Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c11.s1.4

c11.s1.4

In the Middle Ages the cotton industry of Gujarāt not only supplied the home demands but also exported a large surplus to the Far East and other Islamic countries. Chao-Ju-Kua, the inspector of foreign commerce in the port of Ts'iuan-chu (Fu Kien), gives a list of products from Western Asia, Africa and China.³ He mentions the cotton products of Malabar (which he takes to be the sea-coast from Nellore to Cambay),⁴ and multicoloured cotton goods from Gujarāt.⁵ All these fabrics are expressly mentioned in the lists of the indigenous products of each country; the word 'foreign' signifying the types different from those known in China.⁶ Nan-ni-hua-lo or Sindh⁷ produced white cotton goods, flowered or of pea green colour known as 'Chite' or 'chintz'. While speaking of the Persian Gulf, the author points out that every year, the Arab caravans brought for loading the boats fine cotton goods and red plants used for making red dye, which, according to the translator, was madder.⁸ Marcopolo who passed seventeen years (1275—1292 A.D.) in the service of the Mongol sovereign gives us some interesting information about Indian cotton goods in his voyage to India. In Chapter 177 he mentions that Malabar produced fine buckram. In Chapter 179, buckram, as the product of the Kingdom of Thānā (20 miles north-east of Bombay), is mentioned. The Kingdom of Cambay (Chap. 180) is said to have produced indigo in abundance; fine buckram was manufactured there, and the country exported lot of cotton.