Hobson-Jobson

c. A.D. 60.—

"Quâque ferens rapidum diviso gurgite fontem

Vastis Indus aquis mixtum non sentit Hydaspen:

Quique bibunt tenerâ dulcis ab arundine succos...."

Lucan, iii. 235.

" "Aiunt inveniri apud Indos mel in arundinum foliis, quod aut nos illius cœli, aut ipsius arundinis humor dulcis et pinguis gignat."—Seneca, Epist. lxxxiv.

c. A.D. 65.—"It is called σάκχαρον, and is a kind of honey which solidifies in India, and in Arabia Felix; and is found upon canes, in its substance resembling salt, and crunched by the teeth as salt is. Mixed with water and drunk, it is good for the belly and stomach, and for affections of the bladder and kidneys."—Dioscorides, Mat. Med. ii. c. 104.

c. A.D. 70.—"Saccharon et Arabia fert, sed laudatius India. Est autem mel in harundinibus collectum, cummium modo candidum, dentibus fragile, amplissimum nucis abellanae magnitudine, ad medicinae tantum usum."—Plin. Hist. Nat. xii. 8.

c. 170.—"But all these articles are hotter than is desirable, and so they aggravate fevers, much as wine would. But oxymeli alone does not aggravate fever, whilst it is an active purgative.... Not undeservedly, I think, that saccharum may also be counted among things of this quality...."—Galen, Methodus Medendi, viii.

c. 636.—"In Indicis stagnis nasci arundines calamique dicuntur, ex quorum radicibus expressum suavissimum succum bibunt. Vnde et Varro ait:

Indica non magno in arbore crescit arundo;

Illius et lentis premitur radicibus humor,

Dulcia qui nequeant succo concedere mella."

Isidori Hispalensis Originum, Lib. xvii. cap. vii.

c. 1220.—"Sunt insuper in Terra (Sancta) canamellae de quibus zucchara ex compressione eliquatur."—Jacobi Vitriaci, Hist. Jherosolym, cap. lxxxv.

1298.—"Bangala est une provence vers midi.... Il font grant merchandie, car il ont espi e galanga e gingiber e succare et de maintes autres chieres espices."—Marco Polo, Geog. Text, ch. cxxvi.

1298.—"Je voz di que en ceste provences" (Quinsai or Chekiang) "naist et se fait plus sucar que ne fait en tout le autre monde, et ce est encore grandissime vente."—Ibid. ch. cliii.

1298.—"And before this city" (a place near Fu-chau) "came under the Great Can these people knew not how to make fine sugar (zucchero); they only used to boil and skim the juice, which, when cold, left a black paste. But after they came under the Great Can some men of Babylonia" (i.e. of Cairo) "who happened to be at the Court proceeded to this city and taught the people to refine sugar with the ashes of certain trees."—Idem, in Ramusio, ii. 49.

c. 1343.—"In Cyprus the following articles are sold by the hundred-weight (cantara di peso) and at a price in besants: Round pepper, sugar in powder (polvere di zucchero) ... sugars in loaves (zuccheri in pani), bees' honey, sugar-cane honey, and carob-honey (mele d'ape, mele di cannameli, mele di carrube)...."—Pegolotti, 64.

" "Loaf sugars are of several sorts, viz. zucchero muchhera, caffettino, and bambillonia; and musciatto, and dommaschino; and the mucchera is the best sugar there is; for it is more thoroughly boiled, and its paste is whiter, and more solid, than any other sugar; it is in the form of the bambillonia sugar like this Δ; and of this mucchara kind but little comes to the west, because nearly the whole is kept for the mouth and for the use of the Soldan himself.

"Zucchero caffettino is the next best after the muccara ...

"Zucchero Bambillonia is the best next after the best caffettino.

"Zucchero musciatto is the best after that of Bambillonia.

* * * * *

"Zucchero chandi, the bigger the pieces are, and the whiter, and the brighter, so much is it the better and finer, and there should not be too much small stuff.

