Articles
– Research on Hinduism
Taj
Mahal, a Hindu Temple?
E. B. Havell,(1861-1934) the English architect, principal to the Madras College of Art in the 1890s and left as principal of the Calcutta College of Art some 20 years later), has all along stressed that the Taj is entirely a Hindu structure in design and execution. Within its three floors - basement, ground and first floors - the marble structure has a nearly 25 room palace suite. The four towers used to sport multi-colored lights. The Taj precincts are a huge building complex encompassing over three hundred rooms.
Many believe that the Taj Mahal was a 12th century temple-palace seized from Raja Jaisingh of Jaipur and converted to accommodate Mumtaz's tomb. Mullah Abdul Hamid Lahori, Shah Jehan's own official chronicler, has written, that Mumtaz's body was laid to rest in a "lofty sky-high palace with a majestic dome" procured from Raja Jaisingh.
The journals of Tamerlane (1336-1405) and Babur (1483-1530) show that this palace pre-dates Shah Jehan and also points to the notable absence of any claim by Shah Jehan himself for its construction.
A passage from Shahjahan’s court chronicle, the Badshahnama, which despairingly admits that the Taj Mahal is a commandeered Hindu palace. Mansingh’s mansion (manzil) was then in the possession of his grandson Jaisingh – says the Badshahnama.
"In a paper that Professor Mills read in Chicago on November 4, 1983 at the 17th Annual Meeting of Middle East Studies Association of North America, based on his preliminary research endeavors involving an archaeometric analysis of the so-called Muslim buildings in ancient Spain, Mr. Mills observed, 'Two specific potentially fertile monuments for the application of archaeometry are the Taj Mahal and the (so-called) Mosque of Cordoba. Neither face Mecca.
The (so-called) mosque that is part of the Taj complex faces due west whereas Mecca from Agra is 14 degrees 55 minutes south of west. It is oriented to the cardinal directions as would be typical of a Hindu temple in India."
Prof. Mills then describes how a wood sample he took from the rear, river-level doorway of the Taj and had it tested for carbon-14 dating by Dr. Evan Williams, Director of the Brooklyn College Radiocarbon Laboratory, provided that even the door was pre-Shah Jahan. Similar samples taken from the Fatehpur Sikri also proved that the township, usually attribute to the third generation Moghul emporer Akbar, is also much more ancient."
(source: Proof Vedic Culture's Global Existence - By Stephen Knapp p. 273-274)
Tejo Mahalaya?
In the course of his research, P. N. Oak discovered the Shiva temple palace was usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. Shah Jahan then remodeled the palace into his wife's memorial. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz's burial. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur still retains in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for surrendering the Taj building. Using captured temples and mansions, as a burial place for dead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers. For example, Humayun, Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried in such mansions. Oak's inquiries begin with the name Taj Mahal. He says this term does not occur in any Moghul court papers or chronicles, even after Shah Jahan's time.
The term "Mahal" has never been used for a building in any of the Muslim countries, from Afghanistan to Algeria. "The unusual explanation that the term Taj Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal is illogical in at least two respects. Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani," he writes. "Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters 'Mum' from a woman's name to derive the remainder as the name for the building." Taj Mahal, he claims, is a corrupt version of Tejo-Mahalaya, or the Shiva's Palace.
Oak also says the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created by court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists. Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story. But she as not Shah Jahan’s first wife. Shah Jahan’s first wife, the queen, was a great grand-daughter of the ruler of Persia – Shah Ismail Safwi. Shah Jahan had numerous other wives and many consorts. He not only was married before taking Mumtaz as his wife but also married again after her death. In between these weddings he also used to take consorts by the hundreds into his harem. It is, therefore, futile to argue, as is traditionally done, that Shah Jahan was so devoted to Mumtaz as to lose all interest in life after her death and that he, therefore, perpetuated her memory in a magnificent monument.
During the 18 years of her married life she bore 14 children of whom 7 survived her. That meant in no single year was she free from pregnancy, which shows Shah Jahan’s utter disregard to his wife’s health, so much so that Mumtaz died soon after her last delivery. She was only 37 years of age.
Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan's era, and was a temple palace dedicated to Shiva worshipped by the Rajputs of Agra city. For example, Professor Marvin Miller of New York took a few samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan.
Shah Jahan is often misrepresented in Indian histories as a fabulously rich Mughal. The image o his derives from the belief that he built a number of costly buildings while he actually did not build even a single one. Far from being a monarch possessing fabulous wealth Shah Jahan could hardly command any resources worth his name because his near – 30 –years reign was marred by 48 military campaigns. Shah Jahan’s relative poverty is fully borne out by Tavernier’s remark that from “want of wood” the scaffolding, including the support of arches, had all to be made of bricks. The reader may well consider whether a monarch who cannot muster even the timber necessary for a scaffolding, in a country like India which had vast stretches under dense forest, can ever hope or dream of ordering a building as magnificent and majestic as the Taj Mahal???
European traveler Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638(only seven years after Mumtaz's death), describes the life of the city in his memoirs. But he makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built. The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest the Taj was a noteworthy building long well before Shah Jahan's time. Oak points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies that support the belief of the Taj Mahal being a typical Hindu temple rather than a mausoleum. Many rooms in the Taj Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan's time, and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak asserts they contain a headless statue of Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples. Fearing political backlash, Indira Gandhi's government tried to have Oak's book withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the first edition with dire consequences.
(source: The Taj Mahal: The True Story - By P. N. Oak).
Nicolo Conti described the banks of the Ganges (ca 1420) as lined with one prosperous city after another, each well designed, rich in gardens and orchards, silver and gold, commerce and industry.
E. B. Havell,(1861-1934) the English architect, principal to the Madras College of Art in the 1890s and left as principal of the Calcutta College of Art some 20 years later), has all along stressed that the Taj is entirely a Hindu structure in design and execution. Within its three floors - basement, ground and first floors - the marble structure has a nearly 25 room palace suite. The four towers used to sport multi-colored lights. The Taj precincts are a huge building complex encompassing over three hundred rooms.
Many believe that the Taj Mahal was a 12th century temple-palace seized from Raja Jaisingh of Jaipur and converted to accommodate Mumtaz's tomb. Mullah Abdul Hamid Lahori, Shah Jehan's own official chronicler, has written, that Mumtaz's body was laid to rest in a "lofty sky-high palace with a majestic dome" procured from Raja Jaisingh.
The journals of Tamerlane (1336-1405) and Babur (1483-1530) show that this palace pre-dates Shah Jehan and also points to the notable absence of any claim by Shah Jehan himself for its construction.
A passage from Shahjahan’s court chronicle, the Badshahnama, which despairingly admits that the Taj Mahal is a commandeered Hindu palace. Mansingh’s mansion (manzil) was then in the possession of his grandson Jaisingh – says the Badshahnama.
"In a paper that Professor Mills read in Chicago on November 4, 1983 at the 17th Annual Meeting of Middle East Studies Association of North America, based on his preliminary research endeavors involving an archaeometric analysis of the so-called Muslim buildings in ancient Spain, Mr. Mills observed, 'Two specific potentially fertile monuments for the application of archaeometry are the Taj Mahal and the (so-called) Mosque of Cordoba. Neither face Mecca.
The (so-called) mosque that is part of the Taj complex faces due west whereas Mecca from Agra is 14 degrees 55 minutes south of west. It is oriented to the cardinal directions as would be typical of a Hindu temple in India."
Prof. Mills then describes how a wood sample he took from the rear, river-level doorway of the Taj and had it tested for carbon-14 dating by Dr. Evan Williams, Director of the Brooklyn College Radiocarbon Laboratory, provided that even the door was pre-Shah Jahan. Similar samples taken from the Fatehpur Sikri also proved that the township, usually attribute to the third generation Moghul emporer Akbar, is also much more ancient."
(source: Proof Vedic Culture's Global Existence - By Stephen Knapp p. 273-274)
Tejo Mahalaya?
In the course of his research, P. N. Oak discovered the Shiva temple palace was usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. Shah Jahan then remodeled the palace into his wife's memorial. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz's burial. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur still retains in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for surrendering the Taj building. Using captured temples and mansions, as a burial place for dead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers. For example, Humayun, Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried in such mansions. Oak's inquiries begin with the name Taj Mahal. He says this term does not occur in any Moghul court papers or chronicles, even after Shah Jahan's time.
The term "Mahal" has never been used for a building in any of the Muslim countries, from Afghanistan to Algeria. "The unusual explanation that the term Taj Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal is illogical in at least two respects. Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani," he writes. "Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters 'Mum' from a woman's name to derive the remainder as the name for the building." Taj Mahal, he claims, is a corrupt version of Tejo-Mahalaya, or the Shiva's Palace.
Oak also says the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created by court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists. Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story. But she as not Shah Jahan’s first wife. Shah Jahan’s first wife, the queen, was a great grand-daughter of the ruler of Persia – Shah Ismail Safwi. Shah Jahan had numerous other wives and many consorts. He not only was married before taking Mumtaz as his wife but also married again after her death. In between these weddings he also used to take consorts by the hundreds into his harem. It is, therefore, futile to argue, as is traditionally done, that Shah Jahan was so devoted to Mumtaz as to lose all interest in life after her death and that he, therefore, perpetuated her memory in a magnificent monument.
During the 18 years of her married life she bore 14 children of whom 7 survived her. That meant in no single year was she free from pregnancy, which shows Shah Jahan’s utter disregard to his wife’s health, so much so that Mumtaz died soon after her last delivery. She was only 37 years of age.
Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan's era, and was a temple palace dedicated to Shiva worshipped by the Rajputs of Agra city. For example, Professor Marvin Miller of New York took a few samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan.
Shah Jahan is often misrepresented in Indian histories as a fabulously rich Mughal. The image o his derives from the belief that he built a number of costly buildings while he actually did not build even a single one. Far from being a monarch possessing fabulous wealth Shah Jahan could hardly command any resources worth his name because his near – 30 –years reign was marred by 48 military campaigns. Shah Jahan’s relative poverty is fully borne out by Tavernier’s remark that from “want of wood” the scaffolding, including the support of arches, had all to be made of bricks. The reader may well consider whether a monarch who cannot muster even the timber necessary for a scaffolding, in a country like India which had vast stretches under dense forest, can ever hope or dream of ordering a building as magnificent and majestic as the Taj Mahal???
European traveler Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638(only seven years after Mumtaz's death), describes the life of the city in his memoirs. But he makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built. The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest the Taj was a noteworthy building long well before Shah Jahan's time. Oak points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies that support the belief of the Taj Mahal being a typical Hindu temple rather than a mausoleum. Many rooms in the Taj Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan's time, and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak asserts they contain a headless statue of Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples. Fearing political backlash, Indira Gandhi's government tried to have Oak's book withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the first edition with dire consequences.
(source: The Taj Mahal: The True Story - By P. N. Oak).
Nicolo Conti described the banks of the Ganges (ca 1420) as lined with one prosperous city after another, each well designed, rich in gardens and orchards, silver and gold, commerce and industry.
The City of Jaipur
The building of Jaipur began in 1727. The city turned out to be an astonishing well-planned one, based on the ancient Hindu treatise on architecture, the Shilpa Shastra. The town planner was a talented, young scholar and engineer, Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, whose family had been invited to settle in Jaipur from the distant state of Bengal by Raja Man Singh I.
Jaipur was built on a grid system. Its main streets, 119 feet wide were intersected at right angles by secondary streets, 60 feet wide, which were further criss-crossed by lanes and bylanes, 30 feet and 15 feet wide respectively. The streets were lined with fine buildings of uniform design and shaded by trees. In the middle of the main road run an aqueduct, and there were wells for drinking water at regular intervals, many of which are still used today. The city was divided into nine rectangular sectors (representing the nine divisions of the universe). Different streets were allotted for different professions such as potters, weavers, dyers, jewelers, and bakers.
Louis Rousselet, the well-known 19th century French traveler, wrote,
"The town is built in a style of unusual magnificence....I doubt whether at the time it was built there were many cities in Europe which could compare with it."
The 19th century English bishop, Heber, wrote that it was comparable to the Kremlin in Moscow. Raja Sawai Jai Sing II named the new city after himself (fortuitously Jaipur also means "City of Victory").
"... THE GOOD PEOPLE OF AMERICA BUILDED THEIR TOWNS AFTER THIS PATTERN, BUT KNOWING NOTHING OF JEY SINGH, THEY TOOK ALL THE CREDIT THEMSELVES."
Wrote Rudyard Kipling, Letters of Marquee, 1899
Raja Sawai Jai Singh II’s observatory prompted the Portuguese Viceroy in Goa to send an emissary to Jaipur in 1729 to study it. Later, as its fame spread, French and German scholars, astronomers, and priests also came here. Through his Portuguese friend, Padre Manuel de Figueredo, Raja Sawai Jai Singh II procured the latest astronomical texts and instruments from Europe.
Using his huge masonry instruments, he was able to detect errors in the well-known astronomical tables of Pere de la Hire, who like other European astronomers, used only standard-sized brass instruments. Raja Sawai Jai Singh II’s eclectic collection of astronomical instruments and manuscripts from all over the then known world are displayed at Jantar Mantar and the City Palace Museum. The astrolabe, is a kind of celestial map engraved on a 7 foot wide metal disc. He called it the Raj Yantra, and wrote two volumes on the principles and utility of the device, which became one of his proudest possessions.
