DINODIA PHOTOS / ALAMY

Top: In Rajasthan, India, a shop sells brightly patterned sunshade umbrellas, which are still used in wedding and festival processions such as this one above.

ERICH LESSING / ART RESOURCE

This bronze model of an umbrella-covered sulky-like carriage from Gansu, China dates to the second century ce.

n the title scene of the 1952 classic movie "Singin' in the Rain," Gene Kelly escorts his newfound love to her home, in the rain. They share the shelter of his umbrella. He kisses her at her door and then dances with his umbrella in the downpour until a beat cop squelches his exuberance. Kelly folds the umbrella, hands it to a passerby and walks off the scene. This sums up how most of us today think of the umbrella: a practical item unworthy of notice until it's raining.

It was not always so. Behind this prosaic present is a powerful past. I first encountered a much different sort of umbrella in India. In a market in the western province of Rajasthan, I purchased a large, heavy bamboo umbrella whose cotton fabric was all colorful cutwork, embroidered with animals. It could not possibly have kept out the rain. Years later, I found out I owned a traditional wedding umbrella: At the head of a procession of his relatives, the groom rides to his wedding on a white horse while an attendant holds this sort of large, ornate umbrella over him. This umbrella signifies that, at least for this one day, the groom is a king.

The royal umbrella, carried by an attendant, not only shaded the king from the sun, but also symbolized his power in procession, battle and the hunt. For millennia, it has been a common symbol among rulers in a huge portion of the world that includes the Middle East, Egypt and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, Persia, South and Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Korea. The royal umbrella flourished in Muslim, Hindu, Confucian, Buddhist, animist and some Christian courts. Rulers sometimes bestowed umbrellas on high officials and generals as a visible recognition of their loyalty.

H.E. WINLOCK, EXCAVATIONS AT DEIR EL BAHRI, 1911-1931, PLATE 13	CONSTANTINE AND ADELPHI ZANGAKI / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Just right of center, on the lower register of this fragment of a fresco excavated from the 14th-century bce tomb of Queen Nefertiti, there appears a sunshade umbrella, supported by a pair of crossed sticks on a pole, with an additional hanging flap. Right: This detail of an albumen print, dated between 1860 and 1890, shows a Cairo market in which vendors are using sunshades of a nearly identical design.

The royal umbrella was not an idea that spread from invention in one place—in fact it was invented at least four times. The earliest recorded examples are from Egypt's Fifth Dynasty, from about 2500 to 2400 bce. Decorations on tombs and temples from these times portray a flat, square, crossed-stick umbrella shading gods and kings. The hieroglyph for umbrella signified sovereignty as well as the "shadow," or influence, of a person. Thus the umbrella augmented a pharaoh's shadow. The history of the square umbrella is long, and, although it is no longer associated with kings, such umbrellas can still be found shading market carts in Egypt.

he second invention of the umbrella took place in China. A classical text titled The Rites of Zhou from 400 bce describes the construction and use of a round, segmented, silk umbrella whose function was to shade ceremonial chariots. Somewhat later reliefs illustrate such an umbrella, and archeologists have excavated several complex brass castings used to hold the ribs of such umbrellas. This kind of royal umbrella remained a symbol of Chinese royal privilege, and it appears in countless court paintings. When Marco Polo arrived at the court of Kublai Khan in 1275, he found the Mongols had adopted many Chinese customs, including the bestowal of a special umbrella on the highest commanders in the army:
An officer who holds the chief command of 100,000 men, or who is the general-in-chief of a great host, is entitled to a [gold] tablet that weighs 300 saggi…. Every one, moreover, who holds a tablet of this exalted degree is entitled, whenever he goes abroad, to have a little golden canopy, such as is called an umbrella, carried on a spear over his head in token of his high command.

From China, the royal umbrella spread to Japan and Korea. In Japan, it ceased to be a royal prerogative within a few centuries, and it found widespread use throughout society. Woodblock prints and paintings of the 18th century often feature a theme of ordinary people under umbrellas in the rain. Korea, however, could not have been more different. There the umbrella remained a strictly royal symbol. Because Korean artwork never pictured the emperor, his presence was signified by a horse with an empty saddle, shaded by the royal umbrella.

BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY

On a doorway that led to the fifth-century bce throne room in Persepolis, Iran, a relief shows King Xerxes i shaded by an umbrella. Some two centuries earlier, Assyrian artists showed King Ashurbanipal, below, shaded by an umbrella with a hanging flap that resembles those depicted in Egypt.

