Enter Rome in the 1st Century CE
The womenfolk in Rome were besotted and completely enchanted by a certain fabric that reached them from across the Eastern seas. Soft to touch, light, graceful on wearing, attractive in design the fabric inspired drapes and fashion styles among the Roman upper classes.
Today, we know the fabric as the ubiquitous cotton. However, in the 1st century CE, cotton, indigo dyed-fabrics, and other produce from India were in great demand in Rome which gave pearls and gold in exchange. Cicero, the Roman orator, has recounted how 20 million gold coins were sent to India every year to bedeck the Roman aristocracy in fancy clothes made of exotic Indian cotton.
Even the Greeks were aware about the wonders of Indian cotton.
Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, mentions Indian cotton in the 5th century BCE as "a wool exceeding in beauty and goodness that of sheep." When Alexander the Great invaded India, his troops started wearing cotton clothes that were more comfortable than their previous woolen ones. Strabo, another Greek historian, mentioned the vividness and the superior quality of Indian fabrics, and Arrian narrated the prosperous Indian–Arab trade of cotton fabrics in 130 CE.
The cotton plant in India was referred to as “wool that grew on plants” for a long time by the Greeks. Pliny the Elder gave it the name “cotton” after the fruit, mala cotonea that grew in Crete.
Due to the popular demand and high quality of Indian cotton, Rome was losing a significant quantity of its wealth to India, which over time, led to a drastic decision: the ban of Indian muslin around the 1st century CE.
Organic substances such as cotton fibers disintegrate in soil, making it difficult to find millennia-old samples of cloth, paper or wood. However, some samples could get mineralized due to tight contact with highly corrosive metals such as copper or iron. Organic material then gets preserved for a very long time period, without corroding significantly.
One such artifact was found in Mehergarh, Balochistan, part of Bharatavarsha, where fibers of cotton were found mineralized in copper beads by the side of a skeleton’s wrist.
Detailed studies of the same have proven that the fibers are from mature and ripe cotton seeds and were extracted using a refined process. This points to the maturity in the cotton cultivation method in India and fiber extraction 9,000 years ago.
This is the oldest physical sample of cotton in the world, as the sample has been traced to as old as 7th millennium BCE (9,000 years ago)!
There have been other samples of cotton excavated from other sites around the world but these date more towards 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE. A sample of fibers of a woven cotton fabric found at Dhuweila in eastern Jordan, dating to around 4th millennium BCE have also been found. However, the ecological conditions prevalent at that time and location have ruled out its local produce and the sample has been traced back to India.
The path-breaking discovery led to many more historical implications:
* In the field of agriculture - This region has shown signs of continued cultivation, of agriculture and pastoral farms from 7th millennium BCE.
* Trade - Indians were not only cultivating cotton but were also exporting cotton to Jordan or the West, as early as the 4th millennium BCE or 6000 years ago!
* Technological advancements in metallurgy - Indians knew mining and molding metals such as copper into beads. This mineralized sample of cotton fibers had been roll pressed around a rod and then cut and filed into beads.
Such was the overwhelming demand of the exquisite Indian cotton that in other parts of Europe between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, the elite classes and aristocrats wanted this unique fabric desperately, which was extensively worn by the common people in India.
Indian cotton was in extensive demand in places all over the world, from Europe to China, from the Arab world to Japan.
Zhou Qufei or Chou Chu-fei, was a Chinese government official who lived between 1135 and 1189 CE, during the Song dynasty. He wrote the “Ling-wai tai-ta : Sensational information from beyond the ranges” in 1163 CE and referred to the Vengi kingdom. A part of the Chola empire, the Vengi kingdom was popular with the Chinese and the Arabs for textile exports. Vengi, in the present Andhra region, includes the port of Machilipatnam from where textiles and other commodities were exported in large volumes, even under the repressive colonial rule.
Ibn Batuta, the famous Moroccan explorer who was en route to China, visited India in circa 1345 CE. At Beypore in Kerala, he was taken in by the soft local cotton fabric and worn as an upper cloth (shali known as selai in Tamil). Interestingly, from shaliyat came the French châle, Spanish chal, Italian scialle, Russian shal, and the English shawl!
Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the country’s 300 regional Daimyo during the Edo period (1603-1868). This period was primarily known for its insulation of Japan from foreigners and a selective foreign policy. During the Edo period, Indian cotton went to Japan in the form of sarasa.
Sarasa had its origins in the early Edo Period (1603 to 1868) when Portuguese seafaring traders introduced cotton calicos or chintz they acquired in India into Japan. These beautiful, exotic chintz textiles quickly became enormously popular among wealthy samurai and merchant classes. Indian calicos presented themselves as unconventional designed cotton fabrics containing vivid colors with striking abstract geometric and animal designs. They stood out in stark contrast to common Japanese utilitarian blue indigo cotton fabrics, a textile the Japanese encountered every day.
Unfortunately, imported Indian calicos were exceedingly expensive for the local populace, too high-priced for making into affordable kimonos and other Japanese fabrics. Instead, the Japanese cut down large lengths of sarasa into smaller sizes in order to create prized and relatively costly small items like tea-caddy bags, wrapping cloths, small money purses and pouches for tea utensils, replacing a previous preference for Chinese silk.
Production of domestic sarasa (calico) began in the late 1600s (Edo Period) when skillful Japanese dye workers found a method to replicate the designs of Indian calicos from their own style and production techniques. Master Japanese textile makers applied their indigenous katazome textile printing skills into making sarasa (rice paste resist dyeing with washi paper stencils "katagami").
The humongous demand for the Indienne (Indian textiles) was so high that several units were set up in Europe to produce an imitation. France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Germany - all were swept in the craze of Indienne in the 1500s. Finally, Frederick William I banned Indienne in Marseilles in 1580 CE. The ban was intense with heavy fines imposed on those found guilty of wearing such fabrics. Corporal punishment was also introduced for those who wore Indienne, stocks of garments were destroyed, and the police even ripped off the dresses of offending ladies walking on the streets. This was very similar to the Swadeshi movement in India during the struggle for freedom from the British. This ban was like an European "Swadeshi movement" of the 1580s - which banned and boycotted Indian textiles for monopolizing and dominating their market due to unmaintainable demand (instead of Indians banning European clothes). The astonishing reversal of fortunes may as be one of the most drastic economic collapses in history.
The present day, gossamer cotton, was famed in ancient Europe. Known as ‘nebulla venti’, the cloth’s softness was equated to woven clouds. Herodotus has marvelled at the fabric’s fineness in his works as well.
Despite all these bans, cotton was one of the major exports in the Dutch East India Company records of 1680. The Dutch exported 1,12,00000 pieces of cotton textiles to their colonies and other parts of Europe for trade in a 5-year-period between 1684 and 1689 CE from the port of Machilipatnam, since the demand was too high and the quality of cotton was simply irresistible.
Interestingly, India held this monopoly of cotton cultivation, production and trade for over 2,000 years. A forerunner in textiles, India specialized in production of quality cotton, associated dyes, prints, waves, machinery and skillful tailoring. India’s long thread of antiquity is amply supported by ancient texts, archaeological evidence as well as historical accounts.
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