Henry Yule

“ Kalinga is a kingdom constantly mentioned in the Buddhist and historical legends of Ceylon; and we find commemoration of the kingdom of Kalinga and of the capital city of Kalinganagara (e.g. in Ind. Antiq. iii. 152, x. 243) . It was from a daughter of a King of Kalinga that sprang, according to the Mahawanso, the famous Wijayo, the civilizer of Ceylon and the founder of its ancient royal race.
Kalingapatam, a port of the Ganjam district, still preserves the ancient name of Kalinga, though its identity with the Kalinganagara of the inscriptions is not to be assumed. ”

“ Kirkpatrick says that the name Kurnool, Kunnool, or Kundnool (all of which forms seem to be applied corruptly to the place) signifies in the language of that country 'fine spun, clear thread,' and according to Meer Husain it has its name from its beautiful cotton fabrics. But we presume the town must have existed before it made cotton fabrics? This is a specimen of the stuff that men, even so able as Kirkpatrick, sometimes repeat after those native authorities who "ought to know better," as we are often told. ”

“ Ar. kharāj (usually pron. in India khirāj) , is properly a tribute levied by a Musulman lord upon conquered unbelievers, also land-tax; in India it is almost always used for the land-revenue paid to Government; whence a common expression (also Ar.) lā khirāj, treated as one word, lākhirāj, 'rent-free.'
[c. 1590.—"In ancient times a capitation tax was imposed, called khiráj."—Āīn, ed. Jarrett, ii. 55. "Some call the whole produce of the revenue khiráj."—Ibid. ii. 57.] ”

“ In England we find the word is often applied to a mess of re-cooked fish, served for breakfast; but this is inaccurate. Fish is frequently eaten with kedgeree, but is no part of it. ["Fish Kitcherie" is an old Anglo-Indian dish, see the recipe in Riddell, Indian Domestic Economy, p. 437.]
c. 1340.—"The munj (Moong) is boiled with rice, and then buttered and eaten. This is what they call Kishrī, and on this dish they breakfast every day."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 131. c. 1443.—"The elephants of the palace are fed upon Kitchri."—Abdurrazzāk, in India in XVth Cent. 27. ”

“ Though it is in the Hindustāni dictionaries, we never remember to have heard it used in India; but the first quotation below shows that it is, or has been, in use in Western India, in something like the Turkish sense. The proper meaning of the Ar. word is 'how?' 'in what manner?' the secondary is 'partial intoxication.' This looks almost like a parallel to the English vulgar slang of 'how comed you so?' But in fact a man's kaif is his 'howness,' i.e. what pleases him, his humour ”

“ You may call it the Indian nightingale if you like. There is a difference however in its song ... when it gets to the very top of its pitch, its voice cracks and there is an end of it, or rather there is not, for the persevering musician begins again.... Does not the Maratha novelist, dwelling on the delights of a spring morning in an Indian village, tell how the air was filled with the dulcet melody of the Koel, the green parrot, and the peacock?"—Tribes on My Frontier, 156. ”

“ At the same time it is in evidence that in the former distracted state of the country, a Khoti was sometimes established in compliance with a petition of the cultivators. The Khoti "acted as a buffer between them and the extortionate demands of the revenue officers under the native Government. And this is easily comprehended, when it is remembered that formerly districts used to be farmed to the native officials, whose sole object was to squeeze as much revenue as possible out of each village. ”

“ Besides this sense, and an application to various other chiefs and nobles, it has still become in Persia, and still more in Afghanistan, a sort of vague title like "Esq.," whilst in India it has become a common affix to, or in fact part of, the name of Hindustānis out of every rank, properly, however of those claiming a Pathān descent. The tendency of swelling titles is always thus to degenerate, and when the value of Khān had sunk, a new form, Khān-Khānān (Khān of Khāns) was devised at the Court of Delhi, and applied to one of the high officers of State. ”

“ Of their own free will they presented to Hûmâiûn a peshkesh (see PESHCUSH) , consisting of a quantity of jewels and precious stones. Among these was one famous diamond which had been acquired by Sultân Alâeddîn. It is so valuable that a judge of diamonds valued it at half the daily expense of the whole world. ”

“ Hind. kaṭār, Skt. kaṭṭāra, 'a dagger,' especially a kind of dagger peculiar to India, having a solid blade of diamond-section, the handle of which consists of two parallel bars with a cross-piece joining them. The hand grips the cross-piece, and the bars pass along each side of the wrist. [See a drawing in Egerton, Handbook, Indian Arms, pl. ix.] Ibn Batuta's account is vivid, and perhaps in the matter of size there may be no exaggeration. Through the kindness of Col. Waterhouse I have a phototype of some Travancore weapons shown at the Calcutta Exhibition of 1883-4 ”