Samrat Yantra - His great Samrat Yantra, for example, is basically a sundial, except that it is a massive 89 feet high and 148 feet wide. As a result, when the sun moves across the sky it casts a shadow on the finely calibrated quadrants on either side, which moves at a precise and measurable 0.08 inch every second. It was designed to measure local time as well as such things as zenith distances, meridian pass time as well as such declination of the stards with remarkable precision. Interestingly, the Samrat Yantra at each of his five observatories varies slightly in shape in order to ensure that the hypotenuse of its great triangle is aligned perfectly with the axis of the earth and the flanking quadrants are perfectly parallel to the Equator.
Other Instruments
In all, Raja Sawai Jai Singh II invented fifteen different instruments, all of them based on his principle of accuracy through gigantic size. They ranged from Ram Yantra, which determines the azimuths and altitudes of various heavenly bodies, to Misra Yantra, which, among other things, tells the time at four different foreign observatories. The instruments are in such a good condition that, surprisingly, they are still used today. Samrat Yantra, for instance, is consulted every year on the full moon night of Guru Purnima, along with the ancient Sanskrit texts, to predict the onset of the monsoon. One of the instruments on display at Jantar Mantar and the City Palace Museum is a telescope, indicating just how aware the Raja was of the latest technology of his time.
(source: Knopf Guide India : Rajasthan : Jaipur, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Mount Abu Kota, Bharaatpur (Knopf Guides) pg 132-141).
For more information on art, please refer to chapter on Hindu Art). For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor
Art of
Writing in Ancient India
Shyamji
Krishnavarma, Oriental Lecturer of Balliol College, Oxford, in the paper he
read before the International Congress of Orientalists at Leyden in 1883, which
he attended as the delegate of the Government of India, has dealt with the
subject in a masterly way, and shown that the art of writing has been in use in
India since the Vedic times.
He says: “I feel no hesitation in saying that there are words and phrases occurring in the Samhitas of the Vedas, in the Brahmanas and in the Sutra works, which leave no doubt as to the use of the written characters in ancient India. It may be confidently asserted that the systematic treatises in prose which abounded at and long before Panini could never have been composed without the help of writing. We know for certain that with the exception of the hymns of the Rig Veda, most of the Vedic works are in prose, and it is difficult to understand how they could possibly have been composed without having recourse to some artificial means.”
Katyayana says: “When the writer and the witnesses are dead.” Yagyavalka mentions written documents; and Narada and others also bear testimony to their existence.
Even Max Muller himself is compelled to admit that “writing was known to the authors of the Sutras.”
The supposition that writing was unknown in India before 350 B.C. is only one of the many instances calculated to show the strange waywardness of human intellect.
Har Bilas Sarda a member of the Royal Asiatic Society and author of Hindu Superiority has written: “The extraordinary vocal powers of the Hindus, combined with their wonderful inventive genius, produced a language which, when fully developed, was commensurate with their marvelous intellectual faculties, and which contributed materially in the creation of a literature unparalleled for richness, sublimity and range. The peculiar beauties inherent in the offspring of such high intellectual powers are greatly enhanced by its scientific up-bringing and by constant and assiduous exercise it has developed into what is now such a model of perfection as to well-deserve the name of deo-bani, or “the language of the gods.” The very excellence of the language and the scientific character of its structure have led some good people to doubt if this polished and learned language could ever have been the vernacular of any people.
(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p. 215-217).
He says: “I feel no hesitation in saying that there are words and phrases occurring in the Samhitas of the Vedas, in the Brahmanas and in the Sutra works, which leave no doubt as to the use of the written characters in ancient India. It may be confidently asserted that the systematic treatises in prose which abounded at and long before Panini could never have been composed without the help of writing. We know for certain that with the exception of the hymns of the Rig Veda, most of the Vedic works are in prose, and it is difficult to understand how they could possibly have been composed without having recourse to some artificial means.”
Katyayana says: “When the writer and the witnesses are dead.” Yagyavalka mentions written documents; and Narada and others also bear testimony to their existence.
Even Max Muller himself is compelled to admit that “writing was known to the authors of the Sutras.”
The supposition that writing was unknown in India before 350 B.C. is only one of the many instances calculated to show the strange waywardness of human intellect.
Har Bilas Sarda a member of the Royal Asiatic Society and author of Hindu Superiority has written: “The extraordinary vocal powers of the Hindus, combined with their wonderful inventive genius, produced a language which, when fully developed, was commensurate with their marvelous intellectual faculties, and which contributed materially in the creation of a literature unparalleled for richness, sublimity and range. The peculiar beauties inherent in the offspring of such high intellectual powers are greatly enhanced by its scientific up-bringing and by constant and assiduous exercise it has developed into what is now such a model of perfection as to well-deserve the name of deo-bani, or “the language of the gods.” The very excellence of the language and the scientific character of its structure have led some good people to doubt if this polished and learned language could ever have been the vernacular of any people.
(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p. 215-217).
Literature
Literature
is only a reflection of the national mind of a people.
Indians have always worshipped "sacred utterances" (Brih) as divinities incarnates. Story telling has, moreover, been a fine Indian art since the creation of epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, more than 3,000 years old. Thanks to the prodigious powers of memory Brahmins have captivated countless attentive ears with tales of gods and demons, heroes and villains enrapturing village audiences of every age and stage of life to this day. Valmiki, author of the Ramayana, was a wandering bard inspired to recite his great Epic when he saw a hunter shoot down a dove, and watched its heartbroken mate fly in anguished circles over that corpse. Valmiki was so moved by what he saw that he sat pondering the cruelty and poignant beauty of life until his body was covered with an anthill.
``Indian literature alone has been able to blend successfully the best features of tradition with modern concepts. Although deeply bound to tradition, it offers answers to contemporary issues and problems' says Dr. Martin Kampchen, the German writer.
Kalidasa, who lived in the reign of Chandragupta II, who named his greatest work for its heroine, Shakuntala. The best Sanskrit work of dramatic art, has been translated into every major language and is almost as as well known outside India as the Mahabharata is. As the great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German Poet, Dramatist, Novelist himself put it after first reading Shakuntala
"Wills du den Himmel, die Erfe, mit einem Namen begreifen; Nenn'ich, Shakuntala, Dich, und so is Alles gesagt." ("Would you capture heaven and earth with a single name? I say to you then, Shakuntala, and all is said!") The idea of giving a prologue to Faust is said to have originated from Kalidasa's prologue, which was in accordance with the usual tradition of the Sanskrit drama.
In Russia part of Kalidasa's play Shakuntala was translated by Nikolai Karamzin in 1792-1793. In the preface of this publication Karamzin wrote that the play contained poetry of outstanding beauty and was an example of the highest art.
(source: A History of India - By K. Antonova, G. Bongard-Levin, and G. Kotovsky Moscow, Volume I and II 1973 p. 169).
The Sakuntala furor has lasted till almost today. One of the noblest "overtures" in European music is the Sakuntala overture of the Hungarian composer Carl Goldmark (1830-1915).
(source: Creative India - By Benoy Kumar Shenoy p. 110).
H. H. Wilson who used to be professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, has said:
"It is impossible to conceive language so beautifully musical or so magnificently grand, as that of the verses of Kalidasa.'"
(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru Oxford University Press ISBN: 0195623592 p 160 ).
Soviet historians, K. Antonova, G. Bongard-Levin, and G. Kotovsky, authors of A History of India, Moscow, Volume I and II 1973, refer to work of Kalidasa:
"one of the pearls of ancient Indian literature." and as "an illustrious page of history of world's culture."
(source: A History of India - By K. Antonova, G. Bongard-Levin, and G. Kotovsky Moscow, Volume I and II 1973 p. 169).
Of all these Muslim scholars, Alberuni (AD 973 - 1048), a Muslim scholar, mathematician and master of Greek and Hindu system astrology, wrote twenty books. He left the most detailed accounts of India's civilization. In the introduction to his translation of Alberuni's famous book, Indica, the Arabic scholar Edward Sachau summarizes how India was the source of considerable Arabic culture:
“The foundations of Arabic literature was laid between AD 750 and 850. It is only the tradition relating to their religion and prophet and poetry that is peculiar to the Arabs; everything else is of foreign descent… Greece, Persia, and India were taxed to help the sterility of the Arab mind… What India has contributed reached Baghdad by two different roads. Part has come directly in translations from the Sanskrit, part has traveled through Eran, having originally been translated from Sanskrit (Pali? Prakrit?) into Persian, and farther from Persian into Arabic. In this way, e.g. the fables of Kalila and Dimna have been communicated to the Arabs, and book on medicine, probably the famous Caraka.”
(source: Alberuni (AD 973 - 1048), a Muslim scholar, mathematician and master of Greek and Hindu system astrology, wrote twenty books. In his seminal work, "Indica" (c. 1030 AD). he wrote Alberuni's India - by Edward Sachau. Low Price Publications, New Delhi, 1993. (Reprint). First published 1910 -- translated in 1880s.)
Long before Kalidasa, another famous play was produced - Shudraka's "Mrichhkatika" or Clay Cart, a tender rather artificial play, and yet with a reality which moves us and gives us a glimpse into the mind and civilization of the day. The Little Clay Cart offers interesting insight into Guptan society and ancient Indian legal procedures, and its poor hero, Charudatta, is human enough to fall hopelessly in love with a courtesan.
An English translation of Shudraka’s “Mrichhkatika” was staged in New York in 1924.
Mr. Joseph Wood Krutch, (1893-1970) the dramatic critic for The Nation, and author of The Measure of Man on Freedom Human Values, Survival and the Modern Temper. He wrote of the play as follows:
“Here, if anywhere, the spectator will be able to see a genuine example of that pure art theatre of which theorists talk, and here, too, he will be led to meditate upon that real wisdom of the East which lied not in esoteric doctrine but in a tenderness far deeper and truer than that of the traditional Christianity which has been so thoroughly corrupted by the hard righteousness of Hebraism …..A play wholly artificial yet profoundly moving because it is not realistic but real….Whoever the author may have been, and whether he lived in the fourth century or the eighth, he was a good man and wise with the goodness and wisdom which comes not from the lips or the smoothly flowing pen of the moralist but from the heart. An exquisite sympathy with the fresh beauty of youth and love tempered his serenity, and he was old enough to understand that a light-hearted story of ingenious complication could be made the vehicle of tender humanity and confident goodness….Such a play can be produced only by a civilization which has reached stability; when a civilization has thought its way through all the problems it faces, it must come to rest upon something calm and naïve like this. Macbeth and Othello, however great and stirring they might be, are barbarous heroes because the passionate tumult of Shakespeare is the tumult produced by the conflict between a newly awakened sensibility and a series of ethical concepts inherited from the savage age. The realistic drama of our own time is a product of a like confusion; but when problems are settled, and when passions are reconciled with the decisions of an intellect, then form alone remains….Nowhere in our European past do we find, this side the classics, a work more completely civilized.”
(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru Oxford University Press ISBN: 0195623592 p. 164).
For more information on Indian literature, please refer to the chapter on Sanskrit.
Indians have always worshipped "sacred utterances" (Brih) as divinities incarnates. Story telling has, moreover, been a fine Indian art since the creation of epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, more than 3,000 years old. Thanks to the prodigious powers of memory Brahmins have captivated countless attentive ears with tales of gods and demons, heroes and villains enrapturing village audiences of every age and stage of life to this day. Valmiki, author of the Ramayana, was a wandering bard inspired to recite his great Epic when he saw a hunter shoot down a dove, and watched its heartbroken mate fly in anguished circles over that corpse. Valmiki was so moved by what he saw that he sat pondering the cruelty and poignant beauty of life until his body was covered with an anthill.
``Indian literature alone has been able to blend successfully the best features of tradition with modern concepts. Although deeply bound to tradition, it offers answers to contemporary issues and problems' says Dr. Martin Kampchen, the German writer.
Kalidasa, who lived in the reign of Chandragupta II, who named his greatest work for its heroine, Shakuntala. The best Sanskrit work of dramatic art, has been translated into every major language and is almost as as well known outside India as the Mahabharata is. As the great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German Poet, Dramatist, Novelist himself put it after first reading Shakuntala
"Wills du den Himmel, die Erfe, mit einem Namen begreifen; Nenn'ich, Shakuntala, Dich, und so is Alles gesagt." ("Would you capture heaven and earth with a single name? I say to you then, Shakuntala, and all is said!") The idea of giving a prologue to Faust is said to have originated from Kalidasa's prologue, which was in accordance with the usual tradition of the Sanskrit drama.
In Russia part of Kalidasa's play Shakuntala was translated by Nikolai Karamzin in 1792-1793. In the preface of this publication Karamzin wrote that the play contained poetry of outstanding beauty and was an example of the highest art.
(source: A History of India - By K. Antonova, G. Bongard-Levin, and G. Kotovsky Moscow, Volume I and II 1973 p. 169).
The Sakuntala furor has lasted till almost today. One of the noblest "overtures" in European music is the Sakuntala overture of the Hungarian composer Carl Goldmark (1830-1915).
(source: Creative India - By Benoy Kumar Shenoy p. 110).
H. H. Wilson who used to be professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, has said:
"It is impossible to conceive language so beautifully musical or so magnificently grand, as that of the verses of Kalidasa.'"
