Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s2: Social and Domestic Comforts
Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s2
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Contents
- c7.s2.t1 I. Town-planning — 150 parts
Social and Domestic Comforts
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*General Remarks. The masses of the People.*—We have pointed out in an earlier chapter the disparity between the incomes of various social classes and the almost antipodal difference which existed between the highest and lower classes. We have also expressed there our agreement with the opinion of Mr. Moreland. We will add here a few words in support of those statements, by illustrating the domestic comforts of the masses of the people, most of whom inhabited the villages as they do now. The Mughal Emperor Babur was particularly struck with the meagre requirements of the Indian rural population. The colonization or the devastation of a peasant village according to him, took an amazingly short time as so few things were required to give shape to a rural habitation. ‘People disappear completely from a place where they have been living for many years in about a day and a half’ says Babur, and leave absolutely no traces of their existence behind. Similarly, when they colonize a new place, they are content with some sort of bored well or a pool or tank of water for their needs, without requiring elaborate constructions like canals and bridges. A few tree trunks and a quantity of straw for thatches is all that they want for the construction of their dwellings. Big mansions or a town with circumvallations do not enter their scheme of corporate life. You turn and see them commencing to build a rural village and in an unbelievably short time, you turn again to find it finished and now there stands before you a regular rural village of Hindustan.² This is a fairly correct general estimate of the rural village.
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² Compare B.N., 250.
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To take a somewhat closer view, the site for a rural habitation was usually chosen on a raised ground or a high hill. pre-
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and then proceeded to fight Timur like ‘blood-thirsty devils’. *Vide* Z.N., 452. M., 277. Compare also the feeling of Humayun when one of the ladies of the royal haram named Aqiqa Bibi fell into the hands of Sher Shah after the defeat of Kanauj. The Mughal Emperor felt sorry that he did not kill her before the impending disaster. *Vide* G., 46.
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ferably under the protective arms of a mighty man, a Sultan or a noble in the neighbourhood.¹ There was a supply of water near by and land for cultivation all round. This village was composed of cottages adjoining one another, for the various classes, those of the untouchables and low classes lying on the outskirts. An average cottage in the Doab area was somewhat like the following, though no definite account has come down to us from contemporary sources. It represented the minimum that a human being wants for protection from cold, rain or tropical sun. Four low mud walls probably enclosed a small space with a roof of thatch supported by a few wooden logs and resting on wooden stands or rough pillars. A small opening in the front wall was left out for entrance which might or might not be fitted with door. There were perhaps no smaller openings in the side walls to admit light. The floor was of trodden earth, sometimes plastered with cow-dung.² The houses of better-class peasants or of the head-men of the village were more spacious and commodious. They had a platform (*chabutra*) outside the houses together with an entrance chamber and an inner room, a spacious courtyard, a verandah and even a second storey. The apartments for the members of the joint family were built around the central courtyard within. The walls were of mud, and the roof, as usual, of thatch with perhaps a few wooden beams.³ The houses in the lower Gangetic valley, if we may infer from the houses of the rich people, were not built close to one another but stood in their own orchards of fruit or palm trees. They were erected on mud plinths around a courtyard with wooden or bamboo posts, and were interlaced with walls of split bamboos, the thatched roof resting on a bamboo framework. All this was encircled by a moat, a fence, some sort of hedge or a well-manured patch of castor or some other crop, for protection.⁴
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¹ Compare the view of Nanak, Shah, 187. Compare the account of Ibn Batuta for the water supply of the village. K.R., II, 94.
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² Compare Salzmann, 88 for a description of mediaeval English poor.
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³ Compare some terms of village housing in Grierson, Bihar Peasant Life, 322-3; also I.G.I., XXIV, 174-5.
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⁴ Compare also I.G.I., VII, 239-40.
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As to their furniture, the enumeration for poorer peasants need not detain us long. Like the handy thatch and the easily available wooden beams and logs, their utensils for every day were made of baked earth which could be procured in the village itself.¹ The better class peasants, as we have noted before, may have also bought a few brass and mixed-metal utensils. Refinements of dress and toilet or delicacies of cooking and dining equipment did not enter their scheme of life. They usually slept on the bare floor and went about covered in a loin-cloth and an over-all sheet of coarse cloth which was used almost for every convenience of clothing and even bedding. A cake of millet, rice and pulses and if possible a little clarified butter and a relish of onions and chillies has been their familiar diet.² The usual rule is two meals a day, unless some stale food is left over from the previous evening. In some cases they are, as probably they were, content with one square meal.³ Their usual drink is cool and fresh water; and they do not forget to ask every wayfarer or passing traveller to share this beverage, particularly in the hot season. Tobacco had not come into use during our period and the use of opium was confined to a few regions. Betel-leaves and areca nuts were consumed by urban people of all classes. On special festivals, toddy or some cheap country spirit was drunk by the peasants.⁴ We may similarly conclude that it was usual for all the members of a family, especially the females, to sleep in a single chamber during cold weather, or in the open courtyard during summer. There were no separate kitchens or bath-rooms in the house. People went to wells or rivers for bathing. There was little privacy in the life of the people and very few refinements, though there was plenty of fellow-feeling and humanity and strict and intricate rules of behaviour governed by a well-known and well-understood custom. So, we may imagine, lived the vast mass of the Indian population in rural village communities.
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¹ Compare the account of Firishta, T.F., II, 787. ² Compare Crooke’s Herklot’s Islam, 317. ³ Compare I.G.I., VIII, 308; 327; XX, 292-3; XXIV, 174. ⁴ Compare *ibid.*, VIII, 308-9.