"Powdered sugars are of many kinds, as of Cyprus, of Rhodes, of the Cranco of Monreale, and of Alexandria; and they are all made originally in entire loaves; but as they are not so thoroughly done, as the other sugars that keep their loaf shape ... the loaves tumble to pieces, and return to powder, and so it is called powdered sugar ..." (and a great deal more).—Ibid. 362-365. We cannot interpret most of the names in the preceding extract. Bambillonia is 'Sugar of Babylon,' i.e. of Cairo, and Dommaschino of Damascus. Mucchera (see CANDY (SUGAR), the second quotation), Caffettino, and Musciatto, no doubt all represent Arabic terms used in the trade at Alexandria, but we cannot identify them.

c. 1345.—"J'ai vu vendre dans le Bengale ... un rithl (rottle) de sucre (al-sukkar), poids de Dihly, pour quatre drachmes."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 211.

1516.—"Moreover they make in this city (Bengala, i.e. probably Chittagong) much and good white cane sugar (açuquere branco de canas), but they do not know how to consolidate it and make loaves of it, so they wrap up the powder in certain wrappers of raw hide, very well stitched up; and make great loads of it, which are despatched for sale to many parts, for it is a great traffic."—Barbosa, Lisbon ed. 362.

[1630.—"Let us have a word or two of the prices of suger and suger candy."—Forrest, Bombay Letters, i. 5.]

1807.—"Chacun sait que par effet des regards de Farid, des monceaux de terre se changeaient en sucre. Tel est le motif du surnom de Schakar ganj, 'tresor de sucre' qui lui a été donné."—Arāish-i-Maḥfil, quoted by Garcin de Tassy, Rel. Mus. 95. (This is the saint, Farīd-uddīn Shakarganj (d. A.D. 1268) whose shrine is at Pāk Pattan in the Punjab.) [See Crooke, Popular Religion, &c. i. 214 seqq.]

1810.—"Although the sugar cane is supposed by many to be indigenous in India, yet it has only been within the last 50 years that it has been cultivated to any great extent.... Strange to say, the only sugar-candy used until that time" (20 years before the date of the book) "was received from China; latterly, however, many gentlemen have speculated deeply in the manufacture. We now see sugar-candy of the first quality manufactured in various places of Bengal, and I believe that it is at least admitted that the raw sugars from that quarter are eminently good."—Williamson, V.M. ii. 133.

SULTAN, s. Ar. sulṭān, 'a Prince, a Monarch.' But this concrete sense is, in Arabic, post-classical only. The classical sense is abstract 'dominion.' The corresponding words in Hebrew and Aramaic have, as usual, sh or s. Thus sholṭān in Daniel (e.g. vi. 26—"in the whole dominion of my kingdom") is exactly the same word. The concrete word, corresponding to sulṭān in its post-classical sense, is shallīṭ, which is applied to Joseph in Gen. xlii. 6—"governor." So Saladin (Yūsuf Salāh-ad-dīn) was not the first Joseph who was sultan of Egypt. ["In Arabia it is a not uncommon proper name; and as a title it is taken by a host of petty kinglets. The Abbaside Caliphs (as Al-Wásik ...) formerly created these Sultans as their regents. Al Tá'i bi'llah (A.D. 974) invested the famous Sabuktagin with the office ... Sabuktagin's son, the famous Mahmúd of the Ghaznavite dynasty in 1002, was the first to adopt 'Sultán' as an independent title some 200 years after the death of Harún-al-Rashíd" (Burton, Arab. Nights, i. 188.)]

c. 950.—"Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς Βασιλείας Μιχαὴλ τοῦ ὑιοῦ Θεοφίλου ἀνῆλθεν ἀπὸ Ἀφρικῆς στόλος λϛʹ κομπαρίων, ἔχων κεφαλὴν τὸν τε Σολδανὸν καὶ τὸν Σάμαν καὶ τὸν Καλφοῦς, καὶ ἐχειρώσαντο διαφόρους πόλεις τῆς Δαλματίας."—Constant. Porphyrog., De Thematibus, ii. Thēma xi.

c. 1075 (written c. 1130).—"... οἳ καὶ καθελόντες Πέρσας τε καὶ Σαρακηνοὺς αὐτοὶ κύριοι τῆς Περσίδος γεγόνασι σουλτάνον τὸν Στραγγολίπιδα^[249] ὀνομάσαντες, ὅπερ σημαίνει παρ' αὐτοῖς Βασιλεὺς καὶ παντοκράτωρ."—Nicephorus Bryennius, Comment. i. 9.

c. 1124.—"De divitiis Soldani mira referunt, et de incognitis speciebus quas in oriente viderunt. Soldanus dicitur quasi solus dominus, quia cunctis praeest Orientis principibus."—Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Eccles. Lib. xi. In Paris ed. of Le Prevost, 1852, iv. 256-7.

