A History of Agriculture in India v2.c83: Chapter 31. Crops in India in the Seventeenth Century

A History of Agriculture in India v2.c83

Language: English

v2.c83.s1 Spread of Tobacco Cultivation — 11 parts
v2.c83.s2 Pelsaert’s Observations on the Crops of Agra — 5 parts
v2.c83.s3 Bernier’s Observations on the Crops of Kashmir and Bengal — 3 parts
v2.c83.s4 Observation of Nicgolao Manucci on Fruits of India — 6 parts
v2.c83.s5 References — 1 part

Chapter 31. Crops in India in the Seventeenth Century

Spread of Tobacco Cultivation

JUTE fibre is obtained from the bark of the two cultivated species of the genus *Corchorus*, viz. *C. capsularis* and *C. olitorius*, of the family Tiliaceae. There is evidence of trade in jute cloth in the sixteenth century in Bengal. In the *Ain-i-Akbari* there is mention of sack-cloth (*tat*), which Jarret identifies with jute from the district of Rangpur. Poor people used sack-cloth for clothing. In contemporary Bengal literature, *Kavikankan Chandi* by Mukundaram Chakravarty, dated to *c.* 1575, there are references to gunny bags made of jute. In Bengali poetical works of the seventeenth century, sack-cloth made out of jute is mentioned as an article of trade.

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Tobacco crop was introduced into India during the last years of the reign of Akbar. It seems that this crop was introduced before 1600 into two separate areas of India, viz. the present state of Gujarat (Surat-Broach area) and the state of Andhra Pradesh (Masulipatam and interior). Even now these are the pripcipal tobacco-growing areas in India. The earliest mention of a significant crop of tobacco in western coastal areas of India is dated in 1604-1605. William Methwold, who was an agent of the English East India Company in the kingdom of Golkonda from 1618 to 1622, observes: 'They have within few years planted store of tobacco, and much of it is exported to Mocha and Arakan, and not a little smoked amongst themselves. It is but weak, yet sure more care in curing and making it up would help that fault; they only dry the leaves in the sun, and use it so, without further sophistication.' According to Methwold, 'the cultivation of tobacco on the Coromandel coast was established long enough to produce a crop sufficient for local demand and export to the Red Sea-Persian Gulf area and to coastal Burma before 1622.'¹ The tobacco crop which was introduced into Andhra before 1600, became an important crop in that region by 1620 (Fig. 56).

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¹ Gokhale, B.G. Tobacco in Seventeenth-Century India, *Agriculture History*, Vol. 48, Oct. 1971

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The records of the East India Company for 1602-18 published in six volumes, entitled *Letters Received by East India Company From Its Servants in the East*, contain references to crops. One of the earliest English records of tobacco cultivation in India is by William Biddulph. In his letter dated 28 October 1613 from Surat to the East India Company, he mentions widespread cultivation of tobacco in that area. The first record of export of tobacco from India is also to be found in one of these volumes. On 9 February 1619, 155 maunds of tobacco valued at 707 mahmudis and 6 *p* was sent in the ship *Lion* to Persia.²

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² Panikar, S.N. Landmarks in the Development of Tobacco in India, *Science and Culture*, Vol. 42, 1976

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Tobacco-smoking rapidly became popular in India during the reign of Jahangir. Realizing its harmful effect on the health of the people, Jahangir forbade smoking in 1617. Similar ban was imposed in Iran by Shah Abbas. In spite of the ban, smoking of tobacco spread in India and Iran.

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During the reign of Aurangzeb tobacco cultivation spread widely, and excise duty on this crop became a principal source of State revenue. The Italian traveller, Niccolas Manucci, who was in Delhi during the reign of Aurangzeb, observed, ‘The Mahomedans consume a great deal of this article in smoking. This is why the chief tax-farmer paid five thousand rupees a day at this city (Delhi) only. From this the reader can understand what would be the revenue from tobacco paid to the King of Hindustan throughout such a great empire.’ Cultivation of tobacco soon became popular in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. By the end of the seventeenth century, the consumption of tobacco through smoking and chewing with leaf of betel-vine spread throughout India.

