Dagger with Nilgai (Blue Bull) Hilt, from the Shahjahani era

This beautiful dagger is dated from 1640, during the reign of Mughal emperor Shahjahan. Shahjahan's rule, based out of Agra and Delhi, lasted for 30 years. It was a period of great cultural and artistic flowering. Some of India's most beautiful monuments belong to this period; but Shahjahan also patronised the arts and crafts. This beautiful nephrite and steel dagger reflects not only the Mughal appreciation of craftsmanship, but also of the natural world. See how wonderfully the grey-green nephrite showcases the delicate ears of the Nilgai!

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/453253

The dagger is currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The description on the museum website says "Daggers such as this one were sometimes awarded to officers who had distinguished themselves in military victory and were worn at court as dress accessories indicating royal favor. Animal-headed hilts were especially favored, and the realism of their rendering conveys the keen appreciation for nature by Mughal artists.

On this dagger, the hilt portrays a nilgai, or blue bull, one of the most beautiful animals found in India, and terminates at the base with a leafy scroll and lotus flower. Carved from a bluish-green nephrite that approximates the color of the animal, this hilt not only demonstrates the artist's thorough mastery of hard-stone carving, but also displays a level of accuracy and sensitivity that suggest close observation of a model, perhaps one of the captive animals kept in the imperial zoo."

The dagger found its way into the personal collection of Nasli Heeramaneck, a Parsi dealer of antiquities and art objects, who died in 1985. His personal collections were bequeathed to various museums. Around 200 objects from Heeramaneck's Pre-Columbian and Western Art collection was gifted to the National Museum in Delhi, where you can see it displayed even today. 

Flame of the Forest

"Flame of the Forest" might be a romantic sounding name, but don't forget, it's also called Bastard Teak, lol.

The beauty of the dry deciduous forests of India reaches the peak when most trees have dropped their leaves, and the Flame of the Forest is in its full bloom.

Some of you might be interested to know that spoons made of this tree are used for ghee-oblations, and in the days before matchboxes, the bark of this tree was lit and used to start the daily agnihotram at sunrise and sunset.

Because the tree is indigenous to India, it finds mention in many literary sources, from vedas to love poetry.

If you've heard about the Battle of Plassey - where the English defeated the Nawab of Bengal - that comes from Palash, the Bengali word for this tree.

Tagore chose the Palash to celebrate the basanta ustsav at Santiniketan. See that little curved hook on the flower? Like Santhali women, you too can use the hook to tuck the flower behind your ear as you walk the lanes of Santiniketan.

Photo clicked by yours truly, in Ranthambhore. You can also spot these trees in Delhi, in the Central Ridge, or at Qutb Complex, or near the Kalkaji temple.

Lotuses at the Chhatarpur Flower Market, Delhi

We went to the Chhatarpur flower market early in the morning, where Gaurav photographed these beautiful lotuses.

It reminded me of the many lovely associations of the lotus from my childhood; especially this painting of the Goddess Lakshmi by Raja Ravi Varma, which hung on the wall in our family's prayer area. She is holding lotuses in both arms; she stands on a lotus; and there are lotuses in the pool, with swans. Her saree is also lotus-pink.

I always thought the lotuses in these paintings were exaggerated depictions of the flower. But that was before I actually saw a lotus close up. The beauty of this flower is breath-taking. Look at all the layers inside! I can actually imagine a tiny Lakshmi standing on top of this flower :)

At the National Museum in Delhi, there is a rather unusual miniature painting of Vishnu, Lakshmi's consort, holding lotuses in all his arms. He is seated on a lotus. A garland of lotuses is being offered to him; his head is crowned with lotuses; and even the fly-bearer's crown is similarly studded with lotuses. This is a Pahari miniature from the 1750s, from the Mankot-Basohli school. One of the chief characteristics of the Basohli paintings is the use of lotuses as a "must-have". It is a rare Baohli painting where you will not find lotuses. The Basohli school initiated Pahari art by illustrating scenes from literary classics, such as Rasa-Manjari, Ramayana and Gita Govinda (this one below must be from Gita Govinda; see how the painting depicts the Gaudiya tradition of Vaishnavite body marks).

