Chapter CHIRETTA to CHOBWA of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

calls it a “Montpelier.” The derivation given by this illustrious scholar is more than questionable. The name seems to be really a form of the Sanskrit Chaturgrama (=Tetrapolis), [or according to others of Saptagrama, ‘seven villages’], and it is curious that near this position Ptolemy has a Pentapolis, very probably the same place. Chaturgrama is still the name of a town in Ceylon, lat. 6°, long. 81°.

CHITTLEDROOG, n.p. A fort S.W. of Bellary; properly Chitra Durgam, Red Hill (or Hill-Fort, or [‘picturesque fort’]) called by the Mahommedans Chitaldurg (C. P. B.).

CHITTORE, n.p. Chitor, or Chitorgarh, a very ancient and famous rock fortress in the Rajput State of Mewar. It is almost certainly the [Greek Text] Tiatoura of Ptolemy (vii. 1).

1533.—“Badour (i.e. Bahadur Shah)…in Champanel…sent to carry off a quantity of powder and shot and stores for the attack on Chitor, which occasioned some delay because the distance was so great.”—Correa, iii. 506.

1615.—“The two and twentieth (Dec.), Master Edwards met me, accompanied with Thomas Coryat, who had passed into India on foote, flue course to Cytor, an ancient Citie ruined on a hill, but so that it appeares a Tombe (Towne?) of wonderfull magnificence.…”—Sir Thomas Roe, in Purchas, i. 540; [Hak. Soc. i. 102; “Cetor” in i. 111, “Chytor” in ii. 540].

[1813.—“…a tribute…imposed by Muhadajee Seendhiya for the restitution of Chuetohrgurh, which he had conquered from the Rana.”—Broughton, Letters, ed. 1892, p. 175.]

CHOBDAR, s. H. from P. chobdar, ‘a stick-bearer.’ A frequent attendant of Indian nobles, and in former days of Anglo-Indian officials of rank. They are still a part of the state of the Viceroy, Governors, and Judges of the High Courts. The chobdars carry a staff overlaid with silver.

1442.—“At the end of the hall stand tchobdars…drawn up in line.”—Abdur-Razzak, in India in the XV. Cent. 25.

1673.—“If he (the President) move out of his Chamber, the Silver Staves wait on him.”—Fryer, 68.

1701.—“…Yesterday, of his own accord, he told our Linguists that he had sent four Chobdars and 25 men, as a safeguard.”—In Wheeler, i. 371.

1788.—“Chubdár…Among the Nabobs he proclaims their praises aloud, as he runs before their palankeens.”—Indian Vocabulary (Stockdale’s).

1793.—“They said a Chubdar, with a silverstick, one of the Sultan’s messengers of justice, had taken them from the place, where they were confined, to the public Bazar, where their hands were cut off.”—Dirom, Narrative, 235.

1798.—“The chief’s Chobedar…also endeavoured to impress me with an ill opinion of these messengers.”—G. Forster’s Travels, i. 222.

1810.—“While we were seated at breakfast, we were surprised by the entrance of a Choabdar, that is, a servant who attends on persons of consequence, runs before them with a silver stick, and keeps silence at the doors of their apartments, from which last office he derives his name.”—Maria Graham, 57.

This usually accurate lady has been here misled, as if the word were chup- dar, ‘silence-keeper,’ a hardly possible hybrid.

CHOBWA, s. Burmese Tsaubwa, Siamese Chao, ‘prince, king,’ also Chaohpa (compounded with hpa, ‘heaven’), and in Cushing’s Shan Dicty. and cacography, sow, ‘lord, master,’ sowhpa, a ‘hereditary prince.’ The word chu-hu, for ‘chief,’ is found applied among tribes of Kwang-si, akin to the Shans, in A.D. 1150 (Prof. T. de la Couperie). The designation of the princes of the Shan States on the east of Burma, many of whom are (or were till lately) tributary to Ava.

1795.—“After them came the Chobwaas, or petty tributary princes: these are personages who, before the Birmans had extended their conquests over the vast territories which they now possess, had held small independent sovereignties which they were able to maintain so long as the balance of power continued doubtful between the Birmans, Peguers, and Siamese.”—Symes, 366.

1819.—“All that tract of land…is inhabited by a numerous nation called Sciam, who are the same as the Laos. Their kingdom is divided into small districts under different chiefs called Zaboà, or petty princes.—Sangermano, 34.

1855.—“The Tsaubwas of all these principalities, even where most absolutely under Ava, retain all the forms and appurtenances of royalty.”—Yule, Mission to Ava, 303.

[1890.—“The succession to the throne primarily depends upon the person chosen by the court and people being of princely descent—all such are called chow or prince.”—Hallet, A Thousand Miles on an Elephant, p. 32.]