The vivid blue lights, made from a compound of sulphur, saltpetre, and arsenic sulphide, have been used for centuries for signalling at sea, as well as a decorative firework.
That this, one of the earliest uses for the essential ingredient of gunpowder, should be named for Bengal should come as no surprise. Despite the many claims for the development of the explosive nature of such associated compounds with saltpetre, as gunpowder, in China, in fact, it is increasingly believed that the first development probably took place in sixth or seventh century Bengal, of which today’s lands of Bangladesh now largely comprises.
An early Chinese work, “Explanation of the Inventory of Metals and Minerals,” mentions the arrival of Buddhist monks in China, with knowledge of the properties of saltpetre.
Specifically, the 7th century Tang Dynasty, one such monk “reached the Ling-Shih district in Fen-chou,” he said, “this place must be full of saltpetre, why isn’t it collected and put to use.”
Perhaps, it is not really surprising that the earliest discoveries of the properties of saltpetre should originate from Buddhist monks. Other references suggest it was in the great Vihara of the Ganges basin, such as Jahagadhal, Parhapur (both in modern Bangladesh), and Nalanda (in modern India) that those early properties should have been explored.
It might seem ironic that the properties of saltpetre have, unquestionably, been responsible for the premature deaths of millions of people, over the centuries. But we may suppose that these monks on the eastern lands of the Ganges basin, including the exit to the sea, and the entry to the ancient, Southern Silk Road to China and Central Asia were, in fact, more interested in its properties for food and the preservation of human remains, amongst other uses.
And, certainly, those other uses were, perhaps, most dramatically demonstrated in the flamboyant and colourful explosions of light that could be generated by ignition.
However, the ever inventive Chinese of the latter centuries of the first millennium BCE, known as, “The Golden Age of Alchemy,” were much preoccupied with their use of naturally produced “chemicals” in the burgeoning industry of manufacturing … from cosmetics to metallurgy, and beyond. Developments which may, in the end, mean that it was the Chinese who first discovered the saltpetre, sulphur, and carbon combination as an extremely effective weapon of war.
There is, however, no doubting that the Chinese capacity for “partying” -- a capacity that certainly reached east to Japan -- appears, even today, to linger in Bangladesh, after all, the closest lands to China via the river route. And that capacity surely saw the development of such as the, now artificially, chemically-based displays so loved across the world on such as New Year’s Eve!
Probably the most famous of the early alchemists of China was Thao Hung-Ching, “also a great physician and pharmaceutical naturalist.”
It is, of course, the early sophistication of “The Middle Kingdom,” China, with its extensive use of written records, which, fortunately, have survived the great depredations of the Mao era, to which we owe such extensive records. And it is, indeed, to those records that we owe the clear suggestion of the origins of experimentation with the properties of saltpetre in the lands of the eastern Ganges basin. Sadly, the records of the great Buddhist centres of learning that are, in fact, thick on the ground in the lands that are, today, those of Bangladesh, for the most part survive only beyond this great breeding ground of science and artistic endeavour. For the most part, only the latter skills remain, in the architectural detail, and the fine works of sculpture, which are plentifully displayed in venues such as Varendra Museum in Rajshahi.
It has been estimated that, by the late 16th and the 17th century, the northeast Indian subcontinent, the heartlands of which are now Bangladesh, contained some 70% of the world supply of saltpetre.
By the mid 17th century, England, with civil war breaking out, had already followed the Portuguese and the Dutch in recognising the political, as well as economic importance of this naturally occurring chemical, the vital ingredient in gunpowder, as well as in decorative explosions in fireworks.
Mid 17th century journals of English, Dutch, and French travellers make mention of the gunpowder factories already well established in Bengal/Bihar, clearly controlled by the viceroys in Dhaka, shipping large cargoes of gunpowder back to Europe.
The predominance of this corner of India in the world supply of saltpetre and gunpowder is, perhaps, well illustrated by two events in the first decade of the 17th century. When Pratapaditya Roy, the great zaminder of Jessore, and a leading member of the Baro- Bhuyan group, who resisted, for 50 years, the arrival of the Mughal dynasty in Bengal, in 1608 finally surrendered to the Mughal forces, amongst what he surrendered was 45 tons of gunpowder.
A year or so earlier, when King Philip of Spain and Portugal, perhaps the most powerful of the European rulers of the day, instructed the Portuguese agent in Goa to send him gunpowder, only ten barrels were sent!
It may not, and did not, have taken England long to both recognise the vital significance in the lands around Bengal for their own military purposes.
When, in about 1590, the English merchant, a leather-worker almost certainly familiar with the properties of saltpetre, returned from his travels in India, and made his report to the Levant Company who had financed his travels, it took just ten years for the merchants of London, with the support of the great Queen Elizabeth, in her dying years, to charter the famous/infamous East India Company.
We know that within 40 years they were well established in Orissa, as close as they could get to the, “wealth and trade” of Bengal, the governance of which centred around Dhaka, and shipping large cargoes of gunpowder to England. For the next two centuries, and more, such cargoes formed a major part of the Company cargoes to Britain, easily carried as ballast in ever increasing numbers of ships engaged in more conspicuous trades.
There is little doubt that, when Emperor Aurangzeb’s uncle, Shaista Khan, was recalled to Delhi after twelve years as Viceroy of Bengal, based in Dhaka, in 1678, carried his reputed treasure, valued at 40 million pounds (a modern value of between 5.5 billion pounds, and 25 billion pounds!), much of that fortune derived from both dues and bribes concerned with the shipping of saltpetre by European traders, especially the Company.
Quite when, or where, Bengal Lights were developed as both signal and display, is unclear. The name alone for the blue lit display, created by the use of copper, suggests both place of origin, and may well, given what we now know about the role of these lands in the discovery of such a property of saltpetre as the base ingredient, suggest a very early origin.
Fascinating, when next watching a firework display, to reflect on the rich history of the lands that are now Bangladesh, that lies behind it!
Tim Steel is a communications, marketing and tourism consultant.