Travels in India (Tavernier) 14: BOOK I
Travels in India (Ball) 14
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Contents
BOOK I
14.1.1
From Broudra to Neriade (Nadiad) . 18 coss. ,, Neriade to Amadabat (Ahmadābād) 20 ,, Ahmadābād is one of the largest towns in India, and one where there is a considerable trade in silken stuffs, gold and silver tapestries, and others mixed with silk; saltpetre, sugar, ginger, both candied and plain, tamarinds, mirabolans, and indigo cakes, which are made at three leagues from Ahmadābād, at a large town called Sharkej. There was a pagoda in this place, which the Muhammadans took possession of in order to turn it into a mosque. Before entering it you traverse three great courts paved with marble, and surrounded by galleries, and you are not allowed to place foot in the third without removing your shoes. The exterior of the mosque is ornamented with mosaic, the greater part of which consists of agates of different colours, obtained from the mountains of Cambay, only two days’ journey from thence. You see many tombs of ancient idolatrous kings, which are like so many small chapels of mosaic, with columns of marble sustaining a small vault by which the tomb is covered. A river flows past Ahmadābād on the north-west, and during the rainy season, which lasts in India three or four months, it becomes very wide and rapid, and does great injury every year. It is the same with all the rivers of India, and when the rains have ceased, one must generally wait six weeks or two months before it is possible to ford that at Ahmadābād, where there is no bridge.
14.1.2
There are two or three boats, but one cannot make use of them, save when the water ceases to be so rapid, and it takes much time to cross. The peasants do not stand on ceremony, and in order to go from one bank to the other only make use of the skin of a goat, which they fill with air and tie on between the chest and the abdomen. It is thus, by swimming this river, that the poor, both the men and women, cross, and when they wish to take their children across also they employ certain round earthen pots, which have mouths four fingers in width, and having placed their child in one of these pots they push it before them while swimming. This brings to mind a circumstance which happened at Ahmadābād, while I was there in the year 1642, which is too remarkable to pass by in silence. A peasant and his wife were crossing the river one day in the manner I have just described, and having an infant of about two years, they placed him in one of these pots, so that only his head, which was outside, could be seen. Having reached the middle of the river, they encountered a small bank of sand where there was a large tree, which the water had carried down, and the father pushed the pot containing the infant on to this place, to rest himself a little. As he approached the foot of the tree, the trunk of which was somewhat elevated above the water, a snake came out from between the roots, and jumped into the pot where the infant was.
14.1.3
The father and mother, startled by this occurrence, and having lost their wits, let the pot go, which the river carried away, and they remained some time half dead at the foot of the tree. About two leagues lower down a Banian and his wife, with a little child, were washing themselves in the river before going to take their meal. They beheld from afar the pot upon the water, and half the head of a child, which appeared outside the mouth. The Banian immediately went to rescue it, and having reached it, pushed it ashore. The woman, followed by her child, came presently to take the other which was in the pot, in order to withdraw it. And at the same moment the snake, which had done no injury to the first child, left the pot, and entwined itself about the body of the other child which was close to its mother, bit it, and injected its poison, which caused its immediate death.
14.1.4
This extraordinary adventure did not much distress these poor people, as they believed that it had happened by a secret dispensation of their god, who had taken from them one child in order to give another, by which they were soon consoled. Some time after, the report of this adventure having come to the ears of the first peasant, he came to the other in order to tell him how it had happened, and to demand from him his child. This caused a considerable dispute between them, the second peasant maintaining that the child was his, and that his god had given it to him in the place of the one who was dead. In a word, the matter made a great noise, and was at length laid before the King, who ordered that the infant should be returned to its father.
