Indian Antiquary Vol 50

SR No.: 032542
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 468
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ APRIL, 1921
the term tôpi-wâla, hat-man, European, has been current since the middle of the 18th century.
A dark-skinned half-breed of Portuguese descent; often applied to a soldier, or a ship's scavenger or bath-attendant who is of this class. Oxford English Dict., 8. v. Topass.
1916. Topasses was the name given by the Portuguese to Eurasians, and occurs frequently in the letters of old time missionaries. Both [the Sinhalese] Tuppahi and [Tamil] Tupasi evidently come from this Topass, which is probably the Hindi word referred to by Winslow [supra, 1862]. It has the two significations given by Clough [supra, 1821]. The word Topass is said to be derived from Hind. topi. It would be a curious piece of "learned lumber" to know whether Tuppahi came into use in Sinhalese from the Tamil Tupdsi, or from Topass so frequently used by the Portuguese. The authority of the learned scholar, Mudaliyar Gunasekhara, is for its introduction from the Tamil The Carmelite friar Paolino a S. Bartolomao was the first to propound the derivation of Topaz and Dubash from Dvibhashi But Yule very thoughtlessly ridicules the derivation
Topas
is not pure Portuguese, but a word Lusitanised from Hindi Is the Hindi word top or dobáshi (dubhashia, Skt. dvibháshi). The Turkish etymology suggested by Yule may well be neglected ..That Eurasians came to be called "hat-men "is not strange .. I think the use of Tuppahi in Sinhalese literature of the 16th and 17th centuries will bear out the statement that it was first used to discriminate Eurasians. [The writer is unable to verify this statement, which is suggested by the occurrence of the word in this sense in the translations of the Parangi Hatana]... Its use in the sense of "interpreter " is of much later date, and probably came in because Eurasians often served this purpose. It would be interesting to know the date of the earliest use of the word in the sense of "interpreter." (Father Anriquez uses Topaz in this sense in 1549, which is the earliest in India.) There seems to have been a different word for "interpreter" in Ceylon, i.e., Banaca... Notes on the Derivation of Tuppahi by S. G. P. in Ceylon Antiquary, vol. II, pt. i, pp. 62, 124-126, 282.
1916. The Tamil tupdsi (of which tuppasi is a modification) is evidently derived from the Hindi dvibháshi, which literally means 'one who speaks two languages.' It is not genuine Portuguese. The Portuguese topas is either a corruption of dvibhâshi, or of its Tamil equivalent tupdsi. The latter is more probable, owing to the words "South India "in Whitworth [supra 1885]... The word cannot be connected with the Hindi tops, hat, for the reason that a (ch) in tupási or z in topaz is unaccountable, and because it is inconceivable that only a small and insignificant section of the people who wore hats came to be called tupâsi to the exclusion of the genuine Europeans who always wore hats. The Sinhalese tappahi (a modification. of tuppasi) may be from the Tamil or from the Portuguese, which, as shown above, adopted the word from the Tamil. Note by A. Mendis Gunasekara Mudaliyar, in Ceylon Antiquary, vol. II, pt. i, p. 63.