Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s3.t3: III. Popular Amusements

Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s3.t3

Language: English

III. Popular Amusements

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There was a great variety of popular amusements; religious festivals and periodical pilgrimages to holy shrines provided some of these; public receptions and official celebrations provided others. Folk-dances, songs, jugglers' tricks, were the share of common people in every-day life, and their hard life and its exacting toil were forgotten from time to time in these innocent recreations.³

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³ Compare the estimate of *Tarikh-i-Tahiri* regarding the people of Thatta (Sind). 'Other nations possess greater wealth and greater skill, but such light-heartedness and contentment as to labour for one day and to repose for the rest of the week, to have but moderate desires and enjoy boundless ease, this has been reserved for the people of Thatta alone'. *Vide* E..D., I, 274.

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*Hindu Festivals.*—In comparison with the Muslim festivals, the religious and social festivals of the Hindus are to be noted for the manner of their celebration and the appropriate seasons in which they occur. They usually synchronise with the seasons of comparative leisure for the peasantry and are as a rule enjoyed with dances and popular tunes. Ruling dynasties have come and gone; calamities and disasters have occurred and have been forgotten; people have suffered and groaned, but the local and general festivals have abided and have always been observed with enthusiasm and gaiety. The introduction of new cults and religious faiths has not changed the character of these popular festivals. On the other hand, the newcomers have only added to their richness and variety. Though these festivals cater for the religious emotions of a few, the vast majority is supremely indifferent to their religious significance. For them they are popular occasions of universal social enjoyment and intercourse.

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It is difficult to describe all the local and general festivals. A few of these sprang into special prominence which they maintain even to-day.¹ The most popular festivals were those of Basant Panchami, Holi, Dipavali (or popularly Divali), Sivaratri, and others connected with the various incidents of the life of Krishna. The Basant festival was the harbinger of spring and occurred in the month of Magha. It was conspicuous for the singing of songs, folk-dances and the scattering of red powder. In some ways Holi was a more important festival, at any rate for the Sudras or the lower classes of Hindus. It was celebrated by huge bon-fires, by popular songs and by the usual scattering of red powder (gulal). The Holi was observed in the month of Phalguna. The night of the 29th of Magha was the festival of Sivaratri, which was observed by the religious minded with night vigil and prayers. The 25th of the Karttika was the festival of Divali or Dipavali.²

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¹ Compare Ross, Feasts, etc. for an account of Hindu festivals, pp. 17-18, 75-6, 77.

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² Compare A.A., II, 188-91, for an account of Hindu festivals.

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All the festivals were celebrated in their own way. For instance the worship of Mahadeva figures prominently in the Basant Panchami festival. Vermillion and red powder were scattered in such abundance that, to borrow the figure of speech from Malik Muhammad Jaisi, ‘everything was red from the earth to the sky’. The young maidens did not forget to take their offerings of fruits and flowers to the temple of Siva where after washing the emblem of Siva with sandal and aloe-wood paste and painting it with vermilion, they prayed for the fulfilment of their most intimate wishes, which of course included the wish for a loving spouse. Then, probably after the promise of a second offering to the god, on condition of fulfilment, they returned home.³ Similarly, for three days on the occasion of the Holi festival, Hindus of all castes and classes drenched everybody, including passers-by, with saffron and coloured water. On the third day, in the evening, probably the whole population crowded round a huge bon-fire and took omens from it for the prospects of the next harvest.¹ The Sivaratri festival was celebrated with fire-works by the common people, while the more sober and religious minded kept the night vigil. After the customary worship of the goddess Lakshmi, people used to whirl round torches and burning sticks or ‘fire-brands’.²

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³ Compare the account of a characteristic celebration of Basant Panchami, in Padumavat, 417-27.

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¹ Compare for the celebration of Holi festival, Crooke, Popular Religion 343; also Frampton, 42, for a descritption of Nicolo Conti which most probably applies to this festival.

