IRFAN HABIB" Akbar and Technology In April 1580 the Jesuit father Francis Henriques reported from Fatehpur Sikri that ‘Akbar knows a little of all trades, and sometimes loves to practise them before his people, cither as a carpenter, or as a blacksmith, or as an armourer, filing.’ Rudolf Acquaviva soon afterwards (uly) referred to Akbar's taking delight in ‘mechanical arts and in September Anthony Monserrate claimed to ‘have even seen him making ribbons like a lacemaker and filing, sawing, working very hard.3 In his Commentary written later, Monserrate recalled that Zelaldinus (Akbar) is so devoted to building that he sometimes {quarries stone himself along with the other workmen. Nor does he shrink from watching and even himself practising for the sake of amusement the craft of an ordinary artisan. For this purpose he has. built a workshop near the palace where also are studios and work- rooms for the finer and more reputable arts, such as painting, goldsmith work, tapestery-making, carpet and curtain-making, and the manufacture of arms. Hither he very frequently comes and relaxes his mind with watching those who practise their arts.4 These statements by Jesuit witnesses are important, since they suggest that Abu'l Fazi's claims of Akbar's great interest in craft and technology were not mere products of courtly praise. Akbar had a natural inclination towards industrial crafts; and this was undoubt- edly a source of his encouragement to technological innovation. "PREFAB’ AND MOVABLE STRUCTURES. An early testimony to Akbar's interest in technology comes from ‘Arif Qandahari. Writing in 1579, he says: His high and majestic nature is such that when he journeys, the tents of His Majesty's encampment is loaded on five hundred camels. ‘There are eighteen houses, which have been made of boards of * Contre of Advanced Study in History, Aligath Muslim University Social Scientist, Vol. 20, Nos. 9-10, September-Cctober 1992,4 SOCIAL SCIENTIST ‘wood, each including an upper chamber and balcony, that are set up in a suitable and attractive place. At the time of departure, each board is dismantled, and, at the time of encamping, the boards are joined together by iron rings. The insides of these houses are clothed by covers of European brocade and European velvet, and the outside thereof are covered by broadcloth.> The supplementing of texts by wooden boards to create prefabricated and movable structures was an interesting innovation, which, though described later in some detail by Abu'l FazI, appears to have escaped general attention, especially since Blochmann’s translation® does not bring out the fact that the structures were essentially of wood, not of loth or canvas. I offer a fresh translation: ‘The A’ in of Encampment and Campaign It is difficult to describe all of it, but a little of what is arranged during hunting expeditions and journeys to nearby places is put into writing, and an illustrative account offered. First, the Gulalbar is a wonderful fortress which His Majesty has created. In it the enclosure is very solid, and passage is closed or opened with lock and key. It is not less than 100 gaz by 100 gaz in arca. On its eastern side, is sot up a large tent-hall (bargah), with two high masts (sargha), containing 54 chambers [i.e. with 54 smaller poles around them], 24 gaz in length, 14 gaz in width.” Inside [the Gulalbar], a large wooden raoti stands, and around it they have other curtained pavilions. Adjacent to it is put up a two-chambered (do-ashyana) ‘wooden building, and that is the place of worship of His Majesty. Outside of it, in select order, 24 wooden raotis, each 10 gaz in length and 6 gaz in width, are raised, each set apart by curtain-walls. Ladies of the Imperial harem find repose there.* What a ‘wooden raoti’ was is duly described a little later in the A’ in-i Farrash Khana: ‘The wooden-raoti is raised with ten pillars. Each of these is partly buried in the ground, and all are not made equal in height, for those ‘on which the beam rests are slightly higher.? The solidity is increased by {wooden} boards (dasa) placed above and below [the resting beaml, and some rafters are placed over the beam and board. All are attached to each other by iron covers with male and female fits (human ra ahan jama ba-tarz-i nar-o-madagi paiwand dahad). ‘The wall and roof are formed by woven bamboo. There are one or two doors, and they set up a [curtained] floor (suffa) [in front of the door] according to the size of the lower board (dasa). The interior is ‘ornamented by brocade and velvet, and the exterior is girdled by broadcloth and silken tape.AKBAR AND TECHNOLOGY 5 ‘Abu’ Fazl goes on to describe the do-ashyana, also mentioned in the initial passage on encampment: ‘The do-ashyana is set up with eighteen pillars. Pillars of six gaz ‘each are raised and wooden boards put over them. To them, by way of male and female fits (ba-tarz-i nar-o-mada), pillars of four gaz lin length] are attached, and so the upper room (bala-khana) is formed. Its interior and exterior are ornamented in the same way [as the wooden raoti]. In expeditions, it serves as the place of the Emperor's bed-chamber.10 ‘These extensive translations are offered to show that, as ‘Arif Qandahari says, much innovation went in providing materials which. could be used instantly to set up wooden structures, and not simply tents. ‘A wood-and-bamboo palace like the ‘Wooden Raoti’ and a double storeyed structure like the Do-ashyana could be set up and dismantled at each stage of journey. Blochmann's translation suggests that ‘bolts. ‘and nuts' were put into use to attach the several parts.!¥ If correct, this, would be testimony to an early use of screw as an attachment, though ‘even in Europe, the screw did not come into use in carpentry before the sixteenth century.1? The words, akan jama, iron-cover, are, however, decisive in excluding the screw. Obviously, what we are told of are iron-tubes that clothed the ends of masts and beams, with protrusions male’) designed to fit into hollows (female’) of corresponding tubes fitted to other masts and beams, and vice-versa. These could extent both length-wise or at right-angles to the mast or beam. It is thus that ‘modem iron scaffolding is often rigged up; and it would be interesting to see if there is any early evidence of the use of this device in timber construction in India. The principle was known in ancient Iran, where kariz clay pipes used to be fitted to each other this way, cach being at ‘one end ‘male’, and, at the other, ‘female’. ‘TEXTILES “Arif Qandahari is also our earliest source for Akbar's interest in textile technology. He says: His Majesty has such an eye for the five points that he has introduced [lit. invented] selken clothes, brocade, tapestry and carpets of silk and brocade in India, and instructed highly skilled masters in that art, so that the work in India is now much better than the work of Persia and Europe. He has so well practised the making of designs (tarraki) that if Mani [the great artist) we alive, he would bite his fingers in astonishment at such design- making and dyeing,13 ‘This passage is important in showing that Abu'l Fazl did not invent his attribution of Akbar's innovativeness in the realm of textile craft,