Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 205

SEPTEMBER, 1931)
NOTES ON HOBSON-JOBSON
177
jear them, because of their nasty trade, said to them, since these people gain their bread better than you, who are lazy lubbards, their name of Haramcour ought to be given to you, and to them that of Halalcour."-Travels into the Levant, Part III (Indies), Eng. trans., 1687, p. 64.
Whether Akbar had anything to do with it or not, it is fairly certain that no example of the use of the word in this sense by any writer who lived before his accession is known. There can be also little doubt the King of Thévenot's story is Akbar.
Peter Mundy gives a third explanation of the name. [1632.) “They eat all manner of carrion, as horses, cattell, doggs, catts that die of themselves, sayeing other men are cruell in takeinge away the lives of the creatures, when as (whereas) they eat none but those whome Cod kills. " The Travels of Peter Mundy, ed. Sir R. C. Temple, II, 306.
Harry.--The earliest use of the name quoted by Yule is of 1706, but we find it in Albirûni.
[c. 1030.) "The people called Hadi, Doma (Domba), Chandala and Badhatan (sic) are not reckoned amongst any caste or guild. They are occupied with dirty work, like the cleansing of the villages and other services : ..according to general opinion, they descend from a Sudra father and a Brahmani mother as the children of fornication ; therefore they are degraded outcasts."-Alberûni, India, trans. Sachau. I. 101.
Hooka. The following is a much earlier use of the word than any of those quoted by Yule -
11675.1 "Hoocars : commonly called hubble-bubble."-T. Bowrey, Countries round the Bay of Bengal, ed. Sir R. C. Temple, p. 97. See also ibid., p. 96 and n.
Hooly.-Mr. Crooke quotes from Hedges' Diary (1671); but here is an earlier use -
[1628.] "It is however reported that a great caravan is to depart from this place after the Hoolee festival."- English Factories in India, ed. Foster (1624-9), p. 246.
Hoondy. (The earliest use quoted in Yule is of 1810.)
[c. 1600.] "When H. M. [Akbar] heard of this he gave orders that the Gujarat treasure should be gradually conveyed and that more than three lakhs of rupis should be sent from Court by way of hundi. In this country the rule is that when one desires to have money conveyed without the expense and trouble of transit to distant places, he makes it over to a man of means and he thereupon gives a writing. This is conveyed to the desired place, and the person there pays the money on seeing the document. The singular thing is that seals and witnesses are not required. The writing is called by this name (hundf), and in consequence of difference in place and circumstance sometimes it is met at par and sometimes there is profit." Abul Fagl, Akbarnama, trans. Beveridge, III, 1139.
The elaborate explanation indicates that it was a Hindu institution with which the Muhammadan conquerors were not familiar even at the end of the sixteenth century.'
Furcarra. See quotation dated 1639, 8.v. Doai (supra, p. 149).
Indigo.-Sir George Birdwood's identification of Belondri' with Valabhi.' is admittedly conjectural and uncertain. 'Baladi' Ginger is often mentioned by old European writers (Dames, The Book of Duarie Barbosa, II, 92 n.; Hobson-Jobson, 266, 8.v.Country'), and it is possible that the same epithet may have been applied to the home-grown' variety of indigo also. But balandar and balandarin jail and w aily are given in the dictionaries of Richardson and Steingass as short forms of balandtar yj wiland balandtarin, wvisit, for. 'higher' and 'highest.' The best Belondri' may thus signify the best of the first (or second) class.
Jancada.--Yule's earliest quotation is from Correa (1543), but those people are mentioned in Barbosa also and they are called Janguada' in the Spanish version and Sanguada' in Ramusio,