1298.—"When they have taken a merchant vessel, they force the merchants to swallow a stuff called Tamarindi, mixed in sea-water, which produces a violent purging."—Marco Polo, 2nd ed., ii. 383.
c. 1335.—"L'arbre appelé ḥammar, c'est à dire al-tamar-al-Hindi, est un arbre sauvage qui couvre les montagnes."—Masālik-al-abṣar, in Not. et Ext. xiii. 175.
1563.—"It is called in Malavar puli, and in Guzerat ambili, and this is the name they have among all the other people of this India; and the Arab calls it tamarindi, because tamar, as you well know, is our tamara, or, as the Castilians say, datil [i.e. date], so that tamarindi are 'dates of India'; and this was because the Arabs could not think of a name more appropriate on account of its having stones inside, and not because either the tree or the fruit had any resemblance."—Garcia, f. 200. [Puli is the Malayāl. name; ambilii is probably Hind. imlī, Skt. amlikā, 'the tamarind.']
c. 1580.—"In febribus verò pestilentibus, atque omnibus aliis ex putridis, exurentibus, aquam, in qua multa copia Tamarindorum infusa fuerit cum saccharo ebibunt."—Prosper Alpinus (De Plantis Aegypt.) ed. Lugd. Bat. 1735, ii. 20.
1582.—"They have a great store of Tamarindos...."—Castañeda, by N.L. f. 94.
[1598.—"Tamarinde is by the Aegyptians called Derelside (qu. dār-al-sayyida, 'Our Lady's tree'?)."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 121.]
1611.—"That wood which we cut for firewood did all hang trased with cods of greene fruit (as big as a Bean-cod in England) called Tamerim; it hath a very soure tast, and by the Apothecaries is held good against the Scurvie."—N. Dounton, in Purchas, i. 277.
[1623.—"Tamarinds, which the Indians call Hambele" (imlī, as in quotation from Garcia above).—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 92.]
1829.—"A singularly beautiful Tamarind tree (ever the most graceful, and amongst the most magnificent of trees)...."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 98.
1877.—"The natives have a saying that sleeping beneath the 'Date of Hind' gives you fever, which you cure by sleeping under a nim tree (Melia azedirachta), the lilac of Persia."—Burton, Sind Revisited, i. 92. The nim (see NEEM) (pace Capt. Burton) is not the 'lilac of Persia' (see BUCKYNE). The prejudice against encamping or sleeping under a tamarind tree is general in India. But, curiously, Bp. Pallegoix speaks of it as the practice of the Siamese "to rest and play under the beneficent shade of the Tamarind."—(Desc. du Royaume Thai ou Siam, i. 136).
TAMARIND-FISH, s. This is an excellent zest, consisting, according to Dr. Balfour, of white pomfret, cut in transverse slices, and preserved in tamarinds. The following is a note kindly given by the highest authority on Indian fish matters, Dr. Francis Day:
"My account of Tamarind fish is very short, and in my Fishes of Malabar as follows:—
"'The best Tamarind fish is prepared from the Seir fish (see SEER-FISH), and from the Lates calcarifer, known as Cockup in Calcutta; and a rather inferior quality from the Polynemus (or Roe-ball, to which genus the Mango-fish belongs), and the more common from any kind of fish.' The above refers to Malabar, and more especially to Cochin. Since I wrote my Fishes of Malabar I have made many inquiries as to Tamarind fish, and found that the white pomfret, where it is taken, appears to be the best for making the preparation."
TAMBERANEE, s. Malayāl. tam-burān, 'Lord; God, or King.' It is a title of honour among the Nairs, and is also assumed by Saiva monks in the Tamil countries. [The word is derived from Mal. tam, 'one's own,' purān, 'lord.' The junior male members of the Malayāli Rāja's family, until they come of age, are called Tambān, and after that Tamburān. The female members are similarly styled Tambaṭṭi and Tamburaṭṭi (Logan, Malabar, iii. Gloss. s.v.).]
1510.—"Dice l'altro Tamarai: zoe Per Dio? L'altro respõde Tamarani: zoe Per Dio."—Varthema, ed. 1517, f. 45.
[c. 1610.—"They (the Nairs) call the King in their language Tambiraine, meaning 'God.'"—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 357.]
