1613.—"On this he cast anchor; but the wind blowing very strong by daybreak, the ships were obliged to weigh, as they could not stand at their moorings. The vessel of Andrea Coelho and that of Nuno Alvares Teixeira, after weighing, not being able to weather the reef of Negumbo, ran into the bay, where the storm compelled them to be beached: but as there were plenty of people there, the vessels were run up by hand and not wrecked."—Bocarro, 42.
NEGRAIS, CAPE, n.p. The name of the island and cape at the extreme south end of Arakan. In the charts the extreme south point of the mainland is called Pagoda Point, and the seaward promontory, N.W. of this, Cape Negrais. The name is a Portuguese corruption probably of the Arab or Malay form of the native name which the Burmese express as Naga-rīt, 'Dragon's whirlpool.' The set of the tide here is very apt to carry vessels ashore, and thus the locality is famous for wrecks. It is possible, however, that the Burmese name is only an effort at interpretation, and that the locality was called in old times by some name like Nāgarāshtra. Ibn Batuta touched at a continental coast occupied by uncivilised people having elephants, between Bengal and Sumatra, which he calls Baranagār. From the intervals given, the place must have been near Negrais, and it is just possible that the term Barra de Negrais, which frequently occurs in the old writers (e.g. see Balbi, Fitch, and Bocarro below) is a misinterpretation of the old name used by Ibn Batuta (iv. 224-228).
1553.—"Up to the Cape of Negrais, which stands in 16 degrees, and where the Kingdom of Pegu commences, the distance may be 100 leagues."—Barros, I. ix. 1.
1583.—"Then the wind came from the S.W., and we made sail with our stern to the N.E., and running our course till morning we found ourselves close to the Bar of Negrais, as in their language they call the port which runs up into Pegu."—Gasparo Balbi, f. 92.
1586.—"We entered the barre of Negrais, which is a braue barre," &c. (see COSMIN).—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 390.
1613.—"Philip de Brito having sure intelligence of this great armament ... ordered the arming of seven ships and some sanguicels, and appointing as their commodore Paulo de Rego Pinheiro, gave him precise orders to engage the prince of Arracan at sea, before he should enter the Bar and rivers of Negrais, which form the mouth of all those of the kingdom of Pegù."—Bocarro, 137.
1727.—"The Sea Coast of Arackan reaches from Xatigam (see CHITTAGONG) to Cape Negrais, about 400 Miles in length, but few places inhabited ... (after speaking of "the great Island of Negrais") ... he goes on.... "The other Island of Negrais, which makes the Point called the Cape ... is often called Diamond Island, because its Shape is a Rhombus.... Three Leagues to the Southward of Diamond Island lies a Reef of Rocks a League long ... conspicuous at all Times by the Sea breaking over them ... the Rocks are called the Legarti, or in English, the Lizard."—A. Hamilton, ii. 29. This reef is the Alguada, on which a noble lighthouse was erected by Capt. (afterwards Lieut.-Gen.) Sir A. Fraser, C.B., of the Engineers, with great labour and skill. The statement of Hamilton suggests that the original name may have been Lagarto. But Alagada, "overflowed," is the real origin. It appears in the old French chart of d'Après as Ile Noyée. In Dunn it is Negada or Neijada, or Lequado, or Sunken Island (N. Dir. 1780, 325).
1759.—"The Dutch by an Inscription in Teutonic Characters, lately found at Negrais, on the Tomb of a Dutch Colonel, who died in 1607 (qu. if not 1627?), appear then to have had Possession of that Island."—Letter in Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 98.
1763.—"It gives us pleasure to observe that the King of the Burmahs, who caused our people at Negrais to be so cruelly massacred, is since dead, and succeeded by his son, who seems to be of a more friendly and humane disposition."—Fort William Consns., Feb. 19. In Long, 288.
[1819.—"Negraglia." See under MUNNEEPORE.]
NELLY, NELE. s. Malayāl. nel, 'rice in the husk'; [Tel. and Tam. nelli, 'rice-like']. This is the Dravidian equivalent of paddy (q.v.), and is often used by the French and Portuguese in South India, where Englishmen use the latter word.
1606.—"... when they sell nele, after they have measured it out to the purchaser, for the seller to return and take out two grains for himself for luck (com superstição), things that are all heathen vanities, which the synod entirely prohibits, and orders that those who practise them shall be severely punished by the Bishop."—Gouvea, Synodo, f. 52b.
1651.—"Nili, that is unpounded rice, which is still in the husk."—Rogerius, p. 95.
