Hobson-Jobson/P
P
PADDY, s. Rice in the husk; but the word is also, at least in composition, applied to growing rice. The word appears to have in some measure, a double origin.
There is a word batty (see BATTA) used by some writers on the west coast of India, which has probably helped to propagate our uses of paddy. This seems to be the Canarese batta or bhatta, 'rice in the husk,' which is also found in Mahr. as bhāt with the same sense, a word again which in Hind. is applied to 'cooked rice.' The last meaning is that of Skt. bhaktā, which is perhaps the original of all these forms.
But in Malay pādī [according to Mr. Skeat, usually pronounced pădi] Javan. pārī, is 'rice in the straw.' And the direct parentage of the word in India is thus apparently due to the Archipelago; arising probably out of the old importance of the export trade of rice from Java (see Raffles, Java, i. 239-240, and Crawfurd's Hist. iii. 345, and Descript. Dict., 368). Crawfurd, (Journ. Ind. Arch., iv. 187) seems to think that the Malayo-Javanese word may have come from India with the Portuguese. But this is impossible, for as he himself has shown (Desc. Dict., u.s.), the word pārī, more or less modified, exists in all the chief tongues of the Archipelago, and even in Madagascar, the connection of which last with the Malay regions certainly was long prior to the arrival of the Portuguese.
1598.—"There are also divers other kinds of Rice, of a lesse price, and slighter than the other Ryce, and is called Batte...."—Linschoten, 70; [Hak. Soc. i. 246].
1600.—"In the fields is such a quantity of rice, which they call bate, that it gives its name to the kingdom of Calou, which is called on that account Batecalou."—Lucena, Vida do Padre F. Xavier, 121.
1615.—"... oryzae quoque agri feraces quam Batum incolae dicunt."—Jarric, Thesaurus, i. 461.
1673.—"The Ground between this and the great Breach is well ploughed, and bears good Batty."—Fryer, 67, see also 125. But in the Index he has Paddy.
1798.—"The paddie which is the name given to the rice, whilst in the husk, does not grow ... in compact ears, but like oats, in loose spikes."—Stavorinus, tr. i. 231.
1837.—"Parrots brought 900,000 loads of hill-paddy daily, from the marshes of Chandata,—mice husking the hill-paddy, without breaking it, converted it into rice."—Turnour's Mahawanso, 22.
1871.—"In Ireland Paddy makes riots, in Bengal raiyats make paddy; and in this lies the difference between the paddy of green Bengal, and the Paddy of the Emerald Isle."—Govinda Samanta, ii. 25.
1878.—"Il est établi un droit sur les riz et les paddys exportés de la Colonie, excepté pour le Cambodge par la voie du fleuve."—Courrier de Saigon, Sept. 20.
PADDY-BIRD, s. The name commonly given by Europeans to certain baser species of the family Ardeidae or Herons, which are common in the rice-fields, close in the wake of grazing cattle. Jerdon gives it as the European's name for the Ardeola leucoptera, Boddaert, andhā baglā ('blind heron') of the Hindus, a bird which is more or less coloured. But in Bengal, if we are not mistaken, it is more commonly applied to the pure white bird—Herodias alba, L., or Ardea Torra, Buch. Ham., and Herodias egrettoides, Temminck, or Ardea putea, Buch. Ham.
PADDY-FIELD, s. A rice-field, generally in its flooded state.
1800.—"There is not a single paddy-field in the whole county, but plenty of cotton ground (see REGUR) swamps, which in this wet weather are delightful."—Wellington to Munro, in Despatches, July 3.
1809.—"The whole country was in high cultivation, consequently the paddy-fields were nearly impassable."—Ld. Valentia, i. 350.
PADRE, s. A priest, clergyman, or minister, of the Christian Religion; when applied by natives to their own priests, as it sometimes is when they speak to Europeans, this is only by way of accommodation, as 'church' is also sometimes so used by them.
The word has been taken up from the Portuguese, and was of course applied originally to Roman Catholic priests only. But even in that respect there was a peculiarity in its Indian use among the Portuguese. For P. della Valle (see below) notices it as a singularity of their practice at Goa that they gave the title of Padre to secular priests, whereas in Italy this was reserved to the religiosi or regulars. In Portugal itself, as Bluteau's explanation shows, the use is, or was formerly, the same as in Italy; but, as the first ecclesiastics who went to India were monks, the name apparently became general among the Portuguese there for all priests.
It is a curious example of the vitality of words that this one which had thus already in the 16th century in India a kind of abnormally wide application, has now in that country a still wider, embracing all Christian ministers. It is applied to the Protestant clergy at Madras early in the 18th century. A bishop is known as Lord (see LAT) padre. See LAT Sahib.
According to Leland the word is used in China in the form pa-ti-li.
1584.—"It was the will of God that we found there two Padres, the one an Englishman, and the other a Flemming."—Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 381.
" "... had it not pleased God to put it into the minds of the archbishop and other two Padres of Jesuits of S. Paul's Colledge to stand our friends, we might have rotted in prison."—Newberrie, ibid. ii. 380.
c. 1590.—"Learned monks also come from Europe, who go by the name of Pádre. They have an infallible head called Pápá. He can change any religious ordinances as he may think advisable, and kings have to submit to his authority."—Badāonī, in Blochmann's Āīn, i. 182.
c. 1606.—"Et ut adesse Patres comperiunt, minor exclamat Padrigi, Padrigi, id est Domine Pater, Christianus sum."—Jarric, iii. 155.
1614.—"The Padres make a church of one of their Chambers, where they say Masse twice a day."—W. Whittington, in Purchas, i. 486.
1616.—"So seeing Master Terry whom I brought with me, he (the King) called to him, Padre you are very welcome, and this house is yours."—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 564; [Hak. Soc. ii. 385].
1623.—"I Portoghesi chiamano anche i preti secolari padri, come noi i religiosi...."—P. della Valle, ii. 586; [Hak. Soc. i. 142].
1665.—"They (Hindu Jogis) are impertinent enough to compare themselves with our Religious Men they meet with in the Indies. I have often taken pleasure to catch them, using much ceremony with them, and giving them great respect; but I soon heard them say to one another, This Franguis knows who we are, he hath been a great while in the Indies, he knows that we are the Padrys of the Indians. A fine comparison, said I, within myself, made by an impertinent and idolatrous rabble of Men!"—Bernier, E.T. 104; [ed. Constable, 323].
1675.—"The Padre (or Minister) complains to me that he hath not that respect and place of preference at Table and elsewhere that is due unto him.... At his request I promised to move it at ye next meeting of ye Councell. What this little Sparke may enkindle, especially should it break out in ye Pulpit, I cannot foresee further than the inflaming of ye dyning Roome wch sometimes is made almost intollerable hot upon other Accts."—Mr. Puckle's Diary at Metchlapatam, MS. in India Office.
1676.—"And whiles the French have no settlement near hand, the keeping French Padrys here instead of Portugueses, destroys the encroaching growth of the Portugall interest, who used to entail Portugalism as well as Christianity on all their converts."—Madras Consns., Feb. 29, in Notes and Exts. i. p. 46.
1680.—"... where as at the Dedication of a New Church by the French Padrys and Portugez in 1675 guns had been fired from the Fort in honour thereof, neither Padry nor Portugez appeared at the Dedication of our Church, nor as much as gave the Governor a visit afterwards to give him joy of it."—Ibid. Oct. 28. No. III. p. 37.
c. 1692.—"But their greatest act of tyranny (at Goa) is this. If a subject of these misbelievers dies, leaving young children, and no grown-up son, the children are considered wards of the State. They take them to their places of worship, their churches ... and the padris, that is to say the priests, instruct the children in the Christian religion, and bring them up in their own faith, whether the child be a Mussulman saiyid or a Hindú bráhman."—Kháfi Khán, in Elliot, vii. 345.
1711.—"The Danish Padre Bartholomew Ziegenbalgh, requests leave to go to Europe in the first ship, and in consideration that he is head of a Protestant Mission, espoused by the Right Reverend the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury ... we have presumed to grant him his passage."—In Wheeler, ii. 177.
1726.—"May 14. Mr. Leeke went with me to St. Thomas's Mount.... We conversed with an old Padre from Silesia, who had been 27 years in India...."—Diary of the Missionary Schultze (in Notices of Madras, &c., 1858), p. 14.
" "May 17. The minister of the King of Pegu called on me. From him I learned, through an interpreter, that Christians of all nations and professions have perfect freedom at Pegu; that even in the Capital two French, two Armenian, and two Portuguese Patres, have their churches...."—Ibid. p. 15.
1803.—"Lord Lake was not a little pleased at the Begum's loyalty, and being a little elevated by the wine ... he gallantly advanced, and to the utter dismay of her attendants, took her in his arms, and kissed her.... Receiving courteously the proffered attention, she turned calmly round to her astonished attendants—'It is,' said she, 'the salute of a padre (or priest) to his daughter.'"—Skinner's Mil. Mem. i. 293.
1809.—"The Padre, who is a half cast Portuguese, informed me that he had three districts under him."—Ld. Valentia, i. 329.
1830.—"Two fat naked Brahmins, bedaubed with paint, had been importuning me for money ... upon the ground that they were padres."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, iii.
1876.—"There is Padre Blunt for example,—we always call them Padres in India, you know,—makes a point of never going beyond ten minutes, at any rate during the hot weather."—The Dilemma, ch. xliii.
PADSHAW, PODSHAW, s. Pers.—Hind. pādishāh (Pers. pād, pāt 'throne,' shāh, 'prince'), an emperor; the Great Mogul (q.v.); a king.
[1612.—"He acknowledges no Padenshawe or King in Christendom but the Portugals' King."—Danvers, Letters, i. 175.]
c. 1630.—"... round all the roome were placed tacite Mirzoes, Chauns, Sultans, and Beglerbegs, above threescore; who like so many inanimate Statues sat crosse-legg'd ... their backs to the wall, their eyes to a constant object; not daring to speak to one another, sneeze, cough, spet, or the like, it being held in the Potshaw's presence a sinne of too great presumption."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 169. At p. 171 of the same we have Potshaugh; and in the edition of 1677, in a vocabulary of the language spoken in Hindustan, we have "King, Patchaw." And again: "Is the King at Agra?... Punshaw Agrameha?" (Pādishāh Agrā meṅ hai?)—99-100.
1673.—"They took upon them without controul the Regal Dignity and Title of Pedeshaw."—Fryer, 166.
1727.—"Aureng-zeb, who is now saluted Pautshaw, or Emperor, by the Army, notwithstanding his Father was then alive."—A. Hamilton, i. 175, [ed. 1744].
PAGAR, s.
a. This word, the Malay for a 'fence, enclosure,' occurs in the sense of 'factory' in the following passage:
In some degree analogous to this use is the application, common among Hindustani-speaking natives, of the Hind.—Arab. word iḥāṭa, 'a fence, enclosure,' in the sense of Presidency: Bombay kī [kā] iḥāṭa, Bangāl kī [kā] iḥāta, a sense not given in Shakespear or Forbes; [it is given in Fallon and Platts. Mr. Skeat points out that the Malay word is pāgar, 'a fence,' but that it is not used in the sense of a 'factory' in the Malay Peninsula. In the following passage it seems to mean 'factory stock':
b. (pagār). This word is in general use in the Bombay domestic dialect for wages, Mahr. pagār. It is obviously the Port. verb pagar, 'to pay,' used as a substantive.
PAGODA, s. This obscure and remarkable word is used in three different senses.
a. An idol temple; and also specifically, in China, a particular form of religious edifice, of which the famous "Porcelain tower" of Nanking, now destroyed, may be recalled as typical. In the 17th century we find the word sometimes misapplied to places of Mahommedan worship, as by Faria-y-Sousa, who speaks of the "Pagoda of Mecca."
b. An idol.
c. A coin long current in S. India. The coins so called were both gold and silver, but generally gold. The gold pagoda was the varāha or hūn of the natives (see HOON); the former name (fr. Skt. for 'boar') being taken from the Boar avatār of Vishnu, which was figured on a variety of ancient coins of the South; and the latter signifying 'gold,' no doubt identical with sonā, and an instance of the exchange of h and s. (See also PARDAO.)
Accounts at Madras down to 1818 were kept in pagodas, fanams, and kās (see CASH); 8 kās = 1 fanam, 42 fanams = 1 pagoda. In the year named the rupee was made the standard coin.[1] The pagoda was then reckoned as equivalent to 3½ rupees.
In the suggestions of etymologies for this word, the first and most prominent meaning alone has almost always been regarded, and doubtless justly; for the other uses are deduceable from it. Such suggestions have been many.
Thus Chinese origins have been propounded in more than one form; e.g. Pao-t'ah, 'precious pile,' and Poh-kuh-t'ah ('white-bones-pile').[2] Anything can be made out of Chinese monosyllables in the way of etymology; though no doubt it is curious that the first at least of these phrases is actually applied by the Chinese to the polygonal towers which in China foreigners specially call pagodas. Whether it be possible that this phrase may have been in any measure formed in imitation of pagoda, so constantly in the mouth of foreigners, we cannot say (though it would not be a solitary example of such borrowing—see NEELAM); but we can say with confidence that it is impossible pagoda should have been taken from the Chinese. The quotations from Corsali and Barbosa set that suggestion at rest.
Another derivation is given (and adopted by so learned an etymologist as H. Wedgwood) from the Portuguese pagão, 'a pagan.' It is possible that this word may have helped to facilitate the Portuguese adoption of pagoda; it is not possible that it should have given rise to the word. A third theory makes pagoda a transposition of dagoba. The latter is a genuine word, used in Ceylon, but known in Continental India, since the extinction of Buddhism, only in the most rare and exceptional way.
A fourth suggestion connects it with the Skt. bhagavat, 'holy, divine,' or Bhagavatī, applied to Durgā and other goddesses; and a fifth makes it a corruption of the Pers. but-kadah, 'idol-temple'; a derivation given below by Ovington. There can be little doubt that the origin really lies between these two.
The two contributors to this book are somewhat divided on this subject:—
(1) Against the derivation from bhagavat, 'holy,' or the Mahr. form bhagavant, is the objection that the word pagode from the earliest date has the final e, which was necessarily pronounced. Nor is bhagavant a name for a temple in any language of India. On the other hand but-kadah is a phrase which the Portuguese would constantly hear from the Mahommedans with whom they chiefly had to deal on their first arrival in India. This is the view confidently asserted by Reinaud (Mémoires sur l'Inde, 90), and is the etymology given by Littré.
As regards the coins, it has been supposed, naturally enough, that they were called pagoda, because of the figure of a temple which some of them bear; and which indeed was borne by the pagodas of the Madras Mint, as may be seen in Thomas's Prinsep, pl. xlv. But in fact coins with this impress were first struck at Ikkeri at a date after the word pagode was already in use among the Portuguese. However, nearly all bore on one side a rude representation of a Hindu deity (see e.g. Kṛishṇarāja's pagoda, c. 1520), and sometimes two such images. Some of these figures are specified by Prinsep (Useful Tables, p. 41), and Varthema speaks of them: "These pardai ... have two devils stamped upon one side of them, and certain letters on the other" (115-116). Here the name may have been appropriately taken from bhagavat (A. B.).
On the other hand, it may be urged that the resemblance between but-kadah and pagode is hardly close enough, and that the derivation from but-kadah does not easily account for all the uses of the word. Indeed, it seems admitted in the preceding paragraph that bhagavat may have had to do with the origin of the word in one of its meanings.
Now is it not possible that the word in all its applications may have had its origin from bhagavat, or some current modification of that word? We see from Marco Polo that such a term was currently known to foreign visitors of S. India in his day—a term almost identical in sound with pagoda, and bearing in his statement a religious application, though not to a temple.[3] We thus have four separate applications of the word pacauta, or pagoda, picked up by foreigners on the shores of India from the 13th century downwards, viz. to a Hindu ejaculatory formula, to a place of Hindu worship, to a Hindu idol, to a Hindu coin with idols represented on it. Is it not possible that all are to be traced to bhagavat, 'sacred,' or to Bhagavat and Bhagavatī, used as names of divinities—of Buddha in Buddhist times or places, of Kṛishṇa and Durgā in Brahminical times and places? (uses which are fact). How common was the use of Bhagavatī as the name of an object of worship in Malabar, may be seen from an example. Turning to Wilson's work on the Mackenzie MSS., we find in the list of local MS. tracts belonging to Malabar, the repeated occurrence of Bhagavati in this way. Thus in this section of the book we have at p. xcvi. (vol. ii.) note of an account "of a temple of Bhagavati"; at p. ciii. "Temple of Mannadi Bhagavati goddess ..."; at p. civ. "Temple of Mangombu Bhagavati ..."; "Temple of Paddeparkave Bhagavati ..."; "Temple of the goddess Pannáyennar Kave Bhagavati ..."; "Temple of the goddess Patáli Bhagavati ..."; "Temple of Bhagavati ..."; p. cvii., "Account of the goddess Bhagavati at, &c. ..."; p. cviii., "Acc. of the goddess Yalanga Bhagavati," "Acc. of the goddess Vallur Bhagavati." The term Bhagavati seems thus to have been very commonly attached to objects of worship in Malabar temples (see also Fra Paolino, p. 79 and p. 57, quoted under c. below). And it is very interesting to observe that, in a paper on "Coorg Superstitions," Mr. Kittel notices parenthetically that Bhadrā Kālī (i.e. Durgā) is "also called Pogŏdi, Pavodi, a tadbhava of Bagavati" (Ind. Antiq. ii. 170)—an incidental remark that seems to bring us very near the possible origin of pagode. It is most probable that some form like pogodi or pagode was current in the mouths of foreign visitors before the arrival of the Portuguese; but if the word was of Portuguese origin there may easily have been some confusion in their ears between Bagavati and but-kadah which shaped the new word. It is no sufficient objection to say that bhagavati is not a term applied by the natives to a temple; the question is rather what misunderstanding and mispronunciation by foreigners of a native term may probably have given rise to the term?—(H. Y.)
Since the above was written, Sir Walter Elliot has kindly furnished a note, of which the following is an extract:—
"I took some pains to get at the origin of the word when at Madras, and the conclusion I came to was that it arose from the term used generally for the object of their worship, viz., Bhagavat, 'god'; bhagavati, 'goddess.'
"Thus, the Hindu temple with its lofty gopuram or propylon at once attracts attention, and a stranger enquiring what it was, would be told, 'the house or place of Bhagavat.' The village divinity throughout the south is always a form of Durga, or, as she is commonly called, simply 'Devi' (or Bhagavati, 'the goddess').... In like manner a figure of Durga is found on most of the gold Huns (i.e. pagoda coins) current in the Dakhan, and a foreigner inquiring what such a coin was, or rather what was the form stamped upon it, would be told it was 'the goddess,' i.e., it was 'Bhagavati.'"
As my friend, Dr. Burnell, can no longer represent his own view, it seems right here to print the latest remarks of his on the subject that I can find. They are in a letter from Tanjore, dated March 10, 1880:—
"I think I overlooked a remark of yours regarding my observation that the e in Pagode was pronounced, and that this was a difficulty in deriving it from Bhagavat. In modern Portuguese e is not sounded, but verses show that it was in the 16th century. Now, if there is a final vowel in Pagoda, it must come from Bhagavati; but though the goddess is and was worshipped to a certain extent in S. India, it is by other names (Amma, &c.). Gundert and Kittel give 'Pogodi' as a name of a Durga temple, but assuredly this is no corruption of Bhagavati, but Pagoda! Malayālam and Tamil are full of such adopted words. Bhagavati is little used, and the goddess is too insignificant to give rise to pagoda as a general name for a temple.
"Bhagavat can only appear in the S. Indian languages in its (Skt.) nominative form bhagavān (Tamil paγuvān). As such, in Tamil and Malayālam it equals Vishnu or Siva, which would suit. But pagoda can't be got out of bhagavān; and if we look to the N. Indian forms, bhagavant, &c., there is the difficulty about the e, to say nothing about the nt."
The use of the word by Barbosa at so early a date as 1516, and its application to a particular class of temples must not be overlooked.
a.—
1516.—"In this city of Goa, and all over India, there are an infinity of ancient buildings of the Gentiles, and in a small island near this, called Dinari, the Portuguese, in order to build the city, have destroyed an ancient temple called Pagode, which was built with marvellous art, and with ancient figures wrought to the greatest perfection in a certain black stone, some of which remain standing, ruined and shattered, because these Portuguese care nothing about them. If I can come by one of these shattered images I will send it to your Lordship, that you may perceive how much in old times sculpture was esteemed in every part of the world."—Letter of Andrea Corsali to Giuliano de'Medici, in Ramusio, i. f. 177.
1543.—"And with this fleet he anchored at Coulão (see QUILON) and landed there with all his people. And the Governor (Martim Afonso de Sousa) went thither because of information he had of a pagode which was quite near in the interior, and which, they said, contained much treasure.... And the people of the country seeing that the Governor was going to the pagode, they sent to offer him 50,000 pardaos not to go."—Correa, iv. 325-326.
1554.—"And for the monastery of Santa Fee 845,000 reis yearly, besides the revenue of the Paguodes which His Highness bestowed upon the said House, which gives 600,000 reis a year...."—Botelho, Tombo, in Subsidios, 70.
1563.—"They have (at Baçaim) in one part a certain island called Salsete, where there are two pagodes or houses of idolatry."—Garcia, f. 211v.
1582.—"... Pagode, which is the house of praiers to their Idolls."—Castañeda (by N. L.), f. 34.
1594.—"And as to what you have written to me, viz., that although you understand how necessary it was for the increase of the Christianity of those parts to destroy all the pagodas and mosques (pagodes e mesquitas), which the Gentiles and the Moors possess in the fortified places of this State...." (The King goes on to enjoin the Viceroy to treat this matter carefully with some theologians and canonists of those parts, but not to act till he shall have reported to the King).—Letter from the K. of Portugal to the Viceroy, in Arch. Port. Orient., Fasc. 3, p. 417.
1598.—"... houses of Diuels [Divels] which they call Pagodes."—Linschoten, 22; [Hak. Soc. i. 70].
1606.—Gouvea uses pagode both for a temple and for an idol, e.g., see f. 46v, f. 47.
1630.—"That he should erect pagods for God's worship, and adore images under green trees."—Lord, Display, &c.
1638.—"There did meet us at a great Pogodo or Pagod, which is a famous and sumptuous Temple (or Church)."—W. Bruton, in Hakl. v. 49.
1674.—"Thus they were carried, many flocking about them, to a Pagod or Temple" (pagode in the orig.).—Steven's Faria y Sousa, i. 45.
1674.—"Pagod (quasi Pagan-God), an Idol or false god among the Indians; also a kind of gold coin among them equivalent to our Angel."—Glossographia, &c., by T. S.
1689.—"A Pagoda ... borrows its Name from the Persian word Pout, which signifies Idol; thence Pout-Gheda, a Temple of False Gods, and from thence Pagode."—Ovington, 159.
1696.—"... qui eussent élévé des pagodes au milieu des villes."—La Bruyère, Caractères, ed. Jouast, 1881, ii. 306.
[1710.—"In India we use this word pagoda (pagodes) indiscriminately for idols or temples of the Gentiles."—Oriente Conquistado, vol. i. Conq. i. Div. i. 53.]
1717.—"... the Pagods, or Churches."—Phillip's Account, 12.
1727.—"There are many ancient Pagods or Temples in this country, but there is one very particular which stands upon a little Mountain near Vizagapatam, where they worship living Monkies."—A. Hamilton, i. 380 [ed. 1744].
1736.—"Págod [incert. etym.], an idol's temple in China."—Bailey's Dict. 2nd ed.
1763.—"These divinities are worshipped in temples called Pagodas in every part of Indostan."—Orme, Hist. i. 2.
1781.—"During this conflict (at Chillumbrum), all the Indian females belonging to the garrison were collected at the summit of the highest pagoda, singing in a loud and melodious chorus hallelujahs, or songs of exhortation, to their people below, which inspired the enemy with a kind of frantic enthusiasm. This, even in the heat of the attack, had a romantic and pleasing effect, the musical sounds being distinctly heard at a considerable distance by the assailants."—Munro's Narrative, 222.
1809.—
"In front, with far stretch'd walls, and many a tower,
Turret, and dome, and pinnacle elate,
The huge Pagoda seemed to load the land."
Kehama, viii. 4.
[1830.—"... pagodas, which are so termed from paug, an idol, and ghoda, a temple (!)...."—Mrs. Elwood, Narrative of a Journey Overland from England, ii. 27.]
1855.—"... Among a dense cluster of palm-trees and small pagodas, rises a colossal Gaudama, towering above both, and, Memnon-like, glowering before him with a placid and eternal smile."—Letters from the Banks of the Irawadee, Blackwood's Mag., May, 1856.b.—
[In the following passage from the same author, as Mr. Whiteway points out, the word is used in both senses, a temple and an idol:
1584.—"La religione di queste genti non si intende per esser differenti sette fra loro; hanno certi lor pagodi che son gli idoli...."—Letter of Sassetti, in De Gubernatis, 155.
1587.—"The house in which his pagode or idol standeth is covered with tiles of silver."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 391.
1598.—"... The Pagodes, their false and divelish idols."—Linschoten, 26; [Hak. Soc. i. 86].
1630.—"... so that the Bramanes under each green tree erect temples to pagods...."—Lord, Display, &c.
c. 1630.—"Many deformed Pagothas are here worshipped; having this ordinary evasion that they adore not Idols, but the Deumos which they represent."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1665, p. 375.
1664.—
"Their classic model proved a maggot,
Their Directory an Indian Pagod."
Hudibras, Pt. II. Canto i.
1693.—"... For, say they, what is the Pagoda? it is an image or stone...."—In Wheeler, i. 269.
1727.—"... the Girl with the Pot of Fire on her Head, walking all the Way before. When they came to the End of their journey ... where was placed another black stone Pagod, the Girl set her Fire before it, and run stark mad for a Minute or so."—A. Hamilton, i. 274 [ed. 1744].
c. 1737.—
"See thronging millions to the Pagod run,
And offer country, Parent, wife or son."
Pope, Epilogue to Sat. I.
c.—
1597.—"I think well to order and decree that the pagodes which come from without shall not be current unless they be of forty and three points (assay?) conformable to the first issue, which is called of Agra, and which is of the same value as that of the San Tomes, which were issued in its likeness."—Edict of the King, in Archiv. Port. Orient. iii. 782.
1598.—"There are yet other sorts of money called Pagodes.... They are Indian and Heathenish money with the picture of a Diuell vpon them, and therefore are called Pagodes...."—Linschoten, 54 and 69; [Hak. Soc. i. 187, 242].
1602.—"And he caused to be sent out for the Kings of the Decan and Canara two thousand horses from those that were in Goa, and this brought the King 80,000 pagodes, for every one had to pay forty as duty. These were imported by the Moors and other merchants from the ports of Arabia and Persia; in entering Goa they are free and uncharged, but on leaving that place they have to pay these duties."—Couto, IV. vi. 6.
[ " "... with a sum of gold pagodes, a coin of the upper country (Balagate), each of which is worth 500 reis (say 11s. 3d.; the usual value was 360 reis)."—Ibid. VII. i. 11.]
1623.—"... An Indian Gentile Lord called Rama Rau, who has no more in all than 2000 pagod [paygods] of annual revenue, of which again he pays about 800 to Venktapà Naieka, whose tributary he is...."—P. della Valle, ii. 692; [Hak. Soc. ii. 306].
1673.—"About this time the Rajah ... was weighed in Gold, and poised about 16,000 Pagods."—Fryer, 80.
1676.—"For in regard these Pagods are very thick, and cannot be clipt, those that are Masters of the trade, take a Piercer, and pierce the Pagod through the side, halfway or more, taking out of one piece as much Gold as comes to two or three Sous."—Tavernier, E.T. 1684, ii. 4; [Ball, ii. 92].
1780.—"Sir Thomas Rumbold, Bart., resigned the Government of Fort St. George on the Mg. of the 9th inst., and immediately went on board the General Barker. It is confidently reported that he has not been able to accumulate a very large Fortune, considering the long time he has been at Madrass; indeed people say it amounts to only 17 Lacks and a half of Pagodas, or a little more than £600,000 sterling."—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, April 15.
1785.—"Your servants have no Trade in this country, neither do you pay them high wages, yet in a few years they return to England with many lacs of pagodas."—Nabob of Arcot, in Burke's Speech on the Nabob's Debts, Works, ed. 1852, iv. 18.
1796.—"La Bhagavadi, moneta d'oro, che ha l'immagine della dea Bhagavadi, nome corrotto in Pagodi o Pagode dagli Europei, è moneta rotonda, convessa in una parte...."—Fra Paolino, 57.
1803.—"It frequently happens that in the bazaar, the star pagoda exchanges for 4 rupees, and at other times for not more than 3."—Wellington, Desp., ed. 1837, ii. 375.
PAGODA-TREE. A slang phrase once current, rather in England than in India, to express the openings to rapid fortune which at one time existed in India. [For the original meaning, see the quotation from Ryklof Van Goens under BO TREE. Mr. Skeat writes: "It seems possible that the idea of a coin tree may have arisen from the practice, among some Oriental nations at least, of making cash in moulds, the design of which is based on the plan of a tree. On the E. coast of the Malay Peninsula the name cash-tree (poko' pitis) is applied to cash cast in this form. Gold and silver tributary trees are sent to Siam by the tributary States: in these the leaves are in the shape of ordinary tree leaves."]
PAHLAVI, PEHLVI. The name applied to the ancient Persian language in that phase which prevailed from the beginning of the Sassanian monarchy to the time when it became corrupted by the influence of Arabic, and the adoption of numerous Arabic words and phrases. The name Pahlavi was adopted by Europeans from the Parsi use. The language of Western Persia in the time of the Achaemenian kings, as preserved in the cuneiform inscriptions of Persepolis, Behistun, and elsewhere, is nearly akin to the dialects of the Zend-Avesta, and is characterised by a number of inflections agreeing with those of the Avesta and of Sanskrit. The dissolution of inflectional terminations is already indicated as beginning in the later Achaemenian inscriptions, and in many parts of the Zend-Avesta, but its course cannot be traced, as there are no inscriptions in Persian language during the time of the Arsacidae; and it is in the inscriptions on rocks and coins of Ardakhshīr-i-Pāpaḳān (A.D. 226-240)—the Ardashīr Babagān of later Persian—that the language emerges in a form of that which is known as Pahlavi. "But, strictly speaking, the medieval Persian language is called Pahlavi when it is written in one of the characters used before the invention of the modern Persian alphabet, and in the peculiarly enigmatical mode adopted in Pahlavi writings.... Like the Assyrians of old, the Persians of Parthian times appear to have borrowed their writing from a foreign race. But, whereas the Semitic Assyrians adopted a Turanian syllabary, these later Aryan Persians accepted a Semitic alphabet. Besides the alphabet, however, which they could use for spelling their own words, they transferred a certain number of complete Semitic words to their writings as representatives of the corresponding words in their own language.... The use of such Semitic words, scattered about in Persian sentences, gives Pahlavi the motley appearance of a compound language.... But there are good reasons for supposing that the language was never spoken as it was written. The spoken language appears to have been pure Persian; the Semitic words being merely used as written representatives, or logograms, of the Persian words which were spoken. Thus, the Persians would write malkân malkâ, 'King of Kings,' but they would read shâhân shâh.... As the Semitic words were merely a Pahlavi mode of writing their Persian equivalents (just as 'viz.' is a mode of writing 'namely' in English[4]), they disappeared with the Pahlavi writing, and the Persians began at once to write all their words with their new alphabet, just as they pronounced them" (E. W. West, Introd. to Pahlavi Texts, p. xiii.; Sacred Books of the East, vol. v.).[5]
Extant Pahlavi writings are confined to those of the Parsis, translations from the Avesta, and others almost entirely of a religious character. Where the language is transcribed, either in the Avesta characters, or in those of the modern Persian alphabet, and freed from the singular system indicated above, it is called Pazand (see PAZEND); a term supposed to be derived from the language of the Avesta, paitizanti, with the meaning 're-explanation.'
Various explanations of the term Pahlavi have been suggested. It seems now generally accepted as a changed form of the Parthva of the cuneiform inscriptions, the Parthia of Greek and Roman writers. The Parthians, though not a Persian race, were rulers of Persia for five centuries, and it is probable that everything ancient, and connected with the period of their rule, came to be called by this name. It is apparently the same word that in the form pahlav and pahlavān, &c., has become the appellation of a warrior or champion in both Persian and Armenian, originally derived from that most warlike people the Parthians. (See PULWAUN.) Whether there was any identity between the name thus used, and that of Pahlava, which is applied to a people mentioned often in Sanskrit books, is a point still unsettled.
The meaning attached to the term Pahlavi by Orientals themselves, writing in Arabic or Persian (exclusive of Parsis), appears to have been 'Old Persian' in general, without restriction to any particular period or dialect. It is thus found applied to the cuneiform inscriptions at Persepolis. (Derived from West as quoted above, and from Haug's Essays, ed. London, 1878.)
PAILOO, s. The so-called 'triumphal arches,' or gateways, which form so prominent a feature in Chinese landscape, really monumental erections in honour of deceased persons of eminent virtue. Chin. pai, 'a tablet,' and lo, 'a stage or erection.' Mr. Fergusson has shown the construction to have been derived from India with Buddhism (see Indian and Eastern Architecture, pp. 700-702). [So the Torii of Japan seem to represent Skt. toraṇa, 'an archway' (see Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. 407 seq.).]
PÁLAGILÁSS, s. This is domestic Hind. for 'Asparagus' (Panjab N. & Q. ii. 189).
PALANKEEN, PALANQUIN, s. A box-litter for travelling in, with a pole projecting before and behind, which is borne on the shoulders of 4 or 6 men—4 always in Bengal, 6 sometimes in the Telugu country.
The origin of the word is not doubtful, though it is by no means clear how the Portuguese got the exact form which they have handed over to us. The nasal termination may be dismissed as a usual Portuguese addition, such as occurs in mandarin, Baçaim (Wasai), and many other words and names as used by them. The basis of all the forms is Skt. paryañka, or palyañka, 'a bed,' from which we have Hind. and Mahr. palang, 'a bed,' Hind. pālkī, 'a palankin,' [Telugu pallakī, which is perhaps the origin of the Port. word], Pali pallanko, 'a couch, bed, litter, or palankin' (Childers), and in Javanese and Malay palañgki, 'a litter or sedan' (Crawfurd).[6]
It is curious that there is a Spanish word palanca (L. Lat. phalanga) for a pole used to carry loads on the shoulders of two bearers (called in Sp. palanquinos); a method of transport more common in the south than in England, though even in old English the thing has a name, viz. 'a cowle-staff' (see N.E.D.). It is just possible that this word (though we do not find it in the Portuguese dictionaries) may have influenced the form in which the early Portuguese visitors to India took up the word.
The thing appears already in the Rāmāyana. It is spoken of by Ibn Batuta and John Marignolli (both c. 1350), but neither uses this Indian name; and we have not found evidence of pālkī older than Akbar (see Elliot, iv. 515, and Āīn, i. 254).
As drawn by Linschoten (1597), and as described by Grose at Bombay (c. 1760), the palankin was hung from a bamboo which bent in an arch over the vehicle; a form perhaps not yet entirely obsolete in native use. Williamson (V. M., i. 316 seqq.) gives an account of the different changes in the fashion of palankins, from which it would appear that the present form must have come into use about the end of the 18th century. Up to 1840-50 most people in Calcutta kept a palankin and a set of bearers (usually natives of Orissa—see OORIYA), but the practice and the vehicle are now almost, if not entirely, obsolete among the better class of Europeans. Till the same period the palankin, carried by relays of bearers, laid out by the post-office, or by private chowdries (q.v.), formed the chief means of accomplishing extensive journeys in India, and the elder of the present writers has undergone hardly less than 8000 or 9000 miles of travelling in going considerable distances (excluding minor journeys) after this fashion. But in the decade named, the palankin began, on certain great roads, to be superseded by the dawk-garry (a Palkee-garry or palankin-carriage, horsed by ponies posted along the road, under the post-office), and in the next decade to a large extent by railway, supplemented by other wheel-carriage, so that the palankin is now used rarely, and only in out-of-the-way localities.
c. 1350.—"Et eciam homines et mulieres portant super scapulas in lecticis de quibus in Canticis: ferculum fecit sibi Salomon de lignis Libani, id est lectulum portatilem sicut portabar ego in Zayton et in India."—Marignolli (see Cathay, &c., p. 331).
1515.—"And so assembling all the people made great lamentation, and so did throughout all the streets the women, married and single, in a marvellous way. The captains lifted him (the dead Alboquerque), seated as he was in a chair, and placed him on a palanquim, so that he was seen by all the people; and João Mendes Botelho, a knight of Afonso d'Alboquerque's making (who was) his Ancient, bore the banner before the body."—Correa, Lendas, II. i. 460.
1563.—"... and the branches are for the most part straight except some ... which they twist and bend to form the canes for palenquins and portable chairs, such as are used in India."—Garcia, f. 194.
1567.—"... with eight Falchines (fachini), which are hired to carry the palanchines, eight for a Palanchine (palanchino), foure at a time."—C. Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 348.
1598.—"... after them followeth the bryde between two Commeres, each in their Pallamkin, which is most costly made."—Linschoten, 56; [Hak. Soc. i. 196].
1606.—"The palanquins covered with curtains, in the way that is usual in this Province, are occasion of very great offences against God our Lord" ... (the Synod therefore urges the Viceroy to prohibit them altogether, and) ... "enjoins on all ecclesiastical persons, on penalty of sentence of excommunication, and of forfeiting 100 pardaos to the church court[7] not to use the said palanquins, made in the fashion above described."—4th Act of 5th Council of Goa, in Archiv. Port. Orient., fasc. 4. (See also under BOY.)The following is the remonstrance of the city of Goa against the ecclesiastical action in this matter, addressed to the King:
"The matter is of so odious a nature, and of such a description that Your Majesty should grant their desire in no shape whatever, nor give any order of the kind, seeing this place is a frontier fortress. The reasons for this have been written to Your Majesty; let us beg Your Majesty graciously to make no new rule; and this is the petition of the whole community to Your Majesty."—Carta, que a Cidade de Goa escrevea a Sua Magestade, o anno de 1606. In Archiv. Port. Orient., fasc. io. 2a. Edição, 2a. Parte, 186.
1608-9.—"If comming forth of his Pallace, hee (Jahāngīr) get vp on a Horse, it is a signe that he goeth for the Warres; but if he be vp vpon an Elephant or Palankine, it will bee but an hunting Voyage."—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 219.
1616.—"... Abdala Chan, the great governour of Amadauas, being sent for to Court in disgrace, comming in Pilgrim's Clothes with fortie servants on foote, about sixtie miles in counterfeit humiliation, finished the rest in his Pallankee."—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 552; [Hak. Soc. ii. 278, which reads Palanckee, with other minor variances].
In Terry's account, in Purchas, ii. 1475, we have a Pallankee, and (p. 1481) Palanka; in a letter of Tom Coryate's (1615) Palankeen.
1623.—"In the territories of the Portuguese in India it is forbidden to men to travel in palankin (Palanchino) as in good sooth too effeminate a proceeding; nevertheless as the Portuguese pay very little attention to their laws, as soon as the rains begin to fall they commence getting permission to use the palankin, either by favour or by bribery; and so, gradually, the thing is relaxed, until at last nearly everybody travels in that way, and at all seasons."—P. della Valle, i. 611; [comp. Hak. Soc. i. 31].
1659.—"The designing rascal (Sivají) ... conciliated Afzal Khán, who fell into the snare.... Without arms he mounted the pálkí, and proceeded to the place appointed under the fortress. He left all his attendants at the distance of a long arrow-shot.... Sivají had a weapon, called in the language of the Dakhin bichúá (i.e. 'scorpion') on the fingers of his hand, hidden under his sleeve...."—Kháfi Khán, in Elliot, vii. 259. See also p. 509.
c. 1660.—"... From Golconda to Maslipatan there is no travelling by waggons.... But instead of Coaches they have the convenience of Pallekies, wherein you are carried with more speed and more ease than in any part of India."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 70; [ed. Ball, i. 175]. This was quite true up to our own time. In 1840 the present writer was carried on that road, a stage of 25 miles in little more than 5 hours, by 12 bearers, relieving each other by sixes.
1672. The word occurs several times in Baldaeus as Pallinkijn. Tavernier writes Palleki and sometimes Pallanquin [Ball, i. 45, 175, 390, 392]; Bernier has Paleky [ed. Constable, 214, 283, 372].
1673.—"... ambling after these a great pace, the Palankeen-Boys support them, four of them, two at each end of a Bambo, which is a long hollow Cane ... arched in the middle ... where hangs the Palenkeen, as big as an ordinary Couch, broad enough to tumble in...."—Fryer, 34.
1678.—"The permission you are pleased to give us to buy a Pallakee on the Company's Acct. Shall make use off as Soone as can possiblie meet wth one yt may be fitt for ye purpose...."—MS. Letter from Factory at Ballasore to the Council (of Fort St. George), March 9, in India Office.
1682.—Joan Nieuhof has Palakijn. Zee en Lant-Reize, ii. 78.
[" "The Agent and Council ... allowed him (Mr. Clarke) 2 pagos p. mensem more towards the defraying his pallanquin charges, he being very crazy and much weaken'd by his sicknesse."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. i. 34.]
1720.—"I desire that all the free Merchants of my acquaintance do attend me in their palenkeens to the place of burial."—Will of Charles Davers, Merchant, in Wheeler, ii. 340.
1726.—"... Palangkyn dragers" (palankin-bearers).—Valentijn, Ceylon, 45.
1736.—"Palanquin, a kind of chaise or chair, borne by men on their shoulders, much used by the Chinese and other Eastern peoples for travelling from place to place."—Bailey's Dict. 2nd ed.
1750-52.—"The greater nobility are carried in a palekee, which looks very like a hammock fastened to a pole."—Toreen's Voyage to Suratte, China, &c., ii. 201.
1754-58.—In the former year the Court of Directors ordered that Writers in their Service should "lay aside the expense of either horse, chair, or Palankeen, during their Writership." The Writers of Fort William (4th Nov. 1756) remonstrated, begging "to be indulged in keeping a Palankeen for such months of the year as the excessive heats and violent rains make it impossible to go on foot without the utmost hazard of their health." The Court, however, replied (11 Feb. 1756): "We very well know that the indulging Writers with Palankeens has not a little contributed to the neglect of business we complain of, by affording them opportunities of rambling"; and again, with an obduracy and fervour too great for grammar (March 3, 1758): "We do most positively order and direct (and will admit of no representation for postponing the execution of) that no Writer whatsoever be permitted to keep either palankeen, horse, or chaise, during his Writership, on pain of being immediately dismissed from our service."—In Long, pp. 54, 71, 130.
1780.—"The Nawaub, on seeing his condition, was struck with grief and compassion; but ... did not even bend his eyebrow at the sight, but lifting up the curtain of the Palkee with his own hand, he saw that the eagle of his (Ali Ruza's) soul, at one flight had winged its way to the gardens of Paradise."—H. of Hydur, p. 429.
1784.—
"The Sun in gaudy palanqueen
Curtain'd with purple, fring'd with gold,
Firing no more heav'n's vault serene,
Retir'd to sup with Ganges old."
Plassy Plain, a ballad by Sir W. Jones;
in Life and Works, ed. 1807, ii. 503.
The following measures a change in ideas. A palankin is now hardly ever used by a European, even of humble position, much less by the opulent:
" "The conveyances of the island (Madeira) are of three kinds, viz.: horses, mules, and a litter, ycleped a palanquin, being a chair in the shape of a bathing-tub, with a pole across, carried by two men, as doolees are in the east."—Welsh, Reminiscences, i. 282.
1809.—
"Woe! Woe! around their palankeen,
As on a bridal day
With symphony and dance and song,
Their kindred and their friends come on,
The dance of sacrifice! The funeral song!"
Kehama, i. 6.
c. 1830.—"Un curieux indiscret reçut un galet dans la tête; on l'emporta baigné de sang, couché dans un palanquin."—V. Jacquemont, Corr. i. 67.
1880.—"It will amaze readers in these days to learn that the Governor-General sometimes condescended to be carried in a Palanquin—a mode of conveyance which, except for long journeys away from railroads, has long been abandoned to portly Baboos, and Eurasian clerks."—Sat. Rev., Feb. 14.
1881.—"In the great procession on Corpus Christi Day, when the Pope is carried in a palanquin round the Piazza of St. Peter, it is generally believed that the cushions and furniture of the palanquin are so arranged as to enable him to bear the fatigue of the ceremony by sitting whilst to the spectator he appears to be kneeling."—Dean Stanley, Christian Institutions, 231.
PALAVERAM, n.p. A town and cantonment 11 miles S.W. from Madras. The name is Pallāvaram, probably Palla-puram, Pallavapura, the 'town of the Pallas'; the latter a caste claiming descent from the Pallavas who reigned at Conjeveram (Seshagiri Śāstrī). [The Madras Gloss. derives their name from Tam. pallam, 'low land,' as they are commonly employed in the cultivation of wet lands.]
PALE ALE. The name formerly given to the beer brewed for Indian use. (See BEER.)
1793.—"For sale ... Pale Ale (per hhd.) ... Rs. 80."—Bombay Courier, Jan. 19.
[1801.—"1. Pale Ale; 2. strong ale; 3. small beer; 4. brilliant beer; 5. strong porter; 6. light porter; 7. brown stout."—Advt. in Carey, Good Old Days, i. 147.]
1848.—"Constant dinners, tiffins, pale ale, and claret, the prodigious labour of cutchery, and the refreshment of brandy pawnee, which he was forced to take there, had this effect upon Waterloo Sedley."—Vanity Fair, ed. 1867, ii. 258.
1853.—"Parmi les cafés, les cabarets, les gargotes, l'on rencontre çà et là une taverne anglaise placardée de sa pancarte de porter simple et double, d'old Scotch ale, d'East India Pale beer."—Th. Gautier, Constantinople, 22.
1867.—
"Pain bis, galette ou panaton,
Fromage à la pie ou Stilton,
Cidre ou pale-ale de Burton,
Vin de brie, ou branne-mouton."
Th. Gautier à Ch. Garnier.
PALEMPORE, s. A kind of chintz bed-cover, sometimes made of beautiful patterns, formerly made at various places in India, especially at Sadras and Masulipatam, the importation of which into Europe has become quite obsolete, but under the greater appreciation of Indian manufactures has recently shown some tendency to revive. The etymology is not quite certain,—we know no place of the name likely to have been the eponymic,—and possibly it is a corruption of a hybrid (Hind. and Pers.) palang-posh, 'a bed-cover,' which occurs below, and which may have been perverted through the existence of Salempore as a kind of stuff. The probability that the word originated in a perversion of palang-posh, is strengthened by the following entry in Bluteau's Dict. (Suppt. 1727.)
[For the mode of manufacture at Masulipatam, see Journ. Ind. Art. iii. 14. Mr. Pringle (Madras Selections, 4th ser. p. 71, and Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. iii. 173) has questioned this derivation. The word may have been taken from the State and town of Pālanpur in Guzerat, which seems to have been an emporium for the manufactures of N. India, which was long noted for chintz of this kind.]
1673.—"Staple commodities (at Masulipatam) are calicuts white and painted, Palempores, Carpets."—Fryer, 34.
1813.—
"A stain on every bush that bore
A fragment of his palampore,
His breast with wounds unnumber'd riven,
His back to earth, his face to heaven...."
Byron, The Giaour.
1814.—"A variety of tortures were inflicted to extort a confession; one was a sofa, with a platform of tight cordage in network, covered with a palampore, which concealed a bed of thorns placed under it: the collector, a corpulent Banian, was then stripped of his jama (see JAMMA), or muslin robe, and ordered to lie down."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 429; [2nd ed. ii. 54].
1817.—"... these cloths ... serve as coverlids, and are employed as a substitute for the Indian palempore."—Raffles, Java, 171; [2nd ed. i. 191].
[1855.—
"The jewelled amaun of thy zemzem is bare,
And the folds of thy palampore wave in the air."
Bon Gaultier, Eastern Serenade.]
1862.—"Bala posh, or Palang posh, quilt or coverlet, 300 to 1000 rupees."—Punjab Trade Report, App. p. xxxviii.
1880.—"... and third, the celebrated palampores, or 'bed-covers,' of Masulipatam, Fatehgarh, Shikarpur, Hazara, and other places, which in point of art decoration are simply incomparable."—Birdwood, The Industrial Arts of India, 260.