14.1.5
About the same time there happened a somewhat amusing matter in the same town of Ahmadabad. The wife of a rich Banian merchant, named Saintidas, not having any children, and causing it to be well known that she wished for some, an attendant of the house one day took her apart, and said to her that if she was willing to eat what he would give her, she might feel certain that she would have a child. The woman desiring to know what she ought to eat, the attendant added that it was a little fish, and that she need only eat three or four. The religion of the Banians forbidding them, as I have elsewhere said, to eat anything which has had life, the woman was at first unable to bring herself to do that which he suggested ; but the attendant having said that he knew how to disguise it so well that she would not know that what she was eating was fish, she resolved at length to try the remedy, and she lay the night following with her husband, according to the instruction she had received from the attendant. Some time after, the woman perceiving that she was enceinte, her husband died, and the relatives of the defunct wished to take possession of his effects. The widow objected, and told them that they should have patience till they knew if the infant which she carried would arrive safely. The relatives, surprised by this news, which they had not expected, treated it as a lie and a joke, the woman having been fifteen or sixteen years with her husband without bearing.
14.1.6
When she found that these people tormented her, she threw herself at the feet of the Governor, to whom she related what had happened, and he ordered that the relatives should wait till the woman was delivered of her offspring. Some days after her confinement the relatives of the defunct, who were persons of position, and who desired to have so considerable a succession, maintained that the infant was not legitimate, and that this woman had not had it by her husband. The Governor, in order to know the truth, assembled the doctors, who decided that it was necessary to take the infant to the bath, and that if the remedy which the mother had adopted was genuine, the infant would smell of fish ; this was done and the thing happened accordingly. After this experiment the Governor ordered that the effects of the defunct should be reserved for the infant, since he had been proved by this to be the father ; but the relatives, being annoyed that so good a morsel was escaping from them, appealed from this judgment, and went to Agra to tell the King. In consequence of what they stated, his majesty caused an order to be written to the Governor that he should send the mother and the infant, to make the same experiment in his presence ; this having turned out as on the first occasion, the relatives of the defunct withdrew, and the effects were kept for the mother and infant.
14.1.7
I remember also another amusing thing which was told me at Ahmadabad — where I have been ten or twelve times — during the sojourn which I made there on one of my journeys, on my return from Delhi. A merchant with whom I often dealt, and who was much loved by Shaista Khan, Governor of the Province and uncle of the King, had the reputation of never having lied. Shaista Khan having completed the three years of his government, according to the custom of the Empire of the Great Mogul, and Aurangzeb, son of Shah Jahan, having succeeded him, he withdrew to Agra, where the court then was. One day, when he conversed with the King, he said that he had seen many uncommon things in all the governments with which his majesty had honoured him, but one thing alone surprised him, which was to have discovered a rich merchant who had never told a lie, and who was upwards of seventy years old. The King, surprised on his own part with so extraordinary a fact, told Shaista Khan that he desired to see the man of whom he had told him, and ordered him to send him forthwith to Agra, which was done. This much distressed the old man, both on account of the length of the road, which is from twenty-five to thirty days, and because it was necessary for him to make a present to the King. In fact, he made him one valued at 40,000 rupees, and it was a gold box for keeping betel, ornamented with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds.
14.1.8
After he had saluted the King, and had made his present to him, the King merely asked his name, to which he replied that he called himself the man who had never lied. The King asking him further what his father’s name was: “Sire,” replied he, “I know not.” His majesty, satisfied with this reply, stopped there, and, not desiring to know more, ordered them to give him an elephant, which is a great honour, and 10,000 rupees for his journey.
14.2.1
The Banians have a great veneration for monkeys, and they even feed them in some pagodas where they go to worship. There are in Ahmadabad two or three houses which serve as hospitals, especially for cows and oxen, for monkeys, and other sick and disabled animals, and they convey there all that they are able to find, in order to feed them. It should be stated that on every Tuesday and Friday all the monkeys in the neighbourhood of AhmadAbAd, of their own instinct, come together to the town, and ascend the houses, each of which has a small terrace where the occupants sleep during the great heat. On each of these days they do not fail to place upon these little terraces rice, millet, sugar-canes in their season, and other similar things ; for if by chance the monkeys did not find their food on the terraces, they would break the tiles with which the rest of the house is covered, and cause great damage. It should be remarked that the monkey eats nothing which he has not first well smelt, and before swallowing anything he makes his store for future hunger, filling his two cheeks with provisions, which he keeps for the following day.
