may be fairly interpreted to
mean that the people and princes of India are beginning to give
up their vain regrets for the past, and, sensible of the present
blessings of a civilised rule, desire to centre their hopes of the
future in the good faith, and wisdom, and power of the British
Government.
The barrel of a conspicuous matchlock in one of the centre cases
is superbly damascened in gold, with a sort of poppy flower
pattern, one flower nodding above another along the whole length
of the barrel. It is the noblest example of damascening in the
Prince's collection. Close to it is a Persian matchlock, the stock
of which is carved in ivory, against a chocolate-stained back-
ground, with scenes of wild animal life, in which every group is a
perfect cameo. The richer arms are resplendent with gold and
enamelling, and gems, and are generally of uncontaminated Indian
design. There is indeed but little room for the obtrusion of
European design in Oriental arms.
There are, however, several swords and daggers which have
been mounted in native design by English workmen, and the
result is not less mischievous than when European designs
are literally imitated by unsophisticated native handicraftsmen.
The mechanical character of European manufactures requires a
consistent general finish which is quite out of place in the bold
and freehand compositions of the best native art work, in
which finish is strictly subordinated to practical use and artistic
effect ; and, if a taste for mechanical perfection becomes prevalent
with the spread of middle class English ideas among the princes
and chiefs of India, Indian wrought arms and jewelry will soon
become lost arts. The splendour of Indian arms and jewelry is
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 69
due to the lavish use of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other
bright and colored stones. But, as their work is really manual,
and grows up spontaneously, like a growing flower, under their
hands, the native jewellers are able to use the most worthless
gems on it, mere chips and scales of diamonds, often so thin that
they will float on water, and flawed rubies and emeralds, which
have no value as precious stones, but only as barbaric blobs of
colour. The European jeweller can use with his machine-made
work only the most costly gems, polished to the highest lustre,
far too costly to be used except for their own effect and intrinsic
value only, and it would be impossible to employ them merely to
enhance the general decorative effect, as in India. There are
examples in the Prince's collection of exquisite gold work in
purely native design, but by English workmen ; and the mechani-
cal perfection of their work has forced them to use rose diamonds
and brilliants, but necessarily so scantily that all effect of splendour
is lost. Where in other examples worthless Indian stones have
been set in machine-made English gold work, the effect is flat and
mean beyond belief. If, therefore, Indian jewelry should become
mechanical hard and glittery in character, it will at once cease to
be artistic, and sink to the level of the vulgar and extravagant
trinketry of Birmingham, Paris, and Vienna.
It will be seen that the battle-axes used by the wild tribes are
identical in form with those found among the pre-historic remains
of man in Europe, perhaps because they have all been instinctively
modelled from the teeth of carnivorous animals. It is impossible
also to overlook the strong resemblance of the forms of Persian and
Arabian arms, and of Indian arms shewing Persian and Arabian
influence, to those represented on the sculptures of Assyria
and Babylonia, and in the hieroglyphic paintings of Egypt, as
figured in Rawlinson's " Ancient Monarchies " and Wilkinson's
" Ancient Egyptians." This is especially marked in the typical
fiddle-shaped handles of the daggers. The Arabian arms, it will be
noticed also, are distinguished by their fine filigrain work and
the absence of gems, the Persian by their superb damascening,
enamelling, and carving, and the rarity also of gems, only tur-
quoises and pearls being generally used, except in the decoration
of jade mountings ; while the Indian are characterised by the high
relief of the elaborately hammered and cut gold work, and the
unsparing use of the precious gems adorning them. It is the
special defect of Indian, particularly of Hindu art, to run into
this excess and satiety of decorative details. It is the exclusive
prerogative of Greek art to produce beauty without the use of
ornament.
JEWELRY.
Even a greater variety of style is seen in Indian jewelry than
in arms. Mr. FitzGerald sent to the Annual International
Exhibition of 1872 a collection of the grass ornaments worn
by the wild Thakurs and Katkaris of Matheran and the western
Ghats of Bombay, which had been made by Dr. J. Y. Smith,
the accomplished Superintendent of this Hill Station ; and by the
70 PAEIS U>1VEBSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
side of these grass collars, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, and girdles
were exhibited also gold jewelry made of thick gold wire, twisted
into the girdles, bracelets, anklets, necklaces, and collars, which
are worn all over India, fashioned in gold exactly as the Ma-
theran ornaments are fashioned in grass ; the gold collars being
identical with the " torques" (from torqueo, I twist), worn
by the Gauls, which gave its name to the patrician Roman
family of Torquatus, from Manlius having, about B.C. 361,
earned immortal glory by slaying a gigantic Gaul, whose dead
body he stripped of his torque, and placed it round his own
neck. The Gaul, in the Roman statue of " the Dying Gladi-
ator," is represented with a torque round his neck." These gold
necklaces also are identical in character with the necklaces of
chipped and knotted grass, which indicate the origin also of
peculiar Burmese necklaces formed of slips of ruddy gold strung
together and pendant from a chain which goes round the neck,
and from which the jointed strings of gold hang down in
front, like a golden veil. The details are often variously modified,
the gold being wrought into flowers, or replaced by strings of
pearl and gems, until all trace of it3 suggested origin is lost.
By the side of Mr. FitzGerald's collection, I exhibited the " fig-
leaf " worn by the women in the wilder parts of India, which in
many places is their only clothing. First was shewn the actual
"fig-leaf," the leaf of the Sacred Fig, or pipul, Ficus (now Uros-
tigma) religiosa ; next a literal transcript of it in silver, and then
its more or less conventionalised forms, but all keeping the heart-
shaped form of the leaf, the surface ornamentation in these con-
ventionalised silver leaves being generally a representation of the
pipul tree itself the " Tree of Life " of the Hindu Paradise on
Mount Meru. These silver leaves are suspended from the waist,
sometimes, like the actual leaf, by a simple thread, but generally by
a girdle of twisted silver with a serpent's head where it is fastened
in front ; and this ornament is probably the origin of the " heart
and serpent " bracelets of European jewelry. In Algeria, also, a
leaf-shaped silver ornament is worn by girls till they come to an
age when more voluminous apparel has to be put on, and, it is
the emblem of virginity throughout the Barbary [Berber] coast.
The forms of the champaca [Jlichelia Champaca'} blossom, and
of the flowers of the babul [Acacia arabica] and seventi [ Chrys-
anthemum species], the name of which is familiar in England
through the story of " Brave Seventi Bhai," " the Daisy Lady,"
in Miss Frere's " Old Deccan Days," are commonly used by
Indian jewellers for necklaces and hairpins, as well as of the fruit
of the aonla [Phyllanthus JSmblica], and arnbgul \_Elceagnus
Kologa~}, and Mango, or amb \_Mangifera indica]. The bell-
shaped earring, with smaller bells hanging within it, is derived
from the flower of the sacred Lotus ; and the cone-shaped earrings
of Cashmere in ruddy gold represent the Lotus flower-bed. The
use of these flowers in Indian jewelry is possibly not prehistoric,
but has come down from an immemorial tradition. The Lotus,
which often passes into the seventi, is seen everywhere in Indian
and Chinese and Japanese decoration, and on Assyrian and Baby-
lonian sculptures.
HANDBOOK TO THE IXDIA2? COUBT. 71
As primitive as the twisted gold wire forms of Indian jewelry,
is probably the chopped gold form of jewelry worn also
throughout India, the art of which is carried to the highest per-
fection in Ahmedabad and Surat, in Western India. It is indeed
worn chiefly by the people of Guzerat. It is made of chopped
pieces, like jujubes, of the purest gold, flat, or in cubes, and, by
removal of the angles, in octahedrons, and strung on red silk, is
the finest archaic jewelry in India. The nail-head earrings are
identical with those represented on Assyrian sculptures. It is
generally in solid gold, for people in India hoard their money in
the shape of jewelry ; but it is made hollow to perfection in
Surat, the flat pieces and cubes and octahedrons being filled with
lac or dammar.
The beaten silver jewelry of the Gonds and other wild tribes in
the plains of India, and in the Himalayas, is also very primitive in
character, the brooches in particular worn by the women of Ladak
being identical with those found among Celtic remains in Ireland
and elsewhere. Here the form, a flat and hammered silver band,
hooped in the centre, with -the ends curled in on the hoop, is too
artificial to have arisen independently in India and Europe, and
must have travelled with the Celtic emigration from the East,
westward. Mrs. Rivett Carnac exhibits an exhaustive collection
of the -aboriginal and peasant jewelry of India.
The silver filigrain work in which the people of Cuttack have
attained such surprising skill and delicacy, is identical in character
with that of Arabia, Malta, Geneva, Norway, Sweden, and Den-
mark, and with the filigrain work of ancient Gi'eece, Byzantium,
and Etruria, and was probably carried into the West by the
Arabs and Phoanicians, and into Scandinavia by the Normans. In
Cuttack the work is generally done by boys, whose sensitive
fingers and keen sight enable them to put the fine silver threads
together with the necessary rapidity and accuracy.
The waist-belt of gold, or silver, or precious stones, which is
worn in India to gird up the dhoti, or cloth worn about the
legs, recalls the Roman cinguliim ; and, as in Rome, when the
ceremony of changing the toga pr&texta for the toga virilis was
performed, the aurea bulla was taken from the boy's neck, and
consecrated to the domestic Lar ; so, in India, at the ceremony of
investiture with the sacred thread, an identical ornament, a
hollow hemisphere of gold, hung from a cotton thread or chain
of gold, is taken from the boy's neck, and the sacred thread,
the symbol of his manhood, put on him.
The nao-rattan, an amulet or talisman composed of " nine
stones," generally the
Coral, Topaz, Sapphire,
Ruby, flat Diamond, cut Diamond,
Emerald, Hyacinth, and Carbuncle,
is certainly suggestive also of some connexion with the urim and
thummim, or sacred oracle of the Jews, taken by Chosroes II.
from Jerusalem, A.D. 615, and probably still existing among the
ruins of one of the old Sassanain palaces of Persia. The tri-ratan,
is the " tripple gemmed " " Alpha and Omega " symbol of the
Buddhists.
72 PAB1S UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
The jeweller and goldsmith's art in India is indeed of the highest
antiquity, and the forms of the jewelry as well as of the gold
and silver plate, and the chasings and embossments decorating
them, have come down in an unbroken tradition from the Rama-
yana and Mahabharata. In the Ganges valley dawned the
first light of Aryan civilisation, which spread thence into the
valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. The civilisation of Egypt
was more ancient, but was undoubtedly largely influenced by
Assyria and India, influencing them in turn ; and from the earliest
ages, as throughout all ages, through the Arabs, Phoenicians, and
Armenians, the civilisations of India, Egypt, Assyria, and that of
Greece and Rome, have acted and reacted on each other. But
the earliest records, the national epics, and ancient sculptures
and paintings, represent the forms of Indian jewelry, of Hindu
jewelry, and gold and silver plate, and common pottery and
musical instruments, and describe their character, exactly as we
have them now.
After the archaic jewelry of Ahmedabad, the best Hindu
jewelry, of the purest Hindu style, is the beaten gold of Sawunt-
wari, Mysore, Vizianagram, and Vizagapatam, which well illus-
trates the admirable way in which the native workers in gold and
silver elaborate an extensive surface of ornament out of apparently
a wholly inadequate quantity of metal, beating it almost to the
thinness of tissue paper, without at all weakening its effect of
solidity. By their consummate skill and thorough knowledge and
appreciation of the conventional decoration of surface, they con-
trive to give to the least possible weight of metal, and to gems,
commercially absolutely valueless, the highest possible artistic value,
never, even in their excessive elaboration of detail, violating the
fundamental principles of ornamental design, nor failing to please,
even though it be by an effect of barbaric richness and superfluity.
This character of Indian jewelry is in remarkable contrast with
modern European jewelry, in which the object of the jeweller seems
to be to bestow the least amount of work on the greatest amount of
metal. Weight is in fact the predominant character of European
" high class " jewelry, and gold and silver smith's work. Even
when reproducing the best Adams's designs, they spoil their work
by making it too thick and heavy ; and so demoralising is the
rage for weight that English purchasers attracted by the eye to
Indian jewelry, directly they find how light it is in the hand
refuse it as rubbish ; the cost of Indian jewelry being from
one-twentieth to one-fourth in excess of its net weight. The
jury on jewelry at the Great Exhibition of 1851 actually
wrote of Indian jewelry : " It is sufficient to cast a glance
" on the exhibitions of India, Turkey. Egypt, Tunis, to be
" convinced that these nations have remained stationary from
" a very early period of manufacture. Some of them indeed
" develope ideas full of grace and originality, but their produc-
" tions are always immature dud imperfect, and the skill of the
" workman is called in to make amends for the inadequateness
" of the manufacturing process." Surely it is better to remain
stationary than to fall, as we have in England, from the thin
beaten silver of Queen Anne's reign, and the designs of Adams, to
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUBT. 73
the present unseemly dead-weight silver and gold manufactures of
Birmingham and London, for which customers have to pay four
times and more than the value of their weight. The deceitfulness
of its false appearance of richness and solidity, and flaunting
gorgeousness is in fact one of the greatest charms of Indian
jewelry, especially in an admiring but poor purchaser's eyes. You
see a necklace, or whatever ornament it may be, made up appa-
rently of solid, rough cut cubes of gold, but it is as light as pith.
Yet, though hollow, it is not false. It is of the purest gold,
"soft as wax," and it is this which gives to the flimsiest and
cheapest Indian jewelry its Avonderf ul look of reality. Again, you
see a necklace or girdle of gems which you would say was price-
less, but it is all mere glamour of pearls and diamonds, emeralds,
and enamel, which " deceitful shine" but have no intrinsic value.
As was noticed under " Anns," the Indian jeweller thinks only
of producing the sumptuous, imposing effect of a dazzling variety
of rich, brilliant colours, and nothing of the purity of his gems. He
must have quantity, and cares nothing for commercial quality, and
the flawed " tallow drop " emeralds, and foul spinel rubies, large
as walnuts, and mere splinters and scales of diamonds which he so
lavishly uses tire often valueless, except as points, and sparkles,
and splashes of effulgent coloring ; but nothing can exceed the
skill, artistic feeling, and effectiveness with which gems are used
in India both in jewelry proper and the jewelled decoration
of arms, and plate. In nothing do the people of India display their
naturally gorgeous and costly taste so much as in their jewelery
and jewelled arms, which are not only fabricated of the richest
and rarest materials, but wrought likewise with all the elaborate-
ness, delicacy, and splendour of design within the reach of art.
The finest gemmed and enamelled jewelry in India is that
of Cashmere and the Punjab, the type of which extends across
Rajputana to Delhi and Central India, and in a debased mere-
tricious form throughout Bengal; tires, aigrettes, and other
ornaments for the head, and hanging over the forehead ; earrings
and ear-chains, and studs of the scventi flower ; nose rings, and
nose studs ; necklaces, made up of chains, of pearls and gems,
falling on the breast almost like a stomacher of gems ; others, of
tablets of gold set with precious stones, and strung together by
short strings of mixed pearl and turquoise, with a large pendant
hanging from the middle, gemmed in front, and exquisitely
enamelled, like all the rest of this necklace, or rather collar, at
the back ; armlets, bracelets, rings, and anklets ; all in never
ending variations of form, and of the richest and loveliest effects
in pearl and turquoise, enamel, ruby, diamond, sapphire, topaz,
and emerald. The bracelets often end in the head of some wild
beast, as in the bracelets of the Assyrian sculpture.*, and the
plaques are often enamelled at the back with birds or beasts
affronte on either side of the taper " Cypress " tree, or else some
wide-spreading tree identical, probably, with the Asherah or
" Horn," the symbol of Asshur, connected in the Bible with the
worship of Astoreth or Astarte, and translated by the word
"grove," or ''groves." The long dangling necklaces worn by the
II 22. F
74 PABIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
women are called lalanti, or " danglers," " dalliers," and mohan-
mala, or " garlands (spells) of enchantment."
The jewelry of Cashmere is the same as that of the Punjab in
form, but what I have seen of it has been in gold, and the
choicest specimens, in " ruddy gold," combining a good deal of
gold filigrain work. The enumeration in Isaiah iii, 17-24, of the
articles of the mundus muliebris of the daughters of Zion, reads like
an inventory of this exceedingly classical looking jewellery of
Cashmere. Homer's lines, II. xxii., 468-70, (describing the grief
of Andromache) are, in Pope's translation :
" Her hairs' fair ornaments the braids that bound [Sca^ara ffiyaXoevra] ,
The net [K/cp^o\o^l that held them, and the wreaths [fywrv/ca] that
crowned,
The veil (^Kp-fiSe/jLVov") and diadem (irAe/cTTjj' waSeff/j.rjv') threw far away.
(The gift of Venus on her bridal day.)"
The avaSstruij of Homer, supposed by Schliemann to have re-
sembled one of the gold ornaments found by him at Hissarlik, is
almost identical with the ornament of gold pendants, often gemmed,
worn across the brow by the women of Cashmere and the Punjab,
and indeed all over India, and in Egypt. Those who cannot afford
the j/a&<7ji*7j wAe/cTTj often ornament the front part of the " head band "
with imitations of it in spangles and paint. The Kerpvifroikw was
the " net " and the Kp-fiepvov the " veil " of Pope's translation, but
the a^?rv, which he translates by " wreath," and is generally
translated by " head band," I have always ventured to suppose
was a head ornament similar to the hemispherical golden ornament
worn by women, both at Bombay and Cairo, on the top of their
heads, of which one sees in collections such fine specimens from
Sawuntwari and Vizianagram. The dancing girls ["Bayaderes"]
of the Deccan, wear an ornament for the bosom, evidently like the
J2gis of Athene, a sort of rich stomacher, with two hemispherical
caps of gold to cover the breasts.
The gemmed jewelry of Delhi has lost its native vigour
under European influences, but although weak is pretty. The
little miniatures, " Delhi paintings," with which some of it is
adorned shew that the " limners " of the Mogol's capital have
lost nothing of their cunning since Terry so highly praised their
skill. They paint not with the brush, but with a pen. The
babul ornament is not only very pretty, but highly interest-
ing, for it proves that the Phoenician art, so long forgotten in
Europe, of soldering gold in grains, which Castellani rediscovered
some years ago still practised in an obscure Italian village, has
never been lost in India.
The jewelry of Scinde and Baluchistan is similar to that of
the Punjab, but usually only in gold and silver. Solid silver
torques, and anklets, and bracelets are very common, of a severe
style of rectangular construction and ornamentation.
The gold jewelry of Trichinopoly, celebrated among Anglo-
Indians, has been corrupted to European taste, but nothing could
exceed the technical excellence of the rose-chains and flexible
serpent and heart necklets and bracelets.
A great deal of Thibetan jewelry now finds its way into India
through Bhotan, Sikkiiu, Nepaul, and Cashmere, chiefly silver,
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 75
ornamented with large crude turquoises, and sometimes with
coral, in the shape of armlets and necklets, consisting of amulet
boxes, one or more strung on twisted red cloth or a silver chain ;
and in various other forms, bracelets, anklets, &c., hammered, cut,
and filigrained. It is identical in character with the jewelry
so profusely represented in the Bharhut sculptures. The
women of Ladak wear a curious ornament called parak, which
falls back from the forehead over the head, down the back to the
waist. It is covered with precious stones, and the wearer does
not marry until she has possessed herself of enough of them to form
a goodly parak, which in fact constitutes her dowry. The silver
Celtic brooch, already noticed, worn in certain of the Himalayan
regions is originally Thibetan.
The collection of jewelry in the Prince's presents is scanty,
but exceedingly choice. The diamonds are particularly interest-
ing. The Hindus value diamonds in jewelry solely for their
decorative effect, but they most extravagantly prize them for
themselves as a sort of talisman ; and they particularly value them
when the natural crystal is so perfect and clear that it requires
only to have its natural facets polished. This is what jewellers
call a Point Diamond, and there is a good example of one among
the Prince's diamonds. If but slightly ground down it is called
a Deep Table, or more expressively in French a clou. This is a
very ancient form of diamond, and there is a perfect example of it
in the diamond case. A flat shallow parallelogram is called a
lasque, of which there are many examples mounted on the
arms, although most of them are mere chips and scales. The
examples of Rose diamonds and Brilliants are probably of European
cutting. The Rose is a hemisphere covered with facets, and the
Brilliant, the ancient clou cut above with 32 facets and below with
24. There are some fine Hindu necklets of pearls and enamel,
and " tallow drop " emeralds ; and chains, bracelets, and pendants
starred with gems ; but the loveliest jewel in the case is a hair
comb made at Jeypore. The setting is of emerald and ruby
Jeypore enamels painted on gold, surmounted by a curved row, all
on a level, of large pearls, each tipped with a green glass bead.
Below these lovely pearls is a row of small brilliants, set among
the elegantly designed green and red enamelled gold leaves which
support the pearls ; then a row of small pearls with a brilliant-
set enamelled scroll running between it and a third row of
pearls, below which is a continuous row of minute brilliants form-
ing the lower edge of the comb, just above the gold prongs. It is
most superb in design, and one of the most finished pieces of
Indian jewelry that has been made in modern times. The
pearls are of very great price, and the whole effect is most brilliant,
rich, and refined.
Scindia's great chain of pearls has been an -heirloom in his
family for generations. Three of the end pearls in a large pendant
of flat diamonds and pearls are worthy of the "triple gemmed
earrings" [ep^-anx, T-piyX-qva, /AopoevTa] of Juno as described by
Homer (II. xiv. 183):
" Fair beaming pendants tremble in her ear,
Each seems illumined with a triple star."
P 2
76 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 C
And (Od. xviii. 298)
" Earrings bright,
With triple stars that cast a trembling light."
Gem engraving is an immemorial Eastern art, as the cylinders of
Nineveh and Babylon and Persepolis testify, and Delhi has always
been famous for its practice. Among the Prince's arms will be
found a large emerald magnificently cut as a conventional rose.
The old Delhi work in cut and gem encrusted jade is priceless.
The Chinese had cut jade for ages, but never ornamented it,
except by sculpture ; but when it was introduced into India the
native jewellers, Avith their quick eye for colour, at once saw what
a perfect ground it afforded for mounting precious stones, and
they were the first to encrust them on jade. The Indian Museum
possesses the choicest and grandest specimens of this work known,
of the best Mogol period. They were exhibited at the Paris
Exhibition of 1867.
The jewelry of Ceylon in filigraiu, chasing, and repousse, is
remarkable for the delicacy of its ornamentation hi granulated
gold, in the style of the antique jewelry of Etruria, and exquisite
finish.
Gold beaters' skin (jilli) is prepared in India from the scarf
skin of the sheep, in large quantity.
ART FURNITURE AND HOUSEHOLD DECORATIONS.
If we may judge from the example of India, the great art in
furniture is to do without it. Except where the social life of the
people has been influenced by European ideas furniture in India
is conspicuous only by its absence. In Bombay the wealthy native
gentlemen have their houses furnished in the European style, but
only the reception rooms, from which they themselves live quite
apart, often in a distinct house, connected with the larger mansion
by a covered bridge or arcade. Europeans, as a rule, and all
strangers, are seen in the public rooms ; and only intimate friends
in the private apartments. Passing through the open porch,
guarded by a room or recess for attendants on either side, you at
once enter a sort of ante-chamber, in which a jeweller is alwavs at
work making or repairing the family jewels. Through the win-
dows, across the court, the Brahmin cook is seen among the silver
drinking vessels and dishes preparing for the mid- day meal. In
the opposite verandah, into which you next pass, some young
girls are engaged under a matron embroidering silk and satin
robes ; and at the end of it a door opens and your host welcomes
you heartily into his private parlour. He has sent for a chair for
you, but sits on the ground himself on a grass mat, or cotton
sattrinji, or Cashmere rug, with a round pillow at his back, and
that is all the furniture in the room. Up country you may pass
through a whole palace, and the only furniture in it will be rugs
and pillows, and of course the cooking pots and pans, and gold
and silver vessels for eating and drinking, and the wardrobes and
caskets, and graven images of the gods. But you are simply
entranced by the perfect proportions of the rooms, the polish of
IIAKDiiOOK TO THE INDIAN COUKT. 77
the ivory-white walls, the frescoes round the dado, and the beau-
tiful shapes of the niches in the walls, and of the windows,- and by
the richness and vigour of the carved work of the doors and
projecting beams and pillars of the verandah. You feel that the
people of ancient Greece must, have lived in something of this
way ; and the houses of the rich in the old streets of Bombay,
built before the domestic architecture of the people was affected
by Portuguese influences, constantly remind you, especially in
their woodwork, of the houses of the Ionian Greeks, as the
learned have reconstructed them from their remains : and the
woodwork is the essential framework, the solid skeleton, of
native houses in Bombay, and is put up complete before a stone or
brick is placed on it, The strict rectangular ground plan also of
Bombay gardens, and the orderly and symmetrical method in
which they are planted, two different species of trees, it may be
the Cocoa-nut palm and Mango, or the Cocoa-nut palm and
Areca nut palm, being planted alternately all round the boundary,
with other trees, Pomegranates, Oranges, Jasmins, Guavas,
Eoses, Cypresses, Oleanders and Custard-apples, in regular rows
and sections, is identical with the ground plans of the ancient
Egyptian and Assyrian gardens. Your host has nothing on but
a muslin wrapper, for he is about to have prayers performed, and,
as he throws the wrapper off his shoulders and head, and girds
it round his waist and pits down, a Brahmin enters and places
the gods and sacred vessels before him, burning incense, and going
through the customary forms and ceremonies ; while your friend,
if you are interested, explains them in their order. So an hour
has passed ; a frugal meal, chiefly of unleavened bread and milk, is
taken ; and then, it being nearly two in the afternoon, an atten-
dant comes in and dresses his master for the Legislative Council,
of which he is a member. First he puts on him a soft, close-
fitting jacket, and over it a long white cotton robe ; then bis
stockings, of the finest Lille thread, are drawn on, and his feet
placed in a pair of elegant French pumps ; after which the
turband is placed on his head, and a long waistband wound round
his waist ; and thus arrayed, with a heavily gold-mounted cane in
hand, he at last issues forth, clothed, and altogether in another
mind, into the outer world of English ideas and fashioning.
He will, presently, drive down with you to the Town Hall to talk
over the Factories Labour Regulations Bill he is determined to
oppose; but meanwhile you must extend your visit also to the
drawing-room, " Which you know you have not seen since I
" have had it newlv done up for the season. " The first glance
into it is sufficient to convince the most pampered slave of debi-
litating comfort, that, in hot climates at least, furniture is a
mistake.
Bombay Blackicood.
It is always the same furniture which is to be seen everywhere*
in these Bombay houses, made of the shisham or Blackwood
trees (Dalbergia sps.), and elaborately carved in a style obviously
derived from the Dutch, although it is highly probable that the
78 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
excessive and ridiculous carving on old Dutch furniture was itself
derived from the sculptured idols and temples which so excited
their astonishment when they first reached India. The carving
is very skilful, but in a style of decoration utterly inapplicable
to chairs, and couches, and tables, and looks absolutely hideous
when " French polished," an " improvement" introduced during
the last 20 years to suit European taste. When, however, this
wood is used for the reproduction of the inlaid wooden doors of
old Hindu temples, the effect is always good. It is very finely
carved also at Ahmedabad into vases, inkstands, and other small
objects, which being generally of pure native or pure classical
shape and ornamentation seldom fail to please. I once saw in a
Parsi house some stately Blackwood couches, Avhich had been
designed in the Assyrian style from Rawlinson's " Ancient
Monarchies." The common Jack wood \_Artocarpus integrifolia\
furniture of Bombay, rectangular in its forms, and simply fluted
and beaded, is far superior in taste to Blackwood furniture.
Bombay Inlaid Work.
A good deal of ornamental furniture is also made in " Bombay
inlaid work," so familiar now in the ubiquitous glove-boxes,
blotting cases, book-stands, work -boxes, desks, and card cases,
which go by the name of " Bombay Boxes." They are made in
the variety of inlaid wood work, marquetry or tarsia called
pique, and are not only pretty and pleasing but interesting, on
account of its having been found possible to trace (see my paper
in the "Journal of Bombay Asiatic Society," vol. vii. 1861-63)
the introduction of the work into India from Persia, step by
step, from Shiraz into Scinde, and to Bombay and Surat. In
Bombay the inlay is made up of tin wire, sandal-wood, ebony,
sappan (Brazil) wood, ivory, white, and stained green, and stag's
horn. Strips of these materials are bound together in rods, usually
three-sided, sometimes round, and frequently obliquely four-sided,
or rhombic. They are again so arranged in compound rods as
when cut across to present a definite pattern, and in the mass have
the appearance of rods of varying diameter and shape, or of
very thin boards, the latter being intended for borderings. The
patterns commonly found in Bombay, finally prepared for use, are
chukur-gul, or " round bloom " ; kutki-gtil, " hexagonal bloom " ;
linkonia-gul, " three-cornered bloom " ; adhi dhar-gul, " rhombus
bloom " ; chorus-pul, " square [matting-like] bloom " ; tiki, a
small round pattern ; and gundirio, " plump," compounded of all
the materials used ; ek dana, " one grain," having the appearance
of a row of silver beads set in ebony ; and pori lUmr, j of ran
marapech, jeri, baelmutana, sankru hansio, and poro hansio,
these eight last being bordering patterns. The work was
introduced into Scinde from Shiraz, about 100 years ago, by
three Multanis, Pershotum Hiralal, and the brothers Devidas and
Vuliram. A number of people acquired the art under them, and
about 70 years ago it was introduced into Bombay by Manoredas,
Nundlal, Lalchund, Thawurdas, Kattanji, Pranvalub, and Nar-
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 79
ronclas, who educated a number of Parsis and Surat men, by whom
it was carried to Surat, Baroda, Ahmedabad, and elsewhere.
Fifty masters, all of whose names I have recorded, and about 75
apprentices under them, were engaged in the work in Bombay in
1863, of whom Atmaram, Wulleram, and Parshostam Chilaram had
been established in the Kalbadavi ward ever since its introduction
60 years before. One of the most intelligent craftsmen at present
in the trade is Framji Hirjibhai. Tin wire is used in the work
instead of brass, as in Persia, where also it is always varnished. The
same inlaid work is made in Egypt and Algiers, and it is similar to
the tarsia or marquetry of Italy and Portugal, and the Roman work
known as opus cerostrotum. It is also, I believe, identical with
the inlaid work of Girgenti and Salerno, although in this the
patterns are floral, and not geometrical, for I found by a com-
parison of the two varieties in Paris, that there was not a single
geometrical pattern in the Bombay work which cannot be traced
back to a flower in the work of Girgenti and Salerno. The
Egyptians also obviously worked in tarsia. The art is said .to
have died out of Europe, and to have been again reintroduced
at Venice from the East. More probably it remained an unbroken
tradition in the Mediterranean, and was revived by the Saracens.
At Goa, rare old caskets, coffers, and other examples of it, of the
same style as the Portuguese 16th and 17th century tarsia, and
evidently the chef d'veuvrcs of patient Hindu hands, are some-
times to be found by the insidious virtuoso, but otherwise
there is not a trace of it in India, except what has come during
the last 110 or 120 years from Persia.
Vizagapatam Work.
Vizagapatam work, in ivory and stag's horn, is applied to the
same class of articles as Bombay work. It is of very recent
origin, and the etching in black, sgraffito, on the ivory, is exclu-
sively of European flower forms, represented naturally, in light
and shade. The effect is most unpleasing.
Mynpuri Work.
In Mynpuri work, which is analagous to buhl-work, we find
boxes and platters of a rich brown wood inlaid with brass wire
in various geometrical and scroll patterns. Sir John Strachey,
who has given great encouragement to this local industry, ex-
hibits several examples of it. It is curiously like the wood inlaid
with wire seen in Morocco, and it would be interesting to inquire
after the history of its introduction at Mynpuri, where it goes by
the name of tarkashi, or " wire work ;" a word which suggests
the possible etymology of the word tarsia.
Inlaid Work of Agra.
The inlaid work of Agra, a mosaic of crystal, topaz, pearls,
turquoise, carnelian, jade, coral, amethyst, blood-stone, carbuncle,
sapphire, jasper, lapis-lazuli, garnets, agates, and chalcedony
on white marble, is also chiefly applied to ornamental furniture
80 PATHS rxivKRSAL ExniBiTiox, 187 y :
and household objets (fart. It originated in the exquisite decora-
tions of the Taj at Agra by Austin de Bordeaux, and, after almost
dyinjr out as a local industry, on the dissolution of the Mogol
Empire in 1803, was revived about 30 years ago through the
exertions of Dr. J. Murray, late Inspector General of Hospitals,
Bengal. Nearly all the specimens of this work in England, at
Windsor and elsewhere, were produced under his fostering care.
While Florentine in origin and style, the designs have a thoroughly
local character of their o\vn, and, unless influenced by injudicious
European direction, adhere strictly to the principles and methods
of Indian ornamentation. The mosaic, being laid on the brilliant
white marble of Jeypore, is liable, however, to look vulgar, unless
the stones used for it are very judiciously selected.
