[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Les six voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier) › [Travels in India (Ball)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball) › 8 # Travels in India (Tavernier) 8: Concerning carriages and the manner of travelling in India Travels in India (Ball) 8 - **Language:** English ### Concerning carriages and the manner of travelling in India ### [8.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8.1) Before setting out for Agra, it is appropriate to speak of the carriages and of the manner of travelling in India, which, in my opinion, is not less convenient than all that they have been able to invent in order that one may be carried in comfort either in France or in Italy. Different from (the custom in) Persia, one does not employ in India in caravans or journeys either asses, mules, or horses, all being carried there on oxen or by waggon, as the country is sufficiently level. If any merchant takes a horse from Persia he only does it for show, and to have him led by hand, or in order to sell him advantageously to some noble. They give an ox a load weighing 300 or 350 livres, and it is an astonishing sight to behold caravans numbering 10,000 or 12,000 oxen together, for the transport of rice, corn, and salt — in the places where they exchange these commodities — carrying rice to where corn only grows, and corn to where rice only grows, and salt to the places where there is none. They use camels also for caravans, but rarely, and they are specially reserved to carry the baggage of the nobles. When the season presses, and they wish to have the goods quickly at Surat, in order to ship them, they load them on oxen, and not on carts. As all the territories of the Great Mogul are well cultivated, the fields are enclosed by good ditches, and each has its tank or reservoir for irrigation. ### [8.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8.2) This it is which is so inconvenient for travellers, because, when they meet caravans of this description in narrow roads, they are sometimes obliged to wait two or three days till all have passed. Those who drive these oxen follow no other trade all their lives ; they never dwell in houses, and they take with them their women and children. Some among them possess 100 oxen, others have more or fewer, and they all have a Chief, who acts as a prince, and who always has a chain of pearls suspended from his neck. When the caravan which carries corn and that which carries rice meet, rather than give way one to the other, they often engage in very sanguinary encounters. The Great Mogul, considering one day that these quarrels were prejudicial to commerce and to the transport of food in his kingdom, arranged that the Chiefs of the two caravans should come to see him. When they had arrived, the King, after he had advised them for their mutual benefit to live for the future in harmony with each other, and not to fight any more when they met, presented each of them with a lakh, or 100,000 rupees, and a chain of pearls. ### [8.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8.3) In order to enable the reader to understand this manner of carrying in India, it should be remarked that among the idolaters of this country there are four tribes, whom they call Manaris of which each numbers about one hundred thousand souls. These people dwell in tents, as I have said, and have no other trade but to transport provisions from one country to another. The first of these tribes has to do with corn only, the second with rice, the third with pulse, and the fourth with salt, which it obtains from Surat, and even from as far as Cape Comorin. You can also distinguish these tribes in this manner — their priests, of whom I shall elsewhere speak, mark those of the first with a red gum, of the size of a crown, on the middle of the forehead, and make a streak along the nose, attaching to it above some grains of corn, sometimes nine, sometimes twelve, in the form of a rose. Those of the second are marked with a yellow gum, in the same places, but with grains of rice; those of the third with a gray gum, with grains of millet, and also on the shoulders, but without placing grains there. As for those of the fourth, they carry a lump of salt, suspended from the neck in a bag, which weighs sometimes from 8 to 10 livres (for the heavier it is the more honour they have in carrying it), with which, by way of penance before praying, they beat their stomachs every morning. ### [8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8.4) All have in general a string, or tress, round the shoulders, from which hangs a small box of silver in the form of a reliquary, of the size of a good hazel nut, in which they keep a superstitious writing which their priests have enclosed in it. They place them also on their oxen, and on the other animals born in their herds, for which they entertain a special affection, loving them as dearly as they do their children, especially when they have none of the latter. The dress of the women is but a simple cloth, white or coloured, which makes five or six turns like a petticoat from the waist downwards, as if they had three or four one above the other. From the waist upwards they tatoo their skin with flowers, like as when one applies cupping glasses, and they paint these flowers divers colours with the juice of roots, in such a manner that it seems as though their skin was a flowered fabric. While the men load their animals in the morning and the women fold up their tents, the priests who follow them elevate, in the most beautiful parts of the plain where they are encamped, an idol in the form of a serpent, entwined about a staff of six or seven feet in height, and each one in file goes to make reverence to it, the girls turning round it three times. After all have passed, the priests take care to remove the idol and to load it on an ox allocated for that purpose. The caravans of waggons do not ordinarily consist of more than one hundred or two hundred at the most. ### [8.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8.5) Each waggon is drawn by ten or twelve oxen, and accompanied by four soldiers, whom the owner of the merchandise is obliged to pay. Two of them walk on each side of the waggon, over which there are two cords passed, and the four ends are held by the soldiers, so that if the waggon threatens to upset in a bad place, the two soldiers who are on the opposite side hold the cords tight, and prevent it turning over. All the waggons which come to Surat from Agra or from other places in the Empire, and which return by Agra and Jahānābād, are compelled to carry lime, which comes from Broach, and which, as soon as it is used, becomes as hard as marble. It is a great source of profit to the King, who sends this lime where he pleases ; but, on the other hand, he takes no dues from the waggons. ### [8.