(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru Oxford University Press ISBN: 0195623592 p 160 ).
Soviet historians, K. Antonova, G. Bongard-Levin, and G. Kotovsky, authors of A History of India, Moscow, Volume I and II 1973, refer to work of Kalidasa:
"one of the pearls of ancient Indian literature." and as "an illustrious page of history of world's culture."
(source: A History of India - By K. Antonova, G. Bongard-Levin, and G. Kotovsky Moscow, Volume I and II 1973 p. 169).
Of all these Muslim scholars, Alberuni (AD 973 - 1048), a Muslim scholar, mathematician and master of Greek and Hindu system astrology, wrote twenty books. He left the most detailed accounts of India's civilization. In the introduction to his translation of Alberuni's famous book, Indica, the Arabic scholar Edward Sachau summarizes how India was the source of considerable Arabic culture:
“The foundations of Arabic literature was laid between AD 750 and 850. It is only the tradition relating to their religion and prophet and poetry that is peculiar to the Arabs; everything else is of foreign descent… Greece, Persia, and India were taxed to help the sterility of the Arab mind… What India has contributed reached Baghdad by two different roads. Part has come directly in translations from the Sanskrit, part has traveled through Eran, having originally been translated from Sanskrit (Pali? Prakrit?) into Persian, and farther from Persian into Arabic. In this way, e.g. the fables of Kalila and Dimna have been communicated to the Arabs, and book on medicine, probably the famous Caraka.”
(source: Alberuni (AD 973 - 1048), a Muslim scholar, mathematician and master of Greek and Hindu system astrology, wrote twenty books. In his seminal work, "Indica" (c. 1030 AD). he wrote Alberuni's India - by Edward Sachau. Low Price Publications, New Delhi, 1993. (Reprint). First published 1910 -- translated in 1880s.)
Long before Kalidasa, another famous play was produced - Shudraka's "Mrichhkatika" or Clay Cart, a tender rather artificial play, and yet with a reality which moves us and gives us a glimpse into the mind and civilization of the day. The Little Clay Cart offers interesting insight into Guptan society and ancient Indian legal procedures, and its poor hero, Charudatta, is human enough to fall hopelessly in love with a courtesan.
An English translation of Shudraka’s “Mrichhkatika” was staged in New York in 1924.
Mr. Joseph Wood Krutch, (1893-1970) the dramatic critic for The Nation, and author of The Measure of Man on Freedom Human Values, Survival and the Modern Temper. He wrote of the play as follows:
“Here, if anywhere, the spectator will be able to see a genuine example of that pure art theatre of which theorists talk, and here, too, he will be led to meditate upon that real wisdom of the East which lied not in esoteric doctrine but in a tenderness far deeper and truer than that of the traditional Christianity which has been so thoroughly corrupted by the hard righteousness of Hebraism …..A play wholly artificial yet profoundly moving because it is not realistic but real….Whoever the author may have been, and whether he lived in the fourth century or the eighth, he was a good man and wise with the goodness and wisdom which comes not from the lips or the smoothly flowing pen of the moralist but from the heart. An exquisite sympathy with the fresh beauty of youth and love tempered his serenity, and he was old enough to understand that a light-hearted story of ingenious complication could be made the vehicle of tender humanity and confident goodness….Such a play can be produced only by a civilization which has reached stability; when a civilization has thought its way through all the problems it faces, it must come to rest upon something calm and naïve like this. Macbeth and Othello, however great and stirring they might be, are barbarous heroes because the passionate tumult of Shakespeare is the tumult produced by the conflict between a newly awakened sensibility and a series of ethical concepts inherited from the savage age. The realistic drama of our own time is a product of a like confusion; but when problems are settled, and when passions are reconciled with the decisions of an intellect, then form alone remains….Nowhere in our European past do we find, this side the classics, a work more completely civilized.”
(source: The Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru Oxford University Press ISBN: 0195623592 p. 164).
For more information on Indian literature, please refer to the chapter on Sanskrit.
Agriculture
Agriculture
has flourished in India under all changes of dominion, and was practiced even
in the early period of Rig Veda, where fields are frequently mentioned and the
produce carried home in carts.
Models of ancient ploughs were exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851, and a species of drill-plough is attributed to Dr. Royle to the ante-Christian centuries of which we are treating. And not only of seed were these ancient farmers economical, but also of the soil, sowing “plants which require transplantation in the same field with rice-plants, which mature in sixty days; and swing mudga and masha beneath a tall cereal, called in the Code barley, but which is in fact a millet.
Rotation of crops is also practiced by the native farmers, who alternate the pulses, which improve the land, with the cereal grasses, which exhaust it; and to India Dr. Roxburgh believes the western world to be indebted for this system. In a country so luxuriant in coco-nuts and other fruits, edible roots, and water-plants, it bespeaks considerable civilization to make laws in favor of agriculture; and we therefore read with interest that
“If the land be injured by the fault of the farmer himself, as if he fail to sow it in due time, he shall be fined ten times as much as the King’s share of the crop that might otherwise have been raised.”
Indigo refers itself to India by the name which it has certainly borne in Europe since the time of Pliny; in its own country it is called Nili or blue. It is supposed to have been early exported to Arabia, Tyre, and Egypt, and to have been adulterated or imitated; for Pliny writes, “Cast the right indigo upon live coals, it yieldeth a flame of most excellent purple.” Indigo is a common looking little plant, with a bluish-green juice, and is only converted into a handsome color and a permanent dye by a process of oxygenation; and Bancroft thinks it wonderful that so many thousand years ago, the natives of India should have discovered means by which the colorable matter of the plant “might be extracted, oxygenated, and precipitated from all the other matter combined with it.”
(source: Phases of Indian Civilization – by Mrs. C. Speir p. 15-153).
Dr. Voelcker, a Consulting Chemist with the Royal Agricultural Society of England wrote in 1889:
“On one point there can be no question, that the ideas generally entertained in England, and often given expression to even in India, that Indian agriculture is, as a whole, primitive and backward, and that little has been done to try and remedy it, are altogether erroneous…At his best, the Indian Ryot, or cultivator is quite as good as, and in some respects the superior of, the average British farmer….”
Nor need our British farmers be surprised at what I say, for it must be remembered that the natives of India were cultivators of wheat centuries before those in England.
Abul Fazl, found agriculture flourishing “in high degree” in Bihar, where rice, “which for its quality and quantity was rarely to be equaled.”
The variety of agricultural produce is well documented too. Writing about the indigenous plantations of south India, Buchanan noted the practice of having a separate piece of ground allotted for each kind of plant. “Thus one plot is entirely filled with rose-trees, another with pomegranates, and so forth.” The coconut tree supplied a great deal of necessities; pith, liquor, fruit, “cloths,” roofs, sails, and ropes. In Bengal, notes another traveler, “the plantations have no end.” He mentions mangoes, oranges, citrons, lemons, pineapples, coconuts, palm-fruits, and jack-fruits. Stavorinus adds bananas, and guavas. Other fruits, grown in large scale plantations, included melons, apples, peaches, figs, and grapes. Ives refers to “the endless variety of vegetables” used by Indians in their curries and soups.
Bengal itself produced a surplus that was traded all over the country: grains, spices, and pulses. “To mention all the particular species of goods that this rich country produces is far beyond my skill.” Rice was grown in such plenty that, writes Orme, “it is often sold at the rate of two pounds for a farthing.” In general, the valleys of all rivers consisted of “one sheet of the richest cultivation.” Berar, with its black soil, produced cotton, wheat, barley, and flax. Nagpur wheat matured in three months. The Northern Circars are described as “the granary of the Carnatic.” The spices of Malabar, including pepper, ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon found their way into Europe.”
Irrigation Technology
India, have been under continuous irrigation from ancient times. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra. According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 BC a beautiful lake aptly called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time.
In the Rgveda there are copious mentions of flood-irrigation. Indra dug channels for flood waters to flow through them. Kareze, a sloping horizontal bore to bring underground water to the ground level was developed by Indra so as to use this water for irrigation purpose. The famous Dasarajna battle between king Sudasa and other tribal kings is described in the Rgveda. It reveals that changing of a river course was a technique well known to Indians even at that ancient time.
The Kautiliya Arthasastra gives information on irrigation laws and irrigation cess. An interesting building called 'Himagriha' is described in the Kadambari of Banabhatta. It is an air-cooled house, the summer temperature being brought down by a flowing water channel and innumerable water-sprays.
The Grand Anicut built by the Chola king across the river Kaveri is the best example of the great achievements of southern engineers in irrigation engineering. They have perfected flood irrigation method and took utmost advantage of the flat land slope in the Krishna, Kaveri delta systems. They have also created irrigation system in which there were innumerable interconnected small reseviors with their network of irrigation channels. This system not only ensured assured supply of water even in the summer season but also it was the best solution to avoid devastation by the river in spate.
(source: Irrigation In Ancient And Medieval India - Dr. R.P. Kulkarni).
The opinion, however, that India’s irrigation works, were of little or no consequence has been so influential that even Indian historians have glibly accepted. Alexander Walker comments:
“the practice of watering and irrigation is not peculiar to the husbandary of India, but it has probably been carried there to a greater extent and more laborious ingenuity displayed in it than in any other country.”
In Bengal, dykes were the usual response to floods, and tanks and reservoirs stored water if rains proved scarce. Wells were a common feature; even today, every village continues to have its own well. Where there were no rivers, deep extensive tanks, measuring from three hundred to four hundred feet at their sides, were constructed, with a short temple alongside for adornment.
Lord Elphinstone reports that extensive embankments had been constructed on the rivers of Khandesh for irrigation purposes, and in Rohilkhand the local chiefs had built aqueducts “traversing corn-fields in all directions.” In the hilly regions, dams blocked streams. Bishop Heber, in the early part of the 19th century described Bharatpur State as “one of the best cultivated and watered tracts which I have seen in India.”
Alexander Walker observed:
“The vast and enormous tanks, reservoirs, and artificial lakes as well as dams of solid masonry in rivers which they constructed for the purpose of fertilizing their fields, show the extreme solicitude which they had to secure this object. Besides the great reservoirs for water, the country is covered with numerous wells which are employed for watering the fields. The water is raised by a wheel either by men or by bullocks, and it is afterwards conveyed by little canals which diverged on all sides, so as to convey a sufficient quantity of moisture to the roots of the most distant plants.”
(source: Homo Faber: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1500-1972 - by Claude Alphonso Alvares p. 48-54).
India invented sugar
It would be interesting to many to learn that “it was in India that the Greeks first became acquainted with sugar.” It was known to Pliny as a medicine. Sugar bears a name derived from Sanskrit. With the article the name traveled into Arabia and Persia, and thence became established in the languages of Europe.
Sugar from sugar-cane was pre-eminently an Indian commodity and there is reason to believe that the rest of the world derived their equivalent of sugar from the Indian 'Sakara' (and Shakar) (Compare Arabic 'Shakar' Latin 'Sacharum', French 'Sucere' German 'Zucker' and English 'sugar.'
Models of ancient ploughs were exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851, and a species of drill-plough is attributed to Dr. Royle to the ante-Christian centuries of which we are treating. And not only of seed were these ancient farmers economical, but also of the soil, sowing “plants which require transplantation in the same field with rice-plants, which mature in sixty days; and swing mudga and masha beneath a tall cereal, called in the Code barley, but which is in fact a millet.
Rotation of crops is also practiced by the native farmers, who alternate the pulses, which improve the land, with the cereal grasses, which exhaust it; and to India Dr. Roxburgh believes the western world to be indebted for this system. In a country so luxuriant in coco-nuts and other fruits, edible roots, and water-plants, it bespeaks considerable civilization to make laws in favor of agriculture; and we therefore read with interest that
“If the land be injured by the fault of the farmer himself, as if he fail to sow it in due time, he shall be fined ten times as much as the King’s share of the crop that might otherwise have been raised.”
Indigo refers itself to India by the name which it has certainly borne in Europe since the time of Pliny; in its own country it is called Nili or blue. It is supposed to have been early exported to Arabia, Tyre, and Egypt, and to have been adulterated or imitated; for Pliny writes, “Cast the right indigo upon live coals, it yieldeth a flame of most excellent purple.” Indigo is a common looking little plant, with a bluish-green juice, and is only converted into a handsome color and a permanent dye by a process of oxygenation; and Bancroft thinks it wonderful that so many thousand years ago, the natives of India should have discovered means by which the colorable matter of the plant “might be extracted, oxygenated, and precipitated from all the other matter combined with it.”
(source: Phases of Indian Civilization – by Mrs. C. Speir p. 15-153).
Dr. Voelcker, a Consulting Chemist with the Royal Agricultural Society of England wrote in 1889:
“On one point there can be no question, that the ideas generally entertained in England, and often given expression to even in India, that Indian agriculture is, as a whole, primitive and backward, and that little has been done to try and remedy it, are altogether erroneous…At his best, the Indian Ryot, or cultivator is quite as good as, and in some respects the superior of, the average British farmer….”
Nor need our British farmers be surprised at what I say, for it must be remembered that the natives of India were cultivators of wheat centuries before those in England.
Abul Fazl, found agriculture flourishing “in high degree” in Bihar, where rice, “which for its quality and quantity was rarely to be equaled.”
