History of mosquito 🦟 nets in India
One of the earliest non-violent methods used by humans to prevent biting insects and thereby vector borne diseases, is the use of mosquito screens, nettings and curtains.
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One of the earliest non-violent methods used by humans to prevent biting insects and thereby vector borne diseases, is the use of mosquito screens, nettings and curtains.
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Contrary to popular perception of mosquito curtains or nettings being modern day innovations, mosquito screens/curtains have been in use in Egypt, China and India since time immemorial. 2/n
Greek historian Herodotus (484 – 425 BCE) had famously described the use of mosquito nets (infused with fish odor) and sleeping on lofty towers to avoid mosquito bites in the marshy lands of ancient Egypt. 3/n
The word mosquito itself is a Spanish word in the English language. It's a Spanish, diminutive of mosca fly which is derived from Latin musca. Mosquitoes are not very fond of colder climates, and therefore many people in imperial Europe were not much aware of mosquitoes. 3/n
To the extent that, Yule and Burnell (1886) quote an incident where a young Scotch lady of a former generation who on her voyage to India had heard formidable, but vague accounts of this terror of the night, that on seeing an elephant for the first time,...4/n
she asked: "Will you be what's called a musqueetae?" On the other hand, Sanskrit text Suśrutasaṃhitā (circa 7th century BC) mentions five kinds of mosquitoes (maśaka): Samudra (sea mosquito), Parimaṁḍala (atmospheric), Hasti maśaka (elephant mosquito),....5/n
Kr̥ṣṇa (dark mosquito), and Parvatiya (mountainous). One of the earliest mentions of mosquito curtains/screens in Indic texts comes in Pali Canon where...6/n
in Cūḷavaggapāḷi of Vinaya Piṭaka (5th Century BCE) Buddhist monks are allowed use of Makasakuṭikā मकसकुटिका i.e. a mosquito hut / net / curtains ( < Sanskrit Maśakakuṭikā मशककुटिका). 7/n
In Sanskrit texts a mosquito curtain /net is mentioned as चतुष्की catuṣkī or मशकहरी maśakaharī. While catuṣkī is related to catuṣka (a four legged wooden cot), and maśakaharī is made up of maśaka (mosquito) + harī (removing). 8/n
This maśakaharī has given us masaharī मसहरी in Hindi, Bhojpuri; Bengali মশারি mɔshāri. Sanskrit lexicon of 12th century, Nānārthārṇava- samkṣepa of Keśavasvāmin mentions that maśakaharī by that time has become an object of luxury and was used mainly by rich people. 9/n
Another word for mosquito net / curtain मच्छरदानी macchardānī which is a strange kind of compound noun in Hindi/Urdu and Marathi. The first element macchar मच्छर is connected to Sanskrit matsara मत्सर (mosquito),....10/n
the second element दानी dānī is connected with Persian dān (holder, container) as in masālādānī (spice box), cāy dānī (tea box) etc. So, macchar dānī literally means container for mosquitoes, although it prevents mosquitoes from entering inside. 11/n
Intrestingly, in rural Myanmar, the mosquito net are not only used for protecting oneself from mosquitoes at night but during the day guests are offered food under a मच्छरदानी macchardānī to prevent flies from bothering them. 12/n
So, from a thing of luxury to everyday use, mosquito nets have come a long way in preventing mosquito 🦟 bites and providing common people with sound sleep 💤. What do you call a mosquito net in your language/s?
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