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8.6) I come to the manner of travelling in India, where oxen take the place of horses, and there are some of them whose paces are as easy as those of our hacks. But you should take care when you buy or hire an ox for riding that he has not horns longer than a foot, because, if they are longer, when the flies sting him, he chafes and tosses back the head, and may plant a horn in your stomach, as has happened several times. These oxen allow themselves to be driven like our horses, and have for sole bridle a cord, which passes through the tendon of the muzzle or the nostrils. In level tracts, where there are no stones, they do not shoe these oxen, but they always do so in rough places, both on account of the pebbles and because of the heat, which may injure the hoof. Whereas in Europe we attach our oxen by the horns; those of India have a large hump on the neck, which keeps in position a leather collar about four fingers wide, which they have only to throw over the head when they harness them. ### [8.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8.7) They have also, for travelling, small, very light carriages, which can contain two persons; but usually one travels alone, in order to be more comfortable, being then able to have his clothes with him; the canteen of wine and some small requisites for the journey having their place under the carriage, to which they harness a pair of oxen only. These carriages, which are provided, like ours, with curtains and cushions, are not slung; but, on the occasion of my last journey, I had one made after our manner, and the two oxen by which it was drawn cost me very nearly 600 rupees. The reader need not be astonished at this price, for there are some of them which are strong, and make journeys lasting 60 days, at 12 or 15 leagues a day, and always at the trot. When they have accomplished half the journey, they give to each two or three balls of the size of our penny rolls, made of wheaten flour, kneaded with butter and black sugar, and in the evening they have a meal of chick-peas, crushed and steeped in water for half an hour. The hire of a carriage amounts to about a rupee a day. The journey from Surat to Agra occupies thirty-five or forty days’ journey by road, and you pay for the whole journey from 40 to 45 rupees. From Surat to Golconda it is nearly the same distance and the same price, and it is in the same proportion throughout the whole of India. Those who can afford to take their ease make use of a pallankeen, in which they travel very comfortably. ### [8.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8.8) It is a kind of bed, of 6 or 7 feet long and 3 feet wide, with a small rail all round. A sort of cane, called bamboo, which they bend when young, in order to cause it to take the form of a bow in the middle, sustains the cover of the pallankeen, which is of satin or brocade; and when the sun shines on one side, an attendant, who walks near the pallankeen, takes care to lower the covering. There is another, who carries at the end of a stick a kind of basket-work shield, covered with some kind of beautiful stuff, in order to promptly shelter the occupant of the pallankeen from the heat of the sun when it turns and strikes him on the face. The two ends of the bamboo are attached on both sides to the body of the pallankeen between two poles, joined together in a saltier, or St. Andrew’s Cross, and each of these poles is 5 or 6 feet long. Some of these bamboos cost as much as 200 écus, and I have paid 125 for one. Three men, at most, place themselves at each of these two ends, to carry the pallankeen on the shoulder, the one on the right and the other on the left, and they travel in this way faster than our chairmen in Paris, and with an easier pace, being trained to the trade from an early age. When you wish to make haste, and travel up to 13 or 14 leagues a day, you take 12 men to carry the pallankeen, so that they may relieve one another from time to time. ### [8.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8.9) You pay each, for everything, only 4 rupees a month, but you pay up to 5 rupees when the journey is long, and when it is required to travel for more than sixty days. Whether by carriage or pallankeen he who desires to travel with honour in India ought to take with him 20 or 30 armed men, some with bows and arrows and others with muskets, and you pay them as much per month as to those who carry the pallankeen. Sometimes, for greater show, you carry a flag. This is always done by the English and Dutch, for the honour of their Companies. These attendants not only conduce to your honour, but they watch also for your protection, and act as sentinels in the night, relieving one another, and striving to give you no cause of complaint against them. For it should be mentioned that in the towns where you hire them they have a head man who answers for their honesty, and when you employ them, each one gives him a rupee. In the large villages there is generally a Muhammadan Governor, and there you find sheep, fowl, and pigeons for sale; but in the places where there are only Banians, you only find flour, rice, vegetables, and milk. ### [8.10](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8.10) The great heats of India compel travellers who are not accustomed to it to travel by night, in order to rest by day. When they enter towns which are closed they must leave by sunset, if they wish to take the road. For night being come, and the gates closed, the Governor of the place, who has to answer for thefts which occur within his jurisdiction, does not allow any one to go out, and says that it is the King’s order, which he must obey. When I entered such places I took provisions, and left early, in order to camp outside under some tree in the shade, waiting till it was the hour to march. They measure the distances of places in India by gos and by coss. A gos is about four of our common leagues, and a coss about one league. It is time now to leave Surat for Agra and Jahānābād, in order to see what is remarkable on that route. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.8) · Pramāṇa