Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/267

257 Orissa, Vol. II), from whence it appears certain that the cotton textile industry at the time of the Christian era was far in advance of that of any of the western countries.

While cotton may possibly have been spun first in Turkestan, it seems more likely that it has always been native in the Indian peninsula and that the Aryan invaders found the cultivation and industry both well established. The early Vedas, for example, referred principally to woolen cloth of various kinds, some doubtless of fine quality, such as are still made in Kashmir. In the Rig Veda the material used in clothing is not specified.

The Mahābhārata — in the Sabha Parva — enumerates presents brought to Yudhisthira:

Cloths and skins; the former of wool and embroidered with gold, shawls and brocades- the latter marten and weasel; blankets of various manufacture by the Abhiras of Gujarāt; cloths not of cotton, but of sheep or goat wool, or of thread spun by worms (silk?), or of patta fibres and linen, or woven, by Scythians, Turkharas and Kankas; housings for elephants, by princes of the Eastern tribes, lower Bengal, Midnapur and Ganjam; fine muslin from people of Carnatic and Mysore.

The Rāmāyana mentions silken, woolen and cotton stuffs of various kinds. The trousseau of Sītā consisted of "woolen stuffs, furs, precious stones, fine silk, vestments of divers colors, princely ornaments, and sumptuous carriages of every kind."

Heeren supposes the woolen stuffs to have been Cashmere shawls. Ramanuja mentions a stuff from Nepal.

The change of custom as the Aryans penetrated into the hot climate of the Ganges Valley is shown in the Laws of Manu, which prohibited Brahmans the use of wool.

Aside from the priestly caste, however, fine fabrics of all kinds were in use. In an early play, the Mrichchhakatikā, the buffoon inquires: “who is that gentleman dressed in silken raiment, glittering with rich ornaments, and rolling about as if his limbs were out of joint?” (Act IV, Sc. II).

There can be little doubt that the fine muslins of Eastern Bengal known under such names as “Textile Breeze”, “Evening Dew”, or "Running Water" were made there before the Aryan invasion. Spinning and weaving, of course, were both by hand, and although this industry was renewed by the cottons from Manchester and the starting of mills about Bombay, this superlatively fine yarn is still produced in some quantities. In 1888 the spinners who supplied the finest quality were said to be reduced to two elderly women in the