I. Town-planning
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of the ancient Hindu mind.¹ The distinctive features of a typical Hindu city were the choice of its site and two wide streets running through the city, intersecting at right-angles. The Hindu buildings were conspicuous for their mass and durability.² There was a profuse display of gold plate in the royal mansions. These were built many storeys, the two upper storeys sometimes measuring as many as fifty yards in height. Green tile work was used for roofs, and the encircling walls of a fortress or the circumvallation of a city were marked with towers, massive gates and statues of elephants or men at the entrance. Where it was available, stone was used in construction. Among other features of Hindu buildings, we may note the construction of aqueducts, the exquisite carvings of the doors and windows and the fine workmanship displayed in building temples and idols.³
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¹ Compare V.V. Dutta's ‘Town-planning in ancient India’ for details.
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² Compare for instance a description of Jaipur, ‘The plan of the city of Jaipur is especially interesting...for this city is one of those which have not grown up irregularly by gradual accretion : it was laid down at its foundation on a scientific plan according to the traditions of Hindu city-builders and the direction of their canonical books called the Silpasastras... The city leans upon the neighbouring hill, defended by the Nahargarh Fort, its main streets running approximately from East to West and North to South, following the directions laid down in the Silpasastras’. Havall, Indian Architecture, 217. For the durability of Hindu buildings compare the account of Timur who bears testimony to the fact that they lasted from five to seven hundred years. Vide M., 304-5. Also see E.D., I, 329 for an ancient fire temple of unburnt bricks, two yards long and broad and one span thick, in Sind, which existed intact in the time of the author of the narrative. Compare also Tod, III, 1313 (note) for ancient burnt bricks of Sehwan in Sind.
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³ For gold display compare P. 23-4. For an account of storeyed houses compare the account of Timur (ibid). that the wooden houses of Kashmir were sometimes four and five storeys high in the 14th century. Compare also Jaisi for seven-storied buildings of Simhala. Compare Babur's account of Gwalior (B.N., 317, 320). The royal buildings of Gwalior were four storeys in height, the two upper storeys measuring about 50 yards. They were conspicuous for towes, gates, statues, and green tile work.
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When Muslims first came on the scene, and for a long time afterwards, they made skilful use of Hindu architectural talent in their own buildings and towns. They borrowed most of the old features of Hindu cities, though they left very few of the native master-pieces intact. Probably the Muslims added to the outstanding features of a Hindu town, namely the palaces, tanks, temples, the broad and open spaces and the height and massiveness of their buildings, some distinguishing features of their own, thus evolving a city as it stood under the Mughals.¹ Among the contribution of Muslims towards Indian town-planning may be noted their beautiful and spacious mosques, their gate-ways, probably the use of fountains, domes, a new arch and an improved style of walls around a city with watch-towers and other military equipment of a more efficient pattern. Their buildings, their mausoleums, their roofed tanks and baths and their beautiful gardens all went to enrich an Indian city.
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¹ Compare the account of cities like Delhi, Buda'un, Sikri, Agra, Ajmer and others in the Record of the Archaeological Department of India. Compare B.N., 312 for the extensive and universal use of stone in Chanderi.
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An average city of contemporary Hindustan may be described somewhat as follows :—It was situated on the bank of a river or on the converging point of many trade routes, usually on a higher level than the surrounding country, for reasons of defence and security.² A high massive wall ran round the city, intercepted by gates which were heavily guarded day and night under the direct supervision of a special officer known as the *Kotwal*.³ On entering the city enclosure, the principal mosque or temple usually struck the visitor by its unusual height and conspicuous site. The principal mosque was within measurable distance of every part of the city and was big enough to accommodate a very large gathering of men on Fridays and on other occasions for public prayers.⁴ Big reservoirs were laid within or very near the city for the supply of water especially in case of siege or scarcity of rain.⁵ These aqueducts were particularly important for hilly fortresses.¹ Two main roads running at right-angles intersected in the middle of the city and were connected with the main gates of the outer wall. On both sides of these main roads were the four wings of the city *bazar* with rows of shops facing each other. These wings of the *bazar* were occupied by special classes of tradesmen and guilds of craftsmen.² For their own amusement and comfort, monarchs sometimes built *bazars* inside and outside their palaces.³ Bridges sometimes added to the charms of a city.⁴
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² Compare T.D., 92-3 for the account of the foundation of Patna and the reasons for the choice of the site, as Sher Shah formulated them.
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³ For the office of *Kotwal*, B., 279 and other authorities. For this wall-building, we have an interesting account of *Jahan Panah*, the surrounding wall of Delhi begun by Muhammad Tughluq. It was 11 cubits in thickness and a man on horseback could ride on it all round the city. Regular chambers were constructed inside it for night-watches and other guards. There were other similar chambers for stores of provisions of corn and other military weapons like mangonals and heavy apparatus used in defending cities against besiegers. It has 28 gates and many bastions at close intervals. Compare K.R., II, 16. Compare the evidence of Timur that this city wall from Siri to old Fort was made of stone. (*Vide* M., 290, Z.N., 476.)
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⁴ Compare A., 135. The mosque of Firuzabad designed under Firuz Tughluq was provided with accommodation for 10,000 people. The fact should also be remembered that the present Qutb Minar of Delhi was originally designed as the minaret of a mosque named *Quwwat-ul-Islam* ('the strength of Islam'). Sultan Ala-ud-din Khalji, who later designed another minaret five times the dimensions of the Qutb, appears to have forgotten the original object.
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⁵ Compare K.R., II, 17-81 for an account of *Hauz-i-Shamsi* of Delhi which was 2 miles in length and half a mile in width.
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¹ Compare *ibid*., 93 for Ibn Batuta's account of what is called a *Baoli* or water-reservoir—a tank with stone casting on the sides and steps running to the edge of the water.