TANA, TANNA, n.p. Thāna, a town on the Island of Salsette on the strait ('River of Tana') dividing that island from the mainland and 20 m. N.E. of Bombay, and in the early Middle Ages the seat of a Hindu kingdom of the Konkan (see CONCAN), as well as a seaport of importance. It is still a small port, and is the chief town of the District which bears its name.
c. 1020.—"From Dhár southwards to the river Nerbudda, nine; thence to Mahratdes ... eighteen; thence to Konkan, of which the capital is Tana, on the sea-shore, twenty-five parasangs."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 60.
[c. 1150.—"Tanah," miswritten Banah. See under TABASHEER.]
1298.—"Tana is a great Kingdom lying towards the West.... There is much traffic here, and many ships and merchants frequent the place."—Marco Polo, Bk. III. ch. 27.
1321.—"After their blessed martyrdom, which occurred on the Thursday before Palm Sunday in Thana of India, I baptised about 90 persons in a certain city called Parocco, ten days' journey distant therefrom, and I have since baptised more than twenty, besides thirty-five who were baptised between Thana and Supera (Supara)."—Letter of Friar Jordanus, in Cathay, &c., 226.
c. 1323.—"And having thus embarked I passed over in 28 days to Tana, where for the faith of Christ four of our Minor Friars had suffered martyrdom.... The land is under the dominion of the Saracens...."—Fr. Odoric, Ibid. i. 57-58.
1516.—"25 leagues further on the coast is a fortress of the before-named king, called Tana-Mayambu" (this is perhaps rather Bombay).—Barbosa, 68.
1529.—"And because the norwest winds blew strong, winds contrary to his course, after going a little way he turned and anchored in sight of the island, where were stationed the foists with their captain-in-chief Alixa, who seeing our fleet in motion put on his oars and assembled at the River of Tana, and when the wind came round our fleet made sail, and anchored at the mouth of the River of Tana, for the wind would not allow of its entering."—Correa, iii. 290.
1673.—"The Chief City of this Island is called Tanaw; in which are Seven Churches and Colleges, the chiefest one of the Paulistines (see PAULIST).... Here are made good Stuffs of Silk and Cotton."—Fryer, 73.
TANA, THANA, s. A Police station. Hind. thāna, thānā, [Skt. sthāna, 'a place of standing, a post']. From the quotation following it would seem that the term originally meant a fortified post, with its garrison, for the military occupation of the country; a meaning however closely allied to the present use.
c. 1640-50.—"Thánah means a corps of cavalry, matchlockmen, and archers, stationed within an enclosure. Their duty is to guard the roads, to hold the places surrounding the Thánah, and to despatch provisions (rasad, see RUSSUD) to the next Thánah."—Pádisháh námah, quoted by Blochmann, in Āīn, i. 345.
TANADAR, THANADAR, s. The chief of a police station (see TANA), Hind. thānadār. This word was adopted in a more military sense at an early date by the Portuguese, and is still in habitual use with us in the civil sense.
1516.—In a letter of 4th Feb. 1515 (i.e. 1516), the King Don Manoel constitutes João Machado to be Tanadar and captain of land forces in Goa.—Archiv. Port. Orient. fasc. 5, 1-3.
1519.—"Senhor Duarte Pereira; this is the manner in which you will exercise your office of Tannadar of this Isle of Tyçoari (i.e. Goa), which the Senhor Capitão will now encharge you with."—Ibid. p. 35.
c. 1548.—"In Aguaci is a great mosque (mizquita), which is occupied by the tenadars, but which belongs to His Highness; and certain petayas, (yards?) in which bate (paddy) is collected, which also belong to His Highness."—Tombo in Subsidios, 216.
1602.—"So all the force went aboard of the light boats, and the Governor in his bastard-galley entered the river with a grand clangour of music, and when he was in mid-channel there came to his galley a boat, in which was the Tanadar of the City (Dabul), and going aboard the galley presented himself to the Governor with much humility, and begged pardon of his offences...."—Couto, IV. i. 9.
[1813.—"The third in succession was a Tandar, or petty officer of a district...."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 5.]
