LOOKING BACK-AD1800

LOOKING BACK-AD 1800 If you could fly over India two hundred years ago , you will find a huge forest , extending from the North to the South. In the Times of India hundred years ago ( a column in the front page ), a letter shows that Coimbatore town was attacked by wild animals ! Even in my childhood , leopards used to kill cows from houses in Wadakancherry mother used to say. Her grandfather’s house was there. Even today peacocks abound there . At that time only a few cities were there . All the rest was forest. There were no railways or roads . People used to trudge along paths through the forest, even as they do in Wynad where many die by attacks of elephants. There were no bridges for rivers . Country boats ferried people across the rivers . At home we had several canoes made of mango tree , which float in water. (now , not a single canoe is there . ) The bullock cart was the universal carrier of goods . It is made of wooden chassis supported on wooden wheels with iron rims . It is made by local people. In the North , bullocks are used ; in the South , I have heard of caravans of carts drawn by buffalos. The driver may even go to sleep , but the animals know the way from Coimbatore to Trichur and never make a mistake. For ladies and old men there are carts with roofs and sides covered with bamboo skins. I have seen them in my childhood. When my father was bitten by a snake , he was taken to Trichur in such a cart. (I have described it in my earlier blog-Pages from my life) Irrigation was by using bullocks which draw a big drum , full of water , attached to the their neck by a strong rope , moving over an iron pulley. The animals move along slope , so they can get mechanical advantage. For small areas , a wooden bucket is drawn by a man. It is balanced over the pulley by attaching mud filled in a cage. Metallurgy India was famous for bronze lamps and cooking vessels . Our men developed metallurgy much before Europeans . Moradabad is famous for lamps . In Keralam , people knew how to make polished mirrors with bronze. Coins Obviously , there were no currency notes . Foreigners , including East India Company , paid gold coins for our goods. India was the richest country in the world . Mecaulley , who introduced English education in this country , says he could not see a single beggar in this land. Education Temples were the community centres where the upper caste people learned Samskrutham , astronomy , medicine and yoga. As the language was not spoken in india , Knowledge remained confined to the upper castes , mostly Brahmanas. There were no electricity or telephones. People lived in clusters of houses , protected by mud or stone boundaries. Each village was governed by a council of elders , sitting under a tree. This continues even today in the North . All houses had thatched roofs except the temples and mosques . Temples were made of granite or rubble . Taj Mahal is made of mud with facing marble slabs. In the South , granite is the only material , cut into squares and placed one over the other. People in the north wore long dhothis and shirts or blouses and wide skirts , all made in handlooms as cottage industry. In the South , even women were naked above the waists. (When the Raja of Travencore ordered that women should wear blouses , there were protests by them. Taylors did not even know how a blouse is made.) Simple pits with cross planks , were the latrines even in my childhood (to continue )