IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
INDIGO
25. As indicated by our word "indigo" (from Latin indicum), this dye-stuff took its origin from India. The indigo-plant (Indigofera
tinctoria), introduced into Persia from India, is discussed by Abu Mansur under the name nil or lila. The leaves are said to strengthen the hair. The hair, if previously dyed with henna, becomes brilliant black from the pounded leaves of the plant. Another species, I. linifolia, is still used in Persia for dyeing beard and hair black.' The Persian words are derived from Sanskrit nila, as is likewise Arabic nilej.2 Also nili hindi (" Indian indigo") occurs in Persian. GARCIA DA ORTA has handed down a form anil,3 and in Spanish the plant is called anil (Portuguese and Italian anil) .4 It may be permissible to assume that indigo was first introduced into Sasanian Persia under the reign of Khosrau I Anbsarwân (A.D. 531-579) ; for Masudi, who wrote about A.D. 943, reports that this king received from India the book Kalila wa Dimna, the game of chess, and the black dye-stuff for the hair, called the Indian.5
Under the designation ts`in tai I ("blue cosmetic for painting
the eyebrows") the Chinese became acquainted with the true indigo and the Iranian practice mentioned above. The term is first on record
as a product of Ts'ao 7 (Jaguda)5 and Kü-lan gin in the vicinity of
Tokharestan;7 during the Tang period, the women of Fergana did not employ lead-powder, but daubed their eyebrows with ts`in tai.8 Ma Ci of the tenth century says that "ts`in tai came from the country Po-se (Persia), but that now in T'ai-yuan, Lu-lin, Nan-k`an, and other
ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, pp. 144, 271. SCHLIMMER (Terminologie, p. 395) gives ringi ri. and wesme as Persian words for indigo-leaves.
2 LECLERC, Traité des simples, Vol. III, p. 384.
C. MARKHAM, Colloquies, p. 51. The form anil is also employed by F. PYRARD (Vol. II, p. 359, ed. of Hakluyt Society), who says that indigo is found only in the kingdom of Cambaye and Surat.
4 ROEDIGER and POTT (Z. f. Kunde d. Morg., Vol. VII, p. 125) regard this prefix a as the Semitic article (Arabic al-nil, an-n11).
b BARBIER DE MEYNARD and PAVET DE COURTEILLE, Les Prairies d'or, Vol. II, p. 203.
6 Sui . u, Ch. 83, p. 8 (see above, p. 317).
7 T'ai p`in hwan yü ki, Ch. 186, p. 12. It was also found in Ki-pin (ibid., Ch. 182, p. 12 b).
8 Ibid., Ch. 181, p. 13 b.
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