1760.—"Champs de nelis." See under JOWAUR.
[1796.—"75 parahs Nelly."—List of Export Duties, in Logan, Malabar, iii. 265.]
NELLORE, n.p. A town and district north of Madras. The name may be Tamil Nall-ūr, 'Good Town.' But the local interpretation is from nel (see NELLY); and in the local records it is given in Skt. as Dhānyapuram, meaning 'rice-town' (Seshagiri Sāstri). [The Madras Man. (ii. 214) gives Nall-ūr, 'Good-town'; but the Gloss. (s.v.) has nellu, 'paddy,' ūru, 'village.' Mr. Boswell (Nellore, 687) suggests that it is derived from a nelli chett tree under which a famous lingam was placed.]
c. 1310.—"Ma'bar extends in length from Kulam to Niláwar, nearly 300 parasangs along the sea coast."—Wassáf, in Elliot, iii. 32.
NERBUDDA R., n.p. Skt. Narmadā, 'causing delight'; Ptol. Νάμαδος; Peripl. Λαμναιος (amended by Fabricius to Νάμμαδος). Dean Vincent's conjectured etymology of Nahr-Budda, 'River of Budda,' is a caution against such guesses.
c. 1020.—"From Dhár southwards to the R. Nerbadda nine (parasangs); thence to Mahrat-des ... eighteen ..."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 60. The reading of Nerbadda is however doubtful.
c. 1310.—"There were means of crossing all the rivers, but the Nerbádda was such that you might say it was a remnant of the universal deluge."—Amír Khusrú, in Elliot, i. 79.
[1616.—"The King rode to the riuer of Darbadath."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 413. In his list (ii. 539) he has Narbadah.]
1727.—"The next Town of Note for Commerce is Baroach ... on the Banks of the River Nerdaba."—A. Hamilton, ed. 1744, i. 145.]
NERCHA, s. Malayāl. nerchcha, 'a vow,' from verb neruγa, 'to agree or promise.'
1606.—"They all assemble on certain days in the porches of the churches and dine together ... and this they call nercha."—Gouvea, Synodo, f. 63. See also f. 11. This term also includes offerings to saints, or to temples, or particular forms of devotion. Among Hindus a common form is to feed a lamp before an idol with ghee instead of oil.
NERRICK, NERRUCK, NIRK, &c., s. Hind. from Pers. nirkh, vulgarly nirakh, nirikh. A tariff, rate, or price-current, especially one established by authority. The system of publishing such rates of prices and wages by local authority prevailed generally in India a generation or two back, and is probably not quite extinct even in our own territories. [The provincial Gazettes still publish periodical lists of current prices, but no attempt is made to fix such by authority.] It is still in force in the French settlements, and with no apparent ill effects.
1799.—"I have written to Campbell a long letter about the nerrick of exchange, in which I have endeavoured to explain the principles of the whole system of shroffing (see SHROFF)...."—Wellington, i. 56.
1800.—"While I was absent with the army, Col. Sherbrooke had altered the nerrick of artificers, and of all kinds of materials for building, at the instigation of Capt. Norris ... and on the examination of the subject a system of engineering came out, well worthy of the example set at Madras."—Ibid. i. 67.
[ " "Here is established a niruc, or regulation, by which all coins have a certain value affixed to them; and at this rate they are received in the payment of the revenue; but in dealings between private persons attention is not paid to this rule."—F. Buchanan, Mysore, ii. 279.]
1878.—"On expressing his surprise at this, the man assured him that it was really the case that the bazar 'nerik' or market-rate, had so risen."—Life in the Mofussil, i. p. 33.
NGAPEE, s. The Burmese name, ngapi, 'pressed fish,' of the odorous delicacy described under BALACHONG. [See Forbes, British Burma, 83.]
1855.—"Makertich, the Armenian, assured us that the jars of ngapé at Amarapoora exhibited a flux and reflux of tide with the changes of the moon. I see this is an old belief. De la Loubère mentions it in 1688 as held by the Siamese."—Yule, Mission to Ava, p. 160.