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² Compare the account of *Tarikh-i-Daudi*, 40*b*. Compare also Sayyid Ahmad, Chap. II, 24 for the account of Firuzabad, the city of Firuz Shah. It was 5 krohs (or about 10 miles) in diameter; *ibid*., 52. Delhi of Shahjahan had a *bazar* 1,500 yards long and 30 yards wide known as Faiz Bazar and lying in front of the Delhi Gate : also A., 135.
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³ The *Mina Bazars* of Akbar will be referred to elsewhere. The Haram *bazar* of Mandu has been mentioned earlier. It will be worth while observing here that the Mughal Emperor Humayun built a floating *bazar*. Many huge boats were joined together, and over them rows of stalls were built, so that if the royal party went for a pleasure trip on the Jumna all sorts of supplies were available for the royal company and their retainers. Compare K., 138-9.
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⁴ Compare references to the construction of bridges in Afif. Compare the account of Timur (M., 304-5) for thirty bridges over the Jhelum in the city of Nagar (Srinagar?).
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The city was divided into separate quarters for various social groups. In keeping with the social ideas of the day some classes of people, for instance, the scavengers, the leather-dressers and the very poorest beggars and wretches, were segregated from the rest of the population and were made to live on the outskirts of the towns. The rest of the population divided itself into religious, racial and even occupational groups. For instance, Muslims and Hindus had separate quarters; nobles and common people lived in distinct parts of the city; among the common people various trades and castes lived in their own quarters. All these quarters were designed to be as complete and self-sufficient as possible; in fact, some of them developed all the features of a big town and were provided with all the social amenities of a city on a smaller scale.⁵
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⁵ For the Muslim quarters, compare an illustration in Gupta, Bengal etc., 90-1: compare the account of Ibn Batuta. 'Tarababad' or the Musicians' quarter of Delhi was provided with its own market and mosque. It had even a Jami' mosque of its own. *Vide* K.R., II, 18.
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*The Royal Quarter.*—The capital city of the kingdom added to the list of these quarters one of its own and the most magnificent of them all, one in which the palaces of the Sultan and the houses for his establishments were built. We have already said something about the palaces and establishments of the Sultan. It should be observed here that the palaces and other staff buildings were not the only important features of the royal quarter, which was a magnificent town in itself. Besides the elephant and horse stables, army quarters and parade grounds, the royal quarter was conspicuous for its spacious and beautiful gardens, extensive play-grounds, mosques, baths, colleges and mausoleums. The foundation of a royal building was carried out with great solemnity amidst a scene of splendour. The hour was fixed, as usual, after consulting the astrologers. The Sayyids and the religious dignitaries of the State accompanied the monarch and even assisted sometimes in collecting the stone and mortar and other necessary material for building. When the inauguration ceremony began, His Majesty laid the first brick in the foundation with his own hands.¹ The work of construction began afterwards. If the building was a palace for the residence of the Sultan himself, many secret doors and concealed passages were designed inside it to help the escape of the monarch in times of danger, or for other uses.²
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¹ Compare the account of Khvandmir, 146. Humayun also believed in taking omens from the Qur’an besides consulting astrologers in selecting an auspicious moment; also Macauliffe, II, 34.
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² Compare B., 403.
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There were no defined regulations for the design of the royal buildings. Everything depended on the pleasure and whims of the monarch. The Mughal Emperor Humayun, for instance, built himself a floating palace, the ‘Mystery House’, and among other novelties, the ‘floating bazar’.³ Among other usual features of the royal palace was the use of chronometers and the announcement of the hour.¹ In fact, time was announced in every official residence in the kingdom, the morning hour in particular being announced with trumpet and drums and, as usual in Muslim cities, by the call of the Muazzin to prayer.² At night, the royal palace was heavily guarded under the personal supervision of a sepecial officer. As a rule, nobody was allowed to enter the precincts after the first watch of the night except those on night duty or others who had special permission from the monarch to stay inside the building. A special officer kept the record of events at the palace during the night and submitted it to the monarch in the morning.³
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³ Compare K., 139-40 for the Floating Palace. It was modelled on the Floating Bazar and was fitted on two huge boats. The woodcarvers, metal-workers, decorators and furnishers of the capital had spent all their ingenuity and talent for design to give this palace a most exquisite appearance. The Floating Palace had three storeys. Compare ibid., 144 for a detailed description of the ‘Mystery House’. It was built on the bank of the Jumna in Agra and was composed of three rooms on the ground floor adjoining one another. The central room was designed in an octagonal shape and fitted with a large water tank. Over this tank was constructed on alcove from which a secret passage led into adjoining chambers. Care was taken that the water from the tank, even when it was over-full, did not escape into these adjoining rooms. A person on entering the tank, went into the alcove, and pass-
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¹ Compare for the use of chronometer (ghariyal) a previous reference in chapter II, where it is mentioned that Sultan Firuz Tughluq maintained a separate department for it; also Macauliffe VI, 400. This ghariyal or water-clock was a kind of clepsydra used in India from a very ancient date (Compare J.R.A.S., 1915. Fleet ‘The ancient Indian water-clock’. Compare also ibid., 702 where Mr. Pargiter explains that both sundial and water-clock were used in ancient days to determine the hour of day and night. The longer measure of ‘half-watch’ was determined by ‘gnomon’ and the nadika by the latter). In one place Malik Muhammad Jaisi tells us that hours, halves and quarters were determined by the ‘filling in’ of the vessel (Vide P., 64.) The announcement of time was made by striking a gong of mixed metal, about the thickness of two finger breadths, at every Pahar (Vide B.N., 265). Outside India, Muslims were familiar with more advanced models of clocks and chronometers (Compare Siddiqi, I.C., Vol. I ‘Use of clocks in Muslim lands’). In India they adopted the old Hindu system. Babur made certain improvements in the marking of time. He began the announcement of gharis in addition to Pahars. (Vide B.N., 1517). Besides water-clocks, Humayun also used astrolabes to fix a particular hour. (Vide G., 53.) In general ghariyal (the Hindu clepsydra) was used in the Kingdom.
