“Hindoostan” as the Europeans referred to it, was a closely studied subject as we have discussed in my earlier post (“Pictures of India”) in this series of Notes from Beyond. This current post will focus on “Hindoostan Containing A Description of the Religion, Manners, Customs, Trades, Arts, sciences, Literature, Diversions, &c. of The Hindoos” in six volumes, a part of The World in Miniature series edited by Frederic Shoberl and published in 1821. This is a beautifully illustrated pocket-sized set of books.
The vignettes (and illustrations) scattered here and there throughout these volumes are what fascinates the reader. I will therefore recount some of these for the benefit of all of you who read this.
We will begin with the use of gunpowder. The popular belief is that gunpowder originated in China. But, wait, are you so sure? Here is what Shoberl’s study reveals: “The use of fire-arms appears to have been of great antiquity in India. The term by which they are denominated is agnee-aster, or weapons of fire; and mention is also made of shet -agnee, or the weapon that kills a hundred men at once. It is impossible to guess at the time when these weapons were invented among the Hindoos; but so much is certain, that is many parts of the east, which have not been frequented either by Mahometans or Europeans, rockets are almost universally employed as weapons of war. The Hindoo books themselves inscribe the invention of fire-arms to Baeshkookerma (Vishwakarma), who formed all the weapons in use in a war between the good and evil spirits. Fire-balls, or blue lights, employed in besieged places in the nighttime, to observe the motions of the besiegers, are met with throughout Hindoostan, and are constructed in as great perfection as in Europe. Fireworks also are met with in great perfection, and have from the earliest ages, constituted a principal article of amusement among the Hindoos. Gunpowder, or a composition resembling it, has been found in many other countries of the east, particularly in China, Pegu, and Siam; but there is reason to believe that the invention came originally from Hindoostan”. (Italics mine) Move over, China!
And munitions and fireworks apart, the Indians were adept at archery, too. Our book says there were “very expert archers among the Hindoos” and it is claimed that the bow and the javelin “are perhaps more destructive in the hands of the Nairs on the coast of Malabar than the musket could be.” That would warm the heart of the Malayalees or Keralites among us!
The Indian facility for pitching camps was an object of fascination. These camps could be as “extensive as the city of Paris”. “The Hindoos have facilities for pitching camps in almost every part of the immense plains that are to be found in Hindoostan.” These camps were like “immense ambulatory towns, the moveable edifices of which are always to be seen in the same respective situations and distances.” The camps swarmed with hircarrahs or spies, “who are sent out to obtain information, and are also employed in carrying messages. Disguised in a thousand ways they introduce themselves under various pretexts into the enemy’s camp, or into fortified places, and nothing escapes their penetrating eyes.” Despite their sprawling size, these camps could be dismantled quite quickly. “The day before they break up, the standards are planted at one extremity of the camp, to indicate what road is to be taken. At the prescribed time, the drum beats, and in less than half an hour not a vestige is to be seen of all that the evening before was subservient to the wants of two or three hundred thousand men.”
Let us now turn to the talk of perfumery and fragrances. Yes, the attar of roses, “that incomparable perfume”. Legend has it that Noor Jehan, the wife of Jehangir, she of “exquisite beauty” had “not only the largest baths, but even whole canals, filled with rose-water, that, when she walked abroad, she might enjoy its fragrance”. The process of distilling fragrant attar of roses is then described, not before detailing how the Empress herself discovered the substance while walking with her husband along a canal in Srinagar, Kashmir, when she “observed a fine scum floating on the surface” which when she examined more closely, “was found to yield an odor far surpassing that of rose-water”. She caused it to be tested further “and the native chemists produced from it that essence which is now so universally celebrated for its unrivaled scent and high price”. She gave it the name Atyr Jehangir, in honor of the Emperor, “and diffused the use of it throughout all Hindoostan.” It is a lovely story.
