Today I was watching "Entertainment ke liye kuchh bhi karega" on sony TV. In that show one performer name Atul, performed a well known magic trick which we all have seen in our childhood days. He selected one lady from the audiance, hipnotized her and made her floating in the air for some moments. But no doubt about it that it was his masterpiece. But here I want to discuss something else. The Indian Rope Trick. What is it? When was it performed in
Well now let us take a look at it's description written by famous Arabian traveler Ibn Batuta. Once he had gone to
"After the dinner, the magic show was in an open ground at night. The magician was holding a ball in his hand. The ball had to many holes and it was tied with a thick rope. He threw that ball in the air and it stood still in the air and it disappeared in the air. The rope was ramrod straight. But the other end of the rope was invisible. So the magician ordered his assistant kid to climb the rope. The boy climbed it as if monkey climbing a tree. And he also disappeared. Here his master was waiting for the kid to return. But he did not return. So he started calling him and shouting. But he got no reply. So the magician got angry with knife holding between his teeth he also climbed the rope.
After a while we heard screaming of a kid. And than his amputed body parts came down. And the boy was cut into pieces. Than the magician came down. He gathered all the pieces in one bamboo basket and closed it. And to our surprise when he opened the basket the boy was alive. Their was no sign of any injuries on his body."
Amazed? This was the description of Indian Rope Trick by Famous Ibn Batuta. Taken from his book Voyage. What do you think? Is it possible? It is said that Indian Rope Trick is being performed in
The Great Russian poet and Author Maxim Gorky had accepted that "Hindu people are really masters. I can say this on my self experience. Once I had gone to visit
Their are some other stories are also their in history:
Pu Songling a version in strange stories from a Chinese studio which he claims to have witnessed personally. In his account, a request by a mandarin that a wandering magician produce a peach in the dead of winter results in the trick's performance, on the pretence of getting a peach from the Gardens of Heaven. The magician's son climbs the rope, vanishes from sight, and then (supposedly) tosses down a peach, before being "caught by the Garden's guards" and "killed", with his dismembered body falling from above in the traditional manner. (Interestingly enough, in this version the magician himself never climbs the rope) After placing the parts in a basket, the magician gives the mandarin the peach and requests payment. As soon as he is paid, his son emerges alive from the basket. Songling claims the trick was a favorite of the White Lotus Society that the magician must have learnt it from them, though he gives no indication where (or how) he learnt this.
The legend states that similar tricks were performed during the Mughal Empire (16th-19th centuries) in the Indian Subcontinent from
During the British Raj, accounts report the rope trick during 1850 and 1900. The Chicago Tribune in 1890, published an account compiled by Fred S. Ellmore, and the story was repeated in several newspapers.
Is it true? Or just a tale? Or a rumor? So many references from the history, from the people's biographies, we cannot decline it. But now it is not possible that if any magician in