MUSÉE DU LOUVRE / BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY

ALINARI / ART RESOURCE

Ruling in Persia more than 1000 years after Xerxes i, Khosrau ii was depicted at Taq-e Bostan watching a hunt from under a royal umbrella.

he third invention of the royal umbrella was in Mesopotamia, centuries after the Egyptian square parasol. In bas-reliefs at Nineveh, shading King Ashurbanipal of Assyria, who ruled from 668 to 627 bce, is a round and pointed umbrella. From there, the royal umbrella drifted both west and east. In Greece, it lost its association with kingship and became particularly associated with women. Aristophanes' play Women at Thesmophoria satirized Athenian attitudes toward both women and men. In the final scene, the women boast of their steadfastness:
And then there's your omission
To keep up your old tradition
As the women of the race have always done:
We maintain our ancient craft
With the shuttle and the shaft
And the parasol—our shield against the sun.

These attitudes carried west to Rome, where the umbrella was deemed too effeminate for men's use. Juvenal, for example, wrote of a "pretty fellow, to have presents sent to him of green sunshades." On Roman coins, the umbrella appeared only twice, both times in association with the Middle East: One coin was issued around 40 ce in Palestine and the other between 218 and 222 ce by Emperor Heliogabalus, who was from Syria. Overall, the Roman Empire passed on to Europe no legacy of a royal umbrella.

East of its Mesopotamian origins, however, the royal umbrella flourished. Bas-reliefs on the walls of Persepolis, dating from 500 bce, show the king seated or walking under his royal umbrella.

Later, from the third to seventh centuries, the Sassanians ruled the next great empire that included Persia. From their original homeland on the borders of China, they migrated west across the Central Asian steppe, and they either brought with them the Chinese tradition of the royal umbrella or they adopted the Persian royal umbrella when they arrived. In either case, Sassanian kings ruled beneath royal umbrellas, as shown on the rock-cut bas-relief at Taq-e Bostan, from about 380 ce.

In Constantinople, founded in 330 ce, umbrellas appear prominently in Christian artwork. With the rise of Islam in the seventh century, it becomes more difficult to document the uses of royal umbrellas because most Islamic art favored geometry and calligraphy over depictions of people. In Abbasid Baghdad, from the eighth to the 13th centuries, courtiers and scholars wrote on mathematics, astronomy, history, medicine and philosophy, but nothing about day-to-day court ritual.

It is from later texts in Egypt that we get some insight. Paula Sanders of Rice University has analyzed three texts from Egypt that describe processions and court ritual under the 10th- and 11th-century Fatimids, whose caliphs appeared in procession under a royal umbrella—a practice that they attributed to the earlier Abbasid dynasty. For the whole of the Fatimid period, factional power was constantly shifting, and the caliph selectively bestowed the right to display an umbrella, which signaled the recipient's support and commitment to the caliph.

In sub-Saharan West Africa, the royal umbrella frequently appears in both Islamic and non-Islamic kingdoms. There, it is possible that the umbrella came south from Islamic Tunisia and Morocco, along the trade routes across the Sahara. It is equally possible that it was indigenous—and thus yet another independent, parallel invention. Umbrellas were part of the king's regalia in all major kingdoms of West Africa, including Ashanti, Benin, Sokoto and Dahomey. In European drawings from the 18th century and in early photographs from the 19th century, kings of these states conduct royal business from beneath a large royal umbrella.

MARC CHARMET / THE ART ARCHIVE

Prominently displaying large, colorful umbrellas, this engraving dated 1820 is titled "English Embassy in Komassi, West Africa."

Rulers in East Africa, too, adopted the royal umbrella. It is prominent in texts and frescoes in Ethiopia that date to the 1200's, and its use continued in an unbroken tradition well into the 20th century. Royal umbrellas were also found in courts on the East African coast, where it is likely that they spread via Muslim trade ties with Egypt and the lands of the Arabian Peninsula. Ibn Battuta, the most traveled man of the Middle Ages, reached East Africa in the 14th century. At Mogadishu, he wrote that the king entertained him well, feeding him delicacies from the Middle East. During processions, Ibn Battuta noted that royal umbrellas protected the king from the sun:
Over his head were carried four canopies of colored silk, with the figure of a bird in gold on the top of each canopy…. In front of him were sounded drums and trumpets and fifes, and behind him were the commanders of the troops, while the qadi, the doctors of law, and the sharifs walked alongside him.

Later, both Ottoman Turkish and Safavid Persian court paintings also show royal umbrellas.