The variety of agricultural produce is well documented too. Writing about the indigenous plantations of south India, Buchanan noted the practice of having a separate piece of ground allotted for each kind of plant. “Thus one plot is entirely filled with rose-trees, another with pomegranates, and so forth.” The coconut tree supplied a great deal of necessities; pith, liquor, fruit, “cloths,” roofs, sails, and ropes. In Bengal, notes another traveler, “the plantations have no end.” He mentions mangoes, oranges, citrons, lemons, pineapples, coconuts, palm-fruits, and jack-fruits. Stavorinus adds bananas, and guavas. Other fruits, grown in large scale plantations, included melons, apples, peaches, figs, and grapes. Ives refers to “the endless variety of vegetables” used by Indians in their curries and soups.
Bengal itself produced a surplus that was traded all over the country: grains, spices, and pulses. “To mention all the particular species of goods that this rich country produces is far beyond my skill.” Rice was grown in such plenty that, writes Orme, “it is often sold at the rate of two pounds for a farthing.” In general, the valleys of all rivers consisted of “one sheet of the richest cultivation.” Berar, with its black soil, produced cotton, wheat, barley, and flax. Nagpur wheat matured in three months. The Northern Circars are described as “the granary of the Carnatic.” The spices of Malabar, including pepper, ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon found their way into Europe.”
Irrigation Technology
India, have been under continuous irrigation from ancient times. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra. According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 BC a beautiful lake aptly called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time.
In the Rgveda there are copious mentions of flood-irrigation. Indra dug channels for flood waters to flow through them. Kareze, a sloping horizontal bore to bring underground water to the ground level was developed by Indra so as to use this water for irrigation purpose. The famous Dasarajna battle between king Sudasa and other tribal kings is described in the Rgveda. It reveals that changing of a river course was a technique well known to Indians even at that ancient time.
The Kautiliya Arthasastra gives information on irrigation laws and irrigation cess. An interesting building called 'Himagriha' is described in the Kadambari of Banabhatta. It is an air-cooled house, the summer temperature being brought down by a flowing water channel and innumerable water-sprays.
The Grand Anicut built by the Chola king across the river Kaveri is the best example of the great achievements of southern engineers in irrigation engineering. They have perfected flood irrigation method and took utmost advantage of the flat land slope in the Krishna, Kaveri delta systems. They have also created irrigation system in which there were innumerable interconnected small reseviors with their network of irrigation channels. This system not only ensured assured supply of water even in the summer season but also it was the best solution to avoid devastation by the river in spate.
(source: Irrigation In Ancient And Medieval India - Dr. R.P. Kulkarni).
The opinion, however, that India’s irrigation works, were of little or no consequence has been so influential that even Indian historians have glibly accepted. Alexander Walker comments:
“the practice of watering and irrigation is not peculiar to the husbandary of India, but it has probably been carried there to a greater extent and more laborious ingenuity displayed in it than in any other country.”
In Bengal, dykes were the usual response to floods, and tanks and reservoirs stored water if rains proved scarce. Wells were a common feature; even today, every village continues to have its own well. Where there were no rivers, deep extensive tanks, measuring from three hundred to four hundred feet at their sides, were constructed, with a short temple alongside for adornment.
Lord Elphinstone reports that extensive embankments had been constructed on the rivers of Khandesh for irrigation purposes, and in Rohilkhand the local chiefs had built aqueducts “traversing corn-fields in all directions.” In the hilly regions, dams blocked streams. Bishop Heber, in the early part of the 19th century described Bharatpur State as “one of the best cultivated and watered tracts which I have seen in India.”
Alexander Walker observed:
“The vast and enormous tanks, reservoirs, and artificial lakes as well as dams of solid masonry in rivers which they constructed for the purpose of fertilizing their fields, show the extreme solicitude which they had to secure this object. Besides the great reservoirs for water, the country is covered with numerous wells which are employed for watering the fields. The water is raised by a wheel either by men or by bullocks, and it is afterwards conveyed by little canals which diverged on all sides, so as to convey a sufficient quantity of moisture to the roots of the most distant plants.”
(source: Homo Faber: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1500-1972 - by Claude Alphonso Alvares p. 48-54).
India invented sugar
It would be interesting to many to learn that “it was in India that the Greeks first became acquainted with sugar.” It was known to Pliny as a medicine. Sugar bears a name derived from Sanskrit. With the article the name traveled into Arabia and Persia, and thence became established in the languages of Europe.
Sugar from sugar-cane was pre-eminently an Indian commodity and there is reason to believe that the rest of the world derived their equivalent of sugar from the Indian 'Sakara' (and Shakar) (Compare Arabic 'Shakar' Latin 'Sacharum', French 'Sucere' German 'Zucker' and English 'sugar.'
Textiles
American
historian Will Durant (1885-1981) has remarked: "Textiles were woven with
an artistry never since excelled; from the days of Caesar to our own the fabrics
of India have been prized by all the world. From homespun khaddar to complex
brocades flaming with gold, from picturesque pyjamas to the invisibly-seamed
shawls of Kashmir, every garment woven in India has a beauty that comes only of
a very ancient, and now almost instinctive art."
(source: Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage - By Will Durant MJF Books.1935 p. 585).
From the scrap of indigo dyed `ikat woven cloth found in a Pharaoh's tomb pointing to 5,000-year-old trade connections with India, to an England-bound East India Company Shipman's meticulous record of "bales of muslin stuffs and Masulipatnam Palampores" is testimony to the widespread popularity of the textiles of India. In fact, by the 18th Century, Indian mulls and "cashmeres" were much sought after fashion wear in the courts of Europe.
India's textile tradition is an elegant legacy perfectly preserved over millennia. The extraordinary range of Indian textiles reflects the cutural richness and adaptability from the royal courts of the Mauryas.
Ceremonial cloth and sacred heirloom, Coromandel coast, India,
The textiles of Indonesia have, across time, also incorporated and integrated Hindu's symbols such as the Garuda, the naga, the lotus, the elephant, the "mandala diagrams"
For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor
The royalty and artistocracy of South East Asian ruling kingdom too favoured the flamboyant gold shot woven cottons and silks of India, the gossammar thin muslin, the intricate weaves and motifs which embellished textiles. The genesis of the lasting impact on South East Asia of Indian culture perhaps lies in the "Greater India" Hindu kingdoms of Khamboja, Champa, Annam Srivijaya and Madajahit, which flourished in (modern day) Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines and lasted from Second Century A.D. to the 15th Century. Founded by merchant princes from South India and perhaps even Orissa and Bengal, these kingdoms had well organised cities with temples (Angkor Vat being the most famous of all), priests, rituals, artisans and brisk trade with the mother country. Along with trade came the religious myths and beliefs of India. Although Islam and Buddhism were eventually to emerge as dominant religions in the region, the deep impress of Hindu civilisation can be felt every where. In the place names of many cities and the inclusion of Sanksrit words in the local languages, in the pervasive influence of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in both classical and folk expressions of art, particularly in Indonesia. The textiles of Indonesia have, across time, also incorporated and integrated Hindu's symbols such as the Garuda, the naga, the lotus, the elephant, the "mandala diagrams" and so on. In fact, the country's textiles — from apparel to ritualistic hanging, ship cloth and sacred religious cloth — demonstrate the remarkable exchane of ideas, materials, designs and images resulting from Indonesia's Indian trade links.
(source: Textiles as History - By Pushpa Chari - hindu.com). for more refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi: Greater India).
Indians, even of the present day, are remarkable for their delicacy of sense, especially their nicety of touch.
Indians were the first to perfect the art of weaving. Enchanting and very fascinating in appeal, the traditional Indian textiles have a romantic story that dates back several centuries. No other land enjoys such a profusion of creative energies for the production of textiles as the subcontinent of India. The interaction of peoples-invaders, indigenous tribes, traders and explorers- has built a complex structure legendary for its vitality and color.
William Ward has observed in his books:
“muslins are made which sell at a hundred roopees a piece. The ingenuity of the Hindoos in this branch of manufacture is wonderful. Persons with whom I have conversed on this subject say, that at two places in Bengal, Sonar-ga and Vikrum-pooru, muslins are made by a few families so exceedingly fine, that four months are required to weave one piece, which sells at four or five hundred roopees. When this muslin is laid on the grass, and the dew has fallen upon it, it is no longer discernible.”
"...the making of chintz appears to be an original art in India, long since invented, and brought to so great a pitch of excellency, that the ingenuity of artists in Europe has hitherto added little improvements...."
(source: A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos - By William Ward volume I p 127 and 130 London 1822).
Albrecht Weber (1825-1901) says: “The skill of the Indians in the production of delicate woven fabrics, in the mixing of colors, the working of metals and precious stones, the preparation of essences and in all manner of technical arts, has from early times enjoyed a world-wide celebrity.”
James A. B. Scherer, author of Cotton as World Power, "India is the original home of cotton. Cotton cloth was first seen in Europe when the soldiers of Alexander brought some of it back, as a curiosity, in the 4th century before Christ. All India was clothed with it then, as today; some of the ancient textiles being so delicate and beautiful as to give rise to the poetic description, "webs of the woven wind."
(source: Cotton as World Power - By James A. B. Scherer).
Cotton was indigenous to India and from her soil its knowledge and cultivation spread to the rest of the world. The name of this plant has been borrowed by all the nations of antiquity from India. thus Sanskrit 'Karpasa' (Kapas in Hindi) became 'Kapas' in Hebrew and 'Carposos' in Greek and Latin. Handspun, hand-made Indian muslins are still the pride of India. Egyptian mummies were wrapped in Indian muslins 2000 years ago.
Next to agriculture, cotton and cotton goods constituted the principal industry in the Indian sub-continent, as did the woolen industry in England. Up to 1800, no country produced a greater abundance or variety of textiles in the world. In 1700 itself, India was the largest exporter of textiles in the world. Wrote Andre Dubois:
“With such simple tools the patient Hindus, thanks to his industry, can produce specimens of work which are often not to be distinguished from those imported at great expense from foreign countries.”
From the Roman times till their decline in the 19th century, the main textile areas on the subcontinent had been the same:
“They are described in the Periplus of the 1st century A.D. in much the same terms as they were described by travelers of the 17th and 18th centuries. These main areas were three: South India, comprising the Coromandel (Cholamandal) Coast as it used to be known, stretching from the Krishna Delta to Point Calimere; and North-east India including Bengal, Orissa and the Gangetic Valley.”
From Abbe de Guyon, in the middle of the 18th century, we have the following account of Ahmedabad in western India:
“People of all nations, and all kinds of mercantile goods throughout Asia are to be found at Ahmedabad. Brocades of gold and silver, carpets with flowers of gold, though not so good as the Persian velvet, satins, and taffeta of all colors, stuffs of silk, linen and cotton and calicoes, are all manufactured here.”
Surat “an emporium of foreign commerce”, manufactured the “finest Indian brocades, the richest silk stuffs of all kinds, calicoes and muslins”.
“Painted and printed calicoes constituted the most important class of Indian fabric exported from Surat in the 17th century. They covered a wide range of quality, the best and the more expensive being painted rather than printed…In the former case, dyes and mordants were applied to the cloth, not with a wood-block, but free-hand with brush. Thus, each painted design had the character of individual drawing with the human and sensuous touch, instead of being limited to the repeat pattern imposed by the print-block. Sometimes painting and printing techniques were combined, but the finest decorative calicoes from both western India and the Coromandel Coast were of the painted kind.”
Within another fifty years, this entire picture would be of a great deal reversed. In England and the Continent, the textile industries were being revolutionized through the study and close imitation of the work of Asian craftsmen. And later, these improvements, harnessed to the machine, would turn the tide of events.
Muslins of the finest sort
These are the muslins of the Dacca district, the most delicate of all the fabric of India, an ancient test of which was for the piece to be drawn through a finger-ring. Ventus textiles, or nebula, were names under which the Romans knew of them. They are mentioned in the Institutes of Manu, in a way to show the organization of the industry: “let a weaver who has received 10 palas of cotton thread give them back increased to eleven, by the rice-water and the like used in weaving; he who does otherwise shall pay a fine of 10 panas.”
17th century, French traveler, Tavernier tells of a Persian ambassador who took his sovereign, on returning home from India, “a coconut of the size of an ostrich’s egg, enriched with precious stones; and when it was opened a turban was drawn from it 60 cubits in length, and of a muslin so fine that you would scarcely know that you had it in your hand.”
The history of cotton spinning in India goes back to remote antiquity, being associated with Vedic gods and goddesses who are described and pictured as wearing woven garments. The patterns of such garments, showing great skill in both woven and tinted design are abundantly reproduced from early temples.
(source: Periplus of the Erythrean Sea - W.H. Schoff p. 256).
Country after country tells the same tale in Europe. P. R. Schwartz and R. de Micheauieux, in their book, A century of French fabrics: 1850-1950, state that in France:
“the term indiennes (chintz) is found in Marseilles inventories since at least 1580, and on 22 June, 1648, a card-maker and engraver of this too was associated with the dyeing of cloth to make indiennes”. The imitation printing of these chintz was banned in due course, but the indiennes continued to grow in popularity, “despite the heavier fines imposed, the ripping off by the police of the offending print dresses from the backs of women walking in the streets and the destroying of stocks of garments”.
