Ghulam Yahya, Crafting Traditions. Documenting Trades & Crafts in Early 19 th Century North India.

Edited and translated with an introduction by Meher Afshan Farooqi, Indira Gandhi National Centres for the Arts and Aryan oo!s International, New "elhi, #$$%, &&&i& 'introduction( ) *#+ 'facsimile and translation( ) ,- .a/es from the bac! '.rinted te&t(. 0his boo! is the .ublished 1ersion and translation of a nineteenth century 2ersian wor! written by one Ghulam Yahya. Meher Afshan Farooqi located the manuscri.t of this wor! in the 3ni1ersity of 2ennsyl1ania 4ibrary, 2hiladel.hia, and .roduced its facsimile edition with a translation. 5he has written a useful introduction and added an a..endi&, /lossary and inde&. 0he title of the wor! is not mentioned in the te&t and there is no fly leaf or colo.hon. Farooqi mentions in a footnote that the co1er of the bindin/ carries the title Kitab i Tasavir hishagaran !aghairah va "ayan i #lat i #nha 'The Illustrated "oo$ #bout %a$ers of &lass'are( etc. and a Descri)tion of their Tools (. 0he author, Ghulam Yahya, mentions in the .reface that he wrote this boo! at the behest of the Ma/istrate and 6ud/e of the "istrict of areilly 7*-*-8*-## A"9, :obert Glyn, who ;issued forth an order for this i/norant .erson to write the true details of some of the craftsmen and the names of the tools of manufacture and .roduction and their dress and manners.< In the first half of the nineteenth century, ritish colonial officials in India .re.ared statistical and other com.ilations of information about the si=e and characteristics of the Indian .o.ulation their in order to build an archi1e of !nowled/e about their /rowin/ em.ire and /o1ern it in the best .ossible interest of the "irectors of the East India Com.any. 0he information /athered in this way laid the foundation of the official ethno/ra.hy of the .eo.les of India in the second half of the ei/hteenth century. ut not all wor!s were .roducts of intellectual curiosity and administrati1e demand. 4ord and 4ady Cannin/ wanted to .ut to/ether an album ;of a .ictorial record of the .eo.le, buildin/s and countryside< as a sou1enir of their days in India. 0he end result was the .ublication of The *eo)le of India+ # eries of *hotogra)hic Illustrations 'ith Descri)tive ,etter *ress of the -aces and Tribes of .industan, edited by 6ohn Forbes >atson and 6ohn >illiam ?aye. Ghulam Yahya@s wor! broadly falls into the /enre of colonial ethno/ra.hy, but it is e&traordinary in the sense that it was .re.ared by an Indian rather than a ritish official. 0his trend was more 1isible at the turn of the twentieth century when the Colonial /o1ernment assi/ned the tas! of .re.arin/ detailed re.orts on industry and economy to its Indian officials. It is also difficult to notice any 2ersian wor! written in India durin/ the medie1al .eriod on this subAect or /enre. 2ersian wor!s written by Indians in nineteenth century on s!ills and crafts, such as %a/maul 0unun, may ha1e been followin/ a new tradition. Ghulam Yahya selected ele1en trades and crafts and illustrated their brief descri.tions with twel1e drawin/s of tools and fi1e colour .aintin/s of craftsmen. 0he selection a..ears to be random and not at all e&hausti1e althou/h it co1ers some maAor craft acti1ities of the re/ion. In the followin/ list, the readers will be amused to find the

# cate/ory of ?abab ma!in/ which now a days is considered more of a culinary art than an industrial craft.

*. Glass 'dar bayan sa$htan $ach( #. Glass ban/les 'churi $ach( ,. 4ac ban/les and the tools used 'churi la$ 'a alat( B. Crim.er and his tools %. Gram .archers and their tools C. Char)ai wea1ers and their tools +. Grocery ')ansari( sho. and .rices of /oods -. >ire drawer 'tar$ash( D. 5il1er and /old thread and laces *$. ?abab ma!in/ **. Goldsmiths, their tools and ornaments they ma!e Meher Afshan Farooqi has done a mar1elous Aob of retrie1in/ a 2ersian manuscri.t from near obli1ion 'it was callously catalo/ued as a coo! boo! written in 3rdu( and brin/in/ it to the notice of historians of ei/hteenth century northern India as well as scholars of colonial Indolo/y and ethno/ra.hy. 0hose interested in inland commerce and .rice history will also find the data com.iled in this boo! quite useful. 0he manuscri.t is written in the form of rounded letters !nown as nastali1 'I be/ to differ from Farooqi that it is shi$asta( which is not 1ery difficult to read, althou/h the .eculiar style followed in accountancy 'siya1( of writin/ fi/ures as words 'ra1am( needs s.ecial s!ills to deci.her. 0here are 1ery few .eo.le in the country who can read these fi/ures and Farooqi is one of them. 0he boo! is 1ery well .roduced and I ho.e its .ublication ins.ires /reater interest in the readin/ of 2ersian te&ts as source material for historical in1esti/ation. NaAaf Eaider Associate 2rofessor Centre for Eistorical 5tudies 6awaharlal Nehru 3ni1ersity