NICOBAR ISLANDS, n.p. The name for centuries applied to a group of islands north of Sumatra. They appear to be the βάρουσσαι of Ptolemy, and the Lankha Bālus of the oldest Arab Relation. [Sir G. Birdwood identifies them with the Island of the Bell (Nakūs) to which Sindbad, the Seaman, is carried in his fifth voyage. (Report on Old Records, 108; Burton, Arabian Nights, iv. 368).] The Danes attempted to colonize the islands in the middle of the 18th century, and since, unsuccessfully. An account of the various attempts will be found in the Voyage of the Novara. Since 1869 they have been partially occupied by the British Government, as an appendage of the Andaman settlement. Comparing the old forms Lankha and Nakkavāram, and the nakedness constantly attributed to the people, it seems possible that the name may have had reference to this (nañgā). [Mr. Man (Journ. Anthrop. Institute, xviii. 359) writes: "A possible derivation may be suggested by the following extract from a paper by A. de Candolle (1885) on 'The Origin of Cultivated Plants': 'The presence of the coconut in Asia three or four thousand years ago is proved by several Sanskrit names.... The Malays have a name widely diffused in the Archipelago, kalapa, klapa, klopo. At Sumatra and Nicobar we find the name njior, nieor, in the Philippines niog, at Bali, nioh, njo....' While the Nicobars have long been famed for the excellence of their coconuts, the only words which bear any resemblance to the forms above given are ngoât, 'a ripe nut,' and ñi-nàu, 'a half-ripe nut.'"]
c. 1050.—The name appears as Nakkavāram in the great Tanjore Inscription of the 11th century.
c. 1292.—"When you leave the island of Java (the Less) and the Kingdom of Lambri, you sail north about 150 miles, and then you come to two Islands, one of which is called Necuveran. In this island they have no king nor chief, but live like beasts...."—Marco Polo, Bk. III. ch. 12.
c. 1300.—"Opposite Lámúri is the island of Lákwáram (probably to read Nákwáram), which produces plenty of red amber. Men and women go naked, except that the latter cover the pudenda with cocoanut leaves. They are all subject to the Káán."—Rashíduddín, in Elliot, i. 71.
c. 1322.—"Departing from that country, and sailing towards the south over the Ocean Sea, I found many islands and countries, where among others was one called Nicoveran ... both the men and women there have faces like dogs, etc...."—Friar Odoric, in Cathay, &c., 97.
1510.—"In front of the before named island of Samatra, across the Gulf of the Ganges, are 5 or 6 small islands, which have very good water and ports for ships. They are inhabited by Gentiles, poor people, and are called Niconvar (Nacabar in Lisbon ed.), and they find in them very good amber, which they carry thence to Malaca and other parts."—Barbosa, 195.
1514.—"Seeing the land, the pilot said it was the land of Nicubar.... The pilot was at the top to look out, and coming down he said that this land was all cut up (i.e. in islands), and that it was possible to pass through the middle; and that now there was no help for it but to chance it or turn back to Cochin.... The natives of the country had sight of us and suddenly came forth in great boats full of people.... They were all Caffres, with fish-bones inserted in their lips and chin: big men and frightful to look on; having their boats full of bows and arrows poisoned with herbs."—Giov. da Empoli, in Archiv. Stor. pp. 71-72.
NIGGER, s. It is an old brutality of the Englishman in India to apply this title to the natives, as we may see from Ives quoted below. The use originated, however, doubtless in following the old Portuguese use of negros for "the blacks" (q.v.), with no malice prepense, without any intended confusion between Africans and Asiatics.
1539.—See quot. from Pinto under COBRA DE CAPELLO, where negroes is used for natives of Sumatra.
1548.—"Moreover three blacks (negros) in this territory occupy lands worth 3000 or 4000 pardaos of rent; they are related to one another, and are placed as guards in the outlying parts."—S. Botelho, Cartas, 111.
1582.—"A nigroe of John Cambrayes, Pilot to Paulo de la Gama, was that day run away to the Moores."—Castañeda, by N. L., f. 19.
[1608.—"The King and people niggers."—Danvers, Letters, i. 10.]
1622.—Ed. Grant, purser of the Diamond, reports capture of vessels, including a junk "with some stoor of negers, which was devided bytwick the Duch and the English."—Sainsbury, iii. p. 78.
c. 1755.—"You cannot affront them (the natives) more than to call them by the name of negroe, as they conceive it implies an idea of slavery."—Ives, Voyage, p. 23.
c. 1757.—"Gli Gesuiti sono missionarii e parocchi de' negri detti Malabar."—Della Tomba, 3.
1760.—"The Dress of this Country is entirely linnen, save Hats and Shoes; the latter are made of tanned Hides as in England ... only that they are no thicker than coarse paper. These shoes are neatly made by Negroes, and sold for about 10d. a Pr. each of which will last two months with care."—MS. Letter of James Rennell, Sept. 30.
1866.—"Now the political creed of the frequenters of dawk bungalows is too uniform ... it consists in the following tenets ... that Sir Mordaunt Wells is the greatest judge that ever sat on the English bench; and that when you hit a nigger he dies on purpose to spite you."—The Dawk Bungalow, p. 225.