Once the ban was lifted (1759), the designers began to introduce designs at first based solely upon Indian patterns. The same may be observed in Germany, where in order to protect the home industry, Fredrick William I banned the wearing, importing or selling of any kind of printed or painted calicoes. Again these laws were flouted and in 1743, print works were established in various parts of the country, imitation printing being officially permitted in 1752. Textile workers in Italy, from the late 17th century to about 1855 had their earlier patterns based on indiennes. More obvious is the case of the Netherlands:
“The Dutch merchants and explorers were some of the first to bring back the painted and printed Coromondel clothes from the East during the early 17th century…and Dutch textile printers attempted to imitate the brilliantly colored Indian cotton which were not only fast to water but became more beautiful and brilliant when washed. Their first attempts with the oil or water colors long used in Europe, that either smelt badly or would not wash, bore no comparison with the Eastern cloths printed or painted with mordant dyes and indigo.
The first European print works was founded in Amersfoot in Holland in 1678 and attempted to use Indian methods.”
Success came after nearly 70 years, when Dutch printers succeeded in copying the sheer Indian cottons by using copper plates. The first Spanish calico print works started by the Esteban Canals in Barcelona in 1738, copied indiennes and used the imported Eastern textiles as a source of pattern. Switzerland repeats the story, and in the United States too, the earliest evidence of textile printing shows Eastern influences in the patterns. It has not been any different with the circulation of ideas in Europe. Literature-wise, three large documents found in European libraries are representative, having been written with the express purpose of informing Europeans about Indian processes and techniques. The letters of Jesuit, Coeurdoux, for example, were sent out in 1742 and 1747. The earlier letter begins typically:
“I have not forgotten that in several of your letters you have urged me to acquaint you with the discoveries I might make in this part of India,…..Recently, with a little leisure, I have used it to find out the way in which Indians make these beautiful cloths, which form part of the trade of whose Companies established to extend commerce, and which, crossing the widest seas, come from the ends of Europe into these distant climes to search for such things.”
(source: Decolonizing History: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1492 to the Present Day - By Claude Alvares p.55-67).
Though the British had initially been drawn to India by the spice trade, textiles soon became the major export. Using handlooms and spindles and building on more than 5,000 year history of weaving, Indian artisans created such fine fabrics that one 19th century Briton characterized them as "the work of fairies or insects rather than of men."
From yarn described as the "web of the woven wind." Bengali weavers produced delicate cotton muslins so sheer that they were named "running water" and "evening dew." Silk brocades from the city of Benares in northern India glittered with threads of gold or silver. In Kashmir, enormous shawls - so finely woven that they could be drawn through a ring - were made from the inner fleece of a rare mountain goat, which left its hairs behind when it rubbed against shrubs on Himalayan peaks. Indian chintz - calico that was hand painted or printed by artisans-was renowned for brilliant colors that seemed to improve with repeated washings.
A rage for Indian fabric swept across Britain, causing a serious drain of gold and silver from the West. "From the greatest gallants to the meanest Cook Maids, nothing was thought to fit to adorn their persons as the Fabric from India," grumped an English politician in 1681. Despite stiff import duties, Indian textiles threatened England's own manufacturers. "Europe bleedth to enrich Asia," complained another 17th century Englishman. An act of Parliament in 1700 made it illegal to wear or use Indian fabrics in Great Britain, but clandestine trade flourished nonetheless.
A little century later, however, the tide turned. Britain's restrictive economic policies, combined with the Industrial Revolution, spelled doom for India's textile industry. England produced and flooded the market with - inexpensive machine made textiles. The result was tragic. - "The bones of weavers," said one 19th century observer, were left "bleaching on the plains of Hindustan."
(source: What Life Was Like in the Jewel of the Crown: British India AD 1600-1905 - By The Editors of Time-Life Books. p. 91-93).
The quality of the textile goods were fine and delicate. Marco Polo remarked of the elegant and light buckrams manufactured in several parts of the Deccan: "These are the most delicate buckrams and of the highest price; in sooth they look like the tissue of spider's web. there can be no king or queen in the world but might be glad to wear them."
(source: India Through The Ages: History, Art Culture and Religion - By G. Kuppuram p. 574).
Toile - India's design inspired the style
In medieval and early modern France, people [of rank and wealth] wore fabrics such as silk and velvet that were rarely printed. During the sixteenth century, Portuguese navigators opened the trade routes to India and introduced Europe to Indian painted cottons. By the end of the seventeenth century, the Indiennes - brightly printed Indian cotton fabrics that were lighter than velvet, and washable - were famous and widely used for clothing.
In 1686 Colbert's mercantilist and protectionist policies forbade the import of foreign fabrics, with highly prejudicial results for the French fabric industry. This embargo lasted for 73 years, but it was unable to stop the success of the Indiennes.
Although we think of it as French, toile's founding father was Francis Nixon of Ireland, who, inspired by printed fabrics from India, created the first toile fabric in 1752. His techniques quickly spread to England and then France -- the country that gave the style its name and assured its place in design history.
The mother of all toiles is Toile de Jouy -- the brain-child of Christophe Philippe Oberkampf who established a manufactory for printed cottons in Jouy-en-Josas (a town near Versailles) in 1760. The idea was to emulate the printed cottons of India while keeping the process (and profits) at home in France. And it was an unbridled success. In 1806, the Emperor and Empress, Napoleon and Josephine, one day surprised Oberkampf with a visit to the factory, nor did Napoleon fail to ask a thousand questions after his usual manner. So pleased was the Emperor that he made of Oberkampf a member of the Legion of Honor, supplying him with the decoration which he detached from his own coat. Napoleon came again—this time with the new Empress, Marie Louise.
Chintz
Chintz - printed cotton fabric from India: a printed or stained calico fabric made in India. Early 17th century. Earlier chints , from chint “calico cloth,” from Hindi chīṭ “stain,” from Sanskrit citra “variegated.”]
The painted cloths from India were rich in color, and full of ancient tradition in design. The manner of making them was intricate, requiring not only talent but infinite patience and the employment of several arts. And these charming exotics that were spread before those lovely ladies of Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century, are the ancestors of the mountains of chintz that fill our shops today.
Palampores, or bed covers, they called the oblongs from India, and at this time the most favored design for these was the Tree of Life, a straying meander of slender branches all aflower with blooms of many kinds, the tree-trunk small and planted in a pyramid of rocks. But its exquisite tones and shades were impossible to describe, also the symbolism of the border which reaches back to far antiquity. In France as in England the first imported cottons from India arrived in the second half of the Seventeenth Century and awakened at once the desire for possession in the breast of every person of wealth or social consequence. The more they bought, the more the returning ships brought to them. And the greater the consumption of this artistic novelty, the less was the demand for French silks and woolens.
It became therefore the pleasure and duty of domes-tic print weavers to protest, and of the State to pass laws of prohibition. Between 1686 and 175o no less than thirty decrees were issued in France in restraint of the use of printed cottons. But prohibition fails to exclude. There is a naughtiness in human nature, a half-humorous rebellion that makes us snatch at things denied. All the well planned restrictions of France failed to abolish the use of printed cottons.
Indian prints were ever very high in price. All who appreciated could not afford them. Thus it came that French textile workers set about making an imitation to sell at low cost. The origin of chintz is a Hindu word which signified colored or flowered—chint. In the time of Samuel Pepys it was so spelled ("bought a chint for my wife"), and only later was an s added which time changed to z.
(source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/190289_toileside11.html and http://www.oldandsold.com/articles06/draperies-19.shtml and http://www.domestications.com/emails/043003.htm and http://www.w-w-d.com/toile.html and http://www.cnn.com/STYLE/9905/20/toile.de.jouy/ and http://rico21.chez.tiscali.fr/cadre_musee.htm ).
***
Lord Elphinstone, speaking of Indian cotton cloth, says, "the beauty and delicacy of which was so long admired, and which, in fineness of texture, has never yet been approached in any country."
John Murray wrote in The History of India, p. 27: "Its fabrics, the most beautiful that human art has anywhere produced, were sought by merchants at the expense of the greatest toils and dangers."
Indian textile technology had a profound influence in Britain during the industrial revolution, stimulating inventors there to devise methods to attain similar results – the brightness and permanence of the colors, the delicacy of the cotton yarn – with machines. The British had little success in attaining the quality of hand-made Indian textiles. British spinners showed little interest in how their Indian counterparts achieved the high quality of their textiles and would have been disappointed had they known. The secret was painstaking and laborious hand spinning.
(source: Lost Discoveries - Dick Teresi p. 354).
As regards to dyeing of fabrics, Lord Mountstuart Elphinstone says: “”The brilliancy and permanence of many of the dyes have not yet been equaled in Europe.” He adds: “the brilliancy of their dyes is remarked on as well as their skill in manufactures and imitations of foreign objects.”
The Hindus were the earliest nation who discovered the art of extracting colors from plants. The names by which several plants are known in foreign countries bear testimony to this fact. Indigo is called after India. Pliny used the word indico.
Bancroft gives much praise to the “natives of India for having so many thousand years ago discovered means by which the colorable matter of the plants might be extracted, exygenated and precipitated from all other matters combined with it.” Even James Mill is constrained to say: “Among the arts of the Hindus, that of printing and dyeing their clothes has been celebrated; and the beauty and brilliancy, as well as durability of the colors they produce, are worthy of particular praise.”
John Forbes Watson, in his work on the Textile Manufactures and Costumes of People of India gives an interesting account of a series of experiments made on both the European and the Indian muslins, to determine their claims to superiority. The results were altogether in favor of the Indian fabrics. He concluded: "However viewed therefore, our manufacturers have something still to do. With all our machinery and wondrous appliances we have hitherto been unable to produce a fabric which, for fineness or utility, can equal the woven air of Dacca, the product of arrangements, which appear rude and primitive, but which in reality are admirably adapted for the purpose."
Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren (1760-1842) an Egyptologist says: "The variety of cotton fabrics mentioned even by the author of Periplus as articles of commerce is so great that we can hardly suppose the number to have increased afterwards."
(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p.397 – 404).
According to NY Times: "Considering that it is the country historically credited with giving the world paisley, seersucker, calico, chintz, cashmere, crewel and the entire technique of printing on cloth, it is anybody's guess why India barely registers on the global map of fashion."
(source: Fashion From India, Beyond the Bangles - NY Times May 13 ' 2003).
The Sari
A charming folktale explains the origin of the Sari as follows:
"The Sari, it is said, was born on the loom of a fanciful weaver. He dreamt of Woman. The shimmer of her tears. The drape of her tumbling hair. The colors of her many moods. The softness of her touch. All these he wove together. He couldn't stop. He wove for many yards. And when he was done, the story goes, he sat back and smiled and smiled and smiled".
Noted psychologist Carl Jung has waxed lyrical about the elegance of the sari thus:
"It would be a loss to the whole world if the Indian woman should cease to wear her native costume. India is practically the only civilized country where one can see on living models how woman can and should dress".
Couturier Valentino Garavani ( ? ) Italy’s most famous designer says:
‘‘I consider the sari deeply elegant—it is one of the most grounding elements of what haute couture is all about,’’ he adds. ‘‘In India, modernity and tradition can find a fine balance without erasing a unique heritage. Homogeneity is never a good thing.’’
‘‘India’s heritage is one of the most fascinating and inspirational of all,’’ he says. ‘‘My 2002 haute couture collection was entirely inspired by India. But there have always been Indian themes running through all my collections. It’s definitely a reference for my idea of beauty and grace.’’
The discovery of several spindles, and a piece of cotton stuck to a silver vase, revealed that the spinning and weaving of cotton was known to the Harrappans, nearly five million years ago. References to weaving are found in the Vedic literature on the method of spinning, the various materials used.
The foundations of the Indian textile trade with other countries began as early as the second century BC. A hoard of block printed and resist-dyed fabrics, mainly of Gujarati origin, found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt, are the proof of large scale Indian export of cotton textiles to the Egypt in medieval times.
In the 13th century, Indian silk was used as barter for spices from the western countries. Towards the end of the 17th century, the British East India Company had begun exports of Indian silks and various other cotton fabrics to other countries. These included the famous fine Muslin cloth of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Painted and printed cottons or chintz was extensively practiced between India, China, Java and the Philippines, long before the arrival of the Europeans.
" India, undoubtedly the greatest exporter of textiles from 1600 to 1899, not only revolutionized European taste and fashion with its chintz but struck at the very roots of economic stability. Chintz, which captured the fabric market with ease in the 18th century, caused hardship among weavers, provoked riots, and finally inspired satirical poems about noble ladies who preferred exotic finery to honest, English home-spun products. "
(source: Much Maligned Monsters: A History of European Reactions to Indian Art - By Partha Mitter p. 221 and I am inspired by India’s heritage).
Sir Charles Trevelyan, Finance Minister of India in the 1860s, was anxious to see the disappearance of the Indian weaver as a class, a development he thought best for both Britain and India: India would benefit because the weaver, faced with competition from machine-made goods, would be forced to give up his craft and turn to agriculture; the increased labor supply would then raise output and England would benefit since makers of cloth would be converted into consumers of Lancashire goods."
(source: Decolonizing History: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1492 to the Present Day - By Claude Alvares p. 152).
Paisley pattern stretches across millennia
The lacy teardrop pattern known as paisley is Indian in origin, but its name derives from a town in southern Scotland. Paisley, which today is a suburb west of Glasgow, was a major site for the manufacture of printed cotton and wool in the 19th Century, according to the Paisley Museum in Scotland.
