The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.185

c21.185

The paintings in the Ajanta caves show(144) that men were wearing large turbans in the Deccan in the 5th and 6th centuries. In this respect the southern practice differed from that in Kashmir, where down to the 11th century no one could wear a turban except the king.(145) It seems that the practice of growing beard was more common in our period than is the case now.(146) From I-tsing, we get an interesting description of the umbrellas in vogue towards the end of the 7th century A.D.(147) The umbrella was woven with bamboo skin and was made as thin as possible. It was about two or three feet in diameter. Sometimes it was woven with reeds instead of bamboo products; paper was inserted in the weaving and the whole was varnished with lacquer. This umbrella probably belonged to Bengal where I-tsing had spent most of his time: but we may presume that the Deccan umbrella was not much different from the one described by the Chinese traveller, since umbrellas of the type were quite common in Konkan till quite recently.