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Mughal emperors from Akbar to Farrukhsiyar (1605-1719) did not smoke. There is no portrait in which they are seen smoking. On the other hand there is a portrait of Muhammed Shah (1719-1748) in which he is shown smoking a hookah (Fig. 58). Even among ladies, both Mughal and Rajput, smoking became a popular pastime in the middle of the eighteenth century. In miniature paintings, Rajput ladies of the Punjab Hill States are depicted smoking hookah (Fig. 59).

Pelsaert’s Observations on the Crops of Agra

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Francisco Pelsaert, a Dutch man, was the Senior Factor of the Dutch East India Company at Agra. He travelled by land from Masulipatam to Surat and from Surat to Agra, where he remained from 1621 to 1627. He was posted at Agra by the Dutch to develop indigo trade. The *Remonstrantie*, his report, essentially a commercial document, was written in 1626 and sums up his seven years’ experience in Agra. Apart from details about Dutch trade in northern India, he describes the city of Agra, administration of the country, the manner of life of the people, their religions and customs. Pelsaert’s report is objective and shows keen sense of observation and knowledge of agriculture in the Agra region of India.

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Describing the agriculture of Agra province, Pelsaert observes, ‘From April to June the fields lie hard and dry, unfit for ploughing or sowing owing to the heat. When the ground has been moistened by a few days’ rain, they begin to sow indigo, rice, various kinds of food-grains eaten by the poor, such as jowar, bajra, kangni, various pulses for cattlefood, such as moth, mung, orb, urd, and a seed from which oil is extracted. Large numbers of wells have to be dug in order to irrigate the soil, for at this time it is beginning to lose its productive power. Provided the rains are seasonable, and the cold is not excessive, there is a year of plenty, not merely of food, but in the trade in all sorts of commodities. The poor burn cow-dung, mixed with straw and dried in the sun, which is also sold, as peat is sold in Holland.

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‘Fruit-trees are still scarcer, because the ground is salty, and all fruit comes from Kandahar or Kabul—no apples, pears, quinces, pomegranates, melons, almonds, dates, raisins, filberts, pistachios, and many other kinds. Great and wealthy amateurs have planted in their gardens Persian vines which bear seedless grapes, but the fruit does not ripen properly in one year out of three. Oranges are plentiful in December, January and February, and are obtainable also in June and July; they are very large, especially in the neighbourhood of Bayana. Lemons can be had in large quantities.

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‘The supply of meat, such as we have in Holland, is ample, but it is cheaper than with us. There are sheep, goats, fowls, geese, ducks, deer and other game; and the supply is so large that it is little valued, and prices are low. Oxen and cows are not slaughtered, as they have to work while they are young, doing everything that is done by horses in Holland, and, besides, their slaughter is strictly forbidden by the King on pain of death, though buffaloes may be freely killed.’

Indigo

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As indigo was the principal commodity with which Pelsaert was concerned, he gives details about its cultivation and extraction of the dye.

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‘Indigo is sown in June, when the first rain has fallen, at the rate of 14 or 15 lb (6.25 to 6.8 kg) of seed to the bigha,’ states Pelsaert. He continues, ‘If the rains are moderate, the crop grows an ell high in the course of four months, and is usually cut at the end of September or early in October, when it is fully ripe. The leaves of indigo are round (Fig. 60). The cold weather sometimes sets in so suddenly that, if the cutting is postponed too long, the indigo loses its colour in the course of manufacture, and comes out brown without gloss, for it cannot stand cold. It is a good sign of a heavy yield if in the first crop grass comes up plentifully, though expensive weeding is then required to prevent injury to the indigo roots, or delay in growth. At harvest the plants are cut a handbreadth from the ground, and next year the second, or ratoon, crop grows from the stumps. The yield of one bigha is usually put into each put, and allowed to steep for 16 or 17 hours, the put being about 38 ft (11.58 m) in perimeter, and its depth the height of an ordinary man; the water is then run off into a round put, constructed at a somewhat lower level, 32 ft (9.75 m) in circumference and 6 ft (1.83 m) deep.

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FIG. 58. Mohammad Shah smoking a hookah by a lotus pond. Mughal, c. 1740. (Courtesy: Salar Jang Museum, Hyderabad)

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FIG. 59. In the eighteenth century the habit of smoking spread in India. Even ladies smoked. In this painting from Guler, c. 1760, a Rajput princess is shown smoking a hookah. (J.K. Galbraith Collection. Courtesy: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Boston)

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FIG. 60. A flowering branch of indigo (Indigofera tinctoria). A flower is on the left and pods on the right.

