Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 19.2
Travels in the Mogul Empire (Constable) 19.2
- Language
- English
19.2.1
You have no doubt discovered before this time that I am charmed with Kachemire. In truth, the kingdom surpasses in beauty all that my warm imagination had anticipated. It is probably unequalled by any country of the same extent, and should be, as in former ages, the seat of sovereign authority, extending its dominion over all the circumjacent mountains, even as far as Tartary and over the whole of Hindoustan, to the island of Ceylon. It is not indeed without reason that the Mogols call Kachemire the terrestrial paradise of the Indies, or that Ekbar was so unremitting in his efforts to wrest the sceptre from the hand of its native Princes. His son Jehan-Guyre became so enamoured of this little kingdom as to make it the place of his favourite abode, and he often declared that he would rather be deprived of every other province of his mighty empire than lose Kachemire. I was quite prepared to witness the emulous contest between the Kachemiry and the Mogol poets. We were no sooner arrived than Aureng-Zebe received from the bards of both nations poems in praise of this favoured land, which he accepted and rewarded with kindness. They were written in a strain of extravagant hyperbole. One of them, I remember, speaking of the surrounding mountains, observed that their extraordinary height had caused the skies to retire into the vaulted form which we see;
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that Nature had exhausted all her skill in the creation of this country, and rendered it inaccessible to the attack of hostile force; because, being the mistress of the kingdoms of the earth, it was wise to preserve her in perfect peace and security, that she might exercise universal dominion without the possibility of ever being subject to any. The poet went on to say that the summits of the higher and more distant mountains were clothed resplendently in white, and the minor and more contiguous preserved in perpetual verdure and embellished with stately trees, because it was meet that the mistress of the kingdoms of the earth should be crowned with a diadem whose top and rays were diamonds issuing from a base-work of emeralds. 'The poet' (I remarked to my Navaab Danechmend-kan, who wished me to relish these productions) 'might easily have amplified his subject. He could, with a pardonable licence, have included the neighbouring mountainous regions within the kingdom of Kachemire, since it is pretended that they were once tributary to it. I mean Little Tibet, the states of Raja Gamon, Kachguer, and Serenaguer. He might then have gone on to say that the Ganges, the Indus, the Chenau, and the Gemna, issue from the kingdom of Kachemire, rivers which cannot yield in beauty and importance to the Pison, the Gihon or the two other rivers spoken of in Genesis;
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and that it may therefore be reasonably concluded that the Garden of Eden was planted in Kachemire, and not, according to the received opinion, in Armenia.' The Kachemirys are celebrated for wit, and considered much more intelligent and ingenious than the Indians. In poetry and the sciences they are not inferior to the Persians. They are also very active and industrious. The workmanship and beauty of their palekys, bedsteads, trunks, inkstands, boxes, spoons, and various other things are quite remarkable, and articles of their manufacture are in use in every part of the Indies. They perfectly understand the art of varnishing, and are eminently skilful in closely imitating the beautiful veins of a certain wood, by inlaying with gold threads so delicately wrought that I never saw anything more elegant or perfect. But what may be considered peculiar to Kachemire, and the staple commodity, that which particularly promotes the trade of the country and fills it with wealth, is the prodigious quantity of shawls which they manufacture, and which gives occupation even to the little children. These shawls are about an ell and a half long, and an ell broad, ornamented at both ends with a sort of embroidery, made in the loom, a foot in width. The Mogols and Indians, women as well as men, wear them in winter round their heads, passing them over the left shoulder as a mantle.
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There are two sorts manufactured: one kind with the wool of the country, finer and more delicate than that of Spain; the other kind with the wool, or rather hair (called touz) found on the breast of a species of wild goat which inhabits Great Tibet. The tous shawls are much more esteemed than those made with the native wool. I have seen some, made purposely for the Omrahs, which cost one hundred and fifty roupies; but I cannot learn that the others have ever sold for more than fifty. They are very apt, however, to be worm-eaten, unless frequently unfolded and aired. The fur of the beaver is not so soft and fine as the hair from these goats. Great pains have been taken to manufacture similar shawls in Patna, Agra, and Lahor; but notwithstanding every possible care, they never have the delicate texture and softness of the Kachemire shawls, whose unrivalled excellence may be owing to certain properties in the water of that country. The superior colours of the Maslipatam chittes or cloths, painted by the hand [peintes au pinceau], au], whose freshness seems to improve by washing, are also ascribed to the water peculiar to that town. The people of Kachemire are proverbial for their clear complexions and fine forms. They are as well made as Europeans, and their faces have neither the Tartar flat nose nor the small pig-eyes that distinguish the natives of Kacheguer, and which generally mark those of Great Tibet. The women especially are very handsome;
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and it is from this country that nearly every individual, when first admitted to the court of the Great Mogol, selects wives or concubines, that his children may be whiter than the Indians and pass for genuine Mogols. Unquestionably there must be beautiful women among the higher classes, if we may judge by those of the lower orders seen in the streets and in the shops. When at Lahor I had recourse to a little artifice, often practised by the Mogols to obtain a sight of these hidden treasures; the women of that town being the finest brunettes in all the Indies, and justly renowned for their fine and slender shapes. I followed the steps of some elephants, particularly one richly harnessed, and was sure to be gratified with the sight I was in search of, because the ladies no sooner hear the tinkling of the silver bells suspended from both sides of the elephant than they all put their heads to the windows. This is a stratagem with which I often amused myself in Kachemire, until a more satisfactory method of seeing the fair sex was devised by an old pedagogue, well known in the town, with whom I read the Persian poets. I purchased a large quantity of sweetmeats, and accompanied him to more than fifteen houses, to which he had freedom of access. He pretended I was his kinsman lately arrived from Persia, rich and eager to marry.
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As soon as we entered a house, he distributed my sweetmeats among the children, and then everybody was sure to flock around us, the married women and the single girls, young and old, with the two-fold object of being seen and receiving a share of the present. The indulgence of my curiosity drew many roupies out of my purse ; but it left no doubt on my mind that there are as handsome faces in Kachemire as in any part of Europe. It remains only to speak of my journey through the mountains, from Bember to this place, with which I ought perhaps to have commenced my letter ;— of the little excursions I have made in the country, and finally of all which it has been in my power to collect concerning the other mountainous tracts that encircle this kingdom.
19.2.7
In respect then to the route from Bember I was surprised to find myself on the very first night transported on a sudden from a torrid to a temperate zone : for we had no sooner scaled that frightful wall of the world, I mean the lofty, steep, black, and bare mountain of Bember, and begun the descent on the other side, than we breathed a pure, mild, and refreshing air. What surprised me still more was to find myself, as it were, transferred from the Indies to Europe ; the mountains we were traversing being covered with every one of our plants and shrubs, save the hyssop, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary. I almost imagined myself in the mountains of Auvergne, in a forest of fir, oak, elm, and plane trees, and could not avoid feeling strongly the contrast between this scene and the burning fields of Hindoustan, which I had just quitted and where nothing of the kind is seen. My attention was particularly arrested by a mountain, distant between one and two days from Bember, covered on both sides with plants. The side facing the south, that is, looking toward Hindoustan, is full of Indian and European plants, mingled together; but the side exposed to the north is crowded exclusively with the vegetable productions of Europe. It would seem that one side participates equally of the air and temperature of India and Europe, and that the other feels only the milder climate of the latter quarter of the globe.