Mosaic obviously originated in pavement, and the introduction
of .ornamented pavement was probably suggested by oriental
tapestry. A pavement, pavimentum, is strictly a flooring [SaireSa^,
whence 8a-*^, and Tmj;, a carpet or rug, laid on the floor~\ or
stratum, composed of flags, slabs, or pebbles, bricks, tiles, or shells,
set in a cement, and beaten down [pavio] with a rammer or
pavicula ; and the classical writers [Pliny, Bk. xxxvi.] distinguish
pavements by different names, according to their situation, struc-
ture, and decoration.
The paved floors of rooms and passages were designated
pavimenta subtegulanca, and pavements in the open air, particu-
larly those laid on the flat roofs of houses, pa vimenta subdialia.
The pavimcntum sectilc was composed of different coloured
rnarble cut (sccta) into regular forms, such as favus, like the
cells (hexagons) of a honey-comb; trigo/ium, triangular; scutula
rhomb-shaped ; and tessera, with its diminutive tcssella, a cube.
All these forms might be not only of cut marble or other stone,
but of glass or other composition. The abacuhis [ajSa/cwviro,-] was
a small tile or die [tessera^ of glass, or other composition, stained
of various colours in imitation of precious stones.
The pavimcntum tessellatum, or tcsseris struct urn, was a sectile
pavement, composed of large tessera.
The pavimentum vcrmiculatum was composed of smaller tesserce,
arranged, not in diapers and geometrical figures, but so as to
represent natural objects, as in pictures, by lines of embedded
tesserae, which necessarily turned and twisted about like the tracks
of worms. This vermicular mosaic was divided into opus majus,
composed of larger tessera, opus medium, of smaller, and opus
minus vermiculatum, composed of very minute and delicate tessellce
almost spiculcc.
In the pavimentum scalpturatum, the marble was cut out in the
shape of the figures intended to be represented in the mosaic, and
was further engraved after the manner of the Triqueti marbles in
the Albert Memorial Chapel at Windsor.
The pavimcntum testaceum was composed of broken tiles or
potsherds.
The pavimentum lithostrctum, literally stone stratum or street,
was the ordinary pavement of Roman roads, laid with polygonal
blocks or flags of silicious lava.
HA>T)BOOK TO THE INDIAX COURT. 81
The pavimentum optostrotum, literally baked [OTTTO,-, cactus']
.stratum or street, was a pavement of bricks. Often the oblong
bricks were laid in imitation of the setting of the seed grains in
an ear or spike of corn, \_spica testacea], or, as we say in England,
herring-bone ways, as may be seen in the walls of Pevensey
Castle and other old Roman masonry.
Gradually the word lithostrota came to signify Mosaics in the
modern sense exclusively. Thus Pliny [Bk. xxxvi., ch. 25, says:
" Pavimenta originem apud Gra?cos habent elaborata arte,
" pictura? ratione, donee lithostrota expulere earn."
Again, the Greek word for Mosaic, il/^a-o-*? from 4>y(po; a pebble,
also indicates the origin of the art in pavement. The word
Mosaic is said by Hendrie to be derived from the Arabic mosque,
but it came into use long before the rise of the Saracens. It is
first used by ./Elius Spartianus, one of the " Scriptores Historic
" Augusta?," in the biography of Pescennius Niger, A.D. 293 ;
and later by Trebellius Pollio, A.D. 320 ; and Aurelius Augustus,
A.D. 430; and the word is clearly from the Greek ^ovo-ejav, a
temple of the Muses; Latin, Musium, Musieum opus; Italian
(through the Greek, and not Latin), mosaico; Spanish, mosaico;
French, mosaiquc, and so English, mosaic.
The Alcxandrinum opus of the third and fourth centuries A.D.
was a mosaic pavement laid in elaborate geometrical figures, and
the direct forerunner of the characteristic arabesque work of the
Saracens. By mosaic proper, Musivum opus, has always been
understood a picture or other ornamental design formed of small
pieces of marbles or other stones, or of glass or other composition,
used chiefly for the decoration of walls and ceilings, and personal
ornament. This is indicated by the specific Greek name for
true mosaic, i//?^* xrfrtoi, evidently referring to the use of gilded
glass tcsserce in the Mosaics of the Byzantine period, the manu-
facture of which [tessera?] is so lucidly described by Theophilus
the Monk (10th-12th cent. A.D.), Bk. II.. ch. xv. " De vitro
" Graeco quod Musivum opus decorat."
" Yitreas etiam tabulas faciunt opere fenestrario ex albo vitro
" lucido, spissas ad meusuram unius digiti, findentes eas calido
" ferro per quadras particulas niinutas, et co-operientes eas in uno
" latere auri petula, superliniuut vitrum lucidissimum trituin ad
supra. Hujnsmodi vitrum interpositum Musivum opus omnino
decorat."
The earliest notice of mosaic is in the Bible in the story of
Esther (circa B.C. 450j, where, in the account (ch. 1) of the six
months' feasting held by Ahasuerus (Xerxes) to arrange the third
invasion of Greece, we are told (v. 6) in the description of the
palace of Shushan, "the bedswere of gold and silver, upon a pave-
" ment of red [porphyry], and blue [lapis-lazuli], and white
" [alabaster], and black marble." Mosaic pavements have not
been found in the remains of Egyptian, Babylonian, and Assyrian
temples and palaces, but true mosaics have been found as a decora-
tion of mummy cases. The Greeks carried the art to marvellous
perfection, and Pliny naturally enough ascribes its origin to them.
He particularly mentions the pavimentum asarotum of the Greek
82 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
artist Sosus of Pergamus, representing the remains of a banquet,
shown, on an apparently unswept ; [aVa^aro?] floor. " The doves
of Pliny," represented with one drinking, and others sunning and
pluming themselves round the rim of the drinking bowl, are uni-
versally known through the copies which have been reproduced of
them in all ages and countries. The most interesting and valuable
of all the ancient pictorial mosaics which have been preserved to
our time is the one which was found at Pompeii, in " the house of
Pansa," representing the battle of Issus. The mosaics of the
classical period are severe in design and chaste in colouring, but,
as the influence of Indian art gradually spread over the Medi-
terranean countries, rich colours and even gold were gradually
-more and more introduced into the mosaics of the Lower Empire,
and give them their distinctive character.
After the fall of the Western Empire the art seems to have
perished out of Italy, until it was revived in the 13th and 16th
centuries, and the revival was through the Byzantine Greeks,
as is indicated by the Greek form of the Italian word mosaico.
The Saracens had from the first used glazed tiles for covering
walls and roofs and pavements, and of course with a view to
decorative effect. The use of these tiles had come down to them
in an unbroken tradition from the times of the Chaldean monarchy,
the Birs-i-Nimrud, or Temple of the Seven Spheres at Borsippa,
near Babylon, of the pyramid of Sakkara in Egypt, and of the
early trade between China and Egypt and the valley of the
Tigris and Euphrates. Glazed tiles had, however, fallen into
comparative disuse in the East before the rise of the Saracens, and
it was the conquests of Chingiz Khan, A.D. 1206-27, which
would appear to have brought about their general use throughout
the countries of Islam. That the Saracens indeed derived the art
of true mosaic direct from the Greeks is proved by their calling it
sephisa, from the Greek i//ijp<n?. When the Caliph Walid in-
vaded Palestine, one of the conditions of peace he made with the
Caesar at Constantinople was that he should furnish a certain
quantity of sephisa, which he had seen in the church at Bethlehem
built by the Empress [St.] Helena, for the decoration of the
mosque he was building at Damascus.
The use of inlaid stone in true mosaic work by the Mongols in
India, was principally due to the revival of the- ancient art in
Italy. The Italians of the Renaissance developed two distinct
forms of inlaying in stone, the Roman mosaic of modern jewellers
which may be compared to the opus minus vermiculatutn, and
the Florentine, composed of thin slices of different coloured stones,
chiefly quartzose, cut to the shape of the form they are intended
to represent, the petal of a flower, the wing of a bird, or whatever
it may be, and set in white or black marble with cement, of which
in good work not a trace should appear between the encrusted
stones and the marble, not even when seen through a magnifying
glass. It was this, Florentine, form of mosaic inpictra dura which
was used by Austin dc Bordeaux in the decoration of the glorious
Taj-Mahal, and which has become naturalised as a local art at
Agra. Austin's earlier work at Delhi appears to have been
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUBT. 83
purely imitative, as may be seen from several specimens of it now
in the India Museum. The mosaic representing Orpheus is in-
teresting, from its being supposed to be a portrait of Austin him-
self. It was looted at the recapture of Delhi from the mutineers
in 1857, and was purchased for the India Museum from Sir John
Jones. At present the chief in layers at Agra are two Hindus
named Nathu and Purusrain. The pavimcntum Grcecanicum of
Pliny was a concrete composition of charcoal, sand, lime, and ashes,
rammed down and polished to represent black marble. Omitting
the charcoal, this is pretty much the composition of the " chu/iam"
walls and floors, in imitation of white marble, which are seen all
over India in superior houses, and in the Madras Presidency
in particular are remarkable for their high polish and real look of
white marble. The commoner chunam stucco made of kankar
and pounded sand, is indeed the Roman arenatum, and the finer
sort, in which pounded marble or calc-spar is substituted for sand,
is the Roman marmoratum. When this stucco is decorated in
various designs, as a sort of false mosaic, it may be compared to
the painting in coloured plasters which has long been recognised
in Europe as a special art. In a/ fresco painting the colours are
soaked into the plaster, while it is still damp, and thus the design
is indelibly fixed to the hardening surface. In a tempera painting
the colours, mixed with size to make them adhere, are put on the
plaster after it has hardened. Often the background of a compo-
sition is painted in alfresco, and the figures of the foreground in
a tempera. When the plaster is etched, in a manner resembling
the pavimentum scalpturatum, the work is called sgraffito. The
term encaustic painting, now used only for the painting of glazed
tiles, was first applied to a tempera painting, in which the vehicle
of the colours used was wax, spread over the surface of the stucco
with a heated iron, or " actual cautery."
Sandahoood and other Wood Carving.
Sandalwood carving is chiefly carried on in the Bombay
Presidency, at Surat, Ahmedabad, Bombay, and Canara. It is
applied to" the same articles as the Bombay inlaid work. Indeed
the generic term " Bombay Boxes " includes Sandalwood can-ing
as well as inlaid work, but wood carving is a far superior art
to inlaying, and in India is as ancient as the temple architecture
and the carved idols in which it probably originated. The Surat
and Bombay work is in low relief, and the designs consist almost
entirely of foliated ornament ; the Canara work is in high relief,
the subjects being chiefly mythological ; and the Ahmedabad
work, while in flat relief, is deeply cut, and the subjects are
mixed floral and mythological ; for instance, Krishna and the
Gopies, represented not architecturally as in Canara carving, but
naturally, disporting themselves in a luxuriant wood, in which
each tree, while treated conventionally, and running into the
general floral decoration, can be distinctly recognised. A line is
drawn below the wood, and through the compartment thus
formed a river is represented flowing, as on Greek coins, by an
84 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
undulating baud, on which tortoises and fishes and waterfowl are
carved in half relief.
Sandalwood is also carved in Mysore, in the Canara style, and
a little at Moradabad, in the North-West Provinces, and afc
Bhurfpur ; and Ebony is excellently carved at Bijnur in geome-
trical designs, generally applied to fancy boxes, and also at
Monghyr. Latterly these ebony boxes have been inlaid with
ivory, as in the old Sicilian tarsia work. Idols are carved in
various woods all over India.
Carved Ivory and Horn.
Ivory is carved all over India, but chiefly at Amritsar, in the
Punjab ; at Benares, Behrampore, and Murshedabad, in Bengal ;
and at Travancore, \ r izagapntam and Viziunagrain, in Madras.
The subjects are generally richly caparisoned elephants, state
gondolas in gala trim, tigers, cows, and peacocks, carved as statu-
ettes, and hunting, festive, and ceremonial scenes, and mythological
subjects carved in relief. The carved ivory combs found in every
Indian bazaar are also most artistic in form and detail. Bisons'
horn is carved into figures and otherwise wrought at Sawuntwari
and elsewhere.
Carved Stone.
The agate vases of Baroach and Cambay have been famous,
under the name of Murrhine vases, from the time of Pliny.
Animals are carved in black marble at Gya, and in white marble
and reddish sandstone at Ajrnere and in other parts of Rajputana,
in which we find the same truth of representation as in the
ivory carvings of Benares and Travancore. In Rajputana also
idols are largely carved in -white marble and brilliantly coloured
in red and green paint and gold. Jade is still carved in Cashmere,
and Potstone in various parts of India, and a soft soapstone at
Fatehpur Sikri.
Clay Figures.
Figures in clay, painted and dressed up in muslins, silks, and
spangles, are admirably modelled at Kishnaghur, Calcutta, Luck-
now, and Poona. Fruit is also modelled at Gokak, in the Bombay
Presidency, and at Agra and Lucknow. The Lucknow models
are so true to nature as to defy detection until handled.
It is very surprising that a people who possess, as their ivory
and stone carvings and clay iigures incontestably prove, so great a
facility in the appreciation and delineation of natural forms should
have failed to develop the art of sculpture. Nowhere does their
figure sculpture shew the inspiration of true art. They seem to
have no feeling for it. They only attempt a literal ti'anscript of
the human form, and of the forms of animals, for the purpose of
making toys and curiosities, almost exclusively for sale to English
people. Otherwise they use these sculptured forms only in
architecture, and their tendency is to subordinate them strictly to
the architecture. The treatment of them rapidly becomes con-
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 85
ventional. Their very gods are distinguished only by their
attributes and symbolical monstrosities of body, and never by any
expression of individual and personal character.
So foreign to the Hindus is the idea of figure sculpture in the
{esthetic sense, that in the noblest temples the idol is often found
to be some obscene or monstrous symbol. How completely their
figure sculpture fails in true art would be seen at once if they
attempted to produce it on the natural or heroic scale ; and it is
only because their ivory and clay and stone figures of men and
animals are on so minute a scale that they excite admiration.
Their larger figure sculpture is indeed never pleasing, except when
treated conventionally. It is a strange failing.
Lac Work.
Lac work is a great and widely extended industry in India.
The higher class work, applied to furniture and house decorations,
is centred only in the great towns, but the making of variegated
lac marbles, and walking sticks, and lac mats is carried on even
by the wandering jungle tribes. The variegated balls and sticks
are made by twisting variously colored melted sealing wax round
and round the stick or ball from top to bottom in alternate bands.
Then the object is held before the fire, and with a needle or pin
short lines are every here and there drawn perpendicularly through
the bands of sealing wax, drawing the different colours into each
other, when the stick or ball is rapidly rolled on a cool, smooth
surface, and that intricately variegated effect is produced which
is so puzzling until explained. The netted mats are made by
allowing the thread cf sealing wax twisted round a stick to cool,
and then drawing the whole coil off, and breaking it into sections
of three or four turns each, which are linked together into
" mats " of all sorts of variegated colours, but chiefly scarlet and
black, and black and golden yellow. I describe the process from
actual observation.
The Scinde boxes are made by laying variously colored lac in
succession on the boxes while turning on the lathe, and then cut-
ting the design through the different colours. Other boxes are
simply etched and painted with hunting scenes, or natural or
conventional flowers, and varnished.'
The Punjab boxes are distinguished by the purple-colored lac
used on them.
- The Efjjputana boxes have generally a drab ground, decorated
with conventional, almost geometric flower forms, of two colours,
or two forms arranged in the alternate rythmical manner which is
seen throughout all Indian decoration.
The lacquered papier mache of Cashmere is the choicest in
India, and only inferior to the very best Persian. It is applied
to native pen cases and boxes in two styles of decoration ; the
shawl (cone) pattern, which is done in many colours, and is not
pleasing on large objectc-, such as tables and chairs ; and, flower
pattern, the rose, narcissus, pink, and jasmine, drawn in their
natural form and colour, but without light and shade.
86 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
The lacquer work of Karnul, applied to large trays and boxes,
is embossed with flowers, painted generally on a green ground,
and lighted up with gold.
The lacquer work of Sawuntwari is applied to native toys,
such as models of hand-mills, weights and measures, cooking
utensils, and vessels for eating and drinking, and to the peculiar
fans of the country, and Hindu playing cards. These last are
circular, and being painted with mythological subjects in bright
colours, are most pleasing objects, and interesting also as
illustrating the state of the art of painting in India, in districts
where it has remained uninfluenced by European teaching and
example.
In Mysore, and elsewhere in the Deccan, there is a sort of
lacquer-ware in which the ground is painted in transparent green
on tin foil, and the subjects, generally mythological, being paulted
on this shining background in the brightest opaque colours,
the effect has almost the brilliancy of the jewelled enamels of
Jeypore.
Miscellan eous.
Paintings on Talc are chiefly sold at Patna, Benares, and
Tanjore. Delhi paintings on ivory, in the style of European
miniatures, have been already mentioned under jewellery. They
are often of great merit, especially as decorative paintings, and
the first Delhi painter in my time in Bombay was Zulfikar All
Khan, on whose work I officially reported to the Government of
Bombay in 1863, and who I find from Lieut. F. Cole's invaluable
catalogue of the objects of Indian Art exhibited in South
Kensington Museum, sent the best miniatures to the Annual
International Exhibitions of 187172.
Trinketry. In all parts of India imitation jewelry is made.
In Dacca, also, bracelets are made from chank shells, imported
from the Maldive and Laccadive islands. They are sawn into
semi-circular pieces which are joined together, and carved and
inlaid with some red composition. At Poona and other places
bracelets and necklaces and chains are made of some sort of
perfumed composition, and also of various seeds, as the scarlet and
black seeds of the ganja or gunch \_Abrus precatorius~\, the flat
black seeds of the talapota or tuncar [Ceufia auriculata~\, the
red seeds of the rukta chundun or Red Saunders [Adenanthera
pavonin(t~\, the mottled seed of the supari or betel-nut palm [Areca
Catechu~\, the oval seeds of the bhirli mar \_Caryota ureas'], and
the deeply sulcated seeds of the rudrach \_Eleoearpus Ganifnts'],
which are also worn as a necklace by the Brahmins and. fakirs.
Feathers. At Poona, peacock's feathers and cuscus are made up
with beetle wings and spangles into fans and mats.
Leather. Curious toys, figures, and artificial flowers are made
by a single family of the shoemaker [muchi] caste at Nursapore
in the Godavery district. They are very like those made at Con-
dapilly in the Kistna district.
In India shoes are valued not so much for the soundness of their
leather as the beauty of their ornamentation ; and formerly a great
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 87
industry of gold embroidered shoes flourished at Lucknow. They
were in demand all over India, for the native kings of Oudh would
not allow the shoemakers to use any but pure goldwire in their work.
But, when we annexed the kingdom, all such restrictions were re-
moved, and the bazaars of Oudh were at once flooded with the pinch-
beck embroidered shoes of Delhi, and the Lucknow shoemakers'
occupation was swept away for ever by the besom of free trade.
In the Punjab, huka stands, water bottles, and other articles of
household use are wrought of plain leather, ornamented with strips
of green leather and bright brass mountings. In Guzerat beauti-
fully embroidered leather mats are made. It is indeed quite
impossible to enumerate all the smaller village wares of India,
although they are the most interesting of all, illustrating as they
do the infinite variety in unity of the decorative ait of India.
These ephemeral wares, as well as the more important ones
mentioned under this class, are all illustrated in the collection of
the Prince of Wales' Indian presents, down to the artificial flowers
made with the pith of the sola, or JEschynomene aspera, of which
also the Sun Hats worn by Europeans in India, and called Solar
topis by a natural corruption of the native name of the pith,
are made. Only four objects, however, need particular men-
tion. The ivory bedstead [compare Od. x, 12, T^TO?? AE%eeo-<r*y]
from Travancore illustrates the excellence of the ivory turning
and carving in that native State. It would in a hot climate
convey an idea of delightful coolness, and in this respect will
recall to the mind of those who have seen it the deep-seated
couch of carved Jeypore white marble, which belonged to Earl
Canning, and is now possessed by Mr. Wentworth Beaumont. The
silver throne was presented by a sort of penny subscription by
the priests of Madura. It is a striking object, in form of course
European, but the strange, barbaric ornamentation is reproduced
directly from the architectural details of the celebrated temples of
this city of famous Hindu shrines. The harmony of the composi-
tion has, however, been violently outraged by the flaring magenta
French satin used in the upholstery of the throne. The bed-
stead of graved parcel gilt silver, with red and yellow hang-
ings of needle-worked embroidery, is one of the many splendid
gifts of the Maharajah of Cashmere. It is very picturesque in
outline, and when placed on its blue and red silk carpet, quite
Titianesque in colour. The ivory and ebony palanquin of Viza-
gapatam work is the gift of the Princess Bobili. The effect
of the ebony through the pierced ivory makes it a pleasing
object at a distance. It is very richly and prettily furnished
inside. Among the toys are two models of chariots, one drawn
by cream coloured bullocks, and the other by cream coloured
horses, which look as if they had just stepped out from an
illuminated page of the Ramayana or Mahabharata.
TRAPPINGS AND CAPARISONS.
All Indian exhibitions are overloaded with gaudy trappings,
and state caparisons and housings, horse cloths, and elephant
cloths, howdahs, and high umbrellas, peacock tails and yak tails.
88 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
They look very brave in procession through the narrow streets
thronged with the gay crowd, advancing tumultuously between
the high overhanging houses, painted story over story, in red, and
green, and yellow, like macaws : or when the Mnhratta princes and
their whole court go forth in high gala, with trumpet?, and with
shawms, high shrilling pipes, and belaboured tom-toms, into the
jungle, to do homage at the Dusscra festival to the palas or
Butea frondosa ; returning everyone with his hands full of its
yellow flowers, to offer as gold before the, idols in the wayside
village temples : but here they are interesting solely for the designs
often to be found on the metal work, and for the manner in which
cut cloth work, opus consutum, or applique as it is termed by the
French, is used in their ornamentation ; and also for the general
resemblance which they bear to the horse trappings seen in
Italy, and in the sculptures of Egypt and Assyria. Chaurics of
Yak tails, and Peacock feathers, murchals are regarded as the most
august insignia of royalty in the East. The Prince has a pair
of each of these regal symbols, mounted elaborately on jewelled
and enamelled handles. Many visitors will have seen the pea->
cock feathers borne before Leo XIII. at his environment, and no
doubt their use by the Popes of Rome was derived at some distant
date from the East. To put jewels and enamel on peacock's feathers
would seem like adding another hue unto the rainbow, but there is
no " wasteful and ridiculous excess" in the masterly way in which
the Jeypore artist has used the feathers, and gems, and his
enamels to mutually enhance each other's effect in these pompous
murchals. Nothing can be richer than his materials, nothing more
harmonious and effective than the manner in which he has com-
bined them. The silver hoicdah belonging to the Prince is
interesting merely for its picturesque silhouette.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
Indian musical instruments are remarkable for the beauty and
variety of their forms, which the ancient sculptures and paintings
Shew have remained unchanged during the last two thousand
years. The harp chany is identical in shape with the Assyrian
harp represented on the Niniveh sculptures, and the rina is of
equal antiquity. The Hindus claim to have invented the fiddle-
bow.
WOVEN STUFFS, FELTS, FINE NEEDLEWORK, AND CARPETS.
The embroidery, and cotton, silken and woollen tissues and
stuffs, and the carpets in the Prince's collection are very disap-
pointing. The Tanjore and other Madras carpets are common-
place, and very inferior ; and. with the other textile fabrics, betray
the increasing use of the Magenta dyes, and prevalence of French
and Manchester designs. The few Cashmere shawls shewn, how-
ever, are superlatively fine, some of the usual shawl-pattern, and
others snuff-colored, of softest texture, inwrought with gold. One
is worked with a map of the city of Srinagar, the capital of
Cashmere ; the streets and houses, gardens and temples, with the
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 89
people walking about among them, and the boats on the deep blue
river, seen as clearly, in the quaint drawing of a mediaeval picture,
as in a photograph. Another shawl, more soberly colored, is one
mass of the most delicate embroidery, representing the conven-
tional Persian and Cashmere wilderness of flowers, with birds of
the loveliest plumage singing in the bloom, and wonderful animals
stalking about, and wondering men.
There are also several pieces of the finest Dacca muslin, of
which one kind, mulmul-khas, is so fine that a piece of it, many
yards in length and a yard in width, can be passed through a
finger ring, or put into a round ivory case not much larger than
an egg-shell. The muslins from Benares are figured with gold,
on a ground of white, black, brown, or purple. There are many rich
brocades kincobs from Benares and Ahmedabad, of shining dyes
and stiff with gold, and Delhi and Scinde and Cutch embroideries.
In one of the cases is hung the most glorious kincob ever seen in
Europe. It is of Ahmedabad work, rich with gold, and gay
with colours, and v/as presented to the Princess of Wales by
the young Guicowar of Baroda. The stuff called soniri, or
" golden," is richer still, but is not ornamented with a coloured
border, it is simply cloth of gold. Rupert is made in the same
way with silver, and was doubtless the fabric in which Herod was
arrayed when enthroned before the people, in the full blaze of the
sun, they hailed him as a god [Josephus, "Antiquities," xix. viii. 2].
The fur-lined jackets of silk, trimmed with gold braid, are very
charming, and most tasteful in design. Weaving was probably
first of all countries perfected in India, and the art of its gold
brocades and filmy muslins, "comely as the curtains of Solomon,"
is even older than the Code of Menu. Weaving is frequently al-
luded to in the Vedas in such passages as these " Cares consume
" me as a rat gnaws a weaver's thread," and *'' Day and Night
" spread light and darkness over the extended earth like two famous
" weavers weaving a garment." In the Ramayana the descrip-
tion of the nuptial presents to Sita, the bride of Kama, from her
father, of the precious stones, and princely jewelry, woollen stuffs,
fine silks, vestments of divers colours, furs, and sumptuous
ornaments of all kinds, reads like the inventory of the Prince's
presents here exhibited 2000 years later. No conventional orna-
ment is probably more ancient than the colored stripes and pat-
terns we find on Indian cotton cloths and carpets called sattringis.
In the kincobs the ornamental designs betray conflicting in-
fluences. It is very difficult to say when silk weaving passed from
China into India, and it would appear as if there were no conclusive
evidence of its having been known in Western Asia until Jus-
tinian introduced it from China through Persia in the sixth century.
But there is no doubt that the brocades of Ahmedabad and Benares
and Murshedabad represent the rich stuffs of Babylon, wrought, as
we know they were, with figures of animals in gold, and variegated
colours. Such brocades are now a speciality of Benares, where
they are known under the name of shikargah, happy " hunting
grounds," which is nearly a translation [Yule, " Marco Polo," i. 63]
of the name tkard-wahsh, or "beast hunts," by which they were
H22. G
90 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
known to the Saracens. Fine weaving probably passed from India
to Assyria and Egypt, and through the Phoenicians into Southern
Europe ; and gold was inwoven with cotton in India, Egypt,
Chalda3a, Assyria, Babylonia, and Phoenicia, from the earliest times,
first in flat strips, and then in wire, or twisted round thread, and
the most ancient form of its use is still practised all over India.
In Exodus xxxix, 2 and 3, we read : " And he [Aholiab] made
" the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined
" linen. And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it
" into wires" ("strips" it should be translated), "to work it in the
" blue and in the purple and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen,
" with cunning work." The inspired Psalmist, in setting forth
the majesty and grace of the Kingdom of God [Psalm xlv.], says,
" Upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in gold of Ophir.
* * * The King's daughter is all glorious within, her raiment is
of wrought gold." Almost at the same time Homer describes the
golden net of Hephaestus (Od. viii, 274) :
" Whose texture e'en the search of gods deceives,
Fine as the filmy webs the spider weaves."
Pliny (Bk. viii. ch. 74) also tells us, " But to weave cloth with gold
" was the invention .of an Asiatic King, Attalus, from whom the
" name Attalic ("Attalica vestis" " Attalica tunica" "Attalicus
torus ") was derived, and the Babyloniams were most noted for
their skill in weaving cloths of various colours. Of course the
excellence of the art passed in the long course of ages from one place
to another, and Babylon, Tarsus, Alexandria, Baghdad, Damascus,
Antioch, Tabriz, Constantinople, Cyprus, Sicily, Tripoli, succes-
sively became celebrated for their gold and silver wrought tissues,
and silks and brocades. The Saracens, through their wide
spreading conquests and all devouring cosmopolitan appetite for
arts and learning at second hand succeeded in confusing all
local styles together, so that now it is often difficult to distinguish
between European and Eastern influences in the designs of an
Indian brocade : and yet through every disguise it is not impossible
to infer the essential identity of the brocades of modern India with
the blue and purple and scarlet worked in gold of ancient Babylon.
Such a brocade was doubtless " the goodly Babylonish garment "
which tempted Achan in Jericho, and the Veil of the Temple at
Jei'usalem, which Josephus describes " as a 7T7rXo$ 'Ba.fii'Xuvus of
" varied colours marvellously wrought." Col. Yule [" Marco Polo,"
i. 62], in the place just cited, also writes : " From Baudas or
" Baldac, i.e., Baghdad, certain of these rich silk and gold bro-
" cades were called JBaldachini, or, in English, Baudekins. From
" their use in the state canopies and umbrellas of Italian digni-
" taries, the word Baldacchino has come to mean a canopy, even
" when architectural." Cramoisy derives its name from the
Kermes insect, which before the introduction of cochineal from
America, in 1518, was universally used for dyeing scarlet. It is
the tola of Moses, wherewith the hangings of the Tabernacle and
sacred vestments of the Hebrew priesthood Avere < twice dyed."
Sardis was celebrated for this scarlet dye, as were Tyre and Crete
HANDBOOK TO TIIE INDIAN COURT. 91
for their lustrous purples, the Tyrian being obtained from a shell
fish, as was also the red of Tarentuin, and the Cretan tincture from
a plant which Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny respectively
call TO itovriov (J)VKO<;, (pvKo/; QaXaeo-iw, phycos thalassion, but which
was, however, not a seaweed, but a lichen, identical probably
with one of the species from which the Orchil purple of modern art
is prepared. That the celebrated " purple " of the ancients was
amethystine or violet in hue, and not red, is directly proved by
their comparing the Tyrian with the Cretan purple, the latter of
which they considered the more brilliant. Herodotus tells of the
admiration of Darius for the " scarlet cloak " [Rawlinson, %Xv^
irvppa " amiculum rutilum " Latin translation] of Syloson, the
Samian, the fiery colour of which was probably derived from
Kermes, and which certainly would not have excited the cupidity
of Darius had the dye of Tyre been red. From the Arabic name
of the insect, kirmij, comes not only cramoisy and carmine, but
also vermeil, vermilion. The Arabs received both the insect arid
its name from Armenia, and kirmij is derived from quer mes, and
means originally " oak berry." Dioscorides describes it under
the name of KOKKO; ftapn<rj ; and Pliny says of it, " est autem genus
" ex eo in Attica fere et Asia (Proconsular!) nascens, celerrime
" in vermiculum se mutans, quod ideo solecion vocant " [xxiv. 4].
Vermilion is undoubtedly the same word as vermiculum. Vermi-
culum, in fact, in the middle ages, signified Kermes, " and on
" that account cloth dyed with them was called verrniculata,"
and in England formerly " vermilions." The French term
vermilion also originally signified Kermes, and from it was sub-
sequently transferred to red sulphuret of mercury or cinnabar,
a pigment known from the earliest times, it being mentioned
by Jeremiah in his description of a house " ceiled with cedar
" and painted with vermilion " [ch. xxii. 14] ; and by Ezekiel
[xxiii. 14], when referring to the carvings of " men por-
" trayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed
" with vermilion," which portraitures in carving and in paint
have survived to our time.
Textile fabrics frequently take their names from the place where
they first acquired excellence, and retain them long after the local
manufacture has been transferred elsewhere, and sometimes the
name itself is transferred to altogether another style of manufac-
ture. Thus, beside Baudekin from Baghdad, we have Damask from
Damascus, and Satin from Zaytoun in China [Yule]. Sindon,
Syndon, Sendal, Saudaliu, and Cendatus, from Scinde, Calico from
Calicut, and Muslin from Mosul. Marco Polo, Book I. ch. v., of the
kingdom of Mosul, writes, " All the cloths of gold and silver that
" are called Mosolins are made in this country ; and those great
" Merchants called Mosolins who carry for sale such quantities of
" spicery and pearls, and cloths of silk and gold, are also from this
" kingdom." In his note (vol. i. p. 59) Colonel Yule observes :
" We see here that mosolin or muslin has a very different meaning
" from what it has now. A quotation from Ives, by Marsden,
" shows it to have been applied in the middle ages to a strong
" cotton cloth made at Mosul. Dozy says that the Arabs use
G 2
92 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
" MauciU in tlie sense of muslin." Tartariums, Colonel Yule
[' Marco Polo," i. 259] believes, were so called, " not because they
" were made in Tartaiy, but because they were brought from
" China through the Tartar dominions." Dante alludes to the
supposed skill of Turks and Tartars in weaving gorgeous stuffs ;
and Boccacio, commenting thereon, says that Tartarian cloths
are so skilfully woven that no painter with his brush could equal
them. Thus also Chaucer, as quoted by Colonel Yule :
" On every trumpe, hanging a broad banere
Of fine Tartarium."
