Travels in India (Tavernier) 70: White Cotton Cloths.

70

White cotton cloths come partly from Agra and the vicinity of Lahore, partly from Bengal, and some from Baroda, Broach, Renonsari, and other places. They come in a crude condition to Renonsari and Broach, where they have the means of bleaching them in large fields, and on account of the quantity of lemons growing in the neighbourhood, for cotton cloths can never be well bleached if they are not steeped in lemon juice.
The cotton cloths which come from Agra, Lahore, and Bengal are sold by corges, and they cost from 16 up to 300 or 400 rupees and more, according as the merchant directs them to be made.
The cotton cloths which come from Renonsari and Broach are 21 cubits long when crude, but only 20 cubits when bleached. Those of Baroda are 20 cubits when crude, and 19½ when bleached.
All the cotton cloths or baftas which come from these three towns are of two kinds; for there are both broad and narrow kinds, and it is the narrow of which I have just spoken, and which are sold at from 2 to 6 mahmūdīs each.
The broad baftas are 1 cubit wide, and the piece is 20 cubits long. They are commonly sold at from 5 to 12 mahmūdīs, but the merchant on the spot is able to have them made much wider and finer, and up to the value of 500 mahmūdīs the piece. In my time I have seen two pieces of them sold, for each of which 1000 mahmūdīs were paid. The English bought one and the Dutch the other, and they were each of twenty-eight (28) cubits. Muhammad Ali Beg, when returning to Persia from his embassy to India, presented Cha Sefi with a cocoa-nut of the size of an ostrich’s egg, enriched with precious stones; and when it was opened a turban was drawn from it 60 cubits in length, and of a muslin so fine that you would scarcely know what it was that you had in your hand.
On returning from one of my voyages, I had the curiosity to take with me an ounce of thread, of which