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Two or three men standing in the *put* work the indigo back and forward with their arms, and owing to the continuous motion the water absorbs the dark-blue colour. It is then allowed to stand again for 16 hours, during which the matter, or substance, settles in a bowl-shaped receptacle at the bottom of the round *put*. The water is then run off through an outlet at the level of the bottom; the indigo which has sunk down is taken out, and laid on cotton cloths until it becomes as firm as soap, when it is made into balls.’³

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³ Moreland, W.H. and Geyl, P. (tr). *Jahangir’s India—the Remonstrantie of Francisco Pelsaert*, pp. 10, 11, 48, 49

Bernier’s Observations on the Crops of Kashmir and Bengal

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Of the European travellers who came to India during the Mughal rule, the most intelligent and learned was Francois Bernier, a frenchman. He was born at Joue, near Gonnord, in Anjou on 25 September 1620. His parents, cultivators of the soil, were leaseholders, in the Barony of Etiau, of land belonging to the Canonry of St Maurice at Angers. His peasant origin explains his interest in farmers and agriculture. In 1652 he took his degree as Doctor of Medicine at the University of Montpellier. His guide was the philosopher Gassendi, and he owed his great powers of accurate observation to his training under him. Bernier reached Surat early in 1659. At Ahmedabad, he met Prince Dara Shikoh and accompanied him as his physician. After the defeat of Dara Shikoh by Aurangzeb, he proceeded to Delhi, where he attached himself to a Mughal noble, Danishmand Khan, and remained there till July 1663. In a contemporary Mughal portrait he is shown bare-headed, seated under a tree in a contemplative mood (Fig. 61). In 1665 he travelled in Kashmir and Bengal. In 1666 he travelled from Masulipatam to Golkonda and returned to France, and died in Paris on 22 September 1688.

Crops of Kashmir

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Describing the crops of Kashmir, Bernier, states ‘Meadows and vineyards, fields of rice, wheat, hemp, saffron, and many sorts of vegetables, among which are intermingled trenches filled with water, rivulets, canals, and several small lakes, vary the enchanting scene. The whole ground is enamelled with our European flowers and plants, and covered with our apple, pear, plum, apricot, and walnut trees, all bearing fruit in great abundance. The private gardens are full of melons, pateques or water-melons, water-parsnips, red beet, radishes, most of our potherbs, and others with which we are unacquainted.’

Bengal—The Country, People and Crops

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Bernier gives a vivid description of Bengal, its landscape, people, and its plant and animal products. ‘It is important to observe,’ states Bernier, ‘that of this vast tract of country, a large portion is extremely fertile, the large kingdom of Bengal, for instance, surpassing Egypt itself, not only in the production of rice, corn, and other necessaries of life, but of innumerable articles of commerce which are not cultivated in Egypt, such as silks, cotton, and indigo. There are also many parts of the Indies where the population is sufficiently abundant and the land pretty well tilled.

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‘In describing the beauty of Bengal,’ states Bernier, ‘it should be remarked that throughout a country extending nearly an hundred leagues in length, on both banks of the Ganges, from Raje-Mahale to the sea, is an endless number of channels, cut, in bygone ages, from that river with immense labour, for the conveyance of merchandise and of the water itself, which is reputed by the Indians to be superior to any in the world. These channels are lined on both sides with towns and villages, thickly peopled with Gentiles; and with extensive fields of rice, sugar, corn, three or four sorts of vegetables, mustard, sesame for oil, and small mulberry-trees, two or three feet (61 to 91 cm) in height, for the food of silk-worms. But the most striking and peculiar beauty of Bengal is the innumerable islands filling the vast space between the two banks of the Ganges, in some places six or seven days’ journey asunder. These islands vary in size, but are all extremely fertile, surrounded with wood, and abounding in fruit-trees and pine-apples, and covered with verdure.