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² Compare P.P., 135, for a celebration of Sivaratri by the soldiers of Raja Lakshamana; also Carpenter, 306, for a description of a ‘fire-brand’. It was an ancient and familiar boys’ game played by whirling a burning stick swiftly through the air, thus producing the impression of a circle of fire.

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Divali, in some respects was most delightful and pleasing. It is appropriately designated as ‘the festival of lights’. Once in a year the spirits of the sainted dead were permitted to return to their earthly homes and familiar surroundings to fraternise with the mortals of this earth. The relations were naturally happy to give the spirits of their forefathers a cheerful welcome. Wick lamps were lighted in vast number everywhere, inside and outside their homes and all over the temples and public buildings. The whole place looked like a flood of illumination.³ It was the most popular festival of the Vaisyas or bankers and other commercial classes. Everybody was anxious to divine his luck for the coming year. Gambling was therefore universally resorted to as a magical means of tracing fortune.⁴

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³ Compare Crooke, Popular Religion, etc., 346, for an analysis of Divali. Compare Frampton, 42, for a description of illuminations.

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⁴ Compare A.A., II, 188-91, for gambling on the occasion of the Divali festival.

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Dasehra was very popular with the Khsatriyas and all agricultural classes. The festival occurred on the 10th of Jaistha (now also called Vijay Dasmi) and the favourite Saivite goddess Durga was worshipped by the above-mentioned classes. The other prominent feature was the worship of the respective implements of their trade, profession or occupation. The Rajput brought his horse after decorating its forehead with green sprouts of barley; the peasants and craftsmen brought their tools and worshipped them.⁵ Purna-mashi occurred on the full moon of the month of Sravana and was the favourite festival of the Brahmans. Rakhis (or strings made of silk thread and tinsel) were put as wristlets on the hands of young men by the maidens for good luck and affection.

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⁵ Ibid.

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Among the festivals of social importance are chiefly those which celebrate the births of Rama, Krishna, Parasurama, and Narasingha. Krishna was the most popular of all the gods during our period and his cult was fast spreading. At Puri, Lord Jagannatha was brought out in his car with great pageantry at various times in the year. People behaved towards this idol of Krishna exactly as they would to a living god. He embodied all the purest and the finest emotions of the popular mind. In the land of *Braj* (round about Muttra in the United Provinces) where the god was born and played with his mates and milkmaids, every incident of his life was celebrated with intense devotion. We shall refer later to *Krishna-lilas*.¹

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¹ Compare the account of Chaitanya's biography, Sircar, 164, and. Chaitanya's visit to Brindaban.

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Among pilgrimages, there were several that became popular. Some of them were made to the shrines or relics of popular saints, others probably to sacred cities as they are to-day. The important river pilgrimages during this period were more or less confined to the Ganges, especially on the first of a lunar month. Large parties of pilgrims travelled together for convenience and safety and took ample provisions to last them on their long journey. On the whole, these pilgrimages must have been pleasant and romantic in those days of arduous travelling and dangers on the road.²

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² Compare E.D., I, 273; also Ross, Feasts for Hindu pilgrimages.

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Muslim Festivals.—Speaking from the orthodox viewpoint, Muslim life as a whole has little room for any kind of social festivals. Large numbers make the pilgrimage to Mecca and others attend the *Id* prayers. But in every case, the atmosphere of these religious gatherings is too sombre and austere to call them social festivals. However, Indian environment and tradition were bound to react in course of time on this rigidity of Muslim ritual. As a result, although the form of the orthodox religious congregations remained, their nature and purpose underwent a great deal of modification in the environment of Hindustan. Other new festivals were super-imposed on the Muslim Calendar which were predominantly social and indigenous.

