The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.20

v1.c10.20

**Wool and cotton :** No information is available in the *Ṛgveda* regarding the material of which the clothing, it so often alludes to, was made. Cotton is nowhere mentioned. Rams and ewes are described among domestic animals,¹⁵ but they are not said to be the sources of cloth. It is nevertheless probable that both cotton and wool were the substances which were used in its manufacture; for the term “weaving”, which is occasionally used, could not have originated and got currency in the Vedic language, without the existence of some material adapted and in common use for weaving. “It is difficult to conceive”, says Dr. Muir, “that cotton (which, as we learn from Professor J. H. Balfour, is supposed to have been indigenous in India), though not mentioned in the hymns, should have been unknown when they were composed, or not employed for weaving the light cloth which is necessary in so warm a climate”.¹⁶ This argument would apply equally to woollen stuffs in many parts of the Punjab, the earliest Aryan seats in India, where the cold for some months in the year must have necessitated a much warmer covering than cotton cloth. In the Old Testament there are references which show that the ancient Indians did produce enough of woven texture to be able to export a portion for the use of foreign nations¹⁷. "That the coloured cloth and rich apparel brought to Tyre and Babylon from distant countries, were partly of Indian manufacture will scarcely be doubted", says Heeren, "after what has been already said of the extent of the Phoenician and Babylonian commerce".¹⁸