This is the cloth of gold which Marco Polo calls Nasich and Naques,
and he evidently describes the primitive working of gold in strips
into it where, Book II. ch. xiv., he writes : " Now on his birth-
" day, the Great Khan dresses in the best of his robes, all wrought
" in beaten gold." Buckram is said to be derived from Bokhara.
The word occurs (Yule, " Marco Polo," i. 59) as Bocharani, Buche-
rani, and Boccassini. Fustian is said to be derived from Fostat, one
of the mediaeval cities that form Cairo, and Taffeta and Tabby from
a street in Baghdad. Baden Powell, however, in his list of cotton
fabrics met with in the Punjab [" Punjab Manufactures," vol. ii.
p. 22], names taftd a fabric of twisted thread, made both in silk and
cotton ; and tafia in Persian means twisted, as bafta means woven.
Perhaps the manufacture gave its name to the street in Baghdad
where it was made. Cambric is from Carnbray ; Sarcenet from the
Saracens ; Moire and Mohair from the Moors. Diaper is not, how-
ever, from d'Ypres in Flanders, but from a Low Greek word
Stcunrplv [from *a$ira&>, I separate], meaning " patterned," figured,
diapered. Arras is from Arras ; Cordwain from Cordova ; and
Nankeen from Nankin. Gauze is said to be from Gaza, Baize from
Baiae, and Dimity from Damietta. Cypresse is from Cyprus ; and
Frieze from Friesland ; Jean from Jaen ; Cloth of Rayne from
Rennes ; and Cloth of Tars from Tarsus, or perhaps Tabriz.
Drugget is said to be from Drogheda ; Duck, that is Tuck [whence
Tucker Street, Bristol], from Torques in Normandy. Bourde
de Elisandre or Bourdalisandre from Alexandria ; Worsted from
Worsted in Norfolk ; and Kerseymere (" Cashmere ") from Kersey,
and Linsey-Wolsey from Linsey, two villages of Sussex. Gingham
is said to be from Guingamp ; Siclatoun is thought to be from
Sicily. Chintz is derived from chint or chete, Hindu words for
variegated, spotted, whence cheta ; but I believe it to be derived
from China, and that the weavers of Masulipatam first learned to
stamp Chintz with its peculiar patterns from the silks landed at
that port from China. Velvet and Samit are both fabrics of
Eastern origin, and the etymology of the former word, in old
English " velouette," is from the Italian vellute, fleecy, nappy, and
Latin vellus a fleece ; and of the latter, from e| " six," and ulra
"threads," the number of threads in the warp of the texture.
Camlet was originally probably woven of camels' hair. Under
the Eastern Empire Chrt/soclacus was the name given to old
silks of rich dyes worked with the round nail head pattern in
gold. The name Gammodion was given to silks patterned with
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUKT. 93
the Greek letter r ; and when four of these letters were so placed
as to form a St. George's cross, or a Filfot cross, the silk was
termed Stauron, or Stauracinus, and Polystauron. Defundato
were silks covered with a netted pattern in gold ; and Stragulatce
were striped or barred silks, evidently derived originally from
India. Tissue is cloth of gold or silver similar to Siclatoun,
Tartarian! or Naques, and the soneri and ruperi of India ; and
the fliinsey, bluish paper called tissue-paper was originally made
to place between the Tissue to prevent its fraying or tarnishing
when folded up. Cloth of Pall would be any brocade used as an
ensign, robe, or covering-pall of State, and generally means Bau-
dekin. Camoca is the same word as kincob (Jtimkhwa). Shawl
is the Sanscrit, sala, a floor, or room, because shawls were first
used as carpets, hangings and coverlets. The word therefore is
in its origin the same as the French salle and Italian salonc,
saloon, or large room. We must wait for Colonel Yule to give
us the etymology of Bandana pocket handkerchiefs.
Cottons.
The cotton manufactures did not obtain a real footing in
Europe until last century. At a date before history the art was
carried from India to Assyria and Egypt ; but the plant was not
introduced into Southern Europe until the 13th century, where its
wool was at first used to make paper. The manufacture of it into
cloth in imitation of the fabrics of Egypt and India was first
attempted by the Italian States in the 13th century ; from which
it was carried into the Low Countries, and thence passed over to
England in the 17th century. In 1641 "Manchester cottons," made
up in imitation of Indian cottons, were still made of wool. But in
vain did Manchester attempt to compete on fair free trade principles
with the printed calicoes of India, and gradually Indian chintzes
became so generally worn in England, to the detriment of the
woollen and flaxen manufactures of the country, as to excite
popular feeling against them ; and the Government, yielding to the
clamour, passed the law, in 1721, which disgraced the statute book
for a generation, prohibiting the wear of all printed calicoes
whatever. It was modified in 1736 so far that calicoes were
allowed to be worn, " provided the warp thereof was entirely of
linen yarn." Previously to this, in 1700 a law had been passed by
which all wrought silks, mixed stuffs, and figured calicoes, the
" the manufacture of Persia, China, or the East Indies, were
forbidden to be worn or otherwise used in Great Britain." It
was particularly designed for the protection of the Spitalfields silk
manufacture, but proved of little or no avail against the prodigious
importation and tempting cheapness of Indian piece-goods at
that time. Cotton was first manufactured in Scotland in 1676,
and in Glasgow in 1738, and in Manchester the manufacture of
printed calicoes was regularly established in 1764. Fustians
dimities and vermilions from cotton-wool had, however, been made
in London and in Manchester from 1641. After the invention of
Arkwright's machine, in 1769, the production of Manchester
94 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
developed so rapidly as to make it veiy evident that the protection
of manufactures against foreign competition was a violation of
the first principles of political economy.
We have seen that cotton is mentioned in the Bible (Esther i. 6)
by its Sanscrit name, and " the white and blue cotton hangings "
described were probably imitations from, if not actually, Bengal
satrangis. The Ramayana frequently mentions colored gar-
ments, and the way in which robes are represented colored on
the Egyptian monuments in zig-zag stripes of different colours,
green, yellow, blue, pink, is one of the most characteristic ways of
dyeing cotton cloth in India. Herodotus, Book i. ch. 203, tells of a
certain tribe of the Caspian : " In these forests certain trees are
" said to grow, from the leaves of which, pounded and mixed
" with water, the inhabitants make a dye, wherewith they paint
" upon their clothes the figures of animals, and the figures so im-
" pressed never wash out, but last as though they had been in-
" woven in the cloth from the first, and wear as long as the
" garment." Pliny, Book xxxv. ch. 42 (11), writes: "In Egypt
" they employ a very remarkable process for the colouring of
" tissues. After pressing the material, which is white at first,
" they saturate it, not with colours, but with mordants that are
" calculated to absorb colour. This done, the tissues, still un-
" changed in appearance, are plunged into a cauldron of boiling
" dye, and are removed the next morning fully coloured. It is a
" singular fact, too, that, although the dye in the pan is of an
" uniform colour, the material when taken out of it is of various
" colours, according to the nature of the mordants that have been
" respectively applied to it ; these colours, too, will never wash
out."
From Arrian we have seen that 2jv8o've<, muslins ; and 'OfloW,
cottons ; Il|jiw//.aTa, sashes, ZSvat o-Kiaraij sashes striped with
different colours ; Hoppvpai, purple cloth ; and DtvSoVe? /AoAo'^va*,
muslins of the colour of mallows, were exported in his time from
India to all the ports on the Arabian and East African coasts.
The Portuguese gave the name of Pintadoes to the chintzes
of India when they first saw them at Calicut. Indeed the cotton
tissues and stuffs of India have always been even more sought after
for the beauty and brilliance of their natural dyes, than for the fine-
ness and softness with which they are woven ; and one of the
greatest improvements in English textile manufactures would be
the substitution of the rich deep-toned Indian dyes for the harsh
flaring chemicals, especially of the Magenta series, at present in
use. Mr. Wardle, of Leek, has paid great attention to this matter,
especially in connexion with the application of dyes to the tusser
silk of India.
The Maharajah of Cashmere has, it is said, adopted an effec-
tual plan for the suppression of the Magenta dyes within his
kingdom. First, a duty of 45 per cent, is levied on them at the
frontier ; and at a certain distance within the frontier, they are
confiscated and at once destroyed.
The great export cotton manufactures of India have long fallen
before the competition of Manchester. Still, however, an immense
HANDBOOK TO IHE INDIAN COURT. 95
cotton manufacture, for domestic purposes, continues to exist in
India, equal probably to the whole export trade of Manchester ; and
now that cotton mills are being established in Bombay and other
cities, we may expect to see the tide of competition at last turned
against Manchester. In consequence also of the improvement of
national taste in this country, and the spread of higher education
and culture among the natives of India, we may hope for a rapid
increase in the demand for Indian hand-loom made and artistically
dyed and printed piece goods. The true couleur d'ivoire is only
found naturally in Indian cotton stuffs. Nothing could be more dis-
tinguished for the ball-room, nothing simpler for a cottage, than
these cloths of unbleached cotton, with their exquisitely ornamented
narrow borders in red, blue, or green silk. Native gentlemen
and ladies should make it a point of culture never to wear any
clothing or ornaments but of native manufacture and strictly
native design, constantly purified by comparison with the best
examples and the models furnished by the sculptures of Amravati,
Sanchi, and Bharhut.
Surat is a town which suffered as much as any in India
from the extinction of the East India Company's trading
monopoly in 1833. " A new era was opened to English com-
merce," writes the historian, heedless of the two centuries of
manufacturing activity and prosperity, under the Company's
fostering rule, which had preceded it in India. But within the
last four or five years the cotton manufactures of Surat have
begun to revive, and the Khatris or Hindu weavers have begun to
make cloth of a new pattern, chiefly for bodices, which is largely
exported to the Deccan.
Baroach, also, under the East India Company, was a great centre
of cotton manufactures, from the stoutest canvas to the finest
muslins ; but the industry was ruined by the unrestrained
Manchester imports, and of the 30 odd varieties of cloths
enumerated in the factory diary for 1777, now only six are made.
At Vizagapatam a strong cloth is made called punjam, that
is, " 120 threads," and the cloth is denominated 10, 12, 14, up to 40
punjam, according to the number of times 120 is contained in the
total number of threads in the warp. Dyed blue at Madras, it is
exported to Brazil, the Mediterranean, and to London for the
West Indies. Imitation Scotch checks and plaids are also made
for the large population of poor native Christians in the Madras
Presidency.
In the Godavery district most excellent cloths are made at Up-
pada near Coconada, and in the villages about Utapalli and
Nursapore, and the fine turbands made at Uppada are still in
great requisition. Tent cloth of superior quality is also manu-
factured in the villages near Rajamundri, and in the Central Jail.
The weavers are however in a very impoverished condition, as
their industry has languished and gradually declined ever since
the abolition of the exclusive trade of the East India Company.
Formerly there was a large manufacture of blue salampores at
Nellore, which was quite broken up by the West Indian Emancipa-
tion Act, for the freed negroes refused very naturally to wear the
96 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
garb of their slavery ; and the heavy expenses of land carriage,
the absence of railways and canals, and the risks of sending goods
down to Madras by sea in native craft uninsured, while no insurance
office will accept the risk, all operate against the revival of the
old trade, and the development of the immense natural resources
of Nellore as a manufacturing centre.
The weavers and dyers of Bangalore who formerly worked for
the Court of Seringapatam still manufacture the printed cotton
cloths which were always their speciality. They are very coarse
and printed in only two colours, red and black, with mythological
subjects taken from the Eamayaca and Mahabharata. They are
made chiefly for the service of the temples, and are very rare to
get, except by favour from the priests. Sometimes they are
touched up in yellow by hand painting.
At Hoshungabad, in the Central Provinces, the weaving trade
flourished until the enormous demand for cotton wool in 1863-64
raised the price of the raw material beyond the weavers' means.
All the cotton wool in the district was exported, and Manchester
piece goods at once imported, and they have held the market ever
since. Many native looms have in consequence stopped, and the
local manufacture has partially succumbed.
At Chanda, coarse and fine cloths are made which are still ex-
ported to all parts of Western India, and which formerly found
their way to Arabia. The Telinga weavers turn out cloths of
colored patterns in very good taste, and cotton thread of won-
derful fineness is spun for export to other parts of India.
Before the annexation of the province a large number of the
lower classes of Oudh were employed in weaving cotton, and their
looms paid a fixed annual duty to the King, but the industry re-
ceived a fatal blow directly it was exposed to the unrestricted com-
petition of Manchester, if indeed it has not been utterly annihilated.
Cotton printing, however, still continues to be a successful business
at Lucknow, although Manchester chintzes sell for a shilling the
yard, while those printed on the spot cost twenty pence a yard.
But the Lucknow chintzes are far superior in colour, the Kukniil
and Baita rivers being famous for the purity of the tints their
waters give to the deep-toned dye stuffs of India.
At Dacca, in the time of Jehangir, muslin could be manufactured
three yards long and one broad, weighing only 900 grains, the price
of which was 407. Now the finest of the above size weighs 1,600
grains and is worth only 10/., and even such pieces are made only
to order. Tavernier states that the Ambassador of Shah Safy
[A.D. 1628-1641], on his return from India, presented his master
with a cocoanut,set with jewels, containing a muslin turband thirty
yards in length, so exquisitely fine that it could scarcely be felt by
the touch. A rare muslin was formerly produced in Dacca, which
laid on the grass, and wetted by the dew, became invisible.
The demand for the flowered muslins of Dacca has entirely fallen
off, but there is a brisk and increasing demand for Tusser em-
broidered muslins throughout India, and for Persia, Arabia,
Egypt, and Turkey.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAX COURT.
97
The cotton manufacture at Santipur arose from its having been
the centre of the large factories established in the Nadiya districts
in the old days of the East India Company.
At Noakhali, also formerly under the East India Company, cotton
cloths were largely manufactured, but the trade died out at once
with the extinction of the Company as a trading power. At
Sarail, in Tipperah, tanjib muslin is made as fine almost as the
finest of Dacca ; and the East India Company had a factory at
Charpata, where a species of bafta or Basta, as it was called in
the European trade, was made, which gained a great reputation ;
but the factory was closed about 50 years ago. At Kasim bazaar,
also, there was a great decline in its once famous manufactures
after 1833. Undoubtedly, the period of the East India Com-
pany's sovereignty and monopoly, from 1757 to 1833, was the
happiest India ever enjoyed since the time of the supremacy
of Buddhism under the Maurya dynasty.
The following alphabetical list of the leading denomination of
the fabrics manufactured in India for the East India Company has
been compiled from the books in the Record Department of the
India Office, of the Company's sales and accounts from 1671 to
1731, and from the Act of Parliament directed against the im-
portation of such articles in England and their use in this country.
The names of such as are not cotton piece goods are printed in
italics. As the list is of some historical interest, the names are
given with all the variations of spelling found in the Company's
books.
Abdaties, addaties, addethas ;
Adreas, ardeas ;
Allachas ;
Alliballies ;
Allebanes, allibanies ;
Allejars ;
Amadavad Taffeties ;
Amorees ;
Anquans (?) ;
Aprons ;
Arrahs ;
Atcharbannies ;
Atlases (satin); atlas catanees ;
Aubrahs, awbroahs.
Bafts, baftas, baftaes, Bafts
Bajetar, and many other de-
nominations of Bafts ;
Ballybands, query Belly-
bands ;
Bandannoes ;
Bettellas, beteeles, betelees, and
of many varieties, such as
Golconda, Original, and
Pcdavetz ;
birampouts, by-
Birampautts,
rampautte ;
Birds eyes ;
Blue cloth ;
Brawles ;
Broderas.
Callicoes ;
Callipatties ;
Callowgee Poise, callawaypoose ;
Cambays ;
Cambrics ;
Carmania shells (shawls ?
shal-i-Kermam ;
Carpets ;
Carpets of wool ;
Carpets of silver and gold ;
Carridarries, choradarrees :
Chacklaes, chucklaes, chillaes;
Chandennies ;
Charconees, charconnaes ;
Chubannies;
Chawooh (shawls ?) ;
Chennachurrees ;
Clmnderbannies ;
98
PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
Checquered Silks ;
Chinchuras ;
Chintz, Serungee or senmngee,
Candy, Caline (Calian ?),
Golconda, Surratt, Patna;
Choradarrees ;
Choucareas ;
Chowlerrees ;
Chowtars ;
Chundracounaes ;
Chustaes ;
Comees ;
Comervillies, comervilles ;
Congees ;
Coopers ;
Corahs ;
Cossaes, cossas ;
Cotton Romalls;
Cudphoolees ;
Culgees ;
Cumsalees ;
Cuttanees.
Damasks ; Damask Hannoes ;
Dareas ;
Decca musters, (muslins ?) ;
Derribafts ;
Denes ;
Derribands ; derribannees ;
Diapers;
Dimities ;
Doduns ;
Doosooties ;
Dooties, Ducka Dutties ;
Dungarees ;
Dysuksoys ;
Ecbarries ; eckbarres ;
Elatchees ;
Emarties, emertys, emmerties ;
Errendy cloth, (wild silk) ;
Ferridines (a spelling presum-
ably of Terridines).
Gagaroons ;
Gawze, and Gold Gawze ;
Geelongs ;
Ginghams ;
Goa Concheralaes ;
Golpumbas ;
Goshews ;
Gothan Cherulaes j
Guinea stuffs, evidently same
entry as Gunny Stuffs, Gun-
ny s, and Guynies ;
Gurbannies ;
Gurrhaes, gurrahs.
Habbassies ;
Handkerchiefs ;
Hannoes (see Damasks) ;
Hempen Canvas ;
Herba Ling a ;
Herba Taffetas;
Humhums, humhums quilted.
Jamdanees, jamdannies, jan-
dammes ;
Jamwars, jarnavars ;
Jappan gowns ;
Jecolsies, jellosies ;
Junnaes, junaes, junays ;
Junnapores.
Kerribands (possibly a mis-
spelling for Derribands) ;
Kelongs, painted ;
Kincha ;
Kissorisoys.
Lawns ;
Longis, lungees, lunzaes ;
Longcloth, and Blue Longcloth ;
Laccowries, luckhowries, luck-
howry, luckhouries.
Mamoodees, mamodies, mam-
modies ;
Mammoodiatties, mamolcohiates,
mamudpiattees';
Meroos ;
Meercooles, meerculees ;
Mobutbannees ;
Mocha Stuffs ;
Moopees ;
Mooreees ;
Muggadooties ;
Mullmulls, Mulmuls (muslins) ;
Mundells ;
Miishrues ;
Musters.
Naibabbies (nabobs ?) ;
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT.
99
Nainsooks ;
Necannees, nicanees ;
Neckcloths ;
Nehallawars ;
Nightrails, flowered ;
Nillaes, nittees (evidently a
misspelling) ;
Ningyauns.
Ojamas.
Pantkaes ;
Pallampores, palumpores ;
Paunchees, paunches ;
Peniascoes, pemascoes ;
Percallaes, percaulahs, parcolles ;
Petticoats ;
Photeas ;
Picotenios ;
Poises ;
Polongs ;
Pomphanes ;
Punia silks ;
Pulicat Handkerchiefs ;
Putcahs.
Quilts, small Pintadoe Quilts.
Razees, raraes;
Reckings ;
Romalls, romals /
Rowallews ;
Rungs, rungoes, rings, rehings.
Sacerguntees ;
Sailcloths ;
Sallempores, sallampores, salam-
pores ;
Salloes , sallees, saloos ;
Sannoes ;
Sattins ;
Seerbands, seerbunds, serre-
bands ;
Seerbetties ;
Seerbandconnaes ;
Shalbafts;
Sheerbafts [see Zeerbafts] ;
Sideruncheras, salderuncheras ;
Silk congees ;
Soosies, sooseys ;
Sovaguzees, souagwzees j
Subnoms, sufloms;
Succatums ;
Syndacloth, Sinda cloth.
Taffaties, T. herba;
Tanna stuffs [1682] ;
Tainsooks [see Nainsooks] ;
Tanjebs, tanjeebs ;
Teepoys ;
Terriduns, terridams terindames
[see Ferridines] ;
Tartoories ;
Topsails.
Vermillions [1704] ;
Velvetts.
Zarees [saris ?] ;
Zeerbafts [see Sheerbafts].
Dr. Forbes Watson, the Director of the India Museum, in his
exhaustive work on " The Textile- Manufactures and the Costumes
of the People of India," which embodies the results of the research
of a lifetime, and is worthy of the time and labour given to its
preparation, classes together the manufactures in cotton, silk, and
wool which are made up on the loom as garments, such as turband
cloths, and the dhoti, a flowing cloth bound generally round the
loins. It is generally bordered with purple or red, blue or green,
like the toga prcetexta [limbo purpureo circumdata], and in Mysore
the dhoti is called togataru. The sari, used by the women, is
also loom-made, and is the undoubted KaXvupa, of Homer. Thus
Thetis [II. xxiv. 93, 94]
" Veiled her head in sable shade,
Which flowing long her graceful person clad."
Kerchiefs, and waist cloths, and sashes are also loom-made.
The principal garments made up by cutting and sewing are the
100 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
bodice [choli~\ for women, who sometimes also wear a petticoat ;
and drawers [pijama, literally " leg-cloth " from Sanscrit pada,
Hindi pai, foot, so books say ; but possibly from the Sanscrit
Avord identical with the Greek vZy/j, e.g., in Venus Kuilipygos],
worn both by men and \vomen ; and the undress coat, angarka ;
and full dress coat, jama, worn only by men ; and caps which go
by all sorts of names, such as topi, toj, and others.
Among piece goods the first place is given to Dacca Muslins,
abrawan, or "running water; " bafthoioa, " woven air;" shubanam,
" evening dew," all plain white webs, the poetic names of which
convey to the reader a truer idea of their exquisite fineness and
delicacy, and of the estimation in which they are held, than whole
pages of literal description. These fine Muslins are all classed
under the generic term of mulmul k/ias or " King's Muslins."
Plain muslins are made not only at Dacca and Patna and other
places in Bengal, but also at Hyderabad in the Deccan, and at Cud-
dapah and Arni in Madras. Striped Muslins or duria are made
at Dacca, Gwalior, Nagpore, Hyderabad, Arni, and other places.
Checquered Muslins, or charkana, are chiefly made at Dacca,
Nagpore, Arni, and Nellore ; and Figured Muslins, jamdani, at
Dacca. Dr. Forbes Watson describes them as the chef cTceuvre
of the Indian weaver. At Calcutta embroidered muslin is called
chikan [" needle " work] . Muslins woven with colored thread,
striped, and checked, and figured, are made at Benares, Arni,
Nellore, and Chicacole in Madras ; printed Muslins at Trichi-
nopoly, and gold and silver printed Muslins at Jeypore, and
Hyderabad in the Deccan. " The process," Dr. Forbes Watson
writes, "by which this mode of decoration is accomplished is by
*' stamping the desired pattern on cloth with glue ; the gold or
" silver leaf as the case may be, is then laid on, and adheres to
" the glue. When dry what has not rested on the glue is rubbed
" off." In Persia the gold was sprinkled in the form of dust on
the pattern previously prepared with size. Messrs. Vincent
Robinson & Co. exhibit a very rare example of one of these old
Ispahan chintzes, wood block printed in gold and colours on a
black ground.
The Calicoes Dr. Forbes Watson classifies as plain, bleached and
unbleached, made all over India : Calicoes woven with] colored
thread, comprising ; first, susis and khesis, striped cloths of bril-
liant hue, made largely in the Punjab and Scinde, and also at
Surat, Palamcottah, Cuddalore, and other places in Madras, and
used chiefly for trouserings ; second, also^striped, manufactured
in Nepal and Pegu, and used for skirts ; and third, Checks and
Tartans, used also for skirts and petticoats, and manufactured at
Ludianah, Broach, Tanjore, Cuddalore, Masulipatam, and other
places in Madras : and Printed Calicoes [Chintzes, Pintadoes],
first on a white ground, manufactured at Fatehgarh, Masuli-
patam, and Arcot, &c. ; second, printed on a colored ground,
manufactured at Shikarpur, Agra, Fatehgarh, Bijapore, Bellary,
Arcot, and Ponneri, in Madras ; and third, the celebrated palam-
pores, or "bed covers," of Masulipatam, Fatehgarh, Shikarpur,
Hazarah, and other places, which in point of art decoration are
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 101
simply incomparable. As ait works they are to be classed with
the finest Indian pottery and grandest carpets. Lastly, Dr. Forbes
Watson classes together the miscellaneous cotton fabrics chiefly
made for Anglo-Indian use ; the pocket handkerchiefs of Nellore ;
the damask and diaper table cloths, napkins, and towels of Madras,
Salem, Masulipatam, Cuddalore, and Baroach ; and the counter-
panes and quilts of Karnul, Hyderabad in the Deccan, and
Ludianah.
Lace work has only recently been introduced into India, but the
natives shew a singular aptitude for it, and the excellent samples
of it in cotton, silk, and gold and silver among the Prince of Wales
presents from Tinnevelly and Nagarcoil in Madras leave nothing
to be desired either in design or manipulation. A white lace
called gota, and a colored variety called pattias are made in the
Punjab.
Gold and silver lace, of a totally different character, and of the
sort used in England by military tailors, is made in several of the
old royal cities of India, and in large quantity at Lucknow, parti-
cularly in the variety called lachka. The warp is of silver gilt
strips, woven with a woof of silk. It is often stamped with
patterns in high relief, and is much and widely used for edging
turbands and petticoats. In the variety known as kulabatu,
strips of gilded silver are twisted spirally round threads of yellow
silk, and then woven into a tape or riband exactly resembling
lachka iii appearance. In another variety of gold lace the woof
is of wire and the warp of silk. The strips of silver gilt used in
making kulabatu and lachka lace are prepared by beating silver
gilt wire flat, and the natives of India are far superior to the
English in the art of wire drawing.
Silks.
As silk is woven with the striped cotton susis of the Punjab
and Scinde, so we find cotton mixed with silk in the silken piecft
goods known in India under such names as mashru and sufi,
meaning " permitted." It is not lawful for Mussulmans to wear
pure silk \Jiolosericum~\, but silk mixed with cotton they are
permitted to wear ; and hence the well known Indian fabrics with
a cotton warp or back, and woof of soft silk in a striped pattern,
having the lustre of Satin, or atlas, are called mashru. Sufi is
the name given to the striped [gulbadan] " permitted " silks,
called also shuja-khani, of Bhawalpur, which differ from mashru
in that they have 110 satiny lustre, and look like a glazed
calico. They can scarcely be distinguished from susis, and are
glazed with a mucilaginous emulsion of Quinceseed. These mixed
stuffs are also found plain and checked and figured, and are largely
made in the Punjab and Scinde, at Agra, and Hyderabad in the
Deccan, and at Tanjore and Trichinopoly. Pure silk fabrics,
striped, checked, and figured, are chiefly made at Lahore, Agra,
Benares, Hyderabad in the Deccan, and Tanjore. The printed
silks worn by the Parsi and Bhatia and Bunia women of Bombay
are a speciality of Surat. Wild silk [tusser, eria, and mungd\
102 PABIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
is woven chiefly in Cachar, and at Darjiling, Bhagalpur, and
Warangal. Gold and silver are worked into the decoration of all
the more costly loom-made garments and Indian piece goods either
on the borders only, or in stripes throughout, or in diapered figures.
The gold bordered loom embroideries are made chiefly at Sattara,
and the gold or silver striped at Tan j ore ; the gold figured mashrus
at Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Hyderabad in the Deccan ; and the
highly ornamented, gold figured silks, and gold and silver tissues
principally at Ahmedabad, Benares, Murshedabad, and Trichi-
nopoly. Dr. Forbes Watson restricts the term Tissues to Cloths of
Gold and Silver, ruperi and soneri, made of flattened strips of
gold. The native word kincob is also generally restricted to the
highly ornamented gold (or silver) wrought silk brocades of
Murshedabad, Benares, Ahmedabad and other places ; but, as these
kincobs in their style and essential character are older than the
use of silk in India, Babylonia, Phoenicia, and Egypt, the name
is confusing when used in connexion with the history of decorative
art, unless understood in a sense coextensive with brocade. The
description which Homer gives of the robe of Ulysses in the xixth
Book of the Odyssey accurately describes a Benares shikargah, or
happy " hunting ground " kincob.
" In ample mode
A robe of military purple flow'd
O'er all his frame ; illustrious on his breast
The double-clasping gold the King confest.
In the rich woof a hound, Mosaic drawn,
Bore on full stretch, and seized a dappled fawn ;
Deep in his neck his fangs indent their hold ;
They pant and struggle in the moving gold.
Fine as a filmy web beneath it shone
A vest, that dazzled like a cloudless sun.
The female train who round him throng'd to gaze,
In silent wonder, sigh'd unwilling praise.
A sabre when the warrior pressed to part,
I gave enamelled with Vulcanian art ;
A mantle purple tinged, and radiant vest,
Dimension'd equal to his size, express'd
Affection grateful to my honour'd guest."
And, when this passage is read with others in Homer, proof is
added to proof of the traditional descent of the kincobs of Benares,
through the looms of Babylon and Tyre and Alexandria, from
designs and technical methods which probably, in prehistoric times,
originated in India itself, and were known by the Hindus already in
the times of the Code of Menu, and before the date of the Ramayana
and Mahabharata.
Thus in Iliad iii. :
" Meantime to beauteous Helen from the skies,
The various goddess of the rainbow flies.
Here in the palace at her loom she found,
The golden web her own sad story crown'd ;
The Trojan wars she weav'd, herself the prize,
And the dire triumph of her fatal eyes."
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 103
And Iliad v. :
' Pallas disrobes ; her radiant veil unty'd,
With flowers adorn'd, with art diversify' d.'
And Iliad vi. :
" The largest mantle her rich wardrobes hold,
Most prized for art. and labour" d o'er with gold.'-
* * * * * *
" The Phrygian Queen to her rich wardrobe went,
Where treasured odours breathed a costly scent.
There lay the vestures of no vulgar art,
Sidonian maids embroider'd every part,
Whom from soft Sidon youthful Paris bore,
With Helen touching on the Tyrian shore.
Here as the Queen revolv'd with careful eyes,
The various textures and the various dyes,
She chose a veil that shone superior far,
And glow'd refulgent as the morning star."
And in Od. xv. :
" Meantime the King, his son, and Helen, went
Where the rich wardrobe breathed a costly scent,
The King selected from the glittering rows,
A bowl ; the Prince a silver beaker chose.
The beauteous Queen revolv'd with careful eyes
Her various textures of unnumber'd dyes,
And chose the largest ; with no vulgar art,
Her own fair hands embroider'd every part.
Beneath the rest it lay divinely bright,
Like radiant Hesper o'er the gems of night."
The two last passages are photographic vignettes from any
wealthy Indian Settia's house, and in copying them one seems to
breathe again the very odours of the costus and costly spikenard
which native gentlemen wrap up with their rich apparel, and
fine muslins and broidered work.
There is an Indian brocade called chand-tara, "moon and
stars," because figured all over with representations of the heavenly
bodies; Athengeus, A.D. 230, quotes from Duris [B.C. 285-
247], the description of a cloak worn by Demetrius [B.C. 330],
into which a representation of the heavens, with the stars and 12
signs of the Zodiac, was woven in gold ; and Josephus [A.D. 37100]
states [" Wars of the Jews," Bk. v., ch. v. 4] that the veil presented
to the Temple by Herod, " was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered
with blue and fine linen, and scarlet and purple, and of a] contex-
ture that was truly marvellous. Nor was the mixture of colours
without its mystical interpretation, but a kind of image of the
universe. * * * This curtain had also embroidered upon it
all that was mystical in the heavens, excepting that of the 12
signs of the Zodiac, in the likeness of living creatures." In
2 Chronicles iii. 14, we read: "And he (Solomon) made the veil
of blue and purple and crimson and fine linen, and wrought cheru-
bims thereon." The veil of the Holy of Holies, made by Moses,
Josephus [" Antiquities," Bk. iii. ch. vi. 4] states, " was very
" ornamental, and embroidered with all sorts of flowers which the
" earth produces, and there were interwoven into it all sorts of
" variety that might be an ornament, excepting the forms of
104 PAKIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
'* animals." The passages in which various classical writers
describe curtains and carpets, and broidered work figured with
animals and men, " Persians," " portraits of Kings," and " Par-
thian letters," are too numerous for quotation. It is an interest-
ing fact that at Rai Bareli and other places in Oudh, a peculiar
brocade is made inwoven in gold and coloured silks with passages
from the Vedas, the Koran, and Watts's Hymns.