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‘The three or four sorts of vegetables which, together with rice and butter, form the chief food of the common people, are purchased for the merest trifle, and for a single roupie twenty or more good fowls may be bought. Geese and ducks are cheap. There are also goats and sheep in abundance; and pigs are obtained at so low a price that the Portuguese settled in the country live almost entirely upon pork. This meat is salted at a cheap rate by the Dutch and English, for the supply of their vessels. Fish of every species, whether fresh or salt, is in the same profusion. In a word, Bengal abounds with every necessary of life; and it is this abundance that has induced so many Portuguese, half-castes, and other Christians, driven from their different settlements by the Dutch, to seek an asylum in this fertile kingdom. The rich exuberance of the country, together with the beauty and amiable disposition of the native women, has given rise to a proverb in common use among the Portuguese, English, and Dutch, that the Kingdom of Bengal has a hundred gates open for entrance, but not one for depature.

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‘Besides the sugar I have spoken of, and which may be placed in the list of valuable commodities, there is in Bengal such a quantity of cotton and silks that the kingdom may be called the common storehouse for those two kinds of merchandise, not of Hindustan or the Empire of the Great Mogol only, but of all the neighbouring kingdoms, and even of Europe.

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‘Lastly, it is from this fruitful kingdom that the best lac, opium, max, civet, long pepper, and various drugs are obtained; and butter, which may appear to you an inconsiderable article, is in such plenty that, although it be a bulky article to export, yet it is sent by sea to numberless places.’⁴

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⁴ Francois Bernier. *Travels in the Mughal Empire*, pp. 439-442

Observation of Nicgolao Manucci on Fruits of India

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Niccolao Manucci, an Italian, left Venice in 1653 at the age of fourteen as a stowaway, and reached India in 1656 during the reign of Shah Jahan. He took service under Prince Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Shah Jahan. In his travelogue, *Storia Do Mogor*, Manucci has made some interesting observations on the fruits of India, viz. the mangoes of Goa, jack-fruit, the pine-apple, the coconut palm and the palmyra palm. Being a physician, he laid special stress on the medicinal qualities of different fruits. Manucci’s account of fruits is given below.

Mangoes

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‘As I have promised to speak of the fruits of India, chiefly of the mango and jack-fruit, I may mention that the best mangoes grow in the island of Goa,’ says Manucci. ‘They have special names, which are as follows: mangoes at *Niculao Affonso*, *Malaiasses* (? of Malacca), *Carreira branca* (white Carreira), *Carreira vermehla* (red Carreira) of *Conde*, of *Joani Parreira*, *Babia* (large and round), of *Araup*, of *Porta*, of *Secreta*, of *Mainato*, of *Our Lady*, of *Agua de Lupe*. These are again divided into varieties, with special colour, scent, and flavour. I have eaten many that had the taste of the peaches, plums, pears, and apples of Europe. The mango is a little bit heating and laxative, and however many you eat of them, with or without bread, you still desire to eat more, and they do you no harm. While still unripe they are added to dishes, to pasties, *et cetera*. The juice of the ripe fruit mixed with milk is drunk, and is sustaining. They also make the fruit into preserves, which are exported to various places; various kinds of pickles are also made, which keep good for two years, and the stones are employed in medicine. The tree on which the mango is grown is the size of a walnut-tree; the fruit grows in clusters, like plums in Europe.

The Jack-Fruit

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‘The jack-fruit I spoke of is of three kinds—*barca*, *papa*, and *pacheri* jack-fruit. These fruits are very large; some weigh eighty pounds (36.3 kg) or thereabouts. The tree is of the size of a walnut-tree. The fruit referred to grows on the trunk and the larger branches; some grow from the roots, and these are discovered by the earth being pushed up, also by the smell which the spot emits. This fruit has a green rind an inch (2.5 cm) in thickness with projections in the nature of thorns (Fig. 62). It is known to be ripe by the smell it emits. Inside it is full of seeds, somewhat about the size of pears; these are very sweet, and on opening them a juice issues sweet as honey, and in the middle are stones like the chestnuts of Europe. In these jack-fruit the seeds are sometimes white and sometimes red; some are hard, some are soft, and each variety has its special flavour.

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FIG. 62. The fruits of jack-fruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) are borne in clusters on the stem.

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'Of these seeds mixed with rice-flour they make a kind of fritters, which in India are called *paniara*. These, too, have their own flavour. When this fruit (the jack) is cut, a white liquid like bird-lime oozes from the rind, and sticking to the hand, it cannot be removed till it is anointed with oil.

