Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/787

763 INDUSTRIES.] INDIA 763 is known as biclari work, from the ruined capital of Bidar in the nizam s dominions, where it is still chiefly carried on. Braag Brass and Copper. The village brazier, like the village and smith, manufactures the necessary vessels for domestic use. copper Chief among these vessels is the lota, or globular bowl, work universally used in ceremonial ablutions. The form of the lota, and even the style of ornamentation, has been handed down unaltered from the earliest times. Benares enjoys the first reputation in India for work in brass and copper. In the south, Madura and Tanjore have a similar fame ; and in the west, Ahmadabad, Poona, and Nasik. At Bombay itself large quantities of imported copper are wrought up by native braziers. The temple bells of India are well known for the depth and purity of their note. In many localities the braziers have a special repute either for a peculiar alloy or for a particular process of orna mentation. Silver is sometimes mixed with the brass, and in rarer cases gold. The brass or rather bell-metal ware of Murshidabad, known as khdgrai, has more than a local repu tation, owing to the large admixture of silver in it. Pottery. Pottery is made in almost every village, from the small vessels required in cooking to the large jars used for storing grain, and occasionally as floats to ferry persons across a swollen stream. But, though the industry is universal, it has hardly anywhere risen to the dignity of a fine art. Sind is the only province of India where the potter s craft is pursued with any regard to artistic considerations ; arid there the industry is said to have been introduced by the Mahometans. Sind pottery is of two kinds, encaustic tiles and vessels for domestic use. In both cases the colours are the same, turquoise blue, copper green, dark purple, or golden brown, under an exquisitely transparent glaze. The usual ornament is a conventional flower pattern, pricked in from paper and dusted along the prick ing, The tiles, which are evidently of the same origin a.s those of Persia and Turkey, are chiefly to be found in the ruined mosques and tombs of the old Musalman dynasties ; but the industry still survives at the little towns of Saidpur and Bubri. Artistic pottery is made at Hyderabad, Karachi, Tatta, and Hala, and also across the border, at Lahore and Multcin in the Punjab. The Madura pottery also deserves mention from the elegance of its form and the richness of its colour. The North-Western Provinces have, among other specialties, an elegant black ware with designs in white metal worked into its surface. Sculp- Carving and Inlaying. Stone sculpture is an art of the tnre ami highest antiquity in India, as may be seen in the early curving. memor i a l s o f Buddhism. Borrowing an impulse from Greek exemplars, the Buddhist sculptors at the commence ment of our era freed themselves from the Oriental tradition which demands only the gigantic and the grotesque, and imitated nature with some success. But with the revival of Brahmanism Hindu sculpture again degenerated ; and so far as the art can still be said to exist, it possesses a religious rather than an aesthetic interest. In the cities of Guzerat, and in other parts of India where the houses are built of wood, their fronts are ornamented with elaborate carving. Wood-carving, an important industry in Western India, is said, perhaps erroneously, to owe its origin to Dutch patronage, though the models of the carvers are evi dently taken from their own temples. The favourite materials are blackwood, sandal-wood, and jack-wood. The supply of sandal-wood conies from the forests of the Western Ghdts in Kanara and Mysore, but some of the finest carving is done at Surat and Ahmadabad. Akin to sandal-wood carving is the inlaying of the miscellaneous articles known as &quot; Bombay boxes.&quot; This art is known to be of modern date, having been introduced from Shiraz in Persia towards the close of the last century. It consists of binding together in geometrical patterns strips of tin-wire, sandal-wood, ebony, ivory, and stag s horn. At Vizagapatam, in Madras, similar articles are made of ivory and stag s horn, with scroll-work edged in to suit European taste. At Mainpuri, in the North-Western Provinces, wooden boxes are inlaid with brass wire. The chief seats of ivory-carving are Amritsar, Benares, Murshidabad, and Travancore, where any article can be obtained to order, from a full-sized palanquin to a lady s comb. Human figures in clay, dressed to the life, are principally made at Krishnagar in Bengal, Lucknow, and Poona. It remains to give some account