Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c19.s5: Products

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarát c19.s5

Language: English

c19.s5.35 — 4 parts

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In the middle of the ninth century mines of gold and silver are said to be worked in Gujarát.⁴ Abu Zaid (A.D. 916) represents pearls as in great demand. The Tártáriyah, or according to Al Masúdi the Táhiriyah dinars of Sindh, fluctuating⁵ in price from one and a half to three and a fraction of the Baghdád dínars, were the current coin in the Gujarát ports. Emeralds also were imported from Egypt mounted as seals.⁶

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⁴ The merchant Sulaimán (Elliot's History of India), I. 4 and 5.

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⁵ See page 519 note 8.

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⁶ Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, I. 11.

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Ibni Khurdádbah⁷ (A.D. 912) mentions teakwood and the bamboo as products of Sindán that is the Konkan Sanjan.⁸ Al Masúdi (A.D. 943) notes that at the great fair of Multán the people of Sindh and Hind offered Kumar that is Cambodian aloe-wood of the purest quality worth twenty dínars a man.⁹ Among other articles of trade he mentions an inferior emerald exported from Cambay and Saimúr to Makkah,¹⁰ the jauce shafts of Broach,¹¹ the shoes of Cambay,¹² and the white and handsome maidens of Táfan¹³ who were in great demand in Arab countries. Ibni Hankal (A.D. 968-976) states that the country comprising Fámhal, Sindán, Saimúr, and Kambáyah produced mangoes coconauts lemons and rice in abundance. That honey could be had in great quantities, but no date palms were to be found.¹⁴

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⁷ Ibni Khurdádbah in Elliot's History of India, I. 14.

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⁸ Ibni Khurdádbah in Elliot's History of India, I. 15.

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⁹ Al Masúdi (Elliot's History of India), I. 23.

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¹⁰ Barbier De Meynard's Arabic Text of Les Prairies D'Or, III. 47-48.

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¹¹ Barbier De Meynard's Arabic Text of Les Prairies D'Or, I. 239.

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¹² Barbier De Meynard's Arabic Text of Les Prairies D'Or, I. 233.

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¹³ Barbier De Meynard's Arabic Text of Les Prairies D'Or, I. 384.

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¹⁴ Ibni Haukal (Ashkal-ul-Bilad) and Elliot's History of India, I. 39.

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Al Bírúni (A.D. 1031) notices that its import of horses from Mekran and the islands of the Persian Gulf was a leading portion of Cambay trade.¹⁵ According to Al Idrisi (A.D. 1100) the people of Mámhal¹⁶ (Anhilwára) had many horses and camels.¹⁷ One of the peculiarities of

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¹⁵ Elliot's History of India, III. 33.

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¹⁶ Mámhal is by some numbered among the cities of India. Al Idrisi in Elliot, I, 84.

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¹⁷ Al Idrisi in Elliot, I. 79.

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The Nahrwála country was that all journeys were made and all merchandise was carried in bullock waggons. Kambáyah was rich in wheat and rice and its mountains yielded the Indian *kaná* or bamboo. At Subára (Sopára) they fished for pearls and Bára a small island close to Subára produced the cocoanut and the costus. Sindán according to Al Idrisi produced the cocoa palm, the ratan, and the bamboo. Saimúr had many cocoa palms, much henna (*Lawsonia inermis*), and a number of aromatic plants.³ The hills of Thána yielded the bamboo and *tabáshir* or bamboo pith. From Saimúr according to Al Kazwíni (A.D. 1236, but from tenth century materials) came aloes. Rashid-ud-dín (A.D. 1310) states that in Kambáyah, Somnáth, Kankan, and Tána the vines yield twice a year and such is the strength of the soil that cotton-plants grow like willow or plane trees and yield produce for ten years. He refers to the betel leaf, to which he and other Arab writers and physicians ascribe strange virtues as the produce of the whole country of Malabár. The exports from the Gujarát coasts are said to be sugar (the staple product of Málwa), *bádrúd* that is bezoar, and *haldi* that is turmeric.⁴

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³ Al Idrisi in Elliot, I. 85.

