INDIGOFERA 



History 



THE INDIGO PLANT 



Adulteration. 



Mixed with Oil. 

 Eotation. 



Terry's Account. 



Built Vats. 



Tavernier'a 

 Account. 



Bengal Indigo. 



Hove's Account 



Rheede*s 

 Account. 



bitter, sprouting forth into branches like a Reed, and growing in kind years, 

 six or seven foot high : the Flower is like that of a thistle, and the seed like that 

 of Fenu-greek. It is sown in June and cut in November and December. It is 

 sown but once in three years, and the first year the leaves are cut off within a 

 foot of the ground. The stalks are taken away, and the leaves are set adrying 

 in the Sun, and that done, they are set asoaking, for four or five dayes, in a stone- 

 trough, containing about six or seven foot water, which is over and anon stirred, 

 till such time as the water hath suckt out the colour and virtue of the herb. 

 That done, they let out the water into another trough, where they suffer it to 

 settle for one night. The next day, all the water is taken away, and what is left 

 in the bottom of the trough is strained through a coarse cloath, and is set adrying 

 in the Sun. And this is the best Indico ; but the country people adulterate it, 

 by mixing therewith a certain earth of the same colour. And whereas the good- 

 ness of this Drug is discovered by its lightness, they have the cunning to put a 

 little Oyle into it, to make it swim upon the water." 



" The second year, the stalk which was left the year before shoots forth 

 other leaves, but they are not so good as those of the first. Yet is this preferred 

 before Gyngey, that is, wild Indico. It is also the second year that they suffer 

 some part of it to grow up to seed. That of the third year is not good, 

 and consequently not sought after by foreign Merchants, but is employed 

 by the inhabitants of the country in the dyeing of their Cloaths. The be 

 Indico is almost of a violet colour, and hath somewhat of its smell, whe 

 burned. The Indosthans call it Anil ; and after it hath been in the groi 

 throe years, they suffer the Land to lye fallow for one year ere they sow it 

 again." 



Terry says of Gujarat in 1622, " The indico we bring thence is good, ant 

 a rich commodity. It is there made of leaves not bigger than those of ov 

 Gooseberry bushes, and the shrubs that bear those leaves are about their bigne 

 These leaves they slip off from the small branches of those bushes, which grov 

 with round and full heads without prickles. The leaves thus stripped off, 

 are laid in great heaps together certain days till they have been in a hot 

 sweat ; then are they removed and put into very great and deep Vessels fill'c 

 with sufficient quantity of water to steep them in, where they leave their bh 

 tincture with their substance ; this done, the water is drained out into other 

 exceedingly broad, but very shallow Vessels or Vats, made of Plaister (like to that 

 we call Plaister of Paris) which will keep in all the Liquor till the hot Sun in short 

 time extracts the moisture from it ; and then what remains in the bottome, is a 

 Cream about one quarter of an inch thick, which suddenly becomes hard and dry, 

 and that is our Indico, the best sort whereof comes from Biana, near unto Agra, 

 and a coarser sort is made at Cirkeese, not far from Amadamaz ; about which two 

 places, are a very great number of those shrubs planted, which bear those leaves." 

 Could the plant have been Indigofera ? The passage is taken from Petro Delia 

 Valle (Travels (ed. Hakl. Soc.), 1665, 367). Francis Bernier (Travel*, 1656, 283) 

 makes mention of the Anil or Indico of Delhi. Tavernier (Travels, 1670 

 (ed. Ball), ii., 8-12) of all the early European authors gives perhaps the 

 most detailed and accurate account. Ho discusses the production in Gujarat 

 (Sharkej, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Broach), of Golconda, of Agra (Biana, Indoua 

 and Corsa) and of Bengal. He then adds that the Dutch Company convey the 

 Bengal dye to Masulipatam, and that the Bengal and Gujarat indigoes can be 

 purchased at 30 per cent, less than that of Agra. The reference to a Bengal 

 indigo at the date in question is certainly remarkable. His account is too lengthy 

 for quotation, but it will richly repay perusal. He describes the steeping vats, 

 the use of oil, and the drying in the sun discussed by other travellers. Hove 

 (Tours in Oujerat, etc., 1787, 107-8) gives full particulars of several planta- 

 tions visited by him. The plant, he says, was usually sown in the beginning 

 of the rains and suffered to grow for two seasons. The first crop is cut at the end 

 of the rains and the last about March or April. So late as 1820 we read of indigo 

 planting having existed in Gujarat, and a number of unused pits near old villages 

 and among the buried cities of the Satpuda mountains bear silent testimony to 

 the former important industry of indigo manufacture. Rheede (Hort. Mai., 1678, 

 i., 101-2, t. 54 ; ix., t. 30) gives a brief account of the indigo industry of the 

 Malabar coast and furnishes two pictures, which thus leave no doubt that the 

 plant or plants to which he alludes were species of Indigofera. Sir W. Hedges, 

 during his agency of Bengal, wrote a diary, 1681, which deals with his tours 

 of inspection through Hughli, Malda, Dacca, Balasore, etc., and discusses the 



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