258
village of Dhamrai, about 20 miles north of Dacca, but it was thought that the industry might be revived with any revival of the demand for this fine fabric.
An incredible amount of patience and skill were required in this industry. One way of testing the fineness of the fabric, often described by mediaeval and earlier travelers, was to pass a whole piece of 20 yards long and 1 yard wide through an ordinary finger-ring. The best test, however, was by the weight in proportion to size and number of threads. It is said that 200 years ago a piece of muslin 15 yards long by 1 yard wide could be made so fine as to weigh only 900 grains, or a little over 1-10 of a pound. In 1840 a piece of the same dimensions and texture could not be made finer than 1,600 grains and was valued at about $50. A piece of this muslin 10 yards long by 1 yard wide could not be woven in less than five months, and the work could only be carried on in the rainy season when the moisture in the air would prevent the thread from breaking.
At several places in northwestern India fine muslins were pro- duced, but nowhere of quality equal to those of Bengal. These also were shipped westward, appearing in the Periplus as exports at the mouth of the Indus and at the Gulf of Cambay. The change from hand spinning and weaving to power looms and spindles was not gradual as in Europe, but was due to the direct importation of European fabrics, so that a few months sufficed to destroy the earlier industry and to lay the way for the modern textile mills of India.
(See Henry Lee, The Vegetable Lanibof Tartary. J. H. Furneaux, India: Bombay, 1899; chap. iii. T. N. Mukharji, Art Manufac- tures of India. Also, The Cotton Plant, published by the U. S. Depart- ment of Agriculture, 1896.)
63. Gold mines. — This was probably the gold of the Chota Nagpur plateau, located from 75 to 150 miles west of the Ganges mouth. The rivers flowing north and east of these highlands have long produced alluvial gold in considerable quantities. The river Son, which formerly flowed into the Ganges at the site of the ancient capital Pdtaliputra, the modern Patna, was called by the classical writers Erannoboas , from the Sanscrit hiranya-vaha , 1 carrying gold.” (McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 43; cf. the Aurannoboas of § 53.)
There was also a substantial supply from Tibet, which produced the famous “ant-gold” mentioned by all the classical writers from Herodotus to Pliny. As Ball pointed out journal of the Royal Irish Academy, June, 1884), the “ant-gold” was a Sanscrit name for the small fragments of alluvial gold; this name was passed on, being ap- plied to the dogs of the Tibetan miners, which were also referred to as