TANGA, s. Mahr. ṭānk, Turki tanga. A denomination of coin which has been in use over a vast extent of territory, and has varied greatly in application. It is now chiefly used in Turkestan, where it is applied to a silver coin worth about 7½d. And Mr. W. Erskine has stated that the word tanga or tanka is of Chagatai Turki origin, being derived from tang, which in that language means 'white' (H. of Baber and Humayun, i. 546). Though one must hesitate in differing from one usually so accurate, we must do so here. He refers to Josafa Barbaro, who says this, viz. that certain silver coins are called by the Mingrelians tetari, by the Greeks aspri, by the Turks akcha, and by the Zagatais tengh, all of which words in the respective languages signify 'white.' We do not however find such a word in the dictionaries of either Vambéry or of Pavet de Courteille;—the latter only having tangah, 'fer-blanc.' And the obvious derivation is the Skt. ṭaṅka, 'a weight (of silver) equal to 4 māshas ... a stamped coin.' The word in the forms ṭakā (see TUCKA) and ṭanga (for these are apparently identical in origin) is, "in all dialects, laxly used for money in general" (Wilson).
In the Lahore coinage of Mahmūd of Ghaznī, A.H. 418-419 (A.D. 1027-28), we find on the Skt. legend of the reverse the word ṭanka in correspondence with the dirham of the Ar. obverse (see Thomas, Pathan Kings, p. 49). Ṭanka or Ṭanga seems to have continued to be the popular name of the chief silver coin of the Delhi sovereigns during the 13th and first part of the 14th centuries, a coin which was substantially the same with the rupee (q.v.) of later days. In fact this application of the word in the form ṭakā (see TUCKA) is usual in Bengal down to our own day. Ibn Batuta indeed, who was in India in the time of Mahommed Tughlak, 1333-1343 or thereabouts, always calls the gold coin then current a tanka or dīnār of gold. It was, as he repeatedly states, the equivalent of 10 silver dīnārs. These silver dīnārs (or rupees) are called by the author of the Masālik-al-Abṣār (c. 1340) the "silver tanka of India." The gold and silver tanka continue to be mentioned repeatedly in the history of Feroz Shāh, the son of Mahommed (1351-1388), and apparently with the same value as before. At a later period under Sikandar Buhlol (1488-1517), we find black (or copper) tankas, of which 20 went to the old silver tanka.
We cannot say when the coin, or its name rather, first appeared in Turkestan.
But the name was also prevalent on the western coast of India as that of a low denomination of coin, as may be seen in the quotations from Linschoten and Grose. Indeed the name still survives in Goa as that of a copper coin equivalent to 60 reis or about 2d. And in the 16th century also 60 reis appears from the papers of Gerson da Cunha to have been the equivalent of the silver tanga of Goa and Bassein, though all the equations that he gives suggest that the rei may have been more valuable then.
The denomination is also found in Russia under the form dengi. See a quotation under COPECK, and compare PARDAO.
c. 1335.—"According to what I have heard from the Shaikh Mubarak, the red lak (see LACK) contains 100,000 golden tankahs, and the white lak 100,000 (silver) tankahs. The golden tanka, called in this country the red tanka, is equivalent to three mithḳāls, and the silver tanka is equivalent to 8 hashtkānī dirhams, this dirham being of the same weight as the silver dirham current in Egypt and Syria."—Masālik-al-abṣār, in Not. et Exts. xiii. 211.
c. 1340.—"Then I returned home after sunset and found the money at my house. There were 3 bags containing in all 6233 tankas, i.e. the equivalent of the 55,000 dīnārs (of silver) which was the amount of my debts, and of the 12,000 which the sultan had previously ordered to be paid me, after of course deducting the tenth part according to Indian custom. The value of the piece called tanka is 2½ dīnārs in gold of Barbary."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 426. (Here the gold tanga is spoken of.)
c. 1370.—"Sultán Fíroz issued several varieties of coins. There was the gold tanka, and the silver tanka," &c.—Táríkh-i-Fíroz Sháhí, in Elliot, iii. 357.
1404.—"... vna sua moneda de plata que llaman Tangaes."—Clavijo, f. 46b.
1516.—"... a round coin like ours, and with Moorish letters on both sides, and about the size of a fanon (see FANAM) of Calicut, ... and its worth 55 maravedis; they call these tanga, and they are of very fine silver."—Barbosa, 45.
[1519.—Rules regulating ferry-dues at Goa: "they may demand for this one tamgua only."—Archiv. Port. Orient. fasc. 5, p. 18.]
c. 1541.—"Todar ... fixed first a golden ashrafi (see ASHRAFEE) as the enormous remuneration for one stone, which induced the Ghakkars to flock to him in such numbers that afterwards a stone was paid with a rupee, and this pay gradually fell to 5 tankas, till the fortress (Rōhtās) was completed."—Táríkh-i-Khán-Jahán Lodí, in Elliot, v. 115. (These are the Bahlūlī or Sikandarī tankas of copper, as are also those in the next quotation from Elliot.)