14.2.2
I have said that the Banians have an especial veneration for the monkey, and this is an example in point among several others which I could quote. Being one day at AhmadAbAd, at the dwelling of the Dutch, a young man of that nation, who had arrived but a few days to serve in the office, and who was ignorant of the customs of the country, having perceived a large monkey upon a tree which was in the courtyard, wished to give an example of his skill, or rather of his youth, by slaying it with a shot from his gun. I was at the time at table with the Dutch Commander, and we had scarcely heard the shot before we heard a great uproar among the Banians in the service of the Dutch Company, who came to complain bitterly of him who had slain the monkey. They all wished to resign, and it was with much trouble and many apologies that they appeased them and induced them to remain. In the neighbourhood of Ahmadābād there are a great number of monkeys, and it may be said that in the places where there are many of these animals there are few crows. For when the latter have built their nests and laid their eggs, the monkeys climb the trees and throw the eggs down on the ground. One day, returning from Agra, and having left Ahmadābād with the Chief or President of the English, who had come there for some business, and was returning to Surat, we passed, at four or five leagues from Ahmadābād, a small grove of those trees which they call mangoes.
14.2.3
We saw overhead numbers of large monkeys, male and female, and several of the latter carried their young ones in their arms. We each had our carriage, and the English President stopped his in order to tell me that he had an excellent and curious gun which the Governor of Daman had presented to him, and, knowing that I was a good shot, he asked me to prove it upon one of these monkeys. One of my attendants, who was of the country, having signed to me not to risk it, I sought to dissuade the President from his intention, but it was impossible, and taking his gun he slew a female monkey, which remained extended between two branches, letting her young ones fall to the ground. There followed at once what my attendant, who had signed to me, had foreseen. All the monkeys which were on the trees, to the number of more than sixty, descended immediately, in a rage, and jumped on the carriage of the President, and would have strangled him, but for the prompt assistance that some gave by closing the windows, and the crowd of attendants who were present drove them off. Although they did not come to my carriage, which followed at some paces distant from that of the President, I nevertheless feared for myself the fury of these monkeys, which were both large and powerful, and they pursued the carriage of the President for nearly a league, so much were they enraged.
14.2.4
Continuing our route from Surat to Agra. From Amadabat to Panser (Paunsir) . 13 coss. ,, Panser to Masana (Mesana) . . 14 ,, „ Masana to Chitpour (Sidhpur) . 14 „ Sidhpur is a fairly good town, so named on account of the great trade which it does in those coloured cottons which they call chites, and at four or five hundred paces on the south side there flows a small river.
14.2.5
Arriving at Sidhpur, on one of my journeys, I was encamped under two or three trees at one of the ends of a great open space which is near the town. A short time afterwards I saw four or five lions appearing, which they brought to train, and they told me it generally took five or six months, and they do it in this way. They tie the lions, at twelve paces distance from each other, by their hind feet, to a cord attached to a large wooden post firmly planted in the ground, and they have another about the neck which the lion-master holds in his hand. These posts are planted in a straight line, and upon another parallel one, from fifteen to twenty paces distant, they stretch another cord of the length of the space which the lions occupy, when arranged as above. These two cords which hold the lion fastened by his two hind feet, permit him to rush up to this long cord, which serves as a limit to those outside it, beyond which they ought not to venture to pass when harassing and irritating the lions by throwing small stones or little bits of wood at them. A number of people come to this spectacle, and when the provoked lion jumps towards the cord, he has another round his neck which the master holds in his hand, and with which he pulls him back. It is by this means that they accustom the lion by degrees to become tame with people, and on my arrival at Sidhpur I witnessed this spectacle without leaving my carriage.