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² Compare the account of Ibn Batuta K.R., II, 6. Compare also K., 156, how Humayun introduced the system of announcing time by beat of drums several times a day, namely at dawn, after sun-rise, at sunset and on the night of the first and the fourteenth of the lunar month. Akbar, his successor, however, reverted to the old system of ghariyal; and the gong and the clepsydra accompanied the monarch wherever his camp moved. Vide A.A., II, 9.
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³ Compare B., 406 for the night watch and other regulations. Compare A., 127 for the record officer. Afif occupied this office for some time; also T.M.S., 376 for another reference to the record officer.
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Tent life was popular equally with the poor and the rich.⁴
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⁴ Compare the interesting experience of Amir Khusrau when his house collapsed in the rainy season and he lived in a tent. IK, V, 61. Compare T.W., 125b, how the royal camp consisted of tents for the king and other officials and of thatch cottages for common soldiers. Compare B.N., 353 for Babur’s experiences of the rainy season in India and his life in tents.
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ing through its revolving doors, went into one of these chambers where, to his agreeable surprise, he found himself in most magnificent halls provided with refreshments, music and songs.
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The king made use of tents of a great variety for pleasure and for official tours outside the capital. There were not many elegant and spacious tents and *Shamyanas* in the beginning of the Sultanat. Elaboration and refinement came by degrees, until at last the Mughal Emperor Humayun designed small and big *Shamyanas* and tents of a great variety which reflect creditably on his genius and refinement. Finally, Akbar and his successors moved about in big cities of canvas, so that the various royal tents became bigger and their comforts and decorations greater.¹ The familiar furniture inside a tent or a *Shamyana* was carpets and mattresses made of silk and big pillows along with other requisites.²
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¹ Compare an early reference in Q.S., 40 to royal tents (*bargah*) before Mu'izz-ud-din Kaiqubad. Before him the *bargah* or *Shamyana* was small enough to be supported by only two poles. The Sultan doubled its dimensions and the number of supports. Compare G., 69 for the royal canopy. It was circular in shape. Compare the descriptions in Khvandmir, 140-1 of the royal tents of Humayun. The Mughal Emperor designed one *Shamyana* which was so big that many frameworks for pillars were required to support it. He ordered another tent to be made on wooden frame work which (like his Floating Palace) could be detached and folded in parts and was easy to move from one halting place to another. By the time of Akbar (compare A.A., I, 51) refinements had advanced still further and Abu'l Fazl mentions a great variety of tents in royal use ranging from modest *rawatis* and *darweshis* to 'double storeyed' and 'eight-pillared *shamyanas*'.
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² For furnishings, *ibid.*, A.A., I, 51.
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Before we close the description of royal dwellings, we shall consider a few other features of the residential palace. The royal residence occupied a conspicuous site, on an elevated spot, if possible. It was generally built by the side of a river so that the beauty of the building was enhanced by the stream which reflected it by day and threw its shadows by night.³ It is difficult to convey in words what one feels on visit to the royal buildings of Agra and Delhi or Lahore and Mandu. Beautiful gardens and other open spaces surrounded the palace. We have seen how stone was used in places like Chanderi where it was available. Red stone was used in large quantities. It was rubbed and polished to such fineness that in the words of Amir Khusrau, one could see one's reflection in the stone walls of the palace of Delhi.⁴ Little is said about the flooring of palaces until we come to the time of Babur, who is credited with using red stones for the flooring of his retiring rooms and drawing rooms, probably for the first time in Hindustan, though the point seems open to doubt.¹ How far marble was used is not clear, but the existing remains show that the extensive use of fine marble was deferred till the later days of Mughal glory.
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³ Compare Q.S., 42-3.
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⁴ *Ibid.*
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¹ Compare the account of Gulbadan, 14-15.
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The palace of the Sultan had numerous apartments, namely a *Jamkhana* or drawing room, dressing rooms, bathrooms, retiring rooms opening into enclosed courtyards, the female apartments. The palace walls were decorated with silk hangings and velvet tapestries fringed with brocade and worked with precious stones.² The usual articles of decoration were arms and weapons with gold, ebony and damascened work, candle-sticks, candelabras, carpets, ewers, scent boxes, writing cases, chess boards, book-cases and covers, etc. Candles were used to light the chambers by night. Torches and portable wick-lamps were also used on occasions.³ A number of additions were made to the usual features of the old palaces by Babur, of which a summer house (*chau-kandi*), flower beds, marble baths and the *Baoli* and fountains at Agra are the more important.⁴
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² For the apartments and decorations compare the accounts in Afif, 100-101; Q., 534; K.K., 472.
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³ For the chandeliers etc., see Q.S., 123-4, 127; B.N., 409.
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⁴ Compare G., 14-15, where small cabinets in towers (or *Burjees*) are also mentioned, but the point is open to doubt, as *burjees* are mentioned in Malwa and other places.
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For a long time the mansions of nobles of rank and dignitaries of State do not appear to have been built within the royal quarters, though probably they were not situated at a very long distance from it. A more unfettered and intimate social intercourse began to prevail among the noble classes only after the establishment of the Mughal dynasty and with the growth of a thoroughly Indian outlook among all the ruling classes. So that the houses of Birbal and Faizi at Sikri remind the visitor of the frequent interchange of visits between the monarch and his favourite nobles and their mutual care and devotion.
