Indian Jades

The present treatise "Indian jades", provides the most authentic and trustworthy account of the origin and development of Indian jade art. Earlier, there existed a good deal of controversy and confusion about the origin and development of the art of Indian jade carving.

It is believed that Indians first started producing jade specimens during the rule of the Mughal Emperor, Jahangir. Indians did not know jade as a raw material till the advent of Mughals in India. However, the present work proves that it will be incorrect to presume that Indians had not known the art of jade carving till the beginning of Mughal rule in India. Scant attention has been paid to contemporary literary works, such as manuscripts, historical records and travelogues which contain enormous information to supplement and strengthen our study.

Dr M.L. Nigam (b. 1933) is Former Director of the renowned Salar Jung Muscum, Hyderabad. He did his Masters and Ph.D. from Lucknow University and later went as a Commonwealth scholar to the U.K. He joined London University where he pursued higher studies in archaeology and muscology. He did his A.M.A. (Diploma in Museology) from London and was elected Fellow. of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, Great Britain in 1963. He joined the Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad in 1964 and was appointed as a Director in 1975.

He has published more than dozen of books on Indian decorative art such as Indian jewellery and Indian jades, Indian sculptures, archeology and museology. He has contributed numerous research papers in various leading national and international journals and magazines. He has also worked as an editor of the Journal of Museums Association of India, New Delhi and also of the Salar Jung Museum Bi-Annual Research Journal, Hyderabad.

He is associated with various cultural and educational institutions. as an expert and consulted by many international academics and scholars on a wide variety of subjects.

The word 'Jade' known as L'ejade in French during the seventeenth century and Piedra de hijada in Spanish, first occurs in 1727 in Chamber's Cyclopedia. It includes all the three varieties, viz. Nephrite,' Jadeite and Chloromelanite, generally found in the Khotan and Yarkand regions of eastern Turkistan and upper Burma. The Chinese synonym for Jade, 'Yu', which initially covered a wider range of semi-precious stones like the agate, quartz and fluor families, was quarried mainly from the regions of Yarkand, Khotan, Kaskem Valley and the slopes of and Nan Shah mountains. In China, true Jade means Nephrite Jadeite, which was imported through the province of Yunnan in Burma, is known as Yunnan Yu or "Fei-ts'ui". In the dictionary of English, Persian and Arabic by John Richardson, which was printed in 1810 CE the Persian word 'Yashm' has been translated as 'Agate' and not as 'Jade', the use of which probably, had not become so common till that time in the English language. Another dictionary of Persian, Arabic and English by Francis Johnson, printed in 1852, mentions the term yashbwhich stands for 'Jasper', especially a whitish kind of stone found on Mont Imaus. The same dictionary refers to a Persian word 'Yashm' which means a sort of Jasper or Agate. In the language of Mongols, the term 'Khas' stands for Jade, whereas in the Turkish language, the term 'Sootash' is also used in the same sense The term 'Pa-zahar' of Persian origin, which means antidote to poison, was also probably used for Jade as it is evident from an inscription on a wine cup which was engraved with the name of Emperor Jahangir at Mandu in 1617 CE and is now in the collection of Bharat Kala Bhavan, Varanasi. The reputation of Jade that it worked as an antidote to poison was probably the reason for a large number of wine cups, opium container, bowls and water pots to have been fashioned out of this rare and costly material, both in Persia and India.

It is not known exactly as what made the Chinese develop a blind faith in the supernatural powers and mystic qualities of Jade. The Chinese held Jade in such high esteem that it was considered as a bestower of good health, fortune and divine truth, so much so that it became an essential commodity to be offered on certain occasions, such as the royal coronations and death ceremonies. As a scholar puts it, it is curious to note that Chinese carving in Jade developed gradually from the purely mythological type, used in religious ceremonies, to a grotesquely symbolic type, derived from many influences and similar in design to art-forms already existing in other parts of the world, until becoming utilitarian, it finally reached, during the Ch'ien Lung period, a high degree of decorative perfection. It is however, doubtless that the wide range of colours, sonorousness and smooth hard surface with a soft greasy appearance after it is polished, must have prompted the use of Jade in fashioning objects of art at early stages. It is generally believed that the carvings developed from the early spear heads and weapons to ritual tokens and thence to the Imperial emblems of the Chou dynasty.

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