A History of Agriculture in India v2.c84.s7: Sarais
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c84.s7
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Sarais
v2.c84.s7.1
The pilgrims and other travellers rested in sarais during their journeys. From Sher Shah onwards sarais were built for the use of travellers along the Grand Trunk Road. Some of these sarais have crumbled, but a few are still in good condition. The sarai at Shambhu about eight kilometres from Sarhind is typical (Fig. 64). Inside are the cells in which the travellers rested along with their goods (Figs. 67, 68). Food was cooked by women of jhiwar caste. A Mughal painting provides us a glimpse of a cooking scene in a sarai. The woman is making chapatis. Scattered around her are cooking implements and utensils. One of the travellers is kneading flour. Their leader is resting on a charpoy, which is surrounded by chickens. The expression on the faces of men shows that they are more interested in the charms of the cook than in food (Fig. 69).
v2.c84.s7.2
How the sarais functioned, and what was life like in these sarais? An answer is provided by Niccolao Manucci, who states, ‘For the use of wayfarers there are throughout the realms of the Mogul on every route many sarais. They are like fortified places with their bastions and strong gates; most of them are built of stone or of brick. In every one is an official whose duty it is to close the gates at the going down of the sun. After he has shut the gates, he calls out that everyone must look after his belongings, picket his horses by their fore- and hind-legs; above all, that he must look out for dogs, for the dogs of Hindustan are very cunning and great thieves.
v2.c84.s7.3
‘At six o’clock in the morning, before opening the gates, the watchman gives three warnings to the travellers, crying in a loud voice that everyone must look after his own things. After these warnings, if anyone suspects that any of his property is missing, the doors are not opened until the lost thing is found. By this means they make sure of having the thief, and he is strung up opposite the sarais. Thus the thieves, when they hear a complaint made, drop the goods somewhere, so as not to be discovered.
v2.c84.s7.4
‘These sarais are only intended for travellers. Each one of them might hold, more or less, from 800 to 1,000 persons, with their horses, camels, carriages; and some of them are even larger. They contain different rooms, halls, and verandas, with trees inside the courtyard, and many provision shops; also separate abodes for the women and men who arrange the rooms and the beds for travellers.
v2.c84.s7.5
'In these *sarais* travellers are pestered by dealers, who offer for sale different kinds of cloth, not only white, but coloured; also by musicians, dancing-boys, women dancers, barbers, tailors, washermen, farriers with horse-shoes, endless cheating physicians, and many sellers of grass and straw for the horses. All these things are cheap; but there are no longer dainty morsels for the foot-travellers to be eaten at the cost of the king, or any supply of bedsteads with mattresses and sheets. Still there is never any dearth of women of pleasure.'⁷
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⁷ Manucci, Niccolao. *Storia Do Mogor or Mogul India*, p. 116
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FIG. 66. A chief travelling on a pilgrimage accompanied by retainers. Note different modes of transport. Mewar, c. 1750.
v2.c84.s7.8
FIG. 67. A sarai at Shambhu near Sarhind, Punjab, possibly built by Sher Shah (16th century). It is like a fortress with crenellated walls and towers at the corners. At the entrance and exit are two massive gates.
v2.c84.s7.9
FIG. 68. The eastern entrance gate of sarai at Shambhu. At the sides are cells in which the travellers rested at night time.