СНАР. ІХ.

tion respecting

the people of India.

CHAPTER IX.

MOGHUL EMPIRE: CIVILISATION.-A.D. 1600 To 1764.

IN the preceding chapters the history of India has Want of informa- been brought down to the second half of the eighteenth century. Information has been gathered up respecting the reigns of successive Moghul sovereigns; attempts have been made to delineate their respective characters; and the daily routine of Moghul courts has been described by the light of European eyewitnesses. But the every-day life of the people at large, whether Muhammadan or Hindu, is still a blank to the imagination. The Moghul and his surroundings of ladies and grandees, of princes, generals, and soldiers, are visible enough; but there is no background to the picture; nothing that will open out the country and people to modern eyes.

Evidence of

Europeau travellers.

Much of what is wanting is supplied by educated Europeans who travelled in India during the seventeenth century and early half of the eighteenth. The evidence of some of these travellers, including Sir Thomas Roe, Mendelslo, and Bernier, has already been brought forward to illustrate the state of the court and administration under Moghul rule.' But there have been other eye-witnesses in India who tell less of current history, and more about the distinctive

1 See ante, chaps. v. and vi.

All

manners and civilisation of the people. They belong CHAP. IX. to different nationalities, professions, and religions. Terry was a Protestant clergyman of the Church of England; Della Valle was a Catholic gentleman belonging to a noble family of Rome; Tavernier was a French jeweller; Thevenot was a French gentleman; Fryer was an English surgeon educated at Cambridge; Alexander Hamilton was a ship's captain; and Karstens Niebuhr was a distinguished German. these men looked at India from different points of view. Moreover, they were separated from each other by intervals of time sufficiently near to enable them to confirm the truth of each other's story, and sufficiently remote to impart a historical significance to their respective narratives. It may, therefore, be as well to review the evidence of each one in turn. will then be found that their united testimony supplies the background of the picture which has hitherto been wanting to Moghul history.

2

It

Abundance of

The REV. MR. TERRY travelled in India between Terry, 1615-18. 1615 and 1618 as chaplain to the embassy of Sir provisions. Thomas Roe. Like a healthy young English divine, he was charmed with the abundance and cheapness of good provisions in Hindustan. The country, he says, produces wheat, rice, barley, and various other grains, all good and exceedingly cheap. The bread is whiter than that made in England, but the common people have a coarser grain, which they make up in broad cakes and bake on small round iron

2 Terry and Della Valle travelled in India during the reign of Jehangir; Tavernier in the reign of Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb; Thevenot and Fryer in the reign of Aurangzeb; Hamilton during the decline of the Moghul empire; and Niebuhr about twenty-five years after the invasion of Nadir Shah.

3 Terry's Voyage to the East Indies. 18mo, 1655. Reprinted, 8vo, 1777.

CHAP. IX.

Trade and manu. factures.

Indian annoy. ances.

Civility of the people.

hearths. The people churn butter, which is soft in that hot climate, but otherwise sweet and good. They have a great number of cows, sheep, goats, and buffaloes. There is no lack of venison of various kinds, such as red deer, fallow deer, elk, and antelope. They are not kept in parks, for the whole empire is as it were a forest for the deer; and as they are every man's game, they do not multiply enough to do much harm to the corn. There is great store of hares, wild and tame fowl, and abundance of hens, geese, ducks, pigeons, turtle-doves, partridges, peacocks, and quails. They have also numerous varieties of fish. By reason of this plenty, and because many natives abstain from eating anything that has life, flesh and fish are to be bought at very easy rates, as if they were not worth the valuing.

The most important staples of the Moghul empire were indigo, which was manufactured in vats; and cotton wool, which was made into calicoes. There was also a good supply of silk, which was made into velvets, satins, and taffaties, but the best of them were not so good as those made in Italy. The English sold a few of their woollen cloths in India, but they bought most of the Indian commodities in hard silver. Many silver streams were thus running into India, whilst it was regarded as a crime to carry any quantity away.*

Terry dwells, however, at some length on the annoyances of Indian beasts of prey, crocodiles, scorpions, flies, musquitoes, and chinches.

Terry describes the people of India as very civil unless they were affronted. When Sir Thomas Roe

The Moghuls had an instinctive objection to the exportation of silver. It was equally forbidden by the Moghul sovereigns of Hindustan and the kings of Burma,

first arrived at Surat, his English cook got drunk at some Armenian wine-dealer's. In this pot-valiant condition he met a grandee who was the brother of the Nawab of Surat. The grandee was on horseback, and accompanied by a number of retainers; yet the drunken cook called him a heathen dog, and struck at him with a sword, and was arrested by the retainers and put into prison. Roe wrote to the Nawab of Surat to say that he would not patronise any disorderly person, and accordingly left the Englishman to be punished as the Moghul authorities might think fit. Presently, however, the drunken cook was restored to his master, without having received any punishment at all."

CHAP. IX.

Surat to Mandu.

Terry, accompanied by four Englishmen and Journey from twenty natives, proceeded, with six waggons laden with presents for Jehangir, from Surat to Mandu, a journey of about four hundred miles. At night-time, the party halted outside some large town or village, arranging their waggons in a ring, and pitching their huts within the circle. They kept watch in turns, but they were accompanied by a servant of the Viceroy of Guzerat; and whenever there was any suspicion of danger, this servant procured a company of horsemen as a guard. As it happened, however, the journey was accomplished without a single encounter.

dispute.

At one place the inhabitants persisted in guard- Settlement of a ing them all night, although told they were not wanted. Next morning they demanded payment, and being refused, three hundred men came out and stopped the waggons. One of the Englishmen pre

The Moghul authorities were always polite to English visitors so long as those visitors were polite and courteous in return. But the lower orders of Englishmen, then as now, were too often insolent and arrogant towards native authorities. Roe, as will be seen, behaved like a gentleman.

CHAP. IX. pared to fire his musket; and the men themselves began to bend their bows. At this moment it was discovered that a gift equal to three shillings sterling would satisfy the whole three hundred. The money was accordingly paid, and the men went away quite contented.

Rash English

man.

Hill robbers; trustworthy guards.

On another occasion, a hot-headed young gentleman from England gave some trouble. He had arrogantly ordered the servant of the Viceroy of Guzerat to hold his horse, and the man had refused to do his bidding. Accordingly, the rash English youth laid his horsewhip about the man's shoulders, and fired a pistol, tearing the man's coat and bruising his knuckles. The offender was soon disarmed, and the servant was propitiated with a rupee and a promise of more money on reaching Mandu. The servant seemed satisfied at the time, and it was thought that the whole thing was forgotten. Ten hours afterwards, however, a native grandee passed by with a large train, and the servant complained to the great man of the treatment he had received. The grandee said that the English were in the wrong, but that it was no business of his, and so went his way. That same night the English party halted near a large town, and the servant complained to the inhabitants. Many of the people came out of the town and looked at the strangers, but did nothing. All the English kept watch that night to guard against any surprise from the townspeople; but next morning the servant was quieted with a little money and many good words, and nothing more was heard of the matter.

There were, however, mountains and forests in part of the country between Surat and Mandu which were infested by robbers; and travellers