MUSEO NAZIONALE D'ARTE ORIENTALE / GIRAUDON /     BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY	GIANNI DAGLI ORTI / THE ART ARCHIVE / ALAMY
Both this Chinese-influenced Tibetan depiction of the Buddha, left, and this Muslim Mughal miniature of Shah Jahan, right, date from the 17th century, and both show their subjects seated under umbrellas.

he fourth invention of the royal umbrella was in India, where the earliest
evidence is from Buddhist literature and reliefs dating back to about 300
bce. In these early texts, when Siddhartha Gautama left behind his royal
upbringing to meditate on the sufferings of the world, he was shaded by a cobra's

JON BOWER CAMBODIA / ALAMY

Hindus, too, adopted the umbrella in both religious and royal settings. At Angkor, Cambodia, a statue above depicts the Hindu god Vishnu, and a relief detail, below, depicts a battle in which a ruler fights from beneath an umbrella.

hood, a tree, or an umbrella. In particular, the umbrella became a symbol of his successful search for enlightenment, and in these texts he is referred to as the "Buddha of the White Umbrella." Early Buddhist sculpture does not portray the Buddha, but rather objects associated with him: An empty platform and the bodhi tree, a cobra or an honorific umbrella signify his presence.

After the Buddha's death, his followers sent small portions of his ashes to other groups of followers, who built mounds over the ashes. Several umbrellas mounted on a single shaft topped these mounds, and these became known as stupas, such as those built at Sanchi in Central India around 100 bce. The reliefs on the stupas at Sanchi also show kings, under royal umbrellas, arriving in procession to honor the Buddha. (Incidentally, multiple umbrellas on the tops of stupas are the origin of the Chinese pagoda, which added walls and made the multiple umbrella into an architectural form.)

STEWART GORDON

Also in the earliest Hindu writings, dating to the first four centuries of our era, umbrellas regularly shade kings. In this quotation from the Ramayana, Ram's father contemplates his life:
In my fathers' footsteps treading I have sought the ancient path,
Nursed my people as my children, free from passion, pride and wrath,
Underneath this white umbrella, seated on this royal throne,
I have toiled to win their welfare and my task is almost done!

The royal umbrella continued as an unbroken tradition for all Indian kings for the next millennium and a half. The artwork of the southern Islamic kingdoms makes it clear that both Muslim and Hindu kings used the royal umbrella. For example, the Battle of Talikota, in 1386, pitted the Hindu king of Vijayanagar against the Muslim sultans of Bijapur, Golconda, Bidar and Ahmadnagar. A contemporary painting shows the adversaries approaching the battle under their respective royal umbrellas. Throughout the British colonial period, India's princes ruled from beneath royal umbrellas—some of which were by then manufactured in London. When he visited India in 1911, King George of England walked beneath a royal umbrella.

ometime around 800 ce, the royal umbrella began to flourish in Southeast Asia, adopted by kings in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and Java. The custom may have come from India or China, as both cultures strongly influenced the region at the time. A charming story from 12th-century Burma illustrates the umbrella's symbolic power: The king was unable to choose his successor from among his five sons. One night, he ordered his royal umbrella set up, and he commanded that his sons sleep in a circle around it. The successor was chosen when the umbrella fell in one son's direction, and in the chronicles he became known as "the king whom the umbrella placed on the throne."

GAHOE MUSEUM / BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY	MELVYN LONGHURST / ALAMY
From Korea, a religious painting uses an umbrella, left, as does a modern statue of King Naresuan in Thailand, right.

MUSÉE GUIMET / GIANNI DAGLI ORTI / THE ART ARCHIVE / ALAMY	THE PRINT COLLECTOR / ALAMY
Left: Arriving in Japan in the 17th century, the Portuguese ambassador was depicted under an elaborate umbrella. Right: Japan was one of the few places where umbrellas became objects of fashion from an early time, and today the bamboo parasol remains a national folkloric symbol.

Two of the most famous early sites in Southeast Asia, Borobudur in Central Java, which dates from the eighth and ninth centuries, and Angkor in Cambodia, dating from the 10th to 12th centuries, are both replete with umbrellas. Among the nearly 3000 reliefs adorning Borobudur, umbrellas identify kings, nobility and famous figures from the Buddha's life.

At Angkor, a huge bas-relief portrays a battle between the Cambodians and the Champa kingdom (in current-day Vietnam). On it, generals and noble advisors all have umbrellas, supporting speculation that, as in Fatimid Egypt, bestowal of an umbrella cemented loyalty. The king, however, has more umbrellas surrounding him than anyone else—15 in all—complete with an entourage of umbrella carriers.

In Burma as in India, the tradition continued into the 19th century. Dutch and British emissaries observed the king shaded by umbrellas in processions, and they negotiated with the king while he was seated under his royal umbrella. In 1867, the English resident at the Burmese court and his wife were granted the privilege of an umbrella, likely a political move aimed at holding off a British takeover. (It was not enough, however, and the British did take over Burma in 1885.) Thailand, which remained more or less independent, continued its tradition of the royal umbrella until recent decades, and in 1967, Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of us president John F. Kennedy, was granted a ceremonial umbrella when she visited Thailand.

PHOTOSERVICE ELECTA MONDADORI / ART RESOURCE

Although Europe never fully embraced the royal umbrella, the late-18th-century artist Laurent Pechaux painted one over Pope Gregory xi, above; the 17th-'century French artist Charles Le Brun painted two above a chancellor, below left, and an 1894 fashion print from France shows a lady's parasol tensioned by springy ribs of newly available lightweight steel.