Beside chand-tara, among other poetical names for Indian pat-
terns of silks and kincobs, may be mentioned mazchhar, " ripples
of silver"; halimtarakshi, " pigeon's eyes"; bulbulchasm, "night-
ingale's eyes"; and murgala, " peacocks necks." The manufacture
of colored silks was, of course, originally introduced into India
from China, but at what period it is almost impossible to say.
They are mentioned, as we have seen, in the Ramayana, but
whether of Chinese manufacture or Indian cannot now be deter-
mined. In the Bible the first undoubted notice of silk is in Reve-
lations xviii. 12. The Hebrew terms which are supposed to refer
to silk are meshi and demeshek. The former, in Ezek. xvi. 10,
13, is translated by " silk," and the latter, in Amos iii. 12, by
Damascus : " Thus saith the Lord, as the shepherd taketh out of
" the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the
" children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the
" corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch." It has been thought
that in this verse demeshk should be translated by silk. The
shesh [probably the same word as demshek^ of Genesis xli. 42, of
many chapters in Exodus, and of Ezekiel xxvii. 7, is in all these
places uniformly translated in the authorized English version of
the Bible by " fine linen " and " linen," that is, of Egypt. But in
Genesis xli. 42, the margin gives " silk," and shesh is translated
by " silk " in Proverbs xxxi. 22. Elsewhere the Hebrew words
which have been translated by " linen " and " fine linen " are bad,
in Exodus xxviii. 42, xxxix, 28, Leviticus vi. 10, and xvi. 4,
23, 32, 1 Samuel ii. 18, and xxii. 18, 2 Samuel vi. 14, 1 Chronicles
xv. 27, Ezekiel ix. 2, 3, 11, and x. 2, 6, 7, and Daniel x. 5, and
xii. 7 ; butz jjStWos], 1 Chron. iv. 21, xv. 27, 2 Chron. ii. 14, iii.
14, and v. 12, Esther i. 6, and viii. 15, and Ezekiel xxvii. 15 ;
sadin, Judges xiv. 12, 13 ; etun, Proverbs vii. 16, a word which,
if it is identical with the Greek IQivti and lOwiov, would mean not
linen but cotton ; and pishtah, Leviticus xiii. 47, 48, 52, 59,
Deutronomy xxii. 11, and Jeremiah xiii. 1, translated "flax" in
Exodus ix. 31, Judges xv. 14, Proverbs xxxi. 13, Isaiah xix, 9,
and xiii. 3, and Hosea ii. 5 ; and "tow" in Isaiah xliii. 17,
pistah in fact denoting in Hebrew not only linen stuffs, but flax,
and the flax plant. Richstofen believes the shcrikoth of Isaiah
xix. 9, to be silk. It is difficult to believe that the Egyptians did
not weave raw silk, as we know that they possessed the art of
reducing Chinese silks to a sort of muslin-like web,
"A wondrous work, of thin transparent lawn,"
as Lucan describes it [Bk. x.] in the account he gives of
Cleopatra's feast to Caesar ; and it is quite possible that " the fine
linen of Egypt," and u the fine linen of Colchis," which was sent
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUKT. 105
to Sardis to be dyed [Herodotus ii. 105], may have included silk.
It was no!, however, until the time of Julius Ccesar [B.C. 47]
that Chinese silks began to be largely introduced into Southern
Europe, and Virgil is the first classical writer who is supposed to
allude unequivocally to it, in the second Georgics :
" Black ebon only will in India grow,
And odorous frankincense on the Sabaean bough.
Balm slowly trickles through the bleeding veins
Of happy shrubs in Idumaean plains.
The green Egyptian thorn, for medicine good,
With Ethiop's hoary trees, and woolly wood,
Let others tell : and how the Seres spin
Their fleecy forests in a slender twine."
Aristotle certainly knew the silk worm, /3//t3vf, and its cocoon,
poupvKia, [Hist. An : v. 19 (17), 11 (6)]. He describes it as, "A
" certain great worm, which has as it were horns, and differs from
" others, at its first metamorphosis produces a caterpillar, [/c/x7nj]
" afterwards a bombylius [jSo/*jSt/Xo'] and lastly a necydalus
" [vcJ8oXo$]. It passes through all these forms in six months.
" From this animal some women unroll and separate the cocoons,
" and afterwards weave them. It is said that this was first woven
" in the island of Cos by Pamphile, daughter of Plate?, trfuTij 8e
" Xiyerai vfvjvat ev K.y Hapffaii TlAa-rtu Qvydryp." Pliny [Bk. xi. 26
(22)] 400 years later, following Aristotle's description, also says
that Painphile was the first who discovered the art of unravelling
the silk worms webs, and spinning tissue therefrom : " Prima eas
" redordiri, rursusque texere, invenit in Ceo mulier Pamphila Latoi
" filia, non fraudanda gloria excogitate rationis ut denudet feminas
" vestis." This was indeed the well known " Coa puellis vestis,"
which was so transparent that the form and colour of the body
could be seen through it, as represented in the well-known al
fresco painting at Pompeii of a dancing girl, whose Coan vesture
floats round her like a summer mist, disclosing the whole contour
of her figure, and the perfect grace of her action, as through a
veil of silken gauze.
" As if unclothed she stands confest,
In a translucent Coan vest."
In chapter 27 (23) of the same book Pliny describes the reeling
of Coan silk, and mentions that men have not felt, ashamed to
make use of garments made of it in consequence of their extreme
lightness in summer ; adding, " the produce of the Assyrian silk
" worm we have left till now to the women only." But in Book
vi. 20 (17) all he has to say about Chinese silk is that "the Seres
" are famous for the wool that is found in their forests, and after
" steeping it in water they comb off a white down that adheres
" to the leaves," " and then to the females of our part of the world
" they give the two fold task of unravelling their textures, and of
" weaving the threads afresh." This, however, is no more than
Lucan's " Sidoniau fabric which wrought in close texture by the
" sley of the Seres, the needle of the workman of the Nile has
" separated," in which he represents Cleopatra to have appeared
in the full splendour of her charms, when she feasted Csesar in
H22. H
106 PARTS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
high Alexandrian fashion. And even Dionysius Perigetes, so late
as A.D. 275-325 would still seem to have had no better informa-
tion regarding the natural source and the manufacture of Chinese
silks than Virgil's poetical allusion. What he says is : " The Seres
" comb the variously coloured flowers of the laud to make their
'' precious garments, rivalling in colour the flowers of the meadow
" and in fineness the spider's web." Aristotle does not say
that the silkworm was reared, and raw silk produced in Cos ; he
simply describes the silk worm, and says that silk was first woven
in the island of Cos by Pamphile, the daughter of Plates. Pliny
would seem to have confused the manufacture of silk from cocoons
with the unravelling of Chinese silks and weaving their threads
again into Coan gauze ; and perhaps with that of the silky stuff
made from the floss-like beard of the Pinna marina, and still
manufactured at Taranto, which was held in the highest estimation
by the Greeks and Romans. Or raw silk, Indian, if not Chinese, may
have possibly been known, and woven to some extent in Western
Asia, Egypt, and the island of Cos, for generations before Chinese
silken stuffs were brought to the west. Then Pliny's only error
would be in jumping to the conclusion, from Aristotle's simple
statement about Pamphile, that the silk-worm moth was bred in
Cos. Be this as it may, it is clear that the silk- worm and its cocoon
were known to the Greeks and the Romans from the time of
Alexander's expedition to India, and equallv clear that Chinese silk
stuffs were not generally known in Southern Europe before the
time of Julius Caesar, who first displayed a profusion of them in
some of those magnificent theatrical spectacles with which he was
wont to entertain the populace of Rome. It was at first used only
by a few women of the highest and most opulent families. In the
reign of Tiberius Caesar a law was passed that no man should dis-
grace himself by wearing silk " ne vestis serica viros fcedaret." It
was priced at its weight in gold, as shewn by the anecdote told
of Valerian, A.D. 253-260 : " Vestem holosericam neque ipse
" in vestiario suo habuit, neque alteri utendam dedit. Et quum
" ab eo uxor sua peteret, ut unico pallio blatteo serico uteretur,
" ille respondit, absit ut auro fila pensentur : libra enim auri libra
" serici fuit." And from the Rhodian naval regulations (Lex
Rhodid) which are preserved, at least the clauses dc jactu, in the
Digests of the Roman laws, published A.D. 553, we find that un-
mixed silk goods [holosericunf\, if they were saved free from wet,
were to pay a salvage of ten per cent, as being equal in value to
gold.
But the demand for silken articles rapidly increased in spite of
all prohibitions and restraints, and their enormous price, and so
great was the drain of specie from the Eastern Empire on ac-
count of silk and other Eastern productions, that the Emperor
Justinian resolved to introduce the cultivation of silkworms into
Europe ; and, encouraged by his promises and gifts, two Persian
monks succeeded, about A.D. 550, in carrying the eggs of these
insects to Constantinople. The Issidones, the inhabitants of the
modern Khotan, had from the earliest ages been the chief agents
in the transmission of silk from China over the Himalayas into
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 107
India, and across the Pamere Steppe into Western Asia and
Europe. Direct traffic between China and Turkestan only began
about B.C. 114, and ended A.D. 120, when the overland trade
in silk fell into the hands of the Persians. At first Justinian
endeavoured by means of the Christian Prince of Abyssinia to
wrest a portion of the trade from the Persians ; but, failing in this
attempt, he succeeded in obtaining his object at last by a mere
accident. The two Persian monks, who had learned among the
Seres the whole process of the culture of silk worms and manufac-
ture of silk, imparted their secret to the Emperor : and, being
induced to return to China, succeeded in safely bringing back
with them to Constaninople a quantity of eggs concealed in
the hollow joint of a bamboo. The Greeks soon acquired
great skill in the production of the raw silk, and carried
on its manufacture at Thebes, Corinth, and Argos, and other
places in the Peloponnesus, undoubtedly deriving their designs
from the cotton and linen, if not silk looms of Al Modayn,
Alexandria, Tabriz, Damascus, Tyre, Berytus and Antioch.
Procopius indeed says that long before his time silk had been
made at Tyre and Berytus. The manufacture was subsequently
carried by the Saracens from Baghdad, Tabriz, Aleppo, and
Alexandria into Sicily, and examples are extant of the Saracenic
silks of Sicily of the 12th century. Roger, king of Sicily, also
carried a large number of silk manufacturers from Greece to
Palermo fn A.D. 1147. From Sicily the manufacture spread
into Italy and established itself at Florenec, Lucca, Venice,
Milan, and Genoa. From Italy Louis XL, in 1480 introduced
the art into France at Tours, and in 1520 Francis I., having
got possession of Milan, established it at Lyons. Silk was
made in England in the reign of Henry VI., but the great
encouragement to its manufacture in this country was derived
from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV.
in 1685, which drove about 50,000 of the best French workmen
to seek a refuge in England, where a large number of them
established themselves at Spitalfields. When the old East India
Company began to import Indian silks with other eastern stuffs
into England, a great deal of exasperation was felt by the home
manufacturers of cotton, woollen, and silken goods ; and at length
the Legislature of this country was constrained to pass the
scandalous law of 1700, already referred to, by which it was
enacted " that from and after the 29th day of September, 1701,
all wrought silks, Bengalis, and stuffs mixed with silk or herba,
of the manufacture of China, Persia, or the East Indies, and
all calicoes, painted, dyed, printed or stained there, which are
or shall be imported into this kingdom, shall not be worn or
otherwise used in Great Britain ; and all goods imported after
that day, shall be warehoused or exported again."
Whether the Saracens found the manufacture of silk already
established in India or not, it is evident that they largely in-
fluenced the designs of its ornamentation in that country. Kincobs
are now made in Ahmedabad and Benares, identical in design with
old Sicilian brocades; and the Saracenic Sicilian silks abound
H 2
108 PABIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
with designs which prove, as I shall presently shew, their origin in
Assyrian and Indian art. We know that the Saracens and Moors
introduced colonies of Persian, and it may be presumed Indian,
workmen into Spain to help them in their architecture : we know
that Greek architects built some of their mosques at Cairo, and
that the Mogul Emperors of Delhi introduced Italian and French
artists and workmen to design some of their great buildings in
India. Not only the Taj, but nearly every large native building
in Rajputana, is decorated with most exquisite mosaics, never
seen by Europeans, of the period of Austin de Bordeaux. Thus
styles of art act and react upon one another, and nothing throws
more light on the affinities and development of the modern deco-
rative arts of Europe and India than the history of the introduc-
tion, by Justinian, of the silk manufacture from China into the
West.
Em broideries.
Indian embroidery is done on silk, velvet, cotton, wool, and
leather ; and the embroidery on wool of Cashmere, both loom-
wrought and with the needle, is of historical and universal fame.
The Cashmere shawl trade is of the highest antiquity and im-
portance, and it is very deplorable that it should have been
recently checked, owing to the use of French designs and the
Magenta dyes in the manufacture. The cone pattern with its flow-
ing curves and minute diaper of flowers, characteristic of these
shawls, is well known. According to Mr. Baden Powell [' : Manu-
factures of the Punjab," pp. 39-40], the natives distinguish the
ornamentation of the shawls by different names. The hashia or
border is disposed along the whole length, and according as it is
single, or double, or triple, gives its particular denomination to the
shawl. By the term pala is meant the whole of the embroidery
at the two ends, or, as they are technically called, the heads of the
shawl. The zanjir or chain runs above and below the principal-
mass of the pala. The dhour, or running ornament, is situated
on the inside of the hashia and zangir, enveloping the whole field
of the shawl. The kunjbutha is a corner ornament of clustering
flowers. The mattan is the decorated part of the field or ground,
and the butha, the generic term for flowers, is specifically applied
alone to the cone ornament, which forms the most prominent
feature of the pala. Sometimes there is only one line of these
cones. When there is a double row, the butha is called dokad,
sekhad, up to five, and tukadar above five. A special variety of
this ornamentation is designed for the Armenian market, known by
the name of Tara Armeni. Besides shawls, an immense variety
of articles are made in Cashmere of shawl stuff. The wool
employed in the manufacture is the down called pushrn of
the so-called Cashmere goat of Ladak : and lately the weaving
of pushmina shawls has been introduced from Cashmere into
Lucknow. The finest of the woollen stuffs called patu is made
of camel's hair, and is a true Camlet therefore. It is embroi-
dered in Cashmere and the Punjab, Scinde, and Delhi, and is
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUET. 109
generally made up in loose burnous-like robes called chogas, much
used by English officers as dressing gowns. Ctesias compares
camel's hair for its softness to Millesian wool, which Theocritus
describes as " softer than sleep." A rough but remarkably durable
patu is made from goat's hair. Black sackcloth blankets, called
katnbhli, are woven all over India.
Muslin is embroidered at Dacca and Patna ; and at Delhi also,
in colored floss silk. Rich broidered work is made in Scinde
in colored silk thread and gold and silver. The embroidery of
Cutch, in colored silk thread, very rarely seen, is of the same
style as the well-known embroidery of Resht on the Caspian.
Either the Armenian merchants introduced the style into Cutch,
or from Cutch into Persia. Gold is also used in Cutch for em-
broidery in the Persian style of Ispahan and Delhi. The gorgeous
gold embroidered velvets (makJimar) of Lucknow, and of Gul-
bargah, Aurungabad, and Hyderabad in the Deccan, used for
canopies of costly state, umbrellas of dignity, elephants' cloths,
horse cloths, and state housings and caparisons generally, are
largely represented in the Prince's Collection. In form they have
remained unchanged from the earliest periods of Indian history,
but their sumptuous gold scroll ornamentation is in design dis-
tinctly of Italian 16th century origin. The Portuguese were in
the habit of sending satin to India to be embroidered by natives
in European designs.
It would appear that carpets originated in embroidery, and that
carpets were first used, like embroideries, for hangings and palls.
The earliest notices we have of this art are in the Bible, in the
accounts in the Pentateuch of the furnishing of the Tabernacle
and elsewhere. In Judges v. 30, we have in the song of Deborah,
" Have they not sped ? have they not divided the prey, to every
" man a damsel or two ; to Sisera a prey of divers colours of
" needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides,
" meet for the necks of them that take the spoil ? " the description
of a style of embroidery, both needle-wrought and loom-made,,
still held in great esteem in India and Persia. In Ezekiel xxvii.
23, 24. we read " Hnran and Canneh and Eden \_i.e. Aden], the
" merchants of Shebah, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.
" These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes
" and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with
" cords and made of cedar, among thy merchandise," a passage
which is thought to refer to Cashmere shawls imported into
Tyre through Aden. The great demand in ancient times for
broidered work was for the hangings and veils of temples, and
the art originated with the women who wove these veils for
the temples of Egypt, India, Babylonia, and Phoenicia. To
Greece and Rome embroidery came from Phrygia, and hence an
embroiderer was called in Rome Phrygio, and embroidered robes
Phrygiones. Gold broidered work was called auriphrygium,
whence the old English word Orphrey. Such work is now called
" Passing." In India we find all the varieties of needlework that
are found in Europe : opus plumarium or feather stitch, opus pul-
vinarium or cross stitch, opus Anglicum or chain stitch, and
110 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
worked in circular lines also, but never rubbed down to obtain
an effect of relief, opus pectineum or woven work in imitation of
embroidery, and opus consutum, applique or cut work, in wbich
the ornamental figures are cut out in separate pieces of silk or
cloth, and sewn on to the stuff to be embroidered. These draps
entaillez are obviously the origin of the Persian carpets of
Mashhad. The parrots, rabbits, tigers, and fawns represented
upon them have evidently been imitated from figures of these
birds and beasts cut in cloth for applique work.
In many parts of India muslin is very beautifully embroidered
with green beetle wings and gold. In the Prince's Collection is a
piece of muslin embroidered in gold and painted spangles and
imitation pearls, with a perfect effect of reality and richness. The
embroidered leather work of Guzerat has already been noticed.
Marco Polo, bk. iii. ch. xxvi., writing of " Gozurat " says : " They
" also work here beautiful mats in red and blue leather, exquisitely
" inlaid with figures of birds and beasts, and skilfully embroidered
" with gold and silver wire. They are marvellously beautiful
" things ; they are used by the Saracens to sleep upon, and
" capital they are for that purpose." This was written 600
years ago, and is still as true to the work described as if it had
come by the last mail from Bombay. But the most wonderful
piece of embroidery ever known was the chadar or veil made
by order of the late Guicowar, Kunderao, of Baroda for the tomb of
Mahommed at Medina. It was composed entirely of inwrought
pearls and precious stones, disposed in an Arabesque pattern, and
is said to have cost a crore of rupees. Although the richest
stones were worked into it, the effect was most harmonious. When
spread out in the sun it seemed suffused with a general iridescent
pearly bloom, as grateful to the eyes as were the exquisite forms
of its arabesques.
Carpets,
Indian carpets are of two kinds, cotton and woollen ; generally
they are classed as cotton daris and satrangis and woollen rugs
and carpets, but in fact daris is the native word for a rug, and
satrangi for a carpet. Daris and satrangis, however, are perfectly
distinct in style and make from the usual Indian pile carpets and
rugs. Daris and satrangis are made of cotton, and in pattern are
usually striped blue and red, or blue and white, or chocolate and
blue ; and often squares and diamond shapes are introduced, with
sometimes gold and silver, producing wild picturesque designs like
those seen on the bodice and apron worn by Italian peasant
women. They are made chiefly in Bengal and Northern India,
and, like the loom-made dhotis and saris, illustrate the most ancient
ornamental designs in India, perhaps earlier even than the immi-
gration of the Aryas. The manufacture of pile carpets was
probably introduced into India by the Saracens. They certainly
introduced it into Europe, where, in the Middle Ages, carpets of the
nature of woollen stuffs, ornamented somewhat in the manner of
draps entaillez, were called Sarracinois. Towards the end of the
12th century the Flemings began to weave pictured tapestries, but
HANDBOOK TO THE IXDIAX COUET. Ill
it was not until the reign of Henry IV., A.D. 1596, that the
modern carpet manufacture was introduced from Persia into
France. It is from Persia that the Saracens must have derived
the art of making pile carpets, for nearly all the patterns on them
in India and elsewhere can be traced back to Persian originals. In
the paintings of the old masters we see, in the representation of
oriental carpets on floors, and hung out of windows, the origin of
the designs afterwards made vulgar by their imitation in " Brussels
carpets." But it is not easy to determine when woollen pile
carpets were first made in Persia. Homer mentions carpets, and
by their present name Tan^ra, as in II. ix. 200.
" With that the chiefs beneath his roof he led,
And placed in seats with purple carpets [TCITHJO-I
spread."
And Od. iv. 124 :
" To spread the pall [raTrrrra] heneath the regal chair,
Of softest wool [jtoAcucoC fyfoto] is bright Alcippe's care.'
And Od. iv. 298 :
"And o'er soft palls of purple grain, unfold
Rich tapestry [TOTnjray] stiff with inwoven gold."
AndOd. x. 12:
" on splendid carpets lay."
Pliny, where [Book viii. ch. 73-74 [48]] he describes the
different kinds of wool and their colours, and different kinds of
cloths, says : " The thick flocky wool has been esteemed for the
" manufacture of carpets from the earliest times; it is quite clear
" from what we read in Homer that they were in use in his time.
" The Gauls embroider them in a different manner from what is
practised by the Parthians. Wool is compressed also for making a
felt, * * * and the refuse, too, when taken out of the vat is used
for making mattresses, an invention, I fancy, of the Gauls. * *
Our ancestors made use of straw for the purpose of sleeping
upon, just as they do at present when in camp. The gausapa
has been brought into use in my father's memory, and I myself
recollect the amphimalla [napped on both sides] and the long
shaggy apron being introduced."
It is evident that some sort of baize, or felt, or drugget, used as
tapestry for the wall, and for coverlets for beds, as well as for
rugs or carpets, is meant in all these passages. Am an in his
account of the tomb of Cyrus [Bk. vi. 29], which is taken from
Aristobulus, who was not only an eye-witness of it, but was or-
dered by Alexander to repair it, says : "Within this edifice was
" the golden coffin, wherein the body of Cyrus was preserved,
" as also the bed whose supporters were of massy gold curiously
" wrought, the covering thereof was of Babylonian tapestry, the
" carpets underneath of the finest wrought purple ; the cloak and
" other royal robes were of Babylonian, but the drawers
" [pijamas] of Median workmanship. Their colour was chiefly
" purple, but some of them were of various dyes. The chain
" round his neck, his bracelets, his earrings, and his sword, were
112 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
" all of gold, adorned with precious stones. A costly table was also
" placed there, and a bed whereon lay the coffin, which contained
" the king's body." Athenseus has many allusions and references
to carpets, and in the account which he gives [Bk. v. ch. 27], from
Callixenus the Rhodian [B.C. circa 280] of a banquet given by
Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, the carpets which were laid in
the tent are accurately described: " There were also golden couches,
with the feet made like sphinxes, on the two sides of the tent, a
hundred on each side. * * * And under these there were strewed
purple carpets of the finest wool, with the carpet pattern on both
sides. And there were handsomely embroidered rugs, very
beautifully elaborated. Besides this, thin Persian cloths covered
all the centre space where the guests walked, having most ac-
curate representations of animals embroidered on them." It is
not possible to say what kind of carpets those mentioned byArrian
were, beyond that they were Babylonian ; but the carpets described
by Callixenus are the woollen galims still made in Kermanshah,
the same on both sides, the " Babylonica texta " of Martial, and
the embroidered shamyanas, or canopy cloths [_aulea t Arras], of
which a superb one is shewn by the Prince of Wales, still made
in Persia, and evidently the ;< Babylonica pcristromata," and
" consuta tapetia" " Babylonian hangings," and " embroidered
" tapestry " of Plautus. As velvet [makhmaf] probably origi-
nated in Central Asia, and certainly felt, I think it very likely
that it was there also that the Turkish tribes first developed the
art of sewing tufts of wool on the strings of the warp of the
carpets they had learned to make from the Persians, and that the
manufacture of these pile carpets was thus introduced by the
Saracens into Europe from Turkestan through Persia. The Turks
were driven to the invention by the greater coldness of their
climate. These pile carpets are called in India specifically kalin
and kalicha. The foundation for the carpet is a warp of the
requisite number of strong cotton or hempen threads, according to
the breadth of the carpet, and the peculiar process consists in
dexterously twisting short lengths of colored wool into each of
the threads of the warp so that the two ends of the twist of
colored wool stick out in front. When a whole line of the warp
is completed, the projecting ends of the wool are clipped to a uni-
form level, and a single thread of wool is run across the breadth of
the carpet, between the threads of the warp, just as in ordinary
weaving, and the threads of the warp are crossed as usual ; then
another thread of the warp is fixed with twists of wool in the
same manner ; and again a single thread of wool is run between
the threads of the warp, across the carpet, serving also to keep
the tags of wool upright, and so on to the end. The lines of
work are further compacted together by striking them with a
a blunt fork \Jkangi\, and sometimes the carpet is still further
strengthened by stitching the tags of wool to the warp. Then
the surface is clipped all over again, and the carpet is complete.
The workmen put in the proper colours either of their own know-
ledge or from a pattern. No native, however, works so well
from a pattern as spontaneously. His copy will be a fac-simile
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 1 13
of the pattern, but stiff, even if it be a copy of his own original
work. His hand must be left free in working out the details
of decoration, even from the restraint of the examples of his
own masterpieces. If he is told simply, " Now I want you to
" make something in this style, in your own way, but, the best
" thing you ever did, and you may take your own time about it,
" and / will pay you whatever you ash" he is sure to succeed.
It is haggling and hurry that have spoiled art in Europe, and are
spoiling it in Asia. The loveliest mosque in Bombay was built
without a plan, the workmen day by day tracing roughly on the
ground the designs by which they worked. The best Oriental pile
carpets are those of Persia, particularly those made in Khorassan,
Kirman, Feraghan, and Kurdistan, and of Turkey, made chiefly at
Ushak in Asia Minor, near Smyrna. In India they are chiefly made
in Cashmere, Afghanistan, the Punjab, Baluchistan, and Scinde, at
Agra, Mirzapur, Jubbulpore, Hyderabad, and Warangal in the
Nizam's Dominion, and on the Malabar coast and at Masulipatam.
Velvet carpets are also made at Benares and Murshedabad, and silk
pile carpets at Tanjore and Salem. The Indian carpets shewn on
the present occasion are exhibited entirely by private London firms,
Messrs. Vincent Robinson & Co., Messrs. Watson and Bontor,
Messrs. Farmer and Rogers, and others ; and the extent and
completeness of their exhibitions is a sufficient evidence of the
important trade in them which has sprung up since 1851, when
for the first time, through the liberality of the Indian Govern-
ment, they were brought prominently to the notice of English
people. Unfortunately there has been a great falling off in the
quality and art character of Indian carpets since then, partly,
no doubt, owing to the desire of the English importers to obtain
them cheaply and quickly, but chiefly owing to the disastrous
competition of the Government jails in India (generally under
the direction of energetic young Englishmen) with the native
weavers.
The Afghanistan carpet exhibited by Messrs. Vincent Robin-
son & Co. is probably really of Mash-had manufacture. It is a rare
example of the antique Persian style in carpets. The central
ground is of Kermes red, as brilliant as when first woven, covered
with large tulips in shades of blue, green, and yellow. The border
ground is of a fine (indigo and yellow) green. The introduction
of the characteristic cloud pattern among the conventional tulips
in this carpet is of peculiar interest, as indicative of the
Tartar influences so clearly marked in Persian faience of the 16th
century.
The evil of cheapening sumptuary articles unsuited to the wants
of the multitude is well illustrated by the Lahore jail carpets
exhibited. The reputation which Indian carpets gained at the
Great Exhibition of 1851 gave an impetus to their production
which, had it been wisely fostered, might have led to their
use in every house in Europe belonging to the wealthy and
cultivated. The proper course would have been to allow the
number of caste weavers engaged in the carpet manufacture to
increase gradually with the demand for their carpets. But in an
114 PAK1S UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
*
evil hour the Indian Government, thinking only of how to effect
small economies, hit upon the plan of using their jails for the
supply of the now lucrative trade in carpets, which of course they
can afford to sell at a lower price than the caste weavers. No
doubt economies were effected ; but the caste weavers were under-
sold, impoverished, and in some districts have become extinct,
and with them have perished, perhaps for ever, the local tradition
of their art. Its inspiration has certainly not descended on the
jails, and, when this is once found out, as it is at last being
found out in England, the manufacture of Indian carpets in
the Government jails will cease. The results, therefore, of the
suicidal competition of the Government with the caste weavers
will have been to check in some degree the pile carpet manufac-
ture in England, and in all the districts affected by it to degrade
the manufacture in India, and at last extinguish it altogether.
The examples exhibited in 1851, which gained their reputation
for Indian carpets, were admired for the originality, and great
beauty of their designs, the harmony of their coloring, and
their special fitness for the houses of the cultivated, the wealthy,
and the great. These qualities require many elements for their
production quite inconsistent with cheapness, and a quick, hasty,
and promiscuous demand. To stimulate such a trade requires a
complete knowledge of the conditions of the carpet manufacture in
India, and experienced skilful direction. But what did the Indian
Government do ? They handed this great historical craft, this
glorious art, over to the Thugs in their jails, and the Thugs
strangled it. That they were felons and jail-birds was their
supreme qualification for making carpets, to the ruin of the honest
caste weavers in whose families the manufacture had been culti-
vated and perfected by practice through a hundred generations of
the lives of men. And these Thugs again work under the direction
of young military or medical officers, who, except by mere accident,
are utterly incapable of judging of the various art considerations
involved in the peculiar manufacture of oriental carpets. The whole
question has indeed been considered hitherto by the Indian Govern-
ment solely with a view to balancing its budgets. The place of
the great rajahs of the bad old times (but good for art), who encou-
raged the weavers to make carpets for their own use and luxury,
has been usurped by a superintendent of jails, careful only to make
two ends meet, leaving the future to take care of itself. The
most saleable article is produced, and at the cheapest rate, and for
the first person who comes for it : and the petty jealousies of the
English wholesale importers are adroitly turned to account by the
Jail Superintendents to stimulate the demand for what are now
no longer called carpets, but characteristically jail " goods." The
whole problem, with these energetic Superintendents, resolves
itself into the thoroughly commercial question of how to make
a certain number of running feet of carpeting per annum at so many
rupees per square yard. The effect of the system is seen in these
Lahore (Jail) carpets. The wool of which they are made is good.
The dyes with which they are colored are hideous, and the ar-
rangement of the colours harsh and inharmonious. The patterns
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 115
have no local character, being crude transcripts from Persian copies,
though not copied in Persian dyes, but in local ones, compounded,
I could believe, out of the jail medical stores. It is this practice of
transplanting a pattern from a district in which it is indigenous
to another of perfectly differing natural conditions, and historical
and art traditions, which, more than anything else, has led to the
degradation and decline of the Indian carpet manufactures in all
the districts affected by the pernicious example of the jails. The
material used at Lahore is of a nature to lend itself to the large
bold patterns natural to the Punjab, Baluchistan, and Scinde, and
the North-west Provinces of India generally. But when the jails
undertook to make Thug carpets, Persian patterns were in the
market, and without taking thought for the morrow the competi-
tive Jail Superintendents rushed into the anomaly of working in
coarse materials minute patterns which require fine soft wool, and
delicate stitches, to develop their right effect. The Jail Super-
intendents also, resolved at all hazards to undersell the caste
weavers, have imported the use in their carpets of the Magenta
series of dyes, which have proved the rum of every art manufac-
ture into which they have been introduced. The end of all these
errors, political, economical and artistic, is sufficiently foreshadowed
in the fate which has befallen the Cashmere shawl trade under
French patronage ; unless, indeed, the Government of India
quickly awakens to the knowledge that an industrial art which
it has taken centuries to mature cannot possibly be dealt with
in the same Avay as the door mat manufactory of Wakefield Jail.
People do not want door mats from India, but art carpets.
The house of Vincent Robinson & Co. exhibits a Cashmere
carpet which is a good example of the corruption of native designs
under European influences. The large scroll laid about its
borders in such agonised contortions is evidently copied from the
shawl patterns introduced by the French houses into Cashmere
about ten years ago. The wool of these modern Srinagar carpets
is good, and the texture of the carpets themselves is not bad, but
it is hardly possible that they can ever again be made to satisfy
a critical taste. The colours introduced are not suited for the
floor of a room, particularly the green, even if they were harmo-
niously blended. The floor of a furnished room, in which the
great need is to see the furniture distinctly, can scarcely be too
grave in tone, and it is evident that the Cashmere dyes are fitted
only for shawls, and portieres, and tapestries for walls, where it is
a pleasure to the eye to be attracted by lively coloring.
The Scinde carpets are the cheapest, coarsest, and least durable
of all that are made in India. Formerly they were fine in design
and coloring, but of late years they have greatly deteriorated.
The cheap rugs, which sell for about 9s. each, are made with the
pile (if not altogether) of cowhair, woven upon a common cotton
foundation, with a rough hempen shoot. The patterns are bold
and suited to the material, and the dyes good and harmonious.
