The World in the 1600s:
Ever since the discovery of a sea route to India in 1498, sailors, merchants and – most importantly – travellers began to make the routine journey from Surat (the most important port in India) to Venice (the most important port in the European Mediterranean region) and vice versa. As European powers began to deepen their trade with the Mughal Empire, their people sailed to India in ever-greater numbers. Many of them, wrote brilliant accounts of India in the 17th Century. In today’s article, we will see how Europeans lived and worked in India and what they thought of the riches, practices, customs and people that they had never before seen and understand their descriptions of the two greatest Indian cities of the time; Surat and Delhi.
Before we proceed, it’s important to understand what we mean by “their people”. Largely, they can be divided into two categories.
Private Citizens:
These people were individuals who, with their own money and using their own resources, sailed to India. Often, they were quite rich (like the famous Venetian traveller Nicolo Manucci, who was born in a wealthy merchant family) and other times, they were nobodies looking to make their fortune in trade (like Clive of India, who was born in a family of public servants prior to his fame and wealth). But they all shared one thing in common: they acted on their own behalf. They went to India of their own accord, they did what they wanted to do. Many would end up serving in the Mughal Army as officers (as they often had their own horses and were quite skilled riders) or began to practice as doctors and lawyers. Many others, like Clive, would join trading companies and seek to make their fortune. But they did not act on the behalf of a European power.
Factors/Embassies/Ambassadors:
These people were not individuals. They would act on behalf of companies (like the East India Company) or governments. Their purpose would be to go on fact-finding missions, to curry favour with local officials – or, in some cases, even cosy up to the likes of Shah Jahan – and secure trade agreements. One of the best examples of this type of traveller is the Englishman, Peter Mundy. When he arrived in India in 1628, he was already in the employ of the East India Company and upon arrival in Surat, he took charge as the Factor (Ambassador) at the Factory (Embassy) of the East India Company.
With that cleared up, let’s meet our travellers.
Introducing the Travellers and Writers:
- Niccolo Manucci:
Born in the modern Italian city of Venice (then, the capital of the Venetian Republic) in 1638, he sailed to Surat as a private citizen in 1656, just before his 18th birthday. He would spend the rest of his life in India, dying in Chennai in 1717. He was a high ranking artillery officer in the Mughal Army and later a doctor. His Storia do Mogor (History of the Mughals) is one of the best primary sources that has been produced on Mughal life in the 17th Century and is a compilation of his experiences in India and his interactions with essentially everyone important in India at the time. He met (and often formed relationships with): Emperor Shah Jahan, Prince Dara Shukoh, Emperor Aurangzeb, Raja Jai Singh I, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Shah Alam I (Aka Bahadur Shah). - John J. Ovington:
In comparison to Manucci, indeed in comparison to anyone, John J. Ovington led a boring and dull life. There is very little known about and he wrote very little. But, what little he did write is quite important. It is known, for a fact, that he was a chaplain in the employ of the East India Company. His work, A Voyage to Surat in 1689, gives us a detailed account of the cities of Bombay and Surat in 1689. - Francoise Bernier:
Bernier led an… interesting life. He was a writer, traveller, physician and philosopher. He spent an equal amount of time – if one is to be hyperbolic – in jail, practicing medicine and writing. He spent his time in the retinues of Dara Shukoh and Aurangzeb as their doctor and personal physician. He was, unlike Ovington, a private traveller and spent a total of 9 years in India (1658-1666 and 1668-1669), all 9 of which he has chronicled in his Travels in the Mughal Empire. - Peter Mundy:
As discussed above, Mundy was a Company-man. He went to India in the service of the East India Company but this did not stop him writing. He is considered to be the other greatest primary source we have of the period, after Manucci. His The Travels of Peter Mundy prove to be indispensable for the study of this period.