1165.—"Both parties faithfully adhered to this arrangement, until it was interrupted by the interference of Sanjar-Shah ben Shah, who governs all Persia, and holds supreme power over 45 of its Kings. This prince is called in Arabic Sultan ul-Fars-al-Khabir (supreme commander of Persia)."—R. Benjamin, in Wright, 105-106.

c. 1200.—"Endementres que ces choses coroient einsi en Antioche, li message qui par Aussiens estoient alé au soudan de Perse por demander aide s'en retournoient."—Guillaume de Tyr, Old Fr. Tr. i. 174.

1298.—"Et quaint il furent là venus, adonc Bondocdaire qe soldan estoit de Babelonie vent en Armenie con grande host, et fait grand domajes por la contrée."—Marco Polo, Geog. Text, ch. xiii.

1307.—"Post quam vero Turchi occupaverunt terrã illã et habitaverũt ibidem, elegerũt dominũ super eos, et illum vocaverunt Soldã quod idem est quod rex in idiomate Latinorũ."—Haitoni Armeni de Tartaris Liber, cap. xiii. in Novus Orbis.

1309.—"En icelle grant paour de mort où nous estiens, vindrent à nous jusques à treize ou quatorze dou consoil dou soudan, trop richement appareillé de dras d'or et de soie, et nous firent demander (par un frere de l'Ospital qui savoit sarrazinois), de par le soudan, se nous vorriens estre delivre, et nous deimes que oil, et ce pooient il bien savoir."—Joinville, Credo. Joinville often has soudanc, and sometimes saudanc.

1498.—"Em este lugar e ilha a que chamão Moncobiquy estava hum senhor a que elles chamavam Colyytam que era como visorrey."—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 26.

c. 1586.—

"Now Tamburlaine the mighty Soldan comes,

And leads with him the great Arabian King."

Marlowe, Tamb. the Great, iv. 3.

[1596.—

"... this scimitar

That slew the Sophy and a Persian prince

That won three fields of Sultan Solyman."

Merchant of Venice, II. i. 26.]

The first mention of the name is probably to be recognised in Samara, the name given in the text of Marco Polo to one of the kingdoms of this coast, intervening between Basma, or Pacem, and Dagroian or Dragoian, which last seems to correspond with Pedir. This must have been the position of Samudra, and it is probable that d has disappeared accidentally from Polo's Samara. Malay legends give trivial stories to account for the etymology of the name, and others have been suggested; but in all probability it was the Skt. Samudra, the 'sea.' [See Miscellaneous Papers relating to Indo-China, 2nd ser. ii. 50; Leyden, Malay Annals, 65.] At the very time of the alleged foundation of the town a kingdom was flourishing at Dwāra Samudra in S. India (see DOOR SUMMUND).

The first authentic occurrence of the name is probably in the Chinese annals, which mention, among the Indian kingdoms which were prevailed on to send tribute to Kublai Khan, that of Sumutala. The chief of this State is called in the Chinese record Tu-han-pa-ti (Pauthier, Marc Pol, 605), which seems to exactly represent the Malay words Tuan-Pati, 'Lord Ruler.'

We learn next from Ibn Batuta that at the time of his visit (about the middle of the 14th century) the State of Sumuṭra, as he calls it, had become important and powerful in the Archipelago; and no doubt it was about that time or soon after, that the name began to be applied by foreigners to the whole of the great island, just as Lamori had been applied to the same island some centuries earlier, from Lāmbrī, which was then the State and port habitually visited by ships from India. We see that the name was so applied early in the following century by Nicolo Conti, who was in those seas apparently c. 1420-30, and who calls the island Shamuthera. Fra Mauro, who derived much information from Conti, in his famous World-Map, calls the island Isola Siamotra or Taprobane. The confusion with Taprobane lasted long.

