Tavernier
A French Traveller
Baron Jean Baptiste Tavernier of
Aubonne, was the famed 17th century French traveller and expert gem trader, and
is located in what used to be his fiefdom. Tavernier was among the many
merchant travelers who bridged the gap between the Orient and the Western
hemisphere.
Undertaking extensive and often
dangerous journeys to the great empires of the East, Tavernier navigated much
of Safavid Iran and Mughal India, serving as an integral cog in early modern
global trade. His sense of enterprise, combined with his keen eye for
gemstones, brought him in close proximity to many pivotal personalities,
events, and objects of the time including becoming the conveyor of one the most
famous diamonds in history.
Ever Eastwards
Tavernier made his first journey to
the East in 1631, at the age of 26, accompanying two French clergymen on their
travels to the Levant and Persia. Making their way through Constantinople (now
Istanbul), Tavernier got as far as Isfahan in Iran. He returned to Europe in
1633 -'34, having spent about three years travelling and trading in the
Mediterranean and Middle East. Over the next 30 years, Tavernier would make
five more such excursions via land and sea — going as far east as Vietnam.
Much of what we know about his
journeys come from his own accounts, published in 1676 as two books, Six
Voyages and Travels in India. Both sold widely and by the middle of the 18th
century had already gone through 21 editions in French as well as other
languages (they are still in print today).
Tavernier was a discerning writer who
kept meticulous notes – but arranged them by theme rather than chronologically.
It is believed he did this in order to minimize repetition, but for those of us
looking back on his travels nearly 400 years on, it means we often don't know
exactly when he was in the places he mentions. What we do know is that in 1640,
on his second journey, he made his way to India.
Travelling overland to Persia, and
then via ship across the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea, Tavernier
arrived in Surat-a route he would repeat in all his successive journeys.
Arriving in the middle of March 1640, Tavernier was at once infatuated by this
new land.
Apparently, he did not think too
highly of Surat itself, considering it to be a city of "indifferent
bigness, defended by a pitiful fortress", but as he explored the great
plains of Hindustan, he became fascinated. Over five visits to India, he would
travel through most of the Mughal Empire, visiting Agra, Golconda, Patna, Goa,
Dhaka and Machilipatnam, among other cities.
The sheer abundance he encountered of
everyday and extraordinary fare deeply fascinated him, and is something he
wrote of repeatedly in his travelogues. Tavernier noted how "even in the
smallest villages, rice, flour, butter, milk, beans and other vegetables, sugar
and sweetmeats, dry and liquid, can be procured in abundance". Most
supreme for Tavernier, however, was the court of the Great Moghuls. He attended
court in Agra during the reigns of Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58) as well as Aurangzeb.
Tavernier describes the many customs
often very elaborate that were followed by the Mughal Emperors. The weighing of
the Emperor against an equivalent amount of jewelery on his birthday; the
80-elephant processions in which Shah Jahan proceeded on every mosque visit;
Aurangzeb's fortnightly hunts that featured thousands of men, even if you
counted just the beaters. All this was otherworldly and intriguing for
Tavernier.
What instilled the most awe in him,
naturally, were the jeweled riches of the Mughals. In his travelogues, he takes
great pains to describe each of the seven imperial thrones. Chief among them
was the Peacock Throne, on which Tavernier said he counted nearly 108 rubies
(none below 100 carats), 160 emeralds (none below 30 carats), and a great
number of diamonds and pearls. Atop the canopy of the throne, sat the jeweled
peacock, "consisting all of sapphires... the body is of beaten gold,
encased with several jewels; and a great ruby upon its breast, at which hangs a
pearl, that weighs fifty carats".
Tavernier
was in India at the time of the disputed hiatus between Shah Jahan and
Aurangzeb, and describes in great detail the fratricidal war of succession that
was unfolding before him. Having come from Europe, where primogeniture or the
rule of the first-born child was the norm, the idea that all male relatives
could lay claim to a throne baffled him. Tavernier's graphic account of the
nearly confused Shah Jahan yelling curses upon his son Aurangzeb, after being
imprisoned by the latter, is just one of the many episodes he recounts, as
these famed figures revealed their very human vulnerabilities.