The Baluchistan carpets and rugs are made of goatshair, which
gives them their singularly beautiful lustre, finer even than that
of the Indian silk carpets, and more subdued in tone, although the
116 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
dyes used in Baluchistan are richer. The patterns are usually of
the fantastic geometrical character found in Turcoman rugs, from
which the patterns of the early " Brussels carpets " were derived.
They are laid on either a deep indigo or deep madder red ground",
and traced out in orange brown and ivory white, intermixed with
red, when the ground is blue, and with blue, when the ground is
red. The ends terminate in a web-like prolongation of the warp
and woof beyond the pile ; and when striped in colours or worked
in a small diaper form a most picturesque fringe.
The Agra Jail carpet, exhibited by Messrs. Edward Kilburn and
Co., deserves a note of commendation for the fine proportion of its
border to the centre. The borders of modern oriental carpets are
generally made too narrow. In the mosaic floors of the Greeks
and Romans, as seen at Pompeii, which were evidently suggested
by Oriental tapestry, the border was always remarkably broad,
and in the older Persian carpets it is often a yard deep, and more.
The famous Jubbulporc carpets have deteriorated in quality and
art in the most extraordinary manner since the establishment of
the School of Industry at that Station, the influence of which has
been equally prejudicial with that of the jails. The foundation,
as now scamped, is quite insufficient to carry the heavy pile
which is a feature of this make ; and is moreover so short in the
staple as to be incapable of bearing the tension even of the
process of manufacture. Jubbulpore carpets often reach this
country which will not bear sweeping, or even unpacking. I know
of two which were shaken to pieces in the attempt to shake the
dust out of them when first unpacked. The designs once had some
local character, but have lost it during the last four or five years.
Benares Jail carpets have a texture very much like those of
Jubbulpore and are equally untrustworthy. In fact the most
durable jail carpets are those of Lahore, and it is this which adds
to the aggravation of their hideousness.
In Mirzapore carpets we again find the evidence of the indis-
criminate cheapening effects of the Jail system. In the Paris
Exhibition of 1867 Mirzapore carpets were still shewn of fine tex-
ture, and good coloring, and serviceable wear ; the designs too
were suited to the coarse wool used in that district. But, in the
carpets now sold, the materials are not so well chosen, the texture,
is coarser, and the colours are crude ; and it is within proof to
state that a Mirzapore carpet as now made, and sold in Europe at
about 18s. the square yard, is one of the least^ economical carpets
which people of moderate means could lay down on their floors.
The staple is so short, and the texture so loose, that it will not bear
the wear and tear of a middle-class English household ; and
common sense is of course the backbone of good taste in fur-
nishing. Three years will wear out any Mirzapore carpet now
made. Those made ten years ago will still be in use twenty years
hence, and full of dignity to the end. But as they cost twice
the money, there's the rub, fatal to the once great manufacture of
this district.
Hyderabad carpets have also felt the influence of the jails. In
the Exhibition of 1851 the very finest rugs exhibited were from
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUKT. 117
Warangal, about 80 miles east of Hyderabad. The peculiarity
of these rugs, of which one remains in the India Museum, was
the exceedingly fine count of the stitche?, about 12,000 to the
square foot. They were also perfectly harmonious in coloring,
and the only examples in which silk was ever used in carpets with
a perfectly satisfactory effect. The brilliancy of the colours was
kept in subjection by their judicious distribution and the extreme
closeness of the weaving, which is always necessary when the
texture is of silk. All this involves, naturally, great comparative
expense, not less than 10/. per square yard ; and it is not surprising,
therefore, that in the competition with the Thug carpets of the
jails, the stately fabrics of Warangal, the ancient capital of the
Andhra dynasty of the Deccan, and of the later Rajas of Telin-
gana, have died out, past every effort to revive them. Surely
the Government which has spent so much money in introducing
South Kensington Schools of Art into India, might make an an-
nual grant for the purchase of the masterpieces of Indian local
manufacturers, which they should present to any native prince or
gentleman to whom they wished to shew great honour. A few
thousand pounds spent in this way every year would have a most
beneficial effect in sustaining many local traditional arts in India
now nearly dying out, even of the very recollections of men.
A carpet from the Warangal district is exhibited among the
Prince's presents, but it is not of the old manufacture at all.
The colours are too strong, the indigo very much too strong for
the surrounding tones of grey, green, and yellow ; and the large
leaf pattern stares obtrusively from the crude madder red ground.
It compares most unfavourably with an old Warangal carpet
exhibited by Messrs. Vincent Robinson & Co.
The Mysore Jail carpets are like unto the jail carpets of Benares
and Jubbulpore.
The jail carpets of Bangalore are coarse and clumsy in the
extreme, and in coloring only less execrable than those of
Lahore.
The carpets of Masulipatam were formerly amongst the finest
produced in India, but of late years have also been corrupted by
the European, chiefly English, demand for them. The English
importers insisted on supplying the weavers with cheaper materials,
and we now find that these carpets are invariably backed with
English twine. The spell of the tradition thus broken, one inno-
vation after another was introduced into the manufacture. The
designs which of old were full of beautiful detail, and more varied
than now in range of scheme and coloring, were surrounded by a
delicate outline suggested as to tint by a harmonising contrast
with the colours with which it was in contact. But the necessity
for cheap and speedily executed carpets for the English market
has led to the abandonment of this essential detail in all Indian
textile ornamentation. Crude inharmonious masses of unmeaning
form now mark the soots where formerly varied, interesting, and
beautiful designs blossomed as delicately as the first flowers of
spring : and these once glorious carpets of Masulipatam have
sunk to a mockery and travestie of their former selves.
118 PAKIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
The carpets of Malabar would seem to be the only pile
woollen carpets made [in India, of pure Hindu design, and free
at present from European as from Saracenic influences. They
are made of a coarse kind of wool peculiar to the locality,
and are distinguished by their large grandly colored patterns.
The texture of the wool is exactly suited to the designs used,
which are grey in tone, colossal in proportion, and wonderfully
balanced in harmonious arrangement. No other manufacture of
carpets known could hold a pattern together with such a scheme
of coloring, and scale of design. The simplicity and felicity
shewn in putting the right amount of colour, and exact force of pat-
tern, suited to the position given them, are wonderful, and quite
unapproachable in any European carpets of any time or country.
They satisfy the feeling for breadth and space in furnishing, as if
made for the palaces of kings.
These are not the only fine carpets still made in India. The
collections exhibited by Messrs. Vincent Robinson & Co. prove
that carpets of uncontaminated native designs and integrity of
quality are still made by the caste weavers of India, but of
varieties not yet recognised by huckstering European dealers, and
obtained from villages far away from English stations and railway
lines. Two carpets, from a little known district in the Madras
Presidency, exhibited by Messrs. Vincent Robinson, & Co., are
equal to anything ever produced in the Deccan. The colours are
perhaps a little more brilliant than was observable in the memo-
rable examples from the same district shewn in the Exhibition of
1851, now in the India Museum (which possesses also the most
superb Afghanistan and Kirman carpets) ; but this brilliance is
really due rather to want of age, for the details have, in a high
degree, all the varied play of colour, and charm of pattern of the
older carpets, and time only is required to mellow them to perfec-
tion. These choice specimens I shall not further indicate nor the
places of their production, and I trust that the exhibitors of them
will also keep their secret, which is the only protection they can
give these fabrics, and their hereditary weavers (the Mahommedan
descendants of Persian settlers), from the withering competition
of the Indian Government.
It is beyond the purpose of this Handbook to notice other
Oriental carpets than Indian, but it is impossible altogether to
avoid a general reference to the selection of Persian and Turco-
man carpets exhibited by Messrs. Vincent Robinson & Co., so
remarkable are they for their great excellence of quality and
design. The Kurdistan " Gift Rugs," Kermanshah galims, Dag-
hestan tent hangings, and camels hair carpets, of " moukadem
manufacture," the Yarkand rugs, and Bokhara carpets shewn by
this firm are of the finest quality. The large Hamadan Carpet
is absolutely unique in character and style. It is almost as thick
as a " moukadem " carpet. An irregular lozenge form, au island of
bright clustering flowers, of which the prevailing colours are red
and blue, adorns the centre, while the wide extended ground of yel-
low,in irregular shades, surrounds it like a rippling amber sea ; and
there are blue pieces in the corners, within the blue border, worked
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 119
in arabesques. It is a carpet, however, which it will be difficult
to put into a European room, as its surface is too beautiful to
allow of its being broken by furniture. It is a carpet to be looked
at like a golden sunset, and it was a sacrilege to remove it from
the mosque where it evidently was once laid, under the great dome.
Beati possidentes.
Messrs. Vincent Robinson & Co. exhibit a general Persian
collection of pottery, brass-work, and fabrics, all selected with
the greatest discrimination, and of the highest artistic value.
Messrs. Farmer and Rogers also exhibit a general collection of
Indian textile fabrics and. miscellaneous small wares, and some of
the finest Cashmere shawls.
Felts, called nammads or namdahs, are largely imported into
India from Khotan by way of Leh. Messrs. Vincent Robinson
& Co. exhibit some felts from Tabriz, which are beautifully orna-
mented with colored wools felted into them in regular arabesque
designs. The manufacture of felt is a speciality of the town of
Jarwal in the Bahraich district of Oudh.
Mats, called chatai, are made all over India. The mats of
Palghat on the Malabar coast are remarkable for their strength,
and those of Midnapore near Calcutta, several of which are ex-
hibited by Messrs. Vincent Robinson & Co., are admired wherever
they are seen for their fineness and the classical design of the
mosaic like patterns of stained grass.
Apart from the natural beauty of the dyes used, and the know-
ledge, taste, and skill of the natives of India in the harmonious
arrangement of colours, the charm of their textile fabrics lies in the
simplicity and treatment of the decorative details. The knop or
cone and flower pattern appears universally, but infinitely modified,
never being seen twice under the same form, and the seventi and
Lotus, which has been reduced, through extreme conventionalisation
to one pattern. Besides, we have the Shoe flower, the Parrot and
Peacocks, and Lions and Tigers, and Men on Horseback, or on
foot, hunting or fighting. These objects are always represented
quite flat as in mosaic work, or in draps entaillez, and generally
symmetrically and in alternation. The symmetrical representa-
tion of natural objects in ornamentation and their alternation seems
through long habit to have become intuitive in the natives of the
East. If you get them to copy a plant, they will peg it down
flat on the ground, laying its leaves and buds and flowers out
symmetrically on either^side of the central stem, and then only
will they begin to copy it. If the leaves and flowers of the
plant are not naturally opposite, but alternate, they Avill add others
to make it symmetrical, or at least will make it appear so in the
draVing. Nothing at first used to provoke me more when botanis-
ing in India, until subdued by the special charm of the drawings
themselves. The intuitive feeling for alternation is seen in their
gardens and heard in their music, and is as satisfactory in their
music as in their decoration, when heard amid the association
which naturally call it forth, as when benighted native travellers
hail the rising moon. When the same form is used all over a
fabric, the interchange of light and shade and the effect of alter-
120 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
nation, are at once obtained by working the ornament alternately
in two tints of the same colour. Each object or division of an
object is painted in its own proper colour, but without shades
of the colour, or light and shade of any kind, so that the
ornamentation looks perfectly flat, and laid like a mosaic in its
ground. It is in this way that the natural surface of any
object decorated is maintained in its integrity. This, added
to the perfect harmony and distribution of the coloring, is
the specific charm of Indian aud Oriental decoration generally.
Nothing can be more ignorant and ridiculous than the English and
French methods of representing huge nosegays, or bunches of fern
leaves tied together by flowing pink ribbons, in light and shade, on
carpets, with the effect of full relief. One knows not where to
walk among them. Constantly are also seen perfectly shaped vases
spoiled by the appearance of flowers in full relief stuck round them,
or of birds flying out from them. Such egregious mistakes are
never made by the Indian decorative artist. Each ornament, par-
ticularly on fabrics, is generally traced round also with a line, in
a colour which harmonises it with the ground on which it is laid.
In embroideries with variegated silks, for instance, on cloth or satin
or velvet, a gold or silver thread is run round the outline of the
pattern, defining it and giving a' uniform tone to the whole sur-
face of the texture. Gold is generally laid on purple, or in the
lighter kincobs on pink or red. An ornament on a gold ground is
generally worked round with a dark thread to soften the glister of
the gold. In carpets, however, gay in colour, a low tone is secured
by a general black outline of the details. All violent contrasts are
avoided. The richest colours are used, but are so arranged as to
produce the effect of a neuti'al bloom, which tones down every
detail almost to the softness and transparency of atmosphere. The
gold-broidered, snuff-colored Cashmere shawl in the Prince's Col-
lection presents this etherial appearance. Light materials are
lightly coloured and ornamented, heavier more richly, and, in the
case of apparel, both the coloring and the ornaments are adapted
to the effect which the fabric will produce when worn and in
motion. It is only through generations of patient practice that
men attain to the mystery of such subtleties. It is difficult to
analyse the secret of the harmonious bloom of Indian textures,
even with the aid of Chevreul's prismatic scale. When large orna-
ments are used, they are filled up with the most exquisite details,
as in the cone patterns on Cashmere shawls. The vice of Indian
decoration is its tendency to run riot, as in Indian arms, but
Indian textile fabrics, at least, are singularly free from it, and
particularly the carpets. They are threatened, as has been shewn,
by quite another danger.
POTTERY.
Purest in art, in directness and simplicity of form and decora-
tion, of all its homely arts is the pottery of India, the Hindu
pottery of Madura and the Indian pottery of the Punjab and Scinde.
Unfortunately, there is nothing of these two styles to shew.
Pottery is made everywhere in India, and has been from before the
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 121
age of Menu. The red earthenware pottery of Travancore and
Hyderabad is well known, and the red glazed pottery of Dinapur,
which is glazed with a sort of varnish made of Morinda bark,
ducks' eggs, and quicklime, and the black glazed pottery of
Azungarh, and imitation Bidiri of Surat. But all these varieties
of fancy pottery, as distinguished from the primitive water-
vessels thrown everywhere, are of an insignificant and almost
meretricious character ; and only the pottery of Madura and the
Punjab and Scinde can.be classed as art pottery, and as such
it is of the highest excellence. The Madura pottery is in the
form generally of water bottles, with a globular bowl and long up-
right neck ; the bowl being generally pierced so as to circulate the
air round an inner porous bowl. The outer bowl and neck are
rudety fretted all over by notches in the clay, and are glazed either
dark green or a rich golden brown. The Scinde and Punjab pottery
is egg-shaped, turban, melon, and onion shaped, in the latter the
point rising and widening out gracefully into the neck of the vase.
They are glazed in turquoise, of the most perfect transparency, or in
a rich dark purple, or dark green, or golden brown. Sometimes they
are diapered all over by the pate-sur-pdte method, with a conven-
tional flower, the seventi, or Lotus, of a lighter colour than the
ground. Generally they are ornamented with the universal cone
and flower pattern, in compartments formed all round the bowl, by
spaces alternately left uncolored, and glazed in colour. Some-
times a wreath of the knop and flower pattern is simply painted
round the bowl on a white ground. Every endeavour was
made to represent this pottery at the Paris Exhibition, with the
view of bringing it into European demand ; but the Bombay
Government, which was intrusted with the commission, has
sent instead an overwhelming collection of the pottery of the
Bombay School of Art, which began with a laudable endeavour to
naturalise the manufacture of Scinde pottery in Bombay, but has
ended, it would seem, by getting the natives all over Western
India to imitate the hardware jugs of Messrs. Doulton.
The Bombay School of Art has been singularly fortunate in the
gentlemen who have directed its operations. Mr. Terry has a quick
sympathy with native art, Mr. Kipling * is an artist of the highest
accomplishment, and Mr. Griffiths a painter of decided genius,
whose works have been seen at successive Royal Academy exhibi-
tions. It is therefore hard to explain why there should have been
any relaxation from the first purpose of the Directors of the School
in introducing the manufacture of Scinde pottery into Bombay. Of
course there is little harm done if their new ware is not passed
off for Scinde and Punjab pottery. It will be very interesting
* Mr. Kiplir.g has been at Lahore for the last three years as Curator of
the Central Museum ; and in Bombay had nothing to do, directly, with the
School of Art pottery. His -work there was to carve Frere Town with foliage
in stone ; and I mention his name here only to shew the happy influences
under which the Bombay School of Art has been raised to its present position.
I have added, as Appendix E., Mr. Kipling's Report on the Multan and
Peshawur pottery, sent by him to the Exhibition, but which arrived too late
for me to properly notice.
H22. I
122 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
if they succeed in establishing a new manufacture of a specific
local character. To some of it, in which the designs are
adapted from the Ajunta cave paintings and Sawuntwari
playing cards, they have succeeded in giving a marked local
character, and it is interesting to see Hindu mythological subjects
drawn in the native style by practised English draughtsmen.
But the imitations of Doulton ware, in spite of the masterly
drawing of the flower and leaf decorations, are miserable failures.
It is quite a misapplication of Doulton's methods to apply them to
friable Indian earthenware. The shapes also of the Bombay
School of Art pottery are detestable, taken neither from Scinde
nor Western India, but from Chinese sugar jars, Japanese flower
vases, and English jam and pickle pots. After all, it shews
worst in its imitation of Scinde pottery, from its falling so far
below its originals ; and this is perhaps why the effort was not
persevered in. But the causes of failure are clear. The shapes of the
pots are not Scindian, the glaze is used too thickly, and the patterns
are applied in stencil, which gives them a thin, stiff, poverty-stricken
character. In Scinde the pattern is pricked out on paper, and
drawn by laying the paper on the surface of the jar and dusting it
along the prickings. This gives a sufficient outline of the design
to enable the decorator to paint it on with the greatest freedom
and dash, pdte-sur-pate, and the effect is rich, free, and harmoni-
ous beyond belief in articles which sell for fourpence, sixpence,
and one shilling each on the spot. These can fortunately never be
undersold. The chief seats of the manufacture are at Lahore and
Multan, Hyderabad in Scinde, Hala, Karachi, and Tatta, and
for encaustic tiles at Saidpur and Bulri.* Mr. Drury Fortnum
in his report, on the pottery at the International Exhibition of
1871, observes of the Scinde pottery: "The turquoise blue
" painted on a paste beneath a glaze, which might have been
" unearthed in Egypt or Phoenicia a small bottle painted in blue
" or white is of the same blood and bone as the ancient wares of
" Thebes. * * * But the tiles are very important. * * *>
" They are in general character similar to, although not so carefully
" made as, the oriental tiles known as Persian, which adorn the old
" mosques of Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and Persia. ' The
" colours used upon them are rich copper green, a golden brown
" and dark and turquoise blue. * * * The antiquary, the
" artist, and the manufacturer will do well to study these wares.
" As in their silk and woollen fabrics, their metal work and other
u manufactures, an inherent feeling for, and a power of producing
" harmony in the distribution of colour and in surface decoration,
" exists among the Orientals, which we should study to imitate, if
" not to copy. It is not for Europeans to establish schools of art, in
" a country the productions of whose remote districts are a school
" of art in themselves, far more capable of teaching than of being
* The master potters known to me by name are Jumu, son of Osuian the
Potter, Karachi ; Mahommed Azim, the Pathau, Karachi ; Messrs. Nur,
Mahommed, and Khamil, Hyderabad ; Euttu Wuleed Minghu, Hyderabad ; and
Peranu, son of Jumn, Tatta. Mr. Kipling sends me the name of Mohammed
Hashim at Multan.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUBT. 123
" taught." It is a rare pleasure to the eye to see in the polished
corner of a native room one of these, large turquoise-blue sweet-
meat jars on a fine Kirman rug of minium red ground, splashed
with dark blue and yellow. But the sight of wonder is, when
travelling over the plains of Persia or India, suddenly to come
upon an encaustic tiled mosque. It is coloured all over in yellow,
green, and blue, and other hues ; and as a distant view of it is
caught at sunrise, its stately domes and glittering minarets seem
made of purest gold, like glass, enamelled in azure and green, a
fairy-like apparition of inexpressible grace and the most en-
chanting splendour.
But if it is a terrible error to darken by the force and teaching
of English Schools of Art, and the competition of Government
Jails, and other state institutions in India, the light of tradition
by which the native artists work in gold and silver and
jewelry, in textiles, and pottery, it is equally an abuse of the
lessons to be taught by such an exhibition of the master hand
crafts of India as the collection of the Prince's presents affords,
for the manufacturers of Paris and Lyons, and Birmingham and
Manchester, and Vienna, to set to work to copy or imitate them.
Of late years the shop windows of Eegent Street and Oxford
Street have been filled with electrotype reproductions of Bur-
mese, Cashmere, Lucknow, Cutch, and Madras silver and gold
work, along with Manchester, Coventry, and Paisley imitations
of Indian chintzes, fdncobs, and shawls. This is simply to deprave
and debase English manufactures and English taste. No people
have a truer feeling for art than Englishmen and women of all
classes, or purer elements of a national decorative style and
methods : and the right and fruitful use of looking at superb
examples of Indian jewelry, tapestries, and pottery is not to
make literal counterfeits of them, but to kindle the sense of
wonder and imagination in us to nobler achievements in our own
indigenous industrial arts. Art at second hand is already art
in its decay ; while nothing serves to maintain its perennial
spontaneity and purity like the inspiration which comes of the
contemplation of the best examples of foreign art. European
manufacturers should visit the Indian Collection at the Paris
Exhibition, not to slavishly plagiarise, but to receive a stimulating
and elevating influence from the light and life of a traditional
art still fresh and pure, as at its first dawning two or three
thousand years ago on the banks of the Indus and the Ganges.
I 2
124 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
THE KNOP AND FLOWER PATTERN.
We have traced the gradual development of Aryan civilisation,
from the Punjab and Valley of Cashmere westward to the British
Isles, and the rise of Semitic civilisation in the lands which the
to-and-fro trade of Europe and Asia had to cross about half way
down the litus Arianum, in consequence of the interposed obstruc-
tion of the Isthmus of Suez and Africa, and the peninsula of
Arabia. We have seen how this line of coast and overland inter-
communication between the East and West Aryans was subject to
be constantly interrupted by the incursions of Scyths, Mongols, and
other Turkish hordes, whom we may associate with "the Shut up
nations " of the Alexander legends ; and how it still Avent on even
after the Ottoman Tui'ks had established their dominion between
the Tigris and Euphi*ates, the Nile, and the Danube, and was
only discarded on the discovery of the ocean way round Africa to
the East. This is but 400 years ago, and for 4,000 years before,
the road between India and the Mediterranean countries had
been through the Tigris and Euphrates valley, and the valley
of the Nile. From the time of Alexander, and through all the
time of the Ptolemies and Seleucidae, and under the Roman
Empire, until Egypt, Syria, and Persia were conquered by the
Saracens, the intercourse between India and Greece through
Persia, Assyria, Syria, and Egypt was unbroken and intimate.
Although interrupted at first, it again revived under the Saracens,
and, under the Ottoman Turks, was only finally suspended after
the Portuguese had obtained possession of Ormuz. Even then, the
Armenians continued, as they have to the present day, the local
intercourse between India and Assyria and Western Asia ; going
to India and purchasing goods on the spot, and returning with
them to Bandar Abbas, Ispahan. Baghdad, Mosul, and Tabriz.
This is quite sufficient to account for the remarkable affinity
between Assyrian and Indian decorative art, and the frequent
identity of their ornamental details; which, in turn, prove the con-
tinuity and intimacy of the commercial intercourse between India
and Assyria. Of course the general affinity between Indian and
Assyrian art may be in part due to the common Turanian substra-
tum of Indian and Assyrian civilisation. When the Aryas made
their way through Cashmere into the Punjab, they found the plains
of the Upper Indus already occupied by a Turanian race, which
they indeed easily conquered, but which, as the caste regulations of
the Code of Menu prove, was far superior to themselves in indus-
trial civilisation. These aborigines already worked in metal and
stone, and wove woollen, cotton and linen stuffs, knew how to
dye them, and to embellish their buildings with paintings : the
descriptions of Megasthenes prove that, even at its highest deve-
lopment, Hindu civilisation was more Turanian than Aryan : and
the pre-Aryan Turanian civilisation of India must have been
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUET. 125
similar to the pre-Semitic Turanian civilisation of Babylonia,
Chaldaea, and Assyria, and probably preceded it. All that is
monstrous in the decorative forms of Indian and Assyrian art,
all that is obscene in Indian symbolism, is probably derived from
common Turanian sources, anterior to direct commercial inter-
course between India and Assyria. But, when we find highly
artificial and complicated Indian decorative designs identical in
form and detail with Assyrian, we feel sure that the one must have
been copied from the other, and indeed there can be no doubt that
the Indian ornamental designs, applied to and derived directly from
sculpture, which are identical with Assyrian, were copied from
the monuments of Assyria ; Egyptian, of course, from Egypt.
We cannot trust alone to the allusion.?, references, or even descrip-
tions of the Bible, Homer, and the Kamayana, to identify the art
manufactures of India with those of Assyria, Phoenicia, and Egypt ;
by themselves they indicate generic likeness only ; and their
specific identity can only be demonstrated by a comparison of
the actual remains of ancient art, and of the carved and painted
representations on contemporary monuments. But when this
identity has been proved from the monuments and other remains,
the Bible, Homer, the Kamayana and Mahabharata, and Pliny,
are invaluable in that they enable us to complete our information
on the sure and certain foundation so laid ; and, to the picture
thus composed of the early civilisation of the world, we are
justified in giving colour and motion from the strictly traditional,
still living civilisation of India ; while it is reasonable to suppose
that the Indian was the earliest of these primitive civilisations.
The Bible, and Homer, aud the Greek poets generally, are full of
idyllic scenes from the life of ancient Greece, Syria, and Egypt,
which are still the commonplaces of the daily life of the natives of
India, who have lived apart from the corruptions of European
civilisation. There are many passages also directly illustrating the
handicrafts of the ancients. In Proverbs xxx, we read the praise
attributed to Solomon, about B.C. 1015-975, of a good wife : " She
" seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
" She is like the merchant's ships, she bringeth her food from afar.
" She riseth up while it is yet night, and giveth meat (bread) to her
" household * * * She considereth a field and buyeth it ; with
" the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. * * * She
" perceiveth that her merchandise is good : her candle goeth not
" out by night. She layeth her hand to the spindle, and her
" hands hold the distaff. * * * She is not afraid of the snow
" for her household ; for all her household are clothed with
" scarlet. She maketli herself coverings of tapestry : her cloth-
" ing is silk and purple. Her husband is known in the gates,
" when he sitteth among the elders of the land. She maketh
" fine linen and selleth it ; and delivereth girdles unto the mer-
" chant. Strength and honour are her clothing ; and she shall
" rejoice in time to come. * * * Her children rise up and call
" her blessed ; her husband also, and he praiseth her. * * *
" Favour is deceitful and beauty vain, but a woman that feareth
126 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
" the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her
" hands, and let her own work praise her in the gates." And in
Exodus xxxvi, v. 30-35, about B.C. 1500, we read of Bezaleel and
Aholiab the master craftsmen of the first Temple : " And Moses
" said unto the children of Israel, See the Lord hath called by
" name Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of
" Judah ; and He hath filled him with the spirit of God in wis-
" dom, in understanding, and knowledge, and in all manner of
" workmanship ; and to devise curious works, to work in gold,
" and in silver, and in brass, and in the cutting of stones to set
" them (jewelry), and in carving of wood to make any manner
" of cunning work. And He hath put in his heart that, he may
" teach, both he and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe
" of Dan. Them hath He filled with wisdom of heart to work all
" manner of work of the engraver, and of the cunning workman,
" and of the embroiderer, in blue and in purple, and in scarlet,
" and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any
" work, and of those that devise cunning work." These passages,
and there are numbers of the same description in Homer, and Aristo-
phanes, are sufficient to prove the close affinity of the primitive
Hindu civilisation of India, in the simplicity and beauty of its life, in
the profound religiousness of its animating spirit, and in the identity
of many of its industrial arts, with the civilisations of Assyria, Phoe-
nicia, and Egypt, and with that of Greece in the heroic age at least ;
while even in the midst of the growing corruptions of imperial
Rome, we find that Augustus C*sar brought up the females of his
family and household on the antique model, and wore no clothing
but such as had been made by their hands.
The researches of Mr. Fergusson have shewn that stone archi-
tecture in India does not begin before the end of the third
century B.C. He has also drawn attention to the similarity
in ground plan and, in some instances in elevation, of Indian
temples to Assyrian and Egyptian. He observes that if the
description given by Josephus of the temple at Jerusalem, as
rebuilt by Herod, be read with a plan such as that of Tinne-
velly, it is impossible to escape the conviction that these coinci-
dences are not wholly accidental. In their grandeur and splendour
of detail and in the labour bestowed on them for labour's sake,
the resemblance between the temples of Egypt and Madras is
most remarkable. Not less startling are the traces of Assyrian
art in these temples, and Mr. Fergusson expresses the opinion
that, if we are to trust to tradition or to mythology or to ethnological
coincidences, it is rather to the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates
than to the banks of the Nile that we should look for the
incunabula of what are found in Southern India. The jewelry
of Madras is distinctly founded on its temple ornaments. A
Madras silver incense stick holder, exhibited by Mr. FitzGeruld
formed of an antelope hunted by a dog along a conventional
flower stalk, and taken from the sculptures common on all
Madras temples, is identical with some of the representations
of hunting scenes on the Assyrian monuments given in Rawlinson's
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 127
"Ancient Monarchies." In this it is clear that India is the copyist.
The knop and flower, or cone and flower, pattern is represented,
with local variations, on early Indian monuments in the same form
and general style as on the marbles of Assyria, and in the Bharhut
sculptures, at least, the lotus is repeatedly represented in the
identical half conventional form in which we find it, en silhouette,
in the Hieroglyphic paintings of Egypt. Here again India is
obviously the copyist.
It is quite possible, however, that some of the very forms in India
which can be proved to be copied from Assyrian temples and palaces
may have originally been carried into Egypt and Assyria on Indian
cotton or woollen fabrics and on jewelry. 'The knop and flower
pattern commonly found on Scinde pottery [Plate I., fig. 7], is iden-
tical with the knop and flower pattern on the Koyunjik palace door-
way [Plate IV., fig. 1], figured in Rawlinson's " Ancient Monar-
chies," vol. i., p. 41 7. In the same volume, at page 493, is a circular
breast ornament [Plate IV. fig. 2], on a royal robe, from a
sculpture at Nimrud. Here the cone does not alternate with a lotus
flower, but with the fan-like head of the Horn. Nor is the cone a
lotus bud, but a larger representation of the fruit of the Horn. In
a common form of Persian plate [Plate I., fig. 6], which may
(chiefly because of the circular shape of the two objects) be com-
pared with this breast ornament, the cone is developed into a form
conical in shape, but /Tom-like in detail, and the flower is metamor-
phosed into a strange Chinese style of scroll. That it is the knop
and flower pattern is proved beyond dispute by the curved line which
unites the base of the kpop -with the base of the flower, and which
is found surviving in ornaments derived from this pattern when
almost every other trace of it has disappeared. A modification,
in point, of this pattern is repeated on the inner border of the
plate. A very beautiful variation of the pattern is one of the
commonest seen on Scinde tiles, in which the knop has become the
regular Saracenic cone, and the flower not the head of the Horn, or
lotus, but a full blown Iris [Plate I., fig. 5]. On Delhi and Cash-
mere shawl borders [Plate I., fig. 2] the ^Tow-head-like flower
often looks very like the " Shell " on Renaissance and mouldings.
On these shawl borders the knop and flower are often also com-
bined, the knop becoming the cone or Cypress-like trunk of a
tree, the branches of which fan out like the fronds of the Horn.
[Plate III., fig. 6j. In some Indian and Persian carpets the knop
or cone throws out graceful Horn fronds, one on either side, from
the ends of which hangs a large flower, presenting the alternation of
a branching cone and flower. Every other branching cone is also,
as it were, upside down, so that we get a winding floriated line
running in and out between each cone and flower. When the
cone is large it is filled in with floral detail, as in Cashmere shawls,
the last bright inflorescence of the original hard Egyptian and
Assyrian knop and flower pattern. A few engravings are added
from Owen Jones' " Grammar of Ornament," to shew the modifi-
cation of this pattern in Egyptian, Greek, Italian, and Renaissance
art. Chapters have been written by puzzle-headed savans to
account for these scrolls and for the cone, but surely their origin is so
128 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
plain, that he who runs may read. The Greek " honeysuckle and
palmette " scroll is simply the knop and flower, as are the Renais-
sance " shell," and the " tongue and dart," and " egg and tongue "
patterns in classical mouldings. Long ago Mr. Fergusson pointed
out [Illustrated Handbook of Architecture, Vol. I., p. 7] that
in the " lat " at Allahabad, the necking immediately below the
capital represents with considerable purity the honeysuckle orna-
ment of the Assyrians, which the Greeks borrowed from them
with the Ionic order. Its form [Plate v. fig, 6] is derived originally
from the Date, Hour, but it really represents, conventionally, a
flowering Lotus, as the Bharhut sculptures [Plate v. figs. 4 and 5]
enable us to determine. The " reel and bead " pattern running
along the lower border of the necking represent the lotus stalks.
