Indian Antiquary Vol 27

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 31

JANUARY, 1899.1
MISCELLANEA.
27
lines. Thus, "di" has dropped out, o has become the convicts and their Native guards are interestb and the zh sound of si has become j. quite ing, shewing that striving after a meaning which According to custom. Originally the convicts were is so prolific of verbal corruptions all over the divided into "divisions,” each of which slept in a world. E. g. :barrack. Hence the present application of the Mount Harriet becomes Mohan Rét. term.
Perseverance Point
Parasu Pét. Tapu. - This means a convict "station. It Shore Point
Buwar Pet. is really good Urdd for an island." Originally Navy Bay
Nabbi Bég all the convict stations were situated on small
Phenix Bay
» Pinik Bég. islands in Port Blair harbour. Hence its present Barwell Ghat
Bald Ghat. application to any convict station, inland or on an Harriet was the name of the wife of a former island.
Superintendent. Perseverance and Phoenix weru Sikshan. - This means now either the "sick
the names of Royal Ships in the last Century. list," or the Female Jail. It is the English word
Shore Point is named after Sir John Shore (Lord "section." Originally the major division of the
Teignmouth), Governor-General. General Bar. convicts was into sections, of which No, XVII.
well was a fomer Chief-Commissioner. There is was the convalescent gang, the sick and unable to
also a large village called Anikhet, a conscious do any or full work. The women were of course
pun on the name of the daughter of a former all in the Female Section. Hence the present
Chief-Commissioner, who was named Annie Kate. double application of the word, kept in existence
The largest steam-launch in the harbour is named no doubt in the first case owing to the likeness of
«The Belle, "after Belle, the daughter of a former " sikshan" to the familiar "sik-mán” of the
Chief-Commissioner, which has proved an Native Army Hospitals.
unfortunate name, for the vessel is invariably
called by the Natives " Belly Jahaz." Waipar. - The first Jail constructed in the
The station of Elephant Point has been transSettlement was on Viper Island, so named after
lated into Hath Tapu. The stations of Navy a gunboat in the last Century. It is now dwarf.
Bay, Dundas Point, South Point, and Phænis ed by the great Cellular Jail on Atalanta Point,
Bay are all also frequently called indiscriminately so named after an old man-of-war, which is the
Chana Bhatta, because there is now, or has been Jail par excellence, much to be avoided in the
at some former time, a lime-kiln at these spots. eyes of the convicts; the other is simply waipar.
Convicts never forget a place at which there has Other jails are being constructed at Minnie bay been a lime-kiln: they hate the work so. So also (named after another by.gone gunboat), ranat. there is a village called Chauldart in the Southgaon, and Goplak abang (Andamanese word), of
ern District after a former convict "camp" at the which the mightiest will be that of Minnie Bay.
spot; but the station of Middle Point, a long way and it will be interesting to see what popular
off in the Northern District, is also commonly terms will be applied to them. By the way Gopla.
known to the convicts as Chauldari for the same kabang is already Gôhang in common parlance
reason. and script, and the name is likely to have "no
Sometimes the Natives' names for places are derivation" in days to come.
merely corruptions of the English words, without Dhobi, a warherman, and talash, search, are
any effort at a meaning; e. g., Ubtên for Hope. nur Urddbut they are two of tbe first words town, where Lord Mayo was murdered, and Hårdo picked by Burmans and non-Indians, and it is for Haddo. Port Blair itself is always Pot Biler curious to hear them in the midst of an otherwise and Port Mouat always Potmot. purely Burmese sentence.
R. C. TEMPLE. Peti Afsar, for "petty officer, " is unquestion. ably referred by Native speakers to the peti, belt,
KULA. they all wear and not to the English word. I ONE of the first vernacular words that the bave heard them spoken of simply as pétiwule, the stranger learns in Burma is kala (written kula :), men who wear belts, though in ordinary Anglo- a foreigner. It has always a contemptuous sense, Indian slang petívili, translated into "box much like the word "barbarian," and is applied wallah," is the hawker who sells articles of properly to a native of India, and hence to any female attire and familiar wants, and pattiwald Western foreigner, when it is not likely to be exists for those familiar with the language for resented. It is traceable to Gola (Gauda) and the belt-wearer, i.e., the messenger or peon. meant originally an Indian Buddbist immigrant
Many of the existing place-names about Port from Bengal (Gauda, Gaur, Pali Gola). See Blair are English, and the corruptions thereof lty Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 8. o.