Arrival and Surat:
Of the 4 travellers I’ve listed above, 3 of them first arrived in India in the important port-city of Surat (surprisingly, though Ovington writes in great detail about Surat, he first landed in India in Bombay and then sailed to Surat). All of them arrived well after the trade between India and Europe was flowing and they got to experience the city in its absolute hayday. Manucci, who spent almost 3 months in the city, describes this traffic very well.
“It is a great delight to take a seat on the bank of the river and behold the numerous boats which shoot to and fro like arrows. It is the largest port in India … thus it is resorted to by a great number of ships from … Europe, Persia, Arabia, Mecca, Bassora, … Malabar and Choramandal, Machhlipatnam, Bengal, Siam, Acheen, Queddah, the Madlives, Malacca, Batavia, Manilla, China and many other parts of the world.”
But this begs the question, what was life like for the Europeans in Surat? What did the city look like? What did they eat? How did they interact with the Mughals? For that we turn to Peter Mundy and John J. Ovington. From Ovington, we learn that the City of Surat is a massive fortress city, with tall walls and towers all around it and a large and commanding castle, built on the South-West end of the city that commands the marine traffic.
“It is built square, and fortified at each corner with a large tower, containing various lodgings, and furnished with all conveniences for accommodating the Governor, and several cannons mounted upon the walls.”
When describing the city, Ovington notes that the majority of houses are large, stately and “fair” and that the city’s inhabitants, though they take care to hide the exact extent of their wealth, are almost all very wealthy indeed. Outside the walls, he notes, the poor live. Though they are few in number, he describes their existence in great detail.
“… [they] live much meaner, in houses, whose walls are only bamboo … with reeds woven through them, and their covering is only cajan, or palm-leaves, which gives them the common name of cajan-houses.’
In Ovington’s description of the city, the most striking passage is perhaps his comparison of Surat to London.
“The streets are some too narrow, but in many places of a convenient breadth, and in an evening, especially near the bazar … are more populous than any part of London.”
He further mentions that the streets are so filled with people and merchants exercising life, that in the evenings it is almost impossible to walk through the city. The city was so filled with merchandise and trade that Ovington mentions that the majority of goods he saw being sold there he had never seen before and – evidently – many of them were rare curiosities for the affluent Indian population as well. In this crazy and chaotic city, how did they live? What did they eat? This question is answered by Peter Mundy.
“Our diet here … is … fine bread of wheat, beef, mutton, chicken, pigeons dressed [prepared] after our own manner by English cooks. Sometimes, we would have … antelope, and perchance wild boar but ordinarily we would have chicken curry [specifically, chicken do-pyaza], and rice, khichadi and achar [specifically, mango pickle].”
He also takes great pain in describing life in Surat during the monsoon. According to him, there are two monsoon seasons. One that begins in September and ends in late March and one that begins in July and ends in September. The September-March monsoon, he says, is the worst of the two.
“In the latter 3 months, whereof fall the rains accompanied with great storms and strong currents, so that there is no putting to sea. The vessels [all vessels in port] would be hauled ashore or drawn up into secure places.”
Delhi:
Eventually, anyone who was anyone, wound up in Delhi or Agra. In the case of Peter Mundy, he was appointed to Agra by the EIC. In the cases of Bernier or Manucci, they reached Delhi as travellers looking for work. Bernier, writing home to a friend in France, compares the beauty of Delhi to Paris and London.
“The two principal streets of the city, already mentioned as leading into the square, may be … thirty ordinary paces in width. They run in a straight line as far as the eye can reach but the one leading to the Lahore gate is much longer. In regard to houses, the two streets are exactly alike. … There are arcades [in this context meaning a place of business] on both sides … generally separated by partitions in which, during the day, artisans work, bankers sit for the dispatch of their business and merchants exhibit their wares. The houses of the merchants [i.e those working in the arcades] are built … at the back of the arcades, they look handsome from the street and appear commodious within; they are airy, at a distance from the dust and [have] terrace-roofs over the shops.”
He mentions that Delhi had five other “main roads” though they were not as grand as the 2 “principal streets” and many smaller streets and roads criss-crossing them. He describes the houses that line these criss-crossing streets with some level of detail. Through his descriptions, it is evident that Delhi at this point was an ancient city and many buildings are from different periods of its history.
