NA TURE 



313 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1890. 



TA VERNIER'S TRA VELS IN INDIA, 



Travels in India of Jean Baptiste Tavermer, Baron 

 of Atibonne. Translated from the original French 

 Edition of 1676, &c., by V, Ball, LL.D., F.R.S., 

 F.G.S., &c. In Two Volumes. (London : Macmillan 

 and Co., 1889.) 



JEAN BAPTISTE TAVERN lER was a Sindbad of 

 the seventeenth century. To an insatiable love of 

 travel, which prompted him even in his boyhood to rove 

 through the greater part of Europe, and in his mature 

 life to accompUsh no less than six voyages to Persia, 

 India, and the still more remote East, he united the 

 faculties of a shrewd and successful trader. By his traffic 

 in jewels and other costly commodities of small bulk, he 

 turned his wanderings to profitable account, and amassed 

 a fortune which enabled him to purchase the Barony of 

 Aubonne, and to enjoy the dignified retirement of a 

 wealthy old age. But, like a true traveller, he remained 

 active-minded and active-bodied to the last. At the age of 

 79, attracted by the offer of the Elector of Brandenburg to 

 conduct an embassy to India, he set forth on a circuitous 

 journey through Europe, and, disposing of his estate and 

 chateau of Aubonne, he embarked on renewed mercantile 

 ventures. The few remaining years of his life were 

 passed, for the most part, in journeying to and fro in 

 Europe, and he died while so occupied. The place of 

 his death has long been doubtful, and it has only recently 

 been discovered, on the authority of a letter from the 

 Swedish Resident at Moscow, that the indefatigable tra- 

 veller drew his last breath at Smolensk, in February 1689, 

 when on his journey to the ancient Russian capital. 



Despite some inaccuracies and inconsistencies, due 

 mainly to the incompetent editing of the original work, 

 Tavernier's account of his travels has long been appealed 

 to by Indian historians as a recognized authority — the 

 testimony of an eye-witness to the condition of India 

 under the later great Mogul emperors. At the time of 

 his visits, the Mogul Empire was in the zenith of its 

 power and splendour. On the occasion of his first jour- 

 ney to India, he found Shah Jehan, " the most magnificent 

 prince that ever appeared in India," peaceably seated on 

 the Imperial masnad ; and throughout his dominions, 

 though these were less extensive than in the time of his 

 successor Aurungzebe, a degree of good administration 

 and general prosperity surpassing that attained under any 

 previous or subsequent emperor. He quitted India for the 

 last time only about two months after the death of Shah 

 Jehan, then deposed and imprisoned, when Aurungzebe 

 was setting out on that career of conquest and oppression 

 that in the following century brought about the wreck of 

 the Mogul Empire, and exposed its rich cities and pro- 

 vinces to be wasted and despoiled by Mar^thd hordes and 

 Afghan invaders. 



At a Court gathered around the famous peacock throne, 

 where emperor and nobles vied with each other in the 

 acquisition of costly jewels, an expert such as Tavernier 

 was received as a welcome visitor ; and in pursuit of his 

 calling he travelled without hindrance through the length 

 Vol. xli. — No. 1058. 



and breadth of India, visiting the European settlements 

 of Surat, Goa, Madras, and Kdsimbazdr, the independent 

 Court of Golconda (Hyderabad), and certain of the dia- 

 mond-mines that were then actively worked both in 

 Southern and Northern India. His work is a medley of 

 historical memoranda, incidents of travel, itineraries, and 

 details of his commercial dealings, put together without 

 much system, but nevertheless highly instructive, and ap- 

 parently far more trustworthy than was conceded to him 

 by most of his contemporaries ; altogether furnishing a 

 fund of information respecting the state of India in the 

 middle of the seventeenth century. 



The latest English translation of Tavernier's travels 

 appeared more than two centuries ago, and as Mr. Ball 

 remarks, owing to the translator's misconception of the 

 author's meaning, through want of local knowledge, and 

 to serious abridgment, it gives a very inadequate idea of 

 the true merits of the original work. Mr. Ball's own long 

 experience of India, and his familiarity with its geography 

 and the varied phases of native life, would alone have en- 

 abled him to correct most of the errors of his predecessors ; 

 and the deficiencies as a philological and historical critic 

 which he modestly urges as having determined him, for a 

 time, to abstain from attempting a new translation, have 

 been made good by the invaluable assistance afforded by 

 the late Sir Henry Yule, under whose advice he eventually 

 undertook the work. The result is the two handsome 

 volumes now before us, in which for the first time the old 

 traveller's experiences are presented to English readers, 

 elucidated by the results of modern research, and in a form 

 which very greatly enhances their value for all purposes of 

 future reference. Some i^^ inconsistencies remain, and 

 are duly pointed out in the footnotes, but they are such 

 as relate to matters of detail, occasional confusion of 

 dates or persons, and the like ; and they do not appre- 

 ciably detract from the general trustworthiness of the 

 narration. 



With the political and historical data of Tavernier's 

 work it is hardly our province to deal in this place. 

 Most of his facts relating to the Court of Delhi were prob- 

 ably furnished to him by his cotemporary and sometime 

 fellow-traveller Bernier, and all that is important in them 

 has been long rendered familiar to English readers in the 

 lucid pages of Elphinstone. Neither need we dwell on 

 his descriptions of native customs or the manner of life of 

 those European exiles of various nationalities who were 

 then, as pioneers, exploiting the riches of the East, with 

 no small display of mutual jealousy and animosity, and 

 indulgence in practices sometimes hardly less barbarous 

 than those of the indigenous population amid which they 

 dwelt. The social condition of the Indian people in 

 Tavernier's day was essentially the same as when, more 

 than a century andia half later, the British Empire having 

 been raised and consolidated on the ruins left by 

 Mardthds and Pathdns, a new era of peace and civiliza- 

 tion was inaugurated by Lord Bentinck, and the suppres- 

 sion of thuggi, dacoity, sati, and other barbarous rites of 

 the Hindu religion, preceded the establishment of schools 

 and Universities, and the opening up of the wilds of India 

 by systems of roads and railways. The social regeneration 

 of India, such as it is, has been almost exclusively the 

 work of the last seventy years, and even now it has 

 hardly penetrated far below the surface. 