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We have noted in a earlier chapter that the present Delhi is composed of numerous older cities and that this consummation was natural. We shall only note here that by the time of Muhammad Tughluq four seperate royal cities had come into existence, namely the Old City or the city proper, Siri, Tughluqabad and Jahan Panah built by the monarch himself. Muhammad Tughluq wanted to circumvallate all of them by a big wall which has already been described, but the plan had to be abandoned owing to its immense cost.¹
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¹ Compare K.R., II, 15-16.
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*The houses of Nobels.*—There is comparatively little information about the mansions (*havailis*) of the nobility. It appears, however, that they were built on the plan of the royal buildings. There was comparatively more security for the nobles than for the monarchs, which was reflected in better repose and composure in the homes of the former. The mansions of the nobles were big buildings with spacious apartments. There were drawing Rooms, baths, sometimes a water-tank, a spacious courtyard, and even a library. Separate apartments were assigned for the use of the ladies of the haram. The drawing rooms were sometimes decorated with costly hangings and beautiful curtains.² The walls of the houses of the richer Hindu classes were probably painted and white-washed and the doors were of ornamental wood-work.³ Some references are found about the houses of upper classes in Bengal and Gujarat. The Bengal houses were conspicuous for the construction of a tank on one side of the house, an orchard on the other, bamboo groves on the third side, and open spaces on the fourth.⁴ The houses of Orissa were spacious and tall structures with orchards of fruit trees and plots of land for purposes of cultivation.⁵ Gujarat was similarly a very advanced country in respect of house-construction. Cambay was ‘a most excellent city’. People of Khambayat had ‘many vegetable and fruit gardens and orchards which they used for their pleasures’. Champanir and Ahmadabad came into prominence at the close of our period. There were fine houses with big courtyards, tanks and wells of sweet water, all made of stone in both the cities.¹ Marwari merchants of those days were very fond of bathing and constructed many water-tanks in their houses in addition to the usual orchards and gardens.²
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² Compare a description of the house of a noble named Khalifa in Koil (Aligarh) where Gulbadan was received by the Mughal Emperor. The house in this case was furnished with rich Gujarat curtains fringed with gold-threads. Separate apartments were assigned for Gulbadan and other ladies. *Vide* G., 18, 20-23. Compare Amir Khusrau’s description of the house of a noble, IK., V, 58, 87-88. Compare *Babur-Nama*, 234 for the account of the library in the house of Ghazi Khan, an Afghan noble of Milwat. Babur bears testimony to the enormous number of ‘theological books’ which he found there.
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³ Compare Macauliffe, I, 275 for a reference.
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⁴ Compare J.D.L., 1927, 116; also Barbosa, II, 147 for large watertanks inside Muslim house in Bengal.
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⁵ Compare A., 165.
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¹ Compare for Khambayat, Varthema, 106, Barbosa, I, 161. Compare Barbosa, I, 125 for Champanir and Ahmadabad. ² Compare *ibid*., I, 113. ³ Compare T.F., II, 787. ⁴ Compare B., 117 for the term; compare K.R., II, 73 for other details. ⁵ Compare Frampton, 137; Major, 22.
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It has been suggested by the author of the *Tarikh-i-Firishta* that the people of Hindustan as a whole did not know how to enjoy their beautiful rivers and wide expanses of water. According to him, the people of the Deccan were fond of building their houses near running streams; while in the North, ‘if a person pitched his tent on the bank of a river, he screened it from the stream’. They displayed the same want of good taste in the construction of their houses. As a result, observes Firishta, their mansions look like prison houses and their towns and cities are flat.³ We are not in a position to judge of the correctness of these remarks, but in any case they do not apply to the royal buildings or even to the houses and cities of the Hindus, most of which are situated on the rivers.
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*II. Furniture.*—We have made several references to the articles of use in the royal palaces. No comprehensive account is available but some idea may be gathered from what follows. Among general furniture, we may mention beds and chairs. The bedsteads, as they are even to-day, were made of four cross-pieces of wood resting on four legs and were woven with braids of cotton or silk (*niwar*). Other kinds of light and easily portable beds were also used, so that a person often carried his bedstead with him on a journey. Among articles of bedding, we may include two mattresses, pillows and coverlets which were sometimes made of silk for the nobility and rich people. Cotton or linen slips were used for the mattresses and pillows and were changed very frequently. The common term for all these articles of bedding, including the bed, was *chaparkhat*.⁴ In some cases, rich people used bedsteads ornamented with gold and silver and fitted with silk mattresses.⁵ The rich Hindus sometimes used beautiful mats known as *Sital-patis* for mattresses and filled their pillows with mustard seeds. Mosquito curtains were also used in some malarious parts of Bengal.¹
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¹ Compare J.D.L., 1927, 241-2.
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The aristocracy used long chairs with seats made of silk. Other people used *Pidis* or seats made of jackwood and coral and interlaced with cotton strings. *Mundas* of reed were also used.² Poorer classes were satisfied with iron stools and the rich had diwans and cushions.³ A variety of fans was used by the common people. The rich used fly-whisks of many kinds.⁴
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² Compare I.K., I, 216 for ebony chairs; for other articles, B., 273; J.D.L., 1927, 243.
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³ M.T.I., 125.
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⁴ For fly-whisks see P. (hin.), 269; J.D.L., 1927, 223-4.
