Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.t1.49

v3.c43.t1.49

Akbar followed up the plans of Babur, and introduced the gardeners of Persia and Tartary, who succeeded with many of their fruits, as peaches, almonds (both indigenous to Rajputana), pistachios, etc. To Jahangir’s Commentaries we owe the knowledge that tobacco was introduced into India in his reign; but of the period when the poppy became an object of culture, for the manufacture of opium, we have not the least information. Whatever may be the antiquity of this drug, for medicinal uses, it may be asserted that its abuse is comparatively recent, or not more than three [631] centuries back.¹ In none of the ancient heroic poems of Hindustan is it ever alluded to. The guest is often mentioned in them as welcomed by the *munawwar piyala*, or ‘cup of greeting,’² but nowhere by the *amal-pani*, or ‘infused opiate,’ which has usurped the place of the *phul-ra-arak*, or ‘essence of flowers.’ Before, however, the art of extracting the properties of the poppy, as at present, was practised, they used the opiate in its crudest form, by simply bruising the capsules, which they steeped a certain time in water, afterwards drinking the infusion, to which they give the name of *tijara*, and not unfrequently *post*, ‘the poppy.’ This practice still prevails in the remote parts of Rajputana, where either ignorance of the more refined process, prejudice, or indolence, operates to maintain old habits.