One Chinese modification of the knop and flower pattern is
very significant. The flower is here [Plate IV,, fig. 11 J a pome-
granate, and the cones have become green pomegranate buds ; but,
instead of being in their original Assyrian places, they are attached
to the edge of the vermilion corolla, one on each side, while their
old places are filled by a panel formed by the curved lines, which
should have joined the flower to the bud, running down between the
flowers in parallel lines to the lower edge of the patterned border.
The Assyrian breast ornament figured by Canon Rawlinson proves
that the fan-like pattern throwing off" its long stalked cones,
arranged alternately round the border with the larger cones, is the
head of the Horn, represented in the centre, and a multitude of
representations of the Horn in Rawlinsou's " Ancient Monarchies "
and " Herodotus," and on old Saracenic and Sicilian brocades prove
that it is the Date tree, and that the long stalked cones flourished
out from it, and the large cones which alternate with it round
the border of this breast ornament, are great clusters of dates,
highly conventionalised. These cones are sometimes replaced by
Pomegranates, and, strange to say, the Tree of Life represented as
modern Yarkaud rugs, is always a Pomegranite tree. The cone
figured by Canon Rawlinson, vol. ii., p. 212, as a Pine-apple
[Plate III., fig. 3] is clearly a bunch of dates bursting from its
spathe. This cone appears [Plate III., fig. 4] on late Italian and
early Renaissance brocades, crowned, with" flames rising from the
crown, and alternating with oak leaves, from which long-stalked
acorns are represented issuing forth like the cones from the trunk
and head of the Date Horn.
The original Horn was the Sanskrit Soma, Sarcostemma brevis-
tigma, & leafless (the rudimentary leaves are scarcely visible)
scandent Asclepiad, with its flowers collected in umbels, fan- like
en silhouette, a native of the southern slopes of the Cashmere
Valley and Hindu Kush, the fermented juice of which was the first
intoxicant of the Aryan race. It is still used as an intoxicant by the
Brahmins, and the succulent stalks are chewed by weary wayfarers
to allay their thirst. It is admirably represented on the Assyrian
sculptures ; and in Rawlinson 's " Ancient Monarchies," vol. ii.,
p. 236, it is figured [Plate II., figs. 1, 2] twined very characteristi-
cally, although highly conventionally, about the date tree forming
the " Tree of Life," Asherah, or " Grove," sacred to Asshur, the
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 129
Supreme Deity of the Assyrians, the Lord and Giver of Life.
Canon RaAvlinson notices the resemblance of the Horn head to the
Greek Honeysuckle ornament, and adds, " I suspect that the so-
" called ' flower' [i.e., Honeysuckle,] was in reality a representation
" of the head of a palm tree." Possibly the date was substituted
for the original Horn in Assyria, in consequence of the Aryas find-
ing that they could not naturalise the true Horn plant, or because
the date yields a more abundant intoxicating juice. Its fruit,
also, would become the staff of life in the region of the Euphrates
valley, and hence would naturally be consecrated to Asshur, as
the " Tree of Life." Later, the Vine took its place' in Asia
Minor and Greece. As the " Tree of Life " is associated in the
Bible with the Serpent and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and
Evil, which brought death into the world, so, it is very sugges-
tive to see in Rawlinson, vol. ii., p. 167, the Date Horn arranged
alternately with a serpent- encircled Cypress [Plate III., fig. 1] in
the scene in which an Assyrian King is feasting his Queen in
a bower (gloriette) of the royal gardens.
In Egypt the knop and floAver were represented by the date
palm and its fruit, by the lotus and its bud, and by the lotus
flower and a bunch of grapes, or the lotus flower and a bull's
head; sometimes the flower by the papyrus head. In Owen
Jones' " Grammar of Ornament," Plate 4, fig. 6, the ornament,
which looks like a lotus-headed form of some sort [Plate II., fig. 5],
is proved to be a date, by the rippled mass of red and green hang-
ing down one side of it, representing the ripe fructification of
the date burst from its spathe. That the ripple is taken from the
zig-zag of the branching date stalks, any botanist will see.
On the monuments, the Phoenician Venus Chiun [Amos v. 26]
is shewn, presenting snakes to Remphan or Moloch, the Author
of Death, and Lotus flowers to Khem the Author of Life, on whose
altar we find the Tree of Life represented by a Loto-Papyro-Palm-
headed plant form, with a Cyprus form, evidently derived from the
Lotus bud, on either side, and guarded by the cabiri, which
suggested to the HebreAvs the Cherubim, placed at the East of the
Garden of Eden, to keep the way of the Tree of Life, and to the
Greeks, " the dog " Cerberus, that guarded the entrance to Hades.
The Tree of Life is represented throughout Greek and Roman
and Italian and Renaissance art. It is still represented on the
commonest Spanish and Portuguese earthenware by a green
tree that looks exactly like a Noah's ark tree ; but it invariably
springs from two curved horns, which betray the secret. In
India the knop and flower change like the transformations of a
dream. Indeed, in Hindu art imagination is let loose as in
a dream. In the Amravati and Bharhut sculptures the trans-
formations go on under your eye, and reveal the whole mystery.
The cone is generally the lotus bud, and the elephant is never
represented in carved stone without it in its trunk. Sometimes the
cone of budding plantain fruit takes its place. The flower is gene-
rally the lotus represented en silhouette, like a fan, or full-faced ;
and sometimes the fan-like form of the Date Horn is given to the
Peacock's tail, and to the many-headed Cobra ; and not only these
1 30 PARIS UXIVKESAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
Cobra heads, but the water-lily is represented in true honeysuckle
form [Plate V., figs. 4, 5]. The cone is also represented by the
mango and jack. In short, anything full of the glory of life becomes
the symbol of life. The peacock's tail, the glorious lotus flower, the
mighty jack, the nutritious and uncloying plantain, the luscious,
golden ^mango, the thyrsus-like clusters of the flowers of the
cadumba, and the Sacred Fig, throwing down rootlets from every
branch, which take root again and spring up in forests round the
parent stem ; all are natural and obvious symbols of life. The
melon-shaped finial on the pagodas of Indian temples is probably
derived from the unripe fruit of Nymphcea rabra. We have,
however, to be on our watch for the vagaries of Hindu imagina-
tion. The entire leaf of the jack, Artocarpus integrifolia, is
represented so swollen and bursting with life as to pass into the
divided leaf of the Bread Fruit Tree, Artocarpus incisa. Again,
we find the catkins of the jack, from which the long pendant
ornaments worn by elephants in front of their ears are modelled,
represented hanging out of the flowers, from the fruit of the lotus,
from the branches of the Sacred Fig, and about the lingam,
and trisul, which I believe to be the combined lingam and yoni.
In the earlier sculptures a lotus plant is represented issuing from
the proboscis of an elephant, the stalk running along in an undu-
lating line, between the curves of which the flower is seen alter-
nately in full face and en silhouette, in the most superb style of
conventional art. In the Bharhut sculptures [Plate V.], a lotus
springs in the same way from an elephant, and its flowers alternate
with the jack and mango ; and, between each lotus " flower," and
whatever fruit takes the place of the " knop " or cone, we have
representations of the Buddhistic fables or jatakas ; while the fruit-
ful mystic lotus is represented pouring down all manner of good
things, and jewelry in countless forms. In one place a woman
from a tree, reminding one of the woman in the Egyptian Tree of
Life, is pouring water into a man's hands, from a veritable tea pot.
In the Amravati and Takht-i-bhai sculptures, the Lotus stalk is
looped up in festoons by dwarfs, as we see similar festoons, in
Roman architectural remains, held up by genii. It may be that
the Takht-i-bhai sculptures were influenced by Greek examples,
or were executed under Greek direction ; but really the intercourse
with Assyria will account for a good deal that looks like Greek
inspiration in India, just as it is now evident that the ornamental
details of Greek sculpture also were derived from Assyria. The
" knotted rope" pattern may have been taken from the knots in the
stalks of the cones issuing from the stem and head of the Date
Horn, and the wedge pattern, alternate dark and light, from the
conventional representation of the leaf scars on the stem of the
Date Horn. The tree-like figures given in Plate II., compiled from
Owen Jones, and Mr. Fergusson, and Mrs. Jameson, all recall the
Asherah or " Grove" of the Assyrians, particularly the mediaeval
representation of the Cross, as the tree with twelve leaves for
the healing of the nations.
Sometimes on Persian rugs the entire tree is represented, but
generally it would be past all recognition but for smaller repre-
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN' COURT. 131
sentations of it within the larger. In Yarkand carpets, however,
it is seen filling the whole centre of the carpet, stark and stiff
us if cut out in metal. In Persian art, and in Indian art derived
from Persian, the tree becomes a beautiful flowering plant, or
simple sprig of flowers ; but in Hindu art it remains in its hard
architectural form, as seen in temple lamps, and the models in
brass and copper of the Sacred Fig as the Tree of Life. On an
embroidered Pindari bag it is represented in two forms [Plate I.,
figs. 1, 3, 4], one like a notched Noah's Ark tree, and the other
branched like the temple candelabra. In this bag the cone is
represented with the trees.
Neither is it difficult to conjecture how these religious symbols
of the first worship of the Aryan race^ afterwards darkened
and polluted in Turanian India, and Egypt, and Assyria, by a mon-
strous and obscene symbolism, came to be universally adopted in
the art ornament of the East. It originated in the embroidered
hangings and veils worked by women for the temples, which
they embroidered with the representation of the symbol of the
deity worshiped.
The women " who wove hangings for the grove," or Asherah,
are alluded to in 2 Kings xxiii. 7. They probably embroidered
on cut patterns, and worked the larger patterns in applique into
their work ; and they cut the patterns by folding the cloth double,
so as by one undulating or zig-zag cut to get a two sided symme-
trical pattern. Nor is this entirely conjecture. This method is
everywhere practised among the artistic peasantry of Europe. I
have a number of such patterns, which I once saw a French
peasant boy cutting out in paper, to wile away the time. It
happens that they are all of trees, some cypresses, and others trees
with the cross introduced in the most strange conventional manner
about them, trees, in fact, of life and death. The method of
cutting out patterns in this way tends to perpetuate a symmetrical
and rectangular representation of ornament. The Noah's Ark-
like tree, on the Pindari bag [Plate I., fig. 3]. is certainly
derived from a bit of paper or cloth folded and cut crossways and
then notched. Be this as it may, the knop and flower pattern,
and the Tree of Life pattern pervade all decorative art, and by
direct derivation from the Assyrian lotus and lotus bud, and
Asherah and cone, but no longer as symbols. This absence of
symbolism is the weakness of modern European decoration, as
indeed it was of Grecian ; and yet what conventional form is
more beautiful than the French Fleur-de-lis, more beautiful and
worshipful than the Tudor Rose, or than such heraldic symbols as
the cross crosslet ; and the most natural decoration for wall papers,
curtains, and book lining papers, "would be, 'for people who could
afford it, to use family arms, alone, or in combination with national
symbols, and conventionalised representations of national flowers
or animals. But no symbols can approach in beauty of form and
meaning to the knop and flower, and the Horn of Assyria, and,
purified of all local taint of Asshur, Ashtoreth or Astarte, they
belong to all the Aryan races in the old world and the new.
132 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878.
The history of mankind is ia its direct impulses the history of
surplus populations in search of food ; but wherever men have
been able to rest, and to found civil and political organisations,
they have raised up testimony to the truth that man shall not live
by bread alone. We find it figured everywhere in Oriental art,
and we cannot take up a talisman of Egypt, an engraved gem of
Assyria, a Syrian silk, an alabastron of Persian perfumes, or a
Persian illuminated MS. or carpet, a Cashmere shawl, an Indian
jewel or kincob, any of the great store of these splendid and
precious stuffs, and arms, and vessels of wrought gold and silver,
presented to the Prince of Wales, on which we do not find the
acknowledgment of the divine author and finisher of every perfect
work ; in symbols taken from the most majestic of trees and the
loveliest and most graceful of flowers, and which express more
simply, directly, and fully, than can any form of words, the wisdom
and beneficence of the Creator, and the gladness and praise of men.
The Portuguese, the first discoverers of India, always carried the
Cross at the mast-head of their ships as a sign of the higher aims
of their enterprise, and of all human intercourse and effort. They
erred grievously in seeking to give too dogmatic an effect to their
aspirations, and the Inquisition of Goa is the blackest spot in the
history of the connexion of Europe with the East. But not the
less valuable is the recognition of the true position and destiny
of men in the world, that only in responsibilities incurred, and
duties discharged by each for another, is there any hope either
for individuals or for States, and that to weary of and shrink
from them are the first signs of the sinking fortunes of an
Empire.
GEORGE BIRDWOOD.
PLATE I.
1, 3, 4, from a Pindari bag.
2, from a Delhi shawl.
5 & 7, from Scinde pottery.
6, from a Persian plate.
8 to 11, from Owen Jones' " Grammar of Orna-
ment."
PLATE II.
142, from Rawlinson's "Ancient Monarchies."
3 & 8, from Fergusson's "Tree and Serpent
"Worship."
5, 6, & 7, from Owen Jones.
4, from Jameson's " History of our Lord.
9, from the Vase of Nicosthenes.
PLATE III.
1 & 3 from Rawlinson's " Ancient Monarchies/' 5, from Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians."
2, from i an old Saracenic brocade. 6 ft 7, from Baden Powell's "Punjab Manufac-
4J from Owen Jones. tures."
H22.
PLATE Y.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 133
APPENDIX A.
STATISTICS OF THE MORAL AND MATERIAL PROGRESS OF
INDIA.
No. 1. POPULATION OF INDIA, according to the latest Returns
and Estimates :
Under British Administration - - 191,018,412
Native States - - 48,233,978
French and Portuguese Possessions - - 679,172
Total population - - 239,931,562
In round numbers - - 240,000,000
No. 2. ADULT MALE POPULATION OF BRITISH INDIA,
CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO OCCUPATION :
Engaged in Agriculture -
Industrial occupations
Commerce -
Government Service and Professions
Domestic occupations
Labourers, nature of labour unspecified -
Independent, non-productive, and unspecified
66,526,294
Deduct, women and children included in the
above classes - - 4,523,833
Total adult male population - 62,002,461
134
PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
No. 3. GROSS AMOUNT of the SEVERAL SOURCES
for each of the 13 under-
OFFICIAL YEARS
ended
Land
Revenue.
Tributes, Sub-
sidies, and
Contributions
from
Excise
and
Forest.
Income
Licence,
and
Assessed
Customs.
Native States.
Taxes.
... ri864 - - ; 20,303,423
715,990
2,364,713
1 1,433,622 2,384,061
j|J 1865 - - j 20,087,728
681,144
2,575,793
1 1,281,817
2,296,929
Ll866 - - 20,473,897
709,632
2,612,556
* 692,241
2,279,857
1867 (11 months)
19,136,449
629,245
2,431,129
2 22,127
2,030,861
1868 - 19,986,640
689,286
2,570,019
3 653,848
2,578,632
1869 - - 19,926,171
687,363
2,691,078
1508,700
2,692,755
1870 - - 21,088,019
765,126
2,725,245
1,110,224
2,429,185
1.
1871 - - 20,622,823
719,421
2,827,907
' 2,072,025
2,610,789
7.
1872 .- - ' 20,520,837
744,036
2,871,033
1 825,241
2,575,990
m
1873 - - 21,348,669
741,465
2.8&.125
1 580,139
2,653,880
1874 - - 21,037,912
768,544
2,909,768
i 20,136
2,628,495
1875 - - 21,296,703
724,972
2,929,424
1 2,747
2,678,479
U876 - - j 21,503,742
726,188
3,165,760
'510
2,721,389
Total for thelSJ 267>3S2)60S
9,802,412
85,568,550 9,253,377
32,561,315
years - )
i
OFFICIAL YEARS
ended
Telegraph.
Law
(Fees,Fines,
&c.).
Educa-
tion.
"ST
,-5 (1864
91,762
631,798
461,785 72,277
jM 1865
99,099
683,329
**
588,673 247,624
^ L1866
190,463
790,529
57,538
917,465 216,824
1867 (11 months)
219,472
815,219
66,658
538,139 238,513
1868
241,947
951,314
73,845
557,840 211,975
1869
265,568
1,172,098
78,711
553,305 224,523
1870
247,042
1,089,603
74,889
937,714 336,376
"I
1871
243,010
1,017,869
61,610
915,579 341,001
pr
1872
228,368
4 373,160
*-
830,040 1 363,212
~
1873 , -
249,802
392,686
-
792,280 506,779
1874
250,638
359,146
-
989,489 451,452
1875
286,479
321,798
-
1,047,735 ' 543,319
1876
309,040
315,992
-
1,276^526 561,189
Total for the 18)
years - ~5
2,922,690
8,914,436
408,251
10,376,570 4,310,064
|
1 Assessed taxes. 2 Income tax. 3 Licence tax.
4 Reduced by transfer to Provincial Services.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT.
135
of REVENUE and RECEIPT in INDIA and in ENGLAND,
mentioned Official Yeats.
i
-
Salt,
Opium.
Stamps.
Mint.
Post
Office.
OFFICIAL TEAES
ended
5,035,696
5,523,584
6,831,999
7,361,405
1,972,098
369,759
877,859
459,882
362,333
1864"!
1865 !>SO April.
5,342,149
8,518,264
1,994,632
494,354
406,466
iseej
5,345,910
6,803,413
1,803,773
239,991
496,439
1867 (11 months)'
5,726,093
8,923,568
2,186,269
120,252
659,679
1868
5,588,240
8,453,365
2,306,971
193,788
707,792
1869
5,888,707
7,953,098
2,379,316
157,214
711,698
1870
6,106,280
8,045,459
2,510,316
33,400
805,235
1871
.g
5,966,595
9,253,859
2,476,333
96,150
820,894
1872
1
6,165,630
8,684,691
2,608,512
54,261
* 580,312
1873
w
6,150,662
8,324,879
2,699,936
66,544
688,198
1874
6,227,301
8,556,629
2,758,042
159,021
739,400
1875
6,244,415
8,471,425
2,835,368
110,489
763,597
1876
fTotal for the 13
I years.
75,311,262
06,182,054
30,266,782
2,478,082
8,201,925
Receipts in
aid of
Superannuatioi
Allowances
(Subscriptions
to Funds, &c.)
Marine Army
(Pilot : (Sale of Stores,
i Dues, ; Stoppages,
Sale of Discharge, Pur-
Stores, chase Money,
. &c.). Ac.).
Miscel- rp~_ . T i
laneous. TOTAL.!
OFFICIAL YEARS
ended
5
307,715
747,431
615,903 44,613,032
1864")
5
308,095
735,567
469,820 45,652,897
1865 1 SO April.
5
198,890
728,840
2,311,123 48,935,220
iseej
5 228,543
737,368
344,181 42,122,433
1867 (11 months)")
5 455,090
759,112
1,189,003 48,534,412
1868
5
688,084
1,133,024
1,396,160 49,262,691
51869
5
329,953
1,082,605
1,575,167 50,901,081
1870
5
682,282
338,145
6196,894
962,148
944,420
1,185,669 51,413,686
341,371 > 50,110,215
1871
1872
1
587,078
6 208,943
906,810
263,417 50,219,489
1873
03
697,853
6 236,323
1,011,039
357,239 i 49,598,253
1874
698,642
6 298,525
988,838
312,027 1 50,570,171
1875
749,166
6227,887
1,045,612
281.76S .")1,810,068
1876
fTotal for the 18
I years.
3,415,021
4,018,087
11,782,314
10,642,848 1633,243,648
Included in Miscellaneous.
6 Including Inland Navigation.
136 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
No. 4. AMOUNT of the several HEADS of EXPENDITURE, in INDIA
OFFICIAL YEAES
ended
Refunds, Charges
of Collection of
Revenue, Assign-
ments under
Treaties, Ac.
1 Interest Adminis-
on Debt tration,
and on including
Obliga- ; Minor De-
tions. j partinents.
i Law |
! and Marine.
Justice.
1
_ rise*
} 1865 - -
9,379,896
9,050,376
4,971,414
4,988,029
977,362
J)71,702
2,120,636
2,264,421
632,788
611,389
8 U866
8,527,985
5,128,242
1,249,831
2,426,206
638,367
fl867 (11 months)
7,637,527
4,889,301
1,271.284
2,397,788
770,630
1868
8,957,464
5,732,757
1,317,537
2,544,349
1,095,174
1869
9,249,766
5,654,984
1,396,905
2,845,447
1,140,630
1870
9,230,823
5,609,687
1,429,151
2,903,454
1,293,15!
1
1871
9,266,931
5,840,145
1,573,068
2,996,190
759,770
^
1872
8,518,887
5,966,299
1,779,134
2,273,813
3 574,100 ;
at
1873
8,887,264
5,857,453
1,893,395
2,222,175
3 555,366
1874
9,155,350
5,789,821
1,893,617
I 2,266,179
3 528,333
1875
9,510,766
5,412,055
1,927,121
2,298,180
590,046
1876
Total for the)
13 years -j
9,483,279
5,563,968
2,006,764 2,336,477
3627,702
116,855,814
71,404,160
19,691,871
31,892,318
9,842,449
OFFICIAL YEAES
ended
Civil
Furlough,
and
Absentee
Allowances
Pro-
vincial
Services.
Famine
Belief.
A-y.
Public
Works.
- f!864 -
SU -
w U866
72,092
68,020
77,687
6 2,815,688
2,963,931
6 3,247,585
556,370
516,449 i
1,333,055
14,510,247
15,772,236
16,748,220
4,920,643
4,613,046
4,784,625
'1867 (11 months)
79,305
6 3,239,402
-
796,294
15,825,791
5,025,444
1868
99,159
6 3,476,821
-
732,214
16,103,296
5,622,855
1869 - - 122,461
C 3,711,274
-
527,314
16,269,581
6,272,331
1870 - - 157,918
3,678,527
-
712,603
16,329,739
5,084,565
31 March
1871 - 175,068
1872 - - 173,029
1873 - - 156,059
3,498,683
4,848,205
5,223,190
-
743,648
368,865
275,726
16,074,800
15,678,112
15,503,612
3,945,867
^2,459,780
2,525,241
1874 - - 258,461
5,069,972
3,861,673
109,697
15,228,429
2,357,941
1875 - - 216,704
5,148,744
2.237.S60
120,896
15,375,159
2,504,230
1876
Total for the)
13 years -Jl
229,199
1,885,065
5,153,652
508,554
186,761
15,308,460
204,727,682
2,821,482
52,891,153
52,075,674
6,611,087
6,979,897
1 Including dividends to proprietors of East India Stock, to 1874-5 inclusive.
3 Including Inland Navigation.
5 Extraordinary works are public works that the Government have decided may be
6 These figures are composed of the charges for Police, Education, Stationery, and
Works, were transferred to the Local Governments in 1871-2, to be defrayed from the
HANDBOOK TO THK INDIAN COUKT.
137
and in ENGLAND, for each of the 1 3 under-mentioned Official Years.
Medical.
Superannuation,
Political R< a > n d ed '
Agencies. Compassionate
Allowances.
Loss by
Exchange on OFFICIAL YEABS
Remittances
to Home ended
Treasury.
149,437
OMB
229,148
KM
1
935,239
575312
11,640
42,700
1864 - 0-
1865 - - l|
HUM
274389
251392
906,499
84,662
1866 - - J "
144360
261,801
27
JH
766,472 165,223
1867 (11 months) "1
155,707
352316
277354
1
,156319
117,248
1868
163,590
380361
MMBB
* 1,746369
193,867
1869 -
161,083 443.074
HUM
1332,515
203,441
1870
153,544 523,486
352
4N
1,450,763 472,973
1871
a
E
155,911
152330
176,262
315,100
390316
1,453,471
1,576^53
395,964
765,109
1872 -
1873
'1
~
159,527
mj*t
866
m
1,522^69
966380
1874
161,724
181379
MMM
1,779,970
BKMBM
1875 -
158,058
181,928
429335
1,939305
1,429,658 1876 - - j
2^*22,015 3^92,724 4325340
17341,656 5,766393 { ^^ears. ^
Railways
(ordinary),
Interest.
5 Extraordinary Works.
TOTAL.
OFPICIAI TEAKS
ended
Irriaration.
State
Railways.
Bombay
Mi
Fund.
2,124,163
2,109,996
45346,418
1864 - - -| _
- :H
343,121
-
-
-
46,169452
1868 . - J
1,798337
219,255
594
382,613
44339,924
50,144369
1867 (U months)"
1868
2,011,983
468,849
552398
349366
53,407334
1869
1,856,776
2,007361
190,870
401388
53,882,026
1870
2,102,694
1,850,561
718,438
983,854
644,620
:
51.098^06
48314312
1871 -
1872 -
\
^298,561
770,920
1,413349
-
MIMM
1873 -
Ea
1,662,614
1,198,682
2,854,025
-
54359^28
1S74
1,483339
1,235391
3314480
-
54300345
1875
1^73386
1,105,445
3,165.184
-
58^11,747
1876
f Total for the
I 13 years.
22,013385
8,708,195
11,785,492
1,188362
651347,032
s Including 327,600 in adjustment of charge for 1867-8.
* Reduced by transfer to Provincial Services,
earned out by loans, if necessary.
Printing, which, with certain charges previously entered under Medical or Public
allotments thereafter made for Provincial Services
138
PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
No. 5. VALUE of the PRINCIPAL and OTHER ARTICLES of PRIVATE
by SEA, from FOREIGN COUNTRIES, in each of the
OFFICIAL YEARS ended
80 April
OFFICIAL YEARS
PRINCIPAL ARTICLES
IMPORTED.
1864.
1865.
1866.
1867.
1868.
1869.
1870.
(llmos.)
Apparel ,_"
452,684
534,895
510,352
387,451
439,417
497,891
451,230
Arms, Ammunition, and
386,036
354,749
480,057
82,918
91,470
84,644
96,852
Military Stores.
Books, Paper, & Stationery' 410,782
Coal, Coke, &c. - - 3:vj.r,27
352,318
357,612
375,381
466,805
288,140
512,123
436,978
853,984
447,851
715^63
414,912
541,477
Cotton Twist and Yarn - | 1,529,001
2,191,440
1,961,141
2,572,700
2,698,350
2,779,934
2,715.370
Manufactures - 10,41(5,662
11,035,885
11,849,214
12,524,106
14,999,917
16,072.551
13,555,846
Drugs and Medicines - | 120,999
73,777.
72,039
1 143,025
1 254,565
1 222,71 5
1 210,167
Dyef
152,817
. 55,635
64,271
113,601
12-1,756
94,298
111,499
Fruits and Vegetables -
Glass
333,942
249,146
366,376
311,450
392,446
306,508
2 223.276
177,724
2 364,928
230,289
2 227,202
271,100
2 345,453
308,086
Gums and Resins -
63,153
67,781
63,971
46,828
73,083
78,647
99,817
Hardware, Cutlery, and
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
Plated Ware.
Horses ...
42,971
33,019
37,071
51,869
28,805
52,232
77,206
Ivory ...
4
115,455
103,120
121,309
130,965
118,022
Jewelry & Precious Stones
443,591
482,292
952,996
333,068
244,686
231,952
264,808
Liquors : Malt
Spirits -
712,393
412,632
471,917
324,852
528,485
416,592
552,024
388,223
435,770
455,174
381,773
549,819
413,520
564,378
Wines, Liqueurs,
429,339
402,393
474,344
436,153
476,406
574,040
548,329
&c.
Machinery and Millwork -
585,516
554,156
586,182
601,740
1,057,861
793,183
555,742
784,888
1,461,300
1,425,655
1,188,086
1 Steel
63,880
83,371
111,937
166,377
Copper and Brass
1,269,776
1,939,665
1,743,097
1,753,6:34
Spelter
85,848
204,259
192,805
137,045
j rjv
226,899
99,856
146,075
156,377
Metals ( Lead -
55,738
22,060
41,773
14,9 14
Quicksilver
,.
37,317
22,382
41.S25
15,510
Uiienumerated -
63,081
106,263
136,484
110,426
L. Total
3,368,652
3,755,932
3,043,234
52,587,427
53,939,156
5 3,839,651
53,572,399
Oils - - - -
4
4
2-1,594
53,276
58,221
45,370
12,391
Paints and Colours
96,345
134,843
96,802
76,203
170,013
175,643
160,962
Perfumery -
46,083
40,278
32,117
26,280
33,138
30,524
34,580
Porcelain & Earthenware
Provisions -
Railway Plant and Rolling
79,721
248,877
1,267,240
93,256
238,760
685,632
91,368
286,567
1,435,929
62,488
296,142
2,091,417
71,152
351,452
2,464,966
84,002
337,610
1,591,813
93,351
331,186
1,217,334
Stock.
Salt -
315,632
341,867
265,289
356,114
677,473
729,270
750,095
Silk, Raw
385,507
329,315
511,239
423,866
566,583
730,934
901,117
Silk,' Manuf ctures of -
456,781
195,954
443,949
197,183
357,380
187,189
415,070
278,435
423,598
425,267
486,518
286,756
466,593
297,381
Sugar, &c.
Tea -
421M38
148,824
318,627
125,744
563,305
186,310
541,817
134,527
536,884
253,364
653,611
201,987
715,553
166,522
Tobacco *
7 105,783
7 104,167
7 70,909
7 89,660
7 89,865
7 101,119
7 77,282
Umbrellas
Wood, and Manufactures of
Wool Raw -
63,081
54,465
4
60,714
78,676
65,895
132,641
106,863
64,106
60,997
69,575
122,085
59,056
41,141
111,531
92,645
47,974
87,174
59,045
54.018
Wool', Manufactures of -
All other Articles -
611,570
2,197,646
867.831
2,363,352
583,132
1,955,152
576,481
1,272,771
601,957
1,391,111
764,173
1,413,583
596,713
1,890,233
Total Value of MerO
chandise - ~i
27,145,590
28,150,923
29,599,228
29,014,741
35,664,320
35,931,374
32,879,643
Treasure
22,962,581
21,363,352
26,557,301
13,229,533
11,775,374
14,366,588
13,954,807
TOTAL MERCHANDISE')
AND TREASURE )
50,108,171
49,514,275
56,156,529
42,244,274
47,439,694
50,297,962
46,834,450
1 Including chemicals. 2 Including dried fruits, &c. 3 Included in metals,
e Excluding hardware, cutlery, and plated ware.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT.
139
MERCHANDISE, and of the TREASURE, IMPORTED into BRITISH INDIA
13 under-mentioned Official Years.
ended 31 March
PRINCIPAL ARTICLES
IMPORTED
1871.
1872.
1873.
1874. . 1875.
1876.
433,098
499,571
601,258
578,220
620,456
615,961
Apparel.
74,297
93,759
100,850
76,320
84,273
76,318
Arms, Ammunition, and
Military Stores.
423,238
467,096
413,959
514,794
428,003
497,942
475,027
740,026
472,968
680,463
448,619
665,535
Books, Paper, & Stationery.
Coal, Coke, &e.
3,357,393
2,424,522
2,628,296
2,628,959
3,157,780
2,794,769
Cotton Twist and
Yarn.
15,687,476
15,058,811
14,605,953
15,155,666
16,263,560
16,450,212
Manufacti
ires.
i 239,984
223,114
304,061
267,538
291,696
217,919
Drugs and Medic
nes.
143,359
119,096
186,336
139,929
158,146
143,439
Dyes.
2 371,014
276,855
2 265,825
240,421
2 263,889
297,236
2 279,775
338,334
2 234,632
318,881
70,597
349,931
Fruits and Vegetables.
Glass.
94,154
98,712
98,250
141,394
131,849
91,429
Gums and Resins
3
3
3
3
3
475,338
Hardware, Cutlery, and
Plated Ware.
68,845
85,935
61,008
70,759
67,360
74,388
Horses.
117,092
144,407
145-.658
185,969
123,048
231,089
Ivory.
176,937
311,686
210,423
305,319
221,321
363,496
171,438
337,916
190,993
349,844
176,831
268,107
Jewelry & Precious Stones.
Liquors : Malt.
385,900
560,485
553,884
488,597
553,833
603,476
Spirits.
433,337
495,783
511,864
476,196
476,610
520,544
Wines, Liqueurs,
&c.
417,543
405,835
517,316
1,002,317
1,185,943
1,391,667
Machinery and Millwork.
799,895
841,490
752,576
795,516
1,247,348
1,424,598
Iron
114,837
87,126
78,638
56,680
95,988
88,996
Steel
1,361,759
1,086,674
578,788
513,023
863,873
1,256,024
Copper and Bras
122,205
123,791
121,917
49,523
47,464
82,651
Spelter
141,742
116,209
80,064
147,765
140,001
169,236
Tin
53,344
57,397
63,782
38,294
50,943
68,099
Lead
Metals.
