Chapter CHOWRYBURDAR to CHUCKLAH of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

CHOWRYBURDAR to CHUCKLAH

CHOWRYBURDAR, s. The servant who carries the Chowry. H. P. chaunri-bardar.

1774.—“The Deb-Rajah on horseback…a chowra-burdar on each side of him.”—Bogle, in Markham’s Tibet, 24.

[1838.—“…the old king was sitting in the garden with a chowrybadar waving the flies from him.”—Miss Eden, Up the Country, i. 138.]

CHOWT, CHOUT, s. Mahr. chauth, ‘one fourth part.’ The blackmail levied by the Mahrattas from the provincial governors as compensation for leaving their districts in immunity from plunder. The term is also applied to some other exactions of like ratio (see Wilson).

[1559.—Mr. Whiteway refers to Couto (Dec. VII. bk. 6, ch. 6), where this word is used in reference to payments made in 1559 in the time of D. Constantine de Bragança, and in papers of the early part of the 17th century the King of the Chouteas is frequently mentioned.]

1644.—“This King holds in our lands of Daman a certain payment which they call Chouto, which was paid him long before they belonged to the Portuguese, and so after they came under our power the payment continued to be made, and about these exactions and payments there have risen great disputes and contentions on one side and another.”—Bocarro (MS.).

1674.—“Messengers were sent to Bassein demanding the chout of all the Portuguese territory in these parts. The chout means the fourth part of the revenue, and this is the earliest mention we find of the claim.”—Orme’s Fragments, p. 45.

1763-78.—“They (the English) were…not a little surprised to find in the letters now received from Balajerow and his agent to themselves, and in stronger terms to the Nabob, a peremptory demand of the Chout or tribute due to the King of the Morattoes from the Nabobship of Arcot.”—Orme, ii. 228-9.

1803.—“The Peshwah…cannot have a right to two choutes, any more than to two revenues from any village in the same year.”—Wellington Desp. (ed. 1837), ii. 175.

1858.—“…They (the Mahrattas) were accustomed to demand of the provinces they threatened with devastation a certain portion of the public revenue, generally the fourth part; and this, under the name of the chout, became the recognized Mahratta tribute, the price of the absence of their plundering hordes.”—Whitney, Oriental and Ling. Studies, ii. 20-21.

CHOYA, CHAYA, CHEY, s. A root, [generally known as chayroot,] (Hedyotis umbellata, Lam., Oldenlandia umb., L.) of the Nat Ord. Cinchonaceae, affording a red dye, sometimes called ‘India Madder,’ [‘Dye Root,’ ‘Rameshwaram Root’]; from Tam. shayaver, Malayal. chayaver (chaya, ‘colour,’ ver, ‘root’). It is exported from S. India, and was so also at one time from Ceylon. There is a figure of the plant in Letters Edif. xiv. 164.

c. 1566.—“Also from S. Tome they layd great store of red yarne, of bombast died with a roote which they call saia, as aforesayd, which colour will never out.”—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. [ii. 354].

1583.—“Ne vien anchora di detta saia da un altro luogo detto Petopoli, e se ne tingono parimente in S. Thomè.”—Balbi, f. 107.

1672.—“Here groweth very good Zaye.”—Baldaeus, Ceylon.

[1679.—“…if they would provide mustors of Chae and White goods.…”—Memoriall of S. Master, in Kistna Man., p. 131.]

1726.—“Saya (a dye-root that is used on the Coast for painting chintzes).”—Valentijn, Chor. 45.

1727.—“The Islands of Diu (near Masulipatam) produce the famous Dye called Shaii. It is a Shrub growing in Grounds that are overflown with the Spring tides.”—A. Hamilton, i. 370; [ed. 1744, i. 374].

1860.—“The other productions that constituted the exports of the Island were sapan-wood to Persia; and choya-roots, a substitute for Madder, collected at Manaar…for transmission to Surat.”—Tennent’s Ceylon, ii. 54-55. See also Chitty’s Ceylon Gazetteer (1834), p. 40.

CHUCKAROO, s. English soldier’s lingo for Chokra (q.v.)

CHUCKER. From H. chakar, chakkar, chakra, Skt. chakra, ‘a wheel or circle.’

(a.) s. A quoit for playing the English game; but more properly the sharp quoit or discus which constituted an ancient Hindu missile weapon, and is, or was till recently, carried by the Sikh fanatics called Akali (see AKALEE), generally encircling their peaked turbans. The thing is described by Tavernier (E. T. ii. 41: [ed. Ball, i. 82]) as