Resembling a large comma, paisley is one of the most recognized patterns in the world. The pattern can be traced back more than 2,000 years. The design was copied from the costly silk and cotton Kashmir shawls brought back by Scottish soldiers serving in India and later shipped by members of the East India Company.
The explorer Marco Polo has said: " Embroidery is here produced with more delicacy than anywhere in the world."
(source: India: Living Wisdom - By Richard Waterstone p. 116).
Printed “Paisley” in the 19th century
The word Cashmere, or Kashmir, has various connotations, all evoking luxury. The cloth, known as cashmere, is woven from the winter coat of a mountain goat found in the Kashmir region of India. When woven, the woollen cloth is of an incomparable softness and refinement. The design motif, known as Cashmere, or Paisley, was created by Indian weavers and is easily definable by it's shape in the form of a teardrop.
(source: http://www.musee-impression.com/gb/collection/indiennes.html).
Note: Just as Delftware (named for the town of Delft in The Netherlands) blue and white pottery was inspired by Chinese porcelain, the lacey teardrop pattern was inspired by India but was later named Paisley after a town in Scotland.
Pashmina Shawls
The exquisite pashmina, whose history dates back to the days of Mohenjadaro, the soft fine fabric draped around the statue of a woman found at Mohenjadaro was probably pashmina from the valley. It was popular amongst the Indian aristocracy The famous pashmina shawls of Kashmir are made of the finest wool and have a luxuriant silky texture. The Chandra goat from which the pashmina wool is extracted is found at a height of 14,000 feet in Ladakh.
Benares - Fabled bazaars
From the earliest times traders passed this way on their way to Pataliputra, to the time of the Muslim invaders, the British invaders, and now the tourist invaders, the bazaars of Benares have dazzled the imagination. In his famous description of Benares in the late 18th century, Lord Thomas Babbington Macaulay (1800-59) is best known for introducing English education in India. Macaulay was the first Law Member of the Governor-General's Legislature, and was also known for his notorious 1835 Minute, wrote:
"Commerce had as many pilgrims as religion. All along the shores of the venerable stream lay fleets of vessels laden with rich merchandise. From the looms of Benares went forth the most delicate silk adorned the balls of St. James's and of Versailles; and in the bazaars, the muslins of Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled with the jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere."
(source: The Sacred City of the Hindus: in Ancient and Modern Times - By M. A. Sherring p. 10).
Sir Edwin Arnold, (1832-1904) poet and scholar, principal of the British government college at Pune, India. Although his interest in India was primarily spiritual, he was nonetheless captured by the wares of Benares. In his book, India Revisted, he describes the "dazzling flood of gold and silk kincobs, embroidered cloths and scarves, cashmere shawls of marvellous make, texture, and tints, slippers for princesses, turbans for kings, and cholis glittering with gems and gold laces."
(source: India Revisted - By Edwin Arnold p. 220).
Blue Jeans originated in India
One of India's lasting contributions to Western life was the export of a thick cotton cloth known as "Dungaree" which, in the sixteenth century was sold near the Dongarii Fort in Bombay. Portuguese and Genoan sailors used this durable blue broad cloth, dyed with indigo, for their bellbottom sailing pants. Thus, blue jeans, originating in India, were widely adopted by farmers, cowboys, working-class men, teen-agers, suburban moms; almost everyone in the West has at least one pair of blue jeans. They are the hallmark of American fashion and in vogue across the world.
According to Webster Dictionary: dungaree n. hindi dungri - 1. a coarse cotton cloth; specif, blue denim. 2. work trousers or overalls made of this cloth.
(source: Infinity Foundation).
History of Indigo
The word Indigo is derived from the Greek Indikon and the Latin Indicum, meaning a substance from India. Evidence for the use of Indigo in India before the medieval age is based on the writings of a trader in Egypt in the first century A D. India was then the pivot of trade both Westwards and Eastwards. Indians were highly accomplished in textile arts. As with other subjects such as mathematics, much earlier on, knowledge from India was dispersed through the trade route. Indigo, the last natural dye, was a highly priced commodity on the "Silk route". From 1600 onwards, the documents of the East India Company mention the production of indigo in India and its export. Gujarat and Sind were the major sources then. From mid 17th century, Europeans arriving on India's East Coast picked up finished textiles, cotton and silk, rather than the raw material indigo. Indigo was a major dye used in these fabrics. In the 19th century, Bengal was the world's biggest producer of indigo in the world! An Englishman in the Bengal Civil Service is said to have commented, "Not a chest of indigo reached England without being stained with human blood". Indigo was part of the national movement. Champaran in Bihar witnessed indigo riots in 1868.
(source: The Colorful history of Indigo - chennaionline.com).
Distillation of Perfumes
The distillation of scents, perfumes and fragrant liquids and ointments was one area where the knowledge of chemistry was applied in India since ancient times. In fact the very word 'scent' which is of unexplained origin according to the Oxford Dictionary, is possibly derived from the Sanskrit term Sugandha which literally means 'good or aromatic paste'. This word could have been transmitted to European languages through the Greek langua which has borrowed (and lent) many words from Sanskrit. Other instances of such transmission are the English words like 'cotton' which is derived from the Sanskrit Karpasa or the word 'sugar' derived from the Sanskrit Sharkara, etc. Many present day perfumes had existed in India since ancient times and perhaps had originated here. In ancient times perfumes and fragrant ointments were of two typ viz., Teertha (liquids) and Gandha (slurries or ointments). During the coronation Kings or during any auspicious occasion person was sprinkled with aromatic oils. Fragrant ointments based on sandalwood were applied during ceremonial bathing. Even today during some festivals like Diwali aromatic slurries and pastes are prepared out of a powder called Sugandhi. Utne and are used during the ceremonial bath which is taken during that festival. Even in other religious rites, Sandalwood, Ochre and Camphor are traditionally used by Hindus.
Sandalwood: Since very early times Sandalwood and Sandalwood oil were items of export. The Greek text of the 1st century A.D., Periplus mentions sandalwood as one of the items being imported from India. The word Sandal (wood) is derived from the Latin terms Santalum Album or Santalacae. These terms used by the Romans to describe sandalwood were, according to the Oxford Dictionary, derived from the Sanskrit term Chandana, for sandalwood.
The Sandalwood tree is native to India and is found mainly in South-western India in t he state of Karnataka. Sandalwood has been a known item of export from India since ancient times. Authors of Sanskrit texts on botany which in Sanskrit is called Vanaspati-Shastra had classified Sandalwood into three types viz. white sandalwood Shrikanda (which perhaps is an abbreviation of the term Shewta-Chandana ), the second is yellow sandalwood or Pitta-Chandana and the last is red sandalwood or RaktaChandana
The reference to Sandalwood in the Periplus is perhaps the earliest available western reference to Sandalwood. It has been mentioned in later times by Comas Indiwpleustes in the 6th century A.D. as Tzandana and thereafter it is frequently referred to by Arab traders. Oil was also extracted from Sandalwood. This oil which was a thick but refined liquid was extracted in specially constructed oil mills called Teyl-Peshani and Teylena-Lip. The oil extracted from these mills was a thick, dark yellow liquid. Along with Sandalwood, the Sandalwood oil was also an item of export from India during ancient times. Sandalwood oil was mainly bought by the Romans between the 1st and 3rd centuries A.D.
Musk: Musk is also a fragrant substance which is secreted in the gland by a male musk-deer. Musk is redish-brown in colour and is used as a base for perfumes and also as an ingredient for soaps to give it a musky smell. In Sanskrit, Musk is known as Muska which means the scortum i.e. the pouch of skin containing the testicles of the deer. The English term Musk originates from the Sanskrit term Muska according to the Oxford Dictionary.
The Sanskrit word Muska is perhaps derived from the words Maunsa or Masa which means 'flesh'. In Sanskrit, other words used for musk are Kasturi, Kastutrika and Mruga-Nabhi. The last term literally means 'a deer's navel'.
Spikenard: Spikenard was a costly aromatic ointment extracted since ancient times from an Indian plant known in Sanskrit as Nardostachys Jatamansi which perhaps means 'the braid of hair (Jataa) of (Narada). The English word Spikenard is derived from the Greek term Nardostakhus and the Latin term Spica Nardi; both the terms are derived from the Sanskrit term Nardostachys Jatamansi. This plant has purplish-yellow flower heads and is very rarely found. Its smell is quite pleasing and hence it had been in great demand since ancient times.
In Sanskrit, other terms used to refer to this plant are, Jatila which means 'difficult', Tapasvini which literally means 'concentration and devotion'. These words used to describe Spikenard indicate that it was very difficult to obtain and cultivate this plant. In India this herb was available only in the Himalayas. Spikenard, which is aromatic and bitter, yields on distillation a pleasant smelling oil.
In India, it had been used since ancient times as an aromatic adjunct in the preparation of medicinal oils and was popularly believed to increase the growth and blackness of hair. The Roman historian Pliny observes the Spikenard was considered very precious in Rome and it was stored in alabaster boxes by persons of eminence.
(source: Contribution of Ancient Hindu Society - http://www.angelfire.com/super/pride/mech.html).
(source: Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage - By Will Durant MJF Books.1935 p. 585).
From the scrap of indigo dyed `ikat woven cloth found in a Pharaoh's tomb pointing to 5,000-year-old trade connections with India, to an England-bound East India Company Shipman's meticulous record of "bales of muslin stuffs and Masulipatnam Palampores" is testimony to the widespread popularity of the textiles of India. In fact, by the 18th Century, Indian mulls and "cashmeres" were much sought after fashion wear in the courts of Europe.
India's textile tradition is an elegant legacy perfectly preserved over millennia. The extraordinary range of Indian textiles reflects the cutural richness and adaptability from the royal courts of the Mauryas.
Ceremonial cloth and sacred heirloom, Coromandel coast, India,
The textiles of Indonesia have, across time, also incorporated and integrated Hindu's symbols such as the Garuda, the naga, the lotus, the elephant, the "mandala diagrams"
For more refer to chapter on Greater India: Suvarnabhumi and Sacred Angkor
The royalty and artistocracy of South East Asian ruling kingdom too favoured the flamboyant gold shot woven cottons and silks of India, the gossammar thin muslin, the intricate weaves and motifs which embellished textiles. The genesis of the lasting impact on South East Asia of Indian culture perhaps lies in the "Greater India" Hindu kingdoms of Khamboja, Champa, Annam Srivijaya and Madajahit, which flourished in (modern day) Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines and lasted from Second Century A.D. to the 15th Century. Founded by merchant princes from South India and perhaps even Orissa and Bengal, these kingdoms had well organised cities with temples (Angkor Vat being the most famous of all), priests, rituals, artisans and brisk trade with the mother country. Along with trade came the religious myths and beliefs of India. Although Islam and Buddhism were eventually to emerge as dominant religions in the region, the deep impress of Hindu civilisation can be felt every where. In the place names of many cities and the inclusion of Sanksrit words in the local languages, in the pervasive influence of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in both classical and folk expressions of art, particularly in Indonesia. The textiles of Indonesia have, across time, also incorporated and integrated Hindu's symbols such as the Garuda, the naga, the lotus, the elephant, the "mandala diagrams" and so on. In fact, the country's textiles — from apparel to ritualistic hanging, ship cloth and sacred religious cloth — demonstrate the remarkable exchane of ideas, materials, designs and images resulting from Indonesia's Indian trade links.
(source: Textiles as History - By Pushpa Chari - hindu.com). for more refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi: Greater India).
Indians, even of the present day, are remarkable for their delicacy of sense, especially their nicety of touch.
Indians were the first to perfect the art of weaving. Enchanting and very fascinating in appeal, the traditional Indian textiles have a romantic story that dates back several centuries. No other land enjoys such a profusion of creative energies for the production of textiles as the subcontinent of India. The interaction of peoples-invaders, indigenous tribes, traders and explorers- has built a complex structure legendary for its vitality and color.
William Ward has observed in his books:
“muslins are made which sell at a hundred roopees a piece. The ingenuity of the Hindoos in this branch of manufacture is wonderful. Persons with whom I have conversed on this subject say, that at two places in Bengal, Sonar-ga and Vikrum-pooru, muslins are made by a few families so exceedingly fine, that four months are required to weave one piece, which sells at four or five hundred roopees. When this muslin is laid on the grass, and the dew has fallen upon it, it is no longer discernible.”
"...the making of chintz appears to be an original art in India, long since invented, and brought to so great a pitch of excellency, that the ingenuity of artists in Europe has hitherto added little improvements...."
(source: A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos - By William Ward volume I p 127 and 130 London 1822).
Albrecht Weber (1825-1901) says: “The skill of the Indians in the production of delicate woven fabrics, in the mixing of colors, the working of metals and precious stones, the preparation of essences and in all manner of technical arts, has from early times enjoyed a world-wide celebrity.”
James A. B. Scherer, author of Cotton as World Power, "India is the original home of cotton. Cotton cloth was first seen in Europe when the soldiers of Alexander brought some of it back, as a curiosity, in the 4th century before Christ. All India was clothed with it then, as today; some of the ancient textiles being so delicate and beautiful as to give rise to the poetic description, "webs of the woven wind."
(source: Cotton as World Power - By James A. B. Scherer).
