Travels in India

Title: Travels in IndiaAuthor: Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, translated by Dr. Valentine BallPublisher: Low Price Publications 2007 (First Edition 1675-1684, English 1889)ISBN: 81-7536-206-5Pages: 706

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was born in Paris in 1605. From childhood itself, a strong desire to see foreign lands were rooted in him and by the age of 22, he had seen most of the prominent European kingdoms. He was a merchant of precious stones and curiosities by profession and made six voyages to the East, including India in 1636, 1638, 1643, 1651, 1657 and 1662. On many occasions he traveled overland from Persia and on some, he sailed from Mocha on the Arabian coast to Surat. He also visited the Dutch headquarters at Batavia. King Louis XIV of France bestowed on him the title of Baron of Aubonne in 1669, in recognition of his services rendered to the kingdom. Tavernier began publication of his travels in 1675 which lasted till 1684 in several volumes. He passed away in Moscow, the year of death uncertain. The Travels, though sometimes steeped in hearsay and wild exaggeration, nevertheless gives a clear understanding of the times when Emperors Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb reigned. Some of the passages are very noteworthy and are reproduced below.

Even though the trading company officials of the English and Dutch were obedient to the political hegemony of the Mughals, they have already taken on their heads the idea of superiority as such an incident is described. “The Emperor has conceded to the English Captains that they shall not be searched when they are ashore. One day, an English Captain, when in Thatta went ashore and the Mughal officials forcibly searched his person and found gold upon him. He was, however, left off on payment of the ordinary duty. The Englishman resolved to have his revenge for it, and he took it in a funny manner. He ordered a sucking-pig to be roasted, and to be placed with the grease in a china plate, covered with a napkin, and gave it to a slave to carry with him to the town, anticipating exactly what would happen. As he passed in front of the custom-house, where the Governor of the town, and the Master of the Mint were seated in a divan, they did not fail to stop him. The more the Englishman protested that the slave carried nothing liable to duty, the less was he believed. After a long discussion, he himself took the plate from the hands of the slave, and proceeded to carry it to the custom-house. When the Governor asked him in a sharp tone why he refused to obey orders, he replied in a rage that what he carried was not liable to duty, and rudely threw the plate in front of them, so that the sucking-pig and the grease soiled the whole place. As the pig is an abomination to the Musalmans, abd by their Law they regard as defiled whatver is touched by it, they were compelled to change their garments, to remove the carpet from the divan, and to have the structure rebuilt, without daring to say anything to the Englishman as they have to be careful with the company, from which the country derives so much profit” (Vol 1, Pages 9-10).

Corruption was rampant everywhere, and we’d be astonished to learn that the Emperor himself was not aloof from it. “Shahjahan, who reigns at present, had given to one of the nobles of his court the government of the province of Thatta, of which Sindi is the capital town. Although from the very first year of his government there were serious complaints against him of the tyranny with which he treated the people, and of his great extortions, the Emperor allowed him to govern the province for close on four years, after which he recalled him. All the people of Thatta rejoiced, supposing that the Emperor had recalled him in order to put him to death. But it happened quite otherwise, for he was well received by the Emperor, who conferred upon him the government of Allahabad, a much more considerable post that that of Thatta which he had just quitted. The cause of the good reception which he received from the Emperor was that before he arrived at Agra, he sent secretly to the Emperor as a present 50,000 golden rupees and to the Begam Sahib (Jahanara Begam) 20,000 golden rupees and for other ladies and for some courtiers who could aid him with their support” (Vol 1, Pages 14-15).

The Mughals had perfected the violence upon religious structures of Hindus as a kind of religious duty by the time of Aurangzeb who saw no worth in the practices of others whom he disapproved with the ardent zeal of a fanatic. Tavernier describes how casual the destruction of temples had become in those days, as “A small contingent of artillery was moving through the town of Kolaras near Gwalior when I arrived there. A strong and powerful elephant was following the artillery. Outside the town, for the whole length of the high-road, there are a number of large trees which they call mangoes, and in several places near these trees, you see small pagodas (temples) each of which has its idol at the entrance. This elephant, passing in front of one of this pagodas, near to which I was encamped, and where there were at the door three idols of about five feet in height, when he was close by, took one with his trunk and broke it in two; he then took the next, and threw it so high and so far that it was broken in four pieces; while as for the third, he knocked off the head with a blow of his trunk. The Banians regarded it with an evil eye, without daring to say aught, for there were more than 2,000 men in charge of the guns, all of them in the Emperor’s service, and Musalmans, with the exception of the chief gunners, who were Europeans” (Vol 1, Pages 48-49).

The water of Ganges is so polluted now that anyone attempting to drink is sure to be afflicted. We note with surprise that in the 17^th century too, its waters were considered to be unhealthy, particularly in the vicinity of Varanasi, as Tavernier says, “Claude Maille who practised both surgery and medicine advised us not to drink any of the Ganges water, which would produce disturbance of the stomach, but to drink rather the water from wells” (Vol 1, p.95-96).

