KAKIA I 



ARUM 



OmCINARUH 



History 



I n til.- name way the word ffuda or gula indicates * " mass " or ** ball." b*nos it* 



.! a|)|ili( -utioii t<> thickened sap the modern guror raw sugar or mnliMin, ^f- 

 an also the balls of mitrar that were used as ooiiiH m village oomroeroe. 



The aiicu-iit ii, mi. !.>r Bengal is (/aura, a word supposed by some to have 



I the rotintry of tjur, and hence it hit* been aftirn i Bengal 



natr. l iii" iirt of sugar manufacture. This seems highly improbable, nnae gwin 

 in the classic works of India, prior to the Aryan conquest* of ftfng*! 

 v the name jaggery, which to-day is used with the special signification of J*99**l- 

 (i.iln. sugar or palm molasses, in l>ut a modern corruption of tarlcard, first into the 

 .1 c}i<ifckui<i. then into il >ese jayara, jagra. Barbosa (Cotut* B. 



: and Mtilaiinr. I., I'.. .'i -(.. MI sugar of palms wln.-h th-y oall 



i." Joao de Burros (Dccadtu de Ana, 1553, >p. 7) immtloM 



the ni'iara mode from the fovounutH exported from the Maldives. CaMar 

 i ikf (1567) calls it ffiayra. Kh-c-.i,-. n, the passage alluded to in connection 

 \vith ; he oocoanut, calls it " iagra," and Hu.-hanaii-Hauultoii ( Journ. Mytort. 

 1807, i., 157-8; ii., 101 ; iii.. 145-6. etc., etc.) uses the word jagory. A know- 



>f tari wine seems ever so much older than of sugar prepared from the same Ttrt, 

 JIM. -. Megaethenes (320 B.C.) alludes to the value of the tola trees to the people 

 of I ii'litv (Indika of Arrian (McCrindle, trans). ). 199 ; seealao Malt Liquors, p. 757). 

 But Eratosthenes (223 B.C.) is perhaps alluding to sugar-cane when he tells us 

 that "the roots" were sweet to the taste both when eaten raw and boiled. 

 Lucan (A.D. 65) refers to the sweet juice expressed from reeds (tenera or undo). 

 Paulue dSgineta (Adams, transl.), iii., iMi'.). in the 7th century, speaks of the 

 sugar brought from-"Araby the Blessed" as being less sweet than honey. 

 Unmistakable reference is made to sugar-cane as cultivated on the shores of 

 the Persian Gulf during the 9th century. " The crusaders found sweet-honeyed 

 reeds in great quantity in the meadows about Tripoli, which reeds wore 

 called nicra." Gait, who published a history of sugar, says it is certain 

 that in the year 1148 it was largely cultivated in Sicily and that the 

 Venetians traded in it, but he adds. "I have met with no evidence that the 

 Saracens carried it from India to Sicily." Sanutus, who wrote of 1306, observes 

 that in the countries subject to the Sultan, sugar-cane was produced in large 

 quantities, and that it was likewise carried to Cyprus, Rhodes, Sicily and oth<-r 

 places belonging to the Christians. 



The Greco-Roman world had a very distorted idea of the origin of sugar. 

 It was a kind of honey obtained from canes or mambcu. In Hebrew writings 

 there is no indication of a knowledge of sugar, so that it was not cultivated in 

 Arabia and Egypt prior to the Jewish captivity at Babylon. The Chinese do 

 not appear to have known of sugar from very ancient times. Bretachneider 

 says that he has not been able to discover any allusion to it in the most ancient 

 books. It is first mentioned, he adds, in works that date from about the second 

 century B.C. According to the Pent Sao, a man was sent, about 627 A.D., : 

 China to Bihar to learn the art of refining sugar. Marco Polo (Travel* , 1290 

 (ed. Yule), ii., 313) visited India, and gives full particulars of the coast towns 

 of the south and west. Of Quillon, he says " their wine they make from palm- 

 sugar." But Polo does not definitely mention sugar, or rather sugar-cane, 

 until he reaches China. Of Pekin, he remarks, " enormous quantities of sugar 

 are made," and this " brings many merchants who traffic about the Isles of the 

 Indies." In a footnote, Sir Henry Yule explains that there is still a great 

 deal o sugar grown and made about Fuchau ; indeed all the fine Chinese sugar- 

 candy is produced at Fokien. If, therefore, this reference to Chinese sugar 

 denotes sugar-cane, it is the only one in Marco Polo's record of his great ex- 

 plorations that can be so interpreted. 



In one chapter Polo alludes to Bengal, but it has been shown that he never tndfaui 

 himself visited Eastern India and that his notions of Bengal were so imperfect 

 that the particulars he affords regarding sugar cannot be accepted as necessarily 

 denoting an ancient knowledge. Ramusio (in his edition of Polo) says the Chinese 

 were taught the art of refining sugar by some men from Cairo who happened to 

 be at the Court of the "Great Can" (PurcW Pilgrimet, iii., 101). Sir Hugh 

 Willoughby (about 1554) speaks of " such number of Ingenios for sugar " seen 

 near Pekin (Purcha*, I.e. 270). Most of the 16th and 16th century travellers 

 in China mention sugar as being so good and cheap. It is commonly stated that 

 Vasco da Gama (who doubled the Cape of Good Hope in 1497) relates that a con- 

 siderable trade in sugar was at that time carried on from Calicut the then capital 

 of West Indian commerce. John Leo makes a similar statement regarding Nubian 



931 



cnii] to 

 Europe. 



China. 