When the Portuguese first reached those regions Pedir was the leading State upon the coast, and certainly no State known as Samudra or Sumatra then continued to exist. Whether the city continued to exist, even in decay, is obscure. The Āīn, quoted below, refers to the "port of Sumatra," but this may have been based on old information. Valentijn seems to recognise the existence of a place called Samudra or Samotdara, though it is not entered in his map. A famous mystic theologian who flourished under the great King of Achīn, Iskandar Muda, and died in 1630, bore the name of Shamsuddīn Shamatrānī, which seems to point to a place called Shamatra as his birthplace. And a distinct mention of "the island of Samatra" as named from "a city of this northern part" occurs in the soi-disant "Voyage which Juan Serano made when he fled from Malacca" in 1512, published by Lord Stanley of Alderley at the end of his translation of Barbosa. This man, on leaving Pedir and going down the coast, says: "I drew towards the south and south-east direction, and reached to another country and city which is called Samatra," and so on. Now this indicates the position in which the city of Sumatra must really have been, if it continued to exist. But, though this passage is not, all the rest of the narrative seems to be mere plunder from Varthema. Unless, indeed, the plunder was the other way; for there is reason to believe that Varthema never went east of Malabar.

There is, however, a like intimation in a curious letter respecting the Portuguese discoveries, written from Lisbon in 1515, by a German, Valentino Moravia (the same probably who published a Portuguese version of Marco Polo, at Lisbon, in 1502) and who shows an extremely accurate conception of Indian geography. He says: "The greatest island is that called by Marco Polo the Venetian Java Minor, and at present it is called Sumotra from a port of the said island" (see in De Gubernatis, Viagg. Ital. 391).

It is probable that before the Portuguese epoch the adjoining States of Pasei and Sumatra had become united. Mr. G. Phillips, of the Consular Service in China, was good enough to send to one of the present writers, when engaged on Marco Polo, a copy of an old Chinese chart showing the northern coast of the island, and this showed the town of Sumatra (Sumantala). It seemed to be placed in the Gulf of Pasei, and very near where Pasei itself still exists. An extract of a Chinese account "of about A.D. 1413" accompanied the map. This was fundamentally the same as that quoted below from Groeneveldt. There was a village at the mouth of the river called Talu-mangkin (qu. Telu-Samawe?). A curious passage also will be found below, extracted by the late M. Pauthier from the great Chinese Imperial Geography, which alludes to the disappearance of Sumatra from knowledge.

We are quite unable to understand the doubts that have been thrown upon the derivation of the name, given to the island by foreigners, from that of the kingdom of which we have been speaking (see the letter quoted above from the Bijdragen).

1298.—"So you must know that when you leave the Kingdom of Basma (Pacem) you come to another Kingdom called Samara on the same Island."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 10.

c. 1300.—"Beyond it (Lāmūrī, or Lāmbrī, near Achīn) lies the country of Sūmūtra, and beyond that Darband Niās, which is a dependency of Java."—Rashīduddīn, in Elliot, i. 71.

c. 1323.—"In this same island, towards the south, is another Kingdom by name Sumoltra, in which is a singular generation of people."—Odoric, in Cathay, &c., i. 277.

c. 1346.—"... after a voyage of 25 days we arrived at the island of Jāwa" (i.e. the Java Minor of Marco Polo, or Sumatra). "... We thus made our entrance into the capital, that is to say into the city of Sumuthra. It is large and handsome, and is encompassed with a wall and towers of timber."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 228-230.

1416.—"Sumatra [Su-men-ta-la]. This country is situated on the great road of western trade. When a ship leaves Malacca for the west, and goes with a fair eastern wind for five days and nights, it first comes to a village on the sea-coast called Ta-lu-man; and anchoring here and going south-east for about 10 li (3 miles) one arrives at the said place.

"This country has no walled city. There is a large brook running out into the sea, with two tides every day; the waves at the mouth of it are very high, and ships continually founder there...."—Chinese work, quoted by Groeneveldt, p. 85.

c. 1430.—"He afterwards went to a fine city of the island Taprobana, which island is called by the natives Sciamuthera."—Conti, in India in XVth. Cent., 9.

