Forbes, James, 1749–1819, James Forbes letter, Hot-Wells, near Dazagon, 1771 May 12, copied between 1794 and 1800
- Call Number:
- Folio A 2023 69
- Holdings:
- [Request]
- Creator:
- Forbes, James, 1749–1819
- Title(s):
- James Forbes letter, Hot-Wells, near Dazagon, 1771 May 12
- Date:
- copied between 1794 and 1800
- Classification:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Series:
- Series I: A voyage from England to Bombay with descriptions in Asia, Africa, and South America
- Part of Collection:
- volume 4, page 35-45
- Provenance:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Conditions Governing Access:
- The materials are open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts.
- Scope and Content:
- From Fort Victoria, Forbes travels to “the Hot Wells,” about thirty miles further upstream, and the topic of his fifteenth letter. The trip prompts numerous remarks on the nature of the scenery: “Nothing can exceed the romantic prospects that continually present themselves on this river, meandering in a clear and smooth stream,” and “the glowing warmth and masterly strokes of Claude would fail in doing justice to the beautiful original.” Forbes draws on notions of the picturesque, referring to Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), a French painter whose landscapes were particularly sought after in England. Many travelers used the picturesque as a way of reading alien landscapes, or as a vocabulary for expressing aesthetic quality. Forbes comments on his own relaxation, and his enjoyment of the brief moments of twilight from beneath the leaves of a mango tree. Yet he also emphasizes the heat: he records temperatures, laments the dry and searing wind, and asserts that with “the air so dry and parching…few European constitutions could long support it.” The wells themselves, however, hold water “the pleasantest I have tasted in India.” In addition to his general impressions of the landscape and wells, Forbes includes several anecdotes and encounters throughout his letter. Some resemble his previous natural historical accounts: he marvels at the colors of the chameleon, lists the various animals one finds in the vicinity, recounts the death of a bull and man by different species of venomous snake—“a large snake of another kind, by only blowing with rage in a man’s face, so poisoned his pores, that he died a few days afterwards in a high delirium”—and narrates his close encounter with a tiger. Sleeping outdoors due to the heat, Forbes narrowly escapes the creature: “On a sudden he [a friend] heard a particular noise near my bed, and turning round saw a large Tyger rush close by my right hand, which was hanging over the side of the bed. You may guess my astonishment when he awoke me, and informed me of my danger.” Other moments recall Forbes’s more ethnographic observations. He explains the custom of “swinging, or being suspended by hooks, in the back, from an eminence”: “This penance is generally voluntary; and undertaken in consequence of some vow or for the expiation of a crime. Sometimes, by the flesh giving way, when the penitent is suspended aloft, he falls down, and fatal accidents ensue.” Hook-swinging (charak puja) frequently figured in missionary accounts of India, emphasizing the bloody excess of Hindu practice. Other diversions include vaulters, tumblers, and other acrobats, performing deeds “far beyond anything we meet with in Europe,” whom Forbes claims he cannot describe, instead referring the reader to his sketches. Forbes pays a visit to the caves at Marre (present location uncertain) after visiting the Hot Wells. He compares them to the caves at Elephanta, and marvels at their interior: “In this subterraneous temple is an alter-piece, consisting of a large image seated on a throne, with a smaller figure on each side….” And yet Forbes claims he can find no explanation for when or why the caves were excavated, dismissing the stories of a hermit as “too romantic and fabulous to deserve a recital.” Forbes closes his letter on a more political theme: the despotism of the Maratha rulers, whose land he has visited. The rulers are so cruel, he explains, that “neither the property, nor even the life of an Indian subject can be called his own; from the first nobleman in the realm to the meanest peasant; all feel the iron scepter of a despotic ruler.” Forbes here reproduces a theme common among thinkers, travelers, and historians alike, that of the oriental despot whose cruelty forces his entire people into a situation of stagnation, poverty, and submission. Forbes ends with a comparison of British liberty with this debased condition. He includes an extract from Thomas Seward’s (1708-1790) poem, “The Female Right to Literature,” beginning, “Hail, Happy Britain! Dear parental land! Where Liberty maintains her latest stand!” Portions of this text appear in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>, volume 1. Bibliography: Altman, Michael J. “Before Hinduism: Missionaries, Unitarians, and Hindoos in Nineteenth-Century America.” <title>Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation</title> vol. 26 no. 2 (2016): 260-295. Inden, Ronald. <title>Imagining India</title>. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. Ray, Romita. <title>>Under the Banyan Tree: Relocating the Picturesque in British India</title>. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
- Physical Description:
- 11 pages
- Genre:
- Correspondence , Botanical illustrations, Ornithological illustrations, Travel sketches, Maps, Watercolors (paintings), Drawings (visual works), Engravings (prints), and Portraits
- Subject Terms:
- Forbes, James, 1749-1819. Descriptive letters and drawingsForbes, James, 1749-1819. Oriental memoirs
- Associated Places:
- EnglandItalyScotlandWales
- Associated People/Groups:
- East India CompanyForbes, James, 1749-1819
- Finding Aid Title:
- James Forbes archive
- Collection PDF:
- https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/11734.pdf
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199498
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199498?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1