Even more unusual is this phoolsajya painting, again from Basohli, where Radha and Krishna are clad entirely in lotuses. Again, this is likely from the Gita Govinda, which sings of the yearning of Radha for Krishna. The song is interpreted as the yearning of the human to merge with the divine. In the Gita Govinda, Radha first enjoys the bliss of being with Krishna; then when he departs, she is filled with anguished longing. The painting below depicts the bliss of the union of Radha-Krishna using the lotus as the motif. Like the lotus, this union is beautiful, divine, tender and pure.

Even in this depiction of the fearsome Bhadrakali, the Basohli artists found a way to incorprate lotuses: look carefully and you will find them.

Lotuses are everywhere in India. In Sanskrit, there are many words denoting lotuses - for example, padma, kinjala, mrinala, pushkara. We see lotuses in the names of many Indian people, both male and female. Padma, Padmavati, Padam Singh, and so on. It is also the name of the famous pilgrimage town of Pushkar. The legend says that Lord Brahma struck the asura Vajranabha with a lotus (which is Brahma's weapon). A petal of the lotus fell here at Pushkar, and a sacred lake was created.

Oh and also, I got a real kick out of knowing that in the Star Wars series, Padme Amidala is named after the lotus too :) :)

Conflicts in the Thar

At sunset, the Thar desert is golden and the colours are surreal. It reminds you of a water-colour painting.

This is a group of female neelgai antelope with young ones.
I clicked this photo at the Samsaara Desert Camp near Jodhpur.

We were ooh-ing and aah-ing when our guide explained to us that the neelgai were a major threat to his farm crop (millet and mustard are grown in the Thar, apart from many other things). 

Mustard crop in the desert terrain, typically seen in winter

The negative feeling in our guide's voice was clear: he did not like the neelgai. His tone made me stop and think about man-animal conflict, and how groups of people who traditionally have coexisted with animals are now losing their tolerance. Traditionally the neelgai has not been hunted in India because it is believed that this is a type of cow. But attitudes are changing.

A farmer with small land holding near Jodhpur.
I met him on my last visit, he explained his
crop cycle to me.

I don't blame farmers for disliking the neelgai. Life is precarious in the desert, and farming is not easy. Once the crop is sown, it must be guarded from being eaten, which is of course, taxing for small farmers (since the labour usually is sourced entirely from the farmer's family).

Farmer's family taking mid-day meal break in the field.
Farming is largely manual labour, it is back-breaking work.

Unfortunately, there is no systematic, nation-wide approach towards managing man-animal conflict. The root causes of the problem are well known: widespread loss of natural habitat and food sources, changes in land use and cropping patterns, cutting off of wildlife corridors, and so on.

What is to be done? We need comprehensive policies that treat land in a holistic manner irrespective of state boundaries; we need to think about our 'development' model. We need to reduce the population growth rate, so that whatever progress we make is not eaten away by the huge new numbers. 

None of it is easy.

Meswak at Nizamuddin Basti, Delhi

If you go to Nizamuddin during the month of Ramzan, you will always spot the meswak sellers doing brisk business:

Meswak / Miswak / Siwak, Nizamuddin, Delhi
Spotted on the Delhi Magic Heritage Walk through Nizamuddin: 
http://delhimagic.com/heritage-walk-nizamuddin.html

Meswak is a traditional way of cleaning teeth and is widely used among Muslims in India. It is sometimes spelt as miswak, and it's also called siwak. 

Sales of meswak shoot up during Ramzan, because during fasting, you are not allowed to brush your teeth with toothpaste (as the fast will be considered broken). Meswak is "sunnah" (approved way of life), so you can use it to clean your mouth. Meswak triggers the flow of saliva. Swallowing this saliva is considered ok (whereas there are usually restrictions on swallowing saliva during fasting). 

Cutting implements used to shape the Miswak and scrape off the bark..
If the twig is whitish, it means it is fresh and good for use

The meswak is a shrub / small tree. Its natural habitats in India are near mangroves, in saline lands, thorn shrubs, desert flood plains and along drainage lines in arid zones. It can tolerate lots of salinity.  