Cotton was indigenous to India and from her soil its knowledge and cultivation spread to the rest of the world. The name of this plant has been borrowed by all the nations of antiquity from India. thus Sanskrit 'Karpasa' (Kapas in Hindi) became 'Kapas' in Hebrew and 'Carposos' in Greek and Latin. Handspun, hand-made Indian muslins are still the pride of India. Egyptian mummies were wrapped in Indian muslins 2000 years ago.
Next to agriculture, cotton and cotton goods constituted the principal industry in the Indian sub-continent, as did the woolen industry in England. Up to 1800, no country produced a greater abundance or variety of textiles in the world. In 1700 itself, India was the largest exporter of textiles in the world. Wrote Andre Dubois:
“With such simple tools the patient Hindus, thanks to his industry, can produce specimens of work which are often not to be distinguished from those imported at great expense from foreign countries.”
From the Roman times till their decline in the 19th century, the main textile areas on the subcontinent had been the same:
“They are described in the Periplus of the 1st century A.D. in much the same terms as they were described by travelers of the 17th and 18th centuries. These main areas were three: South India, comprising the Coromandel (Cholamandal) Coast as it used to be known, stretching from the Krishna Delta to Point Calimere; and North-east India including Bengal, Orissa and the Gangetic Valley.”
From Abbe de Guyon, in the middle of the 18th century, we have the following account of Ahmedabad in western India:
“People of all nations, and all kinds of mercantile goods throughout Asia are to be found at Ahmedabad. Brocades of gold and silver, carpets with flowers of gold, though not so good as the Persian velvet, satins, and taffeta of all colors, stuffs of silk, linen and cotton and calicoes, are all manufactured here.”
Surat “an emporium of foreign commerce”, manufactured the “finest Indian brocades, the richest silk stuffs of all kinds, calicoes and muslins”.
“Painted and printed calicoes constituted the most important class of Indian fabric exported from Surat in the 17th century. They covered a wide range of quality, the best and the more expensive being painted rather than printed…In the former case, dyes and mordants were applied to the cloth, not with a wood-block, but free-hand with brush. Thus, each painted design had the character of individual drawing with the human and sensuous touch, instead of being limited to the repeat pattern imposed by the print-block. Sometimes painting and printing techniques were combined, but the finest decorative calicoes from both western India and the Coromandel Coast were of the painted kind.”
Within another fifty years, this entire picture would be of a great deal reversed. In England and the Continent, the textile industries were being revolutionized through the study and close imitation of the work of Asian craftsmen. And later, these improvements, harnessed to the machine, would turn the tide of events.
Muslins of the finest sort
These are the muslins of the Dacca district, the most delicate of all the fabric of India, an ancient test of which was for the piece to be drawn through a finger-ring. Ventus textiles, or nebula, were names under which the Romans knew of them. They are mentioned in the Institutes of Manu, in a way to show the organization of the industry: “let a weaver who has received 10 palas of cotton thread give them back increased to eleven, by the rice-water and the like used in weaving; he who does otherwise shall pay a fine of 10 panas.”
17th century, French traveler, Tavernier tells of a Persian ambassador who took his sovereign, on returning home from India, “a coconut of the size of an ostrich’s egg, enriched with precious stones; and when it was opened a turban was drawn from it 60 cubits in length, and of a muslin so fine that you would scarcely know that you had it in your hand.”
The history of cotton spinning in India goes back to remote antiquity, being associated with Vedic gods and goddesses who are described and pictured as wearing woven garments. The patterns of such garments, showing great skill in both woven and tinted design are abundantly reproduced from early temples.
(source: Periplus of the Erythrean Sea - W.H. Schoff p. 256).
Country after country tells the same tale in Europe. P. R. Schwartz and R. de Micheauieux, in their book, A century of French fabrics: 1850-1950, state that in France:
“the term indiennes (chintz) is found in Marseilles inventories since at least 1580, and on 22 June, 1648, a card-maker and engraver of this too was associated with the dyeing of cloth to make indiennes”. The imitation printing of these chintz was banned in due course, but the indiennes continued to grow in popularity, “despite the heavier fines imposed, the ripping off by the police of the offending print dresses from the backs of women walking in the streets and the destroying of stocks of garments”.
Once the ban was lifted (1759), the designers began to introduce designs at first based solely upon Indian patterns. The same may be observed in Germany, where in order to protect the home industry, Fredrick William I banned the wearing, importing or selling of any kind of printed or painted calicoes. Again these laws were flouted and in 1743, print works were established in various parts of the country, imitation printing being officially permitted in 1752. Textile workers in Italy, from the late 17th century to about 1855 had their earlier patterns based on indiennes. More obvious is the case of the Netherlands:
“The Dutch merchants and explorers were some of the first to bring back the painted and printed Coromondel clothes from the East during the early 17th century…and Dutch textile printers attempted to imitate the brilliantly colored Indian cotton which were not only fast to water but became more beautiful and brilliant when washed. Their first attempts with the oil or water colors long used in Europe, that either smelt badly or would not wash, bore no comparison with the Eastern cloths printed or painted with mordant dyes and indigo.
The first European print works was founded in Amersfoot in Holland in 1678 and attempted to use Indian methods.”
Success came after nearly 70 years, when Dutch printers succeeded in copying the sheer Indian cottons by using copper plates. The first Spanish calico print works started by the Esteban Canals in Barcelona in 1738, copied indiennes and used the imported Eastern textiles as a source of pattern. Switzerland repeats the story, and in the United States too, the earliest evidence of textile printing shows Eastern influences in the patterns. It has not been any different with the circulation of ideas in Europe. Literature-wise, three large documents found in European libraries are representative, having been written with the express purpose of informing Europeans about Indian processes and techniques. The letters of Jesuit, Coeurdoux, for example, were sent out in 1742 and 1747. The earlier letter begins typically:
“I have not forgotten that in several of your letters you have urged me to acquaint you with the discoveries I might make in this part of India,…..Recently, with a little leisure, I have used it to find out the way in which Indians make these beautiful cloths, which form part of the trade of whose Companies established to extend commerce, and which, crossing the widest seas, come from the ends of Europe into these distant climes to search for such things.”
(source: Decolonizing History: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1492 to the Present Day - By Claude Alvares p.55-67).
Though the British had initially been drawn to India by the spice trade, textiles soon became the major export. Using handlooms and spindles and building on more than 5,000 year history of weaving, Indian artisans created such fine fabrics that one 19th century Briton characterized them as "the work of fairies or insects rather than of men."
From yarn described as the "web of the woven wind." Bengali weavers produced delicate cotton muslins so sheer that they were named "running water" and "evening dew." Silk brocades from the city of Benares in northern India glittered with threads of gold or silver. In Kashmir, enormous shawls - so finely woven that they could be drawn through a ring - were made from the inner fleece of a rare mountain goat, which left its hairs behind when it rubbed against shrubs on Himalayan peaks. Indian chintz - calico that was hand painted or printed by artisans-was renowned for brilliant colors that seemed to improve with repeated washings.
A rage for Indian fabric swept across Britain, causing a serious drain of gold and silver from the West. "From the greatest gallants to the meanest Cook Maids, nothing was thought to fit to adorn their persons as the Fabric from India," grumped an English politician in 1681. Despite stiff import duties, Indian textiles threatened England's own manufacturers. "Europe bleedth to enrich Asia," complained another 17th century Englishman. An act of Parliament in 1700 made it illegal to wear or use Indian fabrics in Great Britain, but clandestine trade flourished nonetheless.
A little century later, however, the tide turned. Britain's restrictive economic policies, combined with the Industrial Revolution, spelled doom for India's textile industry. England produced and flooded the market with - inexpensive machine made textiles. The result was tragic. - "The bones of weavers," said one 19th century observer, were left "bleaching on the plains of Hindustan."
(source: What Life Was Like in the Jewel of the Crown: British India AD 1600-1905 - By The Editors of Time-Life Books. p. 91-93).
The quality of the textile goods were fine and delicate. Marco Polo remarked of the elegant and light buckrams manufactured in several parts of the Deccan: "These are the most delicate buckrams and of the highest price; in sooth they look like the tissue of spider's web. there can be no king or queen in the world but might be glad to wear them."
(source: India Through The Ages: History, Art Culture and Religion - By G. Kuppuram p. 574).
Toile - India's design inspired the style
In medieval and early modern France, people [of rank and wealth] wore fabrics such as silk and velvet that were rarely printed. During the sixteenth century, Portuguese navigators opened the trade routes to India and introduced Europe to Indian painted cottons. By the end of the seventeenth century, the Indiennes - brightly printed Indian cotton fabrics that were lighter than velvet, and washable - were famous and widely used for clothing.
In 1686 Colbert's mercantilist and protectionist policies forbade the import of foreign fabrics, with highly prejudicial results for the French fabric industry. This embargo lasted for 73 years, but it was unable to stop the success of the Indiennes.
Although we think of it as French, toile's founding father was Francis Nixon of Ireland, who, inspired by printed fabrics from India, created the first toile fabric in 1752. His techniques quickly spread to England and then France -- the country that gave the style its name and assured its place in design history.
The mother of all toiles is Toile de Jouy -- the brain-child of Christophe Philippe Oberkampf who established a manufactory for printed cottons in Jouy-en-Josas (a town near Versailles) in 1760. The idea was to emulate the printed cottons of India while keeping the process (and profits) at home in France. And it was an unbridled success. In 1806, the Emperor and Empress, Napoleon and Josephine, one day surprised Oberkampf with a visit to the factory, nor did Napoleon fail to ask a thousand questions after his usual manner. So pleased was the Emperor that he made of Oberkampf a member of the Legion of Honor, supplying him with the decoration which he detached from his own coat. Napoleon came again—this time with the new Empress, Marie Louise.
Chintz
Chintz - printed cotton fabric from India: a printed or stained calico fabric made in India. Early 17th century. Earlier chints , from chint “calico cloth,” from Hindi chīṭ “stain,” from Sanskrit citra “variegated.”]
The painted cloths from India were rich in color, and full of ancient tradition in design. The manner of making them was intricate, requiring not only talent but infinite patience and the employment of several arts. And these charming exotics that were spread before those lovely ladies of Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century, are the ancestors of the mountains of chintz that fill our shops today.
Palampores, or bed covers, they called the oblongs from India, and at this time the most favored design for these was the Tree of Life, a straying meander of slender branches all aflower with blooms of many kinds, the tree-trunk small and planted in a pyramid of rocks. But its exquisite tones and shades were impossible to describe, also the symbolism of the border which reaches back to far antiquity. In France as in England the first imported cottons from India arrived in the second half of the Seventeenth Century and awakened at once the desire for possession in the breast of every person of wealth or social consequence. The more they bought, the more the returning ships brought to them. And the greater the consumption of this artistic novelty, the less was the demand for French silks and woolens.
It became therefore the pleasure and duty of domes-tic print weavers to protest, and of the State to pass laws of prohibition. Between 1686 and 175o no less than thirty decrees were issued in France in restraint of the use of printed cottons. But prohibition fails to exclude. There is a naughtiness in human nature, a half-humorous rebellion that makes us snatch at things denied. All the well planned restrictions of France failed to abolish the use of printed cottons.
Indian prints were ever very high in price. All who appreciated could not afford them. Thus it came that French textile workers set about making an imitation to sell at low cost. The origin of chintz is a Hindu word which signified colored or flowered—chint. In the time of Samuel Pepys it was so spelled ("bought a chint for my wife"), and only later was an s added which time changed to z.
(source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/190289_toileside11.html and http://www.oldandsold.com/articles06/draperies-19.shtml and http://www.domestications.com/emails/043003.htm and http://www.w-w-d.com/toile.html and http://www.cnn.com/STYLE/9905/20/toile.de.jouy/ and http://rico21.chez.tiscali.fr/cadre_musee.htm ).
***
Lord Elphinstone, speaking of Indian cotton cloth, says, "the beauty and delicacy of which was so long admired, and which, in fineness of texture, has never yet been approached in any country."
John Murray wrote in The History of India, p. 27: "Its fabrics, the most beautiful that human art has anywhere produced, were sought by merchants at the expense of the greatest toils and dangers."
Indian textile technology had a profound influence in Britain during the industrial revolution, stimulating inventors there to devise methods to attain similar results – the brightness and permanence of the colors, the delicacy of the cotton yarn – with machines. The British had little success in attaining the quality of hand-made Indian textiles. British spinners showed little interest in how their Indian counterparts achieved the high quality of their textiles and would have been disappointed had they known. The secret was painstaking and laborious hand spinning.
(source: Lost Discoveries - Dick Teresi p. 354).
As regards to dyeing of fabrics, Lord Mountstuart Elphinstone says: “”The brilliancy and permanence of many of the dyes have not yet been equaled in Europe.” He adds: “the brilliancy of their dyes is remarked on as well as their skill in manufactures and imitations of foreign objects.”
The Hindus were the earliest nation who discovered the art of extracting colors from plants. The names by which several plants are known in foreign countries bear testimony to this fact. Indigo is called after India. Pliny used the word indico.
Bancroft gives much praise to the “natives of India for having so many thousand years ago discovered means by which the colorable matter of the plants might be extracted, exygenated and precipitated from all other matters combined with it.” Even James Mill is constrained to say: “Among the arts of the Hindus, that of printing and dyeing their clothes has been celebrated; and the beauty and brilliancy, as well as durability of the colors they produce, are worthy of particular praise.”
