Jildgar
This article is an extract from
THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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Jildgar
The Jild-gar is the Mujallid of the Arabs, the bookbinder of Europe.
The art of binding books, unknown either to the Muhammadans or Hindus, has been acquired within the last century, and at present is one of the most thriving trades.
The Jild-gar, taking "Chhimi-haldi," a species of tumeric "Methi" (foenum Graecum), "nim" leaves, and water, boils them together. Into this decoction the sheets are dipped, then pressed, dried, and hung on a rope in the shade. When dry they are rubbed with a stone, which glazes the paper and fixes the ink.
The book chiefly sold is of course the Koran, although not five per cent of the Muhammadan population can read, or understand it when read. The Koran is never written nowadays in Eastern Bengal, and an old illuminated copy will fetch a thousand rupees, or even more. Lithographed editions from Meerut, Lucknow, and Bombay are much preferred to those printed in Calcutta. An unbound Koran can be bought for sixteen anas, a bound one for twenty-four anas. Although the Koran is not printed by authority it is accepted as correct if issued by a native press, no Muhammadan even seeming to entertain the suspicion that the sacred volume could be tampered with by any printer, which is the more surprising as the printer usually illiterate, may not unnaturally be supposed careless in the selection and arrangement of their letters.
The explanation probably lies in the fact that few Arabic scholars in India ever make the Koran a critical study, and the large majority of persons who daily read it are too ignorant of Arabic to be able to form any opinion regarding its correctness.
During the Muhammadan rule, the Jild-gars prepared the thick tough paper on which Sanads, and other official documents, were written, but this art is fast dying out.