NILGHERRY, NEILGHERRY, &c., n.p. The name of the Mountain Peninsula at the end of the Mysore table land (originally known as Malaināḍu, 'Hill country'), which is the chief site of hill sanataria in the Madras Presidency. Skt. Nīlagiri, 'Blue Mountain.' The name Nīla or Nīlādri (synonymous with Nīlagiri) belongs to one of the mythical or semi-mythical ranges of the Puranic Cosmography (see Vishnu Purāna, in Wilson's Works, by Hall, ii. 102, 111, &c.), and has been applied to several ranges of more assured locality, e.g. in Orissa as well as in S. India. The name seems to have been fancifully applied to the Ootacamund range about 1820, by some European. [The name was undoubtedly applied by natives to the range before the appearance of Europeans, as in the Kongu-deśa Rajákal, quoted by Grigg (Nilagiri Man. 363), and the name appears in a letter of Col. Mackenzie of about 1816 (Ibid. 278). Mr. T. M. Horsfall writes: "The name is in common use among all classes of natives in S. India, but when it may have become specific I cannot say. Possibly the solution may be that the Nilgiris being the first large mountain range to become familiar to the English, that name was by them caught hold of, but not coined, and stuck to them by mere priority. It is on the face of it improbable that the Englishmen who early in the last century discovered these Hills, that is, explored and shot over them, would call them by a long Skt. name."]
Probably the following quotation from Dampier refers to Orissa, as does that from Hedges:
"One of the English ships was called the Nellegree, the name taken from the Nellegree Hills in Bengal, as I have heard."—Dampier, ii. 145.
1683.—"In ye morning early I went up the Nilligree Hill, where I had a view of a most pleasant fruitfull valley."—Hedges, Diary, March 2; [Hak. Soc. i. 67].
The following also refers to the Orissa Hills:
1752.—"Weavers of Balasore complain of the great scarcity of rice and provisions of all kinds occasioned by the devastations of the Mahrattas, who, 600 in number, after plundering Balasore, had gone to the Nelligree Hills."—In Long, 42.
a. The name of a stemless palm (Nipa fruticans, Thunb.), which abounds in estuaries from the Ganges delta eastwards, through Tenasserim and the Malay countries, to N. Australia, and the leaves of which afford the chief material used for thatch in the Archipelago. "In the Philippines," says Crawfurd, "but not that I am aware of anywhere else, the sap of the Nipa ... is used as a beverage, and for the manufacture of vinegar, and the distillation of spirits. On this account it yields a considerable part of the revenue of the Spanish Government" (Desc. Dict. p. 301). But this fact is almost enough to show that the word is the same which is used in sense b; and the identity is placed beyond question by the quotations from Teixeira and Mason.
b. Arrack made from the sap of a palm tree, a manufacture by no means confined to the Philippines. The Portuguese, appropriating the word Nipa to this spirit, called the tree itself nipeira.
a.—
1611.—"Other wine is of another kind of palm which is called Nipa (growing in watery places), and this is also extracted by distillation. It is very mild and sweet, and clear as pure water; and they say it is very wholesome. It is made in great quantities, with which ships are laden in Pegu and Tanasarim, Malaca, and the Philippines or Manila; but that of Tanasarim exceeds all in goodness."—Teixeira, Relaciones, i. 17.
1613.—"And then on from the marsh to the Nypeiras or wild-palms of the rivulet of Paret China."—Godinho de Eredia, 6.
" "And the wild palms called Nypeiras ... from those flowers is drawn the liquor which is distilled into wine by an alembic, which is the best wine of India."—Ibid. 16v.
[1817.—"In the maritime districts, atap, or thatch, is made almost exclusively from the leaves of the nípa or búyu."—Raffles, H. of Java, 2nd ed. i. 185.]
1848.—"Steaming amongst the low swampy islands of the Sunderbunds ... the paddles of the steamer tossed up the large fruits of the Nipa fruticans, a low stemless palm that grows in the tidal waters of the Indian ocean, and bears a large head of nuts. It is a plant of no interest to the common observer, but of much to the geologist, from the nuts of a similar plant abounding in the tertiary formations at the mouth of the Thames, having floated about there in as great profusion as here, till buried deep in the silt and mud that now form the island of Sheppey."—Hooker, Himalayan Journals, i. 1-2.