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It appears from a prohibition of Sultan Firuz Tughluq that the use of silver and gold plate, of golden ornamented sword-belts, quivers and cups, ewers and goblets, and of other articles the use of which the monarch considered against Islam, was fairly common among the nobility. Among other luxuries which were similarly prohibited mention is made of the pictures of men, houses and scenery which appeared on curtains, tents, and chairs. It is, moreover, made quite clear that all rich homes were furnished with many rich bedsteads, articles of bedding and all other kinds of furniture.⁵
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⁵ Compare A., 100 for furniture in aristocratic homes. Compare account of the Sultan in *Futuhat-i-Firuz Shahi* for prohibitions. *Vide* F., 10-11.
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Reference may be made in this connection to domestic pets. Of all domestic animals, the Indian parrot is by far the most popular. It is credited with possessing all the wisdom of ancient sages and all the affection of a brother and a friend. It can repeat a number of phrases and other suitable words in an intelligent manner. Thus the parrot was a familiar pet in the houses of both the rich and the poor, and even in royal palaces.⁶ The parrot's cage was an elegant piece of furniture, according to the means of a family.⁷ Mention is also made of monkeys among domestic pets, but the animal was always looked upon as anything but harmless, sweet, or innocent.¹ Dogs of great variety were popular and were trained for the chase and for the security and guarding of homes.
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⁶ Compare the account of Hiraman, the famous parrot of Padumavat in the work of Malik Muhammad Jaisi. Compare also the account of Timur (M., 290) for the present of a parrot by Nahar. This parrot had enjoyed the company of many kings and rulers. Compare also Muhammad Husain Azad's account of the parrot's condemnation of Rumi Khan's treachery in Gujarat on the invasion of Humayun in his History of Urdu Language, *Ab-i-Hayat* (Urdu), Lahore, 1883, pp.18-19.
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⁷ Compare a description of a parrot's cage by Chandi Das, the Bengali Poet. The stands for the bird, the cups and vases, the bells tied to the feet
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¹ Compare Amir Khusrau’s reference to monkeys, IK., I, 179.
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The subject of conveyances is also interesting, since people usually had to provide for themselves. For an ordinary journey, people went on horse-back or travelled in *gardun* or wheeled carriages of great variety. In Khambayat, it is reported, coaches and chariots of great beauty were used. They were closed and covered like the rooms of a house; their windows were adorned with gilded leather or silk hangings; their mattresses were made of silk. Their quilts and cushions were similarly very rich.² Women moved about in covered conveyances. For small distances they usually hired a *Dola* for women, which was a palanquin-like structure supported on bamboos and conveyed by special porters in batches of eight, who worked in shifts. There was also a diminutive form, known as *Doli* which has already been referred to. *Palkis* (palanquins) were used by richer classes of people especially for long distances. The halting stages were provided with inns (*saray*) and shops, and with relays of men and animals, and even spare conveyances.³
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² Compare the account of Barbosa, I, 141.
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³ Compare the account of Ibn Batuta, K.R., II, 75; also references in Amir Khusrau, IK., V, 93. Compare also, the long journey of Khusrau Khan from Deogir to Delhi in 8 days in *Palki* when he was charged with conspiring to dethrone Mubarak Shah Khalji (*vide* B.40).
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We may form some idea of the domestic comforts of the nobles and richer classes from the fact that when some nobles of Sultan Hussain of Jaunpur fell into the hands of his enemy Sultan Sikandar Lodi, the latter assigned for each one of them one double-tent and canopy, one ordinary single tent, one bath room, two horses, 10 camels (probably for transport), 10 servants, and a bedstead and bedding, when they stayed in his camp.⁴ The traders on the western coast had the most refined tastes in matters of furnishing.⁵
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⁴ Compare the account of *Tarikh-i-Daudi*, f. 29.
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⁵ Compare the account of Barbosa (Vol. 147-8), how the traders of Gujarat used porcelain. The people of Rander had many shelves-full of beautiful porcelain crockery in many designs.
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of the bird, were all made of gold; so that the cage shone like ‘the chariot of the sun-god’. *Vide J.D.L.*, 1930, 276-7.
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III. Dresses and Clothes.—In matters of dressing, there was no uniformity among the various social and religious groups of Hindustan. There was a certain uniformity among the peasants and lower classes which mainly consisted in reducing their clothing to a minimum. We have referred to the State dress and other equipment of a monarch. In private, the monarch did not differ very much from other distinguished nobles in his dress, except for the quality of the material and the frequency with which he changed it. For their head-dress, the earlier Sultans of Delhi usually wore a kulah or the tall Tartar cap. Jalal-ud-din is reported to have worn a turban. For coating they used tight-fitting tunics of qaba, made of muslin or fine wool according to the season. The later day Peshwaz and Anga were modelled on it. In cold weather, the monarch sometimes wore an overcoat over the tunic, the Dagla, which was like a loose gown stuffed with carded cotton or some other material. On closer contact with western countries, Farghul or fur-coats began to be used by the monarchs. The Mughal Emperor Humayun introduced a new design of overcoat which was cut at the waist and was open in front. Humayun wore it over the qaba, in many colours according to his astrological fancies. This coat was also presented as Khil'at to the nobles and other people on various occasions. Ordinary shirts, shalwar (a kind of loose drawers) and light and beautiful shoes were in use. Separate suits of clothes were worn for the night.¹
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¹ Compare Raverty, 643 for an early reference to qaba; A.A., I, 102. 103 for materials; compare B., 273 for a reference to dagla; compare Khvand-mir, 141-2 for Humayun's new design of an overcoat. Compare A.N., I, 325 for ordinary wear and night suits. A variety of the ordinary light shoes are still known as Salim-Shahi shoes in Delhi.