1459.—"Isola Siamotra."—Fra Mauro.

1498.—"... Camatarra is of the Christians; it is distant from Calicut a voyage of 30 days with a good wind."—Roteiro, 109.

1510.—"Wherefore we took a junk and went towards Sumatra to a city called Pider."—Varthema, 228.

1522.—"... We left the island of Timor, and entered upon the great sea called Lant Chidol, and taking a west-south-west course, we left to the right and the north, for fear of the Portuguese, the island of Zumatra, anciently called Taprobana; also Pegu, Bengala, Urizza, Chelim (see KLING) where are the Malabars, subjects of the King of Narsinga."—Pigafetta, Hak. Soc. 159.

1572.—

"Dizem, que desta terra, co' as possantes

Ondas o mar intrando, dividio

A nobre ilha Samatra, que já d'antes

Juntas ambas a gente antigua vio:

Chersoneso foi dita, e das prestantes

Veas d'ouro, que a terra produzio,

Aurea por epithéto lhe ajuntaram

Alguns que fosse Ophir imaginarám."

Camões, x. 124.

"From this Peninsula, they say, the sea

parted with puissant waves, and entering tore

Samatra's noble island, wont to be

joined to the Main as seen by men of yore.

'Twas callèd Chersonese, and such degree

it gained by earth that yielded golden ore,

they gave a golden epithet to the ground:

Some be who fancy Ophir here was found."

c. 1590.—"The zabád (i.e. civet) which is brought from the harbour town of Sumatra, from the territory of Áchín, goes by the name of Sumatra zabád (chūn az bandar-i Sāmatrāī az muẓāfat-i Achīn awurdand, Sāmatrāī goyand)."—Āīn, Blochmann, i. 79, (orig. i. 93). [And see a reference to Lámri in Āīn, ed. Jarrett, iii. 48.]

1612.—"It is related that Raja Shaher-ul-Nawi (see SARNAU) was a sovereign of great power, and on hearing that Samadra was a fine and flourishing land he said to his warriors—which of you will take the Rajah of Samadra?"—Sijara Malayu, in J. Ind. Archip. v. 316.

c. **.—"Sou-men-t'ala est située au sud-ouest de Tchen-tching (la Cochin Chine) ... jusqu'à la fin du règne de Tching-tsou (in 1425), ce roi ne cessa d'envoyer son tribut à la cour. Pendant les années wen-hi (1573-1615) ce royaume se partagea en deux, dont le nouveau se nomma A-tchí.... Par la suite on n'en entendit plus parler."—Grande Geog. Impériale, quoted by Pauthier, Marc Pol, 567.

[1826.—"... in this case they apply themselves to sumjao, the defendant."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, ii. 170.]

[c. 1630.—"Sempitans." See under UPAS.

[1841.—"In advancing, the sumpitan is carried at the mouth and elevated, and they will discharge at least five arrows to one compared with a musket."—Brooke, in Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, i. 261.

[1883.—"Their (the Samangs') weapon is the sumpitan, a blow-gun, from which poisoned arrows are expelled."—Miss Bird, The Golden Chersonese, 16.]

SUNDA, n.p. The western and most mountainous part of the island of Java, in which a language different from the proper Javanese is spoken, and the people have many differences of manners, indicating distinction of race. In the 16th century, Java and Sunda being often distinguished, a common impression grew up that they were separate islands; and they are so represented in some maps of the 16th century, just as some medieval maps, including that of Fra Mauro (1459), show a like separation between England and Scotland. The name Sunda is more properly indeed that of the people than of their country. The Dutch call them Sundanese (Soendanezen). The Sunda country is considered to extend from the extreme western point of the island to Cheribon, i.e. embracing about one-third of the whole island of Java. Hinduism appears to have prevailed in the Sunda country, and held its ground longer than in "Java," a name which the proper Javanese restrict to their own part of the island. From this country the sea between Sumatra and Java got from Europeans the name of the Straits of Sunda. Geographers have also called the great chain of islands from Sumatra to Timor "the Sunda Islands."