1860.—"The Nipa is very extensively cultivated in the Province of Tavoy. From incisions in the stem of the fruit, toddy is extracted, which has very much the flavour of mead, and this extract, when boiled down, becomes sugar."—Mason's Burmah, p. 506.
1874.—"It (sugar) is also got from Nipa fruticans, Thunb., a tree of the low coast-regions, extensively cultivated in Tavoy."—Hanbury and Flückiger, 655.
These last quotations confirm the old travellers who represent Tenasserim as the great source of the Nipa spirit.
b.—
c. 1567.—"Euery yeere is there lade (at Tenasserim) some ships with Verzino, Nipa, and Benjamin."—Ces. Federici (E.T. in Hakl.), ii. 359.
1568.—"Nipa, qual'è vn Vino eccellentissimo che nasce nel fior d'vn arbore chiamato Niper, il cui liquor si distilla, e se ne fa vna beuanda eccellentissima."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 392v.
1583.—"I Portoghesi e noi altri di queste bande di quà non mangiamo nel Regno di Pegù pane di grano ... ne si beve vino; ma una certa acqua lambiccata da vn albero detto Annippa, ch'è alla bocca assai gustevole; ma al corpo giova e nuoce, secondo le complessioni de gli huomini."—G. Balbi, f. 127.
1591.—"Those of Tanaseri are chiefly freighted with Rice and Nipar wine, which is very strong."—Barker's Account of Lancaster's Voyage, in Hakl. ii. 592.
In the next two quotations nipe is confounded with coco-nut spirit.
1598.—"Likewise there is much wine brought thether, which is made of Cocus or Indian Nuttes, and is called Nype de Tanassaria, that is Aqua-Composita of Tanassaria."—Linschoten, 30; [Hak. Soc. i. 103].
" "The Sura, being distilled, is called Fula (see FOOL'S RACK) or Nipe, and is an excellent Aqua Vitae as any is made in Dort."—Ibid. 101; [Hak. Soc. ii. 49].
[1616.—"One jar of Neepe."—Foster, Letters, iv. 162].
1623.—"In the daytime they did nothing but talk a little with one another, and some of them get drunk upon a certain wine they have of raisins, or on a kind of aqua vitæ with other things mixt in it, in India called nippa, which had been given them."—P. della Valle, ii. 669; [Hak. Soc. ii. 272].
We think there can be little doubt that the slang word nip, for a small dram of spirits, is adopted from nipa. [But compare Dutch nippen, 'to take a dram.' The old word nippitatum was used for 'strong drink'; see Stanf. Dict.]
NIRVÁNA, s. Skt. nirvāṇa. The literal meaning of this word is simply 'blown out,' like a candle. It is the technical term in the philosophy of the Buddhists for the condition to which they aspire as the crown and goal of virtue, viz. the cessation of sentient existence. On the exact meaning of the term see Childer's Pali Dictionary, s.v. nibbāna, an article from which we quote a few sentences below, but which covers ten double-column pages. The word has become common in Europe along with the growing interest in Buddhism, and partly from its use by Schopenhauer. But it is often employed very inaccurately, of which an instance occurs in the quotation below from Dr. Draper. The oldest European occurrence of which we are aware is in Purchas, who had met with it in the Pali form common in Burma, &c., nibban.
1626.—"After death they (the Talapoys) beleeve three Places, one of Pleasure Scuum (perhaps sukham) like the Mahumitane Paradise; another of Torment Naxac (read Narac); the third of Annihilation which they call Niba."—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 506.
c. 1815.—"... the state of Niban, which is the most perfect of all states. This consists in an almost perpetual extacy, in which those who attain it are not only free from troubles and miseries of life, from death, illness and old age, but are abstracted from all sensation; they have no longer either a thought or a desire."—Sangermano, Burmese Empire, p. 6.
1858.—"... Transience, Pain, and Unreality ... these are the characters of all existence, and the only true good is exemption from these in the attainment of nirwāna, whether that be, as in the view of the Brahmin or the theistic Buddhist, absorption into the supreme essence; or whether it be, as many have thought, absolute nothingness; or whether it be, as Mr. Hodgson quaintly phrases it, the ubi or the modus in which the infinitely attenuated elements of all things exist, in this last and highest state of abstraction from all particular modifications such as our senses and understandings are cognisant of."—Yule, Mission to Ava, 236.
" "When from between the sál trees at Kusinára he passed into nirwána, he (Buddha) ceased, as the extinguished fire ceases."—Ibid. 239.