PALI, s. The name of the sacred language of the Southern Buddhists, in fact, according to their apparently well-founded tradition Magadhī, the dialect of what we now call South Bahar, in which Sakya Muni discoursed. It is one of the Prākrits (see PRACRIT) or Aryan vernaculars of India, and has probably been a dead language for nearly 2000 years. Pāli in Skt. means 'a line, row, series'; and by the Buddhists is used for the series of their Sacred Texts. Pālī-bhāshā is then 'the language of the Sacred Texts,' i.e. Magadhī; and this is called elliptically by the Singhalese Pālī, which we have adopted in like use. It has been carried, as the sacred language, to all the Indo-Chinese countries which have derived their religion from India through Ceylon. Pālī is "a sort of Tuscan among the Prākrits" from its inherent grace and strength (Childers). But the analogy to Tuscan is closer still in the parallelism of the modification of Sanskrit words, used in Pālī, to that of Latin words used in Italian.
Robert Knox does not apparently know by that name the Pālī language in Ceylon. He only speaks of the Books of Religion as "being in an eloquent style which the Vulgar people do not understand" (p. 75); and in another passage says: "They have a language something differing from the vulgar tongue (like Latin to us) which their books are writ in" (p. 109).
1690.—"... this Doubt proceeds from the Siameses understanding two Languages, viz., the Vulgar, which is a simple Tongue, consisting almost wholly of Monosyllables, without Conjugation or Declension; and another Language, which I have already spoken of, which to them is a dead Tongue, known only by the Learned, which is called the Balie Tongue, and which is enricht with the inflexions of words, like the Languages we have in Europe. The terms of Religion and Justice, the names of Offices, and all the Ornaments of the Vulgar Tongue are borrow'd from the Balie."—De la Loubère's Siam, E.T. 1693, p. 9.
1795.—"Of the ancient Pállis, whose language constitutes at the present day the sacred text of Ava, Pegue, and Siam, as well as of several other countries eastward of the Ganges: and of their migration from India to the banks of the Cali, the Nile of Ethiopia, we have but very imperfect information.[8] ... It has been the opinion of some of the most enlightened writers on the languages of the East, that the Pali, the sacred language of the priests of Boodh, is nearly allied to the Shanscrit of the Bramins: and there certainly is much of that holy idiom engrafted on the vulgar language of Ava, by the introduction of the Hindoo religion."—Symes, 337-8.
1818.—"The Talapoins ... do apply themselves in some degree to study, since according to their rules they are obliged to learn the Sadà, which is the grammar of the Palì language or Magatà, to read the Vini, the Padimot ... and the sermons of Godama.... All these books are written in the Palì tongue, but the text is accompanied by a Burmese translation. They were all brought into the kingdom by a certain Brahmin from the island of Ceylon."—Sangermano's Burmese Empire, p. 141.
[1822.—"... the sacred books of the Buddhists are composed in the Balli tongue...."—Wallace, Fifteen Years in India, 187.]
1837.—"Buddhists are impressed with the conviction that their sacred and classical language, the Mágadhi or Páli, is of greater antiquity than the Sanscrit; and that it had attained also a higher state of refinement than its rival tongue had acquired. In support of this belief they adduce various arguments, which, in their judgment, are quite conclusive. They observe that the very word Páli signifies original, text, regularity; and there is scarcely a Buddhist scholar in Ceylon, who, in the discussion of this question, will not quote, with an air of triumph, their favourite verse,—
Sá Mágadhi; múla bhásá (&c.).
'There is a language which is the root; ... men and bráhmans at the commencement of the creation, who never before heard nor uttered a human accent, and even the Supreme Buddhos, spoke it: it is Mágadhi.'
"This verse is a quotation from Kachcháyanó's grammar, the oldest referred to in the Páli literature of Ceylon.... Let me ... at once avow, that, exclusive of all philological considerations, I am inclined, on primâ facie evidence—external as well as internal—to entertain an opinion adverse to the claims of the Buddhists on this particular point."—George Turnour, Introd. to Maháwanso, p. xxii.
1874.—"The spoken language of Italy was to be found in a number of provincial dialects, each with its own characteristics, the Piedmontese harsh, the Neapolitan nasal, the Tuscan soft and flowing. These dialects had been rising in importance as Latin declined; the birth-time of a new literary language was imminent. Then came Dante, and choosing for his immortal Commedia the finest and most cultivated of the vernaculars, raised it at once to the position of dignity which it still retains. Read Sanskrit for Latin, Magadhese for Tuscan, and the Three Baskets for the Divina Commedia, and the parallel is complete.... Like Italian Pali is at once flowing and sonorous; it is a characteristic of both languages that nearly every word ends in a vowel, and that all harsh conjunctions are softened down by assimilation, elision, or crasis, while on the other hand both lend themselves easily to the expression of sublime and vigorous thought."—Childers, Preface to Pali Dict. pp. xiii-xiv.
PALKEE-GARRY, s. A 'palankin-coach,' as it is termed in India; i.e. a carriage shaped somewhat like a palankin on wheels; Hind. pālkī-gāṛī. The word is however one formed under European influences. ["The system of conveying passengers by palkee carriages and trucks was first established between Cawnpore and Allahabad in May 1843, and extended to Allyghur in November of the same year; Delhi was included in June 1845, Agra and Meerut about the same time; the now-going line not being, however, ready till January 1846" (Carey, Good Old Days, ii. 91).]
PALMYRA, s. The fan-palm (Borassus flabelliformis), which is very commonly cultivated in S. India and Ceylon (as it is also indeed in the Ganges valley from Farrukhābād down to the head of the Delta), and hence was called by the Portuguese par excellence, palmeira or 'the palm-tree.' Sir J. Hooker writes: "I believe this palm is nowhere wild in India; and have always suspected that it, like the tamarind, was introduced from Africa." [So Watt, Econ. Dict. i. 504.] It is an important tree in the economy of S. India, Ceylon, and parts of the Archipelago as producing jaggery (q.v.) or 'palm-sugar'; whilst the wood affords rafters and laths, and the leaf gives a material for thatch, mats, umbrellas, fans, and a substitute for paper. Its minor uses are many: indeed it is supposed to supply nearly all the wants of man, and a Tamil proverb ascribes to it 801 uses (see Ferguson's Palmyra-Palm of Ceylon, and Tennent's Ceylon, i. 111, ii. 519 seqq.; also see BRAB).
1673.—"Their Buildings suit with the Country and State of the inhabitants, being mostly contrived for Conveniency: the Poorer are made of Boughs and ollas of the Palmeroes."—Fryer, 199.
1718.—"... Leaves of a Tree called Palmeira."—Prop. of the Gospel in the East, iii. 85.
1756.—"The interval was planted with rows of palmira, and coco-nut trees."—Orme, ii. 90, ed. 1803.
1860.—"Here, too, the beautiful palmyra palm, which abounds over the north of the Island, begins to appear."—Tennent's Ceylon, ii. 54.
PALMYRA POINT, n.p. Otherwise called Pt. Pedro, [a corruption of the Port. Punta das Pedras, 'the rocky cape,' a name descriptive of the natural features of the coast (Tennent, ii. 535)]. This is the N.E. point of Ceylon, the high palmyra trees on which are conspicuous.
PALMYRAS, POINT, n.p. This is a headland on the Orissa coast, quite low, but from its prominence at the most projecting part of the combined Mahānadī and Brāhmaṇī delta an important landmark, especially in former days, for ships bound from the south for the mouth of the Hoogly, all the more for the dangerous shoal off it. A point of the Mahānadī delta, 24 miles to the south-west, is called False Point, from its liability to be mistaken for P. Palmyras.
1598.—"... 2 miles (Dutch) before you come to the point of Palmerias, you shall see certaine blacke houels standing vppon a land that is higher than all the land thereabouts, and from thence to the Point it beginneth againe to be low ground and ... you shall see some small (but not ouer white) sandie Downes ... you shall finde being right against the point de Palmerias ... that vpon the point there is neyther tree nor bush, and although it hath the name of the Point of Palm-trees, it hath notwithstanding right forth, but one Palme tree."—Linschoten, 3d Book, ch. 12.
[c. 1665.—"Even the Portuguese of Ogouli (see HOOGLY), in Bengale, purchased without scruple these wretched captives, and the horrid traffic was transacted in the vicinity of the island of Galles, near Cape das Palmas."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 176.]
1823.—"It is a large delta, formed by the mouths of the Maha-Nuddee and other rivers, the northernmost of which insulates Cape Palmiras."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 88.
[PAMBRE, s. An article of dress which seems to have been used for various purposes, as a scarf, and perhaps as a turban. Mr. Yusuf Ali (Monograph on Silk Fabrics, 81) classes it among 'fabrics which are simply wrapped over the head and shoulders by men and women'; and he adds: "The Pamri is used by women and children, generally amongst Hindus." His specimens are some 3 yards long by 1 broad, and are made of pure silk or silk and cotton, with an ornamental border. The word does not appear in the Hind. dictionaries, but Molesworth has Mahr. pāmarī, 'a sort of silk cloth.'
For some of the following quotations and notes I am indebted to Mr. W. Foster.
[1627.—"L'on y [Kashmír] travaille aussi plusieurs Vomeris [misprint for Pomeris, which he elsewhere mentions as a stuff from Kashmir and Lahore], qui sont des pieces d'estoffes longues de trois aulnes, et largers de deux, faite de laine de moutons, qui croit au derriere de ces bestes, et qui est aussi fine que de la soye: on tient ces estoffes exposées au froid pendant l'hyver: elles ont un beau lustre, semblables aux tabis de nos cartiers."—François Pelsart, in Thevenot's Rélations de divers Voyages, vol. i. pt. 2.
[1634.—A letter in the India Office of Dec. 29 mentions that the Governor of Surat presented to the two chief Factors a horse and "a coat and pamorine" apiece.
[" O. C., No. 1543A (I. O. Records) mentions the presentation to the President of Surat of a "coat and pamorine."
[1673.—"A couple of pamerins, which are fine mantles."—Fryer's New Account, p. 79; also see 177; in 112 ramerin.
[1766.—"... a lungee (see LOONGHEE) or clout, barely to cover their nakedness, and a pamree or loose mantle to throw over their shoulders, or to lye on upon the ground."—Grose, 2nd ed. ii. 81.]
PANCHĀÑGAM, s. Skt. = 'quinque-partite.' A native almanac in S. India is called so, because it contains information on five subjects, viz. Solar Days, Lunar Days, Asterisms, Yogas, and karaṇas (certain astrological divisions of the days of a month). Panchanga is used also, at least by Buchanan below, for the Brahman who keeps and interprets the almanac for the villagers. [This should be Skt. pañchāngī.]
1651.—"The Bramins, in order to know the good and bad days, have made certain writings after the fashion of our Almanacks, and these they call Panjangam."—Rogerius, 55. This author gives a specimen (pp. 63-69).
1800.—"No one without consulting the Panchanga, or almanac-keeper, knows when he is to perform the ceremonies of religion."—Buchanan's Mysore, &c., i. 234.
PANDAL, PENDAUL, s. A shed. Tamil pandal, [Skt. bandh, 'to bind'].
1717.—"Water-Bandels, which are little sheds for the Conveniency of drinking Water."—Phillips's Account, 19.
1745.—"Je suivis la procession d'un peu loin, et arrivé aux sepultures, j'y vis un pandel ou tente dressée, sur la fosse du defunt; elle était ornée de branches de figuier, de toiles peintes, &c. L'intérieur était garni de petites lampes allumées."—Norbert, Mémoires, iii. 32.
1781.—"Les gens riches font construire devant leur porte un autre pendal."—Sonnerat, ed. 1782, i. 134.
1800.—"I told the farmer that, as I meant to make him pay his full rent, I could not take his fowl and milk without paying for them; and that I would not enter his pundull, because he had not paid the labourers who made it."—Letter of Sir T. Munro, in Life, i. 283.
1814.—"There I beheld, assembled in the same pandaul, or reposing under the friendly banian-tree, the Gosannee (see GOSAIN) in a state of nudity, the Yogee (see JOGEE) with a lark or paroquet his sole companion for a thousand miles."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 465; [2nd ed. ii. 72. In ii. 109 he writes Pendall].
1815.—"Pandauls were erected opposite the two principal fords on the river, where under my medical superintendence skilful natives provided with eau-de-luce and other remedies were constantly stationed."—Dr. M‘Kenzie, in Asiatic Researches, xiii. 329.
PANDÁRAM, s. A Hindu ascetic mendicant of the (so-called) Śūdra, or even of a lower caste. A priest of the lower Hindu castes of S. India and Ceylon. Tamil, paṇḍāram. C. P. Brown says the Paṇḍāram is properly a Vaishnava, but other authors apply the name to Śaiva priests. [The Madras Gloss. derives the word from Skt. pāṇḍu-ranga, 'white-coloured.' Messrs. Cox and Stuart (Man. of N. Arcot. i. 199) derive it from Skt. bhāṇḍagāra, 'a temple-treasury,' wherein were employed those who had renounced the world. "The Pandārams seem to receive numerous recruits from the Śaivite Śúdra castes, who choose to make a profession of piety and wander about begging. They are, in reality, very lax in their modes of life, often drinking liquor and eating animal food furnished by any respectable Śúdra. They often serve in Śiva temples, where they make up garlands of flowers to decorate the lingam, and blow brass trumpets when offerings are made or processions take place" (ibid.).]
1717.—"... Bramans, Pantarongal, and other holy men."—Phillips's Account, 18. The word is here in the Tamil plural.
1718.—"Abundance of Bramanes, Pantares, and Poets ... flocked together."—Propn. of the Gospel, ii. 18.
1745.—"On voit ici quelquefois les Pandarams ou Penitens qui ont été en pélérinage à Bengale; quand ils retournent ils apportent ici avec grand soin de l'eau du Gange dans des pots ou vases bien formés."—Norbert, Mém. iii. 28.
c. 1760.—"The Pandarams, the Mahometan priests, and the Bramins thomselves yield to the force of truth."—Grose, i. 252.
1781.—"Les Pandarons ne sont pas moins révérés que les Saniasis. Ils sont de la secte de Chiven, se barbouillent toute la figure, la poitrine, et les bras avec des cendres de bouze de vache," &c.—Sonnerat, 8vo. ed., ii. 113-114.
1798.—"The other figure is of a Pandaram or Senassey, of the class of pilgrims to the various pagodas."—Pennant's View of Hindostan, preface.
1800.—"In Chera the Pújáris (see POOJAREE) or priests in these temples are all Pandarums, who are the Súdras dedicated to the service of Siva's temples...."—Buchanan's Mysore, &c., ii. 338.
1809.—"The chief of the pagoda (Rameswaram), or Pandaram, waiting on the beach."—Ld. Valentia, i. 338.
1860.—"In the island of Nainativoe, to the south-west of Jafna, there was till recently a little temple, dedicated to the goddess Naga Tambiran, in which consecrated serpents were tenderly reared by the Pandarams, and daily fed at the expense of the worshippers."—Tennent's Ceylon, i. 373.
PANDARĀNI, n.p. The name of a port of Malabar of great reputation in the Middle Ages, a name which has gone through many curious corruptions. Its position is clear enough from Varthema's statement that an uninhabited island stood opposite at three leagues distance, which must be the "Sacrifice Rock" of our charts. [The Madras Gloss. identifies it with Collam.] The name appears upon no modern map, but it still attaches to a miserable fishing village on the site, in the form Pantalānī (approx. lat. 11° 26′), a little way north of Koilandi. It is seen below in Ibn Batuta's notice that Pandarāni afforded an exceptional shelter to shipping during the S.W. monsoon. This is referred to in an interesting letter to one of the present writers from his friend Col. (now Lt.-Gen.) R. H. Sankey, C.B., R.E., dated Madras, 13th Feby., 1881: "One very extraordinary feature on the coast is the occurrence of mud-banks in from 1 to 6 fathoms of water, which have the effect of breaking both surf and swell to such an extent that ships can run into the patches of water so sheltered at the very height of the monsoon, when the elements are raging, and not only find a perfectly still sea, but are able to land their cargoes.... Possibly the snugness of some of the harbours frequented by the Chinese junks, such as Pandarani, may have been mostly due to banks of this kind? By the way, I suspect your 'Pandarani' was nothing but the roadstead of Coulete (Coulandi or Quelande of our Atlas). The Master Attendant who accompanied me, appears to have a good opinion of it as an anchorage, and as well sheltered." [See Logan, Malabar, i. 72.]
1296.—"In the year (1296) it was prohibited to merchants who traded in fine or costly products with Maparh (Ma'bar or Coromandel), Peï-nan (?) and Fantalaina, three foreign kingdoms, to export any one of them more than the value of 50,000 ting in paper money."—Chinese Annals of the Mongol Dynasty, quoted by Pauthier, Marc Pol, 532.
c. 1300.—"Of the cities on the shore the first is Sindábúr, then Faknúr, then the country of Manjarúr, then the country of Hílí, then the country of (Fandaraina[10])."—Rashíduddín, in Elliot, i. 68.
c. 1321.—"And the forest in which the pepper groweth extendeth for a good 18 days' journey, and in that forest there be two cities, the one whereof is called Flandrina, and the other Cyngilin" (see SHINKALI).—Friar Odoric, in Cathay, &c., 75.
c. 1343.—"From Boddfattan we proceeded to Fandaraina, a great and fine town with gardens and bazars. The Musulmans there occupy three quarters, each having its mosque.... It is at this town that the ships of China pass the winter" (i.e. the S.W. monsoon).—Ibn Batuta, iv. 88. (Compare Roteiro below.)
c. 1442.—"The humble author of this narrative having received his order of dismissal departed from Calicut by sea, after having passed the port of Bendinaneh (read Bandarānah, and see MANGALORE, a) situated on the coast of Melabar, (he) reached the port of Mangalor...."—Abdurrazzāk, in India in XVth Cent., 20.
1498.—"... hum lugar que se chama Pandarany ... por que alii estava bom porto, e que alii nos amarassemos ... e que era costume que os navios que vinham a esta terra pousasem alii por estarem seguros...."—Roteiro de Vasco da Gama, 53.
1503.—"Da poi feceno vela et in vn porto de dicto Re chiamato Fundarane amazorno molta gẽte cõ artelaria et deliberorno andare verso il regno de Cuchin...."—Letter of King Emanuel, p. 5.
c. 1506.—"Questo capitanio si trovò nave 17 de mercadanti Mori in uno porto se chima Panidarami, e combattè con queste le quali se messeno in terra; per modo che questo capitanio mandò tutti li soi copani ben armadi con un baril de polvere per cadaun copano, e mise fuoco dentro dette navi de Mori; e tutte quelle brasolle, con tutte quelle spezierie che erano carghe per la Mecha, e s'intende ch'erano molto ricche...."—Leonardo Ca' Masser, 20-21.
1510.—"Here we remained two days, and then departed, and went to a place which is called Pandarani, distant from this one day's journey, and which is subject to the King of Calicut. This place is a wretched affair, and has no port."—Varthema, 153.
1516.—"Further on, south south-east, is another Moorish place which is called Pandarani, in which also there are many ships."—Barbosa, 152.
In Rowlandson's Translation of the Tohfat-ul-Majāhidīn (Or. Transl. Fund, 1833), the name is habitually misread Fundreeah for Fundaraina.
1536.—"Martim Afonso ... ran along the coast in search of the paraos, the galleys and caravels keeping the sea, and the foists hugging the shore. And one morning they came suddenly on Cunhalemarcar with 25 paraos, which the others had sent to collect rice; and on catching sight of them as they came along the coast towards the Isles of Pandarane, Diogo de Reynoso, who was in advance of our foists, he and his brother ... and Diogo Corvo ... set off to engage the Moors, who were numerous and well armed. And Cunhale, when he knew it was Martim Afonso, laid all pressure on his oars to double the Point of Tiracole...."—Correa, iii. 775.
PANDY, s. The most current colloquial name for the Sepoy mutineer during 1857-58. The surname Pāṇḍē [Skt. Paṇḍita] was a very common one among the high-caste Sepoys of the Bengal army, being the title of a Jōt [got, gotra] or subdivisional branch of the Brahmins of the Upper Provinces, which furnished many men to the ranks. "The first two men hung" (for mutiny) "at Barrackpore were Pandies by caste, hence all sepoys were Pandies, and ever will be so called" (Bourchier, as below). "In the Bengal army before the Mutiny, there was a person employed in the quarter-guard to strike the gong, who was known as the gunta Pandy" (M.-G. Keatinge). Ghanṭā, 'a gong or bell.'
PANGARA, PANGAIA, s. From the quotations, a kind of boat used on the E. coast of Africa. [Pyrard de Laval (i. 53, Hak. Soc.) speaks of a "kind of raft called a panguaye," on which Mr. Gray comments: "As Rivara points out, Pyrard mistakes the use of the word panguaye, or, as the Portuguese write it, pangaio, which was a small sailing canoe.... Rivara says the word is still used in Portuguese India and Africa for a two-masted barge with lateen sails. It is mentioned in Lancaster's Voyages (Hak. Soc. pp. 5, 6, and 26), where it is described as being like a barge with one mat sail of coco-nut leaves. 'The barge is sowed together with the rindes of trees and pinned with wooden pinnes.' See also Alb. Comm. Hak. Soc. iii. p. 60, note; and Dr. Burnell's note to Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. p. 32, where it appears that the word is used as early as 1505, in Dom Manoel's letter."]
1591.—"... divers Pangaras or boates, which are pinned with wooden pinnes, and sowed together with Palmito cordes."—Barker, in Hakluyt, ii. 588.
1598.—"In this fortresse of Sofala the Captaine of Mossambique hath a Factor, and twice or thrice every yere he sendeth certaine boats called Pangaios, which saile along the shore to fetch gold, and bring it to Mossambique. These Pangaios are made of light planks, and sowed together with cords, without any nailes."—Linschoten, ch. 4; [Hak. Soc. i. 32].
1616.—"Each of these bars, of Quilimane, Cumama, and Luabo, allows of the entrance of vessels of 100 tons, viz., galeots and pangaios, loaded with cloth and provisions; and when they enter the river they discharge cargo into other light and very long boats called almadias...."—Bocarro, Decada, 534.
[1766.—"Their larger boats, called panguays, are raised some feet from the sides with reeds and branches of trees, well bound together with small-cord, and afterwards made water-proof, with a kind of bitumen, or resinous substance."—Grose, 2nd ed. ii. 13.]
PANGOLIN, s. This book-name for the Manis is Malay Pangūlang, 'the creature that rolls itself up.' [Scott says: "The Malay word is peng-goling, transcribed also peng-guling; Katingan pengiling. It means 'roller,' or, more literally, 'roll up.' The word is formed from goling, 'roll, wrap,' with the denominative prefix pe-, which takes before g the form peng." Mr. Skeat remarks that the modern Malay form is teng-giling or senggiling, but the latter seems to be used, not for the Manis, but for a kind of centipede which rolls itself up. "The word pangolin, to judge by its form, should be derived from guling, which means to 'roll over and over.' The word pangguling or pengguling in the required sense of Manis, does not exist in standard Malay. The word was either derived from some out-of-the-way dialect, or was due to some misunderstanding on the part of the Europeans who first adopted it." Its use in English begins with Pennant (Synopsis of Quadrupeds, 1771, p. 329). Adam Burt gives a dissection of the animal in Asiat. Res. ii. 353 seqq.] It is the Manis pentedactyla of Linn.; called in Hind. bajrkīt (i.e. Skt. vajra-kiṭa 'adamant reptile'). We have sometimes thought that the Manis might have been the creature which was shown as a gold-digging ant (see Busbeck below); was not this also the creature that Bertrandon de la Brocquière met with in the desert of Gaza? When pursued, "it began to cry like a cat at the approach of a dog. Pierre de la Vaudrei struck it on the back with the point of his sword, but it did no harm, from being covered with scales like a sturgeon." A.D. 1432. (T. Wright's Early Travels in Palestine, p. 290) (Bohn). It is remarkable to find the statement that these ants were found in the possession of the King of Persia recurring in Herodotus and in Busbeck, with an interval of nearly 2000 years! We see that the suggestion of the Manis being the gold-digging ant has been anticipated by Mr. Blakesley in his Herodotus. ["It is now understood that the gold-digging ants were neither, as ancients supposed, an extraordinary kind of real ants, nor, as many learned men have since supposed, large animals mistaken for ants, but Tibetan miners who, like their descendants of the present day, preferred working their mines in winter when the frozen soil stands well and is not likely to trouble them by falling in. The Sanskrit word pipilika denotes both an ant and a particular kind of gold" (McCrindle, Ancient India, its Invasion by Alexander the Great, p. 341 seq.]
PANICALE, s. This is mentioned by Bluteau (vi. 223) as an Indian disease, a swelling of the feet. Câle is here probably the Tamil kāl, 'leg.' [Ānaikkāl is the Tamil name for what is commonly called Cochin Leg.]
PANIKAR, PANYCA, &c., s. Malayāl. paṇikan, 'a fencing-master, a teacher' [Mal. paṇi, 'work,' karan, 'doer']; but at present it more usually means 'an astrologer.'
1553.—"And when (the Naire) comes to the age of 7 years he is obliged to go to the fencing-school, the master of which (whom they call Panical) they regard as a father, on account of the instruction he gives them."—Barros, I. ix. 3.
1554.—"To the panical (in the Factory at Cochin) 300 reis a month, which are for the year 3600 reis."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 24.
1556.—"... aho Rei arma caualleiro ho Panica q̃ ho ensinou."—D. de Goes, Chron. 51.
1583.—"The maisters which teach them, be graduats in the weapons which they teach, and they bee called in their language Panycaes."—Castañeda (by N. L.), f. 36v.
1599.—"L'Archidiacre pour assurer sa personne fit appeller quelques-uns des principaux Maitres d'Armes de sa Nation. On appelle ces Gens-là Panicals.... Ils sont extremement redoutez."—La Croze, 101.
1604.—"The deceased Panical had engaged in his pay many Nayres, with obligation to die for him."—Guerrero, Relacion, 90.
1606.—"Paniquais is the name by which the same Malauares call their masters of fence."—Gouvea, f. 28.
1644.—"To the cost of a Penical and 4 Nayres who serve the factory in the conveyance of the pepper on rafts for the year 12,960 res."—Bocarro, MS. 316.
PANTHAY, PANTHÉ, s. This is the name applied of late years in Burma, and in intelligence coming from the side of Burma, to the Mahommedans of Yunnan, who established a brief independence at Talifu, between 1867 and 1873. The origin of the name is exceedingly obscure. It is not, as Mr. Baber assures us, used or known in Yunnan itself (i.e. by the Chinese). It must be remarked that the usual Burmese name for a Mahommedan is Pathí, and one would have been inclined to suppose Panthé to be a form of the same; as indeed we see that Gen. Fytche has stated it to be (Burma, Past and Present, ii. 297-8). But Sir Arthur Phayre, a high authority, in a note with which he has favoured us, observes: "Panthé, I believe, comes from a Chinese word signifying 'native or indigenous.' It is quite a modern name in Burma, and is applied exclusively to the Chinese Mahommedans who come with caravans from Yunnan. I am not aware that they can be distinguished from other Chinese caravan traders, except that they do not bring hams for sale as the others do. In dress and appearance, as well as in drinking samshu (see SAMSHOO) and gambling, they are like the others. The word Pa-thi again is the old Burmese word for 'Mahommedan.' It is applied to all Mahommedans other than the Chinese Panthé. It is in no way connected with the latter word, but is, I believe, a corruption of Pārsī or Fārsī, i.e. Persian." He adds:—"The Burmese call their own indigenous Mahommedans 'Pathi-Kulà,' and Hindus 'Hindu-Kulà,' when they wish to distinguish between the two" (see KULA). The last suggestion is highly probable, and greatly to be preferred to that of M. Jacquet, who supposed that the word might be taken from Pasei in Sumatra, which was during part of the later Middle Ages a kind of metropolis of Islam, in the Eastern Seas.[11]
We may mention two possible origins for Panthé, as indicating lines for enquiry:—
a. The title Pathí (or Passí, for the former is only the Burmese lisping utterance) is very old. In the remarkable Chinese Account of Camboja, dating from the year 1296, which has been translated by Abel-Rémusat, there is a notice of a sect in Camboja called Pa-sse. The author identifies them in a passing way, with the Tao-sse, but that is a term which Fah-hian also in India uses in a vague way, apparently quite inapplicable to the Chinese sect properly so called. These Pa-sse, the Chinese writer says, "wear a red or white cloth on their heads, like the head-dress of Tartar women, but not so high. They have edifices or towers, monasteries, and temples, but not to be compared for magnitude with those of the Buddhists.... In their temples there are no images ... they are allowed to cover their towers and their buildings with tiles. The Pa-sse never eat with a stranger to their sect, and do not allow themselves to be seen eating; they drink no wine," &c. (Rémusat, Nouv. Mél. As., i. 112). We cannot be quite sure that this applies to Mahommedans, but it is on the whole probable that the name is the same as the Pathi of the Burmese, and has the same application. Now the people from whom the Burmese were likely to adopt a name for the Yunnan Mahommedans are the Shans, belonging to the great Siamese race, who occupy the intermediate country. The question occurs:—Is Panthé a Shan term for Mahommedan? If so, is it not probably only a dialectic variation of the Passe of Camboja, the Pathí of Burma, but entering Burma from a new quarter, and with its identity thus disguised? (Cushing, in his Shan Dict. gives Pasī for Mahommedan. We do not find Panthé). There would be many analogies to such a course of things.
b. We find it stated in Lieut. Garnier's narrative of his great expedition to Yunnan that there is a hybrid Chinese race occupying part of the plain of Tali-fu, who are called Pen-ti (see Garnier, Voy. d'Expl. i. 518). This name again, it has been suggested, may possibly have to do with Panthé. But we find that Pen-ti ('root-soil') is a generic expression used in various parts of S. China for 'aborigines'; it could hardly then have been applied to the Mahommedans.
PANWELL, n.p. This town on the mainland opposite Bombay was in pre-railway times a usual landing-place on the way to Poona, and the English form of the name must have struck many besides ourselves. [Hamilton (Descr. ii. 151) says it stands on the river Pan, whence perhaps the name]. We do not know the correct form; but this one has substantially come down to us from the Portuguese: e.g.
PAPAYA, PAPAW, s. This word seems to be from America like the insipid, not to say nasty, fruit which it denotes (Carica papaya, L.). A quotation below indicates that it came by way of the Philippines and Malacca. [The Malay name, according to Mr. Skeat, is betik, which comes from the same Ar. form as pateca, though papaya and kapaya have been introduced by Europeans.] Though of little esteem, and though the tree's peculiar quality of rendering fresh meat tender which is familiar in the W. Indies, is little known or taken advantage of, the tree is found in gardens and compounds all over India, as far north as Delhi. In the N.W. Provinces it is called by the native gardeners aranḍ-kharbūza, 'castor-oil-tree-melon,' no doubt from the superficial resemblance of its foliage to that of the Palma Christi. According to Moodeen Sheriff it has a Perso-Arabic name 'anbah-i-Hindī; in Canarese it is called P'arangi-haṇṇu or -mara ('Frank or Portuguese fruit, tree'). The name papaya according to Oviedo as quoted by Littré ("Oviedo, t. l. p. 333, Madrid, 1851,"—we cannot find it in Ramusio) was that used in Cuba, whilst the Carib name was ababai.[12] [Mr. J. Platt, referring to his article in 9th Ser. Notes & Queries, iv. 515, writes: "Malay papaya, like the Accra term kpakpa, is a European loan word. The evidence for Carib origin is, firstly, Oviedo's Historia, 1535 (in the ed. of 1851, vol. i. 323): 'Del arbol que en esta isla Española llaman papaya, y en la tierra firme los llaman los Españoles los higos del mastuerço, y en la provincia de Nicaragua llaman a tal arbol olocoton.' Secondly, Breton, Dictionnaire Caraibe, has: 'Ababai, papayer.' Gilij, Saggio, 1782, iii. 146 (quoted in N. & Q., u.s.), says the Otamic word is pappai."] Strange liberties are taken with the spelling. Mr. Robinson (below) calls it popeya; Sir L. Pelly (J.R.G.S. xxxv. 232), poppoi (ὦ πόποι!). Papaya is applied in the Philippines to Europeans who, by long residence, have fallen into native ways and ideas.
1598.—"There is also a fruite that came out of the Spanish Indies, brought from beyond ye Philipinas or Lusons to Malacca, and frõ thence to India, it is called Papaios, and is very like a Mellon ... and will not grow, but alwaies two together, that is male and female ... and when they are diuided and set apart one from the other, then they yield no fruite at all.... This fruite at the first for the strangeness thereof was much esteemed, but now they account not of it."—Linschoten, 97; [Hak. Soc. ii. 35].
c. 1630.—"... Pappaes, Cocoes, and Plantains, all sweet and delicious...."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1665, p. 350.
c. 1635.—
"The Palma Christi and the fair Papaw
Now but a seed (preventing Nature's Law)
In half the circle of the hasty year,
Project a shade, and lovely fruits do wear."
Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.
1658.—"Utraque Pinoguaçu (mas. et fœmina), Mamoeira Lusitanis dicta, vulgò Papay, cujus fructum Mamam vocant a figura, quia mammae instar pendet in arbore ... carne lutea instar melonum, sed sapore ignobiliori...."—Gul. Pisonis ... de Indiae utriusque Re Naturali et Medicâ, Libri xiv. 159-160.
1673.—"Here the flourishing Papaw (in Taste like our Melons, and as big, but growing on a Tree leaf'd like our Fig-tree...."—Fryer, 19.
1705.—"Il y a aussi des ananas, des Papées...."—Luillier, 33.
1764.—
"Thy temples shaded by the tremulous palm,
Or quick papaw, whose top is necklaced round
With numerous rows of particoloured fruit."
Grainger, Sugar Cane, iv.
[1773.—"Paw Paw. This tree rises to 20 feet, sometimes single, at other times it is divided into several bodies."—Ives, 480.]
1878.—"... the rank popeyas clustering beneath their coronal of stately leaves."—Ph. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 50.
PAPUA, n.p. This name, which is now applied generically to the chief race of the island of New Guinea and resembling tribes, and sometimes (improperly) to the great island itself, is a Malay word papuwah, or sometimes puwah-puwah, meaning 'frizzle-haired,' and was applied by the Malays to the people in question.
PARABYKE, s. Burmese pārabeik; the name given to a species of writing book which is commonly used in Burma. It consists of paper made from the bark of a spec. of daphne, which is agglutinated into a kind of pasteboard and blackened with a paste of charcoal. It is then folded, screen-fashion, into a note-book and written on with a steatite pencil. The same mode of writing has long been used in Canara; and from La Loubère we see that it is or was used also in Siam. The Canara books are called kaḍatam, and are described by Col. Wilks under the name of cudduttum, carruttum, or currut (Hist. Sketches, Pref. I. xii.). They appear exactly to resemble the Burmese para-beik, except that the substance blackened is cotton cloth instead of paper. "The writing is similar to that on a slate, and may be in like manner rubbed out and renewed. It is performed by a pencil of the balapum [Can. balapa] or lapis ollaris; and this mode of writing was not only in ancient use for records and public documents, but is still universally employed in Mysoor by merchants and shopkeepers, I have even seen a bond, regularly witnessed, entered in the cudduttum of a merchant, produced and received in evidence.
"This is the word kirret, translated 'palm-leaf' (of course conjecturally) in Mr. Crisp's translation of Tippoo's regulations. The Sultan prohibited its use in recording the public accounts; but altho' liable to be expunged, and affording facility to permanent entries, it is a much more durable material and record than the best writing on the best paper.... It is probable that this is the linen or cotton cloth described by Arrian, from Nearchus, on which the Indians wrote." (Strabo, XV. i. 67.)
PARANGHEE, s. An obstinate chronic disease endemic in Ceylon. It has a superficial resemblance to syphilis; the whole body being covered with ulcers, while the sufferer rapidly declines in strength. It seems to arise from insufficient diet, and to be analogous to the pellagra which causes havoc among the peasants of S. Europe. The word is apparently firinghee, 'European,' or (in S. India) 'Portuguese'; and this would point perhaps to association with syphilis.
PARBUTTY, s. This is a name in parts of the Madras Presidency for a subordinate village officer, a writer under the patel, sometimes the village-crier, &c., also in some places a superintendent or manager. It is a corruption of Telug. and Canarese pārapatti, pārupatti, Mahr. and Konkani, pārpatya, from Skt. pravṛitti, 'employment.' The term frequently occurs in old Port. documents in such forms as perpotim, &c. We presume that the Great Duke (audax omnia perpeti!) has used it in the Anglicised form at the head of this article; for though we cannot find it in his Despatches, Gurwood's Explanation of Indian Terms gives "Parbutty, writer to the Patell." [See below.]
1800.—"In case of failure in the payment of these instalments, the crops are seized, and sold by the Parputty or accomptant of the division."—Buchanan's Mysore, ii. 151-2. The word is elsewhere explained by Buchanan, as "the head person of a Hobly in Mysore." A Hobly [Canarese and Malayāl. hobali] is a sub-division of a talook (i. 270).
[1803.—"Neither has any one a right to compel any of the inhabitants, much less the particular servants of the government, to attend him about the country, as the soubahdar (see SOUBADAR) obliged the parbutty and pateel (see PATEL) to do, running before his horse."—Wellington, Desp. i. 323. (Stanf. Dict.).]
1878.—"The staff of the village officials ... in most places comprises the following members ... the crier (parpoti)...."—Fonseca, Sketch of Goa, 21-22.
PARDAO, s. This was the popular name among the Portuguese of a gold coin from the native mints of Western India, which entered largely into the early currency of Goa, and the name of which afterwards attached to a silver money of their own coinage, of constantly degenerating value.
There could hardly be a better word with which to associate some connected account of the coinage of Portuguese India, as the pardao runs through its whole history, and I give some space to the subject, not with any idea of weaving such a history, but in order to furnish a few connected notes on the subject, and to correct some flagrant errors of writers to whose works I naturally turned for help in such a special matter, with little result except that of being puzzled and misled, and having time occupied in satisfying myself regarding the errors alluded to. The subject is in itself a very difficult one, perplexed as it is by the rarity or inaccessibility of books dealing with it, by the excessive rarity (it would seem) of specimens, by the large use in the Portuguese settlements of a variety of native coins in addition to those from the Goa mint,[14] by the frequent shifting of nomenclature in the higher coins and constant degeneration of value in the coins that retained old names. I welcomed as a hopeful aid the appearance of Dr. Gerson D'Acunha's Contributions to the Study of Indo-Chinese Numismatics. But though these contributions afford some useful facts and references, on the whole, from the rarity with which they give data for the intrinsic value of the gold and silver coins, and from other defects, they seem to me to leave the subject in utter chaos. Nor are the notes which Mr. W. de G. Birch appends, in regard to monetary values, to his translation of Alboquerque, more to be commended. Indeed Dr. D'Acunha, when he goes astray, seems sometimes to have followed Mr. Birch.
The word pardao is a Portuguese (or perhaps an indigenous) corruption of Skt. pratāpa, 'splendour, majesty,' &c., and was no doubt taken, as Dr. D'Acunha says, from the legend on some of the coins to which the name was applied, e.g. that of the Raja of Ikkeri in Canara: Sri Pratāpa krishṇa-rāya.
A little doubt arises at first in determining to what coin the name pardao was originally attached. For in the two earliest occurrences of the word that we can quote—on the one hand Abdurrazzāk, the Envoy of Shāh Rukh, makes the partāb (or pardāo) half of the Varāha ('boar,' so called from the Boar of Vishnu figured on some issues), hūn, or what we call pagoda;—whilst on the other hand, Ludovico Varthema's account seems to identify the pardao with the pagoda itself. And there can be no doubt that it was to the pagoda that the Portuguese, from the beginning of the 16th century, applied the name of pardao d'ouro. The money-tables which can be directly formed from the statements of Abdurrazzāk and Varthema respectively are as follows:[15]
| Abdurrazzak (A.D. 1443). | |
| 3 Jitals (copper) | = 1 Tar (silver). |
| 6 Tars | = 1 Fanam (gold). |
| 10 Fanams | = 1 Partāb. |
| 2 Partābs | = 1 Varāha. |
And the Varāha weighed about 1 Mithḳāl (see MISCALL), equivalent to 2 dīnārs Kopekī.
| Varthema (A.D. 1504-5). | |
| 16 Cas (see CASH) | = 1 Tare (silver). |
| 16 Tare | = 1 Fanam (gold). |
| 20 Fanams | = 1 Pardao. |
The question arises whether the varāha of Abdurrazzāk was the double pagoda, of which there are some examples in the S. Indian coinage, and his partāb therefore the same as Varthema's, i.e. the pagoda itself; or whether his varāha was the pagoda, and his partāb a half-pagoda. The weight which he assigns to the varāha, "about one mithḳāl," a weight which may be taken at 73 grs., does not well suit either one or the other. I find the mean weight of 27 different issues of the (single) hūn or pagoda, given in Prinsep's Tables, to be 43 grs., the maximum being 45 grs. And the fact that both the Envoy's varāha and the Italian traveller's pardao contain 20 fanams is a strong argument for their identity.[16]
In further illustration that the pardao was recognised as a half hūn or pagoda, we quote in a foot-note "the old arithmetical tables in which accounts are still kept" in the south, which Sir Walter Elliot contributed to Mr. E. Thomas's excellent Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi, illustrated, &c.[17]
Moreover, Dr. D'Acunha states that in the "New Conquests," or provinces annexed to Goa only about 100 years ago, "the accounts were kept until lately in sanvoy and nixane pagodas, each of them being divided into 2 pratáps...." &c. (p. 46, note).
As regards the value of the pardao d'ouro, when adopted into the Goa currency by Alboquerque, Dr. D'Acunha tells us that it "was equivalent to 370 reis, or 1s. 6½d.[18] English." Yet he accepts the identity of this pardao d'ouro with the hūn current in Western India, of which the Madras pagoda was till 1818 a living and unchanged representative, a coin which was, at the time of its abolition, the recognised equivalent of 3½ rupees, or 7 shillings. And doubtless this, or a few pence more, was the intrinsic value of the pardao. Dr. D'Acunha in fact has made his calculation from the present value of the (imaginary) rei. Seeing that a milrei is now reckoned equal to a dollar, or 50d., we have a single rei = 1⁄20d., and 370 reis = 1s. 6½d. It seems not to have occurred to the author that the rei might have degenerated in value as well as every other denomination of money with which he has to do, every other in fact of which we can at this moment remember anything, except the pagoda, the Venetian sequin, and the dollar.[19] Yet the fact of this degeneration everywhere stares him in the face. Correa tells us that the cruzado which Alboquerque struck in 1510 was the just equivalent of 420 reis. It was indubitably the same as the cruzado of the mother country, and indeed A. Nunez (1554) gives the same 420 reis as the equivalent of the cruzado d'ouro de Portugal, and that amount also for the Venetian sequin, and for the sultani or Egyptian gold dīnār. Nunez adds that a gold coin of Cambaya, which he calls Madrafaxao (q.v.), was worth 1260 to 1440 reis, according to variations in weight and exchange. We have seen that this must have been the gold-mohr of Muzaffar-Shāh II. of Guzerat (1511-1526), the weight of which we learn from E. Thomas's book.
| From the Venetian sequin (content of pure gold 52.27 grs. value 111d.[20]) the value of the rei at 111⁄420d. will be | 0.264d. |
| From the Muzaffar Shāhi mohr (weight 185 grs. value, if pure gold, 392.52d.) value of rei at 1440 | 0.272d. |
| Mean value of rei in 1513 i.e. more than five times its present value. |
0.268d. |
Dr. D'Acunha himself informs us (p. 56) that at the beginning of the 17th century the Venetian was worth 690 to 720 reis (mean 705 reis), whilst the pagoda was worth 570 to 600 reis (mean 585 reis).
These statements, as we know the intrinsic value of the sequin, and the approximate value of the pagoda, enable us to calculate the value of the rei of about 1600 at ... 0.16d. Values of the milrei given in Milburn's Oriental Commerce, and in Kelly's Cambist, enable us to estimate it for the early years of the last century. We have then the progressive deterioration as follows:
| Value of rei in the beginning of the 16th century | 0.268d. |
| Value of rei in the beginning of the 17th century | 0.16d. |
| Value of rei in the beginning of the 19th century | 0.06 to 0.066d. |
| Value of rei at present | 0.06d. |
Yet Dr. D'Acunha has valued the coins of 1510, estimated in reis, at the rate of 1880. And Mr. Birch has done the same.[21]
The Portuguese themselves do not seem ever to have struck gold pardaos or pagodas. The gold coin of Alboquerque's coinage (1510) was, we have seen, a cruzado (or manuel), and the next coinage in gold was by Garcia de Sá in 1548-9, who issued coins called San Thomé, worth 1000 reis, say about £1, 2s. 4d.; with halves and quarters of the same. Neither, according to D'Acunha, was there silver money of any importance coined at Goa from 1510 to 1550, and the coins then issued were silver San Thomés, called also patacões (see PATACA). Nunez in his Tables (1554) does not mention these by either name, but mentions repeatedly pardaos, which represented 5 silver tangas, or 300 reis, and these D'Acunha speaks of as silver coins. Nunez, as far as I can make out, does not speak of them as coins, but rather implies that in account so many tangas of silver were reckoned as a pardao. Later in the century, however, we learn from Balbi (1580), Barrett[22] (1584), and Linschoten (1583-89), the principal currency of Goa consisted of a silver coin called xerafin (see XERAFINE) and pardao-xerafin, which was worth 5 tangas, each of 60 reis. (So these had been from the beginning, and so they continued, as is usual in such cases. The scale of sub-multiples remains the same, whilst the value of the divisible coin diminishes. Eventually the lower denominations become infinitesimal, like the maravedis and the reis, and either vanish from memory, or survive only as denominations of account). The data, such as they are, allow us to calculate the pardao or xerafin at this time as worth 4s. 2d. to 4s. 6d.
A century later, Fryer's statement of equivalents (1676) enables us to use the stability of the Venetian sequin as a gauge; we then find the tanga gone down to 6d. and the pardao or xerafin to 2s. 6d. Thirty years later Lockyer (1711) tells us that one rupee was reckoned equal to 1½ perdo. Calculating the Surat Rupee, which may have been probably his standard, still by help of the Venetian (p. 262) at about 2s. 3d., the pardao would at this time be worth 1s. 6d. It must have depreciated still further by 1728, when the Goa mint began to strike rupees, with the effigy of Dom João V., and the half-rupee appropriated the denomination of pardao. And the half-rupee, till our own time, has continued to be so styled. I have found no later valuation of the Goa Rupee than that in Prinsep's Tables (Thomas's ed. p. 55), the indications of which, taking the Company's Rupee at 2s., would make it 21d. The pardao therefore would represent a value of 10½d., and there we leave it.
[On this Mr. Whiteway writes: "Should it be intended to add a note to this, I would suggest that the remarks on coinage commencing at page 67 of my Rise of the Portuguese Power in India be examined, as although I have gone to Sir H. Yule for much, some papers are now accessible which he does not appear to have seen. There were two pardaos, the pardao d'ouro and the pardao de tanga, the former of 360 reals, the latter of 300. This is clear from the Foral of Goa of Dec. 18, 1758 (India Office MSS. Conselho Ultramarino), which passage is again quoted in a note to Fasc. 5 of the Archiv. Port. Orient. p. 326. Apparently patecoons were originally coined in value equal to the pardao d'ouro, though I say (p. 71) their value is not recorded. The patecoon was a silver coin, and when it was tampered with, it still remained of the nominal value of the pardao d'ouro, and this was the cause of the outcry and of the injury the people of Goa suffered. There were monies in Goa which I have not shown on p. 69. There was the tanga branca used in revenue accounts (see Nunez, p. 31), nearly but not quite double the ordinary tanga. This money of account was of 4 barganims (see BARGANY) each of 24 bazarucos (see BUDGROOK), that is rather over 111 reals. The whole question of coinage is difficult, because the coins were continually being tampered with. Every ruler, and they were numerous in those days, stamped a piece of metal at his pleasure, and the trader had to calculate its value, unless as a subject of the ruler he was under compulsion."]
c. 1504-5; pubd. 1510.—"I departed from the city of Dabuli aforesaid, and went to another island, which ... is called Goga (Goa) and which pays annually to the King of Decan 19,000 gold ducats, called by them pardai. These pardai are smaller than the seraphim of Cairo, but thicker, and have two devils stamped on one side, and certain letters on the other."—Varthema, pp. 115-116.