1559.—"The old Muscovite money is not round but oblong or egg-shaped, and is called denga.... 100 of these coins make a Hungarian gold-piece; 6 dengas make an altin; 20 a grifna; 100 a poltina; and 200 a ruble."—Herberstein, in Ramusio, ii. f. 158v.
[1571.—"Gujarati tankchahs at 100 tankchahs to the rupee. At the present time the rupee is fixed at 40 dams.... As the current value of the tankchah of Pattan, etc., was less than that of Gujarat."—Mirat-i-Ahmadī, in Bayley, Gujarat, pp. 6, 11.
[1591.—"Dingoes." See under RUBLE.]
1592-3.—"At the present time, namely, A.H. 1002, Hindustan contains 3200 towns, and upon each town are dependent 200, 500, 1000, or 1500 villages. The whole yields a revenue of 640 krors (see CRORE) murádí tankas."—Ṭabaḳāt-i-Akbarī, in Elliot, v. 186.
1598.—"There is also a kinde of reckoning of money which is called Tangas, not that there is any such coined, but are so named onely in telling, five Tangas is one Pardaw (see PARDAO), or Xeraphin badde money, for you must understande that in telling they have two kinds of money, good and badde, for foure Tangas good money are as much as five Tangas badde money."—Linschoten, ch. 35; [Hak. Soc. i. 241].
[c. 1610.—"The silver money of Goa is perdos, larins, Tangues, the last named worth 7 sols, 6 deniers a piece."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 69.]
1615.—"Their moneyes in Persia of silver, are the ... the rest of copper, like the Tangas and Pisos (see PICE) of India."—Richard Steele, in Purchas, i. 543.
[c. 1630.—"There he expended fifty thousand Crow (see CRORE) of tacks ... sometimes twenty tack make one Roopee."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1677, p. 64.]
1673.—"Tango." See under REAS.
[1638.—"Their (at Surat) ordinary way of accompting is by lacs, each of which is worth 100,000 ropias (see RUPEE), and 100 lacs make a crou, or carroa (see CRORE), and 10 carroas make an Areb. A Theil (see TOLA, TAEL) of silver (? gold) makes 11, 12, or 13 ropias ready money. A massa (māshā) and a half make a Thiel of silver, 10 whereof make a Thiel of gold. They call their brass and copper-money Tacques."—Mandelslo, 107.]
c. 1750-60.—"Throughout Malabar and Goa, they use tangas, vintins, and Pardoo (see PARDAO) xeraphin."—Grose, i. 283. The Goa tanga was worth 60 reis, that of Ormus 6234⁄43 to 6933⁄43 reis.
[1753.—In Khiva "... Tongas, a small piece of copper, of which 1500 are equal to a ducat."—Hanway, i. 351.]
1815.—"... one tungah ... a coin about the value of fivepence."—Malcolm, H. of Persia, ii. 250.
[1876.—"... it seemed strange to me to find that the Russian word for money, denga or dengi, in the form tenga, meant everywhere in Central Asia a coin of twenty kopeks...."—Schuyler, Turkistan, i. 153.]
TANGUN, TANYAN, s. Hind. ṭānghan, ṭāngan; apparently from Tibetan rTaṅāṅ, the vernacular name of this kind of horse (rTa, 'horse'). The strong little pony of Bhutān and Tibet.
c. 1590.—"In the confines of Bengal, near Kuch [-Bahár], another kind of horses occurs, which rank between the gúṭ (see GOONT) and Turkish horses, and are called táng'han: they are strong and powerful."—Āīn, i. 133.
1774.—"2d. That for the possession of the Chitchanotta Province, the Deb Raja shall pay an annual tribute of five Tangan Horses to the Honorable Company, which was the acknowledgment paid to the Deb Raja."—Treaty of Peace between the H.E.I.C. and the Rajah of Bootan, in Aitchison's Treaties, i. 144.
" "We were provided with two tangun ponies of a mean appearance, and were prejudiced against them unjustly. On better acquaintance they turned out patient, sure-footed, and could climb the Monument."—Bogle's Narrative, in Markham, 17.
