INDIGO 



25. As indicated by our word "indigo" (from Latin indicum), this 

 dye-stuff took its origin from India. The indigo-plant {Indigofera 

 tinctoria), introduced into Persia from India, is discussed by Abu Man- 

 sur under the name nil or Ilia. The leaves are said to strengthen the 

 hair. The hair, if previously dyed with henna, becomes brilliant black 

 from the pounded leaves of the plant. Another species, I. linifolia, 

 is still used in Persia for dyeing beard and hair black. 1 The Persian 

 words are derived from Sanskrit nila, as is likewise Arabic nilej. 2 Also 

 nili hindi ("Indian indigo") occurs in Persian. Garcia da Orta has 

 handed down a form anil* and in Spanish the plant is called anil 

 (Portuguese and Italian anil). 4 It may be permissible to assume that 

 indigo was first introduced into Sasanian Persia under the reign of 

 Khosrau I AnOsarwan (a.d. 531-579); for Masudi, who wrote about 

 a.d. 943, reports that this king received from India the book Kalila 

 wa Dimna, the game of chess, and the black dye-stuff for the hair, 

 called the Indian. 5 



Under the designation tsHn tai W H£ ("blue cosmetic for painting 

 the eyebrows") the Chinese became acquainted with the true indigo 

 and the Iranian practice mentioned above. The term is first on record 

 as a product of Ts'ao iff (Jaguda) 6 and Ku-lan # B9 in the vicinity of 

 Tokharestan; 7 during the T'ang period, the women of Fergana did not 

 employ lead-powder, but daubed their eyebrows with tsHn tai. s Ma Ci 

 of the tenth century says that "tsHn tai came from the country Po-se 

 (Persia), but that now in T'ai-yuan, Lu-lih, Nan-k'ah, and other 



' Achundow, Abu Mansur, pp. 144, 271. Schlimmer (Terminologie, p. 395) 

 gives ringi rl§ and wesme as Persian words for indigo-leaves. 



3 Leclerc, Traits des simples, Vol. Ill, p. 384. 



* C. Markham, Colloquies, p. 51. The form anil is also employed by F. Pyrard 

 (Vol. II, p. 359, ed. of Hakluyt Society), who says that indigo is found only in the 

 kingdom of Cambaye and Surat. 



4 Roediger and Pott (Z. /. Kunde d. Morg., Vol. VII, p. 125) regard this 

 prefix o as the Semitic article (Arabic al-ml, an-nU). 



6 Barbier de Meynard and Pa vet de Courteille, Les Prairies d'or, Vol. II, 

 p. 203. 



6 Sui Su, Ch. 83, p. 8 (see above, p. 317). 



7 T'ai p'in hwan yii ki, Ch. 186, p. 12. It was also found in Ki-pin {ibid., 

 Ch. 182, p. 12 b). 



8 Ibid., Ch. 181, p. 13 b. 



370 