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The nobles wore a khil'at suit on public occasions, if they belonged to the rank of Sultan's peers. This official dress consisted of a kulah for head-dress, a tunic worked in brocade and velvet and a white belt. A noble of rank usually rode on a fine Tartar stallion with costly trappings and a few retainers walking before and after him.² In private, the noble usually wore the short Hindu turban (pag), a tunic of some fine texture and the ordinary shirt and drawers. Underwear of muslin or of some other fine material was used. Sleeping suits, as has been noticed, were used and were commonly changed every week.¹ The dress of the lesser nobility and other people may be judged accordingly.
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² Compare B. (ms.) 73. Compare K.K., 774 for Kulahs made of brocade and studded with tiaras and pearls.
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¹ Compare W.M., 37 for the ordinary clothes of a noble. Compare also D.R. 301 for tunics made of silk and velvet and shirts and underwear of fine muslins. Reference to the Hindu turban (pag) has been made by Amir Khusrau in a famous verse. *Vide Ab-i-Hayat*, Lahore Edition (Urdu) of Muhammad Hussain Azad, p.52.
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Special classes of people had their own distinctive dresses. There was no special uniform for a soldier, whose arms alone distinguished him from other people.² The royal slaves were conspicuous for the use of a waist-band, a handkerchief in their pocket, red shoes and the ordinary *kulah*. The government officials usually wore signet rings of silver or gold on their fingers.³
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² Compare W.M., 32-3 for an illustration. Compare M.T.I., 459, how heavy turbans marked the head-dress of the Mughal Cavalry in the beginning.
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³ Compare T., 12 for the official signet; A., 268 for the dress of slave. For dresses of other classes, *J.R.A.S.*, 1895, 532 for the account of Mahuan. The mountebank of Bengal (as probably of Delhi) fastened his waist with a scarf of coloured silk and wore a tunic embroidered with black thread. A string of coloured stones and coral beads hung from his shoulders and a bracelet of dark red stones was worn round his wrist. Compare the account of Amir Khusrau how a *Mirasi* or a professional musician was known by his immense and loose drawers. *Vide IK.*, IV., 48.
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The variety of dresses is nowhere so striking as among the religious classes of the Muslims. The ordinary orthodox Muslim was only anxious to wear clothes of simple material like linen and to avoid silks, velvets, brocade or furs and coloured garments, in accordance with the spirit of the Shari‘at. His turban was usually of the standard size of seven yards, and if there were any ends, they were thrown at the back. He wore the ordinary shirt and drawers. An orthodox Muslim was very particular in wearing socks and shoes to maintain the ritual purity of his ablutions and did not forget to recite the proper Qur’anic verse (The *Qadr*., Chap. XCVII) when he washed them. He would not wear any except perhaps as iron ring.⁴ The ascetics were not a class, but individuals, in matters of dressing. Some wore a tall darwish cap, the *Qalansuwah* on their head and wooden sandals on their feet and wrapped just a sheet of unsewn cloth round themselves.⁵ The Sufis, as other men of letters, chose to wear loose gowns made of woollen material.¹
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⁴ Compare T., 12-13.
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⁵ Compare references in B., 112; A.S., 12.
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¹ Compare K.R., II, 90.
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Bengal and Gujarat though not very different from the rest of the country had a few distinguishing features. For instance, the Muslim aristocracy of Bengal wore the usual small turban of white cloth, a long tunic with a collar, pointed leather shoes, a broad and coloured waistband and the usual shirt and drawers. At other times they used a decagonal cap as head-dress.² In Gujarat where Moorish influence prevailed, heavy Moorish turbans and loose drawers, long shoes of leather going up to the knees, and finger-rings were popular. The servants usually carried daggers or other arms behind their master.³
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² Compare Notices, etc., 313.
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³ Compare Barbosa, II 147; also I, 120.
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Coming to Hindu dresses, we have already remarked that the Hindu turban was becoming popular among Muslims of the upper classes. The Hindu aristocracy, as a rule, followed the Muslim nobility in their dresses. If one removed the sectarian mark or some distinctive ornament of the Hindu upper classes (for instance, the ear-ring among the Rajputs) there was very little to distinguish a Hindu from a Muslim nobleman.⁴ Among the various other social classes, the Brahmans and ascetics were conspicuous for their public appearance and dress. The upper country Brahman put a caste-mark (tilaka) on his forehead and a dhoti, if possible, trimmed with gold lace. He put a forked stick (or baisakhi) in his hand and sandals, probably studded with pegs of rich metal, on his feet, and thus went about the town bestowing his blessings on all and sundry.⁵
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⁴ Compare for instance the description of Rajput dress in Tod, II, 759. Compare also Tod's description of dress in Jaisalmer State. 'The dress of the Bhattis consists of a Jama or tunic of white cloth or chintz reaching to the knee; the kamarband, or ceinture, tied so high as to present no appearance of waist; trousers very loose, and in many folds, drawn tight at the ankle, and a turban, generally of a scarlet colour, rising canonically full a foot from the head. A dagger is stuck in the waist-band; a shield is suspended by a thong of deer-skin from the left shoulder, and the sword is girt by a belt of the same material'. Vide II, 1253-4. Compare also Grierson, Bihar Peasant Life, 143-5 for some old terms for dresses and dresses still in vogue.
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⁵ Compare P., 176.
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There was no uniform dress for ascetics (sadhus, jogis) of either sex. The more demonstrative carried a deer-skin for a robe, but the nobler spirits disdained such ostentations and vanity.¹ Some of the ascetics contented themselves with a simple loin-cloth (*langota*) and a dried gourd to supply all their needs of clothing and other necessities.² Others who conformed to the rules of their order usually shaved their heads, put heavy rings round their ears, carried a deer horn and besmeared themselves with ashes. A few added to their equipment such prescribed articles as an ochre robe, a *chakra*, a trident, a rosary, necklace of jujubes, wooden sandals, an umbrella, a deer-skin, a begging bowl.³ The followers of Nanak discarded these characteristics of ascetics and wore ordinary dress like other people.