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As we have excluded from the present survey the study of modifications in the Muslim rituals and prayers, we shall confine ourselves to the enumeration only of those festivals which were introduced into the orthodox Muslim Calendar. Among the festivals that were officially recognized by the State was the popular Persian festival of *Nau-roz*, to which we had occasion to refer earlier in our treatment. The *Nau-roz* was a spring festival. It was usualy celebrated in large gardens and riverside parks with music and flowers.¹ On the whole its observance was confined to the upper classes of Muslims who were very closely associated with the Sultan. It has more or less died out now in Hindustan.² The Mughal Emperor Humayun was the first monarch who forbade its observance, professedly under religious influence. The usual State banquet on the day of *Nau-roz* was, however, retained.³

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¹ Compare I.K., IV, 330, for a description; also K.K., 18, for verses on the occasion.

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² Compare Ross, Feasts, 110, for the survival of the Nau-roz festival in Murshidabad (Bengal).

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³ K., 150.

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The other important festival was that of *Shab Barat* (‘the night of record’) which fell on the 14th day of *Sha‘ban*.⁴ It has been aptly described as the ‘Guy Fawkes Day of Islam’ although its associations are totally different from the parallel English festival. It professes to commemorate an appropriate legend of Islam, but this is not the whole truth. It is difficult to make a positive assertion, but the *Shab Barat* festival is probably copied from the Hindu festival of Sivaratri.⁵ Some religious enthusiasts spent the whole night of *Shab Barat* in offering special prayers and reading the Holy Book and other formulae.⁶ Common people spent their time in making merry. The distinguishing features of popular celebration were the extensive use of fire-works and the illumination of homes and mosques.⁷

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⁴ Note that the *Shab Barat* festival is very different from another religious observance called *Lailatul-Qadr* (‘Night of power’). The precise date of it is not known, but the consensus of opinion is that it often falls on the 27th night of the month of Ramazan. Compare Ross, Feasts, etc., 111-2, for the modern observance of *Shab Barat*. For further details, see Mir Hassan Ali’s book.

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⁵ The night vigil and fire-works are elements common to both festivals. Fire-works were also used in the Hindu festival of Mahanadi in the South. *Vide* Major.

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⁶ Compare an illustration in T.D., 104-5.

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⁷ Compare the account of Amir Khusrau who finds young urchins of Delhi playing with fire-works and making the city a virtual ‘blazing hell of

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After the festival became generally prevalent, the Sultans were not slow to join in the celebrations. It is reported, for instance, that Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq celebrated the festival for four days. On the approach of *Shah Barat*, he used to collect loads of fire-works and crackers. Four giant piles of these materials were reserved for the Sultan; one was assigned to his brother, the Barbak; one was given to Malik Ali and another to Malik Ya'qub. Some idea may be formed of these fire-works from the fact that thirty ass-loads of crackers alone were collected. On the successive nights of the 13th, the 14th and the 15th Sha'ban, these fire-works were lighted. The effect of the illumination, as the chronicler describes it, gave to the nights the look of broad daylight. Four big trays-full of these fire-works, accompanied by musicians, were distributed to the crowds of people who gathered to watch the spectacle in Firuzabad. During the night of the 15th Sha'ban, gifts were sent to houses of charity and other charitable institutions.¹

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¹ Compare for details, A., 365-7.

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The Muharram was observed in modest proportions. Whatever be the truth in ascribing the introduction of *Ta'ziyas* (or imitation mausoleums of the martyrs of Karbala) to Timur, his influence was not felt in this direction in Hindustan.² It is not difficult, however, to appreciate the introduction of elaborate Muharram preparations at a later date in a land like Hindustan.³ Orthodox and religious-minded Muslims spent the first ten days of Muharram in reading the account of the martyrdom of the heroes of Karbala and in offering special prayers for their spiritual benefit.⁴ They did not proceed beyond these

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² Compare a detailed account of Muharram celebrations in Mrs. Mir Hassan Ali's book; also Crooke's Herklots Islam, etc., 164 and Havell's History of Aryan rule, 168, for an early notice of Buddhist image processions in Hindustan by Fa-hian the Chinese traveller.

