Shoes are invariably removed on entering mosques or other holy places. It is also customary to remove them when entering a house. Orientals sit on the floor in preference to chairs; hence it is thought very necessary by them that the carpet should be kept clean, which could not be done were persons to keep their shoes on. While it would be considered a breach of good manners to enter a room with the shoes on, an exception has been made in favour of those natives who have adopted European boots or shoes. The babus of Bengal have taken to English-made shoes of patent leather worn over white socks or stockings.
Authorities.—The Indian section of the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) includes an exhibition of oriental dress; and the library of the India Office many prints and photographs. The following books may be consulted: Coloured Drawings illustrating the Manners and Customs of Natives of India (originally prepared by order of the marquess Wellesley, Governor-General; vide Council minute dated 16th August, 1866) (1 vol.); J. Forbes Watson and J. W. Kaye, The People of India; F. Baltazar Solvyns, Les Hindous (4 vols. illustrated, Paris, 1808); India Office Library, 3 small portfolios of pictures of Katch and Bombay men and women; Costume of Bala Ghat (Carnatic), S.E. India (large water-colours, India Office Library); Illustrations of various trades in Kashmir, by Indian artists (India Office Library); R. H. Thalbhoy, Portrait Gallery of Western India (1886) (chiefly portraits of Parsi notables); Edward Tuite Dalton, C.S.I., Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal (1 vol., 1872); Talboys Wheeler, History of the Imperial Assembly at Delhi, 1st January 1877; Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, 6th February 1887 (in Urdu, illustrated); T. H. Hendley, C.I.E., V.D., Rulers of India and Chiefs of Rajputana (London, 1897)—the last three are useful for the study of ceremonial dress; G. A. Grierson, Bihar Peasant Life (Calcutta, 1885; this is a most valuable work of learning and research; in division 2, subdivision 3, chapter 1, on clothes, will be found names and descriptions of every article of clothing used in south, central and eastern India); H. B. Baden-Powell, Handbook of Manufactures and Arts of the Punjab (Lahore, 1872); W. W. Hunter, Statistical Account of Bengal (1875); Hughes’ Dictionary of Islam (London, 1895); Sir Denzil Ibbetson, Outlines of Punjab Ethnography; E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India. It is to be hoped that steps will shortly be taken to arrange articles of costume now displayed at the Indian Section, Victoria and Albert Museum, in some systematic order so as to assist students in arriving at a scientific knowledge of the subject.
(C. G.)
[1] The spelling throughout all the articles dealing with India is that adopted by the government of India, modified in special instances with deference to long-established usage.
[2] The historicity of this convention, not now usually admitted by scholars, is maintained by Bishop Copleston of Calcutta in his Buddhism, Primitive and Present (1908).
[3] In 1909 the excavation of a ruined stupa near Peshawar disclosed a casket, with an inscription of Kanishka, and containing fragments of bones believed to be those of Buddha himself.
[4] In 1909 an inscription in Brahmi characters was discovered near Bhilsa in Central India recording the name of a Greek, Heliodorus. He describes himself as a worshipper of Bhagavata (= Vishnu), and states that he had come from Taxila in the name of the great king Antialcidas, who is known from his coins to have lived c. 170 B.C.
[5] This is the conventional European form of the name. For other forms see [Yue-Chi].
[6] V. A. Smith, Early Hist. of India, p. 238.