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⁴ Al Idrisi in Elliot's History of India, I. 85.

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According to Ibni Haukal (A.D. 170) from Kambáya to Saimúr the villages lay close to one another and much land was under cultivation.⁵ At the end of the eleventh century trade was brisk merchandise from every country finding its way to the ports of Gujarát whose local products were in turn exported all over the east.⁷ The Ráshtrakúta dominion was vast, well-peopled, commercial, and fertile.⁸ The people lived mostly on a vegetable diet, rice peas beans haricots and lentils being their daily food.⁹ Al Idrisi speaks of certain Hindus eating animals whose deaths had been caused by falls or by being gored,¹⁰ but Al Masúdi states that the higher classes who wore the "baldric like yellow thread" (the Janaj) abstained from flesh. According to Ibni Haukal (A.D. 968-970) the ordinary dress of the kings of Hind was trousers and a tunic.¹¹ He also notices that between Kambáyah and Saimúr the Muslims and infidels wear the same cool fine muslin dress and let their beards grow in the same fashion.¹² During the tenth century on high days the Balhára wore a crown of gold and a dress of rich stuff. The attendant women were richly clad, wearing rings of gold and silver upon their feet and hands and having their hair in curls.¹³ At the close of the Hindu period (A.D. 1300) Rashid-ud-dín describes Gujarát as a flourishing country with no less than 80,000 villages and hamlets the people happy the soil rich growing in the four seasons seventy varieties of flowers. Two harvests repaid the husbandman, the earlier crop refreshed by the dew of the cold season the late crop enriched by a certain rainfall.¹⁴

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⁵ Al Idrisi in Elliot's History of India, I. 85.

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⁷ Rashid-ud-dín in Elliot's History of India, I. 67-68.

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⁸ Ibni Haukal (A.D. 968) in Elliot, I. 39.

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⁹ Al Idrisi (A.D. 968) in Elliot, I. 84 and 87.

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¹⁰ Al Idrisi speaking of Cambay in Elliot's History of India, I. 84.

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¹¹ Al Idrisi in Elliot, I. 85.

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¹² Al Idrisi in Elliot, I. 88.

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¹³ Al-Masudi in Elliot's History of India, I. 9.

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¹⁴ Ibni Haukal in Elliot, I. 35.

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In their intercourse with Western India nothing struck the Arabs more than the toleration shown to their religion both by chief and peoples.

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¹⁵ Ibni Haukal in Elliot, I. 39.

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¹⁶ Al Idrisi in Elliot's History of India, I. 88.

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¹⁷ Rashid-ud-dín (A.D. 1310) in Elliot's History of India, I. 67. The passage seems to be a quotation from Al Bírúni (A.D. 1031).

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This was specially marked in the Râshtrakûta towns where besides free use of mosques and Jâma mosques Musalmân magistrates or kâzis were appointed to settle disputes among Musalmâns according to their own laws.¹ Toleration was not peculiar to the Balhâras. Al Bîrûni records² that in the ninth century (A.D. 581) when the Hindûs recovered Sindân (Sanjân in Kachh) they spared the assembly mosque where long after the Faithful congregated on Fridays praying for their Khalifah without hindrance. In the Balhâra country so strongly did the people believe in the power of Islâm or which is perhaps more likely so courteous were they that they said that our king enjoys a long life and long reign is solely due to the favour shown by him to the Musalmâns. So far as the merchant Sulaimân saw in the ninth century the chief religion in Gujarât was Buddhism. He notices that the principles of the religion of China were brought from India and that the Chinese ascribe to the Indians the introduction of Buddhas into their country. Of religious beliefs metempsychoses or re-birth and of religious practices widow-burning or sati and self-torture seem to have struck him most.³ As a rule the dead were buried.⁴ Sulaimân represents the people of Gujarât as steady abstemious and sober abstaining from wine as well as from vinegar, 'not' he adds 'from religious motives but from their disdain of it.'⁵ Among their sovereigns the desire of conquest was seldom the cause of war.⁶ Abu Zaid (A.D.