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³ The various elements of the present day Muharram 'Passion-Play', namely, the *Ta'ziyas* or miniature models of the mausoleums of the martyrs of Karbala, the relics of the heroes and the numerous wailings and demonstrations were all present in Hindustan. Relic worship was common among Muslims, who worshipped the supposed footprints of Adam and Muhammad quite as zealously as the Hindus did their relics. The Jagannath car and the Krishnalilas and their processions were almost identical with Muharrum processions.

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⁴ Compare I.K., IV, 328, for some references. The growing Shi'a

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Abraham's legend'. He further states that everybody sent a few wick-lamps to illuminate the local mosque. *Vide* I.K., IV 324. Compare also the corroborative account of Amir Hasan in *Diwan-i-Hasan-i-Dehlavi*, 32.

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limits under the Sultans of Delhi.

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The popular Muslim pilgrimages were confined to the graves of reputed saints, the most important of whom was Mas‘ud Salar Ghazi of Bahraich (U.P.).¹ The ‘Urs or annual anniversaries of reputed saints were only beginning to come into public prominence. Some *Sufis* and other followers of famous saints used to congregate over the graves of saints once a year, but this observance was confined to a very small number of people. Visits to the tombs of saints were becoming more popular. We have already mentioned the prohibition of Sultan Firuz Tughluq which forbade women going to the tombs outside the city of Delhi. In Sind, great crowds of men and women used to flock to the Makli mountain on the first Friday of every lunar month to visit the grave of some reputed saint. There is a record of similar visits to other shrines on the first Monday of every month in Sind, where about a dozen such places existed. Such vast crowds of people assembled that there was hardly any room to stand. The visitors spent the day in amusement and merry-making and returned late in the evening

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¹ It should be remembered in this connection that in India as in other countries of Islam (cf. Stein’s account of Turkestan) many present Muslim shrines are situated on the older sites of ‘indfidel’ remains—Buddhists and Hindus. The tomb of Sayyid Salar is possibly built on a temple of the sun. (Compare I.G.I; ‘Bahraich’ for Buddhist remains in the district).

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The orthodox people, and the theologians in particular, were naturally annoyed at this freedom of social intercourse between the two sexes and the whole atmosphere of light-heartedness and jovialty that characterized these congregations. Commonsense, however, was very slow to listen to these wise-acres and as the author of *Tarikh-i-Tahiri* remarks, ‘the custom has so long prevailed among these people and what time has sanctioned, they never relinquish’.² Thus the sanctity of usage over-rode all other considerations.

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² Compare E.D., I, 273-4.

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*Official receptions and State celebrations.*—Mention may be made in this connection of certain official celebrations in which everybody was invited to share, irrespective of social status or class distinctions. Such occasions were many, for instance the reception of a Sultan on his return to the capital

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feeling and influence is well illustrated in *Sayyid Jahangir Ashraf’s* (B. Museum MS.), *Maktubat*.

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after some memorable event, the celebration of a victory, the marriage of a prince or princess, the birth of the first son of a Sultan and so on. The celebrations were carried out on a more or less uniform pattern under both Hindu and Muslim contemporary rulers. In a large open maidan, arched pavilions were constructed and adorned with rich cloth and embroidered curtains. Carpets were spread on the floor. Sometimes a band played at the top of these arches and big chandeliers were hung under them for light and decoration. Dancing girls and musicians gave their performances and sweet drink (sharbat) and betel-leaves were freely distributed to the visitors.¹ Hindu

