Any body knows about the Book, Tarikh-i-Patiala by Khalifa sayed Muhammad Hassan,?

His attire isUzbeg especially his richly embroidered gown in golden thread and so is his headgear which is decidedly Muslim. Rajasthan is the only province in India where headgears have survived well into the 21st century . I can still tell a man’s caste/ religion and sometimes aboriginal status provided he is from the rural parts.The manners of dress and jewelry of Rajasthani women distinguishes them and loudly proclaims their caste and social standing even from a distance.Observe them while you can because this is the last generation which is still sporting such attire which is dead and gone in rest of India or else it survives only ceremonially.

Superb attire, gives us an idea what they wore back then. I was also curious how they kept things clean and what was their daily dress like? In some of the books I read I see foreign travelers all over India, where did they stay, eat, bathe and wash their clothes etc? Any idea?

@ Arvind: Well the most fascinating accounts are those of scores of travelers who came to India. The Chinese Fa Hien and Huien Tsang.Both enjoyed royal patronage. The latter came to study Buddhism and gives enchanting accounts of the royal courts in those times and so also about the universities of Nalanda and Vikramshiela.The scores of books in their libraries and also the pattern and medium of instruction and religious debates and dialogues between various faiths.Magadha and northern Mithila were cities from the times of the 16 maha-janapads and thriving centres of culture, refinement and religious tolerance.The Brahmins of Mithila challenged the Buddhist monks in religious debate with ‘navya nayaya’ and defeated them in ‘shastraath’ (religious discourses) Consequently Buddhism could never really take root in Bihar. Twenty out of the twenty one tirthankars of the Jains were Bihari.The Brahmins were able to oust both these faiths from the place of their birth by defeating them in public debates. Then there were Al Beruni and the African Ibn Batuta.The former’s accounts are the last before the advent of Islam in India and how india was at the turn of the previous millennium.Most medieval travelers stayed in Muslim Musafir Khanas and serais (inns) spread across the length and breadth of the country.Since Hadj (pilgrimage to Mecca) is one of the five pillars of Islam caravanserais were spread all over.The Mughals standardized serais at every terah kos and erected kos minars on major routes which still survive. The records in the Pothikhana (old library in the palace) of Jaipur tell us that a shahi farmaan could reach Jaipur from Delhi (240 km) in less than 5 hours by a hurcarrah on horse-back. That is still the time roughly that a Shatabdi express takes between the two capitals even 300 yrs later.The horses were kept ready without the jean (saddle) in every serai and the messenger would change a horse periodically. These serais were kept ready with water and provisions at all events. Then there are accounts of the Christian travelers like Afanasy Nitkin , Ceasre Federici, Father Antonio Monserrate , Peter Mundy, Friar Sebastian Manrique and Friar Domigo Fernandez de Naverrette and the more famous Jean Baptiste Tavernier , Francois Bernier and William Hawkins 9all between 1471 to 1666) .They stayed in serais, bathed in wells , rivers and lakes like the rest of Indians. Quite a few enjoyed royal patronage so they were saved from being waylaid. Suggested reading : “Alberuni’s India” edited with notes and indices by Edward Sachau and “Beyond the Three Seas” Travellers’ Tales of Mughal India edited by Michael H. Fisher

Digvijay, You have a wealth of knowledge, I'm amazed at the dept of information you provided. I have read Pietro Del Valle, Tavernier and Fa Hien but none of them mention what they ate, where they lived and how did they cleaned their clothes and showered. Except Pietro mentions his meeting the Zamorin and Queen of Ullal for lunch and dinner and in Goa with the Portuguese. Again Pietro does not say exactly what he ate, drank etc...

Excellent Digvijay !

@ Arvind: Now what they ate is a tricky one.All travelers mentioned were non-vegetarians and would kill the plentiful game and bird life spread across the country while they were on the move. Even in arid Rajputana and Gujarat partridges, quail and hare were plentiful and so were all manners of deer. Porridges of various kinds of grain were a staple in those times.Non-alocholic beverages were practically unknown. A detailed list of the kinds of meat, game, grain, fruit, veggies, spices, sweet-meats ( Gulab-jamun and jalebi were Mughal period inventions) are available of the Mughal period alongwith Ayurvedic beauty treatments and awesome use of aphrodisiacs and perfumes. The list of cloth available to them is mind-boggling to read today as the world’s best came to India in that period. Interesting observations in food are absence of cayenne pepper and tomatoes (which came from Mexico much later), potatoes (which came from South America) and ginger (which came from the west Indies).Akbar had got commissioned the chronicling of everyday events. So ancient Yunani and Ayurvedic remedies and hospitals (shifa-khana) are mentioned in the treatises too. For the common folk the choices were very limited in today’s comparison as veggies were rainy season bounties and fruit except the berries and mangoes were a luxury. People survived on grain, pulses and millets and the stuff prepared out of their various combinations.

Arvind, The European's travelling in India varied enormously in how they ate and got their costumes washed. Varying from those who acted much like Fakirs and just certainly would have stank the place out, to those who simply did what I used to do, which is hand their clothes over to the nearest Dhobi Wallah on a warm day. In 1979 I travelled in Afghanistan & the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan in winter where it was so appallingly cold (even for me as a Bri), that I had to wear virtually everything I possessed in my rucksack simultaneously. I based myself in Peshawar for some time making several trips out for a week or more, returning each time with yet another set of absolutely filthy clothes. Each time a fantastic laundry man I found near my hotel would return my clothes, not just clean, but with starched collars and incredible straight creases, which my wardrobe has never experienced before or since. On my last visit having returned from a month in Chitral with absolutely awfully dirty clothes, I felt that I owed him a big tip. He (a delightful elderly man) was quite unconcerned and invited me into his room for a tea. He told me he looked back on the Raj with affection because he had been a laundry contractor to many of the British families living in the cantonment and had grown rich looking after their laundry. His business had dropped off greatly after 1947. I expect many European's probably learned the same lesson I learned, which was that it was far safer to give up on European food altogether in India, and to eat local food. It was quite dangerous to ask Indian's to try to cook European dishes because these were not as well adapted to local food hygiene conditions as India cooking was. The prohibitions of the Muslim faith on eating pork and drinking alcohol are based on good science in hot countries. While a very large number of European's died off quite quickly in India, some lasted for very long life spans. I would not be in the least bit surprised if most of those who lasted longest were those who adopted Indian dietary habits. It is certainly the case that of the approximately 20 of my British ancestors in India, that those who lived in the smallest British communities, or amongst Indian's seem to have survived longest compared with those who living where European mores were strongest and who could access British food and drink easily seem to have died soonest. It is of course very hard to re-construct your forebears diets, but I do know that one of my 4 x gt uncles corresponded in retirement with Warren Hastings about the difficultly of growing ones own chillies in England. They both missed curry a great deal, and survived much longer than most in India at that time. They arranged for friends in India to send them seeds, which they tried to grow in their respective greenhouses, exchanging experiences, on how to keep the plants alive, which suggests they were habituated to Indian dishes. Another of my gt gt grandfather's ate a great deal of "Sudden Death" and this became a family favourite name used by my grandmother in my childhood for roast chicken. The origin of the name apparently was the habit of Chokidars at government rest houses,who rushed out into the yard to grab a chicken, as an officer arrived unannounced at his dak bungalow. Within minutes the chicken was being cooked over a fire for the officers supper an hour or so later. As food poisoning and general illness was common in those days, and death was seldom far away the name of the dish had a touch of irony built into it. Nick Balmer