14.2.6
The following day I had another experience, which was a meeting I had with a party of Fakirs, or Muhammadan Dervishes. I counted fifty-seven of them, of whom he who was their Chief or Superior had been master of the horse to Shah Jahangir, having left the court when Sultan Bolaki, his grandson, was strangled by order of Shah Jahan, his uncle, as I shall relate elsewhere. There were four others who, under the Superior, were Chiefs of the band, and had been the first nobles of the court of the same Shah Jahan. The only garment of these five Dervishes consisted of three or four ells of orange-coloured cotton cloth, of which they made waistbands, one of the ends passing between the thighs and being tucked between the top of the waistband and the body of the Dervish, in order to cover what modesty requires should be concealed, both in front and behind. Each of them had also a skin of a tiger upon the shoulders, which was tied under the chin. They had eight fine horses, saddled and bridled, led by hand before them, three of which had bridles of gold and saddles covered with plates of gold; and the five others had bridles of silver, and the saddles also covered with plates of silver, and a leopard's skin on each. The other Dervishes had for their sole garment a cord, which served as a waistband, to which there was attached a small scrap of calico to cover, as in the case of the others, the parts which should be concealed.
14.2.7
Their hair was bound in a tress about their heads, and made a kind of turban. They were all well armed, the majority with bows and arrows, some with muskets, and the remainder with short pikes, and a kind of weapon which we have not got in Europe. It is a sharp iron, made like the border of a plate which has no centre, and they pass eight or ten over the head, carrying them on the neck like a ruff. They withdraw these circles as they require to use them, and when they throw them with force at a man, as we make a plate to fly, they almost cut him in two. Each of them had also a sort of hunting horn, which he sounds, and makes a great noise with when he arrives anywhere, and also when he departs, and also a rake, or instrument of iron, made something like a trowel. It is with this instrument, which the Indians generally carry in their journeys, that they rake and level the places where they wish to halt, and some, having collected the dust in a heap, make use of it as a mattress and bolster in order to lie more comfortably. There were three of these Dervishes armed with long rapiers, which they had received, apparently, from some Englishman or Portuguese. Their baggage consisted of four boxes full of Arabian and Persian books and some cooking utensils, and they had ten or twelve oxen to carry those among the troop who were invalids.
14.2.8
When these Dervishes arrived at the place where I was encamped with my carriage, having then with me fifty persons, both people of the country, whom one engages, as I have said, for travelling, as also my ordinary servants, the Chief or Superior of the troop, seeing me well accompanied, inquired who that Aga was; and asked me subsequently to give up to him the position I occupied, it being more commodious than any other about the place for camping with his Dervishes. As they informed me of the quality of this Chief and the four Dervishes who followed him, I was willing to do them a civility, and to yield that which they asked with a good grace; and so I ceded the place to them, and took another which suited me as well as it. Immediately the place was watered with a quantity of water, and made smooth and level, and, as it was winter and was somewhat cold, they lighted two fires for the five principal Dervishes, who placed themselves between them in order to warm themselves both before and behind. During the same evening, after they had supped, the Governor of the town came to pay his respects to these principal Dervishes, and during their sojourn in the place sent them rice and other things which they were accustomed to eat.
14.2.9
When they arrive in any place the Superior sends some of them to beg in the towns and villages, and whatever food they bring, which is given them out of charity, is immediately distributed to all in equal portions, each being particular to cook his own rice for himself. Whatever they have over is given every evening to the poor, and they reserve nothing for the following day.