1780.—"... had purchased 35 Jhawah or young elephants, of 8 or 9 years old, 60 Tankun, or ponies of Manilla and Pegu."—H. of Hydur Naik, 383.
" "... small horses brought from the mountains on the eastern side of Bengal. These horses are called tanyans, and are mostly pyebald."—Hodges, Travels, 31.
1782.—"To be sold, a Phaeton, in good condition, with a pair of young Tanyan Horses, well broke."—India Gazette, Oct. 26.
1793.—"As to the Tanguns or Tanyans, so much esteemed in India for their hardiness, they come entirely from the Upper Tibet, and notwithstanding their make, are so sure footed that the people of Nepaul ride them without fear over very steep mountains, and along the brink of the deepest precipices."—Kirkpatrick's Nepaul, 135.
1854.—"These animals, called Tanghan, are wonderfully strong and enduring; they are never shod, and the hoof often cracks.... The Tibetans give the foals of value messes of pig's blood and raw liver, which they devour greedily, and it is said to strengthen them wonderfully; the custom is, I believe, general in Central Asia."—Hooker, Himalayan Journals, 1st ed. ii. 131.
TANJORE, n.p. A city and District of S. India; properly Tañjāvūr ('Low Town'?), so written in the inscription on the great Tanjore Pagoda (11th century). [The Madras Manual gives two derivations: "Tañjāvūr, familiarly called Tañjai by the natives. It is more fully given as Tañjai-mānagaram, Tañjan's great city, after its founder. Tañjam means 'refuge, shelter'" (ii. 216). The Gloss. gives Tañjāvūr, Tam. tañjam, 'asylum,' ūr, 'village.']
[1816.—"The Tanjore Pill, it is said, is made use of with great success in India against the bite of mad dogs, and that of the most venemous serpents."—Asiatic Journal, ii. 381.]
TANK, s. A reservoir, an artificial pond or lake, made either by excavation or by damming. This is one of those perplexing words which seem to have a double origin, in this case one Indian, the other European.
As regards what appears to be the Indian word, Shakespear gives: "Tānk'h (in Guzerat), an underground reservoir for water." [And so Platts.] Wilson gives: "Ṭánkeṇ or ṭákeṇ, Mahr. ... Tánkh (said to be Guzeráthí). A reservoir of water, an artificial pond, commonly known to Europeans in India as a Tank. Ṭánki, Guz. A reservoir of water; a small well." R. Drummond, in his Illustrations of Guzerattee, &c., gives: "Tanka (Mah.) and Tankoo (Guz.) Reservoirs, constructed of stone or brick or lime, of larger and lesser size, generally inside houses.... They are almost entirely covered at top, having but a small aperture to let a pot or bucket down."... "In the towns of Bikaner," says Tod, "most families have large cisterns or reservoirs called Tankas, filled by the rains" (Rajputana, ii. 202). Again, speaking of towns in the desert of Márwár, he says: "they collect the rain water in reservoirs called Tanka, which they are obliged to use sparingly, as it is said to produce night blindness" (ii. 300). Again, Dr. Spilsbury (J.A.S.B. ix. pt. 2, 891), describing a journey in the Nerbudda Basin, cites the word, and notes: "I first heard this word used by a native in the Betool district; on asking him if at the top of Bowergurh there was any spring, he said No, but there was a Tanka or place made of pukka (stone and cement) for holding water." Once more, in an Appendix to the Report of the Survey of India for 1881-1882, Mr. G. A. MacGill, speaking of the rain cisterns in the driest part of Rajputana, says: "These cisterns or wells are called by the people tánkás" (App. p. 12). See also quotation below from a Report by Major Strahan. It is not easy to doubt the genuineness of the word, which may possibly be from Skt. taḍaga, taṭāga, taṭāka, 'a pond, pool, or tank.'