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¹ Compare an early reference to these arched pavilions in T.M. (III), 87-8. The arches were decorated with military weapons to receive Qutb-ud-din Aibak on his return from Ghazni after his marriage with the daughter of Yildiz. Compare an account of the public reception of Ulugh Khan Balban after his suppression of the Ranas of Sirmur Hills. Sultan Nasir-ud-din and people gathered on the Hauz-i-Rani. According to the chronicler the plain looked like ‘a multi-coloured flower garden’ through the effect of the rich dresses and other paraphernalia of decoration. (Vide Raverty, 834-5, for details.) Compare B., 106, for the reception of Sultan Balban on his return to Delhi after suppressing the Bengal rebellion. When Mu’izz-ud-din Kaiqubad returned to Delhi after meeting his father Bughra Khan, liquors and wines were stored in big jars and distributed free to the gathering of people. (Vide B., 164.) Compare the account of Amir Khusrau for the public reception of Khusrau Khan in Delhi by Murabak Shah Khalji in Kulliyat 700. Ibn Batuta gives two separate accounts of public receptions under Sultan Muhammad Tughluq. In one case, when the emissary of the Caliph entered the city of Delhi with the robes of the Abbasid Caliph and letters of recognition, a huge procession was formed to welcome him. Eleven four-storeyed arches of solid structure were built in Delhi to celebrate the event. All of them were decorated with embroidered silks and provided with male and female dancers and musicians to entertain the crowds of common people. Big jars of sweet drink (sharbat) were placed in them. Betel-leaves and sharbat were distributed free to all who joined the celebrations. (Vide K.R., I, 92, for details.) The other account is about one of the usual receptions given to the Sultan himself on his return to Delhi from numerous successful campaigns. Sixteen elephants decorated with gilded trappings and royal parasols were taken out for the royal procession and the royal route through the city of Delhi was decorated with silks and the walls were adorned with rich hangings. (Vide K.R., II, 38).

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Under the Mughals the city of Delhi was ordered to be decorated under official supervision (vide G., 28), but in other respects the celebrations were not very different. For instance, under Akbar when public entertainments were organized, the bazars of Agra and Sikri were decorated, and thousands of male and female musicians were employed to entertain the people with their performances. The State reception rooms (the Diwan-i-‘Am and the Diwan-i-Khas) were decorated with costly furniture mostly of European make and with excellent paintings. Grand pavillions and canopies were set up for official durbar. (Compare A.A., II, 309, for details.) It may be mentioned in this connection that arched pavilions were sometimes also constructed to proclaim the news of a victory of the royal forces. Thus the announcements—both from the pulpit of the principal mosques and princes sometimes added festal knots and festal urns or strings of mango sprouts to the decoration of these arches and announced the arrival of the guest of honour by a flourish of trumpets.¹ This opportunity of advertisement and display sometimes attracted a crowd of enterprising athletes, jugglers and various other showmen who exhibited their skill and amused the people, earning a modest sum of money into the bargain.² With more or less similar features of entertainment, these celebrations continued to be observed under the Mughal Emperors.

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¹ Compare P.B., CXXVII. Among the Sultans of Delhi the usual mode of receiving a State guest was to advance a few miles and then conduct him through triumphal arches along with the procession. Compare B., 60, for an illustration.

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² Compare an interesting account of public reception in D.R., 153-5.

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*Dancing and Singing.*—Among other amusements and recreations, dancing and singing were quite popular with the common people. A visitor to an Indian village in Hindustan still finds peasants and other folks gathering in their common *chowpals* for the Holi celebration to sing their popular ballads and dance. In some places, especially in the Doab, the popular annals of *Alhakhand* and the story of Nala and Damayanti are still recited in the evenings. We can quite imagine that the stirring episode of Raja Ratan Sen's escape from the royal prison of Delhi and the fight of Hamira Deva may have inspired the village minstrels and versifiers to sing of them. The Savan (Sravana) songs (for which special melodies of ‘*Hindola*’ and ‘*Savani*’ were composed during our period) were universally popular and were probably sung in communities and on the swings, as they are to-day.³

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³ Compare Shah, 182, 183, for new melodies.