“ Kshatriya. The second, or military caste, in the theoretical or fourfold division of the Hindus. [But the word is more commonly applied to a mercantile caste, which has its origin in the Punjab, but is found in considerable numbers in other parts of India. Whether they are really of Kshatriya descent is a matter on which there is much difference of opinion. See Crooke, Tribes and Castes of N.W.P., iii. 264 seqq.] The Χατριαῖοι whom Ptolemy locates apparently towards Rājputānā are probably Kshatriyas.
[1623.—"They told me Ciautru was a title of honour."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 312.] ”

“ Ar. ḳist. The yearly land revenue in India is paid by instalments which fall due at different periods in different parts of the country; each such instalment is called a ḳist, or quota. [The settlement of these instalments is ḳist-bandī.]
[1767.—"This method of comprising the whole estimate into so narrow a compass ... will convey to you a more distinct idea ... than if we transmitted a monthly account of the deficiency of each person's Kistbundee."—Verelst, View of Bengal, App. 56.] ”

“ Nodular kunkur, wherever it exists, is the usual material for road metalling, and as it binds when wetted and rammed into a compact, hard, and even surface, it is an admirable material for the purpose.
c. 1781.—"Etaya is situated on a very high bank of the river Jumna, the sides of which consist of what in India is called concha, which is originally sand, but the constant action of the sun in the dry season forms it almost into a vitrification" (!) —Hodges, 110. 1794.—"Konker" appears in a Notification for tenders in Calcutta Gazette.—In Seton-Karr, ii. 135. ”

“ Hind. Kahār, [Skt. skandha-kāra, 'one who carries loads on his shoulders'] . The name of a Śūdra caste of cultivators, numerous in Bahār and the N.W. Provinces, whose speciality is to carry palankins. The name is, therefore, in many parts of India synonymous with 'palankin-bearer,' and the Hindu body-servants called bearers (q.v.) in the Bengal Presidency are generally of this caste.
c. 1350.—"It is the custom for every traveller in India ... ”

“ The kingdom produces wild elephants of a black colour, which are much valued in the neighbouring realms. [2] In ancient times the kingdom of Kalinga possessed a dense population, insomuch that in the streets shoulders rubbed, and the naves of waggon-wheels jostled; if the passengers but lifted their sleeves an awning of immense extent was formed...."—Pèlerins Bouddh. iii. 92-93.
c. 1045.—"Bhíshma said to the prince: 'There formerly came, on a visit to me, a Brahman, from the Kalinga country....'"—Vishnu Purāna, in H. H. Wilson's Works, viii. 75. ”

“ H. V. Carter's Notices of Castes in Bombay Pry., quoted in Ind. Antiq. ii. 154. KULÁ, KLÁ, n.p. Burmese name of a native of Continental India; and hence misapplied also to the English and other Westerns who have come from India to Burma; in fact used generally for a Western foreigner. The origin of this term has been much debated. Some have supposed it to be connected with the name of the Indian race, the Kols; another suggestion has connected it with Kalinga (see KLING) ; and a third with the Skt. kula, 'caste or tribe' ”

“ To fill these pots with rice, sugar, and dried fruits requires a round sum of money, and it is only the rich who can afford to do so. This year His Highness the Nawab of Tonk paid Rs. 3,000 to fill up the pots.... After the pots filled with khichri had been inspected by the Nawab, who was accompanied by the Commissioner of Ajmere and several Civil Officers, the distribution, or more properly the plunder, of khichri commenced, and men well wrapped up with clothes, stuffed with cotton, were seen leaping down into the boiling pot to secure their share of the booty."—Pioneer Mail, July 8. ”

“ Klings from the Coromandel Coast of India, and Chinese.... The Klings are universally the hack-carriage (gharry) drivers, and private grooms (syces) , and they also monopolize the washing of clothes.... But besides this class there are Klings who amass money as tradesmen and merchants, and become rich."—Collingwood, Rambles of a Naturalist, 268-9. ”

“ KISHMISH, s. Pers. Small stoneless raisins originally imported from Persia. Perhaps so called from the island Kishm. Its vines are mentioned by Arrian, and by T. Moore! (See under KISHM.) [For the manufacture of Kishmish in Afghanistan, see Watt, Econ. Dict. VI. pt. iv. 284.]
[c. 1665.—"Usbec being the country which principally supplies Delhi with these fruits.... Kichmiches, or raisins, apparently without stones...."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 118.] ”