[Mr. Whiteway adds: "There was another Sunda near Goa, but above the Ghāts, where an offspring of the Vijāyanagara family ruled. It was founded at the end of the 16th century, and in the 18th the Portuguese had much to do with it, till Tippoo Sultān absorbed it, and the ruler became a Portuguese pensioner."]

1516.—"And having passed Samatara towards Java there is the island of Sunda, in which there is much good pepper, and it has a king over it, who they say desires to serve the King of Portugal. They ship thence many slaves to China."—Barbosa, 196.

1526.—"Duarte Coelho in a ship, along with the galeot and a foist, went into the port of Çunda, which is at the end of the island of Çamatra, on a separate large island, in which grows a great quantity of excellent pepper, and of which there is a great traffic from this port to China, this being in fact the most important merchandize exported thence. The country is very abundant in provisions, and rich in groves of trees, and has excellent water, and is peopled with Moors who have a Moorish king over them."—Correa, iii. 92.

1553.—"Of the land of Jaüa we make two islands, one before the other, lying west and east as if both on one parallel.... But the Jaos themselves do not reckon two islands of Jaoa, but one only, of the length that has been stated ... about a third in length of this island towards the west constitutes Sunda, of which we have now to speak. The natives of that part consider their country to be an island divided from Jaüa by a river, little known to our navigators, called by them Chiamo or Chenano, which cuts off right from the sea,^[250] all that third part of the land in such a way that when these natives define the limits of Jaüa they say that on the west it is bounded by the Island of Sunda, and separated from it by this river Chiamo, and on the east by the island of Bale, and that on the north they have the island of Madura, and on the south the unexplored sea ..." &c.—Barros, IV. i. 12.

1554.—"The information we have of this port of Calapa, which is the same as Çumda, and of another port called Bocaa, these two being 15 leagues one from the other, and both under one King, is to the effect that the supply of pepper one year with another will be xxx thousand quintals,^[251] that is to say, xx thousand in one year, and x thousand the next year; also that it is very good pepper, as good as that of Malauar, and it is purchased with cloths of Cambaya, Bengalla, and Choromandel."—A. Nunez, in Subsidios, 42.

1566.—"Sonda, vn Isola de' Mori appresso la costa della Giava."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 391v.

c. 1570.—

"Os Sundas e Malaios con pimenta,

Con massa, e noz ricos Bandanezes,

Com roupa e droga Cambaia a opulenta,

E com cravo os longinquos Maluguezes."

Ant. de Abreu, Desc. de Malaca.

1598.—Linschoten does not recognize the two islands. To him Sunda is only a place in Java:—

"... there is a straight or narrow passage betweene Sumatra and Iaua, called the straight of Sunda, of a place so called, lying not far from thence within the Ile of Iaua.... The principall hauen in the Iland is Sunda Calapa,^[252] whereof the straight beareth the name; in this place of Sũda there is much Pepper."—p. 34.

