Henry Yule

“ ROHILLA, n.p. A name by which Afghāns, or more particularly Afghāns settled in Hindustan, are sometimes known, and which gave a title to the province Rohilkand, and now, through that, to a Division of the N.W. Provinces embracing a large part of the old province. The word appears to be Pushtu, rōhēlah or rōhēlai, adj., formed from rōhu, 'mountain,' thus signifying 'mountaineer of Afghānistān.' But a large part of E. Afghānistān specifically bore the name of Roh. ”

“ RESPONDENTIA, s. An old trade technicality, thus explained: "Money which is borrowed, not upon the vessel as in bottomry, but upon the goods and merchandise contained in it, which must necessarily be sold or exchanged in the course of the voyage, in which case the borrower personally is bound to answer the contract" (Wharton's Law Lexicon, 6th ed., 1876; [and see N.E.D. under Bottomry] ) . What is now a part of the Calcutta Course, along the bank of the Hoogly, was known down to the first quarter of the last century, as Respondentia Walk. ”

“ In modern native use it may be carried in the hand by a high-born parda lady attached to her batwa or tiny silk handbag, and ornamented with all sorts of gold and silver trinkets; then it is a handkerchief in the true sense of the word. It may be carried by men, hanging on the left shoulder, and used to wipe the hands or face; then, too, it is a handkerchief. It may be as big as a towel, and thrown over both shoulders by men, the ends either hanging loose or tied in a knot in front ”

“ The peculiar black loamy soil, commonly called by English people in India 'black cotton soil.' The word may possibly be connected with H.—P. reg, 'sand'; but regaḍa and regaḍi is given by Wilson as Telugu. [Platts connects it with Skt. rekha, 'a furrow.'] This soil is not found in Bengal, with some restricted exception in the Rājmahal Hills. It is found everywhere on the plains of the Deccan trap-country, except near the coast. Tracts of it are scattered through the valley of the Krishna, and it occupies the flats of Coimbatore, Madura, Salem, Tanjore, Ramnād, and Tinnevelly. ”

“ An ancient coin in S. India; Tel. rokkam, rokkamu, Skt. roka, 'buying with ready money,' from ruch, 'to shine.'
[1875.—"The old native coins seem to have consisted of Varaghans, rookas and Doodoos. The Varaghan is what is now generally called a pagoda.... The rookas have now entirely disappeared, and have probably been melted into rupees. They varied in value from 1 to 2 Rupees. Though the coins have disappeared, the name still survives, and the ordinary name for silver money generally is rookaloo."—Gribble, Man. of Cuddapah, 296 seq.]
ROOK, s. In chess the rook comes to us from Span. ”

“ The first step to reform and assimilation took place under Regulation VII. of 1833, but this still maintained the exceptional Sicca in Bengal, though assimilating the rupees over the rest of India. The Sicca was abolished as a coin by Act XIII. of 1836; and the universal rupee of British territory has since been the "Company's Rupee," as it was long called, of 180 grs. weight and 165 pure silver, representing therefore in fact the Farrukhābād Rupee. ”

“ Humāyūn) asked me: 'Which of the two countries is greatest, that of Rūm or of Hindustan?' I replied: ... 'If by Rūm you mean all the countries subject to the Emperor of Constantinople, then India would not form even a sixth part thereof.'..."—Sidi 'Ali, in J. As., ser. I. tom. ix. 148.
1563.—"The Turks are those of the province of Natolia, or (as we now say) Asia Minor; the Rumes are those of Constantinople, and of its empire."—Garcia De Orta, f. 7. ”

“ Garcia de Orta and Jarric deny the name of Rūmī, as used in India, to the Turks of Asia, but they are apparently wrong in their expressions. What they seem to mean is that Turks of the Ottoman Empire were called Rūmī; whereas those others in Asia of Turkish race (whom we sometimes call Toorks) , as of Persia and Turkestan, were excluded from the name. ”

“ Hind. rattī, ratī, Skt. raktikā, from rakta, 'red.' The seed of a leguminous creeper (Abrus precatorius, L.) sometimes called country liquorice—a pretty scarlet pea with a black spot—used from time immemorial in India as a goldsmith's weight, and known in England as 'Crab's eyes.' Mr. Thomas has shown that the ancient rattī may be taken as equal to 1.75 grs. Troy (Numismata Orientalia, New ed., Pt. I. pp. 12-14) . ”