" "... his money consists of a pardao, as I have said. He also coins a silver money called tare (see TARA), and others of gold, twenty of which go to a pardao, and are called fanom. And of these small ones of silver, there go sixteen to a fanom...."—Ibid. p. 130.
1510.—"Meanwhile the Governor (Alboquerque) talked with certain of our people who were goldsmiths, and understood the alligation of gold and silver, and also with goldsmiths and money-changers of the country who were well acquainted with that business. There were in the country pardaos of gold, worth in gold 360 reys, and also a money of good silver which they call barganym (see BARGANY) of the value of 2 vintems, and a money of copper which they call bazaruqos (see BUDGROOK), of the value of 2 reis. Now all these the Governor sent to have weighed and assayed. And he caused to be made cruzados of their proper weight of 420 reis, on which he figured on one side the cross of Christ, and on the other a sphere, which was the device of the King Dom Manuel; and he ordered that this cruzado should pass in the place (Goa) for 480 reis, to prevent their being exported ... and he ordered silver money to be struck which was of the value of a bargany; on this money he caused to be figured on one side a Greek Α, and on the other side a sphere, and gave the coin the name of Espera; it was worth 2 vintems; also there were half esperas worth one vintem and he made bazarucos of copper of the weight belonging to that coin, with the A and the sphere; and each bazaruco he divided into 4 coins which they called cepayquas (see SAPECA), and gave the bazarucos the name of leaes. And in changing the cruzado into these smaller coins it was reckoned at 480 reis."—Correa, ii. 76-77.
1516.—"There are current here (in Baticala—see BATCUL) the pardaos, which are a gold coin of the kingdom, and it is worth here 360 reis, and there is another coin of silver, called dama, which is worth 20 reis...."—Barbosa, Lisbon ed. p. 293.
1516.—"There is used in this city (Bisnagar) and throughout the rest of the Kingdom much pepper, which is carried hither from Malabar on oxen and asses; and it is all bought and sold for pardaos, which are made in some places of this Kingdom, and especially in a city called Hora (?), whence they are called horãos."—Barbosa, Lisbon ed. p. 297.
1552.—"Hic Sinam mercatorem indies exspecto, quo cum, propter atroces poenas propositas iis qui advenam sine fide publica introduxerint, Pirdais ducentis transegi, ut me in Cantonem trajiciat."—Scti. Franc. Xaverii Epistt., Pragae, 1667, IV. xiv.
1553.—
"R. Let us mount our horses and take a ride in the country, and as we ride you shall tell me what is the meaning of Nizamoxa (see NIZAMALUCO), as you have frequently mentioned such a person.
"O. I can tell you that at once; it is the name of a King in the Bagalat (read Balagat, Balaghaut), whose father I often attended, and the son also not so often. I received from him from time to time more than 12,000 pardaos; and he offered me an income of 40,000 pardaos if I would pay him a visit of several months every year, but this I did not accept."—Garcia, f. 33v.
1584.—"For the money of Goa there is a kind of money made of lead and tin mingled, being thicke and round, and stamped on the one side with the spheare or globe of the world, and on the other side two arrows and five rounds;[23] and this kind of money is called Basaruchi, and 15 of them make a vinton of naughty money, and 5 vintons make a tanga, and 4 vintenas make a tanga of base money ... and 5 tangas make a seraphine of gold[24] (read 'of silver'), which in marchandize is worth 5 tangas good money: but if one would change them into basaruchies, he may have 5 tangas, and 16 basaruchies, which matter they call cerafaggio, and when the bargain of the pardaw is gold, each pardaw is meant to be 6 tangas good money,[25] but in murchandize, the vse is not to demaund pardawes of gold in Goa, except it be for jewels and horses, for all the rest they take of seraphins of silver, per aduiso.... The ducat of gold is worth 9 tangas and a halfe good money, and yet not stable in price, for that when the ships depart from Goa to Cochin, they pay them at 9 tangas and 3 fourth partes, and 10 tangas, and that is the most that they are worth...."—W. Barret, in Hakl. ii. 410. I retain this for the old English, but I am sorry to say that I find it is a mere translation of the notes of Gasparo Balbi, who was at Goa in 1580. We learn from Balbi that there were at Goa tangas not only of good money worth 75 basarucchi, and of bad money worth 60 basarucchi, but also of another kind of bad money used in buying wood, worth only 50 basarucchi!
1598.—"The principall and commonest money is called Pardaus Xeraphiins, and is silver, but very brasse (read 'base'), and is coyned in Goa. They have Saint Sebastian on the one side, and three or four arrows in a bundle on the other side, which is as much as three Testones, or three hundred Reijs Portingall money, and riseth or falleth little lesse or more, according to the exchange. There is also a kind of money which is called Tangas, not that there is any such coined, but are so named onely in telling, five Tangas is one Pardaw or Xeraphin, badde money, for you must understande that in telling they have two kinds of money, good and badde.... Wherefore when they buy and sell, they bargain for good or badde money," &c.—Linschoten, ch. 35; [Hak. Soc. i. 241, and for another version see XERAPHINE].
" "They have a kind of money called Pagodes which is of Gold, of two or three sortes, and are above 8 tangas in value. They are Indian and Heathenish money, with the feature of a Devill upon them, and therefore they are called Pagodes. There is another kind of gold money, which is called Venetianders; some of Venice, and some of Turkish coine, and are commonly (worth) 2 Pardawe Xeraphins. There is yet another kind of golde called S. Thomas, because Saint Thomas is figured thereon and is worth about 7 and 8 Tangas: There are likewise Rialles of 8 which are brought from Portingall, and are Pardawes de Reales.... They are worth at their first coming out 436 Reyes of Portingall; and after are raysed by exchaunge, as they are sought for when men travell for China.... They use in Goa in their buying and selling a certaine maner of reckoning or telling. There are Pardawes Xeraphins, and these are silver. They name likewise Pardawes of Gold, and those are not in kinde or in coyne, but onely so named in telling and reckoning: for when they buy and sell Pearles, stones, golde, silver and horses, they name but so many Pardawes, and then you must understand that one Pardaw is sixe Tangas: but in other ware, when you make not your bargaine before hand, but plainely name Pardawes, they are Pardawes Xeraphins of 5 Tangas the peece. They use also to say a Pardaw of Lariins (see LARIN), and are five Lariins for every Pardaw...."—Ibid.; [Hak. Soc. i. 187].
This extract is long, but it is the completest picture we know of the Goa currency. We gather from the passage (including a part that we have omitted) that in the latter part of the 16th century there were really no national coins there used intermediate between the basaruccho, worth at this time 0.133d., and the pardao xerafin worth 50d.[26] The vintens and tangas that were nominally interposed were mere names for certain quantities of basaruccos, or rather of reis represented by basaruccos. And our interpretation of the statement about pardaos of gold in a note above is here expressly confirmed.
[1599.—"Perdaw." See under TAEL.]
c. 1620.—"The gold coin, struck by the rāīs of Bijanagar and Tiling, is called hūn and partāb."—Firishta, quoted by Quatremère, in Notices et Exts. xiv. 509.
1643.—"... estant convenu de prix auec luy à sept perdos et demy par mois tant pour mon viure que pour le logis...."—Mocquet, 284.
PARELL, n.p. The name of a northern suburb of Bombay where stands the residence of the Governor. The statement in the Imperial Gazetteer that Mr. W. Hornby (1776) was the first Governor who took up his residence at Parell requires examination, as it appears to have been so occupied in Grose's time. The 2nd edition of Grose, which we use, is dated 1772, but he appears to have left India about 1760. It seems probable that in the following passage Niebuhr speaks of 1763-4, the date of his stay at Bombay, but as the book was not published till 1774, this is not absolutely certain. Evidently Parell was occupied by the Governor long before 1776.
[Mr. Douglas (Bombay and W. India, ii. 7, note) writes: "High up and outside the dining-room, and which was the chapel when Parel belonged to the Jesuits, is a plaque on which is printed:—'Built by Honourable Hornby, 1771.'"]
PARIAH, PARRIAR, &c., s.
a. The name of a low caste of Hindus in Southern India, constituting one of the most numerous castes, if not the most numerous, in the Tamil country. The word in its present shape means properly 'a drummer.' Tamil parai is the large drum, beaten at certain festivals, and the hereditary beaters of it are called (sing.) paraiyan, (pl.) paraiyar. [Dr. Oppert's theory (Orig. Inhabitants, 32 seq.) that the word is a form of Pahaṛiyā, 'a mountaineer' is not probable.] In the city of Madras this caste forms one fifth of the whole population, and from it come (unfortunately) most of the domestics in European service in that part of India. As with other castes low in caste-rank they are also low in habits, frequently eating carrion and other objectionable food, and addicted to drink. From their coming into contact with and under observation of Europeans, more habitually than any similar caste, the name Pariah has come to be regarded as applicable to the whole body of the lowest castes, or even to denote out-castes or people without any caste. But this is hardly a correct use. There are several castes in the Tamil country considered to be lower than the Pariahs, e.g. the caste of shoemakers, and the lowest caste of washermen. And the Pariah deals out the same disparaging treatment to these that he himself receives from higher castes. The Pariahs "constitute a well-defined, distinct, ancient caste, which has 'subdivisions' of its own, its own peculiar usages, its own traditions, and its own jealousy of the encroachments of the castes which are above it and below it. They constitute, perhaps, the most numerous caste in the Tamil country. In the city of Madras they number 21 per cent. of the Hindu people."—Bp. Caldwell, u. i., p. 545. Sir Walter Elliot, however, in the paper referred to further on includes under the term Paraiya all the servile class not recognised by Hindus of caste as belonging to their community.
A very interesting, though not conclusive, discussion of the ethnological position of this class will be found in Bp. Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar (pp. 540-554). That scholar's deduction is, on the whole, that they are probably Dravidians, but he states, and recognises force in, arguments for believing that they may have descended from a race older in the country than the proper Dravidian, and reduced to slavery by the first Dravidians. This last is the view of Sir Walter Elliot, who adduces a variety of interesting facts in its favour, in his paper on the Characteristics of the Population of South India.[27]
Thus, in the celebration of the Festival of the Village Goddess, prevalent all over Southern India, and of which a remarkable account is given in that paper, there occurs a sort of Saturnalia in which the Pariahs are the officiating priests, and there are several other customs which are most easily intelligible on the supposition that the Pariahs are the representatives of the earliest inhabitants and original masters of the soil. In a recent communication from this venerable man he writes: 'My brother (Col. C. Elliot, C.B.) found them at Raipur, to be an important and respectable class of cultivators. The Pariahs have a sacerdotal order amongst themselves.' [The view taken in the Madras Gloss. is that "they are distinctly Dravidian without fusion, as the Hinduized castes are Dravidian with fusion."]
The mistaken use of pariah, as synonymous with out-caste, has spread in English parlance over all India. Thus the lamented Prof. Blochmann, in his School Geography of India: "Outcasts are called pariahs." The name first became generally known in Europe through Sonnerat's Travels (pub. in 1782, and soon after translated into English). In this work the Parias figure as the lowest of castes. The common use of the term is however probably due, in both France and England, to the appearance in the Abbé Raynal's famous Hist. Philosophique des Établissements dans les Indes, formerly read very widely in both countries, and yet more perhaps to its use in Bernardin de St. Pierre's preposterous though once popular tale, La Chaumière Indienne, whence too the misplaced halo of sentiment which reached its acme in the drama of Casimir Delavigne, and which still in some degree adheres to the name. It should be added that Mr. C. P. Brown says expressly: "The word Paria is unknown" (in our sense?) "to all natives, unless as learned from us."
b. See PARIAH-DOG.
1626.—"... The Pareas are of worse esteeme."—(W. Methold, in) Purchas, Pilgrimage 553.
" "... the worst whereof are the abhorred Piriawes ... they are in publike Justice the hateful executioners, and are the basest, most stinking, ill-favored people that I have seene."—Ibid. 998-9.
1648.—"... the servants of the factory even will not touch it (beef) when they put it on the table, nevertheless there is a caste called Pareyaes (they are the most contemned of all, so that if another Gentoo touches them, he is compelled to be dipt in the water) who eat it freely."—Van de Broecke, 82.
1672.—"The Parreas are the basest and vilest race (accustomed to remove dung and all uncleanness, and to eat mice and rats), in a word a contemned and stinking vile people."—Baldaeus (Germ. ed.), 410.
1711.—"The Company allow two or three Peons to attend the Gate, and a Parrear Fellow to keep all clean."—Lockyer, 20.
" "And there ... is such a resort of basket-makers, Scavengers, people that look after the buffaloes, and other Parriars, to drink Toddy, that all the Punch-houses in Madras have not half the noise in them."—Wheeler, ii. 125.
1716.—"A young lad of the Left-hand Caste having done hurt to a Pariah woman of the Right-Hand Caste (big with child), the whole caste got together, and came in a tumultuous manner to demand justice."—Ibid. 230.
1717.—"... Barrier, or a sort of poor people that eat all sort of Flesh and other things, which others deem unclean."—Phillips, Account, &c., 127.
1726.—"As for the separate generations and sorts of people who embrace this religion, there are, according to what some folks say, only 4; but in our opinion they are 5 in number, viz.:
α. The Bramins.
β. The Settreas.
γ. The Weynyas or Veynsyas.
δ. The Sudras.
ε. The Perrias, whom the High-Dutch and Danes call Barriars."—Valentijn, Chorom. 73.
1745.—"Les Parreas ... sont regardés comme gens de la plus vile condition, exclus de tous les honneurs et prérogatives. Jusques-là qu'on ne sçauroit les souffrir, ni dans les Pagodes des Gentils, ni dans les Eglises des Jesuites."—Norbert, i. 71.
1750.—"K. Es ist der Mist von einer Kuh, denselben nehmen die Parreyer-Weiber, machen runde Kuchen daraus, und wenn sie in der Sonne genug getrocken sind, so verkauffen sie dieselbigen (see OOPLAH). Fr. O Wunder! Ist das das Feuerwerk, das ihr hier halt?"—Madras, &c., Halle, p. 14.
1770.—"The fate of these unhappy wretches who are known on the coast of Coromandel by the name of Parias, is the same even in those countries where a foreign dominion has contributed to produce some little change in the ideas of the people."—Raynal, Hist. &c., see ed. 1783, i. 63.
" "The idol is placed in the centre of the building, so that the Parias who are not admitted into the temple may have a sight of it through the gates."—Raynal (tr. 1777), i. p. 57.
1780.—"If you should ask a common cooly, or porter, what cast he is of, he will answer, 'the same as master, pariar-cast.'"—Munro's Narrative, 28-9.
1787.—"... I cannot persuade myself that it is judicious to admit Parias into battalions with men of respectable casts...."—Col. Fullarton's View of English Interests in India, 222.
1791.—"Le masalchi y courut pour allumer un flambeau; mais il revint un peu après, pris d'haleine, criant: 'N'approchez pas d'ici; il y a un Paria!' Aussitôt la troupe effrayée cria: 'Un Paria! Un Paria!' Le docteur, croyant que c'était quelque animal féroce, mit la main sur ses pistolets. 'Qu'est ce qu'un Paria?' demanda-t-il à son porte-flambeau."—B. de St. Pierre, La Chaumière Indienne, 48.
1800.—"The Parriar, and other impure tribes, comprising what are called the Punchum Bundum, would be beaten, were they to attempt joining in a Procession of any of the gods of the Brahmins, or entering any of their temples."—Buchanan's Mysore, i. 20.
c. 1805-6.—"The Dubashes, then all powerful at Madras, threatened loss of cast and absolute destruction to any Brahmin who should dare to unveil the mysteries of their language to a Pariar Frengi. This reproach of Pariar is what we have tamely and strangely submitted to for a long time, when we might with a great facility have assumed the respectable character of Chatriya."—Letter of Leyden, in Morton's Memoir, ed. 1819, p. lxvi.
1809.—"Another great obstacle to the reception of Christianity by the Hindoos, is the admission of the Parias in our Churches...."—Ld. Valentia, i. 246.
1821.—
"Il est sur ce rivage une race flêtrie,
Une race étrangère au sein de sa patrie.
Sans abri protecteur, sans temple hospitalier,
Abominable, impie, horrible au peuple entier.
Les Parias; le jour à regret les éclaire,
La terre sur son sein les porte avec colère.
* * * * *
Eh bien! mais je frémis; tu vas me fuir peut-être;
Je suis un Paria...."
Casimir Delavigne, Le Paria, Acte 1. Sc. 1.
1843.—"The Christian Pariah, whom both sects curse, Does all the good he can and loves his brother."—Forster's Life of Dickens, ii. 31.
1873.—"The Tamilas hire a Pariya (i.e. drummer) to perform the decapitation at their Badra Kâli sacrifices."—Kittel, in Ind. Ant. ii. 170.
1878.—"L'hypothèse la plus vraisemblable, en tout cas la plus heureuse, est celle qui suppose que le nom propre et spécial de cette race [i.e. of the original race inhabiting the Deccan before contact with northern invaders] était le mot 'paria'; ce mot dont l'orthographe correcte est pareiya, derivé de par'ei, 'bruit, tambour,' et à très-bien pu avoir le sens de 'parleur, doué de la parole'"(?)—Hovelacque et Vinson, Études de Linguistique, &c., Paris, 67.
1872.—
"Fifine, ordained from first to last,
In body and in soul
For one life-long debauch,
The Pariah of the north,
The European nautch."
Browning, Fifine at the Fair.
Very good rhyme, but no reason. See under NAUTCH.
The word seems also to have been adopted in Java, e.g.:
1860.—"We Europeans ... often ... stand far behind compared with the poor pariahs."—Max Havelaar, ch. vii.
PARIAH-ARRACK, s. In the 17th and 18th centuries this was a name commonly given to the poisonous native spirit commonly sold to European soldiers and sailors. [See FOOL'S RACK.]
1711.—"The Tobacco, Beetle, and Pariar Arack, on which such great profit arises, are all expended by the Inhabitants."—Lockyer, 13.
1754.—"I should be very glad to have your order to bring the ship up to Calcutta ... as ... the people cannot here have the opportunity of intoxicating and killing themselves with Pariar Arrack."—In Long, 51.
PARIAH-DOG, s. The common ownerless yellow dog, that frequents all inhabited places in the East, is universally so called by Europeans, no doubt from being a low-bred casteless animal; often elliptically 'pariah' only.
1810.—"The nuisance may be kept circling for days, until forcibly removed, or until the pariah dogs swim in, and draw the carcase to the shore."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 261.
1824.—"The other beggar was a Pariah dog, who sneaked down in much bodily fear to our bivouac."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 79.
1875.—"Le Musulman qui va prier à la mosquée, maudit les parias honnis."—Rev. des Deux Mondes, April, 539.
[1883.—"Paraya Dogs are found in every street."—T. V. Row, Man. of Tanjore Dist. 104.]
PARIAH-KITE, s. The commonest Indian kite, Milvus Govinda, Sykes, notable for its great numbers, and its impudence. "They are excessively bold and fearless, often snatching morsels off a dish en route from kitchen to hall, and even, according to Adams, seizing a fragment from a man's very mouth" (Jerdon). Compare quotation under BRAHMINY KITE.
PARSEE, n.p. This name, which distinguishes the descendants of those emigrants of the old Persian stock, who left their native country, and, retaining their Zoroastrian religion, settled in India to avoid Mahommedan persecution, is only the old form of the word for a Persian, viz., Pārsī, which Arabic influences have in more modern times converted into Fārsī. The Portuguese have used both Parseo and Perseo. From the latter some of our old travellers have taken the form Persee; from the former doubtless we got Parsee. It is a curious example of the way in which different accidental mouldings of the same word come to denote entirely different ideas, that Persian, in this form, in Western India, means a Zoroastrian fire-worshipper, whilst Pathi (see PANTHAY), a Burmese corruption of the same word, in Burma means a Mahommedan.
1552.—"In any case he dismissed them with favour and hospitality, showing himself glad of the coming of such personages, and granting them protection for their ships as being (Parseos) Persians of the Kingdom of Ormuz."—Barros, I. viii. 9.
" "... especially after these were induced by the Persian and Guzerati Moors (Mouros, Parseos e Guzarates) to be converted from heathen (Gentios) to the sect of Mahamed."—Ibid. II. vi. i.
[1563.—"There are other herb-sellers (mercadores de boticas) called Coaris, and in the Kingdom of Cambay they call them Esparcis, and we Portuguese call them Jews, but they are not, only Hindus who came from Persia and have their own writing."—Garcia, p. 213.]
1616.—"There is one sect among the Gentiles, which neither burne nor interre their dead (they are called Parcees) who incircle pieces of ground with high stone walls, remote from houses or Road-wayes, and therein lay their Carcasses, wrapped in Sheetes, thus having no other Tombes but the gorges of rauenous Fowles."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1479.
1630.—"Whilst my observation was bestowed on such inquiry, I observed in the town of Surrat, the place where I resided, another Sect called the Persees...."—Lord, Two Forraigne Sects.
1638.—"Outre les Benjans il y a encore vne autre sorte de Payens dans le royaume de Gusuratte, qu'ils appellent Parsis. Ce sont des Perses de Fars, et de Chorasan."—Mandelslo (Paris, 1659), 213.
1648.—"They (the Persians of India, i.e. Parsees) are in general a fast-gripping and avaricious nation (not unlike the Benyans and the Chinese), and very fraudulent in buying and selling."—Van Twist, 48.
1653.—"Les Ottomans appellent gueuure vne secte de Payens, que nous connaissons sous le nom d'adorateurs du feu, les Persans sous celuy d'Atechperés, et les Indous sous celuy de Parsi, terme dont ils se nomment eux-mesmes."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 200.
1672.—"Non tutti ancora de' Gentili sono d'vna medesima fede. Alcuni descendono dalli Persiani, li quali si conoscono dal colore, ed adorano il fuoco.... In Suratte ne trouai molti...."—P. F. Vincenzo Maria, Viaggio, 234.
1673.—"On this side of the Water are people of another Offspring than those we have yet mentioned, these be called Parseys ... these are somewhat white, and I think nastier than the Gentues...."—Fryer, 117.
" "The Parsies, as they are called, are of the old Stock of the Persians, worship the Sun and Adore the Elements; are known only about Surat."—Ibid. p. 197.
1689.—"... the Persies are a Sect very considerable in India...."—Ovington, 370.
1726.—"... to say a word of a certain other sort of Heathen who have spread in the City of Suratte and in its whole territory, and who also maintain themselves in Agra, and in various places of Persia, especially in the Province of Kerman, at Yezd, and in Ispahan. They are commonly called by the Indians Persees or Parsis, but by the Persians Gaurs or Gebbers, and also Atech Peres or adorers of Fire."—Valentijn, iv. (Suratte) 153.
1727.—"The Parsees are numerous about Surat and the adjacent Countries. They are a remnant of the ancient Persians."—A. Hamilton, ch. xiv; [ed. 1744, i. 159].
1877.—"... en se levant, le Parsi, après s'être lavé les mains et la figure avec l'urine du taureau, met sa ceinture en disant: Souverain soit Ormuzd, abattu soit Ahrimān."—Darmesteter, Ormuzd et Ahriman, p. 2.
PARVOE, PURVO, s. The popular name of the writer-caste in Western India, Prabhū or Parbhū, 'lord or chief' (Skt. prabhu), being an honorific title assumed by the caste of Kāyath or Kāyastha, one of the mixt castes which commonly furnished writers. A Bombay term only.
[1567.—See Paibus under CASIS.
[1676-7.—"... the same guards the Purvos yt look after ye Customes for the same charge can receive ye passage boats rent...."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, Home Series, i. 125.
[1773.—"Conucopola (see CONICOPOLY).... At Bombay he is stiled Purvo, and is of the Gentoo religion."—Ives, 49 seq.]
1809.—"The Bramins of this village speak and write English; the young men are mostly parvoes, or writers."—Maria Graham, 11.
1813.—"These writers at Bombay are generally called Purvoes; a faithful diligent class."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 156-157; [2nd ed. i. 100].
1833.—"Every native of India on the Bombay Establishment, who can write English, and is employed in any office, whether he be a Brahman, Goldsmith, Parwary, Portuguese, or of English descent, is styled a Purvoe, from several persons of a caste of Hindoos termed Prubhoe having been among the first employed as English writers at Bombay."—Mackintosh on the Tribe of Ramoosies, p. 77.
PASADOR, s. A marlin-spike. Sea-Hind., from Port. passador.—Roebuck.
PASEI, PACEM, n.p. The name of a Malay State near the N.E. point of Sumatra, at one time predominant in those regions, and reckoned, with Malacca and Majapahit (the capital of the Empire of Java), the three greatest cities of the Archipelago. It is apparently the Basma of Marco Polo, who visited the coast before Islam had gained a footing.
1511.—"Next day we departed with the plunder of the captured vessel, which also we had with us; we took our course forward until we reached another port in the same island Trapobana (Sumatra), which was called Pazze; and anchoring in the said port we found at anchor there several junks and ships from divers parts."—Empoli, p. 53.
1553.—"In the same manner he (Diogo Lopes) was received in the kingdom of Pacem ... and as the King of Pedir had given him a cargo of pepper ... he did not think well to go further ... in case ... they should give news of his coming at Malaca, those two ports of Pedir and Pacem being much frequented by a multitude of ships that go there for cargoes."—Barros, II. iv. 31.
1726.—"Next to this and close to the East-point of Sumatra is the once especially famous city Pasi (or Pacem), which in old times, next to Magapahit and Malakka, was one of the three greatest cities of the East ... but now is only a poor open village with not more than 4 or 500 families, dwelling in poor bamboo cottages."—Valentijn, (v.) Sumatra, 10.
1727.—"And at Pissang, about 10 Leagues to the Westward of Diamond Point, there is a fine deep River, but not frequented, because of the treachery and bloody disposition of the Natives."—A. Hamilton, ii. 125; [ed. 1744].
PĀT, s. A can or pot. Sea-Hind. from English.—Roebuck.
PATACA, PATACOON, s. Ital. patacco; Provenc. patac; Port. pataca and patação; also used in Malayālam. A term, formerly much diffused, for a dollar or piece of eight. Littré connects it with an old French word patard, a kind of coin, "du reste, origine inconnue." But he appears to have overlooked the explanation indicated by Volney (Voyage en Egypte, &c., ch. ix. note) that the name abūṭāḳa (or corruptly bāṭāḳa, see also Dozy & Eng. s.v.) was given by the Arabs to certain coins of this kind with a scutcheon on the reverse, the term meaning 'father of the window, or niche'; the scutcheon being taken for such an object. Similarly, the pillar-dollars are called in modern Egypt abū medfa', 'father of a cannon'; and the Maria Theresa dollar abū ṭēra, 'father of the bird.' But on the Red Sea, where only the coinage of one particular year (or the modern imitation thereof, still struck at Trieste from the old die), is accepted, it is abū nuḳāṭ, 'father of dots,' from certain little points which mark the right issue.
PATCH, s. "Thin pieces of cloth at Madras" (Indian Vocabulary, 1788). Wilson gives patch as a vulgar abbreviation for Telug. pach'chadamu, 'a particular kind of cotton cloth, generally 24 cubits long and 2 broad; two cloths joined together.'
PATCHARÉE, PATCHERRY, PARCHERRY, s. In the Bengal Presidency, before the general construction of 'married quarters' by Government, patcharée was the name applied in European corps to the cottages which used to form the quarters of married soldiers. The origin of the word is obscure, and it has been suggested that it was a corruption of Hind. pichch'hārī, 'the rear,' because these cottages were in rear of the barracks. But we think it most likely that the word was brought, with many other terms peculiar to the British soldier in India, from Madras, and is identical with a term in use there, parcherry or patcherry, which represents the Tam. parash'shēri, paraiççeri, 'a Pariah village,' or rather the quarter or outskirts of a town or village where the Pariahs reside. Mr. Whitworth (s.v. Patcherry) says that "in some native regiments the term denotes the married sepoys' quarters, possibly because Pariah sepoys had their families with them, while the higher castes left them at home." He does not say whether Bombay or Madras sepoys are in question. But in any case what he states confirms the origin ascribed to the Bengal Presidency term Patcharée.
1781.—"Leurs maisons (c.-à-d. des Parias) sont des cahutes où un homme peut à peine entrer, et elles forment de petits villages qu'on appelle Paretcheris."—Sonnerat, ed. 1782, i. 98.
1878.—"During the greater portion of the year extra working gangs of scavengers were kept for the sole purpose of going from Parcherry to Parcherry and cleaning them."—Report of Madras Municipality, p. 24.
c. 1880.—"Experience obtained in Madras some years ago with reconstructed parcherries, and their effect on health, might be imitated possibly with advantage in Calcutta."—Report by Army Sanitary Commission.
PATCHOULI, PATCH-LEAF, also PUTCH and PUTCHA-LEAF, s. In Beng. pachapāt; Deccani Hind. pacholī. The latter are trade names of the dried leaves of a labiate plant allied to mint (Pogostemon patchouly, Pelletier). It is supposed to be a cultivated variety of Pogostemon Heyneanus, Bentham, a native of the Deccan. It is grown in native gardens throughout India, Ceylon, and the Malay Islands, and the dried flowering spikes and leaves of the plant, which are used, are sold in every bazar in Hindustan. The pacha-pāt is used as an ingredient in tobacco for smoking, as hair-scent by women, and especially for stuffing mattresses and laying among clothes as we use lavender. In a fluid form patchouli was introduced into England in 1844, and soon became very fashionable as a perfume.
The origin of the word is a difficulty. The name is alleged in Drury, and in Forbes Watson's Nomenclature to be Bengāli. Littré says the word patchouli is patchey-elley, 'feuille de patchey'; in what language we know not; perhaps it is from Tamil pachcha, 'green,' and êlâ, êlam, an aromatic perfume for the hair. [The Madras Gloss. gives Tamil paççilai, paççai, 'green,' ilai, 'leaf.']
* * * * *
Patch Leaf, 1 Bahar Maunds 7 20 sear."—Fryer, 209.
PATECA, s. This word is used by the Portuguese in India for a water-melon (Citrullus vulgaris, Schrader; Cucurbita Citrullus, L.). It is from the Ar. al-baṭṭikh or al-biṭṭīkh. F. Johnson gives this 'a melon, musk-melon. A pumpkin; a cucurbitaceous plant.' We presume that this is not merely the too common dictionary looseness, for the chaos of cucurbitaceous nomenclature, both vulgar and scientific, is universal (see A. De Candolle, Origine des Plantes cultivées). In Lane's Modern Egyptians (ed. 1837, i. 200) the word butteekh is rendered explicitly 'water-melon.' We have also in Spanish albadeca, which is given by Dozy and Eng. as 'espèce de melon'; and we have French pastèque, which we believe always means a water-melon. De Candolle seems to have no doubt that the water-melon was cultivated in ancient Egypt, and believes it to have been introduced into the Graeco-Roman world about the beginning of our era; whilst Hehn carries it to Persia from India, 'whether at the time of the Arabian or of the Mongol domination, (and then) to Greece, through the medium of the Turks, and to Russia, through that of the Tartar States of Astrakan and Kazan.'
The name pateca, looking to the existence of the same word in Spanish, we should have supposed to have been Portuguese long before the Portuguese establishment in India; yet the whole of what is said by Garcia de Orta is inconsistent with this. In his Colloquio XXXVI. the gist of the dialogue is that his visitor from Europe, Ruano, tells how he had seen what seemed a most beautiful melon, and how Garcia's housekeeper recommended it, but on trying it, it tasted only of mud instead of melon! Garcia then tells him that at Diu, and in the Bālaghāt, &c., he would find excellent melons with the flavour of the melons of Portugal but "those others which the Portuguese here in India call patecas are quite another thing—huge round or oval fruits, with black seeds—not sweet (doce) like the Portugal melons, but bland (suave), most juicy and cooling, excellent in bilious fevers, and congestions of the liver and kidneys, &c." Both name and thing are represented as novelties to Ruano. Garcia tells him also that the Arabs and Persians call it batiec indi, i.e. melon of India (F. Johnson gives 'biṭṭīkh-i-hindī, the citrul'; whilst in Persian hinduwāna is also a word for water-melon) but that the real Indian country name was (calangari Mahr. kālingaṛ, [perhaps that known in the N.W.P. as kalindā, 'a water-melon']). Ruano then refers to the budiecas of Castille of which he had heard, and queries if these were not the same as these Indian patecas, but Garcia says they are quite different. All this is curious as implying that the water-melon was strange to the Portuguese at that time (1563; see Colloquios, f. 141v. seqq.).
[A friend who has Burnell's copy of Garcia De Orta tells me that he finds a note in the writing of the former on bateca: "i.e. the Arabic term. As this is used all over India, water-melons must have been imported by the Mahommedans." I believe it to be a mistake that the word is in use all over India. I do not think the word is ever used in Upper India, nor is it (in that sense) in either Shakespear or Fallon. [Platts gives: A. biṭṭīkh, s.m. The melon (kharbūza); the water-melon, Cucurbita citrullus.] The most common word in the N.W.P. for a water-melon is Pers. tarbūz, whilst the musk-melon is Pers. kharbūza. And these words are so rendered from the Āīn respectively by Blochmann (see his E.T. i. 66, "melons ... water-melons," and the original i. 67, "kharbuza ... tarbuz"). But with the usual chaos already alluded to, we find both these words interpreted in F. Johnson as "water-melon." And according to Hehn the latter is called in the Slav tongues arbuz and in Mod. Greek καρπούσια, the first as well as the last probably from the Turkish ḳārpūz, which has the same meaning, for this hard ḳ is constantly dropt in modern pronunciation.—H. Y.]
We append a valuable note on this from Prof. Robertson-Smith:
"(1) The classical form of the Ar. word is biṭṭīkh. Baṭṭīkh is a widely-spread vulgarism, indeed now, I fancy, universal, for I don't think I ever heard the first syllable pronounced with an i.
"(2) The term, according to the law-books, includes all kinds of melons (Lane); but practically it is applied (certainly at least in Syria and Egypt) almost exclusively to the water-melon, unless it has a limiting adjective. Thus "the wild biṭṭīkh" is the colocynth, and with other adjectives it may be used of very various cucurbitaceous fruits (see examples in Dozy's Suppt.)
"(6) The biblical form is ăbaṭṭīkh (e.g. Numbers xi. 5, where the E.V. has 'melons'). But this is only the 'water-melon'; for in the Mishna it is distinguished from the sweet melon, the latter being named by a mere transcription in Hebrew letters of the Greek μηλοπέπων. Löw justly concludes that the Palestinians (and the Syrians, for their name only differs slightly) got the sweet melon from the Greeks, whilst for the water-melon they have an old and probably true Semitic word. For baṭṭīkh Syriac has paṭṭīkh, indicating that in literary Arabic the a has been changed to i, only to agree with rules of grammar. Thus popular pronunciation seems always to have kept the old form, as popular usage seems always to have used the word mainly in its old specific meaning. The Bible and the Mishna suffice to refute Hehn's view (of the introduction of the water-melon from India). Old Ḳimḥi, in his Miklol, illustrates the Hebrew word by the Spanish budiecas."
c. 1610.—"Toute la campagne est couverte d'arbres fruitiers ... et d'arbres de coton, de quantité de melons et de pateques, qui sont espèce de citrouilles de prodigieuse grosseur...."—Pyrard de Laval, ed. 1679, i. 286; [Hak. Soc. i. 399, and see i. 33].
" A few pages later the word is written Pasteques.—Ibid. 301; [Hak. Soc. i. 417].
[1663.—"Pateques, or water-melons, are in great abundance nearly the whole year round: but those of Delhi are soft, without colour or sweetness. If this fruit be ever found good, it is among the wealthy people, who import the seed and cultivate it with much care and expense."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 250.]
1673.—"From hence (Elephanta) we sailed to the Putachoes, a Garden of Melons (Putacho being a Melon) were there not wild Rats that hinder their growth, and so to Bombaim."—Fryer, 76.
PATEL, POTAIL, s. The headman of a village, having general control of village affairs, and forming the medium of communication with the officers of Government. In Mahr. paṭīl, Hind. paṭel. The most probable etym. seems to be from paṭ, Mahr. 'a roll or register,' Skt.—Hind. paṭṭa. The title is more particularly current in territories that are or have been subject to the Mahrattas, "and appears to be an essentially Maráthi word, being used as a respectful title in addressing one of that nation, or a Súdra in general" (Wilson). The office is hereditary, and is often held under a Government grant. The title is not used in the Gangetic Provinces, but besides its use in Central and W. India it has been commonly employed in S. India, probably as a Hindustani word, though Monigar (see MONEGAR) (Maṇiyakāram), adhikārī (see ADIGAR), &c., are appropriate synonyms in Tamil and Malabar districts.
[1614.—"I perceive that you are troubled with a bad commodity, wherein the desert of Patell and the rest appeareth."—Foster, Letters, ii. 281.]
1804.—"The Patel of Beitculgaum, in the usual style of a Mahratta patel, keeps a band of plunderers for his own profit and advantage. You will inform him that if he does not pay for the horses, bullocks, and articles plundered, he shall be hanged also."—Wellington, March 27.
1809.—"... Pattels, or headmen."—Lord Valentia, i. 415.
1814.—"At the settling of the jummabundee, they pay their proportion of the village assessment to government, and then dispose of their grain, cotton, and fruit, without being accountable to the patell."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 418; [2nd ed. ii. 44].
1819.—"The present system of Police, as far as relates to the villagers may easily be kept up; but I doubt whether it is enough that the village establishment be maintained, and the whole put under the Mamlutdar. The Potail's respectability and influence in the village must be kept up."—Elphinstone, in Life, ii. 81.
1820.—"The Patail holds his office direct of Government, under a written obligation ... which specifies his duties, his rank, and the ceremonies of respect he is entitled to; and his perquisites, and the quantity of freehold land allotted to him as wages."—T. Coats, in Tr. Bo. Lit. Soc. iii. 183.
1823.—"The heads of the family ... have purchased the office of Potail, or headman."—Malcolm, Central India, i. 99.
1826.—"The potail offered me a room in his own house, and I very thankfully accepted it."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1877, p. 241; [ed. 1873, ii. 45].
1851.—"This affected humility was in fact one great means of effecting his elevation. When at Poonah he (Madhajee Sindea) ... instead of arrogating any exalted title, would only suffer himself to be called Pateil...."—Fraser, Mil. Mem. of Skinner, i. 33.
1870.—"The Potail accounted for the revenue collections, receiving the perquisites and percentages, which were the accustomed dues of the office."—Systems of Land Tenure (Cobden Club), 163.
PATNA, n.p. The chief city of Bahar; and the representative of the Palibothra (Pātaliputra) of the Greeks. Hind. Paṭṭana, "the city." [See quotation from D'Anville under ALLAHABAD.]
1616.—"Bengala, a most spacious and fruitful Province, but more properly to be called a kingdom, which hath two very large Provinces within it, Purb (see POORUB) and Patan, the one lying on the east, and the other on the west side of the River Ganges."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 357.
[1650.—"Patna is one of the largest towns in India, on the margin of the Ganges, on its western side, and it is not less than two coss in length."—Tavernier, ed. Ball, i. 121 seq.]
1673.—"Sir William Langham ... is Superintendent over all the Factories on the coast of Coromandel, as far as the Bay of Bengala, and up Huygly River ... viz. Fort St. George, alias Maderas, Pettipolee, Mechlapatan, Gundore, Medapollon, Balasore, Bengala, Huygly, Castle Buzzar, Pattanaw."—Fryer, 38.
1726.—"If you go higher up the Ganges to the N. W. you come to the great and famous trading city of Pattena, capital of the Kingdom of Behar, and the residence of the Vice-roy."—Valentijn, v. 164.
1727.—"Patana is the next Town frequented by Europeans ... for Saltpetre and raw Silk. It produces also so much Opium, that it serves all the Countries in India with that commodity."—A. Hamilton, ii. 21; [ed. 1744].
PATOLA, s. Canarese and Malayāl. paṭṭuda, 'a silk-cloth.' In the fourth quotation it is rather misapplied to the Ceylon dress (see COMBOY).
1522.—"... Patolos of silk, which are cloths made at Cambaya that are highly prized at Malaca."—Correa, Lendas, ii. 2, 714.
1545.—"... homems ... enchachados com patolas de seda."—Pinto, ch. clx. (Cogan, p. 219).
1552.—"They go naked from the waist upwards, and below it they are clothed with silk and cotton which they call patolas."—Castanheda, ii. 78.
[1605.—"Pattala."—Birdwood, Letter Book, 74.]
1614.—"... Patollas...."—Peyton, in Purchas, i. 530.
PATTAMAR, PATIMAR, &c. This word has two senses:
a. A foot-runner, a courier. In this use the word occurs only in the older writers, especially Portuguese.
b. A kind of lateen-rigged ship, with one, two, or three masts, common on the west coast. This sense seems to be comparatively modern. In both senses the word is perhaps the Konkani path-mār, 'a courier.' C. P. Brown, however, says that patta-mar, applied to a vessel, is Malayāl. signifying "goose-wing." Molesworth's Mahr. Dict. gives both patemārī and phatemārī for "a sort of swift-sailing vessel, a pattymar," with the etym. "tidings-bringer." Patta is 'tidings,' but the second part of the word so derived is not clear. Sir. J. M. Campbell, who is very accurate, in the Bo. Gazetteer writes of the vessel as pātimār, though identifying, as we have done, both uses with pathmār, 'courier.' The Moslem, he says, write phatemārī quasi fatḥ-mār, 'snake of victory'(?). [The Madras Gloss. gives Mal. pattamāri, Tam. pāttimār, from patār, Hind. 'tidings' (not in Platts), māri, Mahr. 'carrier.'] According to a note in Notes and Extracts, No. 1 (Madras, 1871), p. 27, under a Ft. St. Geo. Consultation of July 4, 1673, Pattamar is therein used "for a native vessel on the Coromandel Coast, though now confined to the Western Coast." We suspect a misapprehension. For in the following entry we have no doubt that the parenthetical gloss is wrong, and that couriers are meant:
a.—
The word occurs repeatedly in Correa, Lendas, e.g. III. i. 108, 149, &c.
1598.—"... There are others that are called Patamares, which serue onlie for Messengers or Posts, to carie letters from place to place by land in winter-time when men cannot travaile by sea."—Linschoten, 78; [Hak. Soc. i. 260, and see ii. 165].
1606.—"The eight and twentieth, a Pattemar told that the Governor was a friend to us only in shew, wishing the Portugalls in our roome; for we did no good in the Country, but brought Wares which they were forced to buy...."—Roger Hawes, in Purchas, i. 605.
[1616.—"The Patamar (for so in this country they call poor footmen that are letter-bearers)...."—Foster, Letters, iv. 227.]
1666.—"Tranquebar, qui est eloigné de Saint Thomé de cinq journées d'un Courier à pié, qu'on appelle Patamar."—Thevenot, v. 275.
1673.—"After a month's Stay here a Patamar (a Foot Post) from Fort St. George made us sensible of the Dutch being gone from thence to Ceylon."—Fryer, 36.
[1684.—"The Pattamars that went to Codaloor by reason of the deepness of the Rivers were forced to Return...."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. iii. 133.]
1689.—"A Pattamar, i.e. a Foot Messenger, is generally employ'd to carry them (letters) to the remotest Bounds of the Empire."—Ovington, 251.
1705.—"Un Patemare qui est un homme du Pais; c'est ce que nous appellons un exprès...."—Luillier, 43.
1758.—"Yesterday returned a Pattamar or express to our Jew merchant from Aleppo, by the way of the Desert...."—Ives, 297.
c. 1760.—"Between Bombay and Surat there is a constant intercourse preserved, not only by sea ... but by Pattamars, or foot-messengers overland."—Grose, i. 119. This is the last instance we have met of the word in this sense, which is now quite unknown to Englishmen.b.—
[1822.—"About 12 o'clock on the same night they embarked in Paddimars for Cochin."—Wallace, Fifteen Years, 206.]
1834.—A description of the Patamárs, with a plate, is given in Mr. John Edye's paper on Indian coasting vessels, in vol. i. of the R. As. Soc. Journal.
1860.—"Among the vessels at anchor lie the dows (see DHOW) of the Arabs, the petamares of Malabar, and the dhoneys (see DONEY) of Coromandel."—Tennent's Ceylon, ii. 103.
PATTELLO, PATELLEE, s. A large flat-bottomed boat on the Ganges; Hind. paṭelā. [Mr. Grierson gives among the Behar boats "the paṭelī or paṭailī, also called in Sāran katrā, on which the boards forming the sides overlap and are not joined edge to edge," with an illustration (Bihar Peasant Life, 42).]
1685.—"We came to a great Godowne, where ... this Nabob's Son has laid in a vast quantity of Salt, here we found divers great Patellos taking in their lading for Pattana."—Ibid. Jan 6; [Hak. Soc. i. 175].
1860.—"The Putelee (or Kutora), or Baggage-boat of Hindostan, is a very large, flat-bottomed, clinker-built, unwieldy-looking piece of rusticity of probably ... about 35 tons burthen; but occasionally they may be met with double this size."—Colesworthy Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, p. 6.
PAULIST, n.p. The Jesuits were commonly so called in India because their houses in that country were formerly always dedicated to St. Paul, the great Missionary to the Heathen. They have given up this practice since their modern re-establishment in India. They are still called Paolotti in Italy, especially by those who don't like them.
1623.—"I then went to the College of the Jesuit Fathers, the Church of which, like that at Daman, at Bassaim, and at almost all the other cities of the Portuguese in India, is called San Paolo; whence it happens that in India the said Fathers are known more commonly by the name of Paolisti than by that of Jesuits."—P. della Valle, April 27; [iii. 135].
c. 1650.—"The Jesuits at Goa are known by the name of Paulists; by reason that their great Church is dedicated to St. Paul. Nor do they wear Hats, or Corner-Caps, as in Europe, but only a certain Bonnet, resembling the Skull of a Hat without the Brims."—Tavernier, E.T. 77; [ed. Ball, i. 197].
1672.—"There was found in the fortress of Cranganor a handsome convent, and Church of the Paulists, or disciples and followers of Ignatius Loyola...."—Baldaeus, Germ., p. 110. In another passage this author says they were called Paulists because they were first sent to India by Pope Paul III. But this is not the correct reason.
1673.—"St. Paul's was the first Monastery of the Jesuits in Goa, from whence they receive the name Paulistins."—Fryer, 150.
[1710.—See quotation under COBRA DE CAPELLO.]
1760.—"The Jesuits, who are better known in India by the appellation of Paulists, from their head church and convent of St. Paul's in Goa."—Grose, i. 50.
PAUNCHWAY, s. A light kind of boat used on the rivers of Bengal; like a large dingy (q.v.), with a tilted roof of matting or thatch, a mast and four oars. Beng. panśī, and pansoī. [Mr. Grierson (Peasant Life, 43) describes the pansūhī as a boat with a round bottom, but which goes in shallow water, and gives an illustration.]
c. 1760.—"Ponsways, Guard-boats."—Grose (Glossary).
1780.—"The Paunchways are nearly of the same general construction (as budgerows), with this difference, that the greatest breadth is somewhat further aft, and the stern lower."—Hodges, 39-40.
1790.—"Mr. Bridgwater was driven out to sea in a common paunchway, and when every hope forsook him the boat floated into the harbour of Masulipatam."—Calcutta Monthly Review, i. 40.
1823.—"... A panchway, or passage-boat ... was a very characteristic and interesting vessel, large and broad, shaped like a snuffer-dish; a deck fore-and-aft, and the middle covered with a roof of palm-branches...."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 21.
1860.—"... You may suppose that I engage neither pinnace nor bujra (see BUDGEROW), but that comfort and economy are sufficiently obtained by hiring a small bhouliya (see BOLIAH) ... what is more likely at a fine weather season like this, a small native punsóee, which, with a double set of hands, or four oars, is a lighter and much quicker boat."—C. Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, 10 [with an illustration].
PAWL, s. Hind. pāl, [Skt. paṭala, 'a roof']. A small tent with two light poles, and steep sloping sides; no walls, or ridge-pole. I believe the statement 'no ridge-pole,' is erroneous. It is difficult to derive from memory an exact definition of tents, and especially of the difference between pawl and shooldarry. A reference to India failed in getting a reply. The shooldarry is not essentially different from the pawl, but is trimmer, tauter, better closed, and sometimes has two flies. [The names of tents are used in various senses in different parts. The Madras Gloss. defines a paul as "a small tent with two light poles, a ridge-bar, and steep sloping sides; the walls, if any, are very short, often not more than 6 inches high. Sometimes a second ridge above carries a second roof over the first; this makes a common shooting tent." Mr. G. R. Dampier writes: "These terms are, I think, used rather loosely in the N.W.P. Sholdārī generally means a servant's tent, a sort of tente d'abri, with very low sides: the sides are generally not more than a foot high; there are no doors only flaps at one end. Pāl is generally used to denote a sleeping tent for Europeans; the roof slopes on both sides from a longitudinal ridge-pole; the sides are much higher than in the sholdārī, and there is a door at one end; the fly is almost invariably single. The Raoti (see ROWTEE) is incorrectly used in some places to denote a sleeping pāl; it is, properly speaking, I believe, a larger tent, of the same kind, but with doors in the side, not at the end. In some parts I have found they use the word pāl as equivalent to sholdārī and bilṭan (? bell-tent)."]
