A History of Agriculture in India v2.c83.s2.t1: Indigo
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c83.s2.t1
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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