SUNDERBUNDS, n.p. The well-known name of the tract of intersecting creeks and channels, swampy islands, and jungles, which constitutes that part of the Ganges Delta nearest the sea. The limits of the region so-called are the mouth of the Hoogly on the west, and that of the Megna (i.e. of the combined great Ganges and Brahmaputra) on the east, a width of about 220 miles. The name appears not to have been traced in old native documents of any kind, and hence its real form and etymology remain uncertain. Sundara-vana, 'beautiful forest'; Sundarī-vana, or -ban, 'forest of the Sundarī tree'; Chandra-ban, and Chandra-band, 'moon-forest' or 'moon-embankment'; Chanda-bhanda, the name of an old tribe of salt-makers;^[253] Chandra dīp-ban from a large zemindary called Chandra-dīp in the Bakerganj district at the eastern extremity of the Sunderbunds; these are all suggestions that have been made. Whatever be the true etymology, we doubt if it is to be sought in sundara or sundarī. [As to the derivation from the Sundarī tree which is perhaps most usually accepted, Mr. Beveridge (Man. of Bakarganj, 24, 167, 32) remarks that this tree is by no means common in many parts of the Bakarganj Sunderbunds; he suggests that the word means 'beautiful wood' and was possibly given by the Brahmans.] The name has never (except in one quotation below) been in English mouths, or in English popular orthography, Soonderbunds, but Sunderbunds, which implies (in correct transliteration) an original sandra or chandra, not sundara. And going back to what we conjecture may be an early occurrence of the name in two Dutch writers, we find this confirmed. These two writers, it will be seen, both speak of a famous Sandery, or Santry, Forest in Lower Bengal, and we should be more positive in our identification were it not that in Van der Broucke's map (1660) which was published in Valentijn's East Indies (1726) this Sandery Forest is shown on the west side of the Hoogly R., in fact about due west of the site of Calcutta, and a little above a place marked as Basanderi, located near the exit into the Hoogly of what represents the old Saraswati R., which enters the former at Sānkrāl, not far below the Botanical Gardens, and 5 or 6 miles below Fort William. This has led Mr. Blochmann to identify the Sanderi Bosch with the old Mahall Basandhari which appears in the Āīn as belonging to the Sirkār of Sulīmānābād (Gladwin's Ayeen, ii. 207, orig. i. 407; Jarrett, ii. 140; Blochm. in J.A.S.B. xlii. pt. i. p. 232), and which formed one of the original "xxiv. Pergunnas."^[254] Undoubtedly this is the Basanderi of V. den Broucke's map; but it seems possible that some confusion between Basanderi and Bosch Sandery (which would be Sandarban in the vernacular) may have led the map-maker to misplace the latter. We should gather from Schulz^[255] that he passed the Forest of Sandry about a Dutch mile below Sankral, which he mentions. But his statement is so nearly identical with that in Valentijn that we apprehend they have no separate value. Valentijn, in an earlier page, like Bernier, describes the Sunderbunds as the resort of the Arakan pirates, but does not give a name (p. 169).

1661.—"We got under sail again" (just after meeting the Arakan pirates) "in the morning early, and went past the Forest of Santry, so styled because (as has been credibly related) Alexander the Great with his mighty army was hindered by the strong rush of the ebb and flood at this place, from advancing further, and therefore had to turn back to Macedonia."—Walter Schulz, 155.

c. 1666.—"And thence it is" (from piratical raids of the Mugs, &c.) "that at present there are seen in the mouth of the Ganges, so many fine Isles quite deserted, which were formerly well peopled, and where no other Inhabitants are found but wild Beasts, and especially Tygers."—Bernier, E.T. 54; [ed. Constable, 442].

1726.—"This (Bengal) is the land wherein they will have it that Alexander the Great, called by the Moors, whether Hindostanders or Persians, Sulthaan Iskender, and in their historians Iskender Doulcarnain, was ... they can show you the exact place where King Porus held his court. The natives will prate much of this matter; for example, that in front of the Sanderie-Wood (Sanderie Bosch, which we show in the map, and which they call properly after him Iskenderie) he was stopped by the great and rushing streams."—Valentijn, v. 179.

1728.—"But your petitioners did not arrive off Sunderbund Wood till four in the evening, where they rowed backward and forward for six days; with which labour and want of provisions three of the people died."—Petition of Sheik Mahmud Ameen and others, to Govr. of Ft. St. Geo., in Wheeler, iii. 41.

1764.—"On the 11th Bhaudan, whilst the Boats were at Kerma in Soonderbund, a little before daybreak, Captain Ross arose and ordered the Manjee to put off with the Budgerow...."—Native Letter regarding Murder of Captain John Ross by a Native Crew. In Long, 383. This instance is an exception to the general remark made above that the English popular orthography has always been Sunder, and not Soonder-bunds.

1786.—"If the Jelinghy be navigable we shall soon be in Calcutta; if not, we must pass a second time through the Sundarbans."—Letter of Sir W. Jones, in Life, ii. 83.

" "A portion of the Sunderbunds ... for the most part overflowed by the tide, as indicated by the original Hindoo name of Chunderbund, signifying mounds, or offspring of the moon."—James Grant, in App. to Fifth Report, p. 260. In a note Mr. Grant notices the derivation from "Soondery wood," and "Soonder-ban," 'beautiful wood,' and proceeds: "But we adhere to our own etymology rather ... above all, because the richest and greatest part of the Sunderbunds is still comprized in the ancient Zemindarry pergunnah of Chunder deep, or lunar territory."