1869.—"What Bishop Bigandet and others represent as the popular view of the Nirvâna, in contradistinction to that of the Buddhist divines, was, in my opinion, the conception of Buddha and his disciples. It represented the entrance of the soul into rest, a subduing of all wishes and desires, indifference to joy and pain, to good and evil, an absorption of the soul into itself, and a freedom from the circle of existences from birth to death, and from death to a new birth. This is still the meaning which educated people attach to it, whilst Nirvâna suggests rather a kind of Mohammedan Paradise or of blissful Elysian fields to the minds of the larger masses."—Prof. Max Müller, Lecture on Buddhistic Nihilism, in Trübner's Or. Record, Oct. 16.
1875.—"Nibbānam. Extinction; destruction; annihilation; annihilation of being, Nirvāṇa; annihilation of human passion, Arhatship or final sanctification.... In Trübner's Record for July, 1870, I first propounded a theory which meets all the difficulties of the question, namely, that the word Nirvāṇa is used to designate two different things, the state of blissful sanctification called Arhatship, and the annihilation of existence in which Arhatship ends."—Childers, Pali Dictionary, pp. 265-266.
" "But at length reunion with the universal intellect takes place; Nirwana is reached, oblivion is attained ... the state in which we were before we were born."—Draper, Conflict, &c., 122.
1879.—
"And how—in fulness of the times—it fell
That Buddha died ...
And how a thousand thousand crores since then
Have trod the Path which leads whither he went
Unto Nirvâna where the Silence lives."
Sir E. Arnold, Light of Asia, 237.
NIZAM, THE, n.p. The hereditary style of the reigning prince of the Hyderabad Territories; 'His Highness the Nizám,' in English official phraseology. This in its full form, Niz̤ām-ul-Mulk, was the title of Aṣaf Jāh, the founder of the dynasty, a very able soldier and minister of the Court of Aurangzīb, who became Sūbadār (see SOUBADAR) of the Deccan in 1713. The title is therefore the same that had pertained to the founder of the Ahmednagar dynasty more than two centuries earlier, which the Portuguese called that of Nizamaluco. And the circumstances originating the Hyderabad dynasty were parallel. At the death of Aṣaf Jāh (in 1748) he was independent sovereign of a large territory in the Deccan, with his residence at Hyderabad, and with dominions in a general way corresponding to those still held by his descendant.
NIZAMALUCO, n.p. Izam Maluco is the form often found in Correa. One of the names which constantly occur in the early Portuguese writers on India. It represents Niz̤ām-ul-Mulk (see NIZAM). This was the title of one of the chiefs at the court of the Bāhmani king of the Deccan, who had been originally a Brahman and a slave. His son Ahmed set up a dynasty at Ahmednagar (A.D. 1490), which lasted for more than a century. The sovereigns of this dynasty were originally called by the Portuguese Nizamaluco. Their own title was Niz̤ām Shāh, and this also occurs as Nizamoxa. [Linschoten's etymology given below is an incorrect guess.]
1521.—"Meanwhile (the Governor Diego Lopes de Sequeira) ... sent Fernão Camello as ambassador to the Nizamaluco, Lord of the lands of Choul, with the object of making a fort at that place, and arranging for an expedition against the King of Cambaya, which the Governor thought the Nizamaluco would gladly join in, because he was in a quarrel with that King. To this he made the reply that I shall relate hereafter."—Correa, ii. 623.
c. 1539.—"Trelado do Contrato que o Viso Rey Dom Garcia de Noronha fez com hu Niza Muxaa, que d'antes se chamava Hu Niza Maluquo."—Tombo, in Subsidios, 115.
1543.—"Izam maluco." See under COTAMALUCO.
1553.—"This city of Chaul ... is in population and greatness of trade one of the chief ports of that coast; it was subject to the Nizamaluco, one of the twelve Captains of the Kingdom of Decan (which we corruptly call Daquem).... The Nizamaluco being a man of great estate, although he possessed this maritime city, and other ports of great revenue, generally, in order to be closer to the Kingdom of the Decan, held his residence in the interior in other cities of his dominion; instructing his governors in the coast districts to aid our fleets in all ways and content their captains, and this was not merely out of dread of them, but with a view to the great revenue that he had from the ships of Malabar...."—Barros, II. ii. 7.
1563.—"... This King of Dely conquered the Decam (see DECCAN) and the Cuncam (see CONCAM); and retained the dominion a while; but he could not rule territory at so great a distance, and so placed in it a nephew crowned as king. This king was a great favourer of foreign people, such as Turks, Rumis, Coraçonis, and Arabs, and he divided his kingdom into captaincies, bestowing upon Adelham (whom we call Idalcam—see IDALCAN) the coast from Angediva to Cifardam ... and to Nizamoluco the coast from Cifardam to Negotana...."—Garcia, f. 34v.
