Nothing To Do With Silk Smitha!-3

 

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

Heard of Niccolao Manucci? Unlikely. He was a Venetian writer from Italy. Doctor. Traveller. He spent time in India during the Mughal period as artillery man to Aurangazeb's younger brother Dara Shikoh. He lived, married and died in India. He wrote a book in French, Storia Do Mogor, and it was translated by William Irvine in 1913 under the name of Pepys of Mogul India (1653-1708), giving a detailed account of his observations during that period. 

What's of relevance to this series on silk is what he wrote. Scott Levi opens his chapter on Indian textiles with the following in his Caravan: Punjabi Khatri Merchants on the Silk Road...

It ought to be remembered that the whole of the merchandise which is exported from the Mogul kingdom comes from four kinds of plants - the shrub that produces the cotton from which a large quantity of cloth, coarse and fine, is made. .. The second is the plant which produces indigo... The third is one from which comes opium...  The fourth is the mulberry tree, on which their silk worms are fed ... and that commodity (silk) is grown on those tree. 

There are several other references to silk in Manucci's own book. Wherever he visits, silk is visible in some form or another. 

Forget Manucci's reference to silk about his commentary on silk recorded in early 18th century (1708 AD). Let us go back to travelogues of Chinese monks who came to India in search of visiting the Buddhist shrines. Taste this...

The Gomti priests, as they belong to the Great Vehicle, which is principally honoured by the king, first of all take their images in procession. About three or four li (0.5 km) from the city they make a four-wheeled image car about thirty feet high, in appearance like a moving palace, adorning with the seven precious substances. They fix it streamers of silk and canopy curtains..." 

...

"he makes gold and silver lotus flowers. He spreads soil behind the throne and arranges the paraphernalia of the priests' seats."

...

"having made figures of the devas, and decorated them with gold, silver and glass, they place them under canopies of embroidered silk. "

...

"The ground is rich inn minerals - gold, copper, iron and lead and tin. The air is soft and the manners of the people honest. The style of writing is Indian, with some differences. They excel other countries in their skill in playing on the lute and pipe. They clothe themselves with ornamental garments of silk and embroidery

These statements are strewn in the Buddhist Records of the Western World, translated by Sameul Beal in 1884 from the original Chinese written by Hiuen Tsiang in 629 AD. Yes, almost 1000 years before Manucci recorded his observations. 

More to come

CLICK here to reaad Nothing To Do With Silk Smitha!-1

CLICK here to reaad Nothing To Do With Silk Smitha!-2