Forbes, James, 1749-1819, James Forbes letter, Cambay, 1775 March 23, copied between 1794 and 1800
- Call Number:
- Folio A 2023 69
- Creator:
- Forbes, James, 1749-1819
- Title(s):
- James Forbes letter, Cambay, 1775 March 23
- 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 7, page 87-93
- 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:
- Forbes’s thirty-eighth letter is a description of the city of Cambay (now Khambhat), which figures centrally in the military excursion Forbes has joined. The letter opens with a detailed account of the city’s layout and construction: it has no walls, and is a mix of older and modern construction. Forbes then launches into a more elegiac mode. One finds, he says, “all its grandeur buried in ruins!” Today, “its grandest avenues are now obstructed with rubbish, from the decayed and forsaken mansions.” A few structures, however, catch Forbes’s eye. The nawab’s palace and the city’s primary mosque both receive praise; in the latter, the “mosaic and fret-work in the concave of all [are] extremely beautiful. One minaret has been destroyed by lightning, a misfortune which provokes a reflection on Islamic theodicy. How do Muslims justify the destruction of the minaret by an act of God? Or any calamity at all? Forbes suggests that, faced with the plague, “they take no remedy, but bow the head in resignation to the will of the divine Arbiter; and this reason was given me for not rebuilding this fallen Minaret.” A Hindu temple also attracts Forbes attention, for here “strangers of every religion are admitted; & being desirous of drawing the images, I was permitted to remain three or four hours.” Forbes describes these images as the best he has seen in India, and yet cannot make any positive statements about them, “for the countenances express no character, the limbs have no muscular strength, and are totally devoid, of elegance and symmetry.” He holds up Greek and Italian sculpture as the ideal form of the art. Forbes then turns to the surrounding areas and economic production. He mentions indigo as a major agricultural product and chintz as a key manufactured good. The land is fertile and productive, and yet remains under-cultivated, to his eye, “owing to the indolence of the inhabitants, or rather to the oppressions of the government, they plant only from hand to mouth.” Nonetheless, fruits and meats are readily available, save those forbidden by faith, such as pork. Forbes concludes with a discussion of the production of gems. He describes preparation of carnelians in particular detail: their extraction, exposure to the sun, and boiling, all to enhance their brilliant hue. Portions of this text appear in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>, volume 2, chapter 16.
- Physical Description:
- 7 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
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199699
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199699?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1