Crafting Traditions: Documenting Trades and Crafts in the Early 19th Century North India

by Ghulam Yahya Mehr Afshan Farooqi (Tr. & Ed.)

The Kitab-i-Tasavir Shishagaran Vaghairah Va Bayan-i-Alat-i-Anha (The IIIustrated Book About Makers of Glassware, etc. and a Description of Their Tools) is Written by Ghulam Yahya in a matter-of-fact scientific, observational style. It is an economic and ethnographic description of eleven tradesmen and their crafts in the district of Bareilly in the Rohilkhand area in the1820s. The text is augmented with detailed drawings, showing tools and processes and coloured paintings in the regional "Company style". Of immense interest are the lists of commodities sold by the dry goods dealer, along with details of prices and an inventory of jewellery and ornaments manufactured by goldsmiths.