1793.—"There were not, I believe, more than two small Pauls, or tents, among the whole of the deputation that escorted us from Patna."—Kirkpatrick's Nepaul, p. 118.
[1809.—"The shops which compose the Bazars, are mostly formed of blankets or coarse cloth stretched over a bamboo, or some other stick for a ridge-pole, supported at either end by a forked stick fixed in the ground. These habitations are called pals."—Broughton, Letters, ed. 1892, p. 20.]
1827.—"It would perhaps be worth while to record ... the matériel and personnel of my camp equipment; an humble captain and single man travelling on the most economical principles. One double-poled tent, one routee (see ROWTEE), or small tent, a pâl or servants' tent, 2 elephants, 6 camels, 4 horses, a pony, a buggy, and 24 servants, besides mahouts, serwâns or camel-drivers, and tent pitchers."—Mundy, Journal of a Tour in India, [3rd ed. p. 8]. We may note that this is an absurd exaggeration of any equipment that, even seventy-five years since, would have characterised the march of a "humble captain travelling on economical principles," or any one under the position of a highly-placed civilian. Captain Mundy must have been enormously extravagant.
[1849.—"... we breakfasted merrily under a paul (a tent without walls, just like two cards leaning against each other)."—Mrs. Mackenzie, Life in the Mission, ii. 141.]
PAWN, s. The betel-leaf (q.v.) Hind. pān, from Skt. parṇa, 'a leaf.' It is a North Indian term, and is generally used for the combination of betel, areca-nut, lime, &c., which is politely offered (along with otto of roses) to visitors, and which intimates the termination of the visit. This is more fully termed pawn-sooparie (supārī, [Skt. supriya, 'pleasant,'] is Hind. for areca). "These leaves are not vsed to bee eaten alone, but because of their bitternesse they are eaten with a certaine kind of fruit, which the Malabars and Portugalls call Arecca, the Gusurates and Decanijns Suparijs...." (In Purchas, ii. 1781).
[1623.—"... a plant, whose leaves resemble a Heart, call'd here pan, but in other parts of India, Betle."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 36.]
1673.—"... it is the only Indian entertainment, commonly called Pawn."—Fryer, p. 140.
1809.—"On our departure pawn and roses were presented, but we were spared the attar, which is every way detestable."—Ld. Valentia, i. 101.
PAWNEE, s. Hind. pānī, 'water.' The word is used extensively in Anglo-Indian compound names, such as bilayutee pawnee, 'soda-water,' brandy-pawnee, Khush-bo pawnee (for European scents), &c., &c. An old friend, Gen. J. T. Boileau, R.E. (Bengal), contributes from memory the following Hindi ode to Water, on the Pindaric theme ἄριστον μὲν ὕδωρ, or the Thaletic one ἀρχὴ δε τῶν πάντων ὑδωρ!
"Pānī kūā, pānī tāl;
Pānī āṭā, pānī dāl;
Pānī bāgh, pānī ramnā;
Pānī Gangā, pānī Jumnā;
Pānī haṅstā, pānī rotā;
Pānī jagtā, pānī sotā;
Pānī bāp, pānī mā;
Barā nām Pānī kā!"
"Thou, Water, stor'st our Wells and Tanks,
Thou fillest Gunga's, Jumna's banks;
Thou Water, sendest daily food,
And fruit and flowers and needful wood;
Thou, Water, laugh'st, thou, Water, weepest;
Thou, Water, wak'st, thou, Water, sleepest;
—Father, Mother, in thee blent,—
Hail, O glorious element!"
PAWNEE, KALLA, s. Hind. kālā pānī, i.e. 'Black Water'; the name of dread by which natives of the interior of India designate the Sea, with especial reference to a voyage across it, and to transportation to penal settlements beyond it. "Hindu servants and sepoys used to object to cross the Indus, and called that the kālā pānī. I think they used to assert that they lost caste by crossing it, which might have induced them to call it by the same name as the ocean,—or possibly they believed it to be part of the river that flows round the world, or the country beyond it to be outside the limits of Aryavartta" (Note by Lt.-Col. J. M. Trotter).
PAYEN-GHAUT, n.p. The country on the coast below the Ghauts or passes leading up to the table-land of the Deccan. It was applied usually on the west coast, but the expression Carnatic Payen-ghaut is also pretty frequent, as applied to the low country of Madras on the east side of the Peninsula, from Hind. and Mahr. ghāt, combined with Pers. pāīn, 'below.' [It is generally used as equivalent to Talaghāt, "but some Musalmans seem to draw the distinction that the Pāyīn-ghāt is nearer to the foot of the Ghāts than the Talaghāt" (Le Fanu, Man. of Salem, ii. 338).]
1784.—"Peace and friendship ... between the said Company and the Nabob Tippo Sultan Bahauder, and their friends and allies, particularly including therein the Rajahs of Tanjore and Travencore, who are friends and allies to the English and the Carnatic Payen Ghaut."—Treaty of Mangalore, in Munro's Narr., 252.
1785.—"You write that the European taken prisoner in the Pâyen-ghaut ... being skilled in the mortar practice, you propose converting him to the faith.... It is known (or understood)."—Letters of Tippoo, p. 12.
PAZEND, s. See for meaning of this term s.v. Pahlavi, in connection with Zend. (See also quotation from Maṣ'ūdī under latter.)
PECUL, PIKOL, s. Malay and Javanese pikul, 'a man's load.' It is applied as the Malay name of the Chinese weight of 100 katis (see CATTY), called by the Chinese themselves shih, and = 133⅓lb. avoird. Another authority states that the shih is = 120 kin or katis, whilst the 100 kin weight is called in Chinese tan.
" "And in China anything is sold and bought by cates and picos and taels, provisions as well as all other things."—Ibid. 42.
1613.—"Bantam pepper vngarbled ... was worth here at our comming tenne Tayes the Peccull which is one hundred cattees, making one hundred thirtie pound English subtill."—Saris, in Purchas, i. 369.
[1616.—"The wood we have sold at divers prices from 24 to 28 mas per Picoll."—Foster, Letters, iv. 259.]
PEDIR, n.p. The name of a port and State of the north coast of Sumatra. Barros says that, before the establishment of Malacca, Pedir was the greatest and most famous of the States on that island. It is now a place of no consequence.
1510.—"We took a junk and went towards Sumatra, to a city called Pider.... In this country there grows a great quantity of pepper, and of long pepper which is called Molaga ... in this port there are laden with it every year 18 or 20 ships, all of which go to Cathai."—Varthema, 233.
1511.—"And having anchored before the said Pedir, the Captain General (Alboquerque) sent for me, and told me that I should go ashore to learn the disposition of the people ... and so I went ashore in the evening, the General thus sending me into a country of enemies,—people too whose vessels and goods we had seized, whose fathers, sons, and brothers we had killed;—into a country where even among themselves there is little justice, and treachery in plenty, still more as regards strangers; truly he acted as caring little what became of me!... The answer given me was this: that I should tell the Captain Major General that the city of Pedir had been for a long time noble and great in trade ... that its port was always free for every man to come and go in security ... that they were men and not women, and that they could hold for no friend one who seized the ships visiting their harbours; and that if the General desired the King's friendship let him give back what he had seized, and then his people might come ashore to buy and sell."—Letter of Giov. da Empoli, in Archiv. Stor. Ital. 54.
1516.—"The Moors live in the seaports, and the Gentiles in the interior (of Sumatra). The principal kingdom of the Moors is called Pedir. Much very good pepper grows in it, which is not so strong or so fine as that of Malabar. Much silk is also grown there, but not so good as the silk of China."—Barbosa, 196.
1538.—"Furthermore I told him what course was usually held for the fishing of seed-pearl between Pullo Tiquos and Pullo Quenim, which in time past were carried by the Bataes to Pazem (see PASEI) and Pedir, and exchanged with the Turks of the Straight of Mecqua, and the Ships of Judaa (see JUDEA) for such Merchandise as they brought from Grand Cairo."—Pinto (in Cogan), 25.
1553.—"After the foundation of Malaca, and especially after our entrance to the Indies, the Kingdom of Pacem began to increase, and that of Pedir to wane. And its neighbour of Achem, which was then insignificant, is now the greatest of all, so vast are the vicissitudes in States of which men make so great account."—Barros, iii. v. 1.
1615.—"Articles exhibited against John Oxwicke. That since his being in Peedere 'he did not entreate' anything for Priaman and Tecoe, but only an answer to King James's letter...."—Sainsbury, i. 411.
" "Pedeare."—Ibid. p. 415.
PEEÁDA. See under PEON.
PEENUS, s. Hind. pīnas; a corruption of Eng. pinnace. A name applied to a class of budgerow rigged like a brig or brigantine, on the rivers of Bengal, for European use. Roebuck gives as the marine Hind. for pinnace, p'hineez. [The word has been adopted by natives in N. India as the name for a sort of palankin, such as that used by a bride.]
1784.—"For sale ... a very handsome Pinnace Budgerow."—In Seton-Karr, i. 45.
[1860.—"The Pinnace, the largest and handsomest, is perhaps more frequently a private than a hired boat—the property of the planter or merchant."—C. Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, 4 (with an illustration).]
PEEPUL, s. Hind. pīpal, Skt. pippala, Ficus religiosa, L.; one of the great fig-trees of India, which often occupies a prominent place in a village, or near a temple. The Pīpal has a strong resemblance, in wood and foliage, to some common species of poplar, especially the aspen, and its leaves with their long footstalks quaver like those of that tree. This trembling is popularly attributed to spirits agitating each leaf. And hence probably the name of 'Devil's tree' given to it, according to Rheede (Hort. Mal. i. 48), by Christians in Malabar. It is possible therefore that the name is identical with that of the poplar. Nothing would be more natural than that the Aryan immigrants, on first seeing this Indian tree, should give it the name of the poplar which they had known in more northern latitudes (popul-us, pappel, &c.). Indeed, in Kumāon, a true sp. of poplar (Populus ciliata) is called by the people gar-pipal (qu. ghar, or 'house'-peepul? [or rather perhaps as another name for it is pahāṛī, from gir, giri, 'a mountain']). Dr. Stewart also says of this Populus: "This tree grows to a large size, occasionally reaching 10 feet in girth, and from its leaves resembling those of the pipal ... is frequently called by that name by plainsmen" (Punjab Plants, p. 204). A young peepul was shown to one of the present writers in a garden at Palermo as populo delle Indie. And the recognised name of the peepul in French books appears to be peuplier d'Inde. Col. Tod notices the resemblance (Rajasthan, i. 80), and it appears that Vahl called it Ficus populifolia. (See also Geograph. Magazine, ii. 50). In Balfour's Indian Cyclopaedia it is called by the same name in translation, 'the poplar-leaved Fig-tree.' We adduce these facts the more copiously perhaps because the suggestion of the identity of the names pippala and populus was somewhat scornfully rejected by a very learned scholar. The tree is peculiarly destructive to buildings, as birds drop the seeds in the joints of the masonry, which becomes thus penetrated by the spreading roots of the tree. This is alluded to in a quotation below. "I remember noticing among many Hindus, and especially among Hinduized Sikhs, that they often say Pīpal ko jātā hūṅ ('I am going to the Peepul Tree'), to express 'I am going to say my prayers.'" (Lt.-Col. John Trotter.) (See BO-TREE.)
[c. 1590.—"In this place an arrow struck Sri Kishn and buried itself in a pipal tree on the banks of the Sarsuti."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 246.]
1806.—"Au sortir du village un pipal élève sa tête majestueuse.... Sa nombreuse posterité l'entoure au loin sur la plaine, telle qu'une armée de géans qui entrelacent fraternellement leurs bras informes."—Haafner, i. 149. This writer seems to mean a banyan. The peepul does not drop roots in that fashion.
1817.—"In the second ordeal, an excavation in the ground ... is filled with a fire of pippal wood, into which the party must walk barefoot, proving his guilt if he is burned; his innocence, if he escapes unhurt."—Mill (quoting from Halhed), ed. 1830, i. 280.
1826.—"A little while after this he arose, and went to a Peepul-tree, a short way off, where he appeared busy about something, I could not well make out what."—Pandurang Hari, 26; [ed. 1873, i. 36, reading Peepal].
1836.—"It is not proper to allow the English, after they have made war, and peace has been settled, to remain in the city. They are accustomed to act like the Peepul tree. Let not Younger Brother therefore allow the English to remain in his country."—Letter from Court of China to Court of Ava. See Yule, Mission to Ava, p. 265.
1854.—"Je ne puis passer sous silence deux beaux arbres ... ce sont le peuplier d'Inde à larges feuilles, arbre réputé sacré...."—Pallegoix, Siam, i. 140.
1861.—
"... Yonder crown of umbrage hoar
Shall shield her well; the Peepul whisper a dirge
And Caryota drop her tearlike store
Of beads; whilst over all slim Casuarine
Points upwards, with her branchlets ever green,
To that remaining Rest where Night and Tears are o'er."
Barrackpore Park, 18th Nov. 1861.
PEER, s. Pers. pīr, a Mahommedan Saint or Beatus. But the word is used elliptically for the tombs of such personages, the circumstance pertaining to them which chiefly creates notoriety or fame of sanctity; and it may be remarked that wali (or Wely as it is often written), Imāmzāda, Shaikh, and Marabout (see ADJUTANT), are often used in the same elliptical way in Syria, Persia, Egypt, and Barbary respectively. We may add that Nabī (Prophet) is used in the same fashion.
[1623.—"Within the Mesquita (see MOSQUE) ... is a kind of little Pyramid of Marble, and this they call Pir, that is Old, which they say is equivalent to Holy; I imagine it the Sepulchre of some one of their Sect accounted such."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 69.]
1665.—"On the other side was the Garden and the chambers of the Mullahs, who with great conveniency and delight spend their lives there under the shadow of the miraculous Sanctity of this Pire, which they are not wanting to celebrate: But as I am always very unhappy on such occasions, he did no Miracle that day upon any of the sick."—Bernier, 133; [ed. Constable, 415].
1673.—"Hard by this is a Peor, or Burying place of one of the Prophets, being a goodly monument."—Fryer, 240.
1869.—"Certains pirs sont tellement renommés, qu'ainsi qu'on le verra plus loin, le peuple a donné leurs noms aux mois lunaires où se trouvent placées les fêtes qu'on celèbre en leur honneur."—Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Musulm. p. 18.The following are examples of the parallel use of the words named:
Wali:
Imamzada:
Shaikh:
Nabi:
PEGU, n.p. The name which we give to the Kingdom which formerly existed in the Delta of the Irawadi, to the city which was its capital, and to the British province which occupies its place. The Burmese name is Bagó. This name belongs to the Talaing language, and is popularly alleged to mean 'conquered by stratagem,' to explain which a legend is given; but no doubt this is mere fancy. The form Pegu, as in many other cases of our geographical nomenclature, appears to come through the Malays, who call it Paigū. The first European mention that we know of is in Conti's narrative (c. 1440) where Poggio has Latinized it as Pauco-nia; but Fra Mauro, who probably derived this name, with much other new knowledge, from Conti, has in his great map (c. 1459) the exact Malay form Paigu. Nikitin (c. 1475) has, if we may depend on his translator into English, Pegu, as has Hieronimo di S. Stefano (1499). The Roteiro of Vasco da Gama (1498) has Pegúo, and describes the land as Christian, a mistake arising no doubt from the use of the ambiguous term Kāfir by his Mahommedan informants (see under CAFFER). Varthema (1510) has Pego, and Giov. da Empoli (1514) Pecù; Barbosa (1516) again Paygu; but Pegu is the usual Portuguese form, as in Barros, and so passed to us.
1505.—"Two merchants of Cochin took on them to save two of the ships; one from Pegú with a rich cargo of lac (lacre), benzoin, and musk, and another with a cargo of drugs from Banda, nutmeg, mace, clove, and sandalwood; and they embarked on the ships with their people, leaving to chance their own vessels, which had cargoes of rice, for the value of which the owners of the ships bound themselves."—Correa, i. 611.
1514.—"Then there is Pecù, which is a populous and noble city, abounding in men and in horses, where are the true mines of linoni (? 'di linoni e perfetti rubini,' perhaps should be 'di buoni e perfetti') and perfect rubies, and these in great plenty; and they are fine men, tall and well limbed and stout; as of a race of giants...."—Empoli, 80.
[1516.—"Peigu." (See under BURMA).]
1541.—"Bagou." (See under PEKING.)
1542.—"... and for all the goods which came from any other ports and places, viz. from Peguu to the said Port of Malaqua, from the Island of Çamatra and from within the Straits...."—Titolo of the Fortress and City of Malaqua, in Tombo, p. 105 in Subsidios.
1568.—"Concludo che non è in terra Re di possãza maggiore del Re di Pegù, per ciòche ha sotto di se venti Re di corona."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 394.
1572.—
"Olha o reino Arracão, olha o assento
De Pegú, que já monstros povoaram,
Monstros filhos do feo ajuntamento
D'huma mulher e hum cão, que sos se acharam."
Camões, x. 122.
By Burton:
"Arracan-realm behold, behold the seat
of Pegu peopled by a monster-brood;
monsters that gendered meeting most unmeet
of whelp and woman in the lonely wood...."
PEGU PONIES. These are in Madras sometimes termed elliptically Pegus, as Arab horses are universally termed Arabs. The ponies were much valued, and before the annexation of Pegu commonly imported into India; less commonly since, for the local demand absorbs them.
PEKING, n.p. This name means 'North-Court,' and in its present application dates from the early reigns of the Ming Dynasty in China. When they dethroned the Mongol descendants of Chinghiz and Kublai (1368) they removed the capital from Taitu or Khānbāligh (Cambaluc of Polo) to the great city on the Yangtsze which has since been known as Nan-King or 'South-Court.' But before many years the Mongol capital was rehabilitated as the imperial residence, and became Pe-King accordingly. Its preparation for reoccupation began in 1409. The first English mention that we have met with is that quoted by Sainsbury, in which we have the subjects of more than one allusion in Milton.
1541.—"This City of Pequin ... is so prodigious, and the things therein so remarkable, as I do almost repent me for undertaking to discourse of it.... For one must not imagine it to be, either as the City of Rome, or Constantinople, or Venice, or Paris, or London, or Sevill, or Lisbon.... Nay I will say further, that one must not think it to be like to Grand Cairo in Egypt, Tauris in Persia, Amadaba (Amadabad, Avadavat) in Cambaya, Bisnaga(r) in Narsingaa, Goura (Gouro) in Bengala, Ava in Chalen, Timplan in Calaminham, Martaban (Martavão) and Bagou in Pegu, Guimpel and Tinlau in Siammon, Odia in the Kingdom of Sornau, Passavan and Dema in the Island of Java, Pangor in the Country of the Lequiens (no Lequio), Usangea (Uzãgnè) in the Grand Cauchin, Lancama (Laçame) in Tartary, and Meaco (Mioco) in Jappun ... for I dare well affirm that all those same are not to be compared to the least part of the wonderful City of Pequin...."—Pinto (in Cogan), p. 136 (orig. cap. cvii.).
[c. 1586.—"The King maketh alwayes his abode in the great city Pachin, as much as to say in our language ... the towne of the kingdome."—Reports of China, in Hakl. ii. 546.]
1614.—"Richard Cocks writing from Ferando understands there are great cities in the country of Corea, and between that and the sea mighty bogs, so that no man can travel there; but great waggons have been invented to go upon broad flat wheels, under sail as ships do, in which they transport their goods ... the deceased Emperor of Japan did pretend to have conveyed a great army in these sailing waggons, to assail the Emperor of China in his City of Paquin."—In Sainsbury, i. 343.
166*.—
"from the destined walls
Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can,
And Samarchand by Oxus, Temer's throne,
To Paquin of Sinaean Kings...."
Paradise Lost, xi. 387-390.
PELICAN, s. This word, in its proper application to the Pelicanus onocrotalus, L., is in no respect peculiar to Anglo-India, though we may here observe that the bird is called in Hindi by the poetical name gagan-bheṛ, i.e. 'Sheep of the Sky,' which we have heard natives with their strong propensity to metathesis convert into the equally appropriate Gangā-bheṛī or 'Sheep of the Ganges.' The name may be illustrated by the old term 'Cape-sheep' applied to the albatross.[28] But Pelican is habitually misapplied by the British soldier in India to the bird usually called Adjutant (q.v.). We may remember how Prof. Max Müller, in his Lectures on Language, tells us that the Tahitians show respect to their sovereign by ceasing to employ in common language those words which form part or the whole of his name, and invent new terms to supply their place. "The object was clearly to guard against the name of the sovereign being ever used, even by accident, in ordinary conversation," 2nd ser. 1864, p. 35, [Frazer, Golden Bough, 2nd ed. i. 421 seqq.]. Now, by an analogous process, it is possible that some martinet, holding the office of adjutant, at an early date in the Anglo-Indian history, may have resented the ludicrously appropriate employment of the usual name of the bird, and so may have introduced the entirely inappropriate name of pelican in its place. It is in the recollection of one of the present writers that a worthy northern matron, who with her husband had risen from the ranks in the —th Light Dragoons, on being challenged for speaking of "the pelicans in the barrack-yard," maintained her correctness, conceding only that "some ca'd them paylicans, some ca'd them audjutants."
PENANG, n.p. This is the proper name of the Island adjoining the Peninsula of Malacca (Pulo, properly Pulau, Pinang), which on its cession to the English (1786) was named 'Prince of Wales's Island.' But this official style has again given way to the old name. Pinang in Malay signifies an areca-nut or areca-tree, and, according to Crawfurd, the name was given on account of the island's resemblance in form to the fruit of the tree (vulgo, 'the betel-nut').
PENANG LAWYER, s. The popular name of a handsome and hard (but sometimes brittle) walking-stick, exported from Penang and Singapore. It is the stem of a miniature palm (Licuala acutifida, Griffith). The sticks are prepared by scraping the young stem with glass, so as to remove the epidermis and no more. The sticks are then straightened by fire and polished (Balfour). The name is popularly thought to have originated in a jocular supposition that law-suits in Penang were decided by the lex baculina. But there can be little doubt that it is a corruption of some native term, and pinang liyar, 'wild areca' [or pinang lāyor, "fire-dried areca," which is suggested in N.E.D.], may almost be assumed to be the real name. [Dennys (Descr. Dict. s.v.) says from "Layor, a species of cane furnishing the sticks so named." But this is almost certainly wrong.]
PENGUIN, s. Popular name of several species of birds belonging to the genera Aptenodytes and Spheniscus. We have not been able to ascertain the etymology of this name. It may be from the Port. pingue, 'fat.' See Littré. He quotes Clausius as picturing it, who says they were called a pinguedine. It is surely not that given by Sir Thomas Herbert in proof of the truth of the legend of Madoc's settlement in America; and which is indeed implied 60 years before by the narrator of Drake's voyage; though probably borrowed by Herbert direct from Selden.
1593.—"The pengwin described."—Hawkins, V. to S. Sea, p. 111, Hak. Soc.
1606.—"The Pengwines bee as bigge as our greatest Capons we have in England, they have no winges nor cannot flye ... they bee exceeding fatte, but their flesh is verie ranke...."—Middleton, f. B. 4.
1609.—"Nous trouvâmes beaucoup de Chiẽs de Mer, et Oyseaux qu'on appelle Penguyns, dont l'Escueil en estait quasi couvert."—Houtman, p. 4.
c. 1610.—"... le reste est tout couvert ... d'vne quantité d'Oyseaux nommez pinguy, qui font là leurs oeufs et leurs petits, et il y en a une quantité si prodigieuse qu'on ne sçauroit mettre ... le pied en quelque endroit que ce soit sans toucher."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 73; [Hak. Soc. i. 97, also see i. 16].
1612.—"About the year CIↃ. C.LXX. Madoc brother to David ap Owen, prince of Wales, made this sea voyage (to Florida); and by probability these names of Capo de Briton in Norumbeg, and Pengwin in part of the Northern America, for a white rock, and a white-headed bird, according to the British, were relicks of this discovery."—Selden, Notes on Drayton's Polyolbion, in Works (ed. 1726), iii. col. 1802.
1616.—"The Island called Pen-guin Island, probably so named by some Welshman, in whose Language Pen-guin signifies a white head; and there are many great lazy fowls upon, and about, this Island, with great cole-black bodies, and very white heads, called Penguins."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 334.
1638.—"... that this people (of the Mexican traditions) were Welsh rather than Spaniards or others, the Records of this Voyage writ by many Bardhs and Genealogists confirme it ... made more orthodoxall by Welsh names given there to birds, rivers, rocks, beasts, &c., as ... Pengwyn, refer'd by them to a bird that has a white head...."—Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, &c., p. 360.
Unfortunately for this etymology the head is precisely that part which seems in all species of the bird to be black! But M. Roulin, quoted by Littré, maintains the Welsh (or Breton) etymology, thinking the name was first given to some short-winged sea-bird with a white head, and then transferred to the penguin. And Terry, if to be depended on, supports this view. [So Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict., s.v.): "In that case, it must first have been given to another bird, such as the auk (the puffin is common in Anglesey), since the penguin's head is black."]
1674.—
"So Horses they affirm to be
Mere Engines made by Geometry,
And were invented first from Engins,
As Indian Britons were from Penguins."
Hudibras, Pt. I. Canto ii. 57.
PEON, s. This is a Portuguese word peão (Span. peon); from pé, 'foot,' and meaning a 'footman' (also a pawn at chess), and is not therefore a corruption, as has been alleged, of Hind. piyāda, meaning the same; though the words are, of course ultimately akin in root. It was originally used in the sense of 'a foot-soldier'; thence as 'orderly' or messenger. The word Sepoy was used within our recollection, and perhaps is still, in the same sense in the city of Bombay. The transition of meaning comes out plainly in the quotation from Ives. In the sense of 'orderly,' peon is the word usual in S. India, whilst chuprassy (q.v.) is more common in N. India, though peon is also used there. The word is likewise very generally employed for men on police service (see BURKUNDAUZE). [Mr. Skeat notes that Piyun is used in the Malay States, and Tambi or Tanby at Singapore]. The word had probably become unusual in Portugal by 1600; for Manoel Correa, an early commentator on the Lusiads (d. 1613), thinks it necessary to explain piões by 'gente de pé.'
1510.—"So the Sabayo, putting much trust in this (Rumi), made him captain within the city (Goa), and outside of it put under him a captain of his with two thousand soldiers (piães) from the Balagate...."—Ibid. II. i. 51.
1563.—"The pawn (pião) they call Piada, which is as much as to say a man who travels on foot."—Garcia, f. 37.
1575.—
"O Rey de Badajos era alto Mouro
Con quatro mil cavallos furiosos,
Innumeros piões, darmas e de ouro,
Guarnecidos, guerreiros, e lustrosos."
Camões, iii. 66.
By Burton:
"The King of Badajos was a Moslem bold,
with horse four thousand, fierce and furious knights,
and countless Peons, armed and dight with gold,
whose polisht surface glanceth lustrous light."
1609.—"The first of February the Capitaine departed with fiftie Peons...."—W. Finch, in Purchas, i. 421.
c. 1610.—"Les Pions marchent après le prisonnier, lié avec des cordes qu'ils tiennent."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 11; [Hak. Soc. ii. 17; also i. 428, 440; ii. 16].
[1616.—"This Shawbunder (see SHABUNDER) imperiously by a couple of Pyons commanded him from me."—Foster, Letters, iv. 351.]
c. 1630.—"The first of December, with some Pe-unes (or black Foot-boyes, who can pratle some English) we rode (from Swally) to Surat."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 35. [For "black" the ed. of 1677 reads "olive-coloured," p. 42.]
1666.—"... siete cientos y treinta y tres mil peones."—Faria y Sousa, i. 195.
1673.—"The Town is walled with Mud, and Bulwarks for Watch-Places for the English peons."—Fryer, 29.
" "... Peons or servants to wait on us."—Ibid. 26.
1687.—"Ordered that ten peons be sent along the coast to Pulicat ... and enquire all the way for goods driven ashore."—In Wheeler, i. 179.
1689.—"At this Moors Town, they got a Peun to be their guide to the Mogul's nearest Camp.... These Peuns are some of the Gentous or Rashbouts (see RAJPOOT), who in all places along the Coast, especially in Seaport Towns, make it their business to hire themselves to wait upon Strangers."—Dampier, i. 508.
" "A Peon of mine, named Gemal, walking abroad in the Grass after the Rains, was unfortunately bit on a sudden by one of them" (a snake).—Ovington, 260.
1705.—"... pions qui sont ce que nous appellons ici des Gardes...."—Luillier, 218.
1745.—"Dès le lendemain je fis assembler dans la Forteresse où je demeurois en qualité d'Aumonier, le Chef des Pions, chez qui s'étaient fait les deux mariages."—Norbert, Mém. iii. 129.
1746.—"As the Nabob's behaviour when Madras was attacked by De la Bourdonnais, had caused the English to suspect his assurances of assistance, they had 2,000 Peons in the defence of Cuddalore...."—Orme, i. 81.
c. 1760.—"Peon. One who waits about the house to run on messages; and he commonly carries under his arm a sword, or in his sash a krese, and in his hand a ratan, to keep the rest of the servants in subjection. He also walks before your palanquin, carries chits (q.v.) or notes, and is your bodyguard."—Ives, 50.
1763.—"Europeans distinguish these undisciplined troops by the general name of Peons."—Orme, ed. 1803, i. 80.
1772.—Hadley, writing in Bengal, spells the word pune; but this is evidently phonetic.
c. 1785.—"... Peons, a name for the infantry of the Deckan."—Carraccioli's Life of Clive, iv. 563.
1780-90.—"I sent off annually from Sylhet from 150 to 200 (elephants) divided into 4 distinct flocks.... They were put under charge of the common peon. These people were often absent 18 months. On one occasion my servant Manoo ... after a twelve-months' absence returned ... in appearance most miserable; he unfolded his girdle, and produced a scrap of paper of small dimensions, which proved to be a banker's bill amounting to 3 or 4,000 pounds,—his own pay was 30 shillings a month.... When I left India Manoo was still absent on one of these excursions, but he delivered to my agents as faithful an account of the produce as he would have done to myself...."—Hon. R. Lindsay, in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 77.
1842.—"... he was put under arrest for striking, and throwing into the Indus, an inoffensive Peon, who gave him no provocation, but who was obeying the orders he received from Captain ——. The Major General has heard it said that the supremacy of the British over the native must be maintained in India, and he entirely concurs in that opinion, but it must be maintained by justice."—Gen. Orders, &c., of Sir Ch. Napier, p. 72.
1873.—"Pandurang is by turns a servant to a shopkeeper, a peon, or orderly, a groom to an English officer ... and eventually a pleader before an English Judge in a populous city."—Saturday Review, May 31, p. 728.
PEPPER, s. The original of this word, Skt. pippali, means not the ordinary pepper of commerce ('black pepper') but long pepper, and the Sanskrit name is still so applied in Bengal, where one of the long-pepper plants, which have been classed sometimes in a different genus (Chavica) from the black pepper, was at one time much cultivated. There is still indeed a considerable export of long pepper from Calcutta; and a kindred species grows in the Archipelago. Long pepper is mentioned by Pliny, as well as white and black pepper; the three varieties still known in trade, though with the kind of error that has persisted on such subjects till quite recently, he misapprehends their relation. The proportion of their ancient prices will be found in a quotation below.
The name must have been transferred by foreign traders to black pepper, the staple of export, at an early date, as will be seen from the quotations. Pippalimūla, the root of long pepper, still a stimulant medicine in the native pharmacopoeia, is probably the πεπέρεως ῥίζα of the ancients (Royle, p. 86).
We may say here that Black pepper is the fruit of a perennial climbing shrub, Piper nigrum, L., indigenous in the forests of Malabar and Travancore, and thence introduced into the Malay countries, particularly Sumatra.
White pepper is prepared from the black by removing the dark outer layer of pericarp, thereby depriving it of a part of its pungency. It comes chiefly viâ Singapore from the Dutch settlement of Rhio, but a small quantity of fine quality comes from Tellicherry in Malabar.
Long pepper is derived from two shrubby plants, Piper officinarum, C.D.C., a native of the Archipelago, and Piper longum, L., indigenous in Malabar, Ceylon, E. Bengal, Timor, and the Philippines. Long pepper is the fruit-spike gathered and dried when not quite ripe (Hanbury and Flückiger, Pharmacographia). All these kinds of pepper were, as has been said, known to the ancients.
c. 80-90.—"And there come to these marts great ships, on account of the bulk and quantity of pepper and malabathrum.... The pepper is brought (to market) here, being produced largely only in one district near these marts, that which is called Kottonarikē."—Periplus, § 56.
c. A.D. 100.—"The Pepper-tree (πέπερι δένδρον) is related to grow in India; it is short, and the fruit as it first puts it forth is long, resembling pods; and this long pepper has within it (grains) like small millet, which are what grow to be the perfect (black) pepper. At the proper season it opens and puts forth a cluster bearing the berries such as we know them. But those that are like unripe grapes, which constitute the white pepper, serve the best for eye-remedies, and for antidotes, and for theriacal potencies."—Dioscorides, Mat. Med. ii. 188.
c. 545.—"This is the pepper-tree" (there is a drawing). "Every plant of it is twined round some lofty forest tree, for it is weak and slim like the slender stems of the vine. And every bunch of fruit has a double leaf as a shield; and it is very green, like the green of rue."—Cosmas, Book xi.
c. 870.—"The mariners say every bunch of pepper has over it a leaf that shelters it from the rain. When the rain ceases the leaf turns aside; if rain recommences the leaf again covers the fruit."—Ibn Khurdādba, in Journ. As. 6th ser. tom. v. 284.
1166.—"The trees which bear this fruit are planted in the fields which surround the towns, and every one knows his plantation. The trees are small, and the pepper is originally white, but when they collect it they put it into basons and pour hot water upon it; it is then exposed to the heat of the sun, and dried ... in the course of which process it becomes of a black colour."—Rabbi Benjamin, in Wright, p. 114.
c. 1330.—"L'albore che fa il pepe è fatto come l'elera che nasce su per gli muri. Questo pepe sale su per gli arbori che l'uomini piantano a modo de l'elera, e sale sopra tutti li arbori più alti. Questo pepe fa rami a modo dell'uve; ... e maturo si lo vendemiano a modo de l'uve e poi pongono il pepe al sole a seccare come uve passe, e nulla altra cosa si fa del pepe."—Odoric, in Cathay, App. xlvii.
PERGUNNAH, s. Hind. pargana [Skt. pragaṇ, 'to reckon up'], a subdivision of a 'District' (see ZILLAH).
1535.—"Item, from the three praguanas, viz., Anzor, Cairena, Panchenaa 133,260 fedeas."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 139.
[1614.—"I wrote him to stay in the Pregonas near Agra."—Foster, Letters, ii. 106.]
[1617.—"For that Muckshud had also newly answered he had mist his prigany."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 415.]
1753.—"Masulipatnam ... est capitale de ce qu'on appelle dans l'Inde un Sercar (see SIRCAR), qui comprend plusieurs Perganés, ou districts particuliers."—D'Anville, 132.
1812.—"A certain number of villages with a society thus organised, formed a pergunnah."—Fifth Report, 16.
PERGUNNAHS, THE TWENTY-FOUR, n.p. The official name of the District immediately adjoining and inclosing, though not administratively including, Calcutta. The name is one of a character very ancient in India and the East. It was the original 'Zemindary of Calcutta' granted to the English Company by a 'Subadar's Perwana' in 1757-58. This grant was subsequently confirmed by the Great Mogul as an unconditional and rent-free jagheer (q.v.). The quotation from Sir Richard Phillips' Million of Facts, illustrates the development of 'facts' out of the moral consciousness. The book contains many of equal value. An approximate parallel to this statement would be that London is divided into Seven Dials.
1812.—"The number of convicts confined at the six stations of this division (independent of Zillah Twenty-four pergunnahs), is about 4,000. Of them probably nine-tenths are dacoits."—Fifth Report, 559.
c. 1831.—"Bengal is divided in 24 Pergunnahs, each with its judge and magistrate, registrar, &c."—Sir R. Phillips, Million of Facts, stereot. ed. 1843, 927.
PERI, s. This Persian word for a class of imaginary sprites, rendered familiar in the verses of Moore and Southey, has no blood-relationship with the English Fairy, notwithstanding the exact compliance with Grimm's Law in the change of initial consonant. The Persian word is parī, from par, 'a feather, or wing'; therefore 'the winged one'; [so F. Johnson, Pers. Dict.; but the derivation is very doubtful;] whilst the genealogy of fairy is apparently Ital. fata, French fée, whence féerie ('fay-dom') and thence fairy.
1800.—
"From cluster'd henna, and from orange groves,
That with such perfumes fill the breeze
As Peris to their Sister bear,
When from the summit of some lofty tree
She hangs encaged, the captive of the Dives."
Thalaba, xi. 24.
1817.—
"But nought can charm the luckless Peri;
Her soul is sad—her wings are weary."
Moore, Paradise and the Peri.
PERPET, PERPETUANO, s. The name of a cloth often mentioned in the 17th and first part of the 18th centuries, as an export from England to the East. It appears to have been a light and glossy twilled stuff of wool, [which like another stuff of the same kind called 'Lasting,' took its name from its durability. (See Draper's Dict. s.v.)]. In France it was called perpétuanne or sempiterne, in Ital. perpetuana.
[1617.—"Perpetuano, 1 bale."—Cocks's Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 293.
[1630.—"... Devonshire kersies or perpetuities...."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, i. 4.
[1680.—"Perpetuances."—Ibid. ii. 401.]
1711.—"Goods usually imported (to China) from Europe are Bullion Cloths, Clothrash, Perpetuano's, and Camblets of Scarlet, black, blew, sad and violet Colours, which are of late so lightly set by; that to bear the Dutys, and bring the prime Cost, is as much as can reasonably be hoped for."—Lockyer, 147.
[1717.—"... a Pavilion lined with Imboss'd Perpets."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccclix.]
1754.—"Being requested by the Trustees of the Charity Stock of this place to make an humble application to you for an order that the children upon the Foundation to the number of 12 or 14 may be supplied at the expense of the Honorable Company with a coat of blue Perpets or some ordinary cloth...."—Petition of Revd. R. Mapletoft, in Long, p. 29.
1757.—Among the presents sent to the King of Ava with the mission of Ensign Robert Lester, we find:
"2 Pieces of ordinary Red Broad Cloth.
3 Do. of Pérpetuánoes Popingay."
In Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 203.
PERSAIM, n.p. This is an old form of the name of Bassein (q.v.) in Pegu. It occurs (e.g.) in Milburn, ii. 281.
PERSIMMON, s. This American name is applied to a fruit common in China and Japan, which in a dried state is imported largely from China into Tibet. The tree is the Diospyros kaki, L. fil., a species of the same genus which produces ebony. The word is properly the name of an American fruit and tree of the same genus (D. virginiana), also called date-plum, and, according to the Dictionary of Worcester, belonged to the Indian language of Virginia. [The word became familiar in 1896 as the name of the winner of the Derby.]
PERUMBAUCUM, n.p. A town 14 m. N.W. of Conjevaram, in the district of Madras [Chingleput]. The name is perhaps perum-pākkam, Tam., 'big village.'
PESCARIA, n.p. The coast of Tinnevelly was so called by the Portuguese, from the great pearl 'fishery' there.
1600.—"There are in the Seas of the East three principal mines where they fish pearls.... The third is between the Isle of Ceilon and Cape Comory, and on this account the Coast which runs from the said Cape to the shoals of Ramanancor and Manâr is called, in part, Pescaria...."—Lucena, 80.
[1610.—"Pesqueria." See under CHILAW.]
1615.—"Iam nonnihil de orâ Piscariâ dicamus quae iam inde a promontorio Commorino in Orientem ad usque breuia Ramanancoridis extenditur, quod haud procul inde celeberrimus, maximus, et copiosissimus toto Oriente Margaritarum piscatus instituitur...."—Jarric, Thes. i. 445.
1710.—"The Coast of the Pescaria of the mother of pearl which runs from the Cape of Camorim to the Isle of Manar, for the space of seventy leagues, with a breadth of six inland, was the first debarcation of this second conquest."—Sousa, Orient. Conquist. i. 122.
PESHAWUR, n.p. Peshāwar. This name of what is now the frontier city and garrison of India towards Kābul, is sometimes alleged to have been given by Akbar. But in substance the name is of great antiquity, and all that can be alleged as to Akbar is that he is said to have modified the old name, and that since his time the present form has been in use. A notice of the change is quoted below from Gen. Cunningham; we cannot give the authority on which the statement rests. Peshāwar could hardly be called a frontier town in the time of Akbar, standing as it did according to the administrative division of the Āīn, about the middle of the Sūba of Kābul, which included Kashmīr and all west of it. We do not find that the modern form occurs in the text of the Āīn as published by Prof. Blochmann. In the translation of the Ṭabaḳāt-i-Akbarī of Nizāmu-d-din Ahmad (died 1594-95), in Elliot, we find the name transliterated variously as Pesháwar (v. 448), Parsháwar (293), Parshor (423), Pershor (424). We cannot doubt that the Chinese form Folausha in Fah-hian already expresses the name Parashāwar, or Parshāwar.
c. 630.—"The Kingdom of Kien-to-lo (Gândhâra) extends about 1000 li from E. to W. and 800 li from S. to N. On the East it adjoins the river Sin (Indus). The capital of this country is called Pu-lu-sha-pu-lo (Purashapura).... The towns and villages are almost deserted.... There are about a thousand convents, ruined and abandoned; full of wild plants, and presenting only a melancholy solitude...."—Hwen T'sang, Pèl. Boud. ii. 104-105.
c. 1001.—"On his (Mahmúd's) reaching Purshaur, he pitched his tent outside the city. There he received intelligence of the bold resolve of Jaipál, the enemy of God, and the King of Hind, to offer opposition."—Al-Utbi, in Elliot, ii. 25.
c. 1020.—"The aggregate of these waters forms a large river opposite the city of Parsháwar."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 47. See also 63.
1059.—"The Amír ordered a letter to be despatched to the minister, telling him 'I have determined to go to Hindustán, and pass the winter in Waihind, and Marminára, and Barshúr...."—Baihaki, in Elliot, ii. 150.
c. 1220.—"Farshābūr. The vulgar pronunciation is Barshāwūr. A large tract between Ghazna and Lahor, famous in the history of the Musulman conquest."—Yāḳūt, in Barbier de Maynard, Dict. de la Perse, 418.
1519.—"We held a consultation, in which it was resolved to plunder the country of the Aferîdî Afghâns, as had been proposed by Sultan Bayezîd, to fit up the fort of Pershâwer for the reception of their effects and corn, and to leave a garrison in it."—Baber, 276.
c. 1555.—"We came to the city of Purshawar, and having thus fortunately passed the Kotal we reached the town of Joshāya. On the Kotal we saw rhinoceroses, the size of a small elephant."—Sidi 'Ali, in J. As. Ser. i. tom. ix. 201.
c. 1590.—"Tumān Bagrām, which they call Parshāwar; the spring here is a source of delight. There is in this place a great place of worship which they call Gorkhatri, to which people, especially Jogis, resort from great distances."—Āīn (orig.), i. 592; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 404. In iii. 69, Parasháwar].
1754.—"On the news that Peishor was taken, and that Nadir Shah was preparing to pass the Indus, the Moghol's court, already in great disorder, was struck with terror."—H. of Nadir Shah, in Hanway, ii. 363.
1783.—"The heat of Peshour seemed to me more intense, than that of any country I have visited in the upper parts of India. Other places may be warm; hot winds blowing over tracts of sand may drive us under the shelter of a wetted skreen; but at Peshour, the atmosphere, in the summer solstice, becomes almost inflammable."—G. Forster, ed. 1808, ii. 57.
1863.—"Its present name we owe to Akbar, whose fondness for innovation led him to change the ancient Parashâwara, of which he did not know the meaning, to Peshâwar, or the 'frontier town.' Abul Fazl gives both names."—Cunningham, Arch. Reports, ii. 87. Gladwin does in his translation give both names; but see above.
PESHCUBZ, s. A form of dagger, the blade of which has a straight thick back, while the edge curves inwardly from a broad base to a very sharp point. Pers. pesh-ḳabz, 'fore-grip.' The handle is usually made of shirmāhī, 'the white bone (tooth?) of a large cetacean'; probably morse-tooth, which is repeatedly mentioned in the early English trade with Persia as an article much in demand (e.g. see Sainsbury, ii. 65, 159, 204, 305; iii. 89, 162, 268, 287, &c.). [The peshḳubz appears several times in Mr. Egerton's Catalogue of Indian Arms, and one is illustrated, Pl. xv. No. 760.]
| "Received for sundry jewels, &c. | (Rs.) 7326 | 0 | 0 |
| Ditto for knife, or peshcubz (misprinted pesheolz) |
3500 | 0 | 0." |
| Lord Clive's Accounts, in Long, 497. | |||
PESHCUSH, s. Pers. pesh-kash. Wilson interprets this as literally 'first-fruits.' It is used as an offering or tribute, but with many specific and technical senses which will be found in Wilson, e.g. a fine on appointment, renewal, or investiture; a quit-rent, a payment exacted on lands formerly rent-free, or in substitution for service no longer exacted; sometimes a present to a great man, or (loosely) for the ordinary Government demand on land. Peshcush, in the old English records, is most generally used in the sense of a present to a great man.
1657.—"As to the Piscash for the King of Golcundah, if it be not already done, we do hope with it you may obteyn our liberty to coyne silver Rupees and copper Pice at the Fort, which would be a great accommodation to our Trade. But in this and all other Piscashes be as sparing as you can."—Letter of Court to Ft. St. Geo., in Notes and Exts., No. i. p. 7.
1673.—"Sometimes sending Pishcashes of considerable value."—Fryer, 166.
1675.—"Being informed that Mr. Mohun had sent a Piscash of Persian Wine, Cases of Stronge Water, &c. to ye Great Governour of this Countrey, that is 2d. or 3d. pson in ye kingdome, I went to his house to speake abt. it, when he kept me to dine with him."—Puckle's Diary, MS. in India Office.
[1683.—"Piscash." (See under FIRMAUN.)]
1689.—"But the Pishcushes or Presents expected by the Nabobs and Omrahs retarded our Inlargement for some time notwithstanding."—Ovington, 415.
1754.—"After I have refreshed my army at Delhie, and received the subsidy (Note.—'This is called a Peischcush, or present from an inferior to a superior. The sum agreed for was 20 crores') which must be paid, I will leave you in possession of his dominion."—Hist. of Nadir Shah, in Hanway, ii. 371.
1761.—"I have obtained a promise from his Majesty of his royal confirmation of all your possessions and priviledges, provided you pay him a proper pishcush...."—Major Carnac to the Governor and Council, in Van Sittart, i. 119.
1811.—"By the fixed or regulated sum ... the Sultan ... means the Paishcush, or tribute, which he was bound by former treaties to pay to the Government of Poonah; but which he does not think proper to ... designate by any term denotive of inferiority, which the word Paishcush certainly is."—Kirkpatrick, Note on Tippoo's Letters, p. 9.
PESH-KHĀNA, PESH-KHIDMAT, ss. Pers. 'Fore-service.' The tents and accompanying retinue sent on over-night, during a march, to the new camping ground, to receive the master on his arrival. A great personage among the natives, or among ourselves, has a complete double establishment, one portion of which goes thus every night in advance. [Another term used is peshkhaima Pers. 'advance tents,' as below.]
[1738.—"Peish-khanna is the term given to the royal tents and their appendages in India."—Hanway, iv. 153.
[1862.—"The result of all this uproarious bustle has been the erection of the Sardár's peshkhaima, or advanced tent."—Bellew, Journal of Mission, 409.]