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916) describes the Brâhmans as Hindus devoted to religion and science. Among Brâhmans were poets who lived at kings' courts, astronomers, philosophers, diviners, and drawers of omens from the flight of crows.⁷ He adds: 'So sure are the people that after death they shall return to life upon the earth, that when a person grows old he begs some one of his family to throw him into the fire or to drown him.'⁸ Ibn Abu Zaid's time (A.D. 916) the Hindûs did not seclude their women. Even the wives of the kings used to mix freely with men and attend courts and places of public resort unveiled.⁹ According to Ibni Khurdâdbah (A.D. 912) India has forty-two religious sects 'part of whom believe in God and his Prophet (on whom be peace) and part who deny his mission.'¹⁰ Ibni Khurdâdbah (A.D. 912) describes the Hindûs as divided into seven classes. Of these the first are Thâkarias¹¹ or Thâkurs of high caste from whom kings are chosen and to whom men of the other classes render homage, the second are the Barâhimas¹² who abstain from wine and fermented liquors; the third are the Katariya or Kshatriyas who drink not more than three cups of wine; the fourth are the Sudaria or Shûdras husbandmen by profession; the fifth are the Baisura or Vaish artificers and domestics; the sixth Sandalias or Chandâls menials; and the seventh the 'Lahûd,' whose women adorn themselves and whose men are fond of amusements and games of skill.

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Both among the people and the kings of Gujarât¹³ wine was "unlawful and lawful" that is it was not used though no religious rule forbad its use. According to Al Masúdi (A.D. 943) a general opinion prevailed that India was the earliest home of order and wisdom. The Indians chose as their king the great Bráhmans who ruled them for 366 years. His descendants retain the name of Bráhman and are honoured as the most illustrious caste. They abstain from the flesh of animals.¹ Hindu kings cannot succeed before the age of forty nor do they appear in public except on certain occasions for the conduct of state affairs. Royalty and all the high offices of state² are limited to the descendants of one family. The Hindus strongly disapprove of the use of wine both in themselves and in others not from any religious objection but on account of its intoxicating and reason-clouding qualities.³ Al Bírúni (A.D. 970-1031) quoted by Rashid-ud-din (A.D. 1310) states that the people of Gujarát are idolators and notices the great penance-pilgrimages to Somnáth details of which have already been given.⁴ Al Idrisi (end of the eleventh century) closely follows Ibni Khurdádhah's (A.D. 912) division of the people of India. The chief exception is that he represents the second class, the Bráhmans, as wearing the skins of tigers and going about staff in hand collecting crowds and from morn till eve proclaiming to their hearers the glory and power of God.

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He makes out that the Kastaríya or Kshatriyas are able to drink three ratl (a ratl being one pound troy) of wine and are allowed to marry Bráhman women. The Sabdalíya or Chandal women, he says, are noted for beauty. Of the forty-two sects he enumerates worshippers of trees and adorers of serpents, which they keep in stables and feed as well as they can, deeming it to be a meritorious work. He says that the inhabitants of Kambáya are Buddhists (idolators) and that the Balhára also worships the idol Buddha.⁷ The Indians, says Al-Idrísi⁸ (end of the eleventh century) are naturally inclined to justice and in their actions never depart from it. Their reputation for good faith, honesty, and fidelity to their engagements brings strangers flocking to their country and aids its prosperity. In illustration of the peaceable disposition of the Hindus, he quotes the ancient practice of dahái or conjuring in the name of the king, a rite which is still in vogue in some native states. When a man has a rightful claim he draws a circle on the ground and asks his debtor to step into the circle in the name of the king. The debtor never fails to step in nor does he ever leave the circle without paying his debts. Al Idrisi describes the people of Nahrwára as having so high a respect for oxen that when an ox dies they bury it. "When enfeebled by age or unable to work they provide their oxen with food without exacting any return."⁹

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c19.s5: Products

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