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Dancing was much more popular than it is to-day. The cult of Krishna had greatly stimulated it, and men and women danced together, sometimes with bells tied to their feet.⁴ Among others, the popular Gujarati dance (what is now known as the *Garbha*) was prevalent on the west coast and was particularly pleasing to the eyes of the western visitors.⁵ The Afghans

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⁴ Compare P.B., LXXXII, for illustration.

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⁵ Compare the account of Nicolo Conti in Frampton, 142; Major, 29. The traveller was particularly fascinated by this dance which he compares to a contemporary European dance. The people danced round

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from these arches, were made simultaneously (*vide* B., 249). For an independent and indirect version of receptions see T I; 367.

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of Hindustan had not yet forgotten their folk dances, and usually celebrated events of national importance by dancing their customary dances with great enthusiasm and gusto, sometimes for days together.¹

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¹ Compare T.S.S., 48b, for the celebrations of the Afghan dances on the assumption of regal powers by Sher Shah.

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The popular dramatic art was degenerating into the mimicries of the mountebanks and the vulgar tricks of buffoons and professional jesters, when it was rescued to some extent by the new stimulus of the Krishna cult. The Krishnite forms were better suited to the needs of dramatic art, since they were so much more erotic than Ramite. *Krishna-lilas*, as these performances were called, were staged in certain parts of the country. Herein were enacted the familiar and popular events of the life of Krishna and his various exploits, such as his loves and the pranks he played on the milkmaids, the separation and grief of Radha, the killing of the tyrant Kans, etc. etc.² The *Rama-lilas* of a later date, which came into vogue with the popularity of the Rama cult and the poems of Tulasi Das and are still celebrated, were modelled on the lines of the Krishnalilas. This stimulus, however, was not sufficient to revive the ancient glory of Hindu Drama. Dancing and music also began to degenerate, mainly through assigning a special caste for them and by confining the scope of their development to the amusement of the upper classes and the service of religion.

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² Compare Macauliffe, I, 58. Compare also Ross, Feasts, 36-7, 41, for afew Hindu festivals; celebrating the waking of Hari or Vishnu on the 11th or 12th lunar day in the first half of Karttika after a long sleep of four months, the nativity of Krishna or Janamastami and the Dolayatra when the godi swun .

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*Acrobats, Jugglers, Mountebanks, etc.*—There was a great variety of acrobats and jugglers who performed their tricks both with and without the aid of animals. Acrobats had a very old tradition in Hindustan and appear to have acquired a very high degree of skill in their art. Every ruler employed a few acrobats to amuse himself and his guests.³ The common and lowly

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³ Compare P. (hin), 253, for an illustration.

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'following one another in order, and two of them carrying painted wands in their hands and as they do meet, they do change sticks or wands'. This dance is popular all over Gujarat and is being revived nowadays. A similar dance is prevalent in the United Provinces where it is performed in villages on the occasion of certain festivals, e.g. Holi.

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performers earned a modest living by making rams dance in market places, or by dancing their monkeys to various measures.¹ The tight-rope walker and the puppet showman were familiar figures of fairs and other crowds.² The snake-charmer was occupied with his work as he is to-day.³ In Bengal a man sometimes went about the street with a collared tiger. When he began his performance, he unfastened the animal and started pulling, knocking and kicking the animal about until it was in an apparently furious rage and sprang upon him. Both man and animal then rolled down for a minute and the performer ostentatiously thrust his bare arms into the throat of the animal who dared not bite him. Then he collected money and gifts from the crowd of amused spectators and thus maintained himself and the animal.⁴ Sometimes, in the South, an elephant was made to dance to the accompaniment of music and raised his trunk to mark time.⁵

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¹ Compare P. 151, for an illustration of ram dancing; Shah, 176, 193, for the monkey dance.

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² Compare Shah 22, for the tight-rope walker; an illustration of puppet-shows in P. 59.

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³ I.K., IV, 270.

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⁴ For details see J.R.A.S., 1895, 533.

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⁵ Compare Major, 38.