Fr. Paolino, on the other hand, says the word tanque used by the Portuguese in India was Portoghesa corrotta, which is vague. But in fact tanque is a word which appears in all Portuguese dictionaries, and which is used by authors so early after the opening of communication with India (we do not know if there is an instance actually earlier) that we can hardly conceive it to have been borrowed from an Indian language, nor indeed could it have been borrowed from Guzerat and Rajpūtāna, to which the quotations above ascribe the vernacular word. This Portuguese word best suits, and accounts for that application of tank to large sheets of water which is habitual in India. The indigenous Guzerati and Mahratti word seems to belong rather to what we now call a tank in England; i.e. a small reservoir for a house or ship. Indeed the Port. tanque is no doubt a form of the Lat. stagnum, which gives It. stagno, Fr. old estang and estan, mod. étang, Sp. estanque, a word which we have also in old English and in Lowland Scotch, thus:
1589.—"They had in them stanges or pondes of water full of fish of sundrie sortes."—Parkes's Mendoza, Hak. Soc. ii. 46.
c. 1785.—
"I never drank the Muses' stank,
Castalia's burn and a' that;
But there it streams, and richly reams,
My Helicon I ca' that."—
Burns.
It will be seen that Pyrard de Laval uses estang, as if specifically, for the tank of India.
1498.—"And many other saints were there painted on the walls of the church, and these wore diadems, and their portraiture was in a divers kind, for their teeth were so great that they stood an inch beyond the mouth, and every saint had 4 or 5 arms, and below the church stood a great tanque wrought in cut stone like many others that we had seen by the way."—Roteiro de Vasco da Gama, 57.
" "So the Captain Major ordered Nicolas Coelho to go in an armed boat, and see where the water was, and he found in the said island (Anchediva) a building, a church of great ashlar work which had been destroyed by the Moors, as the country people said, only the chapel had been covered with straw, and they used to make their prayers to three black stones which stood in the midst of the body of the chapel. Moreover they found just beyond the church a tanque of wrought ashlar in which we took as much water as we wanted; and at the top of the whole island stood a great tanque of the depth of 4 fathoms, and moreover we found in front of the church a beach where we careened the ship Berrio."—Ibid. 95.
1510.—"Early in the morning these Pagans go to wash at a tank, which tank is a pond of still water (—ad uno Tancho il qual Tancho è una fossa d'acqua morta)."—Varthema, 149.
" "Near to Calicut there is a temple in the midst of a tank, that is, in the middle of a pond of water."—Ibid. 175.
1553.—"In this place where the King (Bahádur Sháh) established his line of battle, on one side there was a great river, and on the other a tank (tanque) of water, such as they are used to make in those parts. For as there are few streams to collect the winter's waters, they make these tanks (which might be more properly called lakes), all lined with stone. They are so big that many are more than a league in compass."—Barros, IV. vi. 5.
c. 1610.—"Son logis estoit éloigné près d'vne lieuë du palais Royal, situé sur vn estang, et basty de pierres, ayant bien demy lieuë de tour, comme rous les autres estangs."—Pyrard de Laval, ed. 1679, i. 262; [Hak. Soc. i. 367].
[1615.—"I rode early ... to the tancke to take the ayre."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 78.]
1616.—"Besides their Rivers ... they have many Ponds, which they call Tankes."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1470.
1638.—"A very faire Tanke, which is a square pit paved with gray marble."—W. Bruton, in Hakl. v. 50.
1648.—"... a standing water or Tanck...."—Van Twist, Gen. Beschr. 11.
1672.—"Outside and round about Suratte, there are elegant and delightful houses for recreation, and stately cemeteries in the usual fashion of the Moors, and also divers Tanks and reservoirs built of hard and solid stone."—Baldaeus, p. 12.
1673.—"Within a square Court, to which a stately Gate-house makes a Passage, in the middle whereof a Tank vaulted...."—Fryer, 27.
1754.—"The post in which the party intended to halt had formerly been one of those reservoirs of water called tanks, which occur so frequently in the arid plains of this country."—Orme, i. 354.
1799.—"One crop under a tank in Mysore or the Carnatic yields more than three here."—T. Munro, in Life, i. 241.
1809.—
"Water so cool and clear,
The peasants drink not from the humble well.
* * * * *
Nor tanks of costliest masonry dispense
To those in towns who dwell,
The work of kings in their beneficence."
Kehama, xiii. 6.
1883.—"... all through sheets[263] 124, 125, 126, and 131, the only drinking water is from 'tankas,' or from 'tobs.' The former are circular pits puddled with clay, and covered in with wattle and daub domes, in the top of which are small trap doors, which are kept locked; in these the villages store rain-water; the latter are small and somewhat deep ponds dug in the valleys where the soil is clayey, and are filled by the rain; these latter of course do not last long, and then the inhabitants are entirely dependent on their tankas, whilst their cattle migrate to places where the well-water is fit for use."—Report on Cent. Ind. and Rajputana Topogr. Survey (Bickaneer and Jeysulmeer). By Major C. Strachan, R.E., in Report of the Survey in India, 1882-83, App. p. 4. [The writer in the Rajputana Gazetteer (Bikanir) (i. 182) calls these covered pits kund, and the simple excavations sār.]
