1 Brass work,
2 Qlazed work on
3 pottery,
4 Stone carving.
5 Imports,
6 Exports,
7 The Panjab presum-
8 ably the home of the
9 aAnucnt savage races,
10 The testimony ©:
11 the Vedas, ont
12 The alengines.
13 16 HISTORY OF THE PANJAB.
14 brass inlay on shisham wood has risen to considerable commercial impor-
15 tance. Brass vessels for household use are extensively manufactured at
16 Amritsar, Pind Dddan Khan, Sdhiwdl (Shahpur), Riwdri, Bhiwdni,
17 Jagddhri, Hoshiarpir and Kéngra. The nielo work of Kashmir, the
18 beaten copper work of Amritsar, the cutlery and gunsmith s work of Sidlkot
19 and Nizamdbdéd (near Wazirdbad), the koftgart, or damascene work of
20 Sidlkot, Gujrét and Ldhore, and the jewellery of Delhi are noted for their
21 excellence. The enamelled work of Kdshmir, in shades of blue and green
22 done on silver, gold and copper gilt, is very effective. Multdn produces
23 fair enamelling. The “ majolica” ware of Peshdwar is peculiar to that
24 place and is glazed by a process known only to the makers. The glazing
25 on pottery of Multdn and Delhi is of frit, or a composition of flint and
26 alkali. A knowledge of hard glazing and of beautiful colours for encaustic
27 tiles is possessed by certain natives of Jalandhar, descendants of the old
28 decorators of the famous mosque of Wazir Khan at Lahore. Similarly
29 stone carvers survive at Delhi who claim to be the descendants of the
30 families who in the fourteenth century adorned the celebrated Kutab Minar,
31 Leather work, embroidered with silk or gold thread, is made at Peshawar,
32 Derdjat and Hoshiarpir. Paper is made at Sidlkot suited only for writing
33 with native reed pen.
34 The chief foreign imports consist of British cotton and piece-goods.
35 From other parts of British India are imported sugar, spices and other
36 groceries, woollen, cotton and silk cloths, dye stuffs, metals and metallic
37 utensils of various descriptions, precious stones, ivory,. glass, porcelain
38 and cutlery. The imports from countries to the westward consist of gold,
39 turquoises, silver, silk, cochineal, maddar, asafcetida, fresh and dried fruit,
40 safflower, wool and horses. The exports consist chiefly of grain, ght, hides,
41 silk, wool, carpets, cotton fabrics, shawls, indigo, cotton, tobacco, salt and
42 horses,
43 CHAPTER IIl.
44 THE ABORIGINES OF THE PANJAB.
45 sg position of the Panjab as the natural gateway of the peninsula of
46 India, and the advantages it possesses in soil and climate, immense fertile
47 plains, rich valleys and abundant water-supply, lead to the belief that its
48 occupation by the original races must have been among the earliest settle-
49 ments of mankind. This belief is strengthened by the concurrent testimony
50 of modern enquirers that the people first reduced to subjection by the Scy-
51 thian or Aryan conquerors from the north-west were the aboriginal inhabi-
52 tants of the Panjab. In the epic poetry of the ancient Hindus, mention is
53 made of the “black Sudra beyond the delta of the Indus.” The population
54 which was subsequently subdued by the Aryans in the valley of the Ganges,
55 is designated by the same name, “Sudra,” and when they advanced from
56 the valley of the Indus and the Ganges to the south, they encountered
57 there also populations of a similar character,
58 n the regions inhabited by these aborigines they required little or
59 no protection from the elements, so necessary in colder tracts, and their
60 accommodations were rude and imperfect, They lived in natural caves,
61 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com