PESHWA, s. from Pers. 'a leader, a guide.' The chief minister of the Mahratta power, who afterwards, supplanting his master, the descendant of Sivaji, became practically the prince of an independent State and chief of the Mahrattas. The Peshwa's power expired with the surrender to Sir John Malcolm of the last Peshwa, Bājī Rāo, in 1817. He lived in wealthy exile, and with a jāgīr under his own jurisdiction, at Bhitūr, near Cawnpoor, till January 1851. His adopted son, and the claimant of his honours and allowances, was the infamous Nānā Sāhib.
Mr C. P. Brown gives a feminine peshwīn: "The princess Gangā Bāī was Peshwīn of Purandhar." (MS. notes).
In the following passage (quandoquidem dormitans) the Great Duke had forgotten that things were changed since he left India, whilst the editor perhaps did not know:
PETERSILLY, s. This is the name by which 'parsley' is generally called in N. India. We have heard it quoted there as an instance of the absurd corruption of English words in the mouths of natives. But this case at least might more justly be quoted as an example of accurate transfer. The word is simply the Dutch term for 'parsley,' viz. petersilie, from the Lat. petroselinum, of which parsley is itself a double corruption through the French persil. In the Arabic of Avicenna the name is given as fatrasiliūn.
PETTAH, s. Tam. pēṭṭai. The extramural suburb of a fortress, or the town attached and adjacent to a fortress. The pettah is itself often separately fortified; the fortress is then its citadel. The Mahratti peṭh is used in like manner; [it is Skt. peṭaka, and the word possibly came to the Tamil through the Mahr.]. The word constantly occurs in the histories of war in Southern India.
1763.—"The pagoda served as a citadel to a large pettah, by which name the people on the Coast of Coromandel call every town contiguous to a fortress."—Orme, ed. 1803, i. 147.
1791.—"... The petta or town (at Bangalore) of great extent to the north of the fort, was surrounded by an indifferent rampart and excellent ditch, with an intermediate berm ... planted with impenetrable and well-grown thorns.... Neither the fort nor the petta had drawbridges."—Wilks, Hist. Sketches, iii. 123.
1803.—"The pettah wall was very lofty, and defended by towers, and had no rampart."—Wellington, ed. 1837, ii. 193.
1809.—"I passed through a country little cultivated ... to Kingeri, which has a small mud-fort in good repair, and a pettah apparently well filled with inhabitants."—Ld. Valentia, i. 412.
1839.—"The English ladies told me this Pettah was 'a horrid place—quite native!' and advised me never to go into it; so I went next day, of course, and found it most curious—really quite native."—Letters from Madras, 289.
PHANSEEGAR, s. See under THUG.
[PHOOLKAREE, s. Hind. phūl-kārī, 'flowered embroidery.' The term applied in N. India to the cotton sheets embroidered in silk by village women, particularly Jats. Each girl is supposed to embroider one of these for her marriage. In recent years a considerable demand has arisen for specimens of this kind of needlework among English ladies, who use them for screens and other decorative purposes. Hence a considerable manufacture has sprung up of which an account will be found in a note by Mrs. F. A. Steel, appended to Mr. H. C. Cookson's Monograph on the Silk Industry of the Punjab (1886-7), and in the Journal of Indian Art, ii. 71 seqq.
[PHOORZA, s. A custom-house; Gujarātī phurjā, from Ar. furẓat 'a notch,' then 'a bight,' 'river-mouth,' 'harbour'; hence 'a tax' or 'custom-duty.'
[1727.—"And the Mogul's Furza or custom-house is at this place (Hughly)."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, ii. 19.
[1772.—"But as they still insisted on their people sitting at the gates on the Phoorzer Coosky ..."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, i. 386, and see 392, "Phoorze Master." Coosky = P.—Mahr. Khushkī, "inland transit-duties."
[1813.—"... idols ... were annually imported to a considerable number at the Baroche Phoorza, when I was custom-master at that settlement."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 334.]
PIAL, s. A raised platform on which people sit, usually under the verandah, or on either side of the door of the house. It is a purely S. Indian word, and partially corresponds to the N. Indian chabūtra (see CHABOOTRA). Wilson conjectures the word to be Telugu, but it is in fact a form of the Portuguese poyo and poyal (Span. poyo), 'a seat or bench.' This is again, according to Diez (i. 326), from the Lat. podium, 'a projecting base, a balcony.' Bluteau explains poyal as 'steps for mounting on horseback' (Scoticè, 'a louping-on stone') [see Dalboquerque, Hak. Soc. ii. 68]. The quotation from Mr. Gover describes the S. Indian thing in full.
1578.—"In the public square at Goa, as it was running furiously along, an infirm man came in its way, and could not escape; but the elephant took him up in his trunk, and without doing him any hurt deposited him on a poyo."—Acosta, Tractado, 432.
1602.—"The natives of this region who are called Iaos, are men so arrogant that they think no others their superiors ... insomuch that if a Iao in passing along the street becomes aware that any one of another nation is on a poyal, or any place above him, if the person does not immediately come down, ... until he is gone by, he will kill him."—Couto, IV. iii. 1. [For numerous instances of this superstition, see Frazer, Golden Bough, 2nd ed. i. 360 seqq.]
1873.—"Built against the front wall of every Hindu house in southern India ... is a bench 3 feet high and as many broad. It extends along the whole frontage, except where the house-door stands.... The posts of the veranda or pandal are fixed in the ground a few feet in front of the bench, enclosing a sort of platform: for the basement of the house is generally 2 or 3 feet above the street level. The raised bench is called the Pyal, and is the lounging-place by day. It also serves in the hot months as a couch for the night.... There the visitor is received; there the bargaining is done; there the beggar plies his trade, and the Yogi (see JOGEE) sounds his conch; there also the members of the household clean their teeth, amusing themselves the while with belches and other frightful noises...."—Pyal Schools in Madras, by E. C. Gover, in Ind. Antiq. ii. 52.
PICAR, s. Hind. paikār, [which again is a corruption of Pers. pā'e-kār, pā'e, 'a foot'], a retail-dealer, an intermediate dealer or broker.
1683.—"Ye said Naylor has always corresponded with Mr. Charnock, having been always his intimate friend; and without question either provides him goods out of the Hon. Comp.'s Warehouse, or connives at the Weavers and Piccars doing of it."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 133.
[1772.—"Pykârs (Dellols (see DELOLL) and Gomastahs) are a chain of agents through whose hands the articles of merchandize pass from the loom of the manufacturer, or the store-house of the cultivator, to the public merchant, or exporter."—Verelst, View of Bengal, Gloss. s.v.]
PICE, s. Hind. paisā, a small copper coin, which under the Anglo-Indian system of currency is ¼ of an anna, 1⁄64 of a rupee, and somewhat less than 3⁄2 of a farthing. Pice is used slangishly for money in general. By Act XXIII. of 1870 (cl. 8) the following copper coins are current:—1. Double Pice or Half-anna. 2. Pice or ¼ anna. 3. Half-pice or ⅛ anna. 4. Pie or 1⁄12 anna. No. 2 is the only one in very common use. As with most other coins, weights, and measures, there used to be pucka pice, and cutcha pice. The distinction was sometimes between the regularly minted copper of the Government and certain amorphous pieces of copper which did duty for small change (e.g. in the N.W. Provinces within memory), or between single and double pice, i.e. ¼ anna-pieces and ½ anna-pieces. [Also see PIE.]
[1614.—"Another coin there is of copper, called a Pize, whereof you have commonly 34 in the mamudo."—Foster, Letters, iii. 11.]
1615.—"Pice, which is a Copper Coyne; twelve Drammes make one Pice. The English Shilling, if weight, will yeeld thirtie three Pice and a halfe."—W. Peyton, in Purchas, i. 530.
1616.—"Brasse money, which they call Pices, whereof three or thereabouts countervail a Peny."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1471.
1648.—"... de Peysen zijn kooper gelt...."—Van Twist, 62.
1653.—"Peça est vne monnoye du Mogol de la valeur de 6 deniers."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 553.
1673.—"Pice, a sort of Copper Money current among the Poorer sort of People ... the Company's Accounts are kept in Book-rate Pice, viz. 32 to the Mam. [i.e. Mamoodee, see GOSBECK], and 80 Pice to the Rupee."—Fryer, 205.
1676.—"The Indians have also a sort of small Copper-money; which is called Pecha.... In my last Travels, a Roupy went at Surat for nine and forty Pecha's."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 22; [ed. Ball, i. 27].
1689.—"Lower than these (pice), bitter-Almonds here (at Surat) pass for Money, about Sixty of which make a Pice."—Ovington, 219.
1726.—"1 Ana makes 1½ stuyvers or 2 peys."—Valentijn, v. 179. [Also see under MOHUR GOLD.]
1768.—"Shall I risk my cavalry, which cost 1000 rupees each horse, against your cannon balls that cost two pice?—No.—I will march your troops until their legs become the size of their bodies."—Hyder Ali, Letter to Col. Wood, in Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 287; [2nd ed. ii. 300].
c. 1816.—"'Here,' said he, 'is four pucker-pice for Mary to spend in the bazar; but I will thank you, Mrs. Browne, not to let her have any fruit....'"—Mrs. Sherwood's Stories, 16, ed. 1863.
PICOTA, s. An additional allowance or percentage, added as a handicap to the weight of goods, which varied with every description,—and which the editor of the Subsidios supposes to have lead to the varieties of bahar (q.v.). Thus at Ormuz the bahar was of 20 farazolas (see FRAZALA), to which was added, as picota, for cloves and mace 3 maunds (of Ormuz), or about 1⁄72 additional; for cinnamon 1⁄20 additional; for benzoin 1⁄5 additional, &c. See the Pesos, &c. of A. Nunes (1554) passim. We have not been able to trace the origin of this term, nor any modern use.
PICOTTAH, s. This is the term applied in S. India to that ancient machine for raising water, which consists of a long lever or yard, pivotted on an upright post, weighted on the short arm and bearing a line and bucket on the long arm. It is the ḍhenklī of Upper India, the shādūf of the Nile, and the old English sweep, swape, or sway-pole. The machine is we believe still used in the Terra Incognita of market-gardens S.E. of London. The name is Portuguese, picota, a marine term now applied to the handle of a ship's pump and post in which it works—a 'pump-brake.' The picota at sea was also used as a pillory, whence the employment of the word as quoted from Correa. The word is given in the Glossary attached to the "Fifth Report" (1812), but with no indication of its source. Fryer (1673, pub. 1698) describes the thing without giving it a name. In the following the word is used in the marine sense:
1782.—"Pour cet effet (arroser les terres) on emploie une machine appellée Picôte. C'est une bascule dressée sur le bord d'un puits ou d'un réservoir d'eaux pluviales, pour en tirer l'eau, et la conduire ensuite où l'on veut."—Sonnerat, Voyage, i. 188.
c. 1790.—"Partout les pakotiés, ou puits à bascule, étoient en mouvement pour fournir l'eau nécessaire aux plantes, et partout on entendoit les jardiniers égayer leurs travaux par des chansons."—Haafner, ii. 217.
1807.—"In one place I saw people employed in watering a rice-field with the Yatam, or Pacota, as it is called by the English."—Buchanan, Journey through Mysore, &c., i. 15. [Here Yatam, is Can. yāta, Tel. ētamu, Mal. ēttam.]
[1871.—
"Aye, e'en picotta-work would gain
By using such bamboos."
Gover, Folk Songs of S. India, 184.]
PIE, s. Hind. pā'ī, the smallest copper coin of the Anglo-Indian currency, being 1⁄12 of an anna, 1⁄192 of a rupee, = about ½ a farthing. This is now the authorised meaning of pie. But pā'ī was originally, it would seem, the fourth part of an anna, and in fact identical with pice (q.v.). It is the H.—Mahr. pā'ī, 'a quarter,' from Skt. pad, pādikā in that sense.
PIECE-GOODS. This, which is now the technical term for Manchester cottons imported into India, was originally applied in trade to the Indian cottons exported to England, a trade which appears to have been deliberately killed by the heavy duties which Lancashire procured to be imposed in its own interest, as in its own interest it has recently procured the abolition of the small import duty on English piece-goods in India.[29] [In 1898 a duty at the rate of 3 per cent. on cotton goods was reimposed.]
Lists of the various kinds of Indian piece-goods will be found in Milburn (i. 44, 45, 46, and ii. 90, 221), and we assemble them below. It is not in our power to explain their peculiarities, except in very few cases, found under their proper heading. [In the present edition these lists have been arranged in alphabetical order. The figures before each indicate that they fall into the following classes: 1. Piece-goods formerly exported from Bombay and Surat; 2. Piece-goods exported from Madras and the Coast; 3. Piece-goods: the kinds imported into Great Britain from Bengal. Some notes and quotations have been added. But it must be understood that the classes of goods now known under these names may or may not exactly represent those made at the time when these lists were prepared. The names printed in capitals are discussed in separate articles.]
1785.—(Resn. of Court of Directors of the E.I.C., 8th October) "... that the Captains and Officers of all ships that shall sail from any part of India, after receiving notice hereof, shall be allowed to bring 8000 pieces of piece-goods and no more ... that 5000 pieces and no more, may consist of white Muslins and Callicoes, stitched or plain, or either of them, of which 5000 pieces only 2000 may consist of any of the following sorts, viz., Alliballies, Alrochs (?), Cossaes, Doreas, Jamdannies, Mulmuls, Nainsooks, Neckcloths, Tanjeebs, and Terrindams, and that 3000 pieces and no more, may consist of coloured piece-goods...." &c., &c.—In Seton-Karr, i. 83.
[Abrawan, P. āb-i-ravān, 'flowing water'; a very fine kind of Dacca muslin. 'Woven air' is the name applied in the Arabian Nights to the Patna gauzes, a term originally used for the produce of the Coan looms (Burton, x. 247.) "The Hindoos amuse us with two stories, as instances of the fineness of this muslin. One, that the Emperor Aurungzebe was angry with his daughter for exposing her skin through her clothes; whereupon the young princess remonstrated in her justification that she had seven jamahs (see JAMMA) or suits on; and another, in the Nabob Allaverdy Khawn's time a weaver was chastised and turned out of the city for his neglect, in not preventing his cow from eating up a piece of abrooan, which he had spread and carelessly left on the grass."—Bolt, Considerations on Affairs of India, 206.]
3. ADATIS.
2. ALLEJAS.
3. Alliballies.—"Alaballee (signifying according to the weavers' interpretation of the word 'very fine') is a muslin of fine texture."—(J. Taylor, Account of the Cotton Manufacture at Dacca, 45). According to this the word is perhaps from Ar. ā'lā, 'superior,' H. bhalā, 'good.'
3. Allibanees.—Perhaps from ā'lā, 'superior,' bānā, 'woof.'
1. Annabatchies.
3. Arrahs.—Perhaps from the place of that name in Shahābād, where, according to Buchanan Hamilton (Eastern India, i. 548) there was a large cloth industry.
3. Aubrahs.
2. Aunneketchies.
3. BAFTAS.
3. BANDANNAS.
1. Bejutapauts.—H. be-jūṭā, 'without join,' pāt, 'a piece.'
1. BETEELAS.
3. Blue cloth.
1. Bombay Stuffs.
1. Brawl.—The N.E.D. describes Brawl as a 'blue and white striped cloth manufactured in India.' In a letter of 1616 (Foster, iv. 306) we have "Lolwee champell and Burral." The editor suggests H. biral, 'open in texture, fine.' But Roquefort (s.v.) gives: "Bure, Burel, grosse étoffe en laine de couleur rousse ou grisâtre, dont s'habillent ordinairement les ramoneurs; cette étoffe est faite de brebis noire et brune, sans aucune autre teinture." And see N.E.D. s.v. Borrel.
3. Byrampauts. (See BEIRAMEE.)
2. Callawapores.
3. Callipatties.—H. Kālī, 'black,' pattī, 'strip.'
3. CAMBAYS.
3. Cambrics.
3. Carpets.
3. Carridaries.
2. Cattaketchies.
1. Chalias. (See under SHALEE.)
3. Charconnaes.—H. chār-khāna, 'chequered.' "The charkana, or chequered muslin, is, as regards manufacture, very similar to the Doorea (see DOREAS below). They differ in the breadth of the stripes, their closeness to each other, and the size of the squares." (Forbes Watson, Textile Man. 78). The same name is now applied to a silk cloth. "The word chārkhāna simply means 'a check,' but the term is applied to certain silk or mixed fabrics containing small checks, usually about 8 or 10 checks in a line to an inch." (Yusuf Ali, Mon. on Silk, 93. Also see Journ. Ind. Art, iii. 6.)
1683.—"20 yards of charkonnas."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 94.
2. Chavonis.
1. Chelloes. (See SHALEE.)
3. Chinechuras.—Probably cloth from Chinsura.
1. CHINTZ, of sorts.
3. Chittabullies.
3. Chowtars.—This is almost certainly not identical with Chudder. In a list of cotton cloths in the Āīn (i. 94) we have chautār, which may mean 'made with four threads or wires.' Chautāhī, 'four-fold,' is a kind of cloth used in the Punjab for counterpanes (Francis, Man. Cotton, 7). This cloth is frequently mentioned in the early letters.
1610.—"Chautares are white and well requested."—Danvers, Letters, i. 75.
1614.—"The Chauters of Agra and fine baftas nyll doth not here vend."—Foster, Letters, ii. 45.
1615.—"Four pieces fine white Cowter."—Ibid. iv. 51.
3. Chuclaes.—This may be H. chaklā, chakrī, which Platts defines as 'a kind of cloth made of silk and cotton.'
3. Chunderbannies.—This is perhaps H. chandra, 'the moon,' bānā, 'woof.'
3. Chundraconaes.—Forbes Watson has: "Chunderkana, second quality muslin for handkerchiefs": "Plain white bleached muslin called Chunderkora." The word is probably chandrakhāna, 'moon checks.'
3. Clouts, common coarse cloth, for which see N.E.D.
3. Coopees.—This is perhaps H. kaupin, kopin, 'the small lungooty worn by Fakirs.'
3. Corahs.—H. korā, 'plain, unbleached, undyed.' What is now known as Kora silk is woven in pieces for waist-cloths (see Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 76).
3. Cossaes.—This perhaps represents Ar. khāṣṣa 'special.' In the Āīn we have khāçah in the list of cotton cloths (i. 94). Mr. Taylor describes it as a muslin of a close fine texture, and identifies it with the fine muslin which, according to the Āīn (ii. 124), was produced at Sonārgāon. The finest kind he says is "jungle-khasu." (Taylor, op. cit. 45.)
3. Cushtaes.—These perhaps take their name from Kushtia, a place of considerable trade in the Nadiya District.
3. Cuttannees. (See COTTON.)
1. Dhooties. (See DHOTY.)
3. Diapers.
3. Dimities.
3. Doreas.—H. ḍoriyā, 'striped cloth,' ḍor, 'thread.' In the list in the Āīn (i. 95), Doriyah appears among cotton stuffs. It is now also made in silk: "The simplest pattern is the stripe; when the stripes are longitudinal the fabric is a doriya.... The doriya was originally a cotton fabric, but it is now manufactured in silk, silk-and-cotton, tasar, and other combinations." (Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 57, 94.)
1683.—"3 pieces Dooreas."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 94.
3. DOSOOTIES.
3. DUNGAREES.
3. Dysucksoys.
3. Elatches.—Platts gives H. Ilāchā, 'a kind of cloth woven of silk and thread so as to present the appearance of cardamoms (ilāchī).' But it is almost certainly identical with alleja. It was probably introduced to Agra, where now alone it is made, by the Moghuls. It differs from doriya (see DOREAS above) in having a substantial texture, whereas the doriya is generally flimsy. (Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 95.)
3. Emmerties.—This is H. amratī, imratī, 'sweet as nectar.'
2. GINGHAMS.
2. Gudeloor (dimities).—There is a place of the name in the Neilgherry District, but it does not seem to have any cloth manufacture.
1. GUINEA STUFFS.
3. Gurrahs.—This is probably the H. gārhā: "unbleached fabrics which under names varying in different localities, constitute a large proportion of the clothing of the poor. They are used also for packing goods, and as a covering for the dead, for which last purpose a large quantity is employed both by Hindoos and Mahomedans. These fabrics in Bengal pass under the name of garrha and guzee." (Forbes Watson, op. cit. 83.)
3. Habassies.—Probably P. 'abbāsī, used of cloths dyed in a sort of magenta colour. The recipe is given by Hadi, Mon. on Dyeing in the N.W.P. p. 16.
3. Herba Taffeties.—These are cloths made of Grass-cloth.
3. Humhums, from Ar. ḥammām, 'a Turkish bath' "(apparently so named from its having been originally used at the bath), is a cloth of a thick stout texture, and generally worn as a wrapper in the cold season." (Taylor, op. cit. 63.)
2. Izarees.—P. izār, 'drawers, trousers.' Watson (op. cit. 57, note) says that in some places it is peculiar to men, the women's drawers being Turwar. Herklots (Qanoon-e-Islam, App. xiv.) gives eezar as equivalent to shulwaur, like the pyjamma, but not so wide.
3. Jamdannies.—P.-H. jāmdānī, which is said to be properly jāmahdānī, 'a box for holding a suit.' The jāmdānī is a loom-figured muslin, which Taylor (op. cit. 48) calls "the most expensive productions of the Dacca looms."
3. Jamwars. H. jāmawār, 'sufficient for a dress.' It is not easy to say what stuff is intended by this name. In the Āīn (ii. 240) we have jamahwār, mentioned among Guzerat stuffs worked in gold thread, and again (i. 95) jāmahwār Parmnarm among woollen stuffs. Forbes Watson gives among Kashmīr shawls: "Jamewars, or striped shawl pieces"; in the Punjab they are of a striped pattern made both in pashm and wool (Johnstone, Mon. on Wool, 9), and Mr. Kipling says, "the stripes are broad, of alternate colours, red and blue, &c." (Mukharji, Art Manufactures of India, 374.)
3. Kincha cloth.
3. Kissorsoys.
3. Laccowries.
1. Lemmannees.
3. LONG CLOTHS.
3. LOONGHEES, HERBA. (See GRASS-CLOTH.)
1. LOONGHEE, MAGHRUB. Ar. maghrib, maghrab, 'the west.'
3. Mamoodeatis.
3. Mammoodies. Platts gives Maḥmūdī, 'praised, fine muslin.' The Āīn (i. 94) classes the Maḥmūdī among cotton cloths, and at a low price. A cloth under this name is made at Shāhābād in the Hardoi District. (Oudh Gazetteer, ii. 25.)
2. Monepore cloths. (See MUNNEPORE.)
2. Moorees.—"Moories are blue cloths, principally manufactured in the districts of Nellore and at Canatur in the Chingleput collectorate of Madras.... They are largely exported to the Straits of Malacca." (Balfour, Cycl. ii. 982.)
1684-5.—"Moorees superfine, 1000 pieces."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. iv. 41.
3. Muggadooties. (See MOONGA.)
3. MULMULS.
3. Mushrues.—P. mashrū', 'lawful.' It is usually applied to a kind of silk or satin with a cotton back. "Pure silk is not allowed to men, but women may wear the most sumptuous silk fabrics" (Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 90, seq.). "All Mushroos wash well, especially the finer kinds, used for bodices, petticoats, and trousers of both sexes." (Forbes Watson, op. cit. 97.)
1832.—"... Mussheroo (striped washing silks manufactured at Benares)...."—Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, Observations, i. 106.
1. MUSTERS.
3. Naibabies.
3. Nainsooks.—H. nainsukh, 'pleasure of the eye.' A sort of fine white calico. Forbes Watson (op. cit. 76) says it is used for neckerchiefs, and Taylor (op. cit. 46) defines it as "a thick muslin, apparently identical with the tunsook (tansak'h, Blochmann, i. 94) of the Ayeen." A cloth is made of the same name in silk, imitated from the cotton fabric. (Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 95.)
1. Neganepauts.
1. Nicannees.—Quoting from a paper of 1683, Orme (Fragments, 287) has "6000 Niccanneers, 13 yards long."
3. Nillaes.—Some kind of blue cloth, H. nīlā, 'blue.'
1. Nunsarees.—There is a place called Nansārī in the Bhandāra District (Central Provinces Gazetteer, 346).
2. Oringal (cloths). Probably take their name from the once famous city of Warangal in Hyderabad.
3. PALAMPORES.
3. Peniascoes.—In a paper quoted by Birdwood (Report on Old Records, 40) we have Pinascos, which he says are stuffs made of pine-apple fibre.
2, 3. Percaulas.—H. parkālā, 'a spark, a piece of glass.' These were probably some kind of spangled robe, set with pieces of glass, as some of the modern Phoolkaris are. In the Madras Diaries of 1684-5 we have "Percollaes," and "percolles, fine" (Pringle, i. 53, iii. 119, iv. 41.)
3. Photaes.—In a letter of 1615 we have "Lunges (see LOONGHEE) and Footaes of all sorts." (Foster, Letters, iv. 306), where the editor suggests H. phūṭā, 'variegated.' But in the Āīn we find "Fautahs (loin-bands)" (i. 93), which is the P. foṭa, and this is from the connection the word probably meant.
3. Pulecat handkerchiefs. (See MADRAS handkerchiefs and BANDANNA.)
2. Punjum.—The Madras Gloss. gives Tel. punjamu, Tam. puñjam, lit. 'a collection.' "In Tel. a collection of 60 threads and in Tam. of 120 threads skeined, ready for the formation of the warp for weaving. A cloth is denominated 10, 12, 14, up to 40 poonjam, according to the number of times 60, or else 120, is contained in the total number of threads in the warp. Poonjam thus also came to mean a cloth of the length of one poonjam as usually skeined; this usual length is 36 cubits, or 18 yards, and the width from 38 to 44 inches, 14 lbs. being the common weight; pieces of half length were formerly exported as Salempoory." Writing in 1814, Heyne (Tracts, 347) says: "Here (in Salem) two punjums are designated by 'first call,' so that twelve punjums of cloth is called 'six call,' and so on."
3. Puteahs. (See PUTTEE.) In a letter of 1610 we have: "Patta, katuynen, with red stripes over thwart through." (Danvers, Letters, i. 72.)
2. Putton Ketchies.—Cloths which possibly took their name from the city of Anhilwāra Patan in Cutch.
1727.—"That country (Tegnapatam) produces Pepper, and coarse Cloth called catchas."—A. Hamilton, i. 335.
3. Raings.—"Rang is a muslin which resembles jhuna in its transparent gauze or net-like texture. It is made by passing a single thread of the warp through each division of the reed" (Taylor, op. cit. 44.) "1 Piece of Raiglins."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 94.
1. Saloopauts. (See SHALEE.)
3. Sannoes.
2. Sassergates.—Some kind of cloth called 'that of the 1000 knots,' H. sahasra granṭhi. "Saserguntees" (Birdwood, Rep. on Old Records, 63).
2. Sastracundees.—These cloths seem to take their name from a place called Sāstrakunḍa, 'Pool of the Law.' This is probably the place named in the Āīn (ed. Jarrett, ii. 124): "In the township of Kiyāra Sundar is a large reservoir which gives a peculiar whiteness to the cloths washed in it." Gladwin reads the name Catarashoonda, or Catarehsoonder (see Taylor, op. cit. 91).
3. Seerbands, Seerbetties.—These are names for turbans, H. sirband, sirbatti. Taylor (op. cit. 47) names them as Dacca muslins under the names of surbund and surbutee.
3. Seershauds.—This is perhaps P. sirshād, 'head-delighting,' some kind of turban or veil.
3. Seersuckers.—Perhaps, sir, 'head,' sukh, 'pleasure.'
3. Shalbaft.—P. shālbāft, 'shawl-weaving.' (See SHAWL.)
3. Sicktersoys.
3. SOOSIES.
3. Subnoms, Subloms.—"Shubnam is a thin pellucid muslin to which the Persian figurative name of 'evening dew' (shabnam) is given, the fabric being, when spread over the bleaching-field, scarcely distinguishable from the dew on the grass." (Taylor, op. cit. 45.)
3. Succatoons. (See SUCLAT.)
3. Taffaties of sorts. "A name applied to plain woven silks, in more recent times signifying a light thin silk stuff with a considerable lustre or gloss" (Drapers' Dict. s.v.). The word comes from P. tāftan, 'to twist, spin.' The Āīn (i. 94) has tāftah in the list of silks.
3. Tainsooks.—H. tansukh, 'taking ease.' (See above under NAINSOOKS.)
3. Tanjeebs. P. tanzeb, 'body adorning.'—"A tolerably fine muslin" (Taylor, op. cit. 46; Forbes Watson, op. cit. 76). "The silk tanzeb seems to have gone out of fashion, but that in cotton is very commonly used for the chicken work in Lucknow." (Yusuf Ali, op. cit. 96.)
1. Tapseils. (See under ALLEJA.) In the Āīn (i. 94) we have: "Tafçilah (a stuff from Mecca)."
1670.—"So that in your house are only left some Tapseiles and cotton yarn."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccxxvi. Birdwood in Report on Old Records, 38, has Topsails.
2. Tarnatannes.—"There are various kinds of muslins brought from the East Indies, chiefly from Bengal, betelles (see BETTEELA), tarnatans...." (Chambers' Cycl. of 1788, quoted in 3rd ser. N. & Q. iv. 135). It is suggested (ibid. 3rd ser. iv. 135) that this is the origin of English tarletan, Fr. tarletane, which is defined in the Drapers' Dict. as "a fine open muslin, first imported from India and afterwards imitated here."
3. Tartorees.
3. Tepoys.
3. Terindams.—"Turundam (said by the weavers to mean 'a kind of cloth for the body,' the name being derived from the Arabic word turuh (tarḥ, taraḥ) 'a kind,' and the Persian one undam (andām) 'the body,' is a muslin which was formerly imported, under the name of terendam, into this country." (Taylor, op. cit. 46.)
2. Ventepollams.
PIGDAUN, s. A spittoon; Hind. pīkdān. Pīk is properly the expectorated juice of chewed betel.
1673.—"The Rooms are spread with Carpets as in India, and they have Pigdans, or Spitting pots of the Earth of this Place, which is valued next to that of China, to void their Spittle in."—Fryer, 223.
[1684.—Hedges speaks of purchasing a "Spitting Cup."—Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 149.]
PIGEON ENGLISH. The vile jargon which forms the means of communication at the Chinese ports between Englishmen who do not speak Chinese, and those Chinese with whom they are in the habit of communicating. The word "business" appears in this kind of talk to be corrupted into "pigeon," and hence the name of the jargon is supposed to be taken. [For examples see Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. pp. 321 seqq.; Ball, Things Chinese, 3rd ed. 430 seqq. (See BUTLER ENGLISH.)]
PIG-STICKING. This is Anglo-Indian hog-hunting, or what would be called among a people delighting more in lofty expression, 'the chase of the Wild Boar.' When, very many years since, one of the present writers, destined for the Bengal Presidency, first made acquaintance with an Indian mess-table, it was that of a Bombay regiment at Aden—in fact of that gallant corps which is now known as the 103rd Foot, or Royal Bombay Fusiliers. Hospitable as they were, the opportunity of enlightening an aspirant Bengalee on the short-comings of his Presidency could not be foregone. The chief counts of indictment were three: 1st. The inferiority of the Bengal Horse Artillery system; 2nd. That the Bengalees were guilty of the base effeminacy of drinking beer out of champagne glasses; 3rd. That in pig-sticking they threw the spear at the boar. The two last charges were evidently ancient traditions, maintaining their ground as facts down to 1840 therefore; and showed how little communication practically existed between the Presidencies as late as that year. Both the allegations had long ceased to be true, but probably the second had been true in the 18th century, as the third certainly had been. This may be seen from the quotation from R. Lindsay, and by the text and illustrations of Williamson's Oriental Field Sports (1807), [and much later (see below)]. There is, or perhaps we should say more diffidently there was, still a difference between the Bengal practice in pig-sticking, and that of Bombay. The Bengal spear is about 6½ feet long, loaded with lead at the butt so that it can be grasped almost quite at the end and carried with the point down, inclining only slightly to the front; the boar's charge is received on the right flank, when the point, raised to 45° or 50° of inclination, if rightly guided, pierces him in the shoulder. The Bombay spear is a longer weapon, and is carried under the armpit like a dragoon's lance. Judging from Elphinstone's statement below we should suppose that the Bombay as well as the Bengal practice originally was to throw the spear, but that both independently discarded this, the Qui-his adopting the short overhand spear, the Ducks the long lance.
The party consisted of Streynsham Master "Agent of the Coast and Bay," with "Mr. Timothy Willes and Mr. Richard Mohun of the Councell, the Minister, the Chyrurgeon, the Schoolmaster, the Secretary, and two Writers, an Ensign, 6 mounted soldiers and a Trumpeter," in all 17 Persons in the Company's Service, and "Four Freemen, who went with the Agent's Company for their own pleasure, and at their own charges." It was a Tour of Visitation of the Factories.
1773.—The Hon. R. Lindsay does speak of the "Wild-boar chase"; but he wrote after 35 years in England, and rather eschews Anglo-Indianisms:
"Our weapon consisted only of a short heavy spear, three feet in length, and well poised; the boar being found and unkennelled by the spaniels, runs with great speed across the plain, is pursued on horseback, and the first rider who approaches him throws the javelin...."—Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 161.
1807.—"When (the hog) begins to slacken, the attack should be commenced by the horseman who may be nearest pushing on to his left side; into which the spear should be thrown, so as to lodge behind the shoulder blade, and about six inches from the backbone."—Williamson, Oriental Field Sports, p. 9. (Left must mean hog's right.) This author says that the bamboo shafts were 8 or 9 feet long, but that very short ones had formerly been in use; thus confirming Lindsay.
1816.—"We hog-hunt till two, then tiff, and hawk or course till dusk ... we do not throw our spears in the old way, but poke with spears longer than the common ones, and never part with them."—Elphinstone's Life, i. 311.
[1828.—"... the boar who had made good the next cane with only a slight scratch from a spear thrown as he was charging the hedge."—Orient. Sport. Mag. reprint 1873, i. 116.]
1848.—"Swankey of the Body-Guard himself, that dangerous youth, and the greatest buck of all the Indian army now on leave, was one day discovered by Major Dobbin, tête-à-tête with Amelia, and describing the sport of pigsticking to her with great humour and eloquence."—Vanity Fair, ii. 288.
1866.—"I may be a young pig-sticker, but I am too old a sportsman to make such a mistake as that."—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, in Fraser, lxxiii. 387.
1873.—"Pigsticking may be very good fun...."—A True Reformer, ch. i.
1876.—"You would perhaps like tiger-hunting or pig-sticking; I saw some of that for a season or two in the East. Everything here is poor stuff after that."—Daniel Deronda, ii. ch. xi.
1878.—"In the meantime there was a 'pig-sticking' meet in the neighbouring district."—Life in the Mofussil, i. 140.
PIG-TAIL, s. This term is often applied to the Chinaman's long plait of hair, by transfer from the queue of our grandfathers, to which the name was much more appropriate. Though now universal among the Chinese, this fashion was only introduced by their Manchu conquerors in the 17th century, and was "long resisted by the natives of the Amoy and Swatow districts, who, when finally compelled to adopt the distasteful fashion, concealed the badge of slavery beneath cotton turbans, the use of which has survived to the present day" (Giles, Glossary of Reference, 32). Previously the Chinese wore their unshaven back hair gathered in a net, or knotted in a chignon. De Rhodes (Rome, 1615, p. 5) says of the people of Tongking, that "like the Chinese they have the custom of gathering the hair in fine nets under the hat."
PILAU, PILOW, PILÁF, &c., s. Pers. pulāo, or pilāv, Skt. pulāka, 'a ball of boiled rice.' A dish, in origin purely Mahommedan, consisting of meat, or fowl, boiled along with rice and spices. Recipes are given by Herklots, ed. 1863, App. xxix.; and in the Āīn-i-Akbarī (ed. Blochmann, i. 60), we have one for ḳīma pulāo (ḳīma = 'hash') with several others to which the name is not given. The name is almost as familiar in England as curry, but not the thing. It was an odd circumstance, some 45 years ago, that the two surgeons of a dragoon regiment in India were called Currie and Pilleau.
c. 1630.—"The feast begins: it was compounded of a hundred sorts of pelo and candied dried meats."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 138, [and for varieties, p. 310].
[c. 1660.—"... my elegant hosts were fully employed in cramming their mouths with as much Pelau as they could contain...."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 121.]
1673.—"The most admired Dainty wherewith they stuff themselves is Pullow, whereof they will fill themselves to the Throat and receive no hurt, it being so well prepared for the Stomach."—Fryer, 399. See also p. 93. At p. 404 he gives a recipe.
1682.—"They eate their pilaw and other spoone-meate withoute spoones, taking up their pottage in the hollow of their fingers."—Evelyn, Diary, June 19.
1687.—"They took up their Mess with their Fingers, as the Moors do their Pilaw, using no Spoons."—Dampier, i. 430.
1689.—"Palau, that is Rice boil'd ... with Spices intermixt, and a boil'd Fowl in the middle, is the most common Indian Dish."—Ovington, 397.
1711.—"They cannot go to the Price of a Pilloe, or boil'd Fowl and Rice; but the better sort make that their principal Dish."—Lockyer, 231.
1793.—"On a certain day ... all the Musulman officers belonging to your department shall be entertained at the charge of the Sircar, with a public repast, to consist of Pullao of the first sort."—Select Letters of Tippoo S., App. xlii.
c. 1820.—
"And nearer as they came, a genial savour
Of certain stews, and roast-meats, and pilaus,
Things which in hungry mortals' eyes find favour."—Don Juan, v. 47.
PINANG, s. This is the Malay word for Areca, and it is almost always used by the Dutch to indicate that article, and after them by some Continental writers of other nations. The Chinese word for the same product—pin-lang—is probably, as Bretschneider says, a corruption of the Malay word. (See PENANG.)
[1665.—"Their ordinary food ... is Rice, Wheat, Pinange...."—Sir T. Herbert, Travels, 1677, p. 365 (Stanf. Dict.).]
1726.—"But Shah Sousa gave him (viz. Van der Broek, an envoy to Rajmahal in 1655) good words, and regaled him with Pinang (a great favour), and promised that he should be amply paid for everything."—Valentijn, v. 165.
PINDARRY, s. Hind. pinḍārī, pinḍārā, but of which the more original form appears to be Mahr. penḍhārī, a member of a band of plunderers called in that language penḍhār and penḍhārā. The etymology of the word is very obscure. We may discard as a curious coincidence only, the circumstance observed by Mr. H. T. Prinsep, in the work quoted below (i. 37, note), that "Pindara seems to have the same reference to Pandour that Kuzāk has to Cossack." Sir John Malcolm observes that the most popular etymology among the natives ascribes the name to the dissolute habits of the class, leading them to frequent the shops dealing in an intoxicating drink called pinda. (One of the senses of penḍhā, according to Molesworth's Mahr. Dict., is 'a drink for cattle and men, prepared from Holcus sorghum' (see JOWAUR) 'by steeping it and causing it to ferment.') Sir John adds: 'Kurreem Khan' (a famous Pindarry leader) 'told me he had never heard of any other reason for the name; and Major Henley had the etymology confirmed by the most intelligent of the Pindarries of whom he enquired' (Central India, 2nd ed. i. 433). Wilson again considers the most probable derivation to be from the Mahr. penḍhā, but in the sense of a 'bundle of rice-straw,' and hara, 'who takes,' because the name was originally applied to horsemen who hung on to an army, and were employed in collecting forage. We cannot think either of the etymologies very satisfactory. We venture another, as a plausible suggestion merely. Both pinḍ-paṛnā in Hindi, and pinḍās-basneṅ in Mahr. signify 'to follow'; the latter being defined 'to stick closely to; to follow to the death; used of the adherence of a disagreeable fellow.' Such phrases would aptly apply to these hangers-on of an army in the field, looking out for prey. [The question has been discussed by Mr. W. Irvine in an elaborate note published in the Indian Antiq. of 1900. To the above three suggestions he adds two made by other authorities: 4. that the term was taken from the Beder race; 5. from Pinḍārā, pinḍ, 'a lump of food,' ār, 'bringer,' a plunderer. As to the fourth suggestion, he remarks that there was a Beder race dwelling in Mysore, Belary and the Nizam's territories. But the objection to this etymology is that as far back as 1748 both words, Bedar and Pinḍārī, are used by the native historian, Rām Singh Munshī, side by side, but applied to different bodies of men. Mr. Irvine's suggestion is that the word Pinḍārī, or more strictly Panḍhār, comes from a place or region called Pāndhār or Pandhār. This place is referred to by native historians, and seems to have been situated between Burhānpur and Handiya on the Nerbudda. There is good evidence to prove that large numbers of Pindāris were settled in this part of the country. Mr. Irvine sums up by saying: "If it were not for a passage in Grant Duff (H. of the Mahrattas, Bombay reprint, 157), I should have been ready to maintain that I had proved my case. My argument requires two things to make it irrefutable: (1) a very early connection between Pandhār and the Pindhāris; (2) that the Pindhāris had no early home or settlement outside Pandhār. As to the first point, the recorded evidence seems to go no further back than 1794, when Sendhiah granted them lands in Nimār; whereas before that time the name had become fixed, and had even crept into Anglo-Indian vocabularies. As to the second point, Grant Duff says, and he if anybody must have known, that "there were a number of Pindhāris about the borders of Mahārāshtra and the Carnatic...." Unless these men emigrated from Khandesh about 1726 (that is a hundred years before 1826, the date of Grant Duff's book), their presence in the South with the same name tends to disprove any special connection between their name, Pindhāri, and a place, Pindhār, several hundred miles from their country. On the other hand, it is a very singular coincidence that men known as Pindhāris should have been newly settled about 1794 in a country which had been known as Pandhār at least ninety years before they thus occupied it. Such a mere fortuitous connection between Pandhār and the Pindhāris is so extraordinary that we may call it an impossibility. A fair inference is that the region Pandhār was the original home of the Pindhāris, that they took their name from it, and that grants of land between Burhānpur and Handiya were made to them in what had always been their home-country, namely Pandhār."]
The Pinḍārīs seem to have grown up in the wars of the late Mahommedan dynasties in the Deccan, and in the latter part of the 17th century attached themselves to the Mahrattas in their revolt against Aurangzīb; the first mention which we have seen of the name occurs at this time. For some particulars regarding them we refer to the extract from Prinsep below. During and after the Mahratta wars of Lord Wellesley's time many of the Pinḍārī leaders obtained grants of land in Central India from Sindia and Holkar, and in the chaos which reigned at that time outside the British territory their raids in all directions, attended by the most savage atrocities, became more and more intolerable; these outrages extended from Bundelkhand on the N.E., Kadapa on the S., and Orissa on the S.E., to Guzerat on the W., and at last repeatedly violated British territory. In a raid made upon the coast extending from Masulipatam northward, the Pinḍārīs in ten days plundered 339 villages, burning many, killing and wounding 682 persons, torturing 3600, and carrying off or destroying property to the amount of £250,000. It was not, however, till 1817 that the Governor-General, the Marquis of Hastings, found himself armed with permission from home, and in a position to strike at them effectually, and with the most extensive strategic combinations ever brought into action in India. The Pinḍārīs were completely crushed, and those of the native princes who supported them compelled to submit, whilst the British power for the first time was rendered truly paramount throughout India.
1762.—"Siwaee Madhoo Rao ... began to collect troops, stores, and heavy artillery, so that he at length assembled near 100,000 horse, 60,000 Pindarehs, and 50,000 matchlock foot.... In reference to the Pindarehs, it is not unknown that they are a low tribe of robbers entertained by some of the princes of the Dakhan, to plunder and lay waste the territories of their enemies, and to serve for guides."—H. of Hydur Naik, by Meer Hassan Ali Khan, 149. [Mr. Irvine suspects that this may be based on a misreading as in the former quotation. The earliest undoubted mention of the name in native historians is by Rām Singh (1748). There is a doubtful reference in the Tārīkh-i-Muhammadī (1722-23)].
1784.—"Bindarras, who receive no pay, but give a certain monthly sum to the commander-in-chief for permission to maraud, or plunder, under sanction of his banners."—Indian Vocabulary, s.v.
1803.—"Depend upon it that no Pindarries or straggling horse will venture to your rear, so long as you can keep the enemy in check, and your detachment well in advance."—Wellington, ii. 219.
1823.—"On asking an intelligent old Pindarry, who came to me on the part of Kurreem Khan, the reason of this absence of high character, he gave me a short and shrewd answer: 'Our occupation' (said he) 'was incompatible with the fine virtues and qualities you state; and I suppose if any of our people ever had them, the first effect of such good feeling would be to make him leave our community.'"—Sir John Malcolm, Central India, i. 436.
[ " "He had ascended on horseback ... being mounted on a Pindaree pony, an animal accustomed to climbing."—Hoole, Personal Narrative, 292.]
1825.—"The name of Pindara is coeval with the earliest invasion of Hindoostan by the Mahrattas.... The designation was applied to a sort of sorry cavalry that accompanied the Pêshwa's armies in their expeditions, rendering them much the same service as the Cossacks perform for the armies of Russia.... The several leaders went over with their bands from one chief to another, as best suited their private interests, or those of their followers.... The rivers generally became fordable by the close of the Dussera. The horses then were shod, and a leader of tried courage and conduct having been chosen as Luhbureea, all that were inclined set forth on a foray or Luhbur, as it was called in the Pindaree nomenclature; all were mounted, though not equally well. Out of a thousand, the proportion of good cavalry might be 400: the favourite weapon was a bamboo spear ... but ... it was a rule that every 15th or 20th man of the fighting Pindarees should be armed with a matchlock. Of the remaining 600, 400 were usually common looteas (see LOOTY), indifferently mounted, and armed with every variety of weapon, and the rest, slaves, attendants, and camp-followers, mounted on tattoos, or wild ponies, and keeping up with the luhbur in the best manner they could."—Prinsep, Hist. of Pol. and Mil. Transactions (1813-1823), i. 37, note.
1829.—"The person of whom she asked this question said 'Brinjaree' (see BRINJARRY) ... but the lady understood him Pindaree, and the name was quite sufficient. She jumped out of the palanquin and ran towards home, screaming, 'Pindarees, Pindarees.'"—Mem. of John Shipp, ii. 281.
[1861.—
"So I took to the hills of Malwa, and the free Pindaree life."]
Sir A. Lyall, The Old Pindaree.
PINE-APPLE. (See ANANAS.) [The word has been corrupted by native weavers into pinaphal or minaphal, as the name of a silk fabric, so called because of the pine-apple pattern on it. (See Yusuf Ali, Mon. on Silk, 99.)]
PINJRAPOLE, s. A hospital for animals, existing perhaps only in Guzerat, is so called. Guz. pinjrāpor or pinjrapol, [properly a cage (pinjra) for the sacred bull (pola) released in the name of Siva]. See Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 120, and Ovington, 300-301; [P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 67, 70. Forbes (Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 156) describes "the Banian hospital" at Surat; but they do not use this word, which Molesworth says is quite modern in Mahr.]
PINTADO. From the Port.
a. A 'painted' (or 'spotted') cloth, i.e. chintz (q.v.). Though the word was applied, we believe, to all printed goods, some of the finer Indian chintzes were, at least in part, finished by hand-painting.
[1602.—"... some fine pinthadoes."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 34.]
1602-5.—"... about their loynes a fine Pintadoe."—Scot's Discourse of Iava, in Purchas, i. 164.
1606.—"Heare the Generall deliuered a Letter from the KINGS MAIESTIE of ENGLAND, with a fayre standing Cuppe, and a cover double gilt, with divers of the choicest Pintadoes, which hee kindly accepted of."—Middleton's Voyage, E. 3.
[1610.—"Pintadoes of divers sorts will sell.... The names are Sarassa, Berumpury, large Chaudes, Selematt Cambaita, Selematt white and black, Cheat Betime and divers others."—Danvers, Letters, i. 75.
c. 1630.—"Also they stain Linnen cloth, which we call pantadoes."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 304.]
1665.—"To Woodcott ... where was a roome hung with Pintado, full of figures greate and small, prettily representing sundry trades and occupations of the Indians."—Evelyn's Diary, Dec. 30.
c. 1759.—"The chintz and other fine painted goods, will, if the market is not overstocked, find immediate vent, and sell for 100 p. cent."—Letter from Pegu, in Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 120.b. A name (not Anglo-Indian) for the Guinea-fowl. This may have been given from the resemblance of the speckled feathers to a chintz. But in fact pinta in Portuguese is 'a spot,' or fleck, so that probably it only means speckled. This is the explanation of Bluteau. [The word is more commonly applied to the cape Pigeon. See Mr. Gray's note on Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 21, who quotes from Fryer, p. 12.]