" "R. Let us mount and ride in the country; and by the way you shall tell me who is meant by Nizamoxa, as you often use that term to me.
"O. At once I tell you he is a king in the Balaghat (see BALAGHAUT) (Bagalate for Balagate), whose father I have often attended, and sometimes also the son...."—Ibid. f. 33v.
[1594-5.—"Nizám-ul-Mulkhiya." See under IDALCAN.
[1598.—"Maluco is a Kingdome, and Nisa a Lance or Speare, so that Nisa Maluco is as much as to say as the Lance or Speare of the Kingdom."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 172. As if Neza-ul-mulk, 'spear of the kingdom.']
NOKAR, s. A servant, either domestic, military, or civil, also pl. Nokar-logue, 'the servants.' Hind. naukar, from Pers. and naukar-lōg. Also naukar-chākar, 'the servants,' one of those jingling double-barrelled phrases in which Orientals delight even more than Englishmen (see LOOTY). As regards Englishmen, compare hugger-mugger, hurdy-gurdy, tip-top, highty-tighty, higgledy-piggledy, hocus-pocus, tit for tat, topsy-turvy, harum-scarum, roly-poly, fiddle-faddle, rump and stump, slip-slop. In this case chākar (see CHACKUR) is also Persian. Naukar would seem to be a Mongol word introduced into Persia by the hosts of Chinghiz. According to I. J. Schmidt, Forschungen im Gebiete der Volker Mittel Asiens, p. 96, nükur is in Mongol, 'a comrade, dependent, or friend.'
c. 1407.—"L'Emir Khodaidad fit partir avec ce député son serviteur (naukar) et celui de Mirza Djihanghir. Ces trois personnages joignent la cour auguste...."—Abdurrazzāk, in Notices et Extraits, XIV. i. 146.
c. 1660.—"Mahmúd Sultán ... understood accounts, and could reckon very well by memory the sums which he had to receive from his subjects, and those which he had to pay to his 'naukars' (apparently armed followers)."—Abulghāzi, by Desmaisons, 271.
[1810.—"Noker." See under CHACKUR.
[1834.—"Its (Balkh) present population does not amount to 2000 souls; who are chiefly ... the remnant of the Kara Noukur, a description of the militia established here by the Afgans."—Burnes, Travels into Bokhara, i. 238.]
1840.—"Noker, 'the servant'; this title was borne by Tuli the fourth son of Chenghiz Khan, because he was charged with the details of the army and the administration."—Hammer, Golden Horde, 460.
NOL-KOLE, s. This is the usual Anglo-Indian name of a vegetable a good deal grown in India, perhaps less valued in England than it deserves, and known here (though rarely seen) as Kol-rabi, kohl-rabi, 'cabbage-turnip.' It is the Brassica oleracea, var. caulorapa. The stalk at one point expands into a globular mass resembling a turnip, and this is the edible part. I see my friend Sir G. Birdwood in his Bombay Products spells it Knolkhol. It is apparently Dutch, 'Knollkool' 'Turnip-cabbage; Chouxrave of the French.'
NON-REGULATION, adj. The style of certain Provinces of British India (administered for the most part under the more direct authority of the Central Government in its Foreign Department), in which the ordinary Laws (or Regulations, as they were formerly called) are not in force, or are in force only so far as they are specially declared by the Government of India to be applicable. The original theory of administration in such Provinces was the union of authority in all departments under one district chief, and a kind of paternal despotism in the hands of that chief. But by the gradual restriction of personal rule, and the multiplication of positive laws and rules of administration, and the division of duties, much the same might now be said of the difference between Regulation and Non-regulation Provinces that a witty Frenchman said of Intervention and Non-intervention:—"La Non-intervention est une phrase politique et technique qui veut dire enfin à-peu-près la même chose que l'Intervention."
Our friend Gen. F. C. Cotton, R.E., tells us that on Lord Dalhousie's visit to the Neilgherry Hills, near the close of his government, he was riding with the Governor-General to visit some new building. Lord Dalhousie said to him: "It is not a thing that one must say in public, but I would give a great deal that the whole of India should be Non-regulation."
The Punjab was for many years the greatest example of a Non-regulation Province. The chief survival of that state of things is that there, as in Burma and a few other provinces, military men are still eligible to hold office in the civil administration.
