Travels in India (Tavernier) 14.1
Travels in India (Ball) 14.1
- Language
- English
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.