PISACHEE, Skt. piśāchī, a she-demon, m. piśācha. In S. India some of the demons worshipped by the ancient tribes are so called. The spirits of the dead, and particularly of those who have met with violent deaths, are especially so entitled. They are called in Tamil pey. Sir Walter Elliot considers that the Piśāchīs were (as in the case of Rākshasas) a branch of the aboriginal inhabitants. In a note he says: 'The Piśāchī dialect appears to have been a distinct Dravidian dialect, still to be recognised in the speech of the Paraiya, who cannot pronounce distinctly some of the pure Tamil letters.' There is, however, in the Hindu drama a Piśāchā bhāshā, a gibberish or corruption of Sanskrit, introduced. [This at the present day has been applied to English.] The term piśāchī is also applied to the small circular storms commonly by Europeans called devils (q.v.). We do not know where Archdeacon Hare (see below) found the Piśāchī to be a white demon.
c. 1780.—"'Que demandez-vous?' leur criai-je d'un ton de voix rude. 'Pourquoi restez-vous là à m'attendre? et d'où vient que ces autres femmes se sont enfuies, comme si j'étois un Péschaseh (esprit malin), ou une bête sauvage qui voulût vous devorer?'"—Haafner, ii. 287.
1801.—"They believe that such men as die accidental deaths become Pysáchi, or evil spirits, and are exceedingly troublesome by making extraordinary noises, in families, and occasioning fits and other diseases, especially in women."—F. Buchanan's Mysore, iii. 17.
1816.—"Whirlwinds ... at the end of March, and beginning of April, carry dust and light things along with them, and are called by the natives peshashes or devils."—Asiatic Journal, ii. 367.
1819.—"These demons or peisaches are the usual attendants of Shiva."—Erskine on Elephanta, in Bo. Lit. Soc. Trans. i. 219.
1827.—"As a little girl was playing round me one day with her white frock over her head, I laughingly called her Pisashee, the name which the Indians give to their white devil. The child was delighted with so fine a name, and ran about the house crying out to every one she met, I am the Pisashee, I am the Pisashee. Would she have done so, had she been wrapt in black, and called witch or devil instead? No: for, as usual, the reality was nothing, the sound and colour everything."—J. C. Hare, in Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1st Series, ed. 1838, p. 7.
PISANG, s. This is the Malay word for plantain or banana (qq.v.). It is never used by English people, but is the usual word among the Dutch, and common also among the Germans, [Norwegians and Swedes, who probably got it through the Dutch.]
c. 1785.—"Nous arrivâmes au grand village de Colla, où nous vîmes de belles allées de bananiers ou pisang...."—Haafner, ii. 85.
[1875.—"Of the pisang or plantain ... there are over thirty kinds, of which, the Pisang-mas, or golden plantain, so named from its colour, though one of the smallest, is nevertheless most deservedly prized."—Thomson, The Straits of Malacca, 8.]
PISHPASH, s. Apparently a factitious Anglo-Indian word, applied to a slop of rice-soup with small pieces of meat in it, much used in the Anglo-Indian nursery. [It is apparently P. pash-pash, 'shivered or broken in pieces'; from Pers. pashīdan.]
PITARRAH, s. A coffer or box used in travelling by palankin, to carry the traveller's clothes, two such being slung to a banghy (q.v.). Hind. piṭārā, peṭārā, Skt. piṭaka, 'a basket.' The thing was properly a basket made of cane; but in later practice of tin sheet, with a light wooden frame.
1849.—"The attention of the staff was called to the necessity of putting their pitarahs and property in the Bungalow, as thieves abounded. 'My dear Sir,' was the reply, 'we are quite safe; we have nothing.'"—Delhi Gazette, Nov. 7.
1853.—"It was very soon settled that Oakfield was to send to the dák bungalow for his petarahs, and stay with Staunton for about three weeks."—W. D. Arnold, Oakfield, i. 223.
PLANTAIN, s. This is the name by which the Musa sapientum is universally known to Anglo-India. Books distinguish between the Musa sapientum or plantain, and the Musa paradisaica or banana; but it is hard to understand where the line is supposed to be drawn. Variation is gradual and infinite.
The botanical name Musa represents the Ar. mauz, and that again is from the Skt. mocha. The specific name sapientum arises out of a misunderstanding of a passage in Pliny, which we have explained under the head Jack. The specific paradisaica is derived from the old belief of Oriental Christians (entertained also, if not originated by the Mahommedans) that this was the tree from whose leaves Adam and Eve made themselves aprons. A further mystical interest attached also to the fruit, which some believed to be the forbidden apple of Eden. For in the pattern formed by the core or seeds, when the fruit was cut across, our forefathers discerned an image of the Cross, or even of the Crucifix. Medieval travellers generally call the fruit either Musa or 'Fig of Paradise,' or sometimes 'Fig of India,' and to this day in the W. Indies the common small plantains are called 'figs.' The Portuguese also habitually called it 'Indian Fig.' And this perhaps originated some confusion in Milton's mind, leading him to make the Banyan (Ficus Indica of Pliny, as of modern botanists) the Tree of the aprons, and greatly to exaggerate the size of the leaves of that ficus.
The name banana is never employed by the English in India, though it is the name universal in the London fruit-shops, where this fruit is now to be had at almost all seasons, and often of excellent quality, imported chiefly, we believe, from Madeira, [and more recently from Jamaica. Mr. Skeat adds that in the Strait Settlements the name plantain seems to be reserved for those varieties which are only eatable when cooked, but the word banana is used indifferently with plantain, the latter being on the whole perhaps the rarer word].
The name plantain is no more originally Indian than is banana. It, or rather platano, appears to have been the name under which the fruit was first carried to the W. Indies, according to Oviedo, in 1516; the first edition of his book was published in 1526. That author is careful to explain that the plant was improperly so called, as it was quite another thing from the platanus described by Pliny. Bluteau says the word is Spanish. We do not know how it came to be applied to the Musa. [Mr. Guppy (8 ser. Notes & Queries, viii. 87) suggests that "the Spaniards have obtained platano from the Carib and Galibi words for banana, viz., balatanna and palatana, by the process followed by the Australian colonists when they converted a native name for the casuarina trees into 'she-oak'; and that we can thus explain how platano came in Spanish to signify both the plane-tree and the banana." Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict. s.v.) derives plantain from Lat. planta, 'a plant'; properly 'a spreading sucker or shoot'; and says that the plantain took its name from its spreading leaf.] The rapid spread of the plantain or banana in the West, whence both names were carried back to India, is a counterpart to the rapid diffusion of the ananas in the Old World of Asia. It would seem from the translation of Mendoça that in his time (1585) the Spaniards had come to use the form plantano, which our Englishmen took up as plantan and plantain. But even in the 1736 edition of Bailey's Dict. the only explanation of plantain given is as the equivalent of the Latin plantago, the field-weed known by the former name. Platano and Plantano are used in the Philippine Islands by the Spanish population.
c. 1350.—"Sunt enim in orto illo Adae de Seyllano primo musae, quas incolae ficus vocant ... et istud vidimus oculis nostris quod ubicunque inciditur per transversum, in utrâque parte incisurae videtur ymago hominis crucifixi ... et de istis foliis ficûs Adam et Eva fecerunt sibi perizomata...."—John de' Marignolli, in Cathay, &c. p. 352.
1384.—"And there is again a fruit which many people assert to be that regarding which our first father Adam sinned, and this fruit they call Muse ... in this fruit you see a very great miracle, for when you divide it anyway, whether lengthways or across, or cut it as you will, you shall see inside, as it were, the image of the Crucifix; and of this we comrades many times made proof."—Viaggio di Simone Sigoli (Firenze, 1862, p. 160).
1526 (tr. 1577).—"There are also certayne plantes whiche the Christians call Platani. In the myddest of the plant, in the highest part thereof, there groweth a cluster with fourtie or fiftie platans about it.... This cluster ought to be taken from the plant, when any one of the platans begins to appeare yelowe, at which time they take it, and hang it in their houses, where all the cluster waxeth rype, with all his platans."—Oviedo, transl. in Eden's Hist. of Travayle, f. 208.
1552 (tr. 1582).—"Moreover the Ilande (of Mombas) is verye pleasaunt, having many orchards, wherein are planted and are groweing ... Figges of the Indias...."—Castañeda, by N. L., f. 22.
1579.—"... a fruit which they call Figo (Magellane calls it a figge of a span long, but it is no other than that which the Spaniards and Portingalls have named Plantanes)."—Drake's Voyage, Hak. Soc. p. 142.
1585 (tr. 1588).—"There are mountaines very thicke of orange trees, siders [i.e. cedras, 'citrons'], limes, plantanos, and palmas."—Mendoça, by R. Parke, Hak. Soc. ii. 330.
1588.—"Our Generall made their wiues to fetch vs Plantans, Lymmons, and Oranges, Pine-apples, and other fruits."—Voyage of Master Thomas Candish, in Purchas, i. 64.
1588 (tr. 1604).—"... the first that shall be needefulle to treate of is the Plantain (Platano), or Plantano, as the vulgar call it.... The reason why the Spaniards call it platano (for the Indians had no such name), was, as in other trees for that they have found some resemblance of the one with the other, even as they called some fruites prunes, pines, and cucumbers, being far different from those which are called by those names in Castille. The thing wherein was most resemblance, in my opinion, between the platanos at the Indies and those which the ancients did celebrate, is the greatnes of the leaves.... But, in truth, there is no more comparison nor resemblance of the one with the other than there is, as the Proverb saith, betwixt an egge and a chesnut."—Joseph de Acosta, transl. by E. G., Hak. Soc. i. 241.
1593.—"The plantane is a tree found in most parts of Afrique and America, of which two leaves are sufficient to cover a man from top to toe."—Hawkins, Voyage into the South Sea, Hak. Soc. 49.
1610.—"... and every day failed not to send each man, being one and fiftie in number, two cakes of white bread, and a quantitie of Dates and Plantans...."—Sir H. Middleton, in Purchas, i. 254.
c. 1610.—"Ces Gentils ayant pitié de moy, il y eut vne femme qui me mit ... vne seruiete de feuilles de plantane accommodées ensemble auec des espines, puis me ietta dessus du rys cuit auec vne certaine sauce qu'ils appellent caril (see CURRY)...."—Mocquet, Voyages, 292.
[" "They (elephants) require ... besides leaves of trees, chiefly of the Indian fig, which we call Bananes and the Turks plantenes."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 345.]
1616.—"They have to these another fruit we English there call a Planten, of which many of them grow in clusters together ... very yellow when they are Ripe, and then they taste like unto a Norwich Pear, but much better."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 360.
c. 1635.—
"... with candy Plantains and the juicy Pine,
On choicest Melons and sweet Grapes they dine,
And with Potatoes fat their wanton wine."
Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.
c. 1635.—
"Oh how I long my careless Limbs to lay
Under the Plantain's Shade; and all the Day
With amorous Airs my Fancy entertain."
Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.
c. 1660.—
"The Plant (at Brasil Bacone call'd) the Name
Of the Eastern Plane-tree takes, but not the same:
Bears leaves so large, one single Leaf can shade
The Swain that is beneath her Covert laid;
Under whose verdant Leaves fair Apples grow,
Sometimes two Hundred on a single Bough...."
Cowley, of Plants, Bk. v.
1664.—
"Wake, Wake Quevera! Our soft rest must cease,
And fly together with our country's peace.
No more must we sleep under plantain shade,
Which neither heat could pierce nor cold invade;
Where bounteous Nature never feels decay,
And opening buds drive falling fruits away."
Dryden, Prologue to the Indian Queen.
1673.—"Lower than these, but with a Leaf far broader, stands the curious Plantan, loading its tender Body with a Fruit, whose clusters emulate the Grapes of Canaan, which burthened two men's shoulders."—Fryer, 19.
1686.—"The Plantain I take to be King of all Fruit, not except the Coco itself."—Dampier, i. 311.
1689.—"... and now in the Governour's Garden (at St. Helena) and some others of the Island are quantities of Plantins, Bonanoes, and other delightful Fruits brought from the East...."—Ovington, 100.
1764.—
"But round the upland huts, bananas plant;
A wholesome nutriment bananas yield,
And sunburnt labour loves its breezy shade,
Their graceful screen let kindred plantanes join,
And with their broad vans shiver in the breeze."
Grainger, Bk. iv.
PLASSEY, n.p. The village Palāsī, which gives its name to Lord Clive's famous battle (June 23, 1757). It is said to take its name from the pālas (or dhawk) tree.
[1757.—Clive's original report of the battle is dated on the "plain of Placis."—Birdwood, Report on Old Records, 57.]
1768-71.—"General Clive, who should have been the leader of the English troops in this battle (Plassy), left the command to Colonel Coote, and remained hid in his palankeen during the combat, out of the reach of the shot, and did not make his appearance before the enemy were put to flight."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 486. This stupid and inaccurate writer says that several English officers who were present at the battle related this "anecdote" to him. This, it may be hoped, is as untrue as the rest of the story. Even to such a writer one would have supposed that Clive's mettle would be familiar.
PODÁR, s. Hind. poddār, corrn. of Pers. fot̤adār, from fot̤a, 'a bag of money.' A cash-keeper, or especially an officer attached to a treasury, whose business it is to weigh money and bullion and appraise the value of coins.
1680.—"Podar." (See under DUSTOOR.)
1683.—"The like losses in proportion were preferred to be proved by Ramchurne Podar, Bendura bun Podar, and Mamoobishwas who produced their several books for evidence."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 84.
[1772.—"Podār, a money-changer or teller, under a shroff."—Verelst, View of Bengal, Gloss. s.v.]
POGGLE, PUGGLY, &c., s. Properly Hind. pāgal; 'a madman, an idiot'; often used colloquially by Anglo-Indians. A friend belonging to that body used to adduce a macaronic adage which we fear the non-Indian will fail to appreciate: "Pagal et pecunia jaldè separantur!" [See NAUTCH.]
1866.—"I was foolish enough to pay these budmashes beforehand, and they have thrown me over. I must have been a paugul to do it."—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, 385.
[1885.—"He told me that the native name for a regular picnic is a 'Poggle-khana,' that is, a fool's dinner."—Lady Dufferin, Viceregal Life, 88.]
POISON-NUT, s. Strychnos nux vomica, L.
POLEA, n.p. Mal. pulayan, [from Tam. pulam, 'a field,' because in Malabar they are occupied in rice cultivation]. A person of a low or impure tribe, who causes pollution (pula) to those of higher caste, if he approaches within a certain distance. [The rules which regulate their meeting with other people are given by Mr. Logan (Malabar, i. 118).] From pula the Portuguese formed also the verbs empolear-se, 'to become polluted by the touch of a low-caste person,' and desempolear-se, 'to purify oneself after such pollution' (Gouvea, f. 97, and Synod. f. 52v), superstitions which Menezes found prevailing among the Christians of Malabar. (See HIRAVA.)
1516.—"There is another lower sort of gentiles called puler.... They do not speak to the nairs except for a long way off, as far as they can be heard speaking with a loud voice.... And whatever man or woman should touch them, their relations immediately kill them like a contaminated thing...."—Barbosa, 143.
1572.—
"A ley, da gente toda, ricca e pobre,
De fabulas composta se imagina:
Andão nus, e somente hum pano cobre
As partes que a cubrir natura ensina.
Dous modos ha de gente; porque a nobre
Nayres chamados são, e a minos dina
Poleas tem por nome, a quem obriga
A ley não misturar a casta antiga."
Camões, vii. 37.
By Burton:
"The Law that holds the people high and low,
is fraught with false phantastick tales long past;
they go unclothèd, but a wrap they throw
for decent purpose round the loins and waist:
Two modes of men are known: the nobles know
the name of Nayrs, who call the lower caste
Poléas, whom their haughty laws contain
from intermingling with the higher strain...."
1598.—"When the Portingales came first into India, and made league and composition with the King of Cochin, the Nayros desired that men shovld give them place, and turne out of the Way, when they mette in the Streetes, as the Polyas. ..." (used to do).—Linschoten, 78; [Hak. Soc. i. 281; also see i. 279].
1606.—"... he said by way of insult that he would order him to touch a Poleaa, which is one of the lowest castes of Malauar."—Gouvea, f. 76.
1626.—"These Puler are Theeves and Sorcerers."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 553.
[1727.—"Poulias." (See under MUCOA.)
[1754.—"Niadde and Pullie are two low castes on the Malabar coast...."—Ives, 26.
[1766.—"... Poolighees, a cast hardly suffered to breathe the common air, being driven into the forrests and mountains out of the commerce of mankind...."—Grose, 2nd ed. ii. 161 seq.]
1770.—"Their degradation is still more complete on the Malabar coast, which has not been subdued by the Mogul, and where they (the pariahs) are called Pouliats."—Raynal, E.T. 1798, i. 6.
1865.—"Further south in India we find polyandry among ... Poleres of Malabar."—McLennan, Primitive Marriage, 179.
POLIGAR, s. This term is peculiar to the Madras Presidency. The persons so called were properly subordinate feudal chiefs, occupying tracts more or less wild, and generally of predatory habits in former days; they are now much the same as Zemindars in the highest use of that term (q.v.). The word is Tam. pāḷaiyakkāran, 'the holder of a pālaiyam,' or feudal estate; Tel. paḷegāḍu; and thence Mahr. pālegār; the English form being no doubt taken from one of the two latter. The southern Poligars gave much trouble about 100 years ago, and the "Poligar wars" were somewhat serious affairs. In various assaults on Pānjālamkurichi, one of their forts in Tinnevelly, between 1799 and 1801 there fell 15 British officers. Much regarding the Poligārs of the south will be found in Nelson's Madura, and in Bishop Caldwell's very interesting History of Tinnevelly. Most of the quotations apply to those southern districts. But the term was used north to the Mahratta boundary.
1701.—"Le lendemain je me rendis à Tailur, c'est une petite ville qui appartient à un autre Paleagaren."—Lett. Edif. x. 269.
1745.—"J'espère que Votre Eminence agréera l'établissement d'une nouvelle Mission près des Montagnes appellées vulgairement des Palleagares, où aucun Missionnaire n'avait paru jusqu'à présent. Cette contrée est soumise à divers petits Rois appellés également Palleagars, qui sont independans du Grand Mogul quoique placés presque au milieu de son Empire."—Norbert, Mem. ii. 406-7.
1754.—"A Polygar ... undertook to conduct them through defiles and passes known to very few except himself."—Orme, i. 373.
1780.—"He (Hyder) now moved towards the pass of Changana, and encamped upon his side of it, and sent ten thousand polygàrs to clear away the pass, and make a road sufficient to enable his artillery and stores to pass through."—Hon. James Lindsay, in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 233.
" "The matchlock men are generally accompanied by poligars, a set of fellows that are almost savage, and make use of no other weapon than a pointed bamboo spear, 18 or 20 feet long."—Munro's Narrative, 131.
1783.—"To Mahomet Ali they twice sold the Kingdom of Tanjore. To the same Mahomet Ali they sold at least twelve sovereign Princes called the Polygars."—Burke's Speech on Fox's India Bill, in Works, iii. 458.
1800.—"I think Pournaya's mode of dealing with these rajahs ... is excellent. He sets them up in palankins, elephants, &c., and a great sowarry, and makes them attend to his person. They are treated with great respect, which they like, but can do no mischief in the country. Old Hyder adopted this plan, and his operations were seldom impeded by polygar wars."—A. Wellesley to T. Munro, in Arbuthnot's Mem. xcii.
1801.—"The southern Poligars, a race of rude warriors habituated to arms of independence, had been but lately subdued."—Welsh, i. 57.
1809.—"Tondiman is an hereditary title. His subjects are Polygars, and since the late war ... he is become the chief of those tribes, among whom the singular law exists of the female inheriting the sovereignty in preference to the male."—Ld. Valentia, i. 364.
1868.—"There are 72 bastions to the fort of Madura; and each of them was now formally placed in charge of a particular chief, who was bound for himself and his heirs to keep his post at all times, and under all circumstances. He was also bound to pay a fixed annual tribute; to supply and keep in readiness a quota of troops for the Governor's armies; to keep the Governor's peace over a particular tract of country.... A grant was made to him of a tract of a country ... together with the title of Páleiya Kâran (Poligar)...."—Nelson's Madura, Pt. iii. p. 99.
" "Some of the Poligars were placed in authority over others, and in time of war were answerable for the good conduct of their subordinates. Thus the Sethupati was chief of them all; and the Poligar of Dindigul is constantly spoken of as being the chief of eighteen Poligars ... when the levying of troops was required the Delavay (see DALAWAY) sent requisitions to such and such Poligars to furnish so many armed men within a certain time...."—Nelson's Madura, Pt. iii. p. 157.
The word got transferred in English parlance to the people under such Chiefs (see quotations above, 1780-1809); and especially, it would seem, to those whose habits were predatory:
1869.—"There is a third well-defined race mixed with the general population, to which a common origin may probably be assigned. I mean the predatory classes. In the south they are called Poligars, and consist of the tribes of Marawars, Kallars (see COLLERY), Bedars (see BYDE), Ramuses (see RAMOOSY): and in the North are represented by the Kolis (see COOLY) of Guzerat, and the Gujars (see GOOJUR) of the N.W. Provinces."—Sir Walter Elliot, in J. Ethn. Soc. L., N.S. i. 112.
[POLIGAR DOG, s. A large breed of dogs found in S. India. "The Polygar dog is large and powerful, and is peculiar in being without hair" (Balfour, Cycl. i. 568).]
POLLAM, s. Tam. pālaiyam; Tel. pāḷemu; (see under POLIGAR).
POLO, s. The game of hockey on horseback, introduced of late years into England, under this name, which comes from Baltī; polo being properly in the language of that region the ball used in the game. The game thus lately revived was once known and practised (though in various forms) from Provence to the borders of China (see CHICANE). It had continued to exist down to our own day, it would seem, only near the extreme East and the extreme West of the Himālaya, viz. at Manipur in the East (between Cachar and Burma), and on the West in the high valley of the Indus (in Ladāk, Balti, Astōr and Gilgit, and extending into Chitrāl). From the former it was first adopted by our countrymen at Calcutta, and a little later (about 1864) it was introduced into the Punjab, almost simultaneously from the Lower Provinces and from Kashmīr, where the summer visitors had taken it up. It was first played in England, it would seem at Aldershot, in July 1871, and in August of the same year at Dublin in the Phœnix Park. The next year it was played in many places.[30] But the first mention we can find in the Times is a notice of a match at Lillie-Bridge, July 11, 1874, in the next day's paper. There is mention of the game in the Illustrated London News of July 20, 1872, where it is treated as a new invention by British officers in India. [According to the author of the Badminton Library treatise on the game, it was adopted by Lieut. Sherer in 1854, and a club was formed in 1859. The same writer fixes its introduction into the Punjab and N.W.P. in 1861-62. See also an article in Baily's Magazine on "The Early History of Polo" (June 1890). The Central Asian form is described, under the name of Baiga or Kok-büra, 'grey wolf,' by Schuyler (Turkistan, i. 268 seqq.) and that in Dardistan by Biddulph (Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh, 84 seqq.).] In Ladāk it is not indigenous, but an introduction from Baltistan. See a careful and interesting account of the game of those parts in Mr. F. Drew's excellent book, The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories, 1875, pp. 380-392.
We learn from Professor Tylor that the game exists still in Japan, and a very curious circumstance is that the polo racket, just as that described by Jo. Cinnamus in the extract under CHICANE has survived there. [See Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. 333 seqq.]
1838.—"At Shighur I first saw the game of the Chaughán, which was played the day after our arrival on the Mydan or plain laid out expressly for the purpose.... It is in fact hocky on horseback. The ball, which is larger than a cricket ball, is only a globe made of a kind of willow-wood, and is called in Tibeti 'Pulu.'... I can conceive that the Chaughán requires only to be seen to be played. It is the fit sport of an equestrian nation.... The game is played at almost every valley in Little Tibet and the adjoining countries ... Ladakh, Yessen, Chitral, &c.; and I should recommend it to be tried on the Hippodrome at Bayswater...."—Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, Ladakh, Iskardo, &c. (1842), ii. 289-392.
1848.—"An assembly of all the principal inhabitants took place at Iskardo, on some occasion of ceremony or festivity.... I was thus fortunate enough to be a witness of the chaugan, which is derived from Persia, and has been described by Mr. Vigne as hocky on horseback.... Large quadrangular enclosed meadows for this game may be seen in all the larger villages of Balti, often surrounded by rows of beautiful willow and poplar trees."—Dr. T. Thomson, Himalaya and Tibet, 260-261.
1875.—
"Polo, Tent-pegging, Hurlingham, the Rink,
I leave all these delights."
Browning, Inn Album, 23.
POLLOCK-SAUG, s. Hind. pālak, pālak-sāg; a poor vegetable, called also 'country spinach' (Beta vulgaris, or B. Bengalensis, Roxb.). [Riddell (Domest. Econ. 579) calls it 'Bengal Beet.']
POLONGA, TIC-POLONGA, s. A very poisonous snake, so called in Ceylon (Bungarus? or Daboia elegans?); Singh. poloñgarā. [The Madras Gloss. identifies it with the Daboia elegans, and calls it 'Chain viper,' 'Necklace snake,' 'Russell's viper,' or cobra manilla. The Singh. name is said to be titpolanga, tit, 'spotted,' polanga, 'viper.']
POMFRET, POMPHRET, s. A genus of sea-fish of broad compressed form, embracing several species, of good repute for the table on all the Indian coasts. According to Day they are all reducible to Stromateus sinensis, 'the white Pomfret,' Str. cinereus, which is, when immature, 'the silver Pomfret,' and when mature, 'the gray Pomfret,' and Str. niger, 'the black P.' The French of Pondicherry call the fish pample. We cannot connect it with the πομπίλος of Aelian (xv. 23) and Athenaeus (Lib. VII. cap. xviii. seqq.) which is identified with a very different fish, the 'pilot-fish' (Naucrates ductor of Day). The name is probably from the Portuguese, and a corruption of pampano, 'a vine-leaf,' from supposed resemblance; this is the Portuguese name of a fish which occurs just where the pomfret should be mentioned. Thus:
1613.—"The fishes of this Mediterranean (the Malayan sea) are very savoury sables, and seer fish (serras) and pampanos, and rays...."—Godinho de Eredia, f. 33v.
[1703.—"... Albacores, Daulphins, Paumphlets."—In Yule, Hedges' Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cccxxxiv.]
1727.—"Between Cunnaca and Ballasore Rivers ... a very delicious Fish called the Pamplee, come in Sholes, and are sold for two Pence per Hundred. Two of them are sufficient to dine a moderate Man."—A. Hamilton, i. 396; [ed. 1744].
1810.—
"Another face look'd broad and bland
Like pamplet floundering on the sand;
Whene'er she turned her piercing stare,
She seemed alert to spring in air."—
Malay verses, rendered by Dr. Leyden, in Maria Graham, 201.
1813.—"The pomfret is not unlike a small turbot, but of a more delicate flavour; and epicures esteem the black pomfret a great dainty."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 52-53; [2nd ed. i. 36].
[1822.—"... the lad was brought up to catch pamphlets and bombaloes...."—Wallace, Fifteen Years in India, 106.]
1874.—"The greatest pleasure in Bombay was eating a fish called 'pomfret.'"—Sat. Rev., 30th May, 690.
[1896.—"Another account of this sort of seine fishing, for catching pomfret fish, is given by Mr. Gueritz."—Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, i. 455.]
POMMELO, PAMPELMOOSE, &c., s. Citrus decumana, L., the largest of the orange-tribe. It is the same fruit as the shaddock of the West Indies; but to the larger varieties some form of the name Pommelo seems also to be applied in the West. A small variety, with a fine skin, is sold in London shops as "the Forbidden fruit." The fruit, though grown in gardens over a great part of India, really comes to perfection only near the Equator, and especially in Java, whence it was probably brought to the continent. For it is called in Bengal Batāvī nimbū (i.e. Citrus Bataviana). It probably did not come to India till the 17th century; it is not mentioned in the Āīn. According to Bretschneider the Pommelo is mentioned in the ancient Chinese Book of the Shu-King. Its Chinese name is Yu.
The form of the name which we have put first is that now general in Anglo-Indian use. But it is probably only a modern result of 'striving after meaning' (quasi Pomo-melone?). Among older authors the name goes through many strange shapes. Tavernier calls it pompone (Voy. des Indes, liv. iii. ch. 24; [ed. Ball, ii. 360]), but the usual French name is pampel-mousse. Dampier has Pumplenose (ii. 125); Lockyer, Pumplemuse (51); Forrest, Pummel-nose (32); Ives, 'pimple-noses, called in the West Indies Chadocks' [19]. Maria Graham uses the French spelling (22). Pompoleon is a form unknown to us, but given in the Eng. Cyclopaedia. Molesworth's Marāṭhi Dict. gives "papannas, papanas, or papanis (a word of. S. America)." We are unable to give the true etymology, though Littré says boldly "Tamoul, bambolimas." Ainslie (Mat. Medica, 1813) gives Poomlimas as the Tamil, whilst Balfour (Cycl. of India) gives Pumpalimas and Bambulimas as Tamil, Bombarimasa and Pampara-panasa as Telugu, Bambali naringi as Malayālim. But if these are real words they appear to be corruptions of some foreign term. [Mr. F. Brandt points out that the above forms are merely various attempts to transliterate a word which is in Tamil pambalimāsu, while the Malayālim is bambāli-nārakam 'bambili tree.' According to the Madras Gloss. all these, as well as the English forms, are ultimately derived from the Malay pumpulmas. Mr. Skeat writes: "In an obsolete Malay dict., by Howison (1801) I find 'poomplemoos, a fruit brought from India by Captain Shaddock, the seeds of which were planted at Barbadoes,' and afterwards obtained his name: the affix moos appears to be the Dutch moes, 'vegetable.'" If this be so, the Malay is not the original form.]
PONDICHERRY, n.p. This name of what is now the chief French settlement in India, is Pudu-ch'chēri, or Puthuççēri, 'New Town,' more correctly Pudu-vai, Puthuvai, meaning 'New Place.' C. P. Brown, however, says it is Pudi-cherū, 'New Tank.' The natives sometimes write it Phulcheri. [Mr. Garstin (Man. S. Arcot, 422) says that Hindus call it Puthuvai or Puthuççeri, while Musulmans call it Pulcheri, or as the Madras Gloss. writes the word, Pulchari.]
[1683.—"... Interlopers intend to settle att Verampatnam, a place neer Pullicherry...."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. ii. 41. In iv. 113 (1685) we have Pondicherry.]
1711.—"The French and Danes likewise hire them (Portuguese) at Pont de Cheree and Trincombar."—Lockyer, 286.
1718.—"The Fifth Day we reached Budulscheri, a French Town, and the chief Seat of their Missionaries in India."—Prop. of the Gospel, p. 42.
1726.—"Poedechery," in Valentijn, Choro. 11.
1727.—"Punticherry is the next Place of Note on this Coast, a colony settled by the French."—A. Hamilton, i. 356; [ed. 1744].
1753.—"L'établissement des François à Pondicheri remonte jusqu'en l'année 1674; mais par de si foibles commencements, qu'on n'auroit eu de la peine à imaginer, que les suites en fussent aussi considerables."—D'Anville, p. 121.
1780.—"An English officer of rank, General Coote, who was unequalled among his compeers in ability and experience in war, and who had frequently fought with the French of Phoolcheri in the Karnatic and ... had as often gained the victory over them...."—H. of Hyder Naik, 413.
PONGOL, s. A festival of S. India, observed early in January. Tam. pŏngăl, 'boiling'; i.e. of the rice, because the first act in the feast is the boiling of the new rice. It is a kind of harvest-home. There is an interesting account of it by the late Mr. C. E. Gover (J. R. As. Soc. N.S. v. 91), but the connection which he traces with the old Vedic religion is hardly to be admitted. [See the meaning of the rite discussed by Dr. Fraser, Golden Bough, 2nd ed. iii. 305 seq.]
POOJA, s. Properly applied to the Hindu ceremonies in idol-worship; Skt. pūjā; and colloquially to any kind of rite. Thus jhanḍā kī pūjā, or 'Pooja of the flag,' is the sepoy term for what in St. James's Park is called 'Trooping of the colours.' [Used in the plural, as in the quotation of 1900, it means the holidays of the Durgā Pūjā or Dussera.]
[1813.—"... the Pundits in attendance commenced the pooja, or sacrifice, by pouring milk and curds upon the branches, and smearing over the leaves with wetted rice."—Broughton, Letters, ed. 1892, p. 214.]
1826.—"The person whose steps I had been watching now approached the sacred tree, and having performed puja to a stone deity at its foot, proceeded to unmuffle himself from his shawls...."—Pandurang Hari, 26; [ed. 1873, i. 34].
1866.—"Yes, Sahib, I Christian boy. Plenty poojah do. Sunday time never no work do."—Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, in Fraser, lxxiii. 226.
1874.—"The mass of the ryots who form the population of the village are too poor to have a family deity. They are forced to be content with ... the annual pujahs performed ... on behalf of the village community."—Cal. Rev. No. cxvii. 195.
1879.—"Among the curiosities of these lower galleries are little models of costumes and country scenes, among them a grand pooja under a tree."—Sat. Rev. No. 1251, p. 477.
[1900.—"Calcutta has been in the throes of the Pujahs since yesterday."—Pioneer Mail, 5 Oct.].
POOJAREE, s. Hind. pujārī. An officiating priest in an idol temple.
POOL, s. P.—H. pul, 'a bridge.' Used in two of the quotations under the next article for 'embankment.'
POOLBUNDY, s. P.—H. pulbandī, 'Securing of bridges or embankments.' A name formerly given in Bengal to a civil department in charge of the embankments. Also sometimes used improperly for the embankment itself.
[c. 1781.—"Pay your constant devoirs to Marian Allypore, or sell yourself soul and body to Poolbundy."—Ext. from Hicky's Gazette, in Busteed, Echoes of Old Calcutta, 3rd ed. 178. This refers to Impey, who was called by this name in allusion to a lucrative contract given to his relative, a Mr. Fraser.]
1786.—"That the Superintendent of Poolbundy Repairs, after an accurate and diligent survey of the bunds and pools, and the provincial Council of Burdwan ... had delivered it as their opinion...."—Articles of Charge against Warren Hastings, in Burke, vii. 98.
1802.—"The Collector of Midnapore has directed his attention to the subject of poolbundy, and in a very ample report to the Board of Revenue, has described certain abuses and oppressions, consisting chiefly of pressing ryots to work on the pools, which call aloud for a remedy."—Fifth Report, App. p. 558.
1810.—"... the whole is obliged to be preserved from inundation by an embankment called the pool bandy, maintained at a very great and regular expense."—Williamson, V. M., ii. 365.
POON, PEON, &c., s. Can. ponne, [Mal. punna, Skt. punnāga]. A timber tree (Calophyllum inophyllum, L.) which grows in the forests of Canara, &c., and which was formerly used for masts, whence also called mast-wood. [Linschoten refers to this tree, but not by name (Hak. Soc. i. 67).]
[1776.—"... Pohoon-masts, chiefly from the Malabar coast."—Grose, 2nd ed. ii. 109.]
[1773.—"Poon tree ... the wood light but tolerably strong; it is frequently used for masts, but unless great care be taken to keep the wet from the ends of it, it soon rots."—Ives, 460.]
1835.—"Peon, or Puna ... the largest sort is of a light, bright colour, and may be had at Mangalore, from the forests of Corumcul in Canara, where it grows to a length of 150 feet. At Mangalore I procured a tree of this sort that would have made a foremast for the Leander, 60-gun ship, in one piece, for 1300 Rupees."—Edye, in J. R. As. Soc. ii. 354.
POONAMALEE, n.p. A town, and formerly a military station, in the Chingleput Dist. of Madras Presidency, 13 miles west of Madras. The name is given in the Imp. Gazetteer as Pūnamallu (?), and Ponda malāi, whilst Col. Branfill gives it as "Pūntha malli for Pūvirunthamalli," without further explanation. [The Madras Gloss. gives Tam. Pundamalli, 'town of the jasmine-creeper,' which is largely grown there for the supply of the Madras markets.
POONGEE, PHOONGY, s. The name most commonly given to the Buddhist religieux in British Burma. The word (p'hun-gyi) signifies 'great glory.'
1795.—"From the many convents in the neighbourhood of Rangoon, the number of Rhahans and Phongis must be very considerable; I was told it exceeded 1500."—Symes, Embassy to Ava, 210.
1834.—"The Talapoins are called by the Burmese Phonghis, which term means great glory, or Rahans, which means perfect."—Bp. Bigandet, in J. Ind. Archip. iv. 222-3.
[1886.—"Every Burman has for some time during his life to be a Pohngee, or monk."—Lady Dufferin, Viceregal Life, 177.]
POORÁNA, s. Skt. purāṇa, 'old,' hence 'legendary,' and thus applied as a common name to 18 books which contain the legendary mythology of the Brahmans.
1651.—"As their Poranas, i.e. old histories, relate."—Rogerius, 153.
[1667.—"When they have acquired a knowledge of Sanscrit ... they generally study the Purana, which is an abridgment and interpretation of the Beths" (see VEDAS).—Bernier, ed. Constable, p. 335.]
c. 1760.—"Le puran comprend dix-huit livres qui renferment l'histoire sacrée, qui contient les dogmes de la religion des Bramines."—Encyclopédie, xxvii. 807.
1806.—"Ceux-ci, calculoient tout haut de mémoire tandis que d'autres, plus avancés, lisoient, d'un ton chantant, leurs Pourans."—Haafner, i. 130.
POORUB, and POORBEEA, ss. Hind. pūrab, pūrb, 'the East,' from Skt. pūrva or pūrba, 'in front of,' as paścha (Hind. pachham) means 'behind' or 'westerly' and dakshina, 'right-hand' or southerly. In Upper India the term means usually Oudh, the Benares division, and Behar. Hence Poorbeea (pūrbiya), a man of those countries, was, in the days of the old Bengal army, often used for a sepoy, the majority being recruited in those provinces.
[1611.—"Pierb is 400 cose long."—Jourdain, quoted in Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 538.]
1616.—"Bengala, a most spacious and fruitful province, but more properly to be called a kingdom, which hath two very large provinces within it, Purb and Patan, the one lying on the east, the other on the west side of the river."—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 357.
1666.—"La Province de Halabas s'appelloit autrefois Purop...."—Thevenot, v. 197.
[1773.—"Instead of marching with the great army he had raised into the Purbunean country ... we were informed he had turned his arms against us...."—Ives, 91.]
1881.—
"... My lands were taken away,
And the Company gave me a pension of just eight annas a day;
And the Poorbeahs swaggered about our streets as if they had done it all...."
Attar Singh loquitur, by 'Sowar,' Sir M. Durand in an Indian paper, the name and date lost.
POOTLY NAUTCH, s. Properly Hind. kāṭh-putlī-nāch, 'wooden-puppet-dance.' A puppet show.
POPPER-CAKE, in Bombay, and in Madras popadam, ss. These are apparently the same word and thing, though to the former is attributed a Hind. and Mahr. origin pāpaṛ, Skt. parpaṭa, and to the latter a Tamil one, pappaḍam, as an abbreviation of paruppu-aḍam, 'lentil cake.' [The Madras Gloss. gives Tel. appadam, Tam. appalam (see HOPPER), and Mal. pappatam, from parippu, 'dhall,' ata, 'cake.'] It is a kind of thin scone or wafer, made of any kind of pulse or lentil flour, seasoned with assafoetida, &c., fried in oil, and in W. India baked crisp, and often eaten at European tables as an accompaniment to curry. It is not bad, even to a novice.
1820.—"Papaḍoms (fine cakes made of gram-flour and a fine species of alkali, which gives them an agreeable salt taste, and serves the purpose of yeast, making them rise, and become very crisp when fried...."—As. Researches, xiii. 315.
" "Paper, the flour of ooreed (see OORD), salt, assa-foetida, and various spices, made into a paste, rolled as thin as a wafer, and dried in the sun, and when wanted for the table baked crisp...."—T. Coates, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. iii. 194.
PORCA, n.p. In Imp. Gazetteer Porakád, also called Piracada; properly Puṛākkāḍŭ, [or according to the Madras Gloss. Purakkātu, Mal. pura, 'outside,' kātu, 'jungle']. A town on the coast of Travancore, formerly a separate State. The Portuguese had a fort here, and the Dutch, in the 17th century, a factory. Fra Paolina (1796) speaks of it as a very populous city full of merchants, Mahommedan, Christian, and Hindu. It is now insignificant. [See Logan, Malabar, i. 338.]
PORCELAIN, s. The history of this word for China-ware appears to be as follows. The family of univalve mollusks called Cypraeidae, or Cowries, (q.v.) were in medieval Italy called porcellana and porcelletta, almost certainly from their strong resemblance to the body and back of a pig, and not from a grosser analogy suggested by Mahn (see in Littré sub voce). That this is so is strongly corroborated by the circumstance noted by Dr. J. E. Gray (see Eng. Cyc. Nat. Hist. s.v. Cypraeidae) that Pig is the common name of shells of this family on the English coast; whilst Sow also seems to be a name of one or more kinds. The enamel of this shell seems to have been used in the Middle Ages to form a coating for ornamental pottery, &c., whence the early application of the term porcellana to the fine ware brought from the far East. Both applications of the term, viz. to cowries and to China-ware, occur in Marco Polo (see below). The quasi-analogous application of pig in Scotland to earthen-ware, noticed in an imaginary quotation below, is probably quite an accident, for there appears to be a Gaelic pige, 'an earthen jar,' &c. (see Skeat, s.v. piggin). We should not fail to recall Dr. Johnson's etymology of porcelaine from "pour cent années," because it was believed by Europeans that the materials were matured under ground 100 years! (see quotations below from Barbosa, and from Sir Thomas Brown).
"In the XLIVth chap. of the maritime laws of Barcelona, which are undoubtedly not later than the middle of the 13th century, there are regulations for the return cargoes of the ships trading with Alexandria.... In this are enumerated among articles brought from Egypt ... cotton in bales and spun wool de capells (for hats?), porcelanas, alum, elephants' teeth...."—Memorias, Hist. de Barcelona, I. Pt. ii. p. 44.
1298.—"Il ont monoie en tel mainere con je voz dirai, car il espendent porcelaine blance, celle qe se trovent en la mer et qe se metent au cuel des chienz, et vailent les quatre-vingt porcelaines un saic d'arjent qe sunt deus venesians gros...."—Marco Polo, oldest French text, p. 132.
" "Et encore voz di qe en ceste provence, en une cité qe est apellé Tinugui, se font escuelle de porcellaine grant et pitet les plus belles qe l'en peust deviser."—Ibid. 180.
c. 1328.—"Audivi quòd ducentas civitates habet sub se imperator ille (Magnus Tartarus) majores quàm Tholosa; et ego certè credo quòd plures habeant homines.... Alia non sunt quae ego sciam in isto imperio digna relatione, nisi vasa pulcherrima, et nobilissima, atque virtuosa porseleta."—Jordani Mirabilia, p. 59.In the next passage it seems probable that the shells, and not China dishes, are intended.
In the next the shells are clearly intended:
1461.—"Porcellane pezzi 20, cioè 7 piattine, 5 scodelle, 4 grandi e una piccida, piattine 5 grandi, 3 scodelle, una biava, e due bianche."—List of Presents sent by the Soldan of Egypt to the Doge Pasquale Malepiero. In Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, xxi. col. 1170.
1475.—"The seaports of Cheen and Machin are also large. Porcelain is made there, and sold by the weight and at a low price."—Nikitin, in India in the XVth Cent., 21.
1487.—"... le mando lo inventario del presente del Soldano dato a Lorenzo ... vasi grandi di Porcellana mai più veduti simili ne meglio lavorati...."—Letter of P. da Bibbieno to Clar. de' Medici, in Roscoe's Lorenzo, ed. 1825, ii. 371.
1502.—"In questo tempo abrusiorno xxi nave sopra il porto di Calechut; et de epse hebbe tãte drogarie e speciarie che caricho le dicte sei nave. Praeterea me ha mandato sei vasi di porzellana excellitissimi et grãdi: quatro bochali de argento grandi cõ certi altri vasi al modo loro per credentia."—Letter of K. Emanuel, 13.
1516.—"They make in this country a great quantity of porcelains of different sorts, very fine and good, which form for them a great article of trade for all parts, and they make them in this way. They take the shells of sea-snails (? caracoli), and eggshells, and pound them, and with other ingredients make a paste, which they put underground to refine for the space of 80 or 100 years, and this mass of paste they leave as a fortune to their children...."—Barbosa, in Ramusio, i. 320v.
1553.—(In China) "The service of their meals is the most elegant that can be, everything being of very fine procelana (although they also make use of silver and gold plate), and they eat everything with a fork made after their fashion, never putting a hand into their food, much or little."—Barros, III. ii. 7.
1554.—(After a suggestion of the identity of the vasa murrhina of the ancients): "Ce nom de Porcelaine est donné à plusieurs coquilles de mer. Et pource qu'vn beau Vaisseau d'vne coquille de mer ne se pourroit rendre mieux à propos suyuãt le nom antique, que de l'appeller de Porceláine i'ay pensé que les coquilles polies et luysantes, resemblants à Nacre de perles, ont quelque affinité auec la matière des vases de Porcelaine antiques: ioinct aussi que le peuple Frãçois nomme les patesnostres faictes de gros vignols, patenostres de Porcelaine. Les susdicts vases de Porcelaine sont transparents, et coustent bien cher au Caire, et disent mesmement qu'ilz les apportent des Indes. Mais cela ne me sembla vraysemblable: car on n'en voirroit pas si grande quantité, ne de si grãdes pieces, s'il failloit apporter de si loing. Vne esguiere, vn pot, ou vn autre vaisseau pour petite qu'elle soit, couste vn ducat: si c'est quelque grãd vase, il coustera d'auantage."—P. Belon, Observations, f. 134.
c. 1560.—"And because there are many opinions among the Portugals which have not beene in China, about where this Porcelane is made, and touching the substance whereof it is made, some saying, that it is of oysters shels, others of dung rotten of a long time, because they were not enformed of the truth, I thought it conuenient to tell here the substance...."—Gaspar da Cruz, in Purchas, iii. 177.
[1605-6.—"... China dishes or Puselen."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 77.
[1612.—"Balanced one part with sandal wood, Porcelain and pepper."—Danvers, Letters, i. 197.]
1615.—"If we had in England beds of porcelain such as they have in China,—which porcelain is a kind of plaster buried in the earth, and by length of time congealed and glazed into that substance; this were an artificial mine, and part of that substance...."—Bacon, Argument on Impeachment of Waste; Works, by Spedding, &c., 1859, vii. 528.
c. 1630.—"The Bannyans all along the sea-shore pitch their Booths ... for there they sell Callicoes, China-satten, Purcellain-ware, scrutores or Cabbinets...."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1665, p. 45.
1650.—"We are not thoroughly resolved concerning Porcellane or China dishes, that according to common belief they are made of earth, which lieth in preparation about an hundred years underground; for the relations thereof are not only divers but contrary; and Authors agree not herein...."—Sir Thomas Browne, Vulgar Errors, ii. 5.
[1652.—"Invited by Lady Gerrard I went to London, where we had a greate supper; all the vessels, which were innumerable, were of Porcelan, she having the most ample and richest collection of that curiositie in England."—Evelyn, Diary, March 19.]
1726.—In a list of the treasures left by Akbar, which is given by Valentijn, we find:
"In Porcelyn, &c., Ropias 2507747."—iv. (Suratte), 217.
1880.—"'Vasella quidem delicatiora et caerulea et venusta, quibus inhaeret nescimus quid elegantiae, porcellana vocantur, quasi (sed nescimus quare) a porcellis. In partibus autem Britanniae quae septentrionem spectant, vocabulo forsan analogo, vasa grossiora et fusca pigs appellant barbari, quasi (sed quare iterum nescimus) a porcis.' Narrischchen und Weitgeholt, Etymol. Universale, s.v. 'Blue China.'"—Motto to An Ode in Brown Pig, St. James's Gazette, July 17.