“ Aristobulus, whose accurate account is quoted by Strabo (see below) , was a companion of Alexander's expedition, but seems to have written later than Theophrastus. The term was probably acquired on the Oxus, or in the Punjab. And though no Skt. word for rice is nearer ὀρύζα than vrīhi, the very common exchange of aspirant and sibilant might easily give a form like vrīsi or brīsi (comp. hindū, sindū, &c.) in the dialects west of India. Though no such exact form seems to have been produced from old Persian, we have further indications of it in the Pushtu, which Raverty writes, sing. ”

“ ROUNDEL, s. An obsolete word for an umbrella, formerly in use in Anglo-India. [In 1676 the use of the Roundell was prohibited, except in the case of "the Councell and Chaplaine" (Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccxxxii.) ] In old English the name roundel is applied to a variety of circular objects, as a mat under a dish, a target, &c. ”

“ Rājpūt, from Skt. Rājaputra, 'King's Son.' The name of a great race in India, the hereditary profession of which is that of arms. The name was probably only a honorific assumption; but no race in India has furnished so large a number of princely families. According to Chand, the great medieval bard of the Rājpūts, there were 36 clans of the race, issued from four Kshatriyas (Parihār, Pramār, Solankhī, and Chauhān) who sprang into existence from the sacred Agnikuṇḍa or Firepit on the summit of Mount Abū. ”

“ REH, s. [Hind. reh, Skt. rej, 'to shine, shake, quiver.'] A saline efflorescence which comes to the surface in extensive tracts of Upper India, rendering the soil sterile. The salts (chiefly sulphate of soda mixed with more or less of common salt and carbonate of soda) are superficial in the soil, for in the worst reh tracts sweet water is obtainable at depths below 60 or 80 feet. ”

“ And this is, no doubt, formally true; but it is certain that a coin substantially identical with the rupee, i.e. approximating to a standard of 100 ratis (or 175 grains troy) of silver, an ancient Hindu standard, had been struck by the Mahommedan sovereigns of Delhi in the 13th and 14th centuries, and had formed an important part of their currency. In fact, the capital coins of Delhi, from the time of Iyaltimish (A.D. 1211-1236) to the accession of Mahommed Tughlak (1325) were gold and silver pieces, respectively of the weight just mentioned. ”

“ A very comprehensive application is given to the term Roh in the quotation from Firishta. A friend (Major J. M. Trotter) notes here: "The word Rohilla is little, if at all, used now in Pushtu, but I remember a line of an ode in that language, 'Sádik Rohilai yam pa Hindubár gad,' meaning, 'I am a simple mountaineer, compelled to live in Hindustan'; i.e. 'an honest man among knaves.'"
c. 1452.—"The King ... issued farmáns to the chiefs of the various Afghán Tribes. On receipt of the farmáns, the Afgháns of Roh came as is their wont, like ants and locusts, to enter the King's service.... ”

“ Most of the so-called solitary elephants are the lords of some herds near. They leave their companions at times to roam by themselves, usually to visit cultivation or open country ... sometimes again they make the expedition merely for the sake of solitude. They, however, keep more or less to the jungle where their herd is, and follow its movements."—Sanderson, p. 52.
ROGUE'S RIVER, n.p. The name given by Europeans in the 17th and 18th centuries to one of the Sunderbund channels joining the Lower Hoogly R. from the eastward. ”

“ Ar. rabi, 'the Spring.' In India applied to the crops, or harvest of the crops, which are sown after the rains and reaped in the following spring or early summer. Such crops are wheat, barley, gram, linseed, tobacco, onions, carrots and turnips, &c. ”

“ P.—H. rafūgar, Pers. rafū, 'darning.' The modern rafūgar in Indian cities is a workman who repairs rents and holes in Kashmīr shawls and other woollen fabrics. Such workmen were regularly employed in the cloth factories of the E.I. Co., to examine the manufactured cloths and remove petty defects in the weaving.
1750.—"On inspecting the Dacca goods, we found the Seerbetties (see PIECE-GOODS) very much frayed and very badly raffa-gurr'd or joined."—Bengal Letter to E.I. Co., Feb. 25, India Office MSS. 1851.—"Rafu-gars are darners, who repair the cloths that have been damaged during bleaching. ”

“ The ruble is still called sūm in Turkestan. ↑ The term Sonaut rupees, which was of frequent occurrence down to the reformation and unification of the Indian coinage in 1833, is one very difficult to elucidate. The word is properly sanwāt, pl. of Ar. sana (t) , a year. According to the old practice in Bengal, coins deteriorated in value, in comparison with the rupee of account, when they passed the third year of their currency, and these rupees were termed Sanwāt or Sonaut. ”

