NICOTIANA 



History 



THE TOBACCO PLANT 



Not grown in 

 India. 



Portuguese. 



First Definite 

 Appearance in 

 India. 



Cultivation in 

 Ceylon. 



Jahangir 



forbade 



Smoking. 



Exported from 

 India. 

 Parsis of 

 Gujarat. 



Abundantly 

 cultivated in 

 India. 



Its Improvement 

 in Botanic 

 Gardens, 

 Calcutta. 



A Century 

 ago was 

 Unimportant. 



Prohibition. 



" Counterblaste." 



Prohibited in 

 England. 



Baber (Conqueror and Emperor of India) wrote his Memoirs with special 

 reference to 1519-25, and while describing all the useful and interesting animals 

 and plants found by him in India, makes no mention of tobacco. So also a 

 little later (1563) Garcia de Orta published in Goa his historic work on the 

 drugs of India, but makes no mention of tobacco. The first direct reference to 

 it, in connection with India, centres around certain Portuguese missionaries at 

 the Court of the Great Mughal. Doubtless to the Portuguese is due the credit of 

 having conveyed both the plant and the knowledge of its properties to India and 

 China. It is said in the Dara-shikohi that they had conveyed it to the Deccan 

 as early as 1508. Asad Beg, of date 1605 (Elliot, Hist. Ind., 1875, vi., 165-7), 

 says of Bijapur that he found some tobacco and, " never having seen the like in 

 India I brought some with me and prepared a handsome pipe of jewel work." 

 These he presented to the Emperor Akbar, who attempted to smoke, until he 

 was forbidden by his physician. It would thus seem to have been known in the 

 Deccan for nearly a century before it was carried to the rest of India. On 

 the other hand, Comes affirms that the seed cultivated in India in 1605 had been 

 brought from Brazil. In 1610 tobacco was grown in Ceylon, and in that same 

 year it was introduced into Turkey (George Sandys, Journey, 66). In 1614 

 Floris produced a sketch of a Hindu woman of Masulipatam smoking tobacco. 

 By 1617 smoking had, in fact, become so general in India that the Emperor 

 Jahangir forbade the practice, as also had Shah Abbas of Persia (Elliot, I.e. 

 v., 851). Foster, in his work The English Factories in India (1906, 64, 92, 

 109), quotes various letters and invoices of date 1619 which speak of tobacco 

 being sent from India to Red Sea ports. Mandelslo (Travels, 1638, in Olearius, 

 Hist. Muscovy, etc., 1662, 74) speaks of the Parsis of Gujarat living peaceably 

 and " sustaining themselves out of the advantage they make of the tobacco-plant 

 and the terry they get out of the palms." Cultivation in Gujarat in 1638 is 

 spoken of as successful. In 1645 the plant was carried to Golconda. Edward 

 Terry (Voy. E. Ind., 1655, 96), speaking of Surat, says that " the tobacco which 

 grows there is doubtless in the plant as good as in any other place of the world, 

 but they know not how to cure and order it, like those in the West Indies." 

 Fryer (New Ace. E. Ind. and Pers., 1672-81, 223, etc.) says, " The Persians smoke 

 tobacco in their most solemn assemblies, and for this purpose are provided with 

 spitting-pots or pigdans." Tavernier (Travels in Ind. (ed. Ball), 1676, ii., 23) tells 

 us that he found tobacco grown abundantly at Burhanpur, and adds, " In certain 

 years I have known the people to neglect saving it because they had too much, 

 and they allowed half the crop to decay." Ovington (Voy. to Suratt, 1689, 428) 

 speaks of the people of Muscat abhorring tobacco and burning all that is brought 

 to their city. Strachan (in Phil. Trans., 1702, xxiii., 1134, (abrid. ed.) iv., 667), 

 gives an account of the cultivation and manufacture of tobacco in Ceylon. He 

 speaks of two forms, one much stronger than the other. The Bahar-i-Ajam, 

 1760 (Blochmann, Ind. Antiq., i., 164), speaks of tobacco coming from Europe 

 to the Dakhim and thence to Upper India during the reign of Akbar Shah a 

 fact already indicated. Col. Kyd (in his letter in 1786 to the Court of Directors, 

 proposing the formation of the Botanic Gardens, Calcutta) mentioned the im- 

 provement of tobacco as one of the subjects that might engage attention. Mac- 

 pherson (Hist. Europ. Comm. with Ind., 1812) makes only a passing allusion to 

 the tobacco trade of India with France, and Milburn (Or. Comm., 1813) does not 

 even mention the name of the " weed." It is thus a fact beyond dispute that 

 tobacco, less than a hundred years ago, was an article of comparative unimport- 

 ance in India, whereas to-day its use is all but universal men, women, and even 

 children smoke and, moreover, the export traffic has become of the greatest 

 importance to the country. The Sikhs, Wahabis and certain Hindus are, however, 

 prohibited the use of tobacco, though allowed indulgence in hemp and opium to 

 any extent. As in other parts of the world, so in India, tobacco passed through 

 a period of persecution, but its ultimate complete distribution over India is 

 one of the numerous examples of the avidity with which advantageous new 

 crops or new appliances have been absorbed into the agriculture and social 

 customs and even literature of the people of India. 



It is a matter of every-day knowledge that King James I. issued his famous 

 " Counterblaste " in 1603, and raised the tax to 6s. lOd. on the pound. King 

 Charles, in 1630, prohibited the cultivation in England and Ireland, where it 

 seems, according to Macpherson, great quantities were still raised. In 1633 the 

 King issued a proclamation to regulate the vendors of tobacco in cities and towns. 

 Pope Urban VIII- prohibited smoking in church. By an Act of 1663 cultivation, 



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