MUHAMMAI>\\ INN. i 



East, seeing that the drinking of wine is contrary to MuluunniMdan law. 



i*an (Journ. Roy. Hort. Soe.. x*ix.. n. . 7 i .'!-) furnish**. 



however, many useful parti, ulur* regarding the vineyard* of Daulatabad. 



VITI8 



VINirBMA 



hi- think . -lut, !>,., th.-t.moof Tagluq( 1336 A. P. )J>utonTagluq'*d*ah the capital 

 was transferred to I Whi, and that event had a diMutrou* efleei on the g~*~- 



following passage*, perhaps, aufflciently indicate the 8y*d'* View* ; 

 " Daring the time of the H.< rig* (i486 A.D.), PanlatabiH Wfifn* a 



military station under Parwi/ l-m Karanful. Once again (ha people began 

 to pay at i. !,(,,. 11 t.. Burdening, growing, however, only tboee kinds of vine* that 

 had MM \ ived the neglect of previuiu yean. n another nssssflri be re- 



marks. A great stimulus to grape cultivation was . 



MifwioiiH located at Aurangabad, which wore liberally endowed by 

 the early Bijapur <>r Ahmadnagar King* in 1.150. Their monasteries grew both 

 I >urple and white grapes. Hi \ lie Ifooriah traveller who viaited Daula- 



tabad in 1430, and the French traveller Thevenot, who made an extended 

 in lt>67, were much struck with the garden -ur eye* throughoul 



the Sarkar of Daulatabad." " This *tat- i till 1686 A.D.. 



\\ li.'ii Aurangabad became the capital of Aurangceb. The city grew r*i 

 and with it the demand for all aorta of luxuries. In Daulatabad itself. ttu< 



Eassion for cultivating vines knew no bound*. Place* of recreation provided 

 y noblemen in their own garden* were entir.-ly ...\.-r><l with \me*. Even 

 Fakirs looked upon the vino a* a gift from Paradise, and had their moeque* and 

 monasteries adorned with it." 



The Emperor Baber (Memoirs, 1519 (Leyden and Erskine. tranal.), 805) gives 

 a full relation of the first occasion on which he tasted wine. Hi* grandson Akbar, 

 however, fostered and encouraged grape culti\ ati.m. .m-l. l.y hi* direct aid, grape* 

 of high merit were successfully acclimatised in the Panjab and throughout the 

 greater part of Northern and Western India. But on accession of Akbar'* grand- 

 son the order went forth for the destruction of the vinerie* of Kashmir, and 

 grape culture in India shared in the neglect that followed. The seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries, therefore, witnessed a decline of interest in vine culture. 

 sufficient to account for the low position the industry now occupies, and naturally 

 the references either to the vine or to wine in the work* of the early traveller* 

 are few, and mostly of a negative character. Nicolo Conti, who travelled in 

 India early in the 15th century, speaking of a town called Panconia (supposed 

 to be Pegu), says, " This is the only place in which vines are found, and here in 

 very small quantity : for throughout all India there are no vine*, neither i* there 

 any wine." This, doubtless, was not a very accurate statement, since sh 

 after other writers speak of grape* a* seen by them in various part* of India and 

 Burma. Thus of Gujarat, Mandelslo (1638-40) say*, " They want nothing but 

 wine ; but to supply their want of that, they have Terri, taken out of the Coco*- 

 tree " ; but Ta vernier (1676) says that in Assam " There are quantities of vine* 

 and good grapes, but no wine, the grapes being merely dried to distil spirit* 

 from?' Thevenot (Travel* in Levant, Indottan, etc., 1087, pt. iii., 16) tefl* us 

 that the Dutch made wine from the grapes of Surat ; and that in Goloonda 

 they made white wine (I.e. 104) ; also that wine-drinking was punished in Kanda- 

 har (I.e. 56). Ovington (1689) observes that Bannians, tin .ugh they " are under 

 restraint from the blood of the grape, yet will they freely taste the grape* them- 

 selves luxuriously with their juice, while it is innocent and harmless. \\ e have 

 grapes brought to Surat t. from the middle of February till towards the end of 

 March ; some from Amadavad, some from a village called Naapoure, four days' 

 journey distant from Suratt." These would doubtless be described a* the Deccan 

 grapes of the Bombay shops to-day. 



There is thus no doubt that large tracts of Upper and Western India are 

 eminently suited for grape cultivation. Many < (notation* might be furnished 

 to prove the extensive and diversified nature of the knowledge that exists in 

 India and its chief frontier countries regarding the vine. Kanawar. for example, 

 is one of the Indian localities where what may be deacribed^a* indigenou* yiti 

 culture is a recognised industry, and Kashmir a* an area of both acclimatieed 

 and wild grapes, so far as the present-day cultivation i* concerned, and laatr 

 the trade in the produce of the vineyard* of Afghanistan. Baluchistan and 

 Kashmir is of no mean importance, and moreover capable of indefinite exten- 

 sion. To that category there seem* every prospect in the near future of Mysor 

 having to be added, namely as an important centra of grape cultivation. 

 Paidus JEginttn (Adams, transl. and Comment), i., 172-8 ; iii., 271-3 : Januen**. 



1113 



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Pmdtas. 



B*bsr. 



DOOSB. 



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