TANOR, n.p. An ancient town and port about 22 miles south of Calicut. There is a considerable probability that it was the Tyndis of the Periplus. It was a small kingdom at the arrival of the Portuguese, in partial subjection to the Zamorin. [The name is Malayāl. Tānūr, tanni, the tree Terminalis belerica, ūr, village.]
1516.—"Further on ... are two places of Moors 5 leagues from one another. One is called Paravanor, and the other Tanor, and inland from these towns is a lord to whom they belong; and he has many Nairs, and sometimes he rebels against the King of Calicut. In these towns there is much shipping and trade, for these Moors are great merchants."—Barbosa, Hak. Soc. 153.
1521.—"Cotate was a great man among the Moors, very rich, and lord of Tanor, who carried on a great sea-trade with many ships, which trafficked all about the coast of India with passes from our Governors, for he only dealt in wares of the country; and thus he was the greatest possible friend of the Portuguese, and those who went to his dwelling were entertained with the greatest honour, as if they had been his brothers. In fact for this purpose he kept houses fitted up, and both cots and bedsteads furnished in our fashion, with tables and chairs and casks of wine, with which he regaled our people, giving them entertainments and banquets, insomuch that it seemed as if he were going to become a Christian...."—Correa, ii. 679.
1528.—"And in the year (A.H.) 935, a ship belonging to the Franks was wrecked off Tanoor.... Now the Ray of that place affording aid to the crew, the Zamorin sent a messenger to him demanding of him the surrender of the Franks who composed it, together with such parts of the cargo of the ship as had been saved, but that chieftain having refused compliance with this demand, a treaty of peace was entered into with the Franks by him; and from this time the subjects of the Ray of Tanoor traded under the protection of the passes of the Franks."—Tohfut-ul-Mujahideen, E.T. 124-125.
1553.—"For Lopo Soares having arrived at Cochin after his victory over the Çamorin, two days later the King of Tanor, the latter's vassal, sent (to Lopo) to complain against the Çamorin by ambassadors, begging for peace and help against him, having fallen out with him for reasons that touched the service of the King of Portugal."—Barros, I. vii. 10.
1727.—"Four leagues more southerly is Tannore, a Town of small Trade, inhabited by Mahometans."—A. Hamilton, i. 322; [ed. 1744].
TAPPAUL, s. The word used in S. India for 'post,' in all the senses in which dawk (q.v.) is used in Northern India. Its origin is obscure. C. P. Brown suggests connection with the Fr. étape (which is the same originally as the Eng. staple). It is sometimes found in the end of the 18th century written tappa or tappy. But this seems to have been derived from Telugu clerks, who sometimes write tappā as a singular of tappālu, taking the latter for a plural (C.P.B.). Wilson appears to give the word a southern origin. But though its use is confined to the South and West, Mr. Beames assigns to it an Aryan origin: "ṭappā 'post-office,' i.e. place where letters are stamped, ṭappāl 'letter-post' (ṭappā + alya = 'stamping-house')," connecting it radically with ṭāpā 'a coop,' ṭāpnā 'to tap,' 'flatten,' 'beat down,' ṭapak 'a sledge hammer,' ṭīpnā 'to press,' &c. [with which Platts agrees.]
1799.—"You will perceive that we have but a small chance of establishing the tappal to Poonah."—Wellington, i. 50.
1800.—"The Tappal does not go 30 miles a day."—T. Munro, in Life, i. 244.
1809.—"Requiring only two sets of bearers I knew I might go by tappaul the whole way to Seringapatam."—Ld. Valentia, i. 385.
TAPTEE R., n.p. Tāptī; also called Tāpī, [Skt. Tāpī, 'that which is hot']. The river that runs by the city of Surat.
[1538.—"Tapi." See under GODAVERY.]
c. 1630.—"Surat is ... watered with a sweet River named Tappee (or Tindy), as broad as the Thames at Windsor."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 36.
1813.—"The sacred groves of Pulparra are the general resort for all the Yogees (Jogee), Senassees (Sunyasee), and Hindoo pilgrims ... the whole district is holy, and the Tappee in that part has more than common sanctity."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 286; [2nd ed. i. 184, and compare i. 176].