14,115
35,330
16,425
14,303
16,120
107,510
Quicksilver
105,694
92,758
110,431
123,403
145,385
41,355
Unenumerated
5 2,713,591
"2,390,775
5 1,802,621
5 1,738,507
5 2,607,122
6 3,233,469
Total -
59,880
59,544
51,629
67,449
109,954
70,213
Oils.
103,505
31,932
128,395
31,032
148,482
40,286
118,003
33,189
186,822
36,725
202,951
42,546
Paints and Colours.
Perfumery.
74.820
305,320
68,641
349,224
90,343
351,474
98,533
372,867
115,448
363,727
99,154
2 713,839
Porcelain & Earthenware.
Provisions.
1,466,068
516,996
327,466
439,339
538,962
599,770
Railway Plant am
I Roll ing
Stock.
715,892
913,915
828,703
835,354
755,771
600,934
Salt.
895,563
651,595
659,480
786,914
872,927
694,889
Silk, Raw.
425,527
480,948
560,643
608,374
710,478
708,866
Silk, Manufacture
s of.
222,170
201,744
216,381
150,562
179,126
359,988
Spices.
555,801
709,779
440,146
558,978
516,564
895,927
Sugar, &c.
114,055
202,513
246,576
182,859
169,982
247,5"fi
Tea.
75,432
88,493
70,382
71,407
70,274
76,471)
Tobacco.
86,771
124,130
134,819
90,246
119,362
196.40J
Umbrellas.
57,607
46,323
95,161
42,342
56,943
52,705
53,406
38,562
72,360
42,772
81,111
45,501
Wood.and Manufactures of.
Wool, Raw.
583,220
1,802,970
514,194
1,080,584
719,530
1,287,836
668,911
1,165,627
557,586
1,306,965
869,760
1,707,127
Wool, Manufactures of.
All other Articles.
33,348,246
30,810,776
30,473,069
31,628,497
34,645,262
37,112,668
< Total Value of Merchan-
l dise.
5,444,823
11,578,813
4,556,585
5,792,534
8,141,047
5,300,722
Treasure.
38,798,069
42,884,589
85,029,654
37,421,031
42,786,309
42,413,390
( TOTAL MERCHANDISE
I AND TREASURE.
4 Included in " All other articles." 5 Including hardware, cutlery, and plated ware
7 Including articles used in consumption of tobacco.
140
PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
No. 6. VALUE of the PRINCIPAL and OTHER ARTICLES OP INDIAN PRODUCE and
from BRITISH INDIA, by SEA, to FOREIGN COUNTRIES, on PRIVATE
PBISCIPAL ABTICLBS
OFFICIAL YBABS ended
30 April
OFFICIAL YEAES
EXPOBTED.
1864.
1865.
1866.
1867. 1868.
(11 mths.)
1869.
1870.
Coir, and Manufactures of - i 87,133
67,533
97,905
87,493
66,790
140,460
151,401
Coffee - - - 657,672
801,908 785,102
394,321
761,345
1.121.032
870.189
Cotton, Raw
Cotton Twist and Yarn - >
Cottou Manufactures -)
35,864,795
1,167,577
37,573.637 35,587,389 16,478,064
1,043,960 j 1,732,133 {; j o^'f^
20,092.570 20,149,825 19,079,138
175,775 ' 128,183 ' 122,619
1,259,683 1,211.638 1.176.138
Dru^s and Medicines - 1 104,505
101,043
90,998
31,501
36,190
47,573 48,415
Dyes: Indigo - -\
Other (except Lac) -i
Grain and Pulse: Rice")
1,849,946
1,940,495 [
1,818,280
140,582
f
1,798,599
129,483
3,295,093
1,823,226
99,046
3,647,008
2,893,823 3,178,045
187,038 : 164,640
4,210,9-25 3,020,276
(including Paddy) -f 4,395377
5,956,408
5,247,918-]
76,896
101.308
98,760
32,924
Other - -3
(.
281,801
212,909
265,023
168,254
Gums and Resins -
34,821
31,517
46,456
54,191
125,786
207.355
210,407
Hemp & Manufactures of l
96,736
123,901
73,375
21.675
16,472 ! 33,461
61,372
Hides and Skins -
897,575
725,236
609,803
659,342 988,282 | 1,252,898
1,691,330
Horns ...
65,173
31,805
34,917
39,550
48,624 55.651
74,654
Ivorv, and Manufactures of
80,398
77,217
92,402
85,008
64,575 122,520
108,289
Jewelry * Precious Stones
113,596
49,164
117,140
76,820
95,652 40,139
37,779
Jute, Raw - - O
Jute, Manufactures of -)
1,618,244
1,410,702
1,083,522 {
750,669
443,854
1,309,537 ' 1,891,899
291,555 187,542
1,984,495
205,923
Lac (Dye, Shell, Ac.)
242,021
297,394
305,575
195,869
188,954 22;,17ri
253,800
Oils - - - - i 422,175
217,730
133,859
97,681
213,991 380.081
325,030
Opium - 10,756,093
9,911,804
11,122,74-)
10,431,703
12,330,799 10,695,654
Saltpetre
722,201
542,389
605,350
297,713
256,301 ' 310,758
9H870
SeedV-
2,032,832
1,912,433
1,750,197
1,787,996
2,160,572 1.994.8S8
2,308,942
Silk, Raw
954,649
1,165,901
745,352
811,798
1,553,229 1,362',381
1,561,512
Silk. Manufactures of i 115,465
106,612
88,829
95,147
97,344 145,7*4
142,062
Spices - 161,509
145,165
163,008
121,089
160,847 185,482
174,635
Susar. Ac. - 716,857
765,110
36U62
152,773
128,703 ' 410,974
327.325
Tea -
271,229
301,022
309,899
378,126
729,714 983,757
1,080,515
Tobacco
46,224
81,963
3 52,722
3 54,293
3 64,187
3 47,358
3 60,980
Wood, A Manufactures of 220,749
436,756
S69.523
135,381
128,178
286,645
156,123
Wool, Raw - - I 995,048
1,151,002
871,314
742,716
611,590
641,803
472,614
Wool, Manufactures of
275,391
254,497
25)0,115
259,185
329,313
304,357
255,395
All other Articles -
729,455
802,710 763,350
436,304
703,946
83;',322
877,955 1
Total Merchandise -
65,625,449
68,027,016
65,491,123
41.859,994
50,874,001 J53,062,165
52,471,376
Viz., Indian Produce 1 )
and Manufacture )
63,379,885
65,790,445
62,684,452
40,773,959
49,596,664
51,676,232
50,679,545
F chandise M< ^} \ ******
2,236,571
2,806,671
1,086,035
1,277,337
1,585,933
1,791,831
Treasure - - - 1,270,435
1,444,775 j2.165,352
1,950,435
1,025,336
776.0S2 1,025,386
TOTAL MEBCHAWDISK \ L sq , OR.,
AND TBEASUBB -J "v^ 5 ' 884
69,471,791 67,656,475
43,810,429
51,899,337
53,838,247 53,496,762
1 Excluding cordage.
1 Excluding gunjah and churras, which are classed with drugs.
4 Including treasure exported
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT.
141
MANUFACTURE, of FOREIGN MERCHANDISE, and of TREASURE, EXPORTED
ACCOUNT, in each of the 13 under-mentioned Official Years.
ended 31 March
PRINCIPAL ARTICLES
EXPORTED.
1871.
1872.
1873.
1874.
1875.
1876.
92,751
121,385
169,982
161,232
137,647
1 101,708
Coir, and Manufactures of.
809,701
1380,410
1,146,219
1,499,496
1,307,919
1,633,395
Coffee.
10 1GO S99
21,272,430
14,02--',S5S
13.212,241
15,257,342
13,280,959
Cotton, Raw.
159.247
121,469
137,936
1P1.173
203,812
324,376
Cotton Twist and Yarn.
1,250,768
1,070,214
1,279,626
1,414,197
I,4i639
1,380,577
Cotton Manufactures.
43,703
75,434
80,361
68,897
70,267
74,843
Drugs and Medicines.
3,192,503
3,705,475
3,426,824
3,555,300
2,576,302
2,875,065
Dyes : Indigo.
212,158
4,203,851
251,394
4,499,161
265,505
5,761,030
169,282
5,549,798
214.24S
4,765,334
140,517
5,311,1 '95
Other (except Lac).
Grain and Pulse : Rice
(including Paddy).
ION, ^33
235,645
167,690
827,606
491,451
906,331
Wheat.
161^271
130,942
144,915
170,942
231,384
203,711
Other.
171,602
147336
240,169
146,940
179,015
194,010
Gums and Resins.
74,630
2,020,819
55,973
2,525,925
70,626
2,921,910
70,617
2,618,358
78,587
2,677,767
1 63,390
2,944,933
Hemp, & Manufacture of. 2
Hides and skins.
61,058
65,323
94,694
62,398
79,012
83,165
Horns.
77,607
42,653
65,577
53,999
108,030
54,161
129,854
50,822
93,770
90,825
116,921
80,888
Ivory, & Manufactures of.
Jewelry & Precious Stones.
2,577,553
4,117,308
4,142,548
3,436,015
3,25,882
2 S(*5,S40
Jute, Raw.
844,763
18^,859
189,541
201,669
238,640
489,181
Jute, Manufactures of.
190,825
278,945
203,680
257,653
254,011
755,747
Lac (Dye, Shell, &c.)
177,222
416,186
335,600
262,^99
354,259
426,290
Oils.
10,783,863
13,365,228
U, 4215,280
11341,857
11,956,972
11,148.426
Opium.
440,554
397,251
536,314
464,974
501,468
348,956
3,522,305
2,728,788
1,508339
2,361,451
3,235,950
5,462,388
Seed 1 *
1,:s51346
1,130,709
1,305,487
1,225,599
796,676
452370
Silk/Raw.
160,425
164,825
199,804
239,865
255.4S7
260,811
Silk, Manufactures of.
20 1,385
304,712
171,376
238,217
197,891
380,552
Spices.
295,076
347,635
542,395
281,743
394,384
377387
Sugar, &c.
1,139,703
1,482,186
1,590,926
1,754,618
1,963,550
2,183,881
Tel.
3 63,074
79,662
136,484
167,148
232,954
171,508
Tobacco.
250,494
326,030
386,019
415,904
366399
471,627
Wood, & Manufactures of
670,647
t.06,698
861,626
966,832
965,919
1,109,740
Wool, Raw.
148,764
865,777
198,106
974,628
353,585
1,253,755
229,502
1,222,687
211,516
1,258,082
217,202
1.2SO.S35
Wool. Manufactures of.
All other Articles.
55,331,825
63,185,848
55,236,295
54,960,786
56,312,261
58,058,125
Total Merchandise
53,551,681
61,697,226
53,449,183
53,114,427
54,501,091
56,224,964
Vi f Indian Produce and
v 1Z< I Manufacture.
l,7. c O,14t
1,488,622
1..787.112
1,846,359
1,811,170
1,833,161
-V
j Foreign Merchandise.
1,587,180
1,421,173
1,273,979
1,879,071
1,592,721
2,115,144
Treasure.
56,919,005
64,607,021
56,510,274
56,839,857
57,904,982
60,173,269
f TOTAL MERCHANDISE
I AXD TREASURE.
s Including articles used in the consumption of tobacco.
on account of Government.
142 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
EAILWATS.
No. 7. LENGTH of LINE open on RAILWAYS in INDIA on
31 Dec. in each of the 13 under-mentioned years.
Year.
1864
3,935
4,015
Year.
1871
1872
1873
1874
Miles.
5,077
5,382
5,700
6,190
6,497
POST OFFICE.
No. 8. PRINCIPAL STATISTICS of the POST OFFICE of BRITISH
INDIA for each of the 14 under-mentioned Official Years.
Number of Letters,
OFF
ICIAL YEARS
ended
Number
of
Post Offices.
Newspapers,
Parcels, and
Packets received
for Delivery.
fl864
1,091
52,462,093
80 April -
'1865
1,191
56,968,948
Ll866
60,913,136
ri867 (11 months)
1868
2,205
59,849,215
69,154,847
1869
2,589
7b,987,617
1870
2,629
84,534,578
1871
2,736
85,689,823
31 March<
1872
89,561,685
1873
s',m
93,157,314
1874
3,178
109,235,503
1875
3,403
116,119,231
1876
3,661
119,470,921
11877
3.852
122,541,753
No. 9. STATISTICS relating to GOVERNMENT TELEGRAPHS in
INDIA and CEYLON for each of the 12 under-mentioned
Official Years.
OFFICIAL YEABS
ended 81 March
Length of Telegraph
No. of Signal
Offices
open at end of
each Year.
Wire.
Line.
Miles.
Miles.
1864
12,975
12,161
155
1865
14,587
13,635
174
1866
15,399
13,767
172
1867 (11 months) '
1868
15,866
18,067
13,784
13,887
159
178
1869
20,597 *
14423
193
1870
21,378 a
14,275
198
1871
22,834 2
14,016
205
1872
28,893 2
15,336
199
187S*
30,681*
15,705
203
1874
32,556
15,980
225
1875
38,798
16,649
225
Information is wanting to complete the statement for this year. The figures for the
Ceylon Telegraph are not included in 1866-7.
* Excluding the Ceylon wires.
3 For 1872-3 and the following years the statements of receipts and expenditure are
taken from the Finance Accounts.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT.
143
5. I
s s
3
S 3 *
SI
S i g I S s 5 I I sill
i i
gill!
i 1
i i
i i
s a
i 1
l i
I I I I I I I I
I i
I I I I I I I
| |
I I
I ! I I I
I |
s s"
I I I I I I I I I
I I
saipui ;s 9j tt. - i
tpuaij
I I I
! I I I I
I I
i i- U
I I I I ! I I
I i I
s. i i i I
s 1 1
e-j eo IN
I I I I I I I I I I
3 f 3; t
l-l
rH Gq CO * O
s s s S s
H 22.
144
PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION. 1878 :
EDUCATION.
No. 11. RESULT of EXAMINATIONS at the UNIVERSITIES* in
INDIA, for ENTRANCE, DEGREES, &c. in each of the 14 under-
mentioned Official Years.
EXTBAXCE.
FlEST
AET3
EXAMI-
HATIOX.
B.A.
HOXOUES
IK AETS
AND M.A.
LAW.
MEDI-
CIKE.
CIVIL Eu-
GIXEEEIXG.
YEAE.
i
J
i
s
i
|
\
i
,.5
i
J
2
e
I
~
"2
1
|j
g
J
1
i CJ
1
6
I
1
i.'
1
I
tr
I
1
I
i
1
CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY.
1863-1
1,307
690
272 149
66
80
8 ! 3
23 20
69 ! 33
_ | _
1864-5
1,396 702
321 151
82
15
15 11
21 22
57 35
10 5
1865-6
1,500
510
446 1202
122
79
18 i 15
39 24
661 35
5 2
1866-7
1,350
638
426 j 131
141
Oil
39
22
53 36
66 35
9
1867-8
1,507
814
388 188
212
M
25
15
82 54
64 21
6 6
1868-9
1,734
892
423 196
174
77
29
18
130 71
86 i 50
3 2
1869-70
1,730
817
520 225
210
;s
32
24
113 92
68; 52
8 5
1870-1
1,905
1,099
540 233
212
81
39
35
111 65
91 63
9 3
1871-2
1,902
767
507 i 204
232
00
32
24
158 63
117 59
13 2
1872-3
2,141
938
560 i220
242
12.;
30 1 20
130 152
130 56
16
8
1873-4 2,644
848
539 '305
212
1H2
57 32
263 i25
163 75
21 3
1874-5
2.251
966
533 193
217
90
38 i 18
171 40
209! 51
21 2
1875-6
2,873
838
575
1S2
281
73
38 24
87 55
245 92
20 10
1876-7
2,425
1,355
756
oil
287
144
49
31
85 63
287 90
21
8
MADRAS UNIVERSITY.
1863-4
390
143
82
g
21
11
_
_
10
2
- i -
6
1
1864-5
565
223
167
50
29
11
3
2
5
4
1865-6
555
229
214
75
8
e
2
1866-7
895
306
250
116
18
is
10
7
1867-8
1,069
338
350
117
24
14
14
10
1 1
1868-9
1,320
324
443
154
53
40
5
81
16
2 2
3
1
1869-70
1,200
401
531
220
59
M
5
SS
15
'
2
1870-1
1,358
424
26$ 96
65
M
4
2
i ! i
4
2
1871-2
1,419
492
205 97
181
H
1
8
6
i
2
1872-3
1,530
611
240 76
81 29
1
8
5
2 2
1873-4
1,704
626
285 125
88 50
1
13
4 4
4
1
1874-5
1,911
784
342 183
85 55
1C
9
3 2
2
2
1875-6
2,164
662
401 187
107
67
2
IS
S
3 3
I
5
3
BOMBAY UNIVERSITY.
1863-4
291
112
20
15
6
1
5
2
_
_
21
9
_
_
1864-5
241
109
22
10
15
s
2
2
I
7
1865-6
282
111
79
41
20
12
9
e
2
2
11
10
1866-7
440
93
59
21
59
25
6
3
2
2
1
2
3
2
1867-8
539
163
69
21
40
21
12
6
6
3
9
8
7
1868-9
640
250
85
40
33
7
12
4
6
3
9
5
10
8
1869-70
889
142
105
34
52
20
7
2
17
6
11
5
12
7
1870-1
901
142
136
41
61
13
4
2
14
13
16
7
21
10
1871-2
876
227
134
32
58
11
5
1
2
28
15
31
14
1872-3
909
378
99
24
56
22
6
5
6
1
28 | 19
29
19
1873-4
1,025
355
146
48
62
88
8
s
7
3
38 ! 21
36
23
1874-5
1,115
262
213
74
69
n
9
2
11
2
51
25
39
17
1875-6 ! 1,269
434
193
88
18
6
4
11
5
n
47
36
30
1876-7 1 1,154
203
176
92 ,40
4
2
u
3
60
80
35
29
* The Universities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were incorporated in 1857 by
Acts of the Government of India, Nos. II.. XXII., and XXVII. All are based on the
model of the University of London, without rigorous uniformity of details being
insisted on.
HENRY WATERFIELD, Secretary,
India Office, Statistics and Commerce Department.
21 March 1878.
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 145
APPENDIX B.
CHINCHONA CULTIVATION IN INDIA.
THE introduction of Chinchona cultivation into India was undertaken with
the object of ensuring a cheap and unfailing supply of the febrifuge for the
use of the millions who annually suffer from fever.
Fever is by far the most prolific cause of death in India, carrying off very
many more than all other diseases and accidents put together. The total
number of deaths from fever in India is upwards of a million and a half
annually. At least half these deaths will eventually be prevented by putting
some cheap form of the Chinchona alkaloids into every druggist's shop in the
country at one rupee per ounce ; and thus multitudes will be saved from
death or grievous suffering.
The successful introduction of Chinchona cultivation into India has been a
task of considerable difficulty in all its stages. It was not only necessary to
transplant a genus of plants from one side of the world to the other, it was
also an essential element of success to convert wild into cultivated plants.
This involved a close study of the climate, soil, and general physical aspects
of each region where the valuable species grow in their native forests ; a com-
parison of these circumstances with those prevailing in the East Indies, the
discovery of the best species, and also of the species best adapted to secure
good results in their new homes, the study of all the requirements of the
plants under cultivation, without any guide, as the Ohicchona had never
before been cultivated ; and finally, the solution of numerous very compli-
cated questions relating to the best and cheapest form in which the febrifuge
can be provided for general use.
The task was difficult and complicated. Mr. Markham undertook it in
1859, and all arrangements connected with the collection of plants and seeds
in South America, and their conveyance to India, have been made by him,
and carried out under his superintendence. His original plan was to depute
collectors to the different regions of the Andes where the various species flourish,
to have the collections made simultaneously, and to convey them direct across
the Pacific to India in a special steamer. But only a portion of his scheme
obtained sanction, and no steamer was provided. He was, however, deter-
mined that all the species should be secured eventually, and that the work
should be complete, even if it extended over many years. This has been the
case. It has taken many years to do what might have been done in one or
two, and the expense has been quadrupled. Yet the whole work is now at
last complete.
In 1859 Mr. Markham was only able to organise three expeditions ; one,
under his own command, to obtain plants and seeds of the Calisayas and
other species from Caravaya, in Southern Peru, yielding the yellow barks of
commerce ; a second, under Mr. Pritchett, to collect species in the forests of
Central Peru yielding the grey barks of commerce ; and a third, under that
eminent botanist Richard Spruce, to collect plants and seeds of the Chinchona
succirubra in the forests of Ecuador, yielding the red bark.
In 1860 the whole of this work was done, and done thoroughly, so far as
the difficult and dangerous part of it in the Andean forests, and the convey-
ance of the plants to sea ports on the coast of the Pacific, were concerned ;
but the failure to furnish the means of direct conveyance to India led to
disasters which were inevitable. The plants had to be conveyed across the
Isthmus of Panama, then to England, then across Egypt, and down the Red
i, 2
146 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878
Sea to India. The first instalment from Southern Peru all died on the
passage, or after reaching India ; but the seeds forwarded in the following
year germinated, and thus a stock of C. Cnlisai/a trees was secured. Sub-
sequently more seeds from Bolivia, collected by Mr. Ledger, were received,
and the plants raised from them have proved to be an exceedingly valuable
variety, which has received the name of Ledyerlana. The second instalment of
plants, consisting of those yielding grey bark, was equally unfortunate, but
the precaution had also been taken of obtaining seeds from which a stock of
plants yielding grey barks was established in India. The third instalment,
coming at a cooler season for passing down the Red Sea, was more fortunate.
It consisted of plants of C. succirubra, yielling red bark, nearly all of which
arrived safely. Thus by 1862 the arrangements made by Mr". Markham as
regards the above species were crowned with complete success ; but the work
of introducing all the best species was still far from finished. It remained to
obtain the valuable species from Ecuador, yielding the crown barks, and also
the renowned species of Columbia.
Accordingly Mr. Markhara obtained sanction for the dispatch of a collector
to Cuenca and Loxa in southern Ecuador to obtain seeds of the C. officinalis,
the original species of Linnaeus (aftewards called C. condaminea) from the
bark of which the Countess of Chinchon was cured. For this service he
selected Mr. Robert Cross, an experienced gardener, who had already acquired
experience under Mr. Spruce, with instructions to obtain a supply of seeds of
the best Loxa species yielding crown bark. Mr. Cross reached Ecuador in
1862, made a good collection in spite of extraordinary difficulties, and the
seeds arrived safely in India and Ceylon, and germinated freely. Mr. Howard,
the well-known quinine manufacturer, also presented a fine plant of C. offici-
nalis (von Uritusinya) from which a large stock has been obtained. Thus
the introduction of the crown bark species was secured.
Mr. Markham's next care was to obtain and introduce plants of a valuable
species called C. pitayensis, which grows on the slopes of the central cor-
dillera of Colombia, near Popayan. For this work he again secured the
services of Mr. Cross, who set out in 1863 and made a good collection of
seeds, but, owing to damage suffered in their transit, they did not germinate.
After some delay Mr. Markham obtained sanction for a second attempt, and
^in 1868 Mr. Cross again set out for Colombia, this time with more fortunate
results, for the seeds of C. pitayensis collected by him near Popayan arrived
safely, and germinated freely in India.
Meanwhile the destruction of C. pitayensis. in its native forests led the
collectors to seek for other trees in more distant regions, and a new bark
began to appear in the market, of great value, known as the Calisayade
Santa F6. Mr. Markham resolved that this species should also be intro-
duced into India. The service was one of special difficulty and danger, for
the trees are only found on the eastern Cordillera of Colombia, near the
sources of the Cagneta. He again intrusted the work to Mr. Cross in 1877,
and again his confidence in that intrepid and most able explorer was justified.
In March 1878 Mr. Cross arrived at Kew with a good supply of plants of the
Calisaya de Santa Fe, and also of the C. cordifolia, yielding the Carthageua
barks of commerce.
Thus at length all the valuable species of febrifuge Chinchona plants, in-
digenous to South America, have been successfully introduced into India.
They are as follows :
C. Calisaya (yellow barks) Bolivia and Caravaya.
C. nitida 1
C. micrantha i- (grey barks) Central Peru.
C. Peruviana\
C. succirubra (red barks) Ecuador.
C. officinalis (crown barks) Ecuador.
C. Pitayensis
The first and most hazardous stage of the enterprise was the collection of
the plants and seeds in South America, and their conveyance to- India. The
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COUET. 147
second and equally difficult stage was the cultivation and the discovery of
the species best suited for India, as well as the best method of treatment with
a view to producing the largest per-centage of febrifuge alkaloids in the
barks.
The first step was the selection of the most suitable sites for the planta-
tions, being those having most resemblance to the native habitat of the
Chiuchona. Mr. Markham proceeded to India in 1860 to perform this duty ;
and chose a site at Neddivattum, on the northern slopes of the Neilgherry
Hills, facing Wynaad, for the plants of C. succirubra, the C. Calisaya and
frey barks ; and a site at a greater elevation, under the Dodabetta peak,
ar the C. officinalis plants. He also selected sites for plantations in Coorg
and the Puliiey Hills, and, on the occasion of a second visit to India in 1866,
in Travancore and Wynaad.
The successful conversion of the Chinchona from a wild to a cultivated
tree is due to the unrivalled skill and ability of the late Mr. Mclvor, superin-
tendent of Chinchona cultivation, in the Madras Presidency. Mr. Mclvor
propagated the plants with great success, established them in the plantations,
discovered the conditions under which they would give the largest yield, and
also the method of renewing the bark by the mossing process, which un-
doubtedly secures an increased per-centage of febrifuge alkaloids. The final
conclusions are that the C. succirubra species is best adapted for use in India,
and for furnishing abundant supplies of a cheap febrifuge; while the
C. officinalis and the Columbian kinds will be the most valuable barks for
the London market, and for securing a remunerative return on the outlay.
By 1870 the Neilgherry Chiuchona plantations, belonging to the Government,
covered 1,200 acres of ground; while private individuals possessed several
thriving and paying plantations on the Neilgherries and in Wynaad, 235,747
plants having been distributed up to 1875. In the same year there were over
a million Chinchona trees in the Govermnent plantations.
In 1862 a Chinchoua plantation was established in British Sikkim, under
the superintendence of Dr. Anderson, plants of C. succirubra having been
obtained from the Neilgherry hills. Other kinds are not likely to flourish in
the Sikkim climate, but the C. succirubra is well established in the Rungbee
plantation. By the year 1875 there were upwards of two million plants of
C. succirubra at Rungbee, and the propagation can be carried on with ease
to any extent.
Thus the second stage of the enterprise, namely the cultivation, was crowned
with complete success.
The third and most important measure is the supply of a cheap febrifuge
to the people. As soon as it was established that the C. succirubra would be
the best species for India a very critical point arose. That species yields
a very large per-centage of total febrifuge alkaloids, but only a small quantity
of quinine. Mr. Markham saw that it was of vital consequence to discover
the medicinal value of the other alkaloids, namely chinchonidine, quinidine,
and chinchonine ; and to ascertain whether they, equally with quinine, pos-
sessed the precious febrifuge qualities. He accordingly obtained the appoint-
ment of Medical Commissions in 1866, for each of the three Presidencies, to
investigate and report upon this question. The result was that chinchonidine
(the principal alkaloid in C. succirubra) and quinidine were found to be quite
equal to quinine, and chinchonine inferior, though still efficacious in larger
doses. This was a great point, for it made a cheap febrifuge medicine
possible. The extraction of pure quinine is an expensive process, but the
production of a medicine containing the total alkaloids in the bark is easy
and simple.
This important fact having been established, Mr. Markham next urged the
adoption of a measure calculated to secure the final object of the introduc-
tion of Chinchona cultivation into India ; namely, the preparation of a feb-
rifuge medicine at the Government plantations, which should contain all the
alkaloids, and should be saleable at a cheap rate. With this object Mr.
Broughton was appointed as quinologist on the Neilgherry Hills in 1866 ; and
in 1873 Mr. Wood received a similar appointment for the Sikkim plantations.
Mr. Broughton adopted a method for the manufacture of his medicine which
148 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878.
entailed the use of alcohol, and was, therefore, too expensive. Up to 1873
he had made about 600 Ibs. of an amorphous Chinchona alkaloid, but the
essential requisite of cheapness was not secured. His method was conse-
quently abandoned. Mr. Wood began his actual manufacturing operations
in 1875. His method is the same as that recommended by the learned
quinologist of the Hague, Dr. J. E. De Vrij, who calls the resulting product
quinetum. The powdered bark is first exhausted with cold acidulated water,
and the resulting liquor is precipitated by a caustic alkali. Scarcely any fuel
is required, and no expensive machinery, merely some wooden tubs and
calico filters. There can soon be yielded, by this process, about 140,000
ounces of an efficient Chinchona alkaloid every year, at a cost of less than
1 Eupee per ounce. Quinine, in England, is from eight to nine shillings an
ounce, and in India the price is much higher.
Thus the great object of this difficult undertaking is on the eve of being
secured ; and an inestimable blessing will be conferred upon India ; while at
the same time the barks rich in quinine will be sold in the London market,
and will repay all the outlay with interest. The sum of 40,000/. was realised
by these sales in 1877 alone. While, on the one hand, Chinchona cultiva-
tion will be a most remunerative public work, on the other it will rob the
malarious fevers of India of three fourths of their victims, and will to that
extent diminish the amount of human misery and suffering.
G. B.
149
APPENDIX C.
MONOGRAPH ON THE WILD SILK INDUSTRY OF INDIA,
ILLUSTRATED BY THE CONTENTS OF THE LARGE GLASS
CASE CONTAINING WILD SILK SPECIMENS IN THE
INDIA SECTION. DEDICATED WITH GREAT RESPECT TO
P. CUNLIFFE OWEN, ESQ., C.B.
IT is the Silk produced by the Tasar or Tussore worm, in which the chief
interest of the case lies.
I have endeavoured to exhibit this Silk in as full a manner as the space
assigned to me would permit, representing it in all states of its manufacture
and tinctorial enrichment, showing the recent improvement in manufacture
and dyeing of which it is capable, as well as illustrating the Natural History
of the Tussore insect in all stages of its developement, by preserved specimens
of its several phases, except the larvae, which it has not been possible to
obtain.
Tussore Silk has long been known and used by the natives of India. They
have exported it in considerable quantities of late years, but from their imper-
fect mode of manipulating it in its earlier stages of manufacture, and from
the difficulty of dyeing it well, it has made but little way in Europe except for
ladies' and children's dresses in an undyed state.
In Bengal and the adjoining provinces from time immemorial the natives
have manufactured this silk into cloth called " Tusseh Doot hies," which is
worn by Brahmins and other sects of Hindoos.
The Silk is found from the North-west range of the Himalaya south as far
as Midnapore, in Bengal, and through the North-east range to Assam, and
southward to Chittagong and probably further. It is found also in the
Presidencies of Bombay and Madras. It is said to be abundant in Bhagul-
pore in Bengal. It abounds chiefly in the Eastern districts of Chattisgarh,
namely Eaipur, Bilaspur, and Sambulpur, in the Chandadistrict of the Nag-
pore province, and the Leone district.
The natural colour of the silk is a darkish shade of fawn, much unlike the
golden and white colours of the Mulberry-worm silk.
It has much less affinity for dyestuffs, especially for those which grow in
India, and it has not until recently been much dyed.
For several years I have been engaged with considerable success in im-
proving the methods of dyeing, and the results are shown in the case, Nos. 10,
11, 12, 20, 40, 41,42, 52.
Important improvements which I have had effected in the manufacture of
Tussore silk are shown in Nos. 8, 9, 18, 19, 21, 51, 53, 54, 55, which -,vill be
fully described in their turn.
These improvements in the manufacture and dyeing are most likely to have
a very great influence on the cultivation of this silk, and probably also of other
wild silks, the demand for which may in a few years be only measured by
the quantity which can be produced.
The first specimen under No. 1 in the case is a leaf of a species of Termi-
nalia containing eggs of the Tussore moth, which are said to hatch in from two
to four weeks.
The larvae, when fully grown, are about four inches in length ; they have
twelve joints or articulations, besides their extremities ; their colour is green
150 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
resembling the leaves on -which they feed ; and they are marked with reddish
spots and a reddish yellow band running lengthways. They feed on several
plants :
Rhizophora calceolaris. Linn.
Terminalia alata glabra (Assuni tree).
Terminalia Catappa (.Country Almond tree).
Tectona grandis.
Zizyphus jujuba.
Shorea robusta.
Bombax heptaphyllum.
Careya sphaerica.
Pentaptera tomentosa.
Pentaptera glabra.
Ricinus communis (.Castor oil plant).
Cassia lanceolata.
In six weeks from the time they are hatched they begin to spin their cocoons,
which they most curiously suspend from the branches of the trees by con-
structing a thick hard cord or filament of silky matter, which is made to grasp
the branches, as seen in the specimens No. 3.