1792.—"Many of these lands, what is called the Sundra bunds, and others at the mouth of the Ganges, if we may believe the history of Bengal, was formerly well inhabited."—Forrest, V. to Mergui, Pref. p. 5.

1793.—"That part of the delta bordering on the sea, is composed of a labyrinth of rivers and creeks, ... this tract known by the name of the Woods, or Sunderbunds, is in extent equal to the principality of Wales."—Rennell, Mem. of Map of Hind., 3rd ed., p. 359.

1853.—"The scenery, too, exceeded his expectations; the terrible forest solitude of the Sunderbunds was full of interest to an European imagination."—Oakfield, i. 38.

[SUNGAR, s. Pers. sanga, sang, 'a stone.' A rude stone breastwork, such as is commonly erected for defence by the Afrīdīs and other tribes on the Indian N.W. frontier. The word has now come into general military use, and has been adopted in the S. African war.

[1857.—"... breastworks of wood and stone (murcha and sanga respectively)...."—Bellew, Journal of Mission, 127.

[1900.—"Conspicuous sungars are constructed to draw the enemy's fire."—Pioneer Mail, March 16.]

The same word seems to be used in the Hills in the sense of a rude wooden bridge supported by stone piers, used for crossing a torrent.

[1833.—"Across a deep ravine ... his Lordship erected a neat sangah, or mountain bridge of pines."—Mundy, Pen and Pencil Sketches, ed. 1858, p. 117.

[1871.—"A sungha bridge is formed as follows: on either side the river piers of rubble masonry, laced with cross-beams of timber, are built up; and into these are inserted stout poles, one above the other in successively projecting tiers, the interstices between the latter being filled up with cross-beams," &c.—Harcourt, Himalayan Districts of Kooloo, p. 67 seq.]

c. 1526.—"The Sengtereh ... is another fruit.... In colour and appearance it is like the citron (Tāranj), but the skin of the fruit is smooth."—Baber, 328.

c. 1590.—"Sirkar Silhet is very mountainous.... Here grows a delicious fruit called Soontara (sūntara) in colour like an orange, but of an oblong form."—Ayeen, by Gladwin, ii. 10; [Jarrett (ii. 124) writes Súntarah].

1793.—"The people of this country have infinitely more reason to be proud of their oranges, which appear to me to be very superior to those of Silhet, and probably indeed are not surpassed by any in the world. They are here called Santôla, which I take to be a corruption of Sengterrah, the name by which a similar species of orange is known in the Upper Provinces of India."—Kirkpatrick's Nepaul, 129.

1835.—"The most delicious oranges have been procured here. The rind is fine and thin, the flavour excellent; the natives call them 'cintra.'"—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, ii. 99.

SUNN, s. Beng. and Hind. san, from Skt. śaṇa; the fibre of the Crotalaria juncea, L. (N.O. Leguminosae); often called Bengal, or Country, hemp. It is of course in no way kindred to true hemp, except in its economic use. In the following passage from the Āīn the reference is to the Hibiscus canabinus (see Watt, Econ. Dict. ii. 597).

[c. 1590.—"Hemp grows in clusters like a nosegay.... One species bears a flower like the cotton-shrub, and this is called in Hindostan, sun-paut. It makes a very soft rope."—Ayeen, by Gladwin, ii. 89; in Blochmann (i. 87) Patsan.]

1838.—"Sunn ... a plant the bark of which is used as hemp, and is usually sown around cotton fields."—Playfair, Taleef-i-Shereef, 96.

[c. 1590.—"The Mahommedans (of Kashmīr) are partly Sunnies, and others of the sects of Aly and Noorbukhshy; and they are frequently engaged in wars with each other."—Ayeen, by Gladwin, ii. 125; ed. Jarrett, ii. 352.

[1623.—"The other two ... are Sonni, as the Turks and Moghol."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 152.

[1812.—"A fellow told me with the gravest face, that a lion of their own country would never hurt a Sheyah ... but would always devour a Sunni."—Morier, Journey through Persia, 62.]

SUNNUD, s. Hind. from Ar. sanad. A diploma, patent, or deed of grant by the government of office, privilege, or right. The corresponding Skt.—H. is śāsana.