Thread by @subhra2jyoti, #Thread (3/3) on what Francois Bernier (1620-1688 CE), French physician, in service [...]

#Thread (3/3) on what Francois Bernier (1620-1688 CE), French physician, in service of Dara Shikoh & Aurangzeb, writes abt the bountiful produce of Kashmir and its intricate handicrafts & other products :-
#History #KashyapkaKashmir #India #Bharat #Kashmir #pasmeena
#handicraft

Francois Bernier writes the following about the different produces of Kashmir :-

“The merchants who every year travel from mountain to mountain to collect the fine wool with which shawls are manufactured, all agree in saying that between all the mountains still dependent upon Kachemire there are many fine stretches of country....

Among these tracts there is one whose annual tribute is paid in leather and wool, and whose women are proverbial for beauty, chastity, and industry.

Beyond this tract is another whose valleys are delightful and plains fertile, abounding in corn, rice, apples, pears, apricots, excellent melons, and even grapes, with which good wine is made...”

Francois Bernier records about the crafts of Kashmir and (Pasmeena) shawls of unrivalled excellence:-

“The workmanship and beauty of their palekys, bedsteads, trunks, inkstands, boxes, spoons, and various other things are quite remarkable, and articles of their manufacture are in use in every part of the Indies.

They perfectly understand the art of varnishing, and are eminently skilful in closely imitating the beautiful veins of a certain wood, by inlaying with gold threads so delicately wrought that I never saw anything more elegant or perfect.

But what may be considered peculiar to Kachemire, and the staple commodity, that which particularly promotes the trade of the country and fills it with wealth, is the prodigious quantity of shawls which they manufacture, and which gives occupation even to the little children.

These shawls are about an ell and a half long, and an ell broad, ornamented at both ends with a sort of embroidery, made in the loom, a foot in width. Mogols & Indians, women as well as men, wear them in winter round their heads, passing them over the left shoulder as a mantle...

There are two sorts manufactured: one kind with the wool of the country, finer and more delicate than that of Spain; the other kind with the wool, or rather hair (called touz) found on the breast of a species of wild goat which inhabits Great Tibet.

The touz shawls are much more esteemed than those made with the native wool. I have seen some, made purposely for the Omrahs, which cost one hundred and fifty roupies; but I cannot learn that the others have ever sold for more than fifty...

They are very apt, however, to be worm-eaten, unless frequently unfolded and aired. The fur of the beaver is not so soft and fine as the hair from these goats.”

This was my 3rd and final #Thread on Kashmir. The 1st and 2nd thread (embedded in 1st) can be read in the following tweet:- https://twitter.com/subhra2jyoti/status/1333763159606267906?s=21

https://twitter.com/subhra2jyoti/status/1333763159606267906?s=21

Kashmir has been always, historically as well as spiritually, of Sanatani Hindus. 500-600 years of history of foreign invaders, force conversions and desecration/destruction of Hindu temples and structures does not change the fact whom #Kashmir belongs to originally.

I nor anybody from my family is from #Kashmir but #Kashmir is part of my Maa Bharti which has inspired me to dig out the facts from history & present the past glory of #Kashmir, the crown of my Motherland.

I leave u with some glimpses of #Kashmir from past :-

One more time: #KashyapKaKashmir was, is and will be.

Source and Credit:

1)THE INDIA THEY SAW (VOL-3) by MEENAKSHI JAIN

2)Francois Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire AD 1656-1668, Vincent A Smith ed., Low Price Publications, 1994, pp., 419-420, 402-404.