Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c20.73

c20.73

The Malabars are attached, as we have seen, to a country life. The Nayrs and Namboories live in houses, at a distance from each other. Segregation is the consequence of a rural society. This is the only way in which groves can be enjoyed, and labour carried on. ‘When there was not room enough for their herds to feed, they by consent separated and enlarged their pasture.’29 It is to this mode of life, and the easy circumstances, that usually attend it, that we are to ascribe the neatness and cleanness of the houses and villages of Malabar. The same circumstances, produce the same effect on their persons. It is not a mere freedom from dirt or filth, but a neatness of dress, and a cleanliness of person from head to heel. The same neatness may be seen through every part of the country. It is displayed in their agriculture. It is not fine houses, but nature and the broad Canopy of Heaven, that they contemplate with delight. They have everywhere under their eye, magnificent and fertile landscapes. These they improve and ornament by planting fruit or umbrageous trees, which refresh the traveller.