“ He does not come into the house, the telegraph wire suits him better. Perched on it he can see what is going on ... drops, beak foremost, on the back of the kite ... spies a bee-eater capturing a goodly moth, and after a hot chase, forces it to deliver up its booty."—The Tribes on My Frontier, 143. ”

“ This is a Mahrātī word, khot, in use in some parts of the Bombay Presidency as the designation of persons holding or farming villages on a peculiar tenure called khotī, and coming under the class legally defined as 'superior holders.'
The position and claims of the khots have been the subject of much debate and difficulty, especially with regard to the rights and duties of the tenants under them, whose position takes various forms ”

“ This mode of salutation, in the language of the present age, is called Kornish."—Āīn, ed. Blochmann, i. 158.
But for his position as the head of religion, in his new faith he permitted, or claimed prostration (sijda) before him:
"As some perverse and dark-minded men look upon prostration as blasphemous man-worship, His Majesty, from practical wisdom, has ordered it to be discontinued by the ignorant, and remitted it to all ranks.... ”

“ The Hindu Klings appear to be chiefly drivers of hackney carriages and keepers of eating-houses. There is a Śiva temple in Singapore, which is served by Pandārāms (q.v.) . The only Brahmans there in 1876 were certain convicts. It may be noticed that Calingas is the name of a heathen tribe of (alleged) Malay origin in the east of N. Luzon (Philippine Islands) .
B.C. c. 250.—"Great is Kaliñga conquered by the King Piyadasi, beloved of the Devas. There have been hundreds of thousands of creatures carried off.... ”

“ He had been a month at it, and had become so expert that he went on smoothly and without pausing, and kept rolling evenly along the middle of the road, over stones and everything. He travelled at the rate of two coss a day."—Elphinstone, in Life, i. 257-8.
1878.—"We had each our own ... Kitmutgar or table servant. It is the custom in India for each person to have his own table servant, and when dining out to take him with him to wait behind his chair."—Life in the Mofussil, i. 32. ”

“ A widely spread caste of rather inferior rank, whose occupation is to carry palkis, dolis, water-skins, &c.; to act as Porters ... they eat flesh and drink spirits: they are an ignorant but industrious class. ”

“ Ar. kharīf, 'autumn'; and in India the crop, or harvest of the crop, which is sown at the beginning of the rainy season (April and May) and gathered in after it, including rice, the tall millets, maize, cotton, rape, sesamum, &c. ”

“ But it is through forms like cassimere (also in English use) , a corruption of cashmere, though the corruption has been shaped by the previously existing English word kersey for a kind of woollen cloth, as if kersey were one kind and kerseymere another, of similar goods. Kersey is given by Minsheu (2nd ed. 1627) , without definition, thus: "Kersie cloth, G. (i.e. French) carizé." The only word like the last given by Littré is "Carisil, sorte de canevas."... This does not apply to kersey, which appears to be represented by "Creseau—Terme de Commerce; étoffe de laine croisée à deux envers; etym. ”

“ Again, speaking of pearls in the Persian Gulf, he says: "Whatever is of any Value is very dear. Here is a great Plenty of what they call Ketchery, a mixture of all together, or Refuse of Rough, Yellow, and Unequal, which they sell by Bushels to the Russians."—Ibid. 320. 1727.—"Some Doll and Rice, being mingled together and boiled make Kitcheree, the common Food of the Country. They eat it with Butter and Atchar (see ACHAR) ."—A. Hamilton, i. 161; [ed. 1744, i. 162] . ”

“ Vambéry gives ḳoshūn as Or. Turki for an army, a troop (literally whatever is composed of several parts) .
[1753.—"... Kara-kushun, are also foot soldiers ... the name is Turkish and signifies black guard."—Hanway, I. pt. ii. 252.] c. 1782.—"In the time of the deceased Nawab, the exercises ... of the regular troops were ... performed, and the word given according to the French system ... but now, the Sultan (Tippoo) ... changed the military code ... and altered the technical terms or words of command ... to words of the Persian and Turkish languages.... ”

“ P.—H. ḳil'adār, from Ar. ḳal'a, 'a fort.' The commandant of a fort, castle, or garrison. The Ar. ḳal'a is always in India pronounced ḳil'a. And it is possible that in the first quotation Ibn Batuta has misinterpreted an Indian title ”