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Among the famous performances of acrobats and jugglers were those of the *Morchal* (the peacock gait), the display of two acrobats resting on each other, and the ‘Rope-Trick’. The Mughal Emperor Babur describes the *Morchal* somewhat as follows :—The acrobat arranged seven rings, namely, one on his forehead, two on his knees, two of the remaining four on his fingers and the last two on his toes, and set them all revolving, rapidly together. Sometimes two acrobats went on turning over three or four times. One acrobat would set the end of a pole upright on his knee or thigh while the other climbed up the pole and performed his tricks from above. In yet a third case, one dwarfish acrobat climbed up the head of a big one and stood there upright. While the big one was moving about quickly from side to side and showing his tricks, the little one was showing his own on the big one’s head without being affected by the latter’s movements in the slightest degree.⁶

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⁶ Compare B.N., 330.

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The most remarkable exhibition, however, was what is popularly known as the ‘Rope-Trick’ which has engaged and baffled many minds until now. We have very good evidence from reliable sources of the fact of its performance and the attitude of utter amazement and puzzle it created.¹ The trick was carried out in open in the following way--an acrobat appeared before the audience with a woman whom he addressed as his wife. He jokingly suggested for himself a journey into the heavens to look into the records of good and bad deeds of his audience. Nobody disagreeing with his proposal, the acrobat took out a knotted rope from his pocket and holding one end in his hand threw the other into the air, which ascended and to all appearance, disappeared above. He climbed up this suspended rope as one does a ladder and soon vanished out of sight. After a while the various limbs of his body began to drop down one after another. The wife collected them together and cremated them in the Hindu fashion, burning herself with them like a Sati. Some time after this the acrobat suddenly appeared and asked for his wife. The whole story was repeated to him, which he pretended not to believe. He accused his host or the distinguished man under whose patronage the trick was performed, of confining his wife wrongfully in his house and proceeded to call her from his female apartments whence she came beaming with smiles.²

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¹ Compare for instance, the observations of Amir Khusrau in D.R., 155 .Abu'l Fazl frankly admits that if these jugglers exhibited their performances to common crowds, people would easily mistake them for miracle of the prophets. Recently Lt.-Col. R.H. Elliot, Chairman of the Occult Committee of the Magic Circle, London, revived the interest in the Rope-Trick by challenging anybody to perform it.

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² Compare A.A., 11, 57, for details.

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The acrobats used to perform another amazing trick. They used to kill a man in front of the audience and cut him in forty pieces, which were concealed under a shroud. The dead man then came out alive at their bidding. Among other tricks, mention may be made of the ‘Mango-Trick’. A seedling of mango was put in a vessel with mud and other things, and in a few hours passed through all the processes of sprouting, blossoming and bearing fruits which the spectators verified by tasting the fruits themselves.³ Other demonstrations included the providing of fruits out of seasons, the swallowing of swords and other exhibitions which in ordinary conditions would strike one as marvellous.¹

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³ Ibid., 58.

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¹ Compare *ibid.* for details. Also D.R. *ante*. A comparatively modern account of the ‘Mango-Trick’ and other marvellous performances occurs in the work ‘Occult Science in India’ by the French writer, Jacolliot, who witnessed them personally.

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In concluding this discussion of amusements and recreations, reference may be made to mountebanks and professional jesters. They employed all sorts of tricks and antics, witticisms and repartees to provoke laughter and to amuse their audience. Some of these jesters wore the most comic masks and gave amusing surprises to the party. At other times they caricatured the popular courtiers and other lackeys and suffered indignities and beating or snubbing, to create an effect.² On the whole, the standard of humour as displayed by these jesters and clowns was not very high and their behaviour was very scandalous in the eyes of the punctilious theologians.³ Like the Sultan and Hindu rulers who maintained buffoons and clowns, the Hindu and Muslim nobility employed professional jesters and mountebanks on their staff of attendants.⁴