“ The English Pilot has a sketch chart of the river, which shows, just opposite Buffalo Point, "R. Theeves," then, as we descend, the R. Rangafula, and, close below that, "Rogues" (without the word River) , and still further below, Chanell Creek or R. Jessore. Rangafula R. and Channel Creek we still have in the charts. After a careful comparison of all the notices, and of the old and modern charts, I come to the conclusion that the R. of Rogues must have been either what is now called Chingrī Khāl, entering immediately below Diamond Harbour, or Kalpī Creek, about 6 m. ”

“ His silver coin of 175-178 grs. was that which popularly obtained the name of rūpiya, which has continued to our day. The weight, indeed, of the coins so styled, never very accurate in native times, varied in different States, and the purity varied still more. The former never went very far on either side of 170 grs., but the quantity of pure silver contained in it sunk in some cases as low as 140 grs., and even, in exceptional cases, to 100 grs. Variation however was not confined to native States. Rupees were struck in Bombay at a very early date of the British occupation. ”

“ It is fixed to the thick part of the lance or mace borne by men at arms. The Licentiate Covarrubias, who piques himself on finding etymologies for every kind of word, derives Arandella from Arundel, a city (so he says) of the Kingdom of England." Cobarruvias (1611) gives the above explanation; adding that it also was applied to a kind of smooth collar worn by women, from its resemblance to the other thing. Unless historical proof of this last etymology can be traced, we should suppose that Arundel is, even in this sense, probably a corruption of roundel. ”

“ Hindustani, [and is derived from Skt. rāga, 'red,' on account of the colour of the grain] . A kind of grain, Eleusine Coracana, Gaertn.; Cynosurus Coracanus, Linn.; largely cultivated, as a staple of food, in Southern India.
1792.—"The season for sowing raggy, rice, and bajera from the end of June to the end of August."—Life of T. Munro, iii. 92. 1793.—"The Mahratta supplies consisting chiefly of Raggy, a coarse grain, which grows in more abundance than any other in the Mysore Country, it became necessary to serve it out to the troops, giving rice only to the sick."—Dirom, 10. ”

“ It is probable that the nearest rhinoceros to be found at the present time would be not less than 800 miles, as the crow flies, from Peshāwar. See also GANDA, [and for references to the animal in Greek accounts of India, McCrindle, Ancient India, its Invasion by Alexander, 186] .
c. 1387.—"In the month of Zí-l Ka'da of the same year he (Prince Muhammed Khan) went to the mountains of Sirmor (W. of the Jumna) and spent two months in hunting the rhinoceros and the elk."—Táríkh-i-Mubárak-Sháhí, in Elliot, iv. 16. ”

“ Six white mustard-seeds are equal to a middle-sized barley-corn (yava) , three such barley-corns to one krishṇala (or raktika) , five krishṇalas of gold are one másha, and sixteen such máshas one suvarna," &c. (ibid. p. 13) . In the Āīn, Abul Faẓl calls the ratti surkh, which is a translation (Pers. for 'red') . In Persia the seed is called chashm-i-khurūs, 'Cock's eye' (see Blochmann's E.T., i. 16 n., and Jarrett, ii. 354) . Further notices of the ratī used as a weight for precious stones will be found in Sir W. Elliot's Coins of Madras (p. 49) . ”

“ This city is subject to the Sultan of Combeia ... 400 Turkish merchants reside here constantly."—Varthema, 91-92. Bandar-i-Rūmī is, as the traveller explains, the 'Port of the Turks.' Gogola, a suburb of Diu on the mainland, was known to the Portuguese some years later, as Villa dos Rumes (see GOGOLLA, and quotation from Maffei above) . The quotation below from Damian a Goes alludes apparently to Gogola. ”

“ Ball gives the weight at 2.66 Troy grs. (Tavernier, ii. 448) .]
c. 1676.—"At the mine of Soumelpour in Bengala, they weigh by Rati's, and the Rati is seven eighths of a Carat, or three grains and a half."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 140; [ed. Ball, ii. 89] .
RYOT, s. Ar. ra'īyat, from ra'ā, 'to pasture,' meaning originally, according to its etymology, 'a herd at pasture'; but then 'subjects' (collectively) . It is by natives used for 'a subject' in India, but its specific Anglo-Indian application is to 'a tenant of the soil'; an individual occupying land as a farmer or cultivator. ”