Till
the Mahrattas took Salsette in 1737, the Portuguese had many fine villas
about Thana.
Polo's dislocation of geographical order here has misled Fra Mauro into
placing Tana to the west of Guzerat, though he has a duplicate Tana nearer
the correct position.
NOTE 2. - It has often been erroneously supposed that the frankincense
(olibanum) of commerce, for which Bombay and the ports which preceded it
in Western India have for centuries afforded the chief mart, was an Indian
product. But Marco is not making that mistake; he calls the incense of
Western India brown, evidently in contrast with the white incense or
olibanum, which he afterwards assigns to its true locality (infra. ch.
xxxvii., xxxviii.). Nor is Marsden justified in assuming that the brown
incense of Tana must needs have been Benzoin imported from Sumatra,
though I observe Dr. Birdwood considers that the term Indian
Frankincense which occurs in Dioscorides must have included Benzoin.
Dioscorides describes the so-called Indian Frankincense as blackish; and
Garcia supposes the name merely to refer to the colour, as he says the
Arabs often gave the name of Indian to things of a dark colour.
There seems to be no proof that Benzoin was known even to the older Arab
writers. Western India supplies a variety of aromatic gum-resins, one of
which was probably intended by our traveller:
I. BOSWELLIA THURIFERA of Colebrooke, whose description led to a general
belief that this tree produced the Frankincense of commerce. The tree is
found in Oudh and Rohilkhand, in Bahar, Central India, Khandesh, and
Kattiawar, etc. The gum-resin is used and sold locally as an incense, but
is soft and sticky, and is not the olibanum of commerce; nor is it
collected for exportation.
The Coromandel Boswellia glabra of Roxburgh is now included (see Dr.
Birdwood's Monograph) as a variety under the B. thurifera. Its gum-resin
is a good deal used as incense, in the Tamul regions, under the name of
Kundrikam, with which is apparently connected Kundur, one of the
Arabic words for olibanum (see ch. xxxviii., note 2).
II. Vateria Indica (Roxb.), producing a gum-resin which when recent is
known as Piney Varnish, and when hardened, is sold for export under the
names of Indian Copal, White Dammar, and others. Its northern limit of
growth is North but the gum is exported from Bombay. The tree is the
Chloroxylon Dupada of Buchanan, and is, I imagine, the Dupu or Incense
Tree of Rheede. (Hort. Malab. IV.) The tree is a fine one, and forms
beautiful avenues in Malabar and Canara. The Hindus use the resin as an
incense, and in Malabar it is also made into candles which burn fragrantly
and with little smoke. It is, or was, also used as pitch, and is probably
the thus with which Indian vessels, according to Joseph of Cranganore
(in Novus Orbis), were payed.