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¹ Compare Sircar, 114.
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² Compare *ibid*., 54; compare Temple, 173 for Lalla's supreme contempt for the human weakness of clothing. She chose to wander about clothed 'by the air, clad in the sky'. See also another reference to naked Sadhus. P., 238.
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³ Compare a description in Sircar, 111; P., 273; *J.D.L.*, 1927, 35; Shah, 164; Macauliffe, I, 30-1, 94, 102, 162.
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Among other general features of Hindu dressing : People usually went bare headed and bare-footed. A *dhoti* or a single sheet of long cloth below the waist was a sufficient and respectable dress.⁴ In Gujarat, some people used a red handkerchief for head-dress.⁵ Some of the Gujarati Banias wore long shirts of silk or cotton and pointed shoes with short coats of silk, even of brocade. The Brahman of Gujarat wore a *dhoti* and usually went bare above his waist, just throwing a triple sacred thread over the body.⁶
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⁴ Compare Varthema, 109.
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⁵ Compare Barbosa, I, 113, 116.
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⁶ Compare Barbosa, I, 113-4; also P.Bv.
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There is very little to describe about woman's garments. There were usually only two varieties. One consisted of a long *chadar* or fine sheet of muslin (not unlike the modern *sari*) and a bodice or *chola* with short sleeves, going down the back to the waist, with an additional *Angiya* or brassiere of a dark colour for grown up maidens or married women. This dress had the advantage of leaving their arms free and their heads just slightly covered by the hem of the *Sari*.⁷ The other variety, which was more popular in the Doab, consisted of a *lahanga* or a long and very loose skirt, a *chola* and an *angiya* as in the former case with a *rupatia* or a long scarf which was sometimes thrown over to cover the head.¹ Ladies of Gujarat wore leather shoes with gold trimmings.² Nothing is known about other provinces, but the probability is that more women wore shoes than men. Muslim ladies of the upper classes usually wore loose drawers, a shirt and a long scarf, together with the usual veil or shroud. These features of female dress are still more or less prevalent in Hindustan. It may be added that blue was the colour of mourning and except under specified cases, women avoided wearing dresses of that colour for every day use.³ In other respects women were fond of bright colours and of prints or drawings on the cloth.⁴
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⁷ Compre Frampton, 136.
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¹ Compare the account of Padumavat, 214; A.A., II, 183; Sudama-charitra, 10.
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² Compare Frampton, 136.
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³ Compare A.N., I, 155; A.A., II, 171-2.
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⁴ Compare the estimate of Amir Khusrau. I.K., 274. A reference to ‘painted cloth’ has already been made in connection with the manufacture of cloth.
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Considering that the diversity of Indian dress still engages the mind of some people who would very much like to evolve a common dress for all Indians, it may be added here that Guru Nanak appears to have given considerable time and attention to the problem. He is reported in the Sikh tradition to have himself used a number of combinations of Hindu and Muslim dresses, without really succeeding in harmonizing the various distinctive features of each.⁵ The nobility, as we have pointed out, slowly evolved a common dress for themselves; and the poor people universally went about almost naked.
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⁵ Compare a description of the dress of Nanak-panthis in the South during the last century. They used to put coloured strings (seli) round their necks, a spot of lamp black in the centre of their foreheads; smeare their faces with sandal-wood paste; carried small Qur’ans as an amulet; and wore necklaces of conch-shell. Vide Crooke’s ‘Herklot’s Islam,’ 179. For the various combinations of dresses worn by Guru Nanak, compare Macauliffe, I, 58, 135, 174, 163.
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Few records show the characteristic vanity of theologians so well as their attempts to safeguard their exclusive dress. It has even been suggested by the legal compendium compiled under Firuz Tughluq that the State should take active measures in prohibiting the Hindus from wearing the distinctive dress of the Muslim theologians.⁶ We have never come across a single attempt on the part of the Hindus to justify these insertions of the *Fiqh-i-Firuzshahi*. It is extremely doubtful if such a change was comfortable or even desirable. Although dresses are undergoing modifications in Hindustan, the older male and female dresses have survived to a large extent.¹
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⁶ Compare the discussion of the question in F.F., 418b which exposes its purely theoretic character.
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¹ Compare how recently the Muslim drawers have been adopted by Hindu women in the Punjab. *Vide* I.G.I., XX, 293. Other dresses are more or less the same as at an earlier period, for instance, the loose skirt (*lahanga*) is used by upper class ladies of Rajputana (*vide* Tod, II, 758-9, 1253-4); the *sari* is universally worn in Bengal and Bombay (I.F.I., XXIV, 174, XX, 293). Among masculine garments, the *dhoti* and the turban (both large and small) are universally used. Compare also Grierson, Bihar Peasant Life, 147-9 for the names of dresses still in use.
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IV. *Cosmetics, Toilets, and Ornaments.* The leisured classes had special facilities for cultivating physical attractiveness among both sexes. The orthodox Muslim and the Sufi influences both encouraged a greater care of physical adornments. The beard of the theologian and his long and flowing lock of hair were greater fields for diversion than the feminine faces of the nobles and other rich people, of which the Prophet had once disapproved.² The combing of beards and the use of scents and rich dresses were considered to be signs of respectability and good breeding.³ It was a popular craze to look young even though youth had receded beyond recall. Respectable persons used all kinds of devices to succeed in this.⁴
First 117 of 163 passages. Read on
Linked texts (6)
- Padmāvat — Malik Muhammad Jāyasī 1540, Awadhī
- Jahanpanah
- Champaner
- Sīrī
- Ahmadâbâd
- Sudāmā carit — Gujarati