The Pine-Apple

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'I must mention another fruit found in India called *ananas* (the pine-apple), which looks like a large pine-cone of Europe, and it has a corrugated rind. It is necessary to slice off this rind somewhat thickly to get rid of some natural depressions it has in it. The centre, when eaten, has a sweet, slightly acid, but very pleasant flavour. This fruit is heating and, if you leave a knife in it all night, the next day you will find it bitten into as if it had remained in *aqua fortis*. The distilled juice of this fruit is useful for dissolving stones in the kidneys and bladder, as I have found by experiment. The plant on which the fruit forms is a cubit in height; it grows up like an ear of corn, each plant yielding no more than one fruit. The leaves are a cubit in length and two fingers in breadth, with prickly edges. In no part of India have I seen them in such quantities as in Bengal, where they were large and fine (Fig. 57). The reason for this is that it is a low-lying and humid country.

The Coconut Palm

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'There can be no doubt that something curious can be written about a tree which generally grows in India near the sea. It is called palm-tree or coco-tree. This tree has many roots about the thickness of the little finger, and it grows to a great height but increases very slowly. When seven years have passed it begins to yield fruit; ordinarily it occupies a circumference of two cubits and three-quarters, there or therabouts, and it lives for a hundred years. At that age it grows to as much as ten arms' length; the stem is straight like the mast of a ship, with the branches or palm-leaves at the summit about two arms in length. The leaves are two cubits long, lying close to one another like organ-pipes, three inches in breadth. In the middle of the leaf is a rib, of which they make brooms, *et cetera*. They also make mats from the branches, and these serve as carpets to the natives of the country. They thatch houses with the leaves, and they are also used as decorations at festivals. Every month a new branch appears in the middle of the palm-tree, and the oldest one falls off. Each tree has about thirty branches, and amidst them comes out the flower, enclosed by nature in a shield about a cubit long, nearly ten inches (25.4 cm) in circumference, and coming to a sharp point (Fig. 63). When it has reached its proper size, the covering opens and the flower shows in the shape of brooms (Fig. 64). On each branch of the flower you see its fruit tuck on like buttons, and these, swelling until they are like nuts, are then called *coquinhos* (little coconut); they are used for many infantile complaints, such as diarrhoea and mouth-sores. When grown to the size of twenty-eight up to thirty inches (71 to 76 cm) round, and as much in length, they are called *lanha*. The nut is then full of a sweet water, a drink of which is very refreshing. It is used in inflammation of the liver, the kidneys, and the bladder, and increases urination. It is also good for excessive heat of the liver, pains in the bowels, or discharges of mucus or of blood; it also refreshes in the season of great heat.

The Palmyra Palm

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'There is another class of palm-tree which is called *palmeira brava* (the wild palm), which takes many years to grow. This tree produces fruit in the month of March, and the yield lasts up to August. Inside each fruit there are ordinarily three lumps of soft pith which are very refreshing. Eating them is useful in clearing the sight of those unable to see at night. In the same season it yields a liquid called *sura*, and it has the same effects as, and some resemblance to, the palm-tree juice already described. The spirits distilled from this palm-juice are the best. From the leaves they make fans, mats, sunshades, small baskets, and other curiosities. After the fruit has ripened the pith hardens, and the juice is drawn from the shell; leaving this for a few days in the sun, it becomes a sort of marmalade, eaten by many of the natives in place of bread. From all these palm-trees good returns are obtained.'⁵

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⁵ Manucci, Niccolao. *Storia Do Mogor or Mogul India*, Vol. III, pp. 180-187

References

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Bernier, F. *Travels in the Mogul Empire*, London, 1891 Gokhale, B.G. Tobacco in Seventeenth-Century India, *Agriculture History*, Vol. 48, Oct. 1979 Habib, I. *The Agrarian System of Mughal India*, Bombay, 1963 Manucci, Niccolao, *Storia Do Mogor or Mogul India*, Vol. III, London, 1906 Moreland, W. H. *From Akbar to Aurangzeb, a Study in Indian Economic History*, London, 1923 Moreland, W. H. and Geyl, P. (tr). *Jahangir's India—the Remonstrantie of Francisco Pelsaert* (Indian reprint). Delhi, 1972 Panikar, S.N. Landmarks in development of tobacco in India, *Science and Culture*, Vol. 42, 1976