Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida
Both India and China are ancient civilisations, an undisputable premise. If so, the debate over the origin of silk is inevitable: Who invented silk: China or India? Expectedly, it is dicey. Write I.L. Good, J.M. Kenoyer and R.H. Meadow in their research paper titled "New Evidence For Early Silk in the indus Civilization" published in 2009:
Silk is an important economic fibre, and is generally considered to have been the exclusive cultural heritage of China. Silk weaving is evident from the Shang period c. 1600–1045 bc, though the earliest evidence for silk textiles in ancient China may date to as much as a millennium earlier. Recent microscopic analysis of archaeological thread fragments found inside copper‐alloy ornaments from Harappa and steatite beads from Chanhu‐daro, two important Indus sites, have yielded silk fibres, dating to c. 2450–2000 bc.
This study offers the earliest evidence in the world for any silk outside China, and is roughly contemporaneous with the earliest Chinese evidence for silk.
Meanwhile, Carles Buenacasa Perez writing in National Geographic in 2017 tracing the origin of Silk Road, attributes the discovery of silk to Xia dynasty in 2070 B.C. How the wife of Yellow Emperor noticed something falling into her tea cup and her "Eureka" moment.
Leaving aside the India vs China debate for the moment, let us delve deep. Greek philosopher Aristotle talks about sericulture being practiced in 4th century BCE in Kos, a Greek island. How did the Chinese silk land in Greece? Trade. Via caravan. That's where the Silk Road comes in. As historians agree, the Silk Road is not a single highway network but an intertwined highways stretching from Pacific to Caspian Sea.
Back to silk again. Silk was equated with vanity in the Roman empire. This is what Seneca the Younger wrote in the first century B C:
I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes. ... Wretched flocks of maids labor so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body.
In China where silk is believed to have originated, silk was not for everyone. Not from the cost perspective. Of course, it was expensive. There were regulations. Even bureaucrats were given particular colours to adorn. Not every hue. Strict laws were in place and enforced. No wonder even the Roman kings demanded regulating who can and cannot wear silk. Such was the status of silk.
China considered sericulture as state secret. Violators were severely dealt with.
"Westbound traders had to wait several days to pay their exit duties while soldiers carefully searched their baggage to make sure no one was smuggling silkworms or cocoons out of the country," writes Carles Buenacasa Perez quoted earlier.
If so, how did silk moved westwards is a pertinent question. Thanks to horses, silk came out of China for the first time, according to historical evidence. During the reign of Emperor Wudi (141-87 BC) of the Han dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD), he was briefed by the explorer Zhang Qian about a special breed of horses in the Fergana valley which the autocratic ruler felt was a perfect fit for his cavalry and thus allowed the trading of silk with the inhabitants of Fergana region.
There is a first century B C poem on these Fergana steeds after their arrival in China...
Having traveled 10,000 li, they come with great virtue. /
With loyal spirit, they defeat foreign nations /
And crossing the deserts, all barbarians succumb in their wake!
More to come...
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