“Very few are built entirely of brick or stone, and several are made only of clay and straw, yet they are airy and pleasant, most of them having courts and gardens … and containing good furniture.”
In this year in Delhi, he mentions, that there were 3 fires and in them, over 60,000 of the thatch-roofed and clay houses were destroyed. These fires and the destruction of the old houses, he says, gave way to the construction of more modern stone and brick houses. In the end, he is not very impressed with Delhi and says that it is entirely understandable why the Mughal Emperors moved their capital to Agra – a much grander city.
Art and the Mughal Emperors:
Nobody, among these 4 writer, has written more about life in 17th Century India than Manucci and Bernier. One of the most interesting passages is written by Bernier who describe the Mughal attitude to art in the time of Aurangzeb.
“Want of genius, therefore, is not the reason why works of superior art are not exhibited in the capital [Agra]. If the artists and manufacturers [in this sense, meaning artisans] were encouraged, the useful and fine arts would flourish but these unhappy men are contempted, treated with harshness and inadequately remunerated for their labour. The rich will have every article at a cheap rate. When a mansabadar [a military officer equivalent to a modern Maj. Gen.] requires the services of an artisan, he sends to the bazaar … employing force if necessary. When the task is finished, the unfeeling lord pays not according to the value of the labour but … to his own standard of fair remuneration.”
If one is to go to a museum, such as the famous CSMVS in Mumbai, one would see a great number of pieces of art from the time of Akbar or Shah Jahan. But very little from the time of Aurangzeb. This suppression of artists is perhaps why! Manucci, for his part, records life in the Mughal court. Upon being introduced to Shah Jahan by a friend he had made quite by chance, he realises that though Persian was the official language of the Mughals, their mother-tongue was Urdu. Despite all of this, the language they prayed in remained, true to Islam, Arabic. In 1663, while travelling through Agra, he paid the imprisoned Shah Jahan a visit and described the Emperor’s imprisonment in great detail. Despite being interned in the palace and despite the propaganda spread by Aurangzeb that Shah Jahan was living a life of luxury, Manucci found that Shah Jahan’s condition was deplorable and he was barely even allowed to wear shoes that cost more than half a rupee (although, in 1663, half a rupee would have been equivalent to 40-60 USD in 2023). He narrates the story of Shah Jahan asking his jailer Itibar Khan, for new slippers.
“[When Itibar Khan found out] that Shah Jahan was in want of papuz, which are slippers without heels, … he ordered several pairs to be brought and the tradesmen produced different kinds of papuz … some worth as much as eight rupees [640-960 USD in 2023] … a very small thing for … Shah Jahan … in spite of this, the [jailer] … sent him … the common leather shoes. He smiled over it as if he had done some great deal; and it was a great deed, being after the nature of his friend Aurangzeb … so that by the forced ill-treatment the wretched old man [Shah Jahan] might die.”
Conclusion:
Throughout history, the greatest primary resources we have for Indian history have almost all been written by foreigners. From the ancient Greeks to the conquering British, much of our history has been recorded on foreign pages. The study of these resources is absolutely indispensable to the study and better understanding of Indian history. These writers that I’ve explored above have written too much for it all to be explored in one article. In the future, I may dedicate an entire article to the travels of Manucci or Bernier but for now, their words shine a brilliant light on our past.
Sources:
Niccolo Mannucci in Marco Moneta (ed.), A Venetian At the Mughal Court (Penguin; 2021)
J. G. Harris, The First Firangis (Aleph; 2015)
Peter Mundy, The Travels of Peter Mundy (Vol II: 1628-1634), edited by Lt. Col. Sir R. C. Temple, (Hakluyt Society; 1914)
Francoise Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire (1656-1668), edited by Archibald Constable (1891)
John J. Ovington, Voyage to Surat in the Year 1689 (Vol I), edited by J. P. Guha (Penguin; 1984)
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