14.3.1
From Chitpour to Balambour (Palanpur) . 12 coss. „ Balambour to Dantiuar (Dantawara) 11 „ „ Dantiuar to Bargant (Wungaon ?) . 17 „ Bargant is the territory of a Raja, where one has to pay customs. On one of my journeys to Agra, when passing by Bargant, I did not see the Raja, but only his lieutenant, who treated me with great civility, and presented me with rice, butter, and fruits of the season. In return I gave him three waistbands of calico, gold, and silk, and four handkerchiefs of coloured cotton, and two bottles, one of brandy and the other of Spanish wine. On my departure he ordered me to be escorted for 4 or 5 coss by twenty horsemen. When returning from the same journey I sent before me my heavier goods by waggon, and to shorten the road I purposed to repass by the same route. I had with me sixty Peons or people of the country, and seven or eight attendants who ordinarily waited on me. One evening, being encamped on the frontiers of the territory of the Raja of Bargant, all my Peons assembled about me in order to tell me that by taking the route through Bargant we should run the risk of being all strangled, and that the Prince of that country spared no one, and lived by robbery alone. That at the least, if I did not engage one hundred other Peons, there was no possibility of escaping the hands of the runners, whom he would send from both sides, and that they were obliged, as much for my safety as their own, to give me this advice.
14.3.2
I spent some time disputing with them, and reproaching them with their cowardice; but from fear lest they should not also reproach me for my temerity, I resolved to employ fifty more, and they went to search for them in the neighbouring villages. For traversing the territories of the Raja during three days, only, they asked four rupees each, which is as much as one gives them for a month. On the following day, when I wished to start, my Peons, showing themselves to be obstructive and irresolute, came to tell me that they would leave me, and that they did not wish to risk their lives, asking me not to write to their Chief at Agra, who was answerable for their not leaving me against my wish. There were three of my personal servants who also treated me as the others had done, and there remained with me he who led my horse, my coachman, and three other attendants only, with whom I started under the protection of God, who has always particularly aided me in my journeys. At about a coss from the place from whence I started I perceived, on turning round, some of these Peons, who followed me at a distance. Having ordered my carriage to stop to await them, I told the first who advanced that if they wished to come with me they should march around my carriage and not follow at a distance; and seeing them to be still timid and irresolute, I said that I did not require cowards in my service, and dismissed them for the last time.
14.3.3
When I had travelled another coss, I perceived on the side of a mountain about fifty horsemen, of whom four separated to advance towards me. Immediately when I saw them I got out of the carriage, and having thirteen firearms, I gave a gun to each of my people. The horsemen approaching, I placed the carriage between them and me, and got ready to fire, in case they prepared to attack me. But they at once made me a sign that I had nothing to fear, and one of them having said that it was the Prince who was hunting, and who had sent them to ask what stranger passed through his territory, I replied I was the same Frank who had passed five or six weeks previously. By good fortune, the same lieutenant of the Raja, to whom I had presented the brandy and Spanish wine, followed close behind these four horsemen, and after having assured me how rejoiced he was to see me again, asked me forthwith if I had any wine. I told him that I never travelled without it; and in fact I was provided, the English and Dutch having presented me at Agra with several bottles. Immediately on the lieutenant returning to the Raja, he himself came to meet me, and assuring me that I was welcome, told me that he wished me to halt at a place which he indicated under certain trees, a coss and a half from where we were, and that he would not fail to come to drink with me. He came towards evening, and we remained there two days together to amuse ourselves;
14.3.4
the Raja having caused the Baladines to come, without whom the Persians and Indians do not think they can enjoy themselves properly. On my departure, the Raja gave me two hundred horsemen to accompany me for three whole days to the frontiers of his country, and I was quitted for three or four pounds of tobacco, which was all the present I made them. When I arrived at AhmadAbAd it was scarcely believed that I had received such good treatment from a Prince who had the reputation of ill-treating all strangers who passed through his country. From Bargant to Bimal (Bheenmal) 15 coss. ,, Bimal to Modra (ModrA) . 15 ,, „ Modra to Chalaour (JAlor) . 10 ,, JAlor is an ancient town upon a mountain surrounded with walls, and difficult of access; formerly it was a strong place. There is a tank on the top of the mountain, and another below, between which and the foot of the mountain is the road to the town. From Chalaour to Cantap (Khandap) 12 coss. ,, Cantap to Setlana (SutulAna) . 15 ,, „ Setlana to Palavaseny (?) . . 14 ,, ,, Palavaseny to Pipars (PipAr) . 11 ,, ,, Pipars to Mirda (MertA) . . 16 ,,