of those manufactures proper, Cotton conducted by steam machinery and under European supervision, mills, which have rapidly sprung up in certain parts of India during the past few years. These comprise cotton, jute, silk, and beer. The first mill for the manufacture of cotton yarn and cloth by machinery worked by steam was opened at Bombay in 1854. The enterprise grew with scarcely a check, until by 1879 the total number of mills throughout India was 58, with about 1 million spindles and 12,000 looms, giving employment to upwards of 40,000 persons men, women, and children. Of this total, 30 mills, or more than half, were in the island of Bombay, which now possesses a busy manufacturing quarter with tall chimney stalks, recalling the aspect of a Lancashire town ; 14 were in the cotton-growing districts of Guzerat, also in the Bombay presidency ; 6 were in Calcutta and its neighbourhood ; 3 at Madras ; 2 at Cawnpur in the North-Western Provinces ; 1 at Nagpur in the Central Provinces ; 1 at Indore, the capital of Holkar s dominions ; and 1 at Hyderabad, the residence of the nizam. Like the jute mills of Bengal, the cotton factories of Bombay have suffered of late years from the general depression of trade. The Indian mills are, almost without exception, the property of joint-stock companies, the shares in which are largely taken up by natives. The overlookers are skilled artisans brought from England, but natives are now beginning to qualify themselves for the post. The operatives are all paid by the piece ; and, as compared with other Indian industries, the rate of wages is high. In 1877, at Bombay, boys earned from 14s. to 1 a month ; women, from 16s. to 1 ; and jobbers, from 3 to 6, 10s. Several members of one family often work together, earning among them as much as 10 a month. The hours of work are from six in the morning to six at night, with an hour allowed in the middle of the day for meals and smoking. A Factory Act, to regulate the hours of work for children and young persons and to enforce the fencing of dangerous machinery, &c., is now (1881) under the consideration of the legislative council. Besides supplying the local demand, these mills are gradually beginning to find a market in foreign countries, especially for their twist and yarn. Between 1872-73 and 1878-79 the export of twist from Bombay increased from 1,802,863 R&amp;gt;, valued at 97,162, to 21,271,059 fb, valued at 883,665, or an increase of nearly twelvefold in quantity and ninefold in value. Within the same period of eight years the export of grey piece-goods increased from 4,780,834 yards, valued at 75,495, to 14,993,336 yards, valued at 198,380. The twist and yarn are mostly sent to China and Japan, the piece-goods to the coast of Arabia and Africa. The figures for the coasting trade also show a corresponding growth, the total value of twist carried from port to port in 1878-79 having been 804,996, and of piece-goods (including hand-loom goods) 654,553. Mr O Conor, who has devoted much attention to the matter, thus summarizes his opinion regarding the future of the Indian cottou mills in his Review of Indian Trade for 1877-78 : &quot; Whether wo can hope to secure an export trade or not, it is certain that there is a sufficient outlet in India itself for the manufactures of twice fifty mills ; and, if the industry is only judiciously managed, the manu factures of our mills must inevitably, in course of time, supersede Manchester goods of the coarser kinds in the Indian market.&quot; The jute mills of Bengal have sprung up to rival Dundee, just as J u te Bombay competes with Manchester; but in the former case the capi- mills, tal is mostly supplied by Europeans. They cluster thickly round Calcutta, extending across the river into Hooghly district ; and one has been planted at Sinijganj, far away up the Brahmaputra in the middle of the jute-producing country. In 1879 the total number of jute mills in India was 21, of which all but two were in Bengal, and the number is annually increasing. The weaving of jute into gunny cloth is an indigenous industry throughout northern Bengal, chiefly in the district of Puruiah and Dinajpur. The ninny is made by the semi-aboriginal tribe of Koch, Kajbansi or Pali, both for clothing and for bngs ; and, as with other industries practised by non-Hindu races, the weavers are the women of tho family, and not a distinct caste. In 1877-78 just three million bags were imported into Calcutta from Pabnii district, being the product of the Sinijganj mills. The total exports by sea and land of both power-loom and hand-made bags numbered 80 millions, of which not more thim 6 millions were hand-made. The East Indian Kail-