As soon as the woim has spun its cocoon it takes the form of chrysalis or
pupa (see No. 2), and remains a prisoner in the cocoons for about nine months,
or from October until July. At the end of this time the chrysalis takes the
form of a moth, and whilst its wings are in an imperfectly developed state it
softens one end of the cocoons with an exudation which enables it to separate
the filaments of silk and to work its way out of the cocoon. This it effects
during the night.
Those shown under No. 4 are cocoons from which the moth has emerged.
No. 5
Are Tussore cocoons from Sambulpur, in the Central Provinces but larger
than those under No. 3.
The weight of the ordinary Tussore cocoon with its pupa enclosed and the
cord by which it is attached to the branch is about five grammes.
Nos. 6 and 7
Are specimens of Tussore moths known under the following names:
Antherea Paphia (Linnaeus).
Bombyx ,, (Hubner).
Saturnia (Heifer).
Phalsena Attacus Mylitta (Durmy).
Paphia (Roxburgh).
Bombyx Mylitta (Fabricius).
" Bughy " of the native of Burbhoon Hills where the
silk (which the same people call " Tusseh ") is manu-
factured.
The male is of a reddish pale brown colour and the female much yellower.
Mr. O'Neil in his report says : "The moths are particularly revered by the
" people engaged in the culture of the worms, the occulili on their wing being
" considered as the ' chakra ' or mark of Vishnu. These people also pretend
" to observe the greatest purity of life during the time they are in the jungles
" rearing the worms, and also do not eat flesh, fish, or spices, do not shave or
" cut their hair, do not wear washed clothing, nor anoint their bodies with oil,
" and do not touch any of whom a relative may have recently died."
Nos. 8 and 9.
Organzine and Tram Tussore of the quality and state of manufacture now
used in England for weaving, and a good representation of the present state of
its manufacture which gives a size of 255 deniers (15 drams per 1,000 yards).
The sizes of the Tussore silk generally used in England run from 152 deniers
<9 drams) to 255 deniers (15 drams). This is a coarse size and must of
HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAX COt~RT. 151
necessity be unfit to produce such fine textile work as the mulberry silk which
is manufactured into Organzine and Tram of 21 deniers and upwards (1^
drams) and from which are made the finest silk fabrics.
The printed cloths Nos. 21 and 55 are made with Tussore Organzine ami
Tram of the coarse size of Nos. 8 and 9 and of the same quality.
The want of fineness and quality is owing to the imperfect and dnskillful
mode of manipulating it from the cocoon upwards in India, and the want of
better machinery to prepare it in the grege state.
Nos. 10, 11, and 12.
The same silks dyed in colours and black. Nos. 10 and 12 are dyed
entirely with Indian dyestuffs, and are well worthy of notice.
No. 13.
Native reeled Tussore raw silk, undyed. From Bhagulpur.
No. 14.
Another specimen of native-reeled Tussore raw silk, undyed.
No. 15.
The same silk dyed by the natives.
No. 16.
Native reeled Tussore raw silk, undyed. From Bogra.
No. 17.
Native reeled Tussore, from Bengal, undyed.
No. 17 a.
Tussore raw silk, manufactured from the same species of cocoons as those
under No. 3, illustrative of the great improvement of which it is now
susceptible.
No. 18.
Organzine Tussore, the same as No. 12, reeled in India, and manufactured
in England, 255 deniers (15 drams per 1,000 yards). Placed here to contrast
with the next specimens of improved manufacture.
No. 19.
Organzine Tussore, manufactured, etc., under my own instructions and
superintendence.
The improvement in quality, fineness, and cleanness, will be seen to be
most marked, and that instead of the coarse sizes of Tussore now used, of 152
to 255 deniers (9 to 15 drams), there may be obtained by proper manage-
ment Organzine and Tram of excellent quality from the same cocoons of 51
deniers (3 drams) and upwards, which can be woven into a great variety of
stuffs, for which until now only the mulberry silks have been available.
The attention of all interested in or connected with silk manufacture,
cannot be too strongly drawn to this fact, nor can its value be overrated.
There is a most important future in store for the Tussore silk industry, and
as great improvements will take place as those which resulted from the intro-
duction of proper machinery and skill many years ago, in the mulberry
silk districts of Bengal, when it was found that Bengal silks, in place of being
then almost unworkable, could be manufactured in such a way as to bring
them into extended use in Europe, so as even to rival French and Italian
silks. The cost of making Organzine and Tram from the cocoons with the
improved mode is about 15 francs per kilogramme. Mr. Neil, in his report
(1875), says : " The contrivances for manufacturing silk are very simple, but
improvement is required in the art of manufacturing silk fabrics."
152 TABI:? UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878
This is the same silk as Xo. 19, dyed by improved processes with Aniline
dyes, to show the delicacy of hue this silk is capable of affording under the
altered treatment. There is scarcely any shade or colour, dark or light,
which saimot now be dyed on Tussore silk.
No. 21.
In the upper part of the case I have printed upon Tussore silk fabrics,
made with Organzine and Tram, Nos. 8 and 9, a series of patterns to show
that it is now possible to print on this silk. It is, as far as I am aware, the
first time any attempt has been made either in Europe or in the East to print
on wild silk cloth of any kind.
So that now printed Tussore silk can be successfully used for wall damasks,
curtains, furniture coverings, hangings, women's and girls' dresses with great
effect, and I would draw the attention of upholsterers and broad silk manufac-
turers to these specimens, and especially to three under No. 55. of twill silk,
made of this material. Also from the warp and weft of Xo. 8 and 9, 255
deniers.
The silk fabrics made of Tussore are very strong, most durable, and possess
much lustre.
The patterns printed in blue are the first successful application of Indigo
on silk as a print, and not as a pencil blue.
They will prove remarkably fast, in fact none of the colours are printed in
aniline or any other fugitive dyes.
Notice the rich tone of blue they bear, modified to some extent by the
ground colour which has controlled too great a brightness.
I shall have more to say on the artistic nature of the vegetable colour pro-
ducts of India in my description of the collection of the dyestuffs of India
exhibited in this section.
No. 24.
Three moths and six cocoons of Attacus Cynthia, a wild silk-worm of India,
producing the silk known as Eri or Eria of Assam.
It is also known under the following names :
Phalsena Cynthia (Koxburgh).
Bombyx Cynthia (Olivier).
Sania Cynthia (Hiibner).
Saturnia Cynthia (Westwood).
Saturnia Arrundi (Royle).
The Arrindi or Arrundi silk worm moth (Roxburgh).
With this I must connect the Attacus Ricini (Boisduval), the same insect
as far as I can gather, except that is fed on the Ricinus communis or Palma
Christi plant, and is reared in a domesticated state in Assam, and over a
reat part of Hindustan, more especially in the districts of Dinagepur and
r. Hugon gives the following interesing particulars respecting it. " The
" larva when at full size is about 3 inches long. It spins its cocoon in
" four days. The hill tribes settled in the plains are fond of eating the
" chrysalis."
The cocoon is much smaller than that of the Tusseh and is soft. The
natives cannot wind the silk, but spin it like cotton. Dr. Heifer says the
insect is so productive as to give sometimes twelve broods a year, and that
the worm grows rapidly and offers no difficulty whatever for an extensive
speculation.
Mr. Atkinson says the filament is so delicate as to render it impracticable
to wind off the silk ; it is therefore spun like cotton. The yarn thus manu-
factured is woven into a coarse kind of white cloth, of a seemingly loose
texture, but of incredible durability, the life of one person being seldom
sufficient to wear out a garment made of it.
HANDBOOK OF THE 1XDIAN COURT. 153
The -winding of the Eria cocoon is said to have been recently accomplished
the thickness of the Eria filament is ^Vo of an inch.
Leaving the question as to whether it can he successfully wound or not,
one important consideration respecting its use presents itself, namely, its
capability of being spun like cotton and wool. The great improvements
made in late years in England in spinning machinery have proved that
marvellous results in making an even thread from waste silk and unwiudable
cocoons for sewing and weaving purposes may be attained, and I will venture
to predict a future for this and the produce of the unwindable silk worm
cocoons that will compensate for their collection.
The industry of the natives should be stimulated to the gathering in of all
kinds of wild silk cocoons, whether windable or not, for there is no doubt that
those kinds which cannot be wound can be most easily spun, and there is at
the present moment a request on the part of silk spinners for a larger supply
of Tussore silk, cocoon and Tussore silk waste, for spinning purposes, and no
doubt other silk cocoons would be gladly bought up.
No. 25.
A sample of Eria silk spun, no 'doubt by hand, by the Natives.
No. 26.
The same imperfectly dyed by them.
No. 27. '
Eria silk made by the Ricini-fed worm of Assam.
No. 28.
The same from another district of Assam (Lakhimpur).
Nos. 29 & 30
Are specimens, male and female, of the moth :
Attacus Atlas (Hiibner).
Phalsena Attacus Atlas (Linnaeus).
Bombyx Atlas (Fabricius).
This moth feeds on the Phyllanthus emblica.
No. 30.
Is a specimen of the cocoon of this splendid moth which might easily be
spun.
No. 31.
Actias Selene ;
Phalaena Attacus ;
Feeds on Munsooree (Coriaria nipalensis). The cocoon is enclosed between
two leaves. The silk does not appear to be windable, but is of a coarsish
kind and might also be spun.
No. 32.
Cocoons of Actias Selene.
Nos. 33 & 34.
Moths, male and female, and cocoons of Bombyx Attacus (Yama Mai).
Although this insect is a native of Jajmn it is found also in China and
India.
In Japan the silk of this worm is said to be most highly prized and reserved
for the use of Royalty, but this I am inclined to doubt, as the silk is very
fine, the cocoon is of a beautiful pale green colour.
. It has been naturalized in Europe.
154 TAETS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878:
A cross between the Yama Mai and Bombyx Attacus Pernyi is a great
success in France. It is so hardy that breeding is said to take place at
freezing point.
Nos. 35 & 36.
Cocoons and silk of the Mooga or Moonga worm, Antherea Assama.
There are five breeds of this worm per year. They feed on the Addakoory,
Champa, Soona, Kontooloa, Digluttee, Pattee, Shoonda, and Souhalloo.
A silk called Ya-bame from the district of Prome, Burmah, the produce of
the Bombyx Mori.
No. 38.
Eggs, cocoons, moths, and silk grege of the Bombyx Mori. This is the
Bengal silk of commerce. The worms feed on the leaves of the Mulberry
tree as in China, Japan, and Europe.
No. 39. '
" Pat " silk. A rare kind of silk from Assam, probably a variety of Bombyx
Mori, but stated to be the produce of Bombyn Tentse. The worm is fed on
the Mulberry leaf.
No. 40.
A rare silk from Mezankuri- Assam.
No. 41.
Another specimen of "Pat" or "Pat Suta " silk with cocoons. A mul-
berry silk from Assam.
Nos. 42 & 43
A set of Tussore patterns dyed with Aniline colours.
These are placed here to show the shades Aniline dyes can be made to
give on this silk, and not as a recommendation of their use in this direction.
The native dyestuffs will give more permanent colours, properly mordanted.
Aniline dyes are fugitive, and their use for artistic purposes or for goods
intended to last a long time cannot be too seriously lamented.
No. 44.
This is a sample of ordinary Bengal Organzine, dyed with a dye-stuff com-
mon in most parts of British India, not used, as far as I know, in Europe.
It is the powder brushed off the capsules of the Mallotus Phillipensis,
called in India " Kapila " or " Kamala," which contains 70 to 80 per cent, of
colouring matter. By mordanting the silk with carbonate of soda and alum,
the powder yields a rich variety of shades of golden yellow and orange
colours. It appears to be worthy of the notice of European dyers.
Nos. 45 and 51.
A series of patterns to show to what uses the waste of Tussah Silk and the
cocoons pierced by the exit of the moth can be put by spinning in the same
way threads of cotton and wool are manufactured. It commences with
samples of pierced cocoons which could not be wound, waste silk from
ordinary Tussore manufacture, and followed by samples showing the various
processes the silk undergoes before it is made into thread or cord for weaving
or for sewing purposes.
This suggests forcibly a promising economy in store for the produce of all
silk-making worms. There are many species unknown to commerce, rejected
because of their not being capable of being wound in the ordinary way, but,
as I have before stated, now spinning machinery is in such a perfect state,
all cocoons may be spun and converted into materials of some use or other.
HANDBOOK OF THE INDIAN CODET. 155
In Simla alone, there are said to be eight or nine species of Bombyx, which
no doubt might be utilized in this way.
These remarks lead me to describe
Nos. 53 and 54,
which are patterns of spun Tussore made in the way and from the material
I have just described, threads cf various sizes for sewing and weaving pur-
poses as well as for fringes and knitting, dyed and undyed. They may be
dyed almost any shade.
No. 56.
are fabrics made of this spun Tussore, woven undyed, in several designs for
me by Messrs. Clayton, Marsdens, Holden, & Co., silk spinners, of Halifax,
who also made me the samples 45 to 57 from pierced cocoons and waste Tus-
sore with which I furnished them, from material collected for me in India by
order of the Government of India.
A pattern of the same kind as No. 56, but which I have printed in seven
colours.
Tussore silk is, therefore, proved to be capable of extended use, both from
the improved manufacture I have spokeii of, and from the circumstances that
it is capable of being dyed and printed in the greatest variety of colours, and
that the refuse portions can be spun into threads for such a variety of pur-
poses, that there need be no waste; and I am thankful to have had the
honour of being entrusted to point out the extended usefulness and applica-
tion of the Tussore, and all other species of wild silks.
I attach a tabular statement of microscopic measurements of the primary
fibre of Tussore and other silks.
(Signed) THOS. WARDLE,
June 18th, 1878. Leek.
156
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HANDBOOK TO THE INDIAN COURT. 157
APPENDIX D.
FOREST CONSERVANCY IN INDIA.
THE Forest Department in India is. for administrative purposes, divided into
three separate establishments, the forests in the several districts immediately
subject to the Government of India being under the general control of Dr.
Brandis ; those of the Madras Presidency under Lieutenant-Colonel K. H.
Beddome ; and those in the northern and southern divisions of Bombay and
in Sind being under Mr. A. T. Shuttleworth, Lieutenant-Colonel W. Peyton,
and Mr. J. McLeod Campbell respectively.
Forest Conservancy in India dates from the year 1862, when Dr. Brandis,
then Conservator of Forests in Burmah, was appointed Inspector- General of
Forests by the Government of India, and the various isolated establishments
which had previously been formed in Burmah, the Central Provinces, and
Oude were consolidated under him. There were at this time also Conservators
in Madras and Bombay, while in the North-west Provinces the special charge
of the forests had been confided to the Civil Commissioners of Meerut and
Kumaon. But these officers were rather timber agents than Conservators ;
and though some good was effected by them in the way of regulating the
felling of timber, it cannot be said that the proper work of Forest Conservancy
was anywhere undertaken or even understood by them. Their only definite
purpose was to secure a good net revenue from the operations of the Depart-
ment.
Dr. Brandis from the very first took his stand on the opposite principle.
He never lost an opportunity of keeping before the Government and the
officers of the Department that the main object of forest conservancy in
India is to preserve, not to cut down, the forests. At the same time he
made it clear that the Department could be self-supporting, and it always has
been, under his administration.
When Dr. Brandis assumed charge of the Department, the forests in most
parts of India were in a deplorable condition, and the worst part of the
mischief had been done onry within the previous ten years, viz., between
1850 and 1860. This happened through the unrestricted depredations of the
contractors for railway sleepers. When the first railway was commenced in
India about 1850, the most exaggerated notions got abroad of the profits that
were to be realised by selling sleepers to the railway companies. In conse-
quence of this, every petty timber dealer in the neighbourhood of the
projected lines- commenced to speculate in sleepers. Unlimited credit in
liquor was given to the Gonds, Bheels, Koorkoos, Koles, Khoonds, and other
indigenous tribes who inhabit the forests of the great central plateau which
stretches across India from east to west between the 15 and 25 of north
latitude ; and before the Government could become aware of it, these
skilful woodmen had succeeded in felling almost every mature teak tree
along the whole extent of this vast range of country. Hundreds of thousands
of valuable trees were cut down which never could possibly have been con-
verted into sleepers or removed from the forests in the shape of timber. The
consequence was that the annual forest fires, passing unchecked over the hills,
every year consumed the felled timber little by little, and when the first
Conservancy officers were appointed in 1860, they found nothing but the
charred remains of these logs to indicate where extensive forests had once
overshadowed in perennial green the head springs of the Mahanuddy and
Nerbuddah.
Besides this special mischief which had been done during the 10 years
between 1850 and 1860, two great evils had always existed, and tended to
keep down the growth of timber in India. These were unrestricted grazing
158 PABIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878 :
in the forests, and forest fires. The fires were caused partly by the shepherds
who burnt the grass in order to get early green crops with the first rains for
their cattle, and partly by comari or dhi/a cultivation, which is much in favour
with the wild tribes all over India and Burmah, and which consists in felling
and burning portions of the forest in order to sow a crop of coarse grain in the
ashes.
Dr. Brandis's first step was to check and limit forest fires and cattle
grazing. He abolished the name of Forest Ranger everywhere, which had
previously found favor, and strongly insisted on forest officers being called
Forest Conservators.
Major (now Colonel) Pearson had already been appointed forest ranger in
the Nerbudda Provinces in 1860, and about the same time Colonel Ramsay
and Mr. Williams had been appointed to the same office in Kumaon and
Meerut. Dr. Cleghorn (Conservator of Forests in Madras) was then deputed
to the Punjaub, to organise a forest administration for that province. This
resulted in the appointment of Dr. Stewart as Conservator. To this appoint-
ment succeeded that of Mr. Leeds (who was transferred from Burmah) in
Bengal, and of Captain Van Someren to Mysore, while Major Pearson's
charge in the Nerbudda district was extended over the Nagpore country and
the Berars. All these provinces, except Madras, Bombay and the Xorth-
West, were united under the supervision of Dr. Brandis, Inspector-General to
the Government of India.
It was soon found that the conservancy of all the jungle spread over the
continent of India would be impracticable, partly from its vast extent and
partly because a large per-centage of the area was too bare and too denuded
of vegetation to be capable of producing trees, except at -an impossible
cost. The first step, therefore, taken was to divide the better portions of the
forests from the inferior. This was generally done by the Revenue Survey
working in concert with the forest officers, who were entrusted with the
selection. The Central Provinces set the example in this work. The
better forests were marked off as "reserved" or "State Forests," to be
managed entirely by the Forests Department. The remainder was divided
into two portions, one of which was made over to the villages for their special
use (answering to the Communal Forests in France), and the other was in some
cases managed by the civil officers of the district, and in others by the Forest
Department, chiefly with a view to revenue, rather than forest conservancy.
The first attempt to keep down the annual forest fires was made in the
Central Provinces. This was carried out by Captain Do vet on, under the
orders of Colonel Pearson. The Bori forest, af the south-west angle of the
Puchmurri Hills, was selected for the experiment. It is not far from the
Sohagpur station on the Great Indian Peninsular Railway. The forest has
an area of about 25 square miles or 16,000 acres. It was isolated by a broad
line cut all round it, and divided also by fire lines, after the system pursued
by the French Forest Department in the south of France and in Algiers.
The experiment was perfectly successful. A few extra hands put on during
the dry season, who patrolled the lines, and could collect speedily at any
threatened points, sufficed to keep fires out of the reserves. Except a few-
isolated patches, this forest has not been burned since 1863. The beneficial
effects of this plan of operations have been more marked than was even
anticipated, for the long rank grass which formerly grew in the forest, and
which was the great cause of danger from its inflammability, has everywhere
been replaced by a shorter and finer grass, which burns much less readily ;
while a rich vegetable mould is gradually being formed on the hard-b::rnt
crust of earth which formerly existed ; and in consequence there is every-
where throughout these forests a sufficient crop of young seedlings springing
up. The success obtained in Bori has led to the extension of the system, and
fire conservancy is now one of the chief duties of forest officers in India. At
the same time cattle have been gradually excluded from the reserves, and, with
few exceptions, grazing is permitted in the unreserved forests only. Caution
was required in at first enforcing this restriction, as in some provinces serious
injury might have been done to cattle breeding had the usual grazing grounds
been closed before others were provided.
HANDBOOK TO THE 1XDIAX COUUT. 159
It was necessary, however, that the proceedings of the Forest Department
should be legalised, and with this view a Forest Act was passed by the
Legislative Council in 1865. On this Act, which was confessedly imperfect
and insufficient, were based the Forest Kules drawn up for each province.
These also were in all cases preliminary ; and a more comprehensive Act,
entitled " The Indian Forest Act, 1878," received the Assent of the Governor
General last March, and has now consequently become law. Its operations
are, in the first instance, limited to the territories respectively administered
by the Governor of Bombay in Council, the Lieutenaut-Governors of the
North-Western Provinces, and the Punjab (except the district of Hazara),
and the Chief Commissioners of Oudh, the Central Provinces and Assam.
Any other local government may, however, from time to time, with the
previous sanction of the Governor-General in Counc'-l, extend this Act to all
or any of the territories for the time being under its administration, by
notification in the local official Gazette.
In 1868 the North-west Province Forests were placed under the Government
of India. The next step taken was to organise a Forest Survey Department
with a view of ensuring uniformity in the forest maps, and for training officers
in surveying. Captain Bailey, R.E., was appointed to the charge of this
branch, which it is now proposed to enlarge, and attach, to a forest school
for the training of native forest subordinates, to be established in the
Dehra Dun.
The appointment and training of forest officers has always been a matter
of the greatest anxiety to all who have had to do with the control of the
Department, for the future of forest conservancy in India must depend
largely on the spirit of working and the principles handed down by the earlier
generations of officers to their successors. In this matter it is impossible to
pay too high a tribute to the practical wisdom and foresight displayed by Dr.
Brandis. This officer saw at once that the only road to success lay in the
appointment to the Department of officers who knew what forestry meant.
With this view, so far back as 1867, he, with the sanction of the Secretary of
State, entered into arrangement with the French and German Governments
with a view to the training of a certain number of young men in the regular
Forest Schools of those countries for the Indian service. Since that date
about fifty officers have passed into the Department who have received a
scientific forest training, and now nearly half the establishment in India, and
amongst them several Deputy-Conservators may be reckoned as specially
educated men, ranking, and in many cases keeping up intimate relations,
with the Forest Officers of France and Germany. Since 1873, with a view
to the better supervision of the young men Colonel Pearson has been appointed
to their charge, and all the pupils are collected in the French School at Nancy,
where five or six are sent annually for training.
The first idea of forming a collection of Indian timber and forest specimens
for the Paris Exhibition originated with M. Mathieu, Sub-Director of the
Forest School at Nancy, who has formed the valuable Museum at that School.
The Indian Government warmly approved the idea, and it was taken up at
once by Dr. Brandis, the Inspector General, to whose unremitting exertions
the very perfect collection now offered to the inspection of the world at Paris
was completed and despatched from India in time for the opening of the
Exhibition. He was ably supported by Messrs. Gamble, Smythess, and
other old pupils of the Nancy School, and it is proposed that the collection
shall be presented, after the Exhibition is closed, to the School, for the use of
the English pupils, as well as a token of recognition of the benefits that the
Forest Department has received from it.
Besides the conservation of existing forests and the formation of artificial
forests where required in the interests of the public, the Forest Department is
instrumental in the introduction into different districts of new classes of trees,
valuable either ofl account of their timber, fruit, or other produce, such as
teak, sal, sissu, caoutchouc, chinchona, &c. The cultivation of lac is also
encouraged, whilst the important question of fibres suitable for paper stock
or other manufacturing purposes has recently engaged a considerable amount
of attention.
fl 22. M
160 PARIS OOYEKSA.L EXHIBITION, 1878 :
The area of natural demarcated reserved forests under the Government of
India at the close of the year 1876-77 amounted to 17,421 square miles ; that
of unreserved forests is not accurately known. The area of plantations, or
artificial forests, amounted to 24,683 acres, or over 38 square miles ; and that
protected from fire during the dry season of the year was 2,850 square miles,
or over 16 per cent, of the entire reserves. During the year 5,008 persons
were charged -with forest offences and prosecuted, of whom 3,817 were con-
victed and 1,191 were acquitted. The total receipts of the Forest Depart-
ment amounted, in 1876-77, to 498,4527., and the expenditure to 328,068/.,
leaving a balance of revenue to the State of 170.384/. Of these amounts the
timber sold by the Department at its depots realised 252,892/., the expenses
incurred in its collection, &c. having been 142,0757., so that this branch of
the operations of the Forest Department realised to Government a net
revenue of 110,8177.
In the Madras Presidency, beyond certain fuel reserves in the railway
districts of Cuddapah, Salem, Trichonopoly, and Madura, and some small
tracts in Palghaut and South Arcot, there are no forest tracts that can be
termed strict reserves, and no real forest from which cattle and fire can be
rigorously excluded, although in almost every division there are ample tracts
which might be set apart as reserves without much interference in the rights
of grazing and other communal rights. The extent of fuel reserves is about
144,927 acres, or a little over 226 square miles. Land set aside for plantations
aggregates 15,484 acres, of which, however, only 8,258 acres are as yet
planted. The receipts cf the Department in 1876-77 amounted to 41,53 ll.,
and the charges to 41,3977., leaving a small net balance in favour of the
Department of 1347. Timber operations realised a sum of 18,4827., at an
expenditure of 9,2217., thus yielding a surplus to Government of 9,2617. The
number of persons prosecuted for forest offences during the year was 999, of
whom 469 were convicted.
The total area set apart for reserved forests in the Bombay Presidency
amounts to 5.654 square miles, of which 3,754 square miles are in the northern
division, 1,520 miles in the southern, and 380 miles in the Sind division.
Small plantations exist in most districts of the Presidency, but no regular
measures have yet been adopted for the prevention of fires, which are of
general occurrence in the Bombay forests. In Sind forest fires are almost
entirely confined to the Upper Sind forests. In this part of the Presidency a
system of enclosure has been introduced as a means cf natural reproduction.
Within the closed blocks, wherever the land receives moisture, either by
direct flooding or percolation, a dense and vigorous growth has sprung up, and
large open tracts have been thus converted into impenetrable babul thickets.
The areas under reproduction in Sind aggregate 4,267 acres, in 1,147 acres of
which artificial reproduction has been resorted to. The forest revenue for
1876-77 amounted altogether to 122,6027., and the expenses to 83,169/., which
left a surplus income of 39,4337. The timber operations undertaken by the
Department resulted in a net return of 29,8387., the receipts having amounted
to 62,870/., and the charges to 33,0327. The number of cases in which
persons were charged with offences against forest rules during the year was
1,520, of which 1,186 were sustained and 334 failed.
Summarising the foregoing financial results, it appears that the total receipts
of the Forest Department throughout India amounted in 1876-77 to C62,585/.,
and the charges to 452,6347. Timber operations realised 334,2447., whilst
the expenses attendant thereon amounted to 184,3287. The net returns to
Government thus amounted to 209,9517., of which 149,9167. was derived for
the sale of timber at the departmental depots.
It is not necessary to more than allude to the great importance of forest
conservancy in its bearing on Indian famines and floods.
June 18, 1878. . GEO. B.
HANDBOOK TO THE IXDIAX COURT. 161
APPENDIX E.
MOOLTAX AND PESHAWAR POTTERY AND KASHMIR METAL
WORK.
THE articles sent to the Paris Exhibition are chiefly architectural in character,
and comprise a copy of an old tomb in pieces numbered from 1 to 125, agreeing
with the figures on a model sent with them, from which the work may be fixed
on a brickwork core with plaster. Other pieces are tiles painted with the
Mahomedan profession of faith, intended to be placed over graves, or Arabic
quotations from the Koran for lintels and wall surfaces ; and tiles with floriated
ornament painted in two shades of blue for diapers.
Finials for the tops of domes were also sent. These are made in several
pieces, which in actual work are fixed with plaster on a metal rod. Mosaic
work of geometrical design for wall decoration, and a few flower pots and
smaller vases, were also included. There is little use in the scheme of native
life for pottery, and the art remains essentially architectural. Nor is the glaze
sufficiently firm to withstand domestic wear and tear, as it is always covered
with a raticulation of fine cracks, or, as an English potter would say, it is
" crazed."
The clay appears to be of good quality for faience. It is found in the
neighbourhood of Mooltan, and the potters say that they pay at the rate of
two annas per maund * for it. It is used without any preparation of weathering,
and indeed in a climate like that of this district, where storms of dust are more
frequent than showers of rain, it is doubtful whether exposure would do it
any good. Moulds are only used for square tiles, and they are of the simplest
kind. The use of plaster of Paris for moulds or of burnt clay moulds is ap-
parently not known. The potter's wheel turned by hand is employed to shape
circular pieces. The potters have heard of the Egyptian foot-turned wheel
(the " kicking wheel " of Derbyshire), which is in use in some parts of this
country, but they have not seen it or tried it.
After the objects are shaped they are dried in the sun and a coating
(engobe) of a calcined, pounded and ground siliceous stone, said vaguely to
come from the hills, mixed with flour paste is applied, as a " slip " is applied
in Staffordshire. This engobe is in fact the white ground of the pottery and
it pretty effectively hides the warm buff colours of the clay underneath. In
Italy, Scinde, and indeed in most places, where an engobe is laid over
coloured clay a form of decoration produced by scratching through the upper
surface to the ground is in use. The French speak of this as pate-sur-pdte,
the Italians as sgraffito and in Scinde where the pottery is in most respects
similar to that of Mooltan it is a favourite method of decoration. But it is
not practised at Mooltan nor is the white painted on with a brush in various
patterns, as is the case elsewhere.
When the white ground is dry the surface is painted. The colours used are
two shades of blue and a green which, however is only manageable on large
Surfaces. There is no red, but a kind of violet is produced from manganese.
Lajward (Lapis lazuli) is said to bs used but the price of this colour makes
this doubtful. The blue prepared from Zaffre and cobalt is probably meant.
The patterns are invariably floral or geometrical, the potters being strict
Mahomedans.
When the painting in its turn is dry the glaze is applied. It is silico
alkaline made from flint, and sajji mitto, an impure carbonate of soda,
prepared from the salsolaceous plants which abound in the province.
* 1 maund = 82 f Ibs.
162 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION, 1878.
These substances are fired together and the frit (kanch) which results is
pounded and ground and mixed with water and a little flour paste. Lead in
the form of sandboor (read lead) and litharge (murdesang) are spoken of as
used for fluses, but it is doubtful whether they are really employed. The use
of oxide of tin to form an opaque white enamel is unknown, and borax is
considered too costly for the Mooltan potter's purpose.
The kiln is small, circular in shape, fired from one mouth only with a
draught up the centre round which on an earthen terrace the objects are
arranged without any protection from smoke or dust. When the fire has
burnt clear, the half-closed top is entirely sealed, and when the firing is
complete the mouth is secured with bricks and clay. The firing lasts twelve
hours and the kilne takes two days to cool.
It will be seen from the foregoing that the " biscuit " and " glost " firings
are done at one operation, i.e. a piece of unburnt clay is put into the oven and
comes out a glazed and painted tile. The green colour is an exception, the
clay being first burnt and afterwards coloured.
The great fault of the Mooltan pottery is its tendency to break out in a
white efflorescence similar to " reh," on the soil. The potters insist that the
Mooltan water is of excellent quality, and ascribe the efflorescence to the
impurity of the sajji mitti.
The reason is, probably, that there is an excess of alkali in the clay as
well as in the glaze, which would be of little moment if the firing were more
complete, and if all the ware were twice burned, as is the case with the best
Scinde work.
The Peshawar pottery differs from the Mooltan work in many respects. I
have not seen the process of manufacture, but I suspect the glaze to have
more lead in it. If an engobe is used at all, it has not the fine duck-egg
texture of the Mooltan work.
CASHMERE NIELLO ON TINNED COPPER AND BRASS.
There can be no doubt of the Persian origin of the surface decoration
which the Cashmeres lavish on most of their productions, and especially on
their metal. The articles sent to Paris represent very fairly the present
state of this craft. Compared with older samples it will be seen that the
modern work is neater, smaller, and less bold in character; nor are there
any plain parts left to relieve the rest.
Articles to be engraved are first shaped from sheet copper on bras?, seldom
cast, excepting the handles, knobs, hinges, &c.
The pattern is traced with a steel style, and is then cut with great rapidity
with a hammer and small chisels or punches. When the engraving is com-
plete the object is heated and the ground is filled in with heated lac ; after
which it is rubbed with deodar charcoal, which polishes the plain surface and
removes the superfluous lac. The work is again heated and rubbed till the
lac has lost its shine, and a dead black deposit is left in the incised parts.
The whole is then tinned in the usual way, the lac acting as a reserve and
stopping out the tin. Besides Cashmere, the work is made at Peshawar and
Amritsar, but it is seldom as well finished. The price per seer * in Cashmere
is Rs. 6, while in Amritsar only Ks. 4 are asked.
(Signed) J. L. KIPLING,
January 12th, 1878. Curator, Lahore Central Museum.
* 1 seer = 2^ Ibs. .
LONDON:
Printed by GEORGE E. ETBE and WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE,
Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty.
For Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
[B 343. 3000. 7/78.]
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