Chapter CAMEEZE to CANARA of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

to this passage as “the country of Mansurah.” Probably Mas’udi wrote correctly Fansurah.

1298.—“In this kingdom of Fansur grows the best camphor in the world, called Camfera Fansuri.”—Marco Polo, bk. iii. ch. xi.

1506.—“…e de li (Tenasserim) vien pevere, canella…camfora da manzar e de quella non se manza…” (i.e. both camphor to eat and not to eat, or Sumatra and China camphor).—Leonardo Ca’ Masser.

c. 1590.—“The Camphor tree is a large tree growing in the ghauts of Hindostan and in China. A hundred horsemen and upwards may rest in the shade of a single tree.…Of the various kinds of camphor the best is called Ribáhi or Qaiçúri.… In some books camphor in its natural state is called…Bhimsíni.”—Ain, Blochmann ed. i. 78-9. [Bhimsíni is more properly bhimseni, and takes its name from the demigod Bhimsen, second son of Pandu.]

1623.—“In this shipp we have laden a small parcell of camphire of Barouse, being in all 60 catis.”—Batavían Letter, pubd. in Cocks’s Diary, ii. 343.

1726.—“The Persians name the Camphor of Baros, and also of Borneo to this day Kafur Canfuri, as it also appears in the printed text of Avicenna…and Bellunensis notes that in some MSS. of the author is found Kafur Fansuri.…”—Valentijn, iv. 67.

1786.—“The Camphor Tree has been recently discovered in this part of the Sircar’s country. We have sent two bottles of the essential oil made from it for your use.”— Letter of Tippoo, Kirkpatrick, p. 231.

1875.—

“Camphor, Bhimsaini (barus), valuation	Ilb. 80 rs.
Refined cake	1 cwt. 65 rs.’ Table of Customs Duties on Imports into Br. India up to 1875.

The first of these is the fine Sumatran camphor ; the second at 1/138 of the price is China camphor.

CAMPOO, s. H. kampu, corr. of the English ‘camp,’ or more properly of the Port. ‘campo.’ It is used for ‘a camp,’ but formerly was specifically applied to the partially disciplined brigades under European commanders in the Mahratta service.

[1525.—Mr. Whiteway notes that Castanheda (bk. vi. ch. ci. p. 217) and Barros (iii. 10, 3) speak of a ward of Malacca as Campu China ; and de Eredia (1613) calls it Campon China, which may supply a link between Campoo and Kampung. (See COMPOUND).

1803.—“Begum Sumroo’s Campoo has come up the ghauts, and I am afraid… joined Scindiah yesterday. Two deserters …declared that Pohlman’s Campoo was following it.”—Wellington, ii. 264.

1883.—“…its unhappy plains were swept over, this way and that, by the cavalry of rival Mahratta powers, Mogul and Rohilla horsemen, or cãmpos and pultuns (battalions) under European adventurers. …”—Quarterly Review, April, p. 294.

CANARA, n.p. Properly Kannada. This name has long been given to that part of the West coast which lies below the Ghauts, from Mt. Dely northward to the Goa territory ; and now to the two British districts constituted out of that tract, viz. N. and S. Canara. This appropriation of the name, however, appears to be of European origin. The name, probably meaning ‘black country’ [Dravid. kar, ‘black,’ nadu, ‘country’], from the black cotton soil prevailing there, was properly synonymous with Karnataka (see CARNATIC), and apparently a corruption of that word. Our quotations show that throughout the sixteenth century the term was applied to the country above the Ghauts, sometimes to the whole kingdom of Narsinga or Vijayanagar (see BISNAGAR). Gradually, and probably owing to local application at Goa, where the natives seem to have been from the first known to the Portuguese as Canarijs, a term which in the old Portuguese works means the Konkani people and language of Goa, the name became appropriated to the low country on the coast between Goa and Malabar, which was subject to the kingdom in question, much in the same way that the name Carnatic came at a later date to be misapplied on the other side of the Peninsula.

The Kanara or Canarese language is spoken over a large tract above the Ghauts, and as far north as Bidar (see Caldwell, Introd. p. 33). It is only one of several languages spoken in the British districts of Canara, and that only in a small portion, viz. near Kundapur. Tulu is the chief language in the Southern District. Kanadam occurs in the great Tanjore inscription of the 11th century.

1516.—“Beyond this river commences the Kingdom of Narsinga, which contains five very large provinces, each with a language of its own. The first, which stretches along the coast to Malabar, is Tulinate (i.e. Tulunadu, or the modern district of S. Canara) ; another lies in the interior…; another has the name of Telinga, which confines with the Kingdom of Orisa ; another is Canari, in which is the great city of Bisnaga ; and then the Kingdom of Charamendel, the language of which is Tamul.”—Barbosa. This passage is exceedingly corrupt, and the version (necessarily imperfect) is made up from three—viz. Stanley’s English, from a Sp. MS., Hak. Soc. p. 79 ; the Portuguese of the Lisbon Academy, p. 291 ; and Ramusio’s