Chapter AGUN-BOAT to ALBATROSS of A by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

AGUN-BOAT to ALBATROSS

AGUN-BOAT, s. A hybrid word for a steamer, from H. agan, ‘fire,’ and Eng. boat. In Bombay Ag-bto is used.

1853.—“ .… Agin boat.”—Oakfield, i. 84.

[AJNAS, s. Ar. plur. of jins, ‘goods, merchandise, crops,’ etc. Among the Moguls it was used in the special sense of pay in kind, not in cash.]

[c. 1665.—“It (their pay) is, however, of a different kind, and not thought so honourable, but the Rouzindars are not subject, like the Mansebdars (Munsubdar) to the Agenas; that is to say, are not bound to take, at a valuation, carpets, and other pieces of furniture, that have been used in the King’s palace, and on which an unreasonable value is sometimes set.”—Bernier (ed. Constable), 215-6.]

AK, s. H. ak and ark, in Sindi ak: the prevalent name of the madar (MUDDAR) in Central and Western India. It is said to be a popular belief (of course erroneous) in Sind, that Akbar was so called after the ak, from his birth in the desert. [Ives (488) calls it Ogg.] The word appears in the following popular rhyme quoted by Tod (Rajasthan, i. 669):—

Ak-ra jhopra,
Phok-ra bar,
Bajra-ra roti,
Mot’h-ra dal:
Dekho Raja teri Marwar.

(For houses hurdles of madar,
For hedges heaps of withered thorn,
Millet for bread, horse-peas for pulse:
Such is thy kingdom, Raja of Marwar!)

AKALEE, or Nihang (‘the naked one’), s. A member of a body of zealots among the Sikhs, who take this name ‘from being worshippers of Him who is without time, eternal’ (Wilson). Skt. a privative, and kal, ‘time.’ The Akalis may be regarded as the Wa habis of Sikhism. They claim their body to have been instituted by Guru Govind himself, but this is very doubtful. Cunningham’s view o f the order is that it was the outcome of the struggle to reconcile warlike activity with the abandonme nt of the world; the founders of the Sikh doctrine rejecting the inert asceticism of the Hindu sects. The Akalis threw off all subjection to the earthly government, and acted as the censors of the Sikh community in every rank. Runjeet Singh found them very difficult to control. Since the annexation of the Panjab, however, they have ceased to give trouble. The Akalee is distinguished by blue clothing and steel armlets. Many of them also used to carry several steel chakras (CHUCKER) encircling their turbans. [SeeIbbetson, Panjab Ethnog., 286; Maclagan, in Panjab Census Rep., 1891, i. 166.]

1832.—“We received a message from the Acali who had set fire to the village. .… These fanatics of the Seik creed acknowledge no superior, and the ruler of the country can only moderate their frenzy by intrigues and bribery. They go about everywhere with naked swords, and lavish their abuse on the nobles as well as the peaceable subjects.… They have on several occasions attempted the life of Runjeet Singh.”—Burnes, Travels, ii. 10-11.

1840.—“The Akalis being summoned to surrender, requested a conference with one of the attacking party. The young Khan bravely went forward, and was straightway shot through the head.”—Mrs Mackenzie, Storms and Sunshine, i. 115.

AKYÁB, n.p. The European name of the seat of administration of the British province of Arakan, which is also a port exporting rice largely to Europe. The name is never used by the natives of Arakan (of the Burmese race), who call the town Tsit-htwé, ‘Crowd (in consequence of) War.’ This indicates how the settlement came to be formed in 1825, by the fact of the British force encamping on the plain there, which was found to be healthier than the site of the ancient capital of the kingdom of Arakan, up the valley of the Arakan or Kaladyne R. The name Akyáb had been applied, probably by the Portuguese, to a neighbouring village, where there stands, about 1 ½ miles from the present town, a pagoda covering an alleged relique of Gautama (a piece of the lower jaw, or an induration of the throat), the name of which pagoda, taken from the description of relique, is Au-kyait-dau, and of this Akyáb was probably a corruption. The present town and cantonment occupy dry land of very recent formation, and the high ground on which the pagoda stands must have stood on the shore at no distant date, as appears from the finding of a small anchor there about 1835. The village adjoining the pagoda must then have stood