And from the attar of roses to translucent pearls. We scarcely remember today that pearl fishing was a predominant occupation in the Gulf of Mannar separating Sri Lanka from India. Our account of “Hindoostan” carries a fascinating description of the divers – mostly Roman Catholic – who brought up the oysters from which the pearls were harvested- men “accustomed to dive from their very infancy, and fearlessly descend to the bottom, in from four to ten fathom (7.31 meters to 18.2 meters), in search of oysters.” These intrepid men often made forty to fifty plunges into the sea with each plunge bringing up about a hundred oysters. “Although the usual time of remaining under water does not exceed two minutes, yet there are instances of divers who would remain four and even five minutes. The most remarkable instance ever known was that of a diver who came from Anjango, in 1797, and who absolutely remained under water full six minutes”. Georges Bizet’s opera, “The Pearl Fishers” was inspired by the real-life pearl fishers of the Gulf of Mannar. Listen to this beautiful sequence:
This area of the southern coast was apparently populated by rich wild life with” tigers, porcupines, wild boars, and pangolins”, being common along with “tortoises and various kinds of serpents”. Imagine a tropical paradise from two hundred years ago. And there is a description also of the “quite spherical” pearls of “finest water” that Hyder Ali of Mysore possessed, seventy-eight in number which he wore around his turban. This was the same “invaluable pearl necklace belonging to his son, Tippoo Saib, which was lost when he fell in the storming of his capital” Srirangapatnam in 1799. Two images are juxtaposed here: the Pearl Fishers, long gone, of our southern coast, with the image of death and destruction - here recalled by the string of pearls that is associated with a tragic and poignant moment in Indian history with the fall of Srirangapatnam, the killing of Tipu Sultan, and the rise of predatory colonial domination.
And now, poetry and drama. The epic poem Sakuntala has fascinated world-wide audiences beyond our borders for centuries now. It’s passages describing nature and the beauties of the Earth are particularly enchanting and “Hindoostan” dwells on some of these. Let me share them. Through these descriptions, the traditional veneration of Indian culture and tradition for the natural world shines through. In a paean to the trees of the forest, Sakuntala is described as “she who drank not, though thirsty, before you were watered; she who cropped not, through affection for you, one of your fresh leaves, though she would have been pleased with such an ornament for her locks; she whose delight was in the season when your branches were spangled with flowers.” Then there is this reference to the short-lived nature of fame and power couched in the waning of the moon: “How is the moon fallen from the sky with diminished beams! The moon who had set his foot on the head of Sumeni, king of mountains, and had climbed, scattering the rear of darkness, even to the central palace of Vishnu:- Thus do the great men of this world ascend with extreme labor to the summit of ambition, but easily and quickly descend from it.” And, finally this striking and panoramic picture of the earth, which could have been envisioned by an astronaut in a parikrama around our planet in her spaceship: “Through the rapid, yet imperceptible descent of the heavenly steeds, I now perceive the allotted station of men. – Astonishing prospect! It is yet so distant from us, that the low lands appear confounded with the high mountain tops: the trees erect their branchy shoulders, but seem leafless; the rivers look like bright lines, but their waters vanish; and at this instant the globe of earth seems thrown upward by some stupendous power.” It is a stunning encapsulation of the Earth as if seen from the stratosphere, steeped in its dream.
Over a century ago, the Indian Sufi teacher and musician Hazrat Inayat Khan (died 1927) who was believed to be a direct descendant of Tipu Sultan, and was the father of the famous wireless operator and Resistance fighter during World War II, Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944; executed at Dachau by the Nazis), composed the music for the ballet ‘Shakuntala’ while living in pre-revolutionary Russia. I am grateful to Ajay Kamalakaran for bringing Inayat Khan’s work to my notice. Here is a link to an excerpt from this charming composition:
And, finally, the gypsies. Scholars have long linked the gypsies to origins on the Indian sub-continent. And “Hindoostan” has such a reference. Let us see what it has to say. Talking of the “conjurors and jugglers” of the country, it speaks of a distinct class of the populations called “Bazighurs” -the Persian name “synonymous with jugglers”. Their principal profession is music and their peregrinations “incessant”, “they sing, play on musical instruments, dance, display great address in dancing and tumbling; some of them profess astrology and fortune-telling, and offer their services as itinerant physicians”. These people had been studied “with great attention” and “many coincidences” found between “their manners, customs, profession, and way of life, and those of the gypsies” of Europe. A “striking resemblance” had also been found between “the language of the gypsies and that of the Bazighurs”. Human history is the tale of so many migrations. The subject of the gypsies and their linkage with India continues to fascinate scholars the world over. Here is a link that explains this further: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3018485/
And I thought the finale to this post should really speak through pictures : pictures from the volumes I am speaking of. I hope you will enjoy them.