Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s6.72

v2.c27.s6.72

Household Furniture.—In their household economy, their furniture and decorations, they remain unchanged during the lapse of a thousand years. No chairs, no couches adorn their sitting apartments, though the painted and gilded ceiling may be supported by columns of serpentine, and the walls one mass of mirrors, marble, or china ;—nothing but a soft carpet, hidden by a white cloth, on which the guests seat themselves according to rank. In fine, the quaint description of the chaplain to the first embassy which England sent to India, more than two hundred years ago, applies now, as it probably will two hundred years hence. “ And now for the furniture the greatest men have in them [their houses], it is curta supellex, very little, they (the rooms) being not beautified with hangings, nor with anything besides to line their walls ; for they have no chairs, stools, couches, tables, beds enclosed with canopies, or curtains, in any of their rooms. And the truth is, that if they had them, the extreme heat would forbid the use of many of them; all their bravery is upon their floors, on which they spread most excellent carpets.” ¹