It has been supposed that the reason for carrying the umbrella above
the king's head was to veil his eyes from his subjects, and prevent
them from being injured by the magical power of his glance. [497]
But its appearance on temples perhaps rather militates against this
view. Possibly it may have merely served as a protection or covering
to the king's head, the head being considered especially sacred
as the seat of life. The same idea is perhaps at the root of the
objection felt by Hindus to being seen abroad without a covering on
the head. It seems likely that the umbrella may have been held to be
a representation of the sky or firmament. The Muhammadans conjoined
with it an _aftada_ or sun-symbol; this was an imitation of the sun,
embroidered in gold upon crimson velvet and fixed on a circular
framework which was borne aloft upon a gold or silver staff. [498]
Both were carried over the head of any royal personage, and the
association favours the idea that the umbrella represents the sky,
while the king's head might be considered analogous to the sun. When
one of the early Indian monarchs made extensive conquests, the annexed
territories were described as being brought under his umbrella;
of the king Harsha-Vardhana (606-648 A.D.) it is recorded that he
prosecuted a methodical scheme of conquest with the deliberate object
of bringing all India under one umbrella, that is, of constituting
it into one state. This phrase seems to support the idea that the
umbrella symbolised the firmament. Similarly, when Visvamitra sent
beautiful maidens to tempt the good king Harischandra he instructed
them to try and induce the king to marry them, and if he would not do
this, to ask him for the Puchukra Undi or State Umbrella, which was
the emblem of the king's protecting power over his kingdom, with the
idea that that power would be destroyed by its loss. Chhatrapati or
Lord of the Umbrella was the proudest title of an Indian king. When
Sivaji was enthroned in 1674 he proclaimed himself as Pinnacle
of the Kshatriya race and Lord of the Royal Umbrella. All these
instances seem to indicate that some powerful significance, such as
that already suggested, attached to the umbrella. Several tribes,
as the Gonds and Mundas, have a legend that their earliest king was
born of poor parents, and that one day his mother, having left the
child under some tree while she went to her work, returned to find a
cobra spreading its hood over him. The future royal destiny of the
boy was thus predicted. It is commonly said that the cobra spread
its hood over the child to guard it from the heat of the sun, but
such protection would perhaps scarcely seem very important to such
a people as the Gonds, and the mother would naturally also leave the
child in the shade. It seems a possible hypothesis that the cobra's
hood really symbolised the umbrella, the principal emblem of royal
rank, and it was in this way that the child's great destiny was
predicted. In this connection it may be noticed that one of the Jain
Tirthakars, Parasnath, is represented in sculpture with an umbrella
over his head; but some Jains say that the carving above the saint's
head is not an umbrella but a cobra's hood. Even after it had ceased
to be the exclusive appanage of the king, the umbrella was a sign of
noble rank, and not permitted to the commonalty.
The old Anglo-Indian term for an umbrella was 'roundel,' an early
English word, applied to a variety of circular objects, as a mat
under a dish, or a target, and in its form of 'arundel' to the conical
handguard on a lance. [499] An old Indian writer says: "Roundels are
in these warm climates very necessary to keep the sun from scorching
a man, they may also be serviceable to keep the rain off; most men
of account maintain one, two or three roundeliers, whose office
is only to attend their master's motion; they are very light but
of exceeding stiffness, being for the most part made of rhinoceros
hide, very decently painted and guilded with what flowers they best
admire. Exactly in the midst thereof is fixed a smooth handle made
of wood, by which the Roundelier doth carry it, holding it a foot or
more above his master's head, directing the centre thereof as opposite
to the sun as possibly he may. Any man whatever that will go to the
charge of it, which is no great matter, may have one or more Katysols
to attend him but not a Roundel; unless he be a Governor or one of
the Council. The same custom the English hold good amongst their own
people, whereby they may be distinguished by the natives." [500] The
Katysol was a Chinese paper and bamboo sunshade, and the use of them
was not prohibited. It was derived from the Portuguese _quito-sol_,
or that which keeps off the sun. [501] An extract from the _Madras
Standing Orders_, 1677-78, prescribed: "That except by the members
of this Council, those that have formerly been in that quality,
Chiefs of Factories, Commanders of Ships out of England, and the
Chaplains, Rundells shall not be worn by any men in this town, and
by no woman below the degree of Factors' Wives and Ensigns' Wives,
except by such as the Governor shall permit." [502] Another writer
in 1754 states: "Some years before our arrival in the country, they
(the E. I. Co.) found such sumptuary laws so absolutely necessary,
that they gave the strictest orders that none of these young gentlemen
should be allowed even to hire a Roundel boy, whose business it is
to walk by his master and defend him with his Roundel or umbrella
from the heat of the sun. A young fellow of humour, upon this last
order coming over, altered the form of his Umbrella from a round to
a square, called it a Squaredel instead of a Roundel, and insisted
that no order yet in force forbade him the use of it." [503] The fact
that the Anglo-Indians called the umbrella a roundel and regarded it
as a symbol of sovereignty or nobility indicates that it was not yet
used in England; and this Mr. Skeat shows to be correct. "The first
umbrella used in England by a man in the open street for protection
against rain is usually said to have been that carried by Jonas Hanway,
a great traveller, who introduced it on his return from Paris about
1750, some thirty years before it was generally adopted.
"Some kind of umbrella was, however, occasionally used by ladies at
least so far back as 1709; and a fact not generally known is that
from about the year 1717 onwards, a 'parish' umbrella, resembling the
more recent 'family' umbrella of the nineteenth century, was employed
by the priest at open-air funerals, as the church accounts of many
places testify." [504] This ecclesiastical use of the umbrella may
have been derived from its employment as a symbol in Italian churches,
as seen above. The word umbrella is derived through the Italian from
the Latin _umbra_, shade, and in mediaeval times a state umbrella
was carried over the Doge or Duke at Venice on the occasion of any
great ceremony. [505]
Even recently it is said that in Saugor no Bania dare go past a Bundela
Rajput's house without getting down from his pony and folding up his
umbrella. In Hindu slang a 'Chhatawali' or carrier of an umbrella was a
term for a smart young man; as in the line, 'An umbrella has two kinds
of ribs; two women are quarrelling for the love of him who carries
it.' Now that the umbrella is free to all, and may be bought for a
rupee or less in the bazar, the prestige which once attached to it
has practically disappeared. But some flavour of its old associations
may still cling to it in the minds of the sais and ayah who proudly
parade to a festival carrying umbrellas spread over them to shade
their dusky features from the sun; though the Raja, in obedience to
the dictates of fashion, has discarded the umbrella for a _sola-topi_.