Another was Aurangzeb's reaction to
the death of Dara Shikoh, his elder brother and main rival for the Mughal
throne. It was Aurangzeb who sentenced Dara Shikoh to death, after defeating
him in battle. But when he was presented with his severed head as evidence of
his command being carried out, Aurangzeb fell to his knees weeping.
Grief-stricken, he ordered the remains of his brother to be buried in Humayun's
Tomb.
When Aurangzeb finally ascended the
throne, Tavernier describes the lavish coronation he staged, stretching over
months. He makes special mention of the variety of ambassadors and other ambassadors
and envoys who arrived to pay their respects and establish ties with the new
emperor. These included representatives from Tartar kingdoms in Uzbekistan, the
Ethiopian Empire and the Sharif of Mecca. More presciently, Tavernier noted the
attendance of the factory chiefs of the Dutch and British East India Companies,
who needed to ensure warm ties with the Mughal court in order to trade. Apart
from the larger historical events Tavernier also took note of the Mughal Empire,
and after the porticos of the subcontinent at large. In the coming decades,
they would play an emergent role in the downfall of the Mughal Empire, and
alter the politics of the subcontinent at large. For now though, Tavernier was
witnessing one of the grandest empires of the time at its apotheosis.
Apart from the larger historical
events, Tavernier also took note of the more trivial but intriguing rumors and
stories that emerged from the Mughal harem. Tales of poisonings by rival
mistresses, the murder of illicit lovers, and the intense political
conspiracies to gain imperial favor allowed the traveller to paint a rich
caricature of the lives of the Mughals at the height of the Empire. He surveyed
the Mughal court at its very finest from a point of view few others could ever
access.
Tavernier, however, was ultimately a
merchant and had to profit from these long trips. Over his many journey's to
India, he became extremely well-versed with one commodity that would ensure
handsome rewards: diamonds. Until the mid-18th century, the mines of Golconda
in the Deccan were the sole source of diamonds in the world. Stones originating
here were highly prized, and the word 'Golconda' was synonymous with extreme
extravagance even in the great courts of Europe.
Tavernier visited the mines himself, in
order to purchase gemstones of the finest quality. It was on one of his final
visits to the famed Kollur Mine, right on the banks of River Krishna, that
Tavernier acquired a diamond like no other. Though only 112 carats (Tavernier
saw numerous diamonds above 500 carats, he records), it had perfect clarity, a
rare pristine blue tint, and was "the size of a grown man's fist".
The Tavernier Blue, as it came to be known, sealed the merchant traveler’s
place in history.
Upon returning to France in 1668, he
was received in court by Louis XIV. The king bought a number of diamonds from
him, including the Tavernier Blue, paying a staggering total of 3 million
French livres. In addition to this vast sum, a patent of nobility was granted
to Tavernier, making him Baron of Aubonne (then part of the Kingdom of France)
and vesting with him the lands that came with the baronetcy.
The Tavernier Blue turned out to be
the finest gemstone in the French Treasury, and was cut and placed in the
insignia set of the French Crown Jewels. It was not to remain for very long.
During the French Revolution (1787-99), it was stolen, along with the rest of
the crown jewels, and would reappear in London — recut and now known as the
Hope Diamond.
After passing through numerous hands,
famed American gem merchant Harry Winston finally donated it to the Natural
History museum in Washington DC in 1958, where it resides today. Its rich origin
and provenance is not without its own 'diamond curse' adage, and a number of
its owners fell upon hard times after acquiring it.
As for Tavernier, after spending over
40 years travelling and trading in kingdoms so distant from his own roots, he
retired to his peerage on the shores of Lake Geneva. He at once began working
on his travelogues, and much to our benefit, spent considerable time recounting
all that he had seen and experienced. Rather ironically, it has been his
literary works, rather than the scores of gemstones he bartered and esteemed so
highly, whose value has stood the test of time, becoming vital resources for
scholars of Mughal India.
Tavernier's own story ends
tragically, in dwindled prosperity and a violent death. Having lavished his
riches on a number of questionable business ventures by 1689, Tavernier- now 84
— decided to once again set out towards Persia, via Moscow, on a trading
expedition. He would never complete it. He died somewhere near Smolensk,
allegedly torn apart by a pack of wolves. The curse, perhaps, of the rare blue
diamond he was the first to trade.
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