1860.—"... Nowe what ye ffolke of Bengala worschyppen Sir Jhone discourseth lityl. This moche wee gadere. Some worschyppin ane Idole yclept Regulacioun and some worschyppen Non-regulacion (veluti Gog et Magog)...."—Ext. from a MS. of The Travels of Sir John Mandevill in the E. Indies, lately discovered.
1867.—"... We believe we should indicate the sort of government that Sicily wants, tolerably well to Englishmen who know anything of India, by saying that it should be treated in great measure as a 'non-regulation' province."—Quarterly Review, Jan. 1867, p. 135.
1883.—"The Delhi district, happily for all, was a non-regulation province."—Life of Ld. Lawrence, i. 44.
NORIMON, s. Japanese word. A sort of portable chair used in Japan.
[1615.—"He kept himselfe close in a neremon."—Cocks's Diary, i. 164.]
1618.—"As we were going out of the towne, the street being full of hackneymen and horses, they would not make me way to passe, but fell a quarreling with my neremoners, and offred me great abuse...."—Cocks's Diary, ii. 99; [neremonnears in ii. 23].
1768-71.—"Sedan-chairs are not in use here (in Batavia). The ladies, however, sometimes employ a conveyance that is somewhat like them, and is called a norimon."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 324.
NOR'-WESTER, s. A sudden and violent storm, such as often occurs in the hot weather, bringing probably a 'dust-storm' at first, and culminating in hail or torrents of rain. (See TYPHOON.)
1810.—"... those violent squalls called 'north-westers,' in consequence of their usually either commencing in, or veering round to that quarter.... The force of these north-westers is next to incredible."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 35.
[1827.—"A most frightful nor' wester had come on in the night, every door had burst open, the peals of thunder and torrents of rain were so awful...."—Mrs. Fenton, Diary, 98.]
NOWBEHAR, n.p. This is a name which occurs in various places far apart, a monument of the former extension of Buddhism. Thus, in the early history of the Mahommedans in Sind, we find repeated mention of a temple called Nauvihār (Nava-vihāra, 'New Monastery'). And the same name occurs at Balkh, near the Oxus. (See VIHARA).
NOWROZE, s. Pers. nau-rōz, 'New (Year's) Day'; i.e. the first day of the Solar Year. In W. India this is observed by the Parsees. [For instances of such celebrations at the vernal equinox, see Frazer, Pausanias, iv. 75.]
c. 1590.—"This was also the cause why the Naurúz i Jaláli was observed, on which day, since his Majesty's accession, a great feast was given.... The New Year's Day feast ... commences on the day when the Sun in his splendour moves to Aries, and lasts till the 19th day of the month (Farwardīn)."—Āīn, ed. Blochmann, i. 183, 276.
[1614.—"Their Noroose, which is an annual feast of 20 days continuance kept by the Moors with great solemnity."—Foster, Letters, iii. 65.
[1615.—"The King and Prince went a hunting ... that his house might be fitted against the Norose, which began the first Newe Moon in March."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 138; also see 142.]
1638.—"There are two Festivals which are celebrated in this place with extraordinary ceremonies; one whereof is that of the first day of the year, which, with the Persians, they call Naurus, Nauros, or Norose, which signifies nine dayes, though now it lasts eighteen at least, and it falls at the moment that the Sun enters Aries."—Mandelslo, 41.
1673.—"On the day of the Vernal Equinox, we returned to Gombroon, when the Moores introduced their New-Year Æde (see EED) or Noe Rose, with Banqueting and great Solemnity."—Fryer, 306.
1712.—"Restat Nauruus, i.e. vertentis anni initium, incidens in diem aequinoctii verni. Non legalis est, sed ab antiquis Persis haereditate accepta festivitas, omnium caeterarum maxima et solennissima."—Kaempfer, Am. Exot. 162.
1815.—"Jemsheed also introduced the solar year; and ordered the first day of it, when the sun entered Aries, to be celebrated by a splendid festival. It is called Nauroze, or new year's day, and is still the great festival in Persia."—Malcolm, H. of Persia, i. 17.
1832.—"Now-roz (new year's day) is a festival or eed of no mean importance in the estimation of Mussulman society.... The trays of presents prepared by the ladies for their friends are tastefully set out, and the work of many days' previous arrangement. Eggs are boiled hard, some of these are stained in colours resembling our mottled papers; others are neatly painted in figures and devices; many are ornamented with gilding; every lady evincing her own peculiar taste in the prepared eggs for now-roz."—Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, Obsns. on the Mussulmans of India, 283-4.
NOWSHADDER, s. Pers. naushādar (Skt. narasāra, but recent), Sal-ammoniac, i.e. chloride of ammonium.