The problem of piracy was rampant on India’s western coast. Without naming Kunjali Marakkar, who lived half-a-century before, he says, “The principal danger which has to be encountered is the risk of falling into the hands of the Malabaris, who are fanatical Musalmans and very cruel to Christians. I once met a barefoot Carmelite father who had been captured by these pirates. In order to extort his ransom speedily, they tortured him to such an extent that his right arm became half as short as the other, and it was the same with one of his legs. They seldom venture farther to sea than from 20 to 25 leagues; whenever the Portuguese capture any of these pirates, they either hang them straight off or throw them into the sea” (Vol 1, p.143) and “The reason why the Portuguese took this revenue from this poor people, and why the Dutch take it still, is that they are obliged to protect them against their enemies, the Malabaris, who come with armed boats to capture and enslave the fishers”. (Vol 2, p.93)

The religious fanaticism of the Portuguese was not any shade lower than that of Aurangzeb, as “In a village on the island of Salsette, there was a pagoda in which the idolaters kept, in a kind of tomb made of silver, the bones and nails of a monkey which, they said, had rendered great services to their gods by the diligence with which he conveyed news and advice from one to the other, when persecuted by some hostile princes, even to the extent of traversing the sea by swimming. People came from many parts of the Indian in procession to this idol to make offerings to this pagoda; but the clergy of Goa, and especially the Inquisitor, one day carried away this relic and brought it to Goa, where it remained some time on account of the dispute which it occasioned between the ecclesiastics and the people. For when the idolaters offered a large sum to ransom their relics, the people were of opinion that it should be accepted, because they said it could be used to make war against their enemies or for assisting the poor; but the clergy held a contrary opinion, and maintained that for no reason whatever should this idolatry be permitted. At length, the Archbishop and the Inquisitor on their own authority removed the relic, and, having put it on a vessel which sailed out about twenty leagues from land, it was thrown into the sea” (Vol 1, p.158).

The princely state of Cochin found itself caught between the animosity of the Dutch and Portuguese and sided with the Dutch. Being a small country with a local army about which there is nothing to write home about, the Kings of Cochin even accepted their crowns from the Dutch governors. Veera Kerala Varma who ascended the throne in 1663 placed himself on his knees to receive the crown from his hand and to take possession of a kingdom of very limited extent – that is to say, some small territories in the neighbourhood of Cochin. This Governor, when coming from Holland had been ship’s cook, and this crowning of a miserable Malabari by the hands of a man who had more frequently brandished a pot-ladle than a sword, was without doubt a brilliant spectacle (Vol 1, p.193).

Tavernier paints the Syrian Christians of Kerala in a not too flattering light. They sided with the foreigners when it didn’t go against their faith and felt no compunction against turning the natives out of their homeland, as “In the year 1643, these Christians, both of these mountains and those of Bassora, sent ambassadors to the Viceroy of Goa to obtain permission from him to be allowed to dwell in the island of Ceylon. They undertook to drive out the inhabitants of the country. But the Viceroy refused to grant what they asked except on condition that they became Catholics, and as they were unwilling to agree, the arrangement they proposed did not take effect” (Vol 1, p.200-01).

He makes fun of Indians’ craze for anything white, as he says “All the Orientals prefer the whitest pearls, the whitest diamonds, the whitest bread and the whitest women” (Vol 2, p.9).

An unusual practice of the people of Kerala is mentioned. “The Malabaris in general carefully preserve the nails of their left hands, and allow their hair to grow like that of a woman. Their nails, which are sometimes half a finger long, serve them as combs, indeed they have no others, and it is with this left hand also that they perform all impure duties, never touching their faces nor that which they eat save only with the right hand” (Vol 2, p.200). In the foot note, it is written that “The Nayars of Malabar let their nails grow, according to Linschoten, to show that they are ‘gentlemen’ and do not engage in manual labour”.

Tavernier saw and weighed the Koh-i-Noor diamond and described the stunning magnificence of the Peacock throne which were in the possession of Aurangzeb at that time. Reading some of the historical incidents in the present tense in Tavernier’s annals is interesting like his description that the ‘most beautiful building in Agra is the tomb of Shahjahan’s wife’ which he saw within 10 years of its completion, but it should not be considered that he was a friend of India and its culture. On the contrary, he minces no words to accuse the natives as adherents of a false religion and whose gods and goddesses are termed demons and monsters from the condescending eyes of a European who has just seen rapid progress in his homeland. This book, if anything provides a neutral account on the administrative performance of the Mughals, in whose country we see caravans routinely waylaid and pillaged and corruption reigning supreme in every sphere of life. Since he was not conversant with the local languages place names are confused and often presented with strange spellings. Even the facts like distance between two towns, and the dates on which he passed along these routes are sometimes mistaken. However, in spite of all these shortcomings, this book is a very fine representation of what India looked like in the middle of the 17^th century and casts a revealing light into the lives of the Mughal elite whose pompousness and jealousy stirred up court intrigues which was a bane of the state. Altogether, a fine book which every student of history must read.