The scientific name is Salvadora Persica; this fancy name was bestowed upon the tree by Dr. Laurent Garcin (1683-1751), a French naturalist working with the East India Company. In choosing the name "Salvadora" Dr. Garcin was honouring a 17th century apothecary from Spain, Juan Salvador i Bosca (1598-1681). The "Persica" refers to Persia, where the "true specimen" of the tree is said to be from.

To me the Salvadora Persica looks very much like a tree which is native to India, because it is widespread and has names in several Indian languages, including Samskrit. Some examples below:

Hindi: मेस्वाक meswak, पिलु pilu 

Kannada: ಗೊನಿಮರ gonimara 

Marathi: khakan, पिलु pilu

Sanskrit: गुडफल gudaphala, पिलु pilu

Tamil: உகா uka

Telugu: గున్నంగి gunnangi

Here is a photo of the plant in its natural settings, from Salem Al Shekaili's flickr page. Looks like a very uninspiring and ordinary shrub, doesn't it? But it is a valuable resource - the leaves are used as food (they have a mustardy flavour), the bark has medicinal properties, and it is being widely planted in Kutch as part of reforestation attempts.

Salvadora Persica, by Salem Al Shekaili

In fact, to check to the versatile plants of the desert, you should head over to Salem Al Shekaili's really fabulous page to see his full collection of halophytes (plants which grow in saline environments).

Finding mulberries (shahtoot) in Delhi

I heard that mulberries were being sold in the city, and so I asked my colleague Gaurav if he had seen any. Thus began Gaurav's hunt for shahtoot :) It took him all over the city, but finally he found this young boy selling mulberries in Old Delhi. 

There was no shortage of buyers. First there was a man in a white shirt.

And then a boy with his father on a scooter.

The sweet lure of shahtoot drew everyone to it. Shahtoot. What an interesting name, shah originating from the Farsi word for emperor, and toot meaning berries. The King's Berries. It is pronounced sheh, not shah, actually. Typically the fruits start to develop in April, and are seen in the markets up to May. 

The mulberry tree is originally from China, but it has grown in India for so long that it has become naturalised.  There are two types of mulberry usually found in Delhi - morus alba (white) and morus australis (darker berries). But the so called "white" mulberry tree produces fruits of all colours, ranging from pale yellow to very dark purple, so it's difficult to tell the two sub-species apart.

This batch of mulberries has all kinds of shades, but they
are all from the same white mulberry tree.

In fact, other variants, like morus nigra (black mulberry) and morus serrata (Himalayan mulberry) are probably here somewhere as well, quietly growing in some part of the city. But the fact that the white mulberry produces such a diverse range of fruit colours means that these other types are hard to identify when you see the fruits in the market.

Mulberry Tree growing in Sarai Kale Khan

Silkworms have been reared on the white mulberry tree in China for silk since antiquity. In Japan also, where silk is made from the mulberry tree, there are over 700 recognised varieties of white mulberry.

In India, the silk that we see in the market is primarily sourced through silkworms reared on mulberry trees. The major mulberry silk producing states are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Jammu-Kashmir. These states together account for 92 % of country's total mulberry raw silk production. There are about 6 million workers in the silk production process, of which 60% are women.

A couple of years ago, I went to a weaver's house in Kanchipuram, in Tamil Nadu. They were a family of traditional weavers, and like all traditional establishments, it was a cottage industry with everyone in the family involved in the many activities. I saw silk thread (uncoloured) and also the thread coloring and weaving process.

Uncoloured silk thread. This is the raw material
which they purchase from silk suppliers 
(it comes from silkworms bred on mulberry leaves).

The weaver's family dyes the thread, and winds it into wooden spools.
Mostly this activity is done by women, and it is interspersed with
other household work like cooking and cleaning

The thread is placed on the loom as per the design (which is defined 
through a complicated pattern of vertical threads and knots).
It is then woven into cloth. The whole thing is a slow process, 
and the end result is a shining silk saree.

