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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[APRIL, 191
which had been captured at Jâmgaon and recalled the troops from Jamgaon to the royal camp. Kaliyâni was surrendered to the officers of 'All Adil Shah and Sadashivarkya then retired from the neighbourhood of Ahmadnagar and usain Nigam Shah returned thither, and repaired the damage which had been done by the infidels. And at this time the king devoted special attention to the strengthening of the fortress of Ahmadnagar, which was known as Bagh-i-Nizam, and had been built of brick in mud, and he rebuilt the fortress of hard stone, and strengthened it so that it was superior to any fort on earth.
(To be continued.)
TOPAZ-TOPASS.
BY SIR R. C. TEMPLE, A DISCUSSION on this interesting term took place in the pages of the Ceylon Antiquary in 1916, and the subject has been revived in the April number (vol. v, pt. iv) of that journal last year (1920). Several suggestions have from time to time been put forth as to the origin of the word, but only two of these have found acceptance with scholars, among whom there is still a difference of opinion regarding its derivation.
With the object of settling this vexed question, I have collected, in chronological order, as many references to, and definitions of, the term Topaz as appear in such authorities as Yule's Hobson-Jobson and the Oxford English Dictionary, together with additional quotations cited in the Ceylon Antiquary and my own notes from original records and old travellers. The whole makes an informing series and, to my mind, solves the difficulty of the origin of the term.
There can be little doubt that the word is an early Portuguese corruption, through a form tôpashi in Malayalam (the first Indian language the Portuguese learnt) of the Indian dubhashi (Skr. dvibhdshi), one with two languages, i.e., a half-breed servant of Europeans; thence a soldier, especially a gunner, and among sailors, a ship's servant, a lavatory or bathroom attendant, and incidentally, on occasion, an interpreter. In the form topaz, topass, the term became differentiated from dubhashi (in the mouths of Europeans, dubash), a superior native interpreter, and meant always a low-class half-breed. It has no relation to tôp a gun, or to topi, a hat. 1549. Father Anriquez, writing from Punicail on the 21st November, says that he
was engaged for some time in making correct translations previously made by the Topazes. These Topazes had, moreover, a bad reputation and were excluded from the Jesuit College of Goa. Derivation of Tuppahi by S. G. P
(who quotes the original Portuguese) in Ceylon Antiquary, vol. II. pt. i, p. 62. 1602. The 12th ditto we saw to seaward another Champaigne (Sampan) wherein
were 20 men, Mesticos and Toupas. Van Spilbergen's Voyage, p. 34 (pub.
1648). (Quoted in Hobson-Jobson, 8. v. Topaz.) 1672. Madraspatam otherwise Chinnepatan, where the English have the Fort of
St. George, garrison'd with Toptazes and Mestioes. Baldaeus, Beschryvinge
van Malabar en Choromandel, quoted by Love, Vestiges of Old Madras, I, 278. 1673. To the Fort then belonged 300 English, and 400 Topazes, or Portugal
Firemen. Fryer, ed. 1698, p. 66. In his glossarial Index Fryer has Topazes, Musketeers. (In Hobson-Jobson.)