PORGO, s. We know this word only from its occurrence in the passage quoted; and most probably the explanation suggested by the editor of the Notes is correct, viz. that it represents Port. peragua. This word is perhaps the same as pirogue, used by the French for a canoe or 'dug-out'; a term said by Littré to be (piroga) Carib. [On the passage from T. B. quoted below Sir H. Yule has the following note: "J. (i.e. T.) B., the author, gives a rough drawing. It represents the Purgoe as a somewhat high-sterned lighter, not very large, with five oar-pins a side. I cannot identify it exactly with any kind of modern boat of which I have found a representation. It is perhaps most like the palwār. I think it must be an Orissa word, but I have not been able to trace it in any dictionary, Uriya or Bengali." On this Col. Temple says: "The modern Indian palwār (Malay palwa) is a skiff, and would not answer the description." Anderson (loc. cit.) mentions that in 1685 several "well-laden Purgoes" and boats had put in for shelter at Rameswaram to the northward of Madapollam, i.e. on the Coromandel Coast. There seems to be no such word known there now. I think, however, that the term Purgoo is probably an obsolete Anglo-Indian corruption of an Indian corruption of the Port. term barco, barca, a term used for any kind of sailing boat by the early Portuguese visitors to the East (e.g. D'Alboquerque, Hak. Soc. ii. 230; Vasco da Gama, Hak. Soc. 77, 240).]
1680.—Ft. St. Geo. Consn., Jany. 30, "records arrival from the Bay of the 'Success,' the Captain of which reports that a Porgo [Peragua?, a fast-sailing vessel, Clipper] drove ashore in the Bay about Peply...."—Notes and Exts. No. iii. p. 2.
[1683.—"The Thomas arrived with ye 28 bales of Silk taken out of the Purga."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 65.
[1685.—"In Hoogly letter to Fort St. George, dated February 6 Porgo occurs coupled with 'bora' (Hind. bhar, 'a lighter')."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. iii. 165.]
PORTIA, s. In S. India the common name of the Thespesia populnea, Lam. (N.O. Malvaceae), a favourite ornamental tree, thriving best near the sea. The word is a corruption of Tamil Puarassu, 'Flower-king'; [pu-varasu, from pu, 'flower,' arasu, 'peepul tree']. In Ceylon it is called Suria gansuri, and also the Tulip-tree.
1860.—"Another useful tree, very common in Ceylon, is the Suria, with flowers so like those of a tulip that Europeans know it as the tulip tree. It loves the sea air and saline soils. It is planted all along the avenues and streets in the towns near the coast, where it is equally valued for its shade and the beauty of its yellow flowers, whilst its tough wood is used for carriage-shafts and gun-stocks."—Tennent's Ceylon, i. 117.
1861.—"It is usual to plant large branches of the portia and banyan trees in such a slovenly manner that there is little probability of the trees thriving or being ornamental."—Cleghorn, Forests and Gardens of S. India, 197.
PORTO NOVO, n.p. A town on the coast of South Arcot, 32 m. S. of Pondicherry. The first mention of it that we have found is in Bocarro, Decada, p. 42 (c. 1613). The name was perhaps intended to mean 'New Oporto,' rather than 'New Haven,' but we have not found any history of the name. [The Tamil name is Parangi-pēṭṭai, 'European town,' and it is called by Mahommedans Maḥmūd-bandar.]
PORTO PIQUENO, PORTO GRANDE, nn.pp. 'The Little Haven and the Great Haven'; names by which the Bengal ports of Satigam (q.v.) and Chatigam (see CHITTAGONG) respectively were commonly known to the Portuguese in the 16th century.
1554.—"Porto Grande de Bemgala. The maund (mão), by which they weigh all goods, contains 40 seers (ceros), each seer 182⁄5 ounces...."—A. Nunes, 37.
1568.—"Io mi parti d'Orisa per Bengala al Porto Picheno ... s'entra nel fiume Ganze, dalla bocca del qual fiume sino a Satagan (see SATIGAM) città, oue si fanno negotij, et oue i mercadanti si riducono, sono centi e venti miglia, che si fanno in diciotto hore a remi, cioè, in tre crescenti d'acqua, che sono di sei hore l'uno."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 392.
1569.—"Partissemo di Sondiua, et giungessemo in Chitigan il gran porto di Bengala, in tempo che già i Portoghesi haueuano fatto pace o tregua con i Rettori."—Ibid. 396.
1595.—"Besides, you tell me that the traffic and commerce of the Porto Pequeno of Bemguala being always of great moment, if this goes to ruin through the Mogors, they will be the masters of those tracts."—Letter of the K. of Portugal, in Archiv. Port. Orient., Fascic. 3, p. 481.
1596.—"And so he wrote me that the Commerce of Porto Grande of Bengala is flourishing, and that the King of the Country had remitted to the Portuguese 3 per cent. of the duties that they used to pay."—Ibid. p. 580.
1598.—"When you thinke you are at the point de Gualle, to be assured thereof, make towards the Iland, to know it ... where commonlie all the shippes know the land, such I say as we sayle to Bengalen, or to any of the Hauens thereof, as Porto Pequeno or Porto Grande, that is the small, or the great Haven, where the Portingalles doe traffique...."—Linschoten, Book III. p. 324.
[c. 1617.—"Port Grande, Port Pequina," in Sir T. Roe's List, Hak. Soc. ii. 538.]
POSTEEN, s. An Afghan leathern pelisse, generally of sheep-skin with the fleece on. Pers. postīn, from post, 'a hide.'
1442.—"His Majesty the Fortunate Khākān had sent for the Prince of Kālikūt, horses, pelisses (postīn) and robes woven of gold...."—Abdurazzāk, in Not. et Extr. xiv. Pt. i. 437.
[c. 1590.—"In the winter season there is no need of poshtins (fur-lined coats)...."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 337.]
1862.—"Otter skins from the Hills and Kashmir, worn as Postīns by the Yarkandis."—Punjab Trade Report, p. 65.
POTTAH, s. Hind. and other vernaculars, paṭṭā, &c. A document specifying the conditions on which lands are held; a lease or other document securing rights in land or house property.
PRA, PHRA, PRAW, s. This is a term constantly used in Burma, familiar to all who have been in that country, in its constant application as a style of respect, addressed or applied to persons and things of especial sanctity or dignity. Thus it is addressed at Court to the King; it is the habitual designation of the Buddha and his images and dagobas; of superior ecclesiastics and sacred books; corresponding on the whole in use, pretty closely to the Skt. Śṛī. In Burmese the word is written bhurā, but pronounced (in Arakan) p'hrā, and in modern Burma Proper, with the usual slurring of the r, P'hyā or Pyā. The use of the term is not confined to Burma; it is used in quite a similar way in Siam, as may be seen in the quotation below from Alabaster; the word is used in the same form P'hra among the Shans; and in the form Prea, it would seem, in Camboja. Thus Garnier speaks of Indra and Vishnu under their Cambojan epithets as Prea En and Prea Noreai (Nārāyaṇa); of the figure of Buddha entering nirvāna, as Prea Nippan; of the King who built the great temple of Angkor Wat as Prea Kot Melea, of the King reigning at the time of the expedition as Prea Ang Reachea Vodey, of various sites of temples as Preacon, Preacan, Prea Pithu, &c. (Voyage d'Exploration, i. 26, 49, 388, 77, 85, 72).
The word p'hrā appears in composition in various names of Burmese kings, as of the famous Alom-p'hra (1753-60), founder of the late dynasty, and of his son Bodoah-p'hra (1781-1819). In the former instance the name is, according to Sir A. Phayre, Alaung-p'hrā, i.e. the embryo Buddha, or Bodisatva. A familiar Siamese example of use is in the Phrā Bāt, or sacred foot-mark of Buddha, a term which represents the Śṛi Pada of Ceylon.
The late Prof. H. H. Wilson, as will be seen, supposed the word to be a corruption of Skt. prabhu (see PARVOE). But Mr. Alabaster points, under the guidance of the Siamese spelling, rather to Skt. vara, 'pre-eminent, excellent.' This is in Pali varo, "excellent, best, precious, noble" (Childers). A curious point is that, from the prevalence of the term phrā in all the Indo-Chinese kingdoms, we must conclude that it was, at the time of the introduction of Buddhism into those countries, in predominant use among the Indian or Ceylonese propagators of the new religion. Yet we do not find any evidence of such a use of either prabhu or vara. The former would in Pali be pabbho. In a short paper in the Bijdragen of the Royal Institute of the Hague (Dl. X. 4de Stuk, 1885), Prof. Kern indicates that this term was also in use in Java, in the forms Bra and pra, with the sense of 'splendid' and the like; and he cites as an example Bra-Wijaya (the style of several of the medieval kings of Java), where Bra is exactly the representative of Skt. Śṛī.
" "The Pra-Clang, or by a corruption of the Portugueses, the Barcalon, is the officer, who has the appointment of the Commerce, as well within as without the Kingdom.... His name is composed of the Balie word Pra, which I have so often discoursed of, and of the word Clang, which signifies Magazine."—Ibid. 93.
" "Then Sommona-Codom (see GAUTAMA) they call Pra-Boute-Tchaou, which verbatim signifies the Great and Excellent Lord."—Ibid. 134.
1795.—"At noon we reached Meeaday, the personal estate of the Magwoon of Pegue, who is oftener called, from this place, Meeaday Praw, or Lord of Meeaday."—Symes, Embassy to Ava, 242.
1855.—"The epithet Phra, which occupies so prominent a place in the ceremonial and religious vocabulary of the Siamese and Burmese, has been the subject of a good deal of nonsense. It is unfortunate that our Burmese scholars have never (I believe) been Sanskrit scholars, nor vice versâ, so that the Palee terms used in Burma have had little elucidation. On the word in question, Professor H. H. Wilson has kindly favoured me with a note: 'Phrá is no doubt a corruption of the Sanskrit Prabhu, a Lord or Master; the h of the aspirate bh is often retained alone, leaving Prahu which becomes Práh or Phra.'"—Sir H. Yule, Mission to Ava, 61.
1855.—"All these readings (of documents at the Court) were intoned in a high recitative, strongly resembling that used in the English cathedral service. And the long-drawn Phyá-á-á-á! (My Lord), which terminated each reading, added to the resemblance, as it came in exactly like the Amen of the Liturgy."—Ibid. 88.
1859.—"The word Phra, which so frequently occurs in this work, here appears for the first time; I have to remark that it is probably derived from, or of common origin with, the Pharaoh of antiquity. It is given in the Siamese dictionaries as synonymous with God, ruler, priest, and teacher. It is in fact the word by which sovereignty and sanctity are associated in the popular mind."—Bowring, Kingdom and People of Siam, [i. 35].
1863.—"The title of the First King (of Siam) is Phra-Chom-Klao-Yu-Hua and spoken as Phra Phutthi-Chao-Yu-Hua.... His Majesty's nose is styled in the Pali form Phra-Nasa.... The Siamese term the (Catholic) missionaries, the Preachers of the Phra-Chao Phu-Sang, i.e. of God the Creator, or the Divine Lord Builder.... The Catholic missionaries express 'God' by Phra-Phutthi-Chao ... and they explain the Eucharist as Phra-Phutthi-Kaya (Kaya = 'Body')."—Bastian, Reise, iii. 109, and 114-115.
1870.—"The most excellent Parā, brilliant in his glory, free from all ignorance, beholding Nibbāna the end of the migration of the soul, lighted the lamp of the law of the Word."—Rogers, Buddhagosha's Parables, tr. from the Burmese, p. 1.
1871.—"Phra is a Siamese word applied to all that is worthy of the highest respect, that is, everything connected with religion and royalty. It may be translated as 'holy.' The Siamese letters p—h—r commonly represent the Sanskrit v—r. I therefore presume the word to be derived from the Sanskrit 'vri'—'to choose, or to be chosen,' and 'vara'—'better, best, excellent,' the root of ἄριστος."—Alabaster, The Wheel of the Law, 164.
PRAAG, sometimes PIAGG, n.p. Properly Prayāga, 'the place of sacrifice,' the old Hindu name of Allahabad, and especially of the river confluence, since remote ages a place of pilgrimage.
c. 1020.—"... thence to the tree of Barāgi, 12 (parasangs). This is at the confluence of the Jumna and Ganges."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 55.
1529.—"The same day I swam across the river Ganges for my amusement. I counted my strokes, and found that I crossed over at 33 strokes. I then took breath and swam back to the other side. I had crossed by swimming every river that I had met with, except the Ganges. On reaching the place where the Ganges and Jumna unite, I rowed over in the boat to the Piâg side...."—Baber, 406.
1585.—"... Frõ Agra I came to Prage, where the riuer Jemena entreth into the mightie riuer Ganges, and Iemena looseth his name."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 386.
PRACRIT, s. A term applied to the older vernacular dialects of India, such as were derived from, or kindred to, Sanskrit. Dialects of this nature are used by ladies, and by inferior characters, in the Sanskrit dramas. These dialects, and the modern vernaculars springing from them, bear the same relation to Sanskrit that the "Romance" languages of Europe bear to Latin, an analogy which is found in many particulars to hold with most surprising exactness. The most completely preserved of old Prakrits is that which was used in Magadha, and which has come down in the Buddhist books of Ceylon under the name of Pali (q.v.). The first European analysis of this language bears the title "Institutiones Linguae Pracriticae. Scripsit Christianus Lassen, Bonnae ad Rhenum, 1837." The term itself is Skt. prākṛita, 'natural, unrefined, vulgar,' &c.
PRAYA, s. This is in Hong-Kong the name given to what in most foreign settlements in China is called the Bund; i.e. the promenade or drive along the sea. It is Port. praia, 'the shore.'
PRESIDENCY (and PRESIDENT), s. The title 'President,' as applied to the Chief of a principal Factory, was in early popular use, though in the charters of the E.I.C. its first occurrence is in 1661 (see Letters Patent, below). In Sainsbury's Calendar we find letters headed "to Capt. Jourdain, president of the English at Bantam" in 1614 (i. 297-8); but it is to be doubted whether this wording is in the original. A little later we find a "proposal by Mr. Middleton concerning the appointment of two especial factors, at Surat and Bantam, to have authority over all other factors; Jourdain named." And later again he is styled "John Jourdain, Captain of the house" (at Bantam; see pp. 303, 325), and "Chief Merchant at Bantam" (p. 343).
" "Our boat going ashore, the President of the English Merchants, who usually resides in Surat, and is chief of all their business in the E. Indies, Persia, and other places dependent thereon, and who is called Sign. Thomas Rastel[31] ... came aboard in our said boat, with a minister of theirs (so they term those who do the priest's office among them)."—Ibid. ii. 501-2; [Hak. Soc. i. 19].
1638.—"As soon as the Commanders heard that the (English) President was come to Suhaly, they went ashore.... The two dayes following were spent in feasting, at which the Commanders of the two Ships treated the President, who afterwards returned to Suratta.... During my abode at Suratta, I wanted for no divertisement; for I ... found company at the Dutch President's, who had his Farms there ... inasmuch as I could converse with them in their own Language."—Mandelslo, E.T., ed. 1669, p. 19.
1638.—"Les Anglois ont bien encore vn bureau à Bantam, dans l'Isle de Jaua, mais il a son President particulier, qui ne depend point de celuy de Suratta."—Mandelslo, French ed. 1659, p. 124.
" "A mon retour à Suratta ie trouvay dans la loge des Anglois plus de cinquante marchands, que le President auoit fait venir de tous les autres Bureaux, pour rendre compte de leur administration, et pour estre presens à ce changement de Gouuernement."—Ibid. 188.
1661.—"And in case any Person or Persons, being convicted and sentenced by the President and Council of the said Governor and Company, in the said East Indies, their Factors or Agents there, for any Offence by them done, shall appeal from the same, that then, and in every such case, it shall and may be lawful to and for the said President and Council, Factor or Agent, to seize upon him or them, and to carry him or them home Prisoners to England."—Letters Patent to the Governor and Company of Merchants of London, trading with the E. Indies, 3d April.
1670.—The Court, in a letter to Fort St. George, fix the amount of tonnage to be allowed to their officers (for their private investments) on their return to Europe:
| "Presidents and Agents, at Surat, Fort St. George, and Bantam |
5 tonns. |
| Chiefes, at Persia, the Bay (q.v.), Mesulapatam, and Macassar: Deputy at Bombay, and Seconds at Surat, Fort St. George, and Bantam |
3 tonns." |
| In Notes and Exts., No. i. p. 3. | |
The book containing this is a collocation of fragmentary MS. diaries. But this passage pertains apparently to the proceedings of President Allen Catchpole and his council, belonging to the Factory of Chusan, from which they were expelled by the Chinese in 1701-2; they stayed some time at Batavia on their way home. Mr. Catchpole (or Ketchpole) was soon afterwards chief of an English settlement made upon Pulo Condore, off the Cambojan coast. In 1704-5, we read that he reported favourably on the prospects of the settlement, requesting a supply of young writers, to learn the Chinese language, anticipating that the island would soon become an important station for Chinese trade. But Catchpole was himself, about the end of 1705, murdered by certain people of Macassar, who thought he had broken faith with them, and with him all the English but two (see Bruce's Annals, 483-4, 580, 606, and A. Hamilton, ii. 205 [ed. 1744]). The Pulo Condore enterprise thus came to an end.
PRICKLY-HEAT, s. A troublesome cutaneous rash (Lichen tropicus) in the form of small red pimples, which itch intolerably. It affects many Europeans in the hot weather. Fryer (pub. 1698) alludes to these "fiery pimples," but gives the disease no specific name. Natives sometimes suffer from it, and (in the south) use a paste of sandal-wood to alleviate it. Sir Charles Napier in Sind used to suffer much from it, and we have heard him described as standing, when giving an interview during the hot weather, with his back against the edge of an open door, for the convenience of occasional friction against it. [See RED-DOG.]
1665.—"The Sun is but just now rising, yet he is intolerable; there is not a Cloud in the Sky, not a breath of Wind; my horses are spent, they have not seen a green Herb since we came out of Lahor; my Indians, for all their black, dry, and hard skin, sink under it. My face, hands and feet are peeled off, and my body is covered all over with pimples that prick me, as so many needles."—Bernier, E.T. 125; [ed. Constable, 389].
[1673.—"This Season ... though moderately warm, yet our Bodies broke out into small fiery Pimples (a sign of a prevailing Crasis) augmented by Muskeetoe-Bites, and Chinces raising Blisters on us."—Fryer, 35.]
1807.—"One thing I have forgotten to tell you of—the prickly heat. To give you some notion of its intensity, the placid Lord William (Bentinck) has been found sprawling on a table on his back; and Sir Henry Gwillin, one of the Madras Judges, who is a Welshman, and a fiery Briton in all senses, was discovered by a visitor rolling on his own floor, roaring like a baited bull."—Lord Minto in India, June 29.
1813.—"Among the primary effects of a hot climate (for it can hardly be called a disease) we may notice prickly heat."—Johnson, Influence of Trop. Climates, 25.
PRICKLY-PEAR, s. The popular name, in both E. and W. Indies, of the Opuntia Dillenii, Haworth (Cactus Indica, Roxb.), a plant spread all over India, and to which Roxburgh gave the latter name, apparently in the belief of its being indigenous in that country. Undoubtedly, however, it came from America, wide as has been its spread over Southern Europe and Asia. On some parts of the Mediterranean shores (e.g. in Sicily) it has become so characteristic that it is hard to realize the fact that the plant had no existence there before the 16th century. Indeed at Palermo we have heard this scouted, and evidence quoted in the supposed circumstance that among the mosaics of the splendid Duomo of Monreale (12th century) the fig-leaf garments of Adam and Eve are represented as of this uncompromising material. The mosaic was examined by one of the present writers, with the impression that the belief has no good foundation. [See 8th ser. Notes and Queries, viii. 254.] The cactus fruit, yellow, purple, and red, which may be said to form an important article of diet in the Mediterranean, and which is now sometimes seen in London shops, is not, as far as we know, anywhere used in India, except in times of famine. No cactus is named in Drury's Useful Plants of India. And whether the Mediterranean plants form a different species, or varieties merely, as compared with the Indian Opuntia, is a matter for inquiry. The fruit of the Indian plant is smaller and less succulent. There is a good description of the plant and fruit in Oviedo, with a good cut (see Ramusio's Ital. version, bk. viii. ch. xxv.). That author gives an amusing story of his first making acquaintance with the fruit in S. Domingo, in the year 1515.
Some of the names by which the Opuntia is known in the Punjab seem to belong properly to species of Euphorbia. Thus the Euphorbia Royleana, Bois., is called tsūī, chū, &c.; and the Opuntia is called Kābulī tsūī, Gangi sho, Kanghi chū, &c. Gangi chū is also the name of an Euphorbia sp. which Dr. Stewart takes to be the E. Neriifolia, L. (Punjab Plants, pp. 101 and 194-5). [The common name in Upper India for the prickly pear is nāgphanī, 'snake-hood,' from its shape.] This is curious; for although certain cactuses are very like certain Euphorbias, there is no Euphorbia resembling the Opuntia in form.
The Zaḳūm mentioned in the Āīn (Gladwin, 1800, ii. 68; [Jarrett, ii. 239; Sidi Ali, ed. Vambery, p. 31] as used for hedges in Guzerat, is doubtless Euphorbia also. The Opuntia is very common as a hedge plant in cantonments, &c., and it was much used by Tippoo as an obstruction round his fortifications. Both the E. Royleana and the Opuntia are used for fences in parts of the Punjab. The latter is objectionable, from harbouring dirt and reptiles; but it spreads rapidly both from birds eating the fruit, and from the facility with which the joints take root.
1764.—
"On this lay cuttings of the prickly pear;
They soon a formidable fence will shoot."
Grainger, Bk. i.
[1829.—"The castle of Bunai ... is covered with the cactus, or prickly pear, so abundant on the east side of the Aravali."—Tod, Annals, Calcutta reprint, i. 826.]
1861.—"The use of the prickly pear" (for hedges) "I strongly deprecate; although impenetrable and inexpensive, it conveys an idea of sterility, and is rapidly becoming a nuisance in this country."—Cleghorn, Forests and Gardens, 285.
PROME, n.p. An important place in Pegu above the Delta. The name is Talaing, properly Brun. The Burmese call it Pyé or (in the Aracanese form in which the r is pronounced) Pré and Pré-myo ('city').
c. 1609.—"... this quarrel was hardly ended when a great rumour of arms was heard from a quarter where the Portuguese were still fighting. The cause of this was the arrival of 12,000 men, whom the King of Pren sent in pursuit of the King of Arracan, knowing that he had fled that way. Our people hastening up had a stiff and well fought combat with them; for although they were fatigued with the fight which had been hardly ended, those of Pren were so disheartened at seeing the Portuguese, whose steel they had already felt, that they were fain to retire."—Bocarro, 142. This author has Prom (p. 132) and Porão (p. 149). [Also see under AVA.]
1755.—"Prone ... has the ruins of an old brick wall round it, and immediately without that, another with Teak Timber."—Capt. G. Baker, in Dalrymple, i. 173.
1795.—"In the evening, my boat being ahead, I reached the city of Peeaye-mew, or Prome, ... renowned in Birman history."—Symes, pp. 238-9.
PROW, PARAO, &c., s. This word seems to have a double origin in European use; the Malayāl. pāṛu, 'a boat,' and the Island word (common to Malay, Javanese, and most languages of the Archipelago) prāū or prāhū. This is often specifically applied to a peculiar kind of galley, "Malay Prow," but Crawfurd defines it as "a general term for any vessel, but generally for small craft." It is hard to distinguish between the words, as adopted in the earlier books, except by considering date and locality.
1510.—(At Calicut) "Some other small ships are called Parao, and they are boats of ten paces each, and are all of a piece, and go with oars made of cane, and the mast also is made of cane."—Varthema, 154.
1510.—"The other Persian said: 'O Sir, what shall we do?' I replied: 'Let us go along this shore till we find a parao, that is, a small bark.'"—Ibid. 269.
1518.—"Item; that any one possessing a zambuquo (see SAMBOOK) or a parao of his own and desiring to go in it may do so with all that belongs to him, first giving notice two days before to the Captain of the City."—Livro dos Privilegios da Cidade de Goa, in Archiv. Port. Orient. Fascic. v. p. 7.
1523.—"When Dom Sancho (Dom Sancho Anriquez; see Correa, ii. 770) went into Muar to fight with the fleet of the King of Bintam which was inside the River, there arose a squall which upset all our paraos and lancharas at the bar mouth...."—Lembrança de Cousas de India, p. 5.
1582.—"Next daye after the Capitaine Generall with all his men being a land, working upon the ship called Berrio, there came in two little Paraos."—Castañeda (tr. by N. L.), f. 62v.
1586.—"The fifth and last festival, which is called Sapan Donon, is one in which the King (of Pegu) is embarked in the most beautiful parò, or boat...."—G. Balbi, f. 122.
1606.—Gouvea (f. 27v) uses parò.
" "An howre after this comming a board of the hollanders came a prawe or a canow from Bantam."—Middleton's Voyage, c. 3 (v).
[1611.—"The Portuguese call their own galiots Navires (navios) and those of the Malabars, Pairaus. Most of these vessels were Chetils (see CHETTY), that is to say merchantmen. Immediately on arrival the Malabars draw up their Pados or galliots on the beach."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 345.
1623.—"In the Morning we discern'd four ships of Malabar Rovers near the shore (they called them Paroes and they goe with Oars like our Galeots or Foists."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 201.]
[1666.—"Con secreto previno Lope de Soarez veinte bateles, y gobernandolo y entrando por un rio, hallaron el peligro de cinco naves y ochenta paraos con mucha gente resuelta y de valor."—Faria y Sousa, Asia, i. 66.
1673.—"They are owners of several small Provoes, of the same make, and Canooses, cut out of one entire Piece of Wood."—Fryer, 20. Elsewhere (e.g. 57, 59) he has Proes.
1727.—"The Andemaners had a yearly Custom to come to the Nicobar Islands, with a great number of small Praws, and kill or take Prisoners as many of the poor Nicobareans as they could overcome."—A. Hamilton, ii. 65 [ed. 1744].
1816.—"... Prahu, a term under which the Malays include every description of vessel."—Raffles, in As. Res. xii. 132.
1817.—"The Chinese also have many brigs ... as well as native-built prahus."—Raffles, Java, i. 203.
1868.—"On December 13th I went on board a prau bound for the Aru Islands."—Wallace, Malay Archip. 227.
PUCKA, adj. Hind. pakkā, 'ripe, mature, cooked'; and hence substantial, permanent, with many specific applications, of which examples have been given under the habitually contrasted term cutcha (q.v.). One of the most common uses in which the word has become specific is that of a building of brick and mortar, in contradistinction to one of inferior material, as of mud, matting, or timber. Thus:
1784.—"The House, Cook-room, bottle-connah, godown, &c., are all pucka-built."—In Seton-Karr, i. 41.
1824.—"A little above this beautiful stream, some miserable pucka sheds pointed out the Company's warehouses."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 259-60.
1842.—"I observe that there are in the town (Dehli) many buildings pucka-built, as it is called in India."—Wellington to Ld. Ellenborough, in Indian Adm. of Ld. E., p. 306.
1857.—"Your Lahore men have done nobly. I should like to embrace them; Donald, Roberts, Mac, and Dick are, all of them, pucca trumps."—Lord Lawrence, in Life, ii. 11.
1869.—"... there is no surer test by which to measure the prosperity of the people than the number of pucka houses that are being built."—Report of a Sub-Committee on Proposed Indian Census.
This application has given rise to a substantive pucka, for work of brick and mortar, or for the composition used as cement and plaster.
1727.—"Fort William was built on an irregular Tetragon of Brick and Mortar, called Puckah, which is a Composition of Brick-dust, Lime, Molasses, and cut Hemp, and when it comes to be dry, it is as hard and tougher than firm Stone or Brick."—A. Hamilton, ii. 19; [ed. 1744, ii. 7].The word was also sometimes used substantively for "pucka pice" (see CUTCHA).
In (Stockdale's) Indian Vocabulary of 1788 we find another substantive use, but it was perhaps even then inaccurate.
Another habitual application of pucka and cutcha distinguishes between two classes of weights and measures. The existence of twofold weight, the pucka ser and the cutcha, used to be very general in India. It was equally common in Medieval Europe. Almost every city in Italy had its libra grossa and libra sottile (e.g. see Pegolotti, 4, 34, 153, 228, &c.), and we ourselves still have them, under the names of pound avoirdupois and pound troy.
1760.—"Les pacca cosses ... repondent à une lieue de l'Isle de France."—Lett. Edif. xv. 189.
1803.—"If the rice should be sent to Coraygaum, it should be in sufficient quantities to give 72 pucca seers for each load."—Wellington, Desp. (ed. 1837), ii. 43.In the next quotation the terms apply to the temporary or permanent character of the appointments held.
The remaining quotations are examples of miscellaneous use:
The word has spread to China:
"Dis pukka sing-song makee show
How smart man make mistake, galow."
Leland, Pidgin English Sing-Song, 54.
PUCKAULY, s.; also PUCKAUL. Hind. pakhālī, 'a water-carrier.' In N. India the pakhāl [Skt. payas, 'water,' khalla, 'skin'] is a large water-skin (an entire ox-hide) of some 20 gallons content, of which a pair are carried by a bullock, and the pakhālī is the man who fills the skins, and supplies the water thus. In the Madras Drill Regulations for 1785 (33), ten puckalies are allowed to a battalion. (See also Williamson's V. M. (1810), i. 229.)
1780.—"There is another very necessary establishment to the European corps, which is two buccalies to each company: these are two large leathern bags for holding water, slung upon the back of a bullock...."—Munro's Narrative, 183.
1803.—"It (water) is brought by means of bullocks in leathern bags, called here puckally bags, a certain number of which is attached to every regiment and garrison in India. Black fellows called Puckauly-boys are employed to fill the bags, and drive the bullocks to the quarters of the different Europeans."—Percival's Ceylon, 102.
1804.—"It would be a much better arrangement to give the adjutants of corps an allowance of 26 rupees per mensam, to supply two puckalie men, and two bullocks with bags, for each company."—Wellington, iii. 509.
1813.—"In cities, in the armies, and with Europeans on country excursions, the water for drinking is usually carried in large leather bags called pacaulies, formed by the entire skin of an ox."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 140; [2nd ed. i. 415].
1842.—"I lost no time in confidentially communicating with Capt. Oliver on the subject of trying some experiments as to the possibility of conveying empty 'puckalls' and 'mussucks' by sea to Suez."—Sir G. Arthur, in Ellenborough's Ind. Admin. 219.
[1850.—"On the reverse flank of companies march the Pickalliers, or men driving bullocks, carrying large leather bags filled with water...."—Hervey, Ten Years in India, iii. 335.]
PUCKEROW, v. This is properly the imperative of the Hind. verb pakṛānā, 'to cause to be seized,' pakṛāo, 'cause him to be seized'; or perhaps more correctly of a compound verb pakaṛāo, 'seize and come,' or in our idiom, 'Go and seize.' But puckerow belongs essentially to the dialect of the European soldier, and in that becomes of itself a verb 'to puckerow,' i.e. to lay hold of (generally of a recalcitrant native). The conversion of the Hind. imperative into an Anglo-Indian verb infinitive, is not uncommon; compare bunow, dumbcow, gubbrow, lugow, &c.
PUDIPATAN, n.p. The name of a very old seaport of Malabar, which has now ceased to have a place in the Maps. It lay between Cannanore and Calicut, and must have been near the Waddakaré of K. Johnston's Royal Atlas. [It appears in the map in Logan's Malabar as Putuppatanam or Putappanam.] The name is Tamil, Pudupaṭṭana, 'New City.' Compare true form of Pondicherry.
c. 1342.—"Buddfattan, which is a considerable city, situated upon a great estuary.... The haven of this city is one of the finest; the water is good, the betel-nut is abundant, and is exported thence to India and China."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 87.
c. 1420.—"A quâ rursus se diebus viginti terrestri viâ contulit ad urbem portumque maritimum nomine Pudifetaneam."—Conti, in Poggio, de Var. Fort.
1516.—"... And passing those places you come to a river called Pudripatan, in which there is a good place having many Moorish merchants who possess a multitude of ships, and here begins the Kingdom of Calicut."—Barbosa, in Ramusio, i. f. 311v. See also in Stanley's Barbosa Pudopatani, and in Tohfat-ul-Mujahideen, by Rowlandson, pp. 71, 157, where the name (Budfattan) is misread Buduftun.
[PUG, s. Hind. pag, Skt. padaka, 'a foot'; in Anglo-Indian use the footmarks of an animal, such as a tiger.
PUGGRY, PUGGERIE, s. Hind. pagṛī, 'a turban.' The term being often used in colloquial for a scarf of cotton or silk wound round the hat in turban-form, to protect the head from the sun, both the thing and name have of late years made their way to England, and may be seen in London shop-windows.
[1627.—"... I find it is the common mode of the Eastern People to shave the head all save a long lock which superstitiously they leave at the very top, such especially as wear Turbans, Mandils, Dustars, and Puggarees."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 140.]
1673.—"They are distinguished, some according to the consanguinity they claim with Mahomet, as a Siad is akin to that Imposture, and therefore only assumes to himself a Green Vest and Puckery (or Turbat)...."—Fryer, 93; [comp. 113].
1689.—"... with a Puggaree or Turbant upon their Heads."—Ovington, 314.
1871.—"They (the Negro Police in Demarara) used frequently to be turned out to parade in George Town streets, dressed in a neat uniform, with white puggries framing in their ebony faces."—Jenkins, The Coolie.
PUGGY, s. Hind. pagī (not in Shakespear's Dict., nor in Platts), from pag (see PUG), 'the foot.' A professional tracker; the name of a caste, or rather an occupation, whose business is to track thieves by footmarks and the like. On the system, see Burton, Sind Revisited, i. 180 seqq.
PUHUR, PORE, PYRE, &c., s. Hind. pahar, pahr, from Skt. prahara. 'A fourth part of the day and of the night, a watch' or space of 8 ghaṛīs (see GHURRY).
[c. 1590.—"The Hindu philosophers divide the day and night into four parts, each of which they call a pahr."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, iii. 15.]
1633.—"Par." See under GHURRY.
1673.—"Pore." See under GONG.
1803.—"I have some Jasooses selected by Col. C's brahmin for their stupidity, that they might not pry into state secrets, who go to Sindia's camp, remain there a phaur in fear...."—M. Elphinstone, in Life, i. 62.
PULÁ, s. In Tamil pillai, Malayāl. pilla, 'child'; the title of a superior class of (so-called) Śūdras, [especially curnums]. In Cochin and Travancore it corresponds with Nāyar (see NAIR). It is granted by the sovereign, and carries exemption from customary manual labour.
PULICAT, n.p. A town on the Madras coast, which was long the seat of a Dutch factory. Bp. Caldwell's native friend Seshagiri Śāstri gives the proper name as pala-Vêlkāḍu, 'old Velkāḍu or Verkāḍu,' the last a place-name mentioned in the Tamil Sivaite Tevāram (see also Valentijn below). [The Madras Gloss. gives Pazhaverk-kādu, 'old acacia forest,' which is corroborated by Dr. Hultzsch (Epigraphia Indica, i. 398).]
1533.—"The said Armenian, having already been at the city of Paleacate, which is in the Province of Choromandel and the Kingdom of Bisnaga, when on his way to Bengal, and having information of the place where the body of S. Thomas was said to be, and when they arrived at the port of Paleacate the wind was against their going on...."—Barros, III. vii. 11.
[1611.—"The Dutch had settled a factory at Pellacata."—Danvers, Letters, i. 133; in Foster, ii. 83, Pollicat.]
1726.—"Then we come to Palleam Wedam Caddoe, called by us for shortness Palleacatta, which means in Malabars 'The old Fortress,' though most commonly we call it Castle Geldria."—Valentijn, Chorom. 13.
" "The route I took was along the strip of country between Porto Novo and Paleiacatta. This long journey I travelled on foot; and preached in more than a hundred places...."—Letter of the Missionary Schultze, July 19, in Notices of Madras, &c., p. 20.
1727.—"Policat is the next Place of Note to the City and Colony of Fort St George.... It is strengthned with two Forts, one contains a few Dutch soldiers for a Garrison, the other is commanded by an Officer belonging to the Mogul."—A. Hamilton, i. 372, [ed. 1744].
[1813.—"Pulecat handkerchiefs." See under PIECE-GOODS.]
PULTUN, s. Hind. palṭan, a corruption of Battalion, possibly with some confusion of platoon or péloton. The S. India form is pataulam, patālam. It is the usual native word for a regiment of native infantry; it is never applied to one of Europeans.
PULWAH, PULWAR, s. One of the native boats used on the rivers of Bengal, carrying some 12 to 15 tons. Hind. palwār. [For a drawing see Grierson, Bihar Village Life, p. 42.]
[1767.—"... a Peon came twice to Noon-golah, to apply for polwars...."—Verelst, View of Bengal, App. 197.]
1780.—"Besides this boat, a gentleman is generally attended by two others; a pulwah for the accommodation of the kitchen, and a smaller boat, a paunchway" (q.v.).—Hodges, p. 39.
1782.—"To be sold, Three New Dacca Pulwars, 60 feet long, with Houses in the middle of each."—India Gazette, Aug. 31.
1824.—"The ghât offered a scene of bustle and vivacity which I by no means expected. There were so many budgerows and pulwars, that we had considerable difficulty to find a mooring place."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 131.
1860.—"The Pulwar is a smaller description of native travelling boat, of neater build, and less rusticity of character, sometimes used by a single traveller of humble means, and at others serves as cook-boat and accommodation for servants accompanying one of the large kind of boats...."—Grant, Rural Life in Bengal, p. 7, with an illustration.
PULWAUN, s. P.—H. pahlwān, [which properly means 'a native of ancient Persia' (see PAHLAVI). Mr. Skeat notes that in Malay the word becomes pahlāwan, probably from a confusion with Malay āwan, 'to fight']. A champion; a professed wrestler or man of strength.
[1813.—"When his body has by these means imbibed an additional portion of vigour, he is dignified by the appellation of Puhlwan."—Broughton, Letters, ed. 1892, p. 165.]
1828.—"I added a pehlivân or prize-fighter, a negro whose teeth were filed into saws, of a temper as ferocious as his aspect, who could throw any man of his weight to the ground, carry a jackass, devour a sheep whole, eat fire, and make a fountain of his inside, so as to act as a spout."—Hajji Baba in England, i. 15.
PUN, s. A certain number of cowries, generally 80; Hind. paṇa. (See under COWRY). The Skt. paṇa is 'a stake played for a price, a sum,' and hence both a coin (whence fanam, q.v.) and a certain amount of cowries.
1683.—"I was this day advised that Mr. Charnock putt off Mr. Ellis's Cowries at 34 pund to ye Rupee in payment of all ye Peons and Servants of the Factory, whereas 38 punds are really bought by him for a Rupee...."—Hedges, Diary, Oct. 2; [Hak. Soc. i. 122].
1760.—"We now take into consideration the relief of the menial servants of this Settlement, respecting the exorbitant price of labor exacted from them by tailors, washermen, and barbers, which appear in near a quadruple (pro)portion compared with the prices paid in 1755. Agreed, that after the 1st of April they be regulated as follows:
PUNCH, s. This beverage, according to the received etymology, was named from the Pers. panj, or Hind. and Mahr. pānch, both meaning 'five'; because composed of five ingredients, viz. arrack, sugar, lime-juice, spice, and water. Fryer may be considered to give something like historical evidence of its origin; but there is also something of Indian idiom in the suggestion. Thus a famous horse-medicine in Upper India is known as battīsī, because it is supposed to contain 32 ('battīs') ingredients. Schiller, in his Punschlied, sacrificing truth to trope, omits the spice and makes the ingredients only 4: "Vier Elemente Innig gesellt, Bilden das Leben, Bauen die Welt."
The Greeks also had a "Punch," πενταπλόα, as is shown in the quotation from Athenaeus. Their mixture does not sound inviting. Littré gives the etymology correctly from the Pers. panj, but the 5 elements à la française, as tea, sugar, spirit, cinnamon, and lemon-peel,—no water therefore!
Some such compound appears to have been in use at the beginning of the 17th century under the name of Larkin (q.v.). Both Dutch and French travellers in the East during that century celebrate the beverage under a variety of names which amalgamate the drink curiously with the vessel in which it was brewed. And this combination in the form of Bole-ponjis was adopted as the title of a Miscellany published in 1851, by H. Meredith Parker, a Bengal civilian, of local repute for his literary and dramatic tastes. He had lost sight of the original authorities for the term, and his quotation is far astray. We give them correctly below.
1638.—"This voyage (Gombroon to Surat) ... we accomplished in 19 days.... We drank English beer, Spanish sack, French wine, Indian spirit, and good English water, and made good Palepunzen."—Mandelslo, (Dutch ed. 1658), p. 24. The word Palepunzen seems to have puzzled the English translator (John Davis, 2nd ed. 1669), who has "excellent good sack, English beer, French wines, Arak, and other refreshments." (p. 10).
1653.—"Bolleponge est vn mot Anglois, qui signifie vne boisson dont les Anglois vsent aux Indes faite de sucre, suc de limon, eau de vie, fleur de muscade, et biscuit roty."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 534.
[1658.—"Arriued this place where found the Bezar almost Burnt and many of the People almost starued for want of Foode which caused much Sadnes in Mr. Charnock and my Selfe, but not soe much as the absence of your Company, which wee haue often remembered in a bowle of the cleerest Punch, hauing noe better Liquor."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. iii. cxiv.]
1659.—"Fürs Dritte, Pale bunze getituliret, von halb Wasser, halb Brantwein, dreyssig, vierzig Limonien, deren Körnlein ausgespeyet werden, und ein wenig Zucker eingeworfen; wie dem Geschmack so angenehm nicht, also auch der Gesundheit nicht."—Saar, ed. 1672, 60.
[1662.—"Amongst other spirituous drinks, as Punch, &c., they gave us Canarie that had been carried to and fro from the Indies, which was indeed incomparably good."—Evelyn, Diary, Jan. 16.]
c. 1666.—"Néanmoins depuis qu'ils (les Anglois) ont donné ordre, aussi bien que les Hollandois, que leurs equipages ne boivent point tant de Bouleponges ... il n'y a pas tant de maladies, et il ne leur meurt plus tant de monde. Bouleponge est un certain breuvage composé d'arac ... avec du suc de limons, de l'eau, et un peu de muscade rapée dessus: il est assez agréable au gout, mais c'est la peste du corps et de la santé."—Bernier, ed. 1723, ii. 335 (Eng. Tr. p. 141); [ed. Constable, 441].
1670.—"Doch als men zekere andere drank, die zij Paleponts noemen, daartusschen drinkt, zo word het quaat enigsins geweert."—Andriesz, 9. Also at p. 27, "Palepunts."We find this blunder of the compound word transported again to England, and explained as a 'hard word.'
"There are many fruites to which the Hollanders and the English add a certain beverage that they compound of lemon-juice, aqua-vitae, sugar, and nutmegs, to quench their thirst, and this, in my belief, augments not a little the evil influence."—Viaggio, p. 103.
1673.—"At Nerule is the best Arach or Nepa (see NIPA) de Goa, with which the English on this Coast make that enervating Liquor called Paunch (which is Indostan for Five), from Five Ingredients; as the Physicians name their Composition Diapente; or from four things, Diatessaron."—Fryer, 157.
1674.—"Palapuntz, a kind of Indian drink, consisting of Aqua-vitae, Rose-water, juyce of Citrons and Sugar."—Glossographia, &c., by T. E.
[1675.—"Drank part of their boules of Punch (a liquor very strange to me)."—H. Teonge, Diary, June 1.]
1682.—"Some (of the Chinese in Batavia) also sell Sugar-beer, as well as cooked dishes and Sury (see SURA), arak or Indian brandy; wherefrom they make Mussak and Follepons, as the Englishmen call it."—Nieuhoff, Zee en Lant-Reize, ii. 217.
1683.—"... Our owne people and mariners who are now very numerous, and insolent among us, and (by reason of Punch) every day give disturbance."—Hedges, Diary, Oct. 8; [Hak. Soc. i. 123].
1688.—"... the soldiers as merry as Punch could make them."—In Wheeler, i. 187.
1689.—"Bengal (Arak) is much stronger spirit than that of Goa, tho' both are made use of by the Europeans in making Punch."—Ovington, 237-8.
1694.—"If any man comes into a victualling house to drink punch, he may demand one quart good Goa arak, half a pound of sugar, and half a pint of good lime water, and make his own punch...."—Order Book of Bombay Govt., quoted by Anderson, p. 281.
1705.—"Un bon repas chez les Anglais ne se fait point sans bonne ponse qu'on sert dans un grand vase."—Sieur Luillier, Voy. aux Grandes Indes, 29.
1771.—"Hence every one (at Madras) has it in his Power to eat well, tho' he can afford no other Liquor at Meals than Punch, which is the common Drink among Europeans, and here made in the greatest Perfection."—Lockyer, 22.
1724.—"Next to Drams, no Liquor deserves more to be stigmatised and banished from the Repasts of the Tender, Valetudinary, and Studious, than Punch."—G. Cheyne, An Essay on Health and Longevity, p. 58.
1791.—"Dès que l'Anglais eut cessé de manger, le Paria ... fit un signe à sa femme, qui apporta ... une grande calebasse pleine de punch, qu'elle avoit preparé, pendant le souper, avec de l'eau, et du jus de citron, et du jus de canne de sucre...."—B. de St. Pierre, Chaumière Indienne, 56.
PUNCH-HOUSE, s. An Inn or Tavern; now the term is chiefly used by natives (sometimes in the hybrid form Punch-ghar, [which in Upper India is now transferred to the meeting-place of a Municipal Board]) at the Presidency towns, and applied to houses frequented by seamen. Formerly the word was in general Anglo-Indian use. [In the Straits the Malay Panc-haus is, according to Mr. Skeat, still in use, though obsolescent.]
1671-2.—"It is likewise enordered and declared hereby that no Victuallar, Punch-house, or other house of Entertainment shall be permitted to make stoppage at the pay day of their wages...."—Rules, in Wheeler, iii. 423.
1676.—Major Puckle's "Proposals to the Agent about the young men at Metchlepatam.
"That some pecuniary mulct or fine be imposed ... for misdemeanours.
* * * * *
"6. Going to Punch or Rack-houses without leave or warrantable occasion.
"Drubbing any of the Company's Peons or servants."
* * * * *
—In Notes and Exts., No. I. p. 40.
1688.—"... at his return to Achen he constantly frequented an English Punch-house, spending his Gold very freely."—Dampier, ii. 134.
" "Mrs. Francis, wife to the late Lieutenant Francis killed at Hoogly by the Moors, made it her petition that she might keep a Punch-house for her maintenance."—In Wheeler, i. 184.
1697.—"Monday, 1st April ... Mr. Cheesely having in a Punch-house, upon a quarrel of words, drawn his Sword ... and being taxed therewith, he both doth own and justify the drawing of the sword ... it thereupon ordered not to wear a sword while here."—In Wheeler, i. 320.
1727.—"... Of late no small Pains and Charge have been bestowed on its Buildings (of the Fort at Tellichery); but for what Reason I know not ... unless it be for small Vessels ... or to protect the Company's Ware-house, and a small Punch-house that stands on the Sea-shore...."—A. Hamilton, i. 299 [ed. 1744].
1789.—"Many ... are obliged to take up their residence in dirty punch-houses."—Munro's Narrative, 22.
1810.—"The best house of that description which admits boarders, and which are commonly called Punch-houses."—Williamson, V.M. i. 135.
PUNCHAYET, s. Hind. panchāyat, from pānch, 'five.' A council (properly of 5 persons) assembled as a Court of Arbiters or Jury; or as a committee of the people of a village, of the members of a Caste, or whatnot, to decide on questions interesting the body generally.
"The humble Petition of the Managers of the Panchayet of Parsis at Bombay...."—Dosambhai Framji, H. of the Parsis, 1884, ii. 219.
1810.—"The Parsees ... are governed by their own panchaït or village Council. The word panchaït literally means a Council of five, but that of the Guebres in Bombay consists of thirteen of the principal merchants of the sect."—Maria Graham, 41.
1813.—"The carpet of justice was spread in the large open hall of the durbar, where the arbitrators assembled: there I always attended, and agreeably to ancient custom, referred the decision to a panchaeet or jury of five persons."—Forbes, Or. Mem., ii. 359; [in 2nd ed. (ii. 2) Panchaut].
1819.—"The punchayet itself, although in all but village causes it has the defects before ascribed to it, possesses many advantages. The intimate acquaintance of the members with the subject in dispute, and in many cases with the characters of the parties, must have made their decisions frequently correct, and ... the judges being drawn from the body of the people, could act on no principles that were not generally understood."—Elphinstone, in Life, ii. 89.
1821.—"I kept up punchayets because I found them ... I still think that the punchayet should on no account be dropped, that it is an excellent institution for dispensing justice, and in keeping up the principles of justice, which are less likely to be observed among a people to whom the administration of it is not at all intrusted."—Ibid. 124.
1826.—"... when he returns assemble a punchayet, and give this cause patient attention, seeing that Hybatty has justice."—Pandurang Hari, 31; [ed. 1873, i. 42].