When you see the mulberry tree, it's difficult to imagine that such a beautiful glossy thread can come from it. But the process of rearing silkworms, and getting the silk from it, is far from beautiful.

http://www.designboom.com/history/silk1.html

There's an outstanding step-by-step set of photos here, if you'd like to see it. Very time-consuming, and  labour-intensive. And yes, for those of you who are squeamish, they do boil the cocoons to kill the chrysalis.

Apart from being used for rearing silkworms, the mulberry tree has many other uses. In rural areas, the bark of the tree is used to weave baskets. You can make a cool sherbet for summer. Nirulas in Delhi also sells mulberry jam. In the Unani medicine system, mulberries are popularly used for sore throats, and also as a cure for melancholia. Some scientific studies show that mulberry extract has "has anti–inflammatory, exudative, proliferative and anti-pyretic activities".

Next time you see shahtoot being sold, buy some and try making sherbet from it. Here's my version:

• Buy 200 gms of mulberries, wash and clean it and pat it dry
• Remove stems
• Add approximately same amount of sugar, blitz in your mixer
• Taste and see if it is super-sweet.
• Add juice of 1 lemon or half a lemon, depending on how you want it
• Strain the juice
• Serve with ice, garnished with mint

This is a fresh juice, which you should ideally consume the same day. Enjoy :)

Falling in love - my Kanha trip report

We are just back from a 3 day trip to Kanha Tiger Reserve. We flew into Nagpur, and drove 5 hours through the countryside, to a pretty lodge called Camp Dev Vilas. We did four safaris into the jungle - two in the morning, and two in the evening.

By the time I came back home, I was exhausted. But I had fallen in love with Kanha.
Why, you ask? No, it wasn't the tigers. Or any of the beautiful birds we saw. Or my first sighting of a leopard in the wild.

I fell in love with the land itself.

There are very few places in India where time stands still. Kanha is one of those places. In the tall sal forests of Kanha, it feels as if nothing has changed for a thousand years, as if the forests and the trees have stood there forever.

A sounder of wild boars in Kanha's Sal Tree Forests. 

Apart from the noise of their feet on the leaves, there was no other sound.

I have been to other forests in India - but none of them have had this kind of impact on me. Maybe it is the sheer size of Kanha. You can keep driving around; the park seems endless.

One evening, we drove up to a plateau for a look at the park boundary. The forest stretched as far as the eye could see. The park is all of 2000 square kilometers., with habitat that includes not only sal forests, but also more wild forested tracts, and beautiful meadows.

Kanha is horse-shoe shaped, with hills ringing the park.

Can you see the hills in the far distance?

By the way, if you have heard of the word 'Gondwanaland' - referring to an ancient continental structure that existed up until 130 million years ago - it comes from the Sanskrit words "gond" + "vana" - meaning Forests of the Gonds.

In the late nineteenth century, an Austrian geologist, Eduard Seuss, studied the ancient land formations in central India, and came up with the theory that the continents as we know it today were all joined together. It was he who coined the term Gondwanaland to refer to this ancient supercontinent.

The famous meadows of Kanha. Looks like a water-colour painting . 

The people of Kanha are ancient too. One morning, as we drove in the dark pre-dawn hour to our safari, I saw a group of Baiga tribals, carrying wood. There were men and women in the group walking with small quick steps, balancing their loads on their shoulders. As they melted away into the darkness, our guide Monu explained that the Baigas still make their living from the forest, collecting honey and timber.

In the buffer zone of Kanha, we also saw many small settlements of Gonds. Their houses are uniformly painted an auspicious blue. Their cattle are short, with small horns. They are farmers and cattle owners, living a simple rustic life.

Gond house under a mahua tree

Rocks, forests, people - everything about Kanha seems ancient, reminding you of a time when the world was  a different place. Although the animal population of Kanha is nowhere the size it once was (the vast herds that once roamed these meadows are gone), the Forests of the Gonds seem to have escaped the complete destruction we see everywhere else in India.

One of the endearing features of Kanha is that the animals are still very shy of humans. It is a very different experience from say, Africa, where the animals lie around, indifferent to the hundreds of tourist jeeps. I for one, rejoiced that I had found such an Eden. I will return to Kanha soon, I am certain.

Chital run away in alarm when they see our jeep.