John Forbes Watson, in his work on the Textile Manufactures and Costumes of People of India gives an interesting account of a series of experiments made on both the European and the Indian muslins, to determine their claims to superiority. The results were altogether in favor of the Indian fabrics. He concluded: "However viewed therefore, our manufacturers have something still to do. With all our machinery and wondrous appliances we have hitherto been unable to produce a fabric which, for fineness or utility, can equal the woven air of Dacca, the product of arrangements, which appear rude and primitive, but which in reality are admirably adapted for the purpose."
Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren (1760-1842) an Egyptologist says: "The variety of cotton fabrics mentioned even by the author of Periplus as articles of commerce is so great that we can hardly suppose the number to have increased afterwards."
(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p.397 – 404).
According to NY Times: "Considering that it is the country historically credited with giving the world paisley, seersucker, calico, chintz, cashmere, crewel and the entire technique of printing on cloth, it is anybody's guess why India barely registers on the global map of fashion."
(source: Fashion From India, Beyond the Bangles - NY Times May 13 ' 2003).
The Sari
A charming folktale explains the origin of the Sari as follows:
"The Sari, it is said, was born on the loom of a fanciful weaver. He dreamt of Woman. The shimmer of her tears. The drape of her tumbling hair. The colors of her many moods. The softness of her touch. All these he wove together. He couldn't stop. He wove for many yards. And when he was done, the story goes, he sat back and smiled and smiled and smiled".
Noted psychologist Carl Jung has waxed lyrical about the elegance of the sari thus:
"It would be a loss to the whole world if the Indian woman should cease to wear her native costume. India is practically the only civilized country where one can see on living models how woman can and should dress".
Couturier Valentino Garavani ( ? ) Italy’s most famous designer says:
‘‘I consider the sari deeply elegant—it is one of the most grounding elements of what haute couture is all about,’’ he adds. ‘‘In India, modernity and tradition can find a fine balance without erasing a unique heritage. Homogeneity is never a good thing.’’
‘‘India’s heritage is one of the most fascinating and inspirational of all,’’ he says. ‘‘My 2002 haute couture collection was entirely inspired by India. But there have always been Indian themes running through all my collections. It’s definitely a reference for my idea of beauty and grace.’’
The discovery of several spindles, and a piece of cotton stuck to a silver vase, revealed that the spinning and weaving of cotton was known to the Harrappans, nearly five million years ago. References to weaving are found in the Vedic literature on the method of spinning, the various materials used.
The foundations of the Indian textile trade with other countries began as early as the second century BC. A hoard of block printed and resist-dyed fabrics, mainly of Gujarati origin, found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt, are the proof of large scale Indian export of cotton textiles to the Egypt in medieval times.
In the 13th century, Indian silk was used as barter for spices from the western countries. Towards the end of the 17th century, the British East India Company had begun exports of Indian silks and various other cotton fabrics to other countries. These included the famous fine Muslin cloth of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Painted and printed cottons or chintz was extensively practiced between India, China, Java and the Philippines, long before the arrival of the Europeans.
" India, undoubtedly the greatest exporter of textiles from 1600 to 1899, not only revolutionized European taste and fashion with its chintz but struck at the very roots of economic stability. Chintz, which captured the fabric market with ease in the 18th century, caused hardship among weavers, provoked riots, and finally inspired satirical poems about noble ladies who preferred exotic finery to honest, English home-spun products. "
(source: Much Maligned Monsters: A History of European Reactions to Indian Art - By Partha Mitter p. 221 and I am inspired by India’s heritage).
Sir Charles Trevelyan, Finance Minister of India in the 1860s, was anxious to see the disappearance of the Indian weaver as a class, a development he thought best for both Britain and India: India would benefit because the weaver, faced with competition from machine-made goods, would be forced to give up his craft and turn to agriculture; the increased labor supply would then raise output and England would benefit since makers of cloth would be converted into consumers of Lancashire goods."
(source: Decolonizing History: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1492 to the Present Day - By Claude Alvares p. 152).
Paisley pattern stretches across millennia
The lacy teardrop pattern known as paisley is Indian in origin, but its name derives from a town in southern Scotland. Paisley, which today is a suburb west of Glasgow, was a major site for the manufacture of printed cotton and wool in the 19th Century, according to the Paisley Museum in Scotland.
Resembling a large comma, paisley is one of the most recognized patterns in the world. The pattern can be traced back more than 2,000 years. The design was copied from the costly silk and cotton Kashmir shawls brought back by Scottish soldiers serving in India and later shipped by members of the East India Company.
The explorer Marco Polo has said: " Embroidery is here produced with more delicacy than anywhere in the world."
(source: India: Living Wisdom - By Richard Waterstone p. 116).
Printed “Paisley” in the 19th century
The word Cashmere, or Kashmir, has various connotations, all evoking luxury. The cloth, known as cashmere, is woven from the winter coat of a mountain goat found in the Kashmir region of India. When woven, the woollen cloth is of an incomparable softness and refinement. The design motif, known as Cashmere, or Paisley, was created by Indian weavers and is easily definable by it's shape in the form of a teardrop.
(source: http://www.musee-impression.com/gb/collection/indiennes.html).
Note: Just as Delftware (named for the town of Delft in The Netherlands) blue and white pottery was inspired by Chinese porcelain, the lacey teardrop pattern was inspired by India but was later named Paisley after a town in Scotland.
Pashmina Shawls
The exquisite pashmina, whose history dates back to the days of Mohenjadaro, the soft fine fabric draped around the statue of a woman found at Mohenjadaro was probably pashmina from the valley. It was popular amongst the Indian aristocracy The famous pashmina shawls of Kashmir are made of the finest wool and have a luxuriant silky texture. The Chandra goat from which the pashmina wool is extracted is found at a height of 14,000 feet in Ladakh.
Benares - Fabled bazaars
From the earliest times traders passed this way on their way to Pataliputra, to the time of the Muslim invaders, the British invaders, and now the tourist invaders, the bazaars of Benares have dazzled the imagination. In his famous description of Benares in the late 18th century, Lord Thomas Babbington Macaulay (1800-59) is best known for introducing English education in India. Macaulay was the first Law Member of the Governor-General's Legislature, and was also known for his notorious 1835 Minute, wrote:
"Commerce had as many pilgrims as religion. All along the shores of the venerable stream lay fleets of vessels laden with rich merchandise. From the looms of Benares went forth the most delicate silk adorned the balls of St. James's and of Versailles; and in the bazaars, the muslins of Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled with the jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere."
(source: The Sacred City of the Hindus: in Ancient and Modern Times - By M. A. Sherring p. 10).
Sir Edwin Arnold, (1832-1904) poet and scholar, principal of the British government college at Pune, India. Although his interest in India was primarily spiritual, he was nonetheless captured by the wares of Benares. In his book, India Revisted, he describes the "dazzling flood of gold and silk kincobs, embroidered cloths and scarves, cashmere shawls of marvellous make, texture, and tints, slippers for princesses, turbans for kings, and cholis glittering with gems and gold laces."
(source: India Revisted - By Edwin Arnold p. 220).
Blue Jeans originated in India
One of India's lasting contributions to Western life was the export of a thick cotton cloth known as "Dungaree" which, in the sixteenth century was sold near the Dongarii Fort in Bombay. Portuguese and Genoan sailors used this durable blue broad cloth, dyed with indigo, for their bellbottom sailing pants. Thus, blue jeans, originating in India, were widely adopted by farmers, cowboys, working-class men, teen-agers, suburban moms; almost everyone in the West has at least one pair of blue jeans. They are the hallmark of American fashion and in vogue across the world.
According to Webster Dictionary: dungaree n. hindi dungri - 1. a coarse cotton cloth; specif, blue denim. 2. work trousers or overalls made of this cloth.
(source: Infinity Foundation).
History of Indigo
The word Indigo is derived from the Greek Indikon and the Latin Indicum, meaning a substance from India. Evidence for the use of Indigo in India before the medieval age is based on the writings of a trader in Egypt in the first century A D. India was then the pivot of trade both Westwards and Eastwards. Indians were highly accomplished in textile arts. As with other subjects such as mathematics, much earlier on, knowledge from India was dispersed through the trade route. Indigo, the last natural dye, was a highly priced commodity on the "Silk route". From 1600 onwards, the documents of the East India Company mention the production of indigo in India and its export. Gujarat and Sind were the major sources then. From mid 17th century, Europeans arriving on India's East Coast picked up finished textiles, cotton and silk, rather than the raw material indigo. Indigo was a major dye used in these fabrics. In the 19th century, Bengal was the world's biggest producer of indigo in the world! An Englishman in the Bengal Civil Service is said to have commented, "Not a chest of indigo reached England without being stained with human blood". Indigo was part of the national movement. Champaran in Bihar witnessed indigo riots in 1868.
(source: The Colorful history of Indigo - chennaionline.com).
Distillation of Perfumes
The distillation of scents, perfumes and fragrant liquids and ointments was one area where the knowledge of chemistry was applied in India since ancient times. In fact the very word 'scent' which is of unexplained origin according to the Oxford Dictionary, is possibly derived from the Sanskrit term Sugandha which literally means 'good or aromatic paste'. This word could have been transmitted to European languages through the Greek langua which has borrowed (and lent) many words from Sanskrit. Other instances of such transmission are the English words like 'cotton' which is derived from the Sanskrit Karpasa or the word 'sugar' derived from the Sanskrit Sharkara, etc. Many present day perfumes had existed in India since ancient times and perhaps had originated here. In ancient times perfumes and fragrant ointments were of two typ viz., Teertha (liquids) and Gandha (slurries or ointments). During the coronation Kings or during any auspicious occasion person was sprinkled with aromatic oils. Fragrant ointments based on sandalwood were applied during ceremonial bathing. Even today during some festivals like Diwali aromatic slurries and pastes are prepared out of a powder called Sugandhi. Utne and are used during the ceremonial bath which is taken during that festival. Even in other religious rites, Sandalwood, Ochre and Camphor are traditionally used by Hindus.
Sandalwood: Since very early times Sandalwood and Sandalwood oil were items of export. The Greek text of the 1st century A.D., Periplus mentions sandalwood as one of the items being imported from India. The word Sandal (wood) is derived from the Latin terms Santalum Album or Santalacae. These terms used by the Romans to describe sandalwood were, according to the Oxford Dictionary, derived from the Sanskrit term Chandana, for sandalwood.
The Sandalwood tree is native to India and is found mainly in South-western India in t he state of Karnataka. Sandalwood has been a known item of export from India since ancient times. Authors of Sanskrit texts on botany which in Sanskrit is called Vanaspati-Shastra had classified Sandalwood into three types viz. white sandalwood Shrikanda (which perhaps is an abbreviation of the term Shewta-Chandana ), the second is yellow sandalwood or Pitta-Chandana and the last is red sandalwood or RaktaChandana
The reference to Sandalwood in the Periplus is perhaps the earliest available western reference to Sandalwood. It has been mentioned in later times by Comas Indiwpleustes in the 6th century A.D. as Tzandana and thereafter it is frequently referred to by Arab traders. Oil was also extracted from Sandalwood. This oil which was a thick but refined liquid was extracted in specially constructed oil mills called Teyl-Peshani and Teylena-Lip. The oil extracted from these mills was a thick, dark yellow liquid. Along with Sandalwood, the Sandalwood oil was also an item of export from India during ancient times. Sandalwood oil was mainly bought by the Romans between the 1st and 3rd centuries A.D.
Musk: Musk is also a fragrant substance which is secreted in the gland by a male musk-deer. Musk is redish-brown in colour and is used as a base for perfumes and also as an ingredient for soaps to give it a musky smell. In Sanskrit, Musk is known as Muska which means the scortum i.e. the pouch of skin containing the testicles of the deer. The English term Musk originates from the Sanskrit term Muska according to the Oxford Dictionary.
The Sanskrit word Muska is perhaps derived from the words Maunsa or Masa which means 'flesh'. In Sanskrit, other words used for musk are Kasturi, Kastutrika and Mruga-Nabhi. The last term literally means 'a deer's navel'.
Spikenard: Spikenard was a costly aromatic ointment extracted since ancient times from an Indian plant known in Sanskrit as Nardostachys Jatamansi which perhaps means 'the braid of hair (Jataa) of (Narada). The English word Spikenard is derived from the Greek term Nardostakhus and the Latin term Spica Nardi; both the terms are derived from the Sanskrit term Nardostachys Jatamansi. This plant has purplish-yellow flower heads and is very rarely found. Its smell is quite pleasing and hence it had been in great demand since ancient times.
In Sanskrit, other terms used to refer to this plant are, Jatila which means 'difficult', Tapasvini which literally means 'concentration and devotion'. These words used to describe Spikenard indicate that it was very difficult to obtain and cultivate this plant. In India this herb was available only in the Himalayas. Spikenard, which is aromatic and bitter, yields on distillation a pleasant smelling oil.
In India, it had been used since ancient times as an aromatic adjunct in the preparation of medicinal oils and was popularly believed to increase the growth and blackness of hair. The Roman historian Pliny observes the Spikenard was considered very precious in Rome and it was stored in alabaster boxes by persons of eminence.
(source: Contribution of Ancient Hindu Society - http://www.angelfire.com/super/pride/mech.html).
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