" "Tappee or Tapty."—Ibid. 244; [2nd ed. i. 146].
TARA, TARE, s. The name of a small silver coin current in S. India at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese. It seems to have survived longest in Calicut. The origin we have not traced. It is curious that the commonest silver coin in Sicily down to 1860, and worth about 4½d., was a tarī, generally considered to be a corruption of dirhem. I see Sir Walter Elliot has mooted this very question in his Coins of S. India (p. 138). [The word is certainly Malayāl. tāram, defined in the Madras Gloss. as "a copper coin, value 1½ pies." Mr. Gray in his note to the passage from Pyrard de Laval quoted below, suggests that it took its name from tāra, 'a star.']
1442.—"They cast (at Vijayanagar), in pure silver a coin which is the sixth of the fanom, which they call tar."—Abdurrazzāk, in India in the XV. Cent. 26.
1506.—(The Viceroy, D. Francisco D'Almeida, wintering his fleet in Cochin). "As the people were numerous they made quite a big town with a number of houses covered with upper stories of timber, and streets also where the people of the country set up their stalls in which they sold plenty of victuals, and cheap. Thus for a vinten of silver you got in change 20 silver coins that they called taras, something like the scale of a sardine, and for such coin they gave you 12 or 15 figs, or 4 or 5 eggs, and for a single vintem 3 or 4 fowls, and for one tara fish enough to fill two men's bellies, or rice enough for a day's victuals, dinner and supper too. Bread there was none, for there was no wheat except in the territory of the Moors."—Correa, i. 624.
1510.—The King of Narsinga (or Vijayanagar) "coins a silver money called tare, and others of gold, twenty of which go to a pardao, and are called fanom. And of these small ones of silver, there go 16 to a fanom."—Varthema, 130.
[c. 1610.—"Each man receives four tarents, which are small silver coins, each of the value of one-sixteenth of a larin."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 344. Later on (i. 412) he says "16 tarens go to a Phanan"].
1673.—(at Calicut). "Their coin admits no Copper; Silver Tarrs, 28 of which make a Fanam, passing instead thereof."—Fryer, 55.
" "Calicut.
* * * * *
"Tarrs are the peculiar Coin, the rest are common to India."—Ibid. 207.
1727.—"Calecut ... coins are 10 Tar to a Fanam, 4½ Fanams to a Rupee."—A. Hamilton, ii. 316; [ed. 1744].
[1737.—"We are to allow each man 4 measures of rice and 1 tar per diem."—Agreement in Logan, Malabar, iii. 95, and see "tarrs" in iii. 192. Mr. Logan (vol. iii. Gloss. s.v.) defines the tara as equal to 2 pies.]
TARE AND TRET. Whence comes this odd firm in the books of arithmetic? Both partners apparently through Italy. The first Fr. tare, It. tara, from Ar. ṭaraḥa, 'to reject,' as pointed out by Dozy. Tret is alleged to be from It. tritare, 'to crumble or grind,' perhaps rather from trito, 'ground or triturated.' [Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict. s.v.) derives it from Fr. traite, 'a draught,' and that from Lat. tractus, trahere, 'to draw.']
TAREGA, s. This represents a word for a broker (or person analogous to the hong merchants of Canton in former days) in Pegu, in the days of its prosperity. The word is from S. India. We have in Tel. taraga, 'the occupation of a broker'; Tam. taragari, 'a broker.'
1568.—"Sono in Pegu otto sensari del Re che si chiamano Tarege li quali sono obligati di far vendere tutte le mercantie ... per il prezzo corrente."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 395.
1583.—"... e se fosse alcuno che a tempo del pagamento per non pagar si absentasse dalla città, o si ascondesse, il Tarrecà e obligato pagar per lui ... i Tarrecà cosi si demandano i sensari."—G. Balbi, f. 107v, 108.
1587.—"There are in Pegu eight Brokers, whom they call Tareghe, which are bound to sell your goods at the price they be Woorth, and you give them for their labour two in the hundred: and they be bound to make your debt good, because you sell your marchandises vpon their word."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 393.
TARIFF, s. This comes from Ar. ta'rīf, ta'rīfa, 'the making known.' Dozy states that it appears to be comparatively modern in Spanish and Port., and has come into Europe apparently through Italian.