1832.—Bengal Regn. VI. of this year allows the judge of the Sessions Court to call in the alternative aid of a punchayet, in lieu of assessors, and so to dispense with the futwa. See LAW-OFFICER.
1853.—"From the death of Runjeet Singh to the battle of Sobraon, the Sikh Army was governed by 'Punchayets' or 'Punches'—committees of the soldiery. These bodies sold the Government to the Sikh chief who paid the highest, letting him command until murdered by some one who paid higher."—Sir C. Napier, Defects of Indian Government, 69.
1873.—"The Council of an Indian Village Community most commonly consists of five persons ... the panchayet familiar to all who have the smallest knowledge of India."—Maine, Early Hist. of Institutions, 221.
PUNDIT, s. Skt. paṇḍita, 'a learned man.' Properly a man learned in Sanskrit lore. The Pundit of the Supreme Court was a Hindu Law-Officer, whose duty it was to advise the English Judges when needful on questions of Hindu Law. The office became extinct on the constitution of the 'High Court,' superseding the Supreme Court and Sudder Court, under the Queen's Letters Patent of May 14, 1862.
In the Mahratta and Telegu countries, the word Paṇḍit is usually pronounced Pant (in English colloquial Punt); but in this form it has, as with many other Indian words in like case, lost its original significance, and become a mere personal title, familiar in Mahratta history, e.g. the Nānā Dhundopant of evil fame.
Within the last 30 or 35 years the term has acquired in India a peculiar application to the natives trained in the use of instruments, who have been employed beyond the British Indian frontier in surveying regions inaccessible to Europeans. This application originated in the fact that two of the earliest men to be so employed, the explorations by one of whom acquired great celebrity, were masters of village schools in our Himālayan provinces. And the title Pundit is popularly employed there much as Dominie used to be in Scotland. The Pundit who brought so much fame on the title was the late Nain Singh, C.S.I. [See Markham, Memoir of Indian Surveys, 2nd ed. 148 seqq.]
1604.—"... llamando tãbien en su compania los Põditos, le presentaron al Nauabo."—Guerrero, Relaçion, 70.
1616.—"... Brachmanae una cum Panditis comparentes, simile quid iam inde ab orbis exordio in Indostane visum negant."—Jarric, Thesaurus, iii. 81-82.
1663.—"A Pendet Brachman or Heathen Doctor whom I had put to serve my Agah ... would needs make his Panegyrick ... and at last concluded seriously with this: When you put your Foot into the Stirrup, My Lord, and when you march on Horseback in the front of the Cavalry, the Earth trembleth under your Feet, the eight Elephants that hold it up upon their Heads not being able to support it."—Bernier, E.T., 85; [ed. Constable, 264].
1688.—"Je feignis donc d'être malade, et d'avoir la fièvre; on fit venir aussitôt un Pandite ou médicin Gentil."—Dellon, Rel. de l'Inq. de Goa, 214.
1785.—"I can no longer bear to be at the mercy of our pundits, who deal out Hindu law as they please; and make it at reasonable rates, when they cannot find it ready made."—Letter of Sir W. Jones, in Mem. by Ld. Teignmouth, 1807, ii. 67.
1791.—"Il était au moment de s'embarquer pour l'Angleterre, plein de perplexité et d'ennui, lorsque les brames de Bénarés lui apprirent que le brame supérieur de la fameuse pagode de Jagrenat ... était seul capable de resoudre toutes les questions de la Société royale de Londres. C'était en effet le plus fameux pandect, ou docteur, dont on eût jamais oui parler."—B. de St. Pierre, La Chaumière Indienne. The preceding exquisite passage shows that the blunder which drew forth Macaulay's flaming wrath, in the quotation lower down, was not a new one.
1798.—"... the most learned of the Pundits or Bramin lawyers, were called up from different parts of Bengal."—Raynal, Hist. i. 42.
1856.—"Besides ... being a Pundit of learning, he (Sir David Brewster) is a bundle of talents of various kinds."—Life and Letters of Sydney Dobell, ii. 14.
1860.—"Mr. Vizetelly next makes me say that the principle of limitation is found 'amongst the Pandects of the Benares....' The Benares he probably supposes to be some Oriental nation. What he supposes their Pandects to be I shall not presume to guess.... If Mr. Vizetelly had consulted the Unitarian Report, he would have seen that I spoke of the Pundits of Benares, and he might without any very long and costly research have learned where Benares is and what a Pundit is."—Macaulay, Preface to his Speeches.
1877.—"Colonel Y——. Since Nain Singh's absence from this country precludes my having the pleasure of handing to him in person, this, the Victoria or Patron's Medal, which has been awarded to him, ... I beg to place it in your charge for transmission to the Pundit."—Address by Sir R. Alcock, Prest. R. Geog. Soc., May 28.
"Colonel Y—— in reply, said: ... Though I do not know Nain Singh personally, I know his work.... He is not a topographical automaton, or merely one of a great multitude of native employés with an average qualification. His observations have added a larger amount of important knowledge to the map of Asia than those of any other living man, and his journals form an exceedingly interesting book of travels. It will afford me great pleasure to take steps for the transmission of the Medal through an official channel to the Pundit."—Reply to the President, same date.
PUNJAUB, n.p. The name of the country between the Indus and the Sutlej. The modern Anglo-Indian province so-called, now extends on one side up beyond the Indus, including Peshāwar, the Derajāt, &c., and on the other side up to the Jumna, including Delhi. [In 1901 the Frontier Districts were placed under separate administration.] The name is Pers. Panj-āb, 'Five Rivers.' These rivers, as reckoned, sometimes include the Indus, in which case the five are (1) Indus, (2) Jelam (see JELUM) or Behat, the ancient Vitasta which the Greeks made Ὑδάσπης (Strabo) and Βιδάσπης (Ptol.), (3) Chenāb, ancient Chandrabāgha and Āsiknī. Ptolemy preserves a corruption of the former Sanskrit name in Σανδαβάλ, but it was rejected by the older Greeks because it was of ill omen, i.e. probably because Grecized it would be Ξανδροφάγος, 'the devourer of Alexander.' The alternative Āsiknī they rendered Ἀκεσίνης. (4) Rāvī, the ancient Airāvatī, Ὑάρωτης (Strabo), Ὑδραώτης (Arrian), Ἄδρις or Ῥούαδις (Ptol.). (5) Biās, ancient Vipāsā, Ὕφασις (Arrian), Βιβάσιος (Ptol.). This excluded the Sutlej, Satadru, Hesydrus of Pliny, Ζαράδρος or Ζαδάδρης (Ptol.), as Timur excludes it below. We may take in the Sutlej and exclude the Indus, but we can hardly exclude the Chenāb as Wassāf does below.
No corresponding term is used by the Greek geographers. "Putandum est nomen Panchanadae Graecos aut omnino latuisse, aut casu quodam non ad nostra usque tempora pervenisse, quod in tanta monumentorum ruina facile accidere potuit" (Lassen, Pentapotamia, 3). Lassen however has termed the country Pentepotamia in a learned Latin dissertation on its ancient geography. Though the actual word Panjāb is Persian, and dates from Mahommedan times, the corresponding Skt. Panchanada is ancient and genuine, occurring in the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa. The name Panj-āb in older Mahommedan writers is applied to the Indus river, after receiving the rivers of the country which we call Punjaub. In that sense Panj-nad, of equivalent meaning, is still occasionally used. [In S. India the term is sometimes applied to the country watered by the Tumbhadra, Wardha, Malprabha, Gatprabha and Kistna (Wilks, Hist. Sketches, Madras reprint, i. 405).]
We remember in the newspapers, after the second Sikh war, the report of a speech by a clergyman in England, who spoke of the deposition of "the bloody Punjaub of Lahore."
c. 940.—Maṣ'ūdī details (with no correctness) the five rivers that form the Mihrān or Indus. He proceeds: "When the Five Rivers which we have named have past the House of Gold which is Mūltān, they unite at a place three days distant from that city, between it and Manṣūra at a place called Doshāb."—i. 377-8.
c. 1020.—"They all (Sind, Jhailam, Irāwa, Biah) combine with the Satlader (Sutlej) below Múltán, at a place called Panjnad, or 'the junction of the five rivers.' They form a very wide stream."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 48.
c. 1300.—"After crossing the Panj-āb, or five rivers, namely Sind, Jelam, the river of Loháwar (i.e. of Lahore, viz. the Rāvī), Satlút, and Bīyah...."—Wassāf, in Elliot, iii. 36.
c. 1333.—"By the grace of God our caravan arrived safe and sound at Banj-āb, i.e. at the River of the Sind. Banj (panj) signifies 'five,' and āb, 'water;' so that the name signifies 'the Five Waters.' They flow into this great river, and water the country."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 91.
c. 1400.—"All these (united) rivers (Jelam, Chenáb, Ráví, Bíyáh, Sind) are called the Sind or Panj-áb, and this river falls into the Persian Gulf near Thatta."—The Emp. Timur, in Elliot, iii. 476.
[c. 1630.—"He also takes a Survey of Pang-ob...."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 63. He gives a list of the rivers in p. 70.]
1648.—"... Pang-ab, the chief city of which is Lahor, is an excellent and fruitful province, for it is watered by the five rivers of which we have formerly spoken."—Van Twist, 3.
" "The River of the ancient Indus, is by the Persians and Magols called Pang-ab, i.e. the Five Waters."—Ibid. i.
1710.—"He found this ancient and famous city (Lahore) in the Province Panschaap, by the side of the broad and fish-abounding river Rari (for Ravi)."—Valentijn, iv. (Suratte), 282.
1790.—"Investigations of the religious ceremonies and customs of the Hindoos, written in the Carnatic, and in the Punjab, would in many cases widely differ."—Forster, Preface to Journey.
1793.—"The Province, of which Lahore is the capital, is oftener named Panjab than Lahore."—Rennell's Memoir, 3rd ed. 82.
1804.—"I rather think ... that he (Holkar) will go off to the Punjaub. And what gives me stronger reason to think so is, that on the seal of his letter to me he calls himself 'the Slave of Shah Mahmoud, the King of Kings.' Shah Mahmoud is the brother of Zemaun Shah. He seized the musnud and government of Caubul, after having defeated Zemaun Shah two or three years ago, and put out his eyes."—Wellington, Desp. under March 17.
1815.—"He (Subagtageen) ... overran the fine province of the Punjaub, in his first expedition."—Malcolm, Hist. of Persia, i. 316.
PUNKAH, s. Hind. pankhā.
a. In its original sense a portable fan, generally made from the leaf of the palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis, or 'fan-shaped'), the natural type and origin of the fan. Such pankhās in India are not however formed, as Chinese fans are, like those of our ladies; they are generally, whether large or small, of a bean-shape, with a part of the dried leaf-stalk adhering, which forms the handle.
b. But the specific application in Anglo-Indian colloquial is to the large fixed and swinging fan, formed of cloth stretched on a rectangular frame, and suspended from the ceiling, which is used to agitate the air in hot weather. The date of the introduction of this machine into India is not known to us. The quotation from Linschoten shows that some such apparatus was known in the 16th century, though this comes out clearly in the French version alone; the original Dutch, and the old English translation are here unintelligible, and indicate that Linschoten (who apparently never was at Ormuz) was describing, from hearsay, something that he did not understand. More remarkable passages are those which we take from Dozy, and from El-Fakhrī, which show that the true Anglo-Indian punka was known to the Arabs as early as the 8th century.
a.—
Terry does not use the word:
1663.—"On such occasions they desire nothing but ... to lie down in some cool and shady place all along, having a servant or two to fan one by turns, with their great Pankas, or Fans."—Bernier, E.T., p. 76; [ed. Constable, 241].
1787.—"Over her head was held a punker."—Sir C. Malet, in Parl. Papers, 1821, 'Hindoo Widows.'
1809.—"He ... presented me ... two punkahs."—Lord Valentia, i. 428.
1881.—"The chair of state, the sella gestatoria, in which the Pope is borne aloft, is the ancient palanquin of the Roman nobles, and, of course, of the Roman Princes ... the fans which go behind are the punkahs of the Eastern Emperors, borrowed from the Court of Persia."—Dean Stanley, Christian Institutions, 207.b.—
1166.—"He (Ibn Hamdun the Kātib) once recited to me the following piece of his composition, containing an enigmatical description of a linen fan: (1)
"'Fast and loose, it cannot touch what it tries to reach; though tied up it moves swiftly, and though a prisoner it is free. Fixed in its place it drives before it the gentle breeze; though its path lie closed up it moves on in its nocturnal journey.'"—Quoted by Ibn Khallikan, E.T. iii. 91.
"(1) The linen fan (Mirwaha-t al Khaish) is a large piece of linen, stretched on a frame, and suspended from the ceiling of the room. They make use of it in Irâk. See de Sacy's Hariri, p. 474."—Note by MacGuckin de Slane, ibid. p. 92.
c. 1300.—"One of the innovations of the Caliph Manṣūr (A.D. 753-774) was the Khaish of linen in summer, a thing which was not known before his time. But the Sāsānian Kings used in summer to have an apartment freshly plastered (with clay) every day, which they inhabited, and on the morrow another apartment was plastered for them."—El-Fakhrī, ed. Ahlwardt, p. 188.
1596.—"And (they use) instruments like swings with fans, to rock the people in, and to make wind for cooling, which they call cattaventos."—Literal Transln. from Linschoten, ch. 6.
1598.—"And they vse certaine instruments like Waggins, with bellowes, to beare all the people in, and to gather winde to coole themselves withall, which they call Cattaventos."—Old English Translation, by W. P., p. 16; [Hak. Soc. i. 52].The French version is really a brief description of the punka:
The next also perhaps refers to a suspended punka:
1807.—"As one small concern succeeds another, the punkah vibrates gently over my eyes."—Lord Minto in India, 27.
1810.—"Were it not for the punka (a large frame of wood covered with cloth) which is suspended over every table, and kept swinging, in order to freshen the air, it would be scarcely possible to sit out the melancholy ceremony of an Indian dinner."—Maria Graham, 30.
" Williamson mentions that punkahs "were suspended in most dining halls."—Vade Mecum, i. 281.
1823.—"Punkas, large frames of light wood covered with white cotton, and looking not unlike enormous fire-boards, hung from the ceilings of the principal apartments."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 28.
1852.—
"Holy stones with scrubs and slaps
(Our Christmas waits!) prelude the day;
For holly and festoons of bay
Swing feeble punkas,—or perhaps
A windsail dangles in collapse."
Christmas on board a P. and O., near the Equator.
Mr. Busteed observes: "It is curious that in none of the lists of servants and their duties which are scattered through the old records in the last century (18th), is there any mention of the punka, nor in any narratives referring to domestic life in India then, that have come under our notice, do we remember any allusion to its use.... The swinging punka, as we see it to-day, was, as every one knows, an innovation of a later period.... This dates from an early year in the present century."—Echoes of Old Calcutta, p. 115. He does not seem, however, to have found any positive evidence of the date of its introduction. ["Hanging punkahs are said by one authority to have originated in Calcutta by accident towards the close of the last (18th) century. It is reported that a clerk in a Government office suspended the leaf of a table, which was accidentally waved to and fro by a visitor. A breath of cool air followed the movement, and suggested the idea which was worked out and resulted in the present machine" (Carey, Good Old Days of John Company, i. 81). Mr. Douglas says that punkahs were little used by Europeans in Bombay till 1810. They were not in use at Nuncomar's trial in Calcutta (1775), Bombay and W. India, ii. 253.]
PUNSAREE, s. A native drug-seller; Hind. pansārī. We place the word here partly because C. P. Brown says 'it is certainly a foreign word,' and assigns it to a corruption of dispensarium; which is much to be doubted. [The word is really derived from Skt. paṇyaśāla, 'a market, warehouse.']
PURDAH, s. Hind. from Pers. parda, 'a curtain'; a portière; and especially a curtain screening women from the sight of men; whence a woman of position who observes such rules of seclusion is termed parda-nishīn, 'one who sits behind a curtain.' (See GOSHA.)
1810.—"If the disorder be obstinate, the doctor is permitted to approach the purdah (i.e. curtain, or screen) and to put the hand through a small aperture ... in order to feel the patient's pulse."—Williamson, V. M. i. 130.
[1813.—"My travelling palankeen formed my bed, its purdoe or chintz covering my curtains."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 109.]
1878.—"Native ladies look upon the confinement behind the purdah as a badge of rank, and also as a sign of chastity, and are exceedingly proud of it."—Life in the Mofussil, i. 113.
[1900.—"Charitable aid is needed for the purdah women."—Pioneer Mail, Jan. 21.]
PURDESEE, s. Hind. paradeśī usually written pardesī, 'one from a foreign country.' In the Bombay army the term is universally applied to a sepoy from N. India. [In the N.W.P. the name is applied to a wandering tribe of swindlers and coiners.]
PURWANNA, PERWAUNA, s. Hind. from Pers. parwāna, 'an order; a grant or letter under royal seal; a letter of authority from an official to his subordinate; a license or pass.'
1693.—"... Egmore and Pursewaukum were lately granted us by the Nabob's purwannas."—Wheeler, i. 281.
1759.—"Perwanna, under the Coochuck (or the small seal) of the Nabob Vizier Ulma Maleck, Nizam ul Muluck Bahadour, to Mr. John Spenser."—In Cambridge's Acct. of the War, 230. (See also quotation under HOSBOLHOOKUM.)
1774.—"As the peace has been so lately concluded, it would be a satisfaction to the Rajah to receive your parwanna to this purpose before the departure of the caravan."—Bogle's Diary, in Markham's Tibet, p. 50. But Mr. Markham changes the spelling of his originals.
PUTCHOCK, s. This is the trade-name for a fragrant root, a product of the Himālaya in the vicinity of Kashmīr, and forming an article of export from both Bombay and Calcutta to the Malay countries and to China, where it is used as a chief ingredient of the Chinese pastille-rods commonly called jostick. This root was recognised by the famous Garcia de Orta as the Costus of the ancients. The latter took their word from the Skt. kusṭha, by a modification of which name—kuṭ—it is still known and used as a medicine in Upper India. De Orta speaks of the plant as growing about Mandu and Chitore, whence it was brought for sale to Ahmadābād; but his informants misled him. The true source was traced in situ by two other illustrious men, Royle and Falconer, to a plant belonging to the N. O. Compositae, Saussurea Xappe, Clarke, for which Dr. Falconer, not recognising the genus, had proposed the name of Aucklandia Costus verus, in honour of the then Governor-General. The Costus is a gregarious plant, occupying open, sloping sides of the mountains, at an elevation of 8000 to 9000 feet. See article by Falconer in Trans. Linn. Soc. xix. 23-31.
The trade-name is, according to Wilson, the Telugu pāch'chāku, 'green leaf,' but one does not see how this applies. (Is there, perhaps, some confusion with Patch? see PATCHOULI). De Orta speaks as if the word, which he writes pucho, were Malay. Though neither Crawfurd nor Favre gives the word, in this sense, it is in Marsden's earlier Malay Dict.: "Pūchok, a plant, the aromatic leaves of which are an article of trade; said by some to be Costus indicus, and by others the Melissa, or Laurus." [On this Mr. Skeat writes: "Puchok is the Malay word for a young sprout, or the growing shoot of a plant. Puchok in the special sense here used is also a Malay word, but it may be separate from the other. Klinkert gives puchok as a sprout or shoot and also as a radish-like root (indigenous in China (sic), used in medicine for fumigation, &c.). Apparently it is always the root and not the leaves of the plant that are used, in which case Marsden may have confused the two senses of the word."] In the year 1837-38 about 250 tons of this article, valued at £10,000, were exported from Calcutta alone. The annual import into China at a later date, according to Wells Williams, was 2,000 peculs or 120 tons (Middle Kingdom, ed. 1857, ii. 308). In 1865-66, the last year for which the details of such minor exports are found in print, the quantity exported from Calcutta was only 492½ cwt., or 24⅝ tons. In 1875 the value of the imports at Hankow and Chefoo was £6,421. [Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. ii. p. 482, Bombay Gazetteer, xi. 470.]
1520.—"We have prohibited (the export of) pepper to China ... and now we prohibit the export of pucho and incense from these parts of India to China."—Capitulo de hum Regimento del Rey a Diogo Ayres, Feitor da China, in Arch. Port. Orient., Fasc. v. 49.
1525.—"Pucho of Cambaya worth 35 tangas a maund."—Lembranças, 50.
[1527.—Mr. Whiteway notes that in a letter of Diogo Calvo to the King, dated Jan. 17, pucho is mentioned as one of the imports to China.—India Office MS. Corpo Chronologico, vol. i.]
1554.—"The baar (see BAHAR) of pucho contains 20 faraçolas (see FRAZALA), and an additional 4 of picota (q.v.), in all 24 faraçolas...."—A. Nunes, 11.
1563.—"I say that costus in Arabic is called cost or cast; in Guzarate it is called uplot (upaleta); and in Malay, for in that region there is a great trade and consumption thereof, it is called pucho. I tell you the name in Arabic, because it is called by the same name by the Latins and Greeks, and I tell it you in Guzerati, because that is the land to which it is chiefly carried from its birth-place; and I tell you the Malay name because the greatest quantity is consumed there, or taken thence to China."—Garcia, f. 72.
c. 1563.—"... Opium, Assa Fetida, Puchio, with many other sortes of Drugges."—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 343.
[1609.—"Costus of 2 sorts, one called pokermore, the other called Uplotte (see Garcia, above)."—Danvers, Letters, i. 30.]
1617.—"5 hampers pochok...."—Cocks, Diary, i. 294.
1631.—"Caeterum Costus vulgato vocabulo inter mercatores Indos Pucho, Chinensibus Potsiock, vocatur ... vidi ego integrum Picol, quod pondus centum et viginti in auctione decem realibus distribui."—Jac. Bontii, Hist. Nat., &c., lib. iv. p. 46.
1711.—In Malacca Price Currant, July 1704: "Putchuck or Costus dulcis."—Lockyer, 77.
1726.—"Patsjaak (a leaf of Asjien (Acheen?) that is pounded to powder, and used in incense)...."—Valentijn, Choro. 34.
1727.—"The Wood Ligna dulcis grows only in this country (Sind). It is rather a Weed than a Wood, and nothing of it is useful but the Root, called Putchock, or Radix dulcis.... There are great quantities exported from Surat, and from thence to China, where it generally bears a good Price...."—A. Hamilton, i. 126; [ed. 1744, i. 127].
1808.—"Elles emploient ordinairement ... une racine aromatique appelée pieschtok, qu'on coupe par petits morceaux, et fait bouillir dans de l'huile de noix de coco. C'est avec cette huile que les danseuses se graissent...."—Haafner, ii. 117.
1862.—"Koot is sent down country in large quantities, and is exported to China, where it is used as incense. It is in Calcutta known under the name of 'Patchuk.'"—Punjab Trade Report, cvii.
PUTLAM, n.p. A town in Ceylon on the coast of the bay or estuary of Calpentyn; properly Puṭṭalama; a Tamil name, said by Mr. Fergusson to be puthu- (pudu?) alam, 'New Salt-pans.' Ten miles inland are the ruins of Tammana Newera, the original Tambapanni (or Taprobane), where Vijaya, the first Hindu immigrant, established his kingdom. And Putlam is supposed to be the place where he landed.
c. 1345.—"The natives went to their King and told him my reply. He sent for me, and I proceeded to his presence in the town of Baṭṭāla, which was his capital, a pretty little place, surrounded by a timber wall and towers."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 166.
1672.—"Putelaon...."—Baldaeus (Germ.), 373.
1726.—"Portaloon or Putelan."—Valentijn, Ceylon, 21.
PUTNEE, PUTNEY, s.
a. Hind. and Beng. paṭṭanī, or paṭnī, from v. paṭ-nā, 'to be agreed or closed' (i.e. a bargain). Goods commissioned or manufactured to order.
b. A kind of sub-tenure existing in the Lower Provinces of Bengal, the patnīdār, or occupant of which "holds of a Zemindar a portion of the Zemindari in perpetuity, with the right of hereditary succession, and of selling or letting the whole or part, so long as a stipulated amount of rent is paid to the Zemindar, who retains the power of sale for arrears, and is entitled to a regulated fee or fine upon transfer" (Wilson, q.v.). Probably both a and b are etymologically the same, and connected with paṭṭā (see POTTAH).
PUTTÁN, PATHÁN, n.p. Hind. Paṭhān. A name commonly applied to Afghans, and especially to people in India of Afghan descent. The derivation is obscure. Elphinstone derives it from Pushtūn and Pukhtūn, pl. Pukhtāna, the name the Afghans give to their own race, with which Dr. Trumpp [and Dr. Bellew (Races of Afghanistan, 25) agree. This again has been connected with the Pactyica of Herodotus (iii. 102, iv. 44).] The Afghans have for the name one of the usual fantastic etymologies which is quoted below (see quotation, c. 1611). The Mahommedans in India are sometimes divided into four classes, viz. Paṭhāns; Mughals (see MOGUL), i.e. those of Turki origin; Shaikhs, claiming Arab descent; and Saiyyids, claiming also to be descendants of Mahommed.
1563.—"... This first King was a Patane of certain mountains that march with Bengala."—Garcia, Coll. f. 34.
1572.—
"Mas agora de nomes, et de usança,
Novos, et varios são os habitantes,
Os Delijs, os Patãnes que em possança
De terra, e gente são mais abundantes."
Camões, vii. 20.
[By Aubertin:
"But now inhabitants of other name
And customs new and various there are found,
The Delhis and Patans, who in the fame
Of land and people do the most abound."]
1610.—"A Pattan, a man of good stature."—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 220.
c. 1611.—"... the mightiest of the Afghan people was Kais.... The Prophet gave Kais the name of Abd Ulrasheed ... and ... predicted that God would make his issue so numerous that they, with respect to the establishment of the Faith, would outvie all other people; the angel Gabriel having revealed to him that their attachment to the Faith would, in strength, be like the wood upon which they lay the keel when constructing a ship, which wood the seamen call Pathan: on this account he conferred upon Abd Ulrasheed the title of Pathan[33] also."—Hist. of the Afghans, E.T., by Dorn, i. 38.
[1638.—"... Ozmanchan a Puttanian...."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 76.]
1648.—"In general the Moors are a haughty and arrogant and proud people, and among them the Pattans stand out superior to the others in dress and manners."—Van Twist, 58.
1666.—"Martin Affonso and the other Portuguese delivered them from the war that the Patanes were making on them."—Faria y Sousa, Asia Portuguesa, i. 343.
1673.—"They are distinguished, some according to the Consanguinity they claim with Mahomet; as a Siad is a kin to that Imposture.... A Shiek is a Cousin too, at a distance, into which Relation they admit all new made Proselytes. Meer is somewhat allied also.... The rest are adopted under the Name of the Province ... as Mogul, the Race of the Tartars ... Patan, Duccan."—Fryer, 93.
1681.—"En estas regiones ay vna cuyas gentes se dizen los Patanes."—Martinez de la Puente, Compendio, 21.
1726.—"... The Patans (Patanders) are very different in garb, and surpass in valour and stout-heartedness in war."—Valentijn, Choro. 109.
1757.—"The Colonel (Clive) complained bitterly of so many insults put upon him, and reminded the Soubahdar how different his own conduct was, when called upon to assist him against the Pytans."—Ives, 149.
1763.—"The northern nations of India, although idolaters ... were easily induced to embrace Mahomedanism, and are at this day the Affghans or Pitans."—Orme, i. 24, ed. 1803.
1789.—"Moormen are, for the most part, soldiers by profession, particularly in the cavalry, as are also ... Pitans."—Munro, Narr. 49.
1798.—"... Afghans, or as they are called in India, Patans."—G. Forster, Travels, ii. 47.
[PUTTEE, PUTTY, s. Hind. paṭṭī.
a. A piece or strip of cloth, bandage; especially used in the sense of a ligature round the lower part of the leg used in lieu of a gaiter, originally introduced from the Himālaya, and now commonly used by sportsmen and soldiers. A special kind of cloth appears in the old trade-lists under the name of puteahs (see PIECE GOODS).
b. In the N.W.P. "an original share in a joint or coparcenary village or estate comprising many villages; it is sometimes defined as the smaller subdivision of a mahal or estate" (Wilson). Hence Putteedaree, paṭṭidārī used for a tenure of this kind.
c. In S. India, soldiers' pay.
PUTTYWALLA, s. Hind. paṭṭā-wālā, paṭṭī-wālā (see PUTTEE), 'one with a belt.' This is the usual Bombay term for a messenger or orderly attached to an office, and bearing a belt and brass badge, called in Bengal chuprassy or peon (qq.v.), in Madras usually by the latter name.
PUTWA, s. Hind. patwā. The Hibiscus sabdariffa, L., from the succulent acid flowers of which very fair jelly is made in Anglo-Indian households. [It is also known as the Rozelle or Red Sorrel (Watt, Econ. Dict. iv. 243). Riddell (Domest. Econ. 337) calls it "Oseille or Roselle jam and jelly."]
PYE, s. A familiar designation among British soldiers and young officers for a Pariah-dog (q.v.); a contraction, no doubt, of the former word.
PYJAMMAS, s. Hind. pāē-jāma (see JAMMA), lit. 'leg-clothing.' A pair of loose drawers or trowsers, tied round the waist. Such a garment is used by various persons in India, e.g. by women of various classes, by Sikh men, and by most Mahommedans of both sexes. It was adopted from the Mahommedans by Europeans as an article of dishabille and of night attire, and is synonymous with Long Drawers, Shulwáurs, and Mogul-breeches. [For some distinctions between these various articles of dress see Forbes-Watson, (Textile Manufactures, 57).] It is probable that we English took the habit like a good many others from the Portuguese. Thus Pyrard (c. 1610) says, in speaking of Goa Hospital: "Ils ont force calsons sans quoy ne couchent iamais les Portugais des Indes" (ii. p. 11; [Hak. Soc. ii. 9]). The word is now used in London shops. A friend furnishes the following reminiscence: "The late Mr. B——, tailor in Jermyn Street, some 40 years ago, in reply to a question why pyjammas had feet sewn on to them (as was sometimes the case with those furnished by London outfitters) answered: 'I believe, Sir, it is because of the White Ants!'"
"His chief joy smoking a cigar
In loose Paee-jams and native slippers."
Orient. Sport. Mag., reprint 1873, i. 64.]
PYKE, PAIK, s. Wilson gives only one original of the term so expressed in Anglo-Indian speech. He writes: "Páík or Páyik, corruptly Pyke, Hind. &c. (from S. padātika), Páík or Páyak, Mar. A footman, an armed attendant, an inferior police and revenue officer, a messenger, a courier, a village watchman: in Cuttack the Páíks formerly constituted a local militia, holding land of the Zamindárs or Rájas by the tenure of military service," &c., quoting Bengal Regulations. [Platts also treats the two words as identical.] But it seems clear to us that there are here two terms rolled together:
a. Pers. Paik, 'a foot-runner or courier.' We do not know whether this is an old Persian word or a Mongol introduction. According to Hammer Purgstall it was the term in use at the Court of the Mongol princes, as quoted below. Both the words occur in the Āīn, but differently spelt, and that with which we now deal is spelt paik (with the fatḥa point).
1673.—At the Court of Constantinople: "Les Peiks venoient ensuite, avec leurs bonnets d'argent doré ornés d'un petit plumage de héron, un arc et un carquois chargé de flèches."—Journal d'A. Galland, i. 98.
1687.—"... the under officers and servants called Agiam-Oglans, who are designed to the meaner uses of the Seraglio ... most commonly the sons of Christians taken from their Parents at the age of 10 or 12 years.... These are: 1, Porters, 2, Bostangies or Gardiners ... 5, Paicks and Solacks...."—Sir Paul Rycaut, Present State of the Ottoman Empire, 19.
1761.—"Ahmad Sultán then commissioned Sháh Pasand Khán ... the harkáras (see HURCARRA) and the Paiks, to go and procure information as to the state and strength of the Mahratta army."—Muhammad Jáfar Shámlu, in Elliot, viii. 151-2.
1840.—"The express-riders (Eilbothen) accomplished 50 farsangs a-day, so that an express came in 4 days from Khorasan to Tebris [Tabrīz).... The Foot-runners carrying letters (Peik), whose name at least is maintained to this day at both the Persian and Osmanli Courts, accomplished 30 farsangs a-day."—Hammer Purgstall, Gesch. der Golden Horde, 243.
[1868.—"The Payeke is entrusted with the tchilim (see CHILLUM) (pipe), which at court (Khiva) is made of gold or silver, and must be replenished with fresh water every time it is filled with tobacco."—Vambery, Sketches, 89.]b. Hind. pāīk and pāyik (also Mahr.) from Skt. padātika, and padika, 'a foot-soldier,' with the other specific application given by Wilson, exclusive of 'courier.' In some narratives the word seems to answer exactly to peon. In the first quotation, which is from the Āīn, the word, it will be seen, is different from that quoted under (a) from the same source.
In the next quotation the word seems to be the same, though used for 'a seaman.' Compare uses of Lascar.
1722.—Among a detail of charges at this period in the Zemindárry of Rājshāhī appears:
"9. Paikan, or the pikes, guard of villages, everywhere necessary ... 2,161 rupees."—Fifth Report, App. p. 345.The following quotation from an Indian Regulation of Ld. Cornwallis's time is a good example of the extraordinary multiplication of terms, even in one Province in India, denoting approximately the same thing:
" "The army of Assam was a militia organised as follows. The whole male population was bound to serve either as soldiers or labourers, and was accordingly divided into sets of four men each, called gotes, the individuals comprising the gotes being termed pykes."—Johnstone's Acct. of Welsh's Expedition to Assam, 1792-93-94 (commd. by Gen. Keatinge).
1802.—After a detail of persons of rank in Midnapore:
"None of these entertain armed followers except perhaps ten or a dozen Peons for state, but some of them have Pykes in considerable numbers, to keep the peace on their estates. These Pykes are under the magistrate's orders."—Fifth Report, App. p. 535.
1812.—"The whole of this last-mentioned numerous class of Pykes are understood to have been disbanded, in compliance with the new Police regulations."—Fifth Report, 71.
1872.—"... Dalais or officers of the peasant militia (Paiks). The Paiks were settled chiefly around the fort on easy tenures."—Hunter's Orissa, ii. 269.
PYSE! interjection. The use of this is illustrated in the quotations. Notwithstanding the writer's remark (below) it is really Hindustani, viz. po'is, 'look out!' or 'make way!' apparently from Skt. paśya, 'look! see!' (see Molesworth's Mahr. Dict. p. 529, col. c; Fallon's Hind. Dict., p. 376, col. a; [Platts, 282b].
[Other expressions of the same kind are Malayāl. po, 'Get out of the way!' and Hind. Mahr. khis, khis, from khisnā, 'to drop off.'
- ↑ Prinsep's Useful Tables, by E. Thomas, p. 19.
- ↑ Giles, Glossary of Reference, s.v.
- ↑ "The prayer that they say daily consists of these words: 'Pacauta! Pacauta! Pacauta!' And this they repeat 104 times."—(Bk. iii. ch. 17.) The word is printed in Ramusio pacauca; but no one familiar with the constant confusion of c and t in medieval manuscript will reject this correction of M. Pauthier. Bishop Caldwell observes that the word was probably Bagavā, or Pagavā, the Tamil form of Bhagavata, "Lord"; a word reiterated in their sacred formulæ by Hindus of all sorts, especially Vaishnava devotees. The words given by Marco Polo, if written "Pagoda! Pagoda! Pagoda!" would be almost undistinguishable in sound from Pacauta.
- ↑ Or our symbol (
21px), now modified into (&), which is in fact Latin et, but is read 'and."
An image should appear at this position in the text.
If you are able to provide it, see Wikisource:Image guidelines and Help:Adding images for guidance. - ↑ "The peculiar mode of writing Pahlavi here alluded to long made the character of the language a standing puzzle for European scholars, and was first satisfactorily explained by Professor Haug, of Munich, in his admirable Essay on the Pahlavi Language, already cited" (West, p. xii.).
- ↑ In Canticles, iii. 9, the "ferculum quod fecit sibi rex Salomon de lignis Libani" is in the Hebrew appiryōn, which has by some been supposed to be Greek φορεῖον; highly improbable, as the litter came to Greece from the East. Is it possible that the word can be in some way taken from paryañka? The R.V. has palanquin. [See the discussion in Encyclopaedia Biblica, iii. 2804 seq.].
- ↑ "Pagos do aljube." We are not sure of the meaning.
- ↑ The writer is here led away by Wilford's nonsense.
- ↑ Query (i.) rámún (Hind.) or rama (Ladakhi) chhelli = the rama (special variety of goat) -goat; (ii.) or is Salbank mixing rama-shál (goat-shawl), the product, with the name of the animal producing the raw material?
- ↑ This is the true reading, see note at the place, and J. R. As. Soc. N.S.
- ↑ See Journ. As., Ser. II., tom. viii. 352.
- ↑ See also De Candolle, Plantes Cultivées, p. 234.
- ↑ "E foy dar no golfam do estreito de Magalhães." I cannot explain the use of this name. It must be applied here to the Sea between Banda and Timor.
- ↑ Antonio Nunez, "Comtador da Casa del Rey noso Senhor," who in 1554 compiled the Livro dos Pesos da Ymdia e asy Medidas e Mohedas, says of Diu in particular: "The moneys here exhibit such variations and such differences, that it is impossible to write any thing certain about them; for every month, every 8 days indeed, they rise and fall in value, according to the money that enters the place" (p. 28).
- ↑ I invert the similar table given by Dr. Badger in his notes to Varthema.
- ↑ The issues of fanams, q.v., have been infinite; but they have not varied much in weight, though very greatly in alloy, and therefore in the number reckoned to a pagoda.
- ↑
"2 gunjās = 1 dugala
2 dugalas = 1 chavula (= the panam or fanam),
2 chavalas = 1 hoṇa (= the pratapa, máda, or half pagoda),
2 hoṇṇas = 1 Varāha (the hūn or pagoda)"."The ganjā or unit (= ¼ fanam) is the rati, or Sanskrit raktika, the seed of the abrus."—Op. cit. p. 224, note. See also Sir W. Elliot's Coins of S. India, p. 56.
- ↑ 360 reis is the equivalent in the authorities, so far as I know.
- ↑ Even the pound sterling, since it represented a pound of silver sterlings, has come down to one-third of that value; but if the value of silver goes on dwindling as it has done lately, our pound might yet justify its name again! I have remarked elsewhere: "Everybody seems to be tickled at the notion that the Scotch Pound or Livre was only 20 pence. Nobody finds it funny that the French or Italian Livre or Pound is only 20 halfpence or less!" I have not been able to trace how high the rei began, but the maravedi entered life as a gold piece, equivalent to the Saracen mithḳāl, and ended—?
- ↑ I calculate all gold values in this paper at those of the present English coinage. Besides the gradual depreciation of the Portugal rei, so prominently noticed in this paper, there was introduced in Goa a reduction of the rei locally below the rei of Portugal in the ratio of 15 to 8. I do not know the history or understand the object of such a change, nor do I see that it affects the calculations in this article. In a table of values of coins current in Portuguese India, given in the Annaes Maritimos of 1844, each coin is valued both in Reis of Goa and in Reis of Portugal, bearing the above ratio. My kind correspondent, Dr. J. N. Fonseca, author of the capital History of Goa, tells me that this was introduced in the beginning of the 17th century, but that he has yet found no document throwing light upon it. It is a matter quite apart from the secular depreciation of the rei.
- ↑ Thus Alboquerque, returning to Europe in 1504, gives a "Moorish" pilot, who carried him by a new course straight from Cannanore to Mozambique, a buckshish of 50 cruzados; this is explained as £5—a mild munificence for such a feat. In truth it was nearly £24, the cruzado being about the same as the sequin (see i. p. 17). The mint at Goa was farmed out by the same great man, after the conquest, for 600,000 reis, amounting, we are told, to £125. It was really £670 (iii. 41). Alboquerque demands as ransom to spare Muscat "10,000 xerafins of gold." And we are told by the translator that this ransom of a wealthy trading city like Muscat amounted to £625. The coin in question is the ashrafi, or gold dīnār, as much as, or more than the sequin in value, and the sum more than £5000 (i. p. 82). In the note to the first of these cases it is said that the cruzado is "a silver coin (formerly gold), now equivalent to 480 reis, or about 2s. English money, but probably worth much more relatively in the time of Dalboquerque." "Much more relatively" means of course that the 2s. had much more purchasing power. This is a very common way of speaking, but it is often very fallaciously applied. The change in purchasing power in India generally till the beginning of last century was probably not very great. There is a curious note by Gen. Briggs in his translation of Firishta, comparing the amount stated by Firishta to have been paid by the Bāhmanī King, about A.D. 1470, as the annual cost of a body of 500 horse, with the cost of a British corps of Irregular horse of the same strength in Briggs's own time (say about 1815). The Bāhmanī charge was 350,000 Rs.; the British charge 219,000 Rs. A corps of the same strength would now cost the British Government, as near as I can calculate, 287,300 Rs. The price of an Arab horse imported into India (then a great traffic) was in Marco Polo's time about three times what it was in our own, up to 1850. The salary of the Governor at Goa, c. 1550, was 8000 cruzados, or nearly £4000 a year; and the salaries of the commandants of the fortresses of Goa, of Malacca, of Dio, and of Bassain, 600,000 reis, or about £670. The salary of Ibn Batuta, when Judge of Delhi, about 1340, was 1000 silver tankas or dinārs as he calls them (practically 1000 rupees) a month, which was in addition to an assignment of villages bringing in 5000 tankas a year. And yet he got into debt in a very few years to the tune of 55,000 tankas—say £5,500!
- ↑ Dr. D'Acunha has set this English traveller down to 1684, and introduces a quotation from him in illustration of the coinage of the latter period, in his quasi-chronological notes, a new element in the confusion of his readers.
- ↑ "3 plaghe" in Balbi.
- ↑ "Serafinno di argento" (ibid.).
- ↑ "Quando si parla di pardai d'oro s'intendono, tanghe 6, di buona moneta" (Balbi). This does not mean the old pardao d'ouro or golden pagoda, a sense which apparently had now become obsolete, but that in dealing in jewels, &c., it was usual to settle the price in pardaos of 6 good tangas instead of 5 (as we give doctors guineas instead of pounds). The actual pagodas of gold are also mentioned by Balbi, but these were worth, new ones 7½ and old ones 8 tangas of good money.
- ↑ No doubt, however, foreign coins were used to make up sums, and reduce the bulk of small change.
- ↑ Sir W. Elliot refers to the Aśoka inscription (Edict II.) as bearing Palaya or Paraya, named with Choḍa (or Chola), Kerala, &c., as a country or people "in the very centre of the Dravidian group ... a reading which, if it holds good, supplies a satisfactory explanation of the origin of the Paria name and nation" (in J. Ethnol. Soc. N.S., 1869, p. 103). But apparently the reading has not held good, for M. Senart reads the name Pām̃dya (see Ind. Ant. ix. 287). [Mr. V. A. Smith writes: "The Girnar text is very defective in this important passage, which is not in the Dhauli text; that text gives only 11 out of the 14 edicts. The capital of the Pām̃diyan Kingdom was Madura. The history of the kingdom is very imperfectly known. For a discussion of it see Sewell, Lists of Antiquities, Madras, vol. ii. Of course it has nothing to do with Parias."]
- ↑ "... great diversion is found ... in firing balls at birds, particularly the albitross, a large species of the swan, commonly seen within two or three hundred miles round the Cape of Good Hope, and which the French call Montons (Moutons) du Cap."—Munro's Narrative, 13. The confusion of genera here equals that mentioned in our article above.
- ↑ It is an easy assumption that this export trade from India was killed by the development of machinery in England. We can hardly doubt that this cause would have killed it in time. But it was not left to any such lingering and natural death. Much time would be required to trace the whole of this episode of "ancient history." But it is certain that this Indian trade was not killed by natural causes: it was killed by prohibitory duties. These duties were so high in 1783 that they were declared to operate as a premium on smuggling, and they were reduced to 18 per cent. ad valorem. In the year 1796-97 the value of piece-goods from India imported into England was £2,776,682, or one-third of the whole value of the imports from India, which was £8,252,309. And in the sixteen years between 1793-4 and 1809-10 (inclusive) the imports of Indian piece-goods amounted in value to £26,171,125.
In 1799 the duties were raised. I need not give details, but will come down to 1814, just before the close of the war, when they were, I believe, at a maximum. The duties then, on "plain white calicoes," were:—
£ s. d. Warehouse duty 4 0 0 per cent. War enhancement 1 0 0 " Customs duty 50 0 0 " War enhancement 12 10 0 " Total 67 10 0 per cent. on value.
There was an Excise duty upon British manufactured and printed goods of 3½d. per square yard, and of twice that amount on foreign (Indian) calico and muslin printed in Great Britain, and the whole of both duty and excise upon such goods was recoverable as drawback upon re-exportation. But on the exportation of Indian white goods there was no drawback recoverable; and stuffs printed in India were at this time, so far as we can discern, not admitted through the English Custom-house at all until 1826, when they were admitted on a duty of 3½d. per square yard. (See in the Statutes, 43 Geo. III. capp. 68, 69, 70; 54 Geo. III. cap. 36; 6 Geo. IV. cap. 3; also Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, iv. 426).In Sir A. Arbuthnot's publication of Sir T. Munro's Minutes (Memoir, p. cxxix.) he quotes a letter of Munro's to a friend in Scotland, written about 1825, which shows him surprisingly before his age in the matter of Free Trade, speaking with reference to certain measures of Mr. Huskisson's. The passage ends thus: "India is the country that has been worst used in the new arrangements. All her products ought undoubtedly to be imported freely into England, upon paying the same duties, and no more, which English duties [? manufactures] pay in India. When I see what is done in Parliament against India, I think that I am reading about Edward III. and the Flemings."
Sir A. Arbuthnot adds very appropriately a passage from a note by the late Prof. H. H. Wilson in his continuation of James Mill's History of India (1845, vol. i. pp. 538-539), a passage which we also gladly insert here:
"It was stated in evidence (in 1813) that the cotton and silk goods of India, up to this period, could be sold for a profit in the British market at a price from 50 to 60 per cent. lower than those fabricated in England. It consequently became necessary to protect the latter by duties of 70 or 80 per cent. on their value, or by positive prohibition. Had this not been the case, had not such prohibitory duties and decrees existed, the mills of Paisley and of Manchester would have been stopped in their outset, and could hardly have been again set in motion, even by the powers of steam. They were created by the sacrifice of the Indian manufactures. Had India been independent, she would have retaliated; would have imposed preventive duties upon British goods, and would thus have preserved her own productive industry from annihilation. This act of self-defence was not permitted her; she was at the mercy of the stranger. British goods were forced upon her without paying any duty; and the foreign manufacturer employed the arm of political injustice to keep down and ultimately strangle a competitor with whom he could not contend on equal terms."
- ↑ See details in the Field of Nov. 15, 1884, p. 667, courteously given in reply to a query from the present writer.
- ↑ Thomas Rastall or Rastell went out apparently in 1615, in 1616 is mentioned as a "chief merchant of the fleet at Swally Road," and often later as chief at Surat (see Sainsbury, i. 476, and ii. passim).
- ↑ Pera o sapal, i.e. 'for the marsh.' We cannot be certain of the meaning of this; but we may note that in 1543 the King, as a favour to the city of Goa, and for the commodity of its shipping and the landing of goods, &c., makes a grant "of the marsh inundated with sea-water (do sapal alagado dagoa salgada) which extends along the river-side from the houses of Antonio Correa to the houses of Afonso Piquo, which grant is to be perpetual ... to serve for a landing-place and quay for the merchants to moor and repair their ships, and to erect their bankshalls (bangaçaes), and never to be turned away to any other purpose." Possibly the fines went into a fund for the drainage of this sapal and formation of landing-places. See Archiv. Port. Orient., Fasc. 2, pp. 130-131.
- ↑ We do not know what word is intended, unless it be a special use of Ar. baṭan, 'the interior or middle of a thing.' Dorn refers to a note, which does not exist in his book. Bellew gives the title conferred by the Prophet as "Pīhtān or Pāthān, a term which in the Syrian language signifies a rudder." Somebody else interprets it as 'a mast.'
- ↑ P. pāsbān and nigabān, both meaning literally 'watch-keeper,' the one from pās, 'a watch,' in the sense of a division of the day, the other from nigah, 'watch,' in the sense of 'heed' or 'observation.' [Dusaud = Dosādh, a low caste often employed as watchmen.]