ERICH LESSING / ART RESOURCE	PHOTOS12 / ALAMY

he earliest evidence of an umbrella in Europe comes from the Utrecht Psalter, which is generally dated to the 900's. One of its illustrations shows an angel holding an umbrella over King David. However, it is not until the 13th century that scholars have found evidence of a royal umbrella, and then only in Italy, which at that time was receiving much culture and learning from Islamic Spain, including medicine, philosophy, cuisine, music and the game of chess. Venice, with its close trading ties to the Islamic world, adopted the umbrella for the doge when he was in a procession, and so did the pope in Rome. But the royal umbrella just never caught on in Europe. In addition to its cooler climate, the influence of the Crusades led courts by 1300 to regard the royal umbrella as a foreign symbol, one used by enemies. By the end of the 18th century, even the papal umbrella had been replaced by a four-cornered, flat canopy.

Later, there were exceptions. Portuguese and Spanish colonial traders returned from Asia with umbrellas, and around the 16th century those lost their royal status and became occasional items of courtly fashion. Though Mary Queen of Scots owned one in 1562, and the term "ombrello" appeared in an Italian–English dictionary of 1598, they were unknown in the larger society. It was only in the 18th century that umbrellas caught on as a fashion item—and that still as sunshades made of cotton or thin leather, of no use in the rain. In the 19th century, these ladies' parasols went through almost yearly fashion shifts.

ASIA IMAGES GROUP / ALAMY

In modern times, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, above, used a yellow umbrella at a ceremony on his birthday, and a traditional ruler in Ghana, below, used several in his party for a corn festival parade in Accra. The large umbrellas in the background resemble the ones depicted in the early 19th century.

OLIVER ASSELIN / ALAMY

The water-resistant umbrella first appeared in England in the late 18th century to protect clerics and officials during outdoor duties. They were heavy, stiff and slow to dry. They leaked, their whalebone ribs rotted quickly, and the folding mechanisms often failed. All umbrellas, whether to protect from rain or sun, were deemed too "feminine" for ordinary Englishmen.

With the Industrial Revolution came lightweight steel and, with that, a drive to make a light, foldable, rainproof umbrella. Inventors in Europe and America filed hundreds of patents for folding mechanisms, rib arrangements and even provisions for concealing swords or pistols in umbrellas. Following dozens of minor improvements, the modern umbrella began to emerge, and by 1910, Britain was exporting more than three million a year—many to Asia. Germany and Italy were Britian's chief competitors, making cheaper models.

his long and complicated history of the umbrella shows that it did not simply "diffuse" from one place of invention outward to a wider world. It was invented at least four times, and it moved in unpredictable ways, sometimes never leaving its country of origin, like the Egyptian square umbrella, and other times moving into a society that completely changed its meanings and uses. Greece, Rome and 18th-century England deemed the umbrella "feminine," while the Japanese umbrella was acceptable for both men and women but spread from royal to general use.

MUSEE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS /    MUSEE CARNAVALET / GIRAUDON /    BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY	THE ART ARCHIVE
The unreliability of Europe's early steel umbrellas caught the eye of French satirist Daumier, left, but by the time Gene Kelly turned his bumbershoot into an iconic Hollywood dance prop in "Singin' in the Rain," right, the waterproof umbrella had become plain and practical, offering little hint of its symbolic and powerful past.

Several points about this complicated process seem significant. Rulers everywhere seek symbols that enhance dignity, visibility and the loyalty of subjects. They were willing to experiment with new symbols, such as the royal umbrella. Several sorts of travelers, such as emissaries, traders, monks, learned men and professional soldiers, brought back, often over long distances, information about royal symbols. For centuries, the royal umbrella was part of a shared courtly world that stretched from Asia to Africa and Spain. It was part of a familiar courtly scene to those who traveled for political reasons, business or advancement. The royal umbrella was frequently a potent political symbol. Because it was tied to no religion, region, language or ethnic group, kings could use it to rally disparate groups. The umbrella was also, however, granted to a select few at court. When the recipient traveled under it, every observer knew of his personal ties to the king. It was a public commitment of personal loyalty, important in times of factional strife and threats to the throne—a situation all too frequent among kings.

Today, the world of the royal umbrella is almost entirely gone, but with imagination and the memory of history, we can recall the lavish decorations, dignified processions and royal associations it carried—every time it rains and we pop open our umbrella.

Stewart Gordon is a senior research scholar at the Center for South Asian Studies, University of Michigan. His recent books include When Asia was the World (Da Capo, 2008) and Routes: How the Pathways of Goods and Ideas Shaped Our World (University of California Press, forthcoming 2012).