Chapter CHUCKLER to CHUNÁM of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

CHUCKLER to CHUNÁM

CHUCKLER, s. Tam. and Malayal. shakkili, the name of a very low caste, members of which are tanners or cobblers, like the Chamars (see CHUMAR) of Upper India. But whilst the latter are reputed to be a very dark caste, the Chucklers are fair (see Elliot’s Gloss. by Beames, i. 71, and Caldwell’s Gram. 574). [On the other hand the Madras Gloss. (s.v.) says that as a rule they are of “a dark black hue.”] Colloquially in S. India Chuckler is used for a native shoemaker.

c. 1580.—“All the Gentoos (Gentios) of those parts, especially those of Bisnaga, have many castes, which take precedence one of another. The lowest are the Chaquivilis, who make shoes, and eat all unclean flesh.…”—Primor e Honra, &c., f. 95.

1759.—“Shackelays are shoemakers, and held in the same despicable light on the Coromandel Coast as the Niaddes and Pullies on the Malabar.”—Ives, 26.

c. 1790.—“Aussi n’est-ce que le rébut de la classe méprisée des parrias; savoir les tschakelís ou cordonniers et les vettians ou fossoyeurs, qui s’occupent de l’enterrement et la combustion des morts.”—Haafner, ii. 60.

[1844.—“…the chockly, who performs the degrading duty of executioner.…”—Society, Manners, &c., of India, ii. 282.]

1869.—“The Komatis or mercantile caste of Madras by long established custom, are required to send an offering of betel to the chucklers, or shoemakers, before contracting their marriages.”—Sir W. Elliot, in J. Ethn. Soc., N. S. vol. i. 102.

CHUCKMUCK, s. H. chakmak. ‘Flint and steel.’ One of the titles conferred on Haidar ’Ali before he rose to power was ‘Chakmak Jang, ‘Firelock of War’? See H. of Hydur Naik, 112.

CHUCKRUM, s. An ancient coin once generally current in the S. of India, Malayal. chakram, Tel. chakramu; from Skt. chakra (see under CHUCKER). It is not easy to say what was its value, as the statements are inconsistent: nor do they confirm Wilson’s, that it was equal to one-tenth of a pagoda. [According to the Madras Gloss. (s.v.) it bore the same relation to the gold Pagoda that the Anna does to the Rupee, and under it again was the copper Cash, which was its sixteenth.] The denomination survives in Travancore, [where 28½ go to one rupee. (Ibid.)]

1554.—“And the fanoms of the place are called chocrões, which are coins of inferior gold; they are worth 12½ or 12¼ to the pardao of gold, reckoning the pardao at 360 reis.”—A. Nunez, Lirro dos Pesos, 36.

1711.—“The Enemy will not come to any agreement unless we consent to pay 30,000 chuckrums, which we take to be 16,600 and odd pagodas.”—In Wheeler, ii. 165.

1813.—Milburn, under Tanjore, gives the chuckrum as a coin equal to 20 Madras, or ten gold fanams. 20 Madras fanams would be 4/9 of a pagoda.

[From the difficulty of handling these coins, which are small and round, they are counted on a chuckrum board as in the case of the Fanam (q.v.).]

CHUDDER, s. H. chadar, a sheet, or square piece of cloth of any kind; the ample sheet commonly worn as a mantle by women in N. India. It is also applied to the cloths spread over Mahommedan tombs. Barbosa (1516) and Linschoten (1598) have chautars, chautares, as a kind of cotton piece-goods, but it is certain that this is not the same word. Chowtars occur among Bengal piece-goods in Milburn, ii. 221. [The word is chautár, ‘anything with four threads,’ and it occurs in the list of cotton cloths in the Ain (i. 94). In a letter of 1610 we have “Chautares are white and well requested” (Danvers, Letters, i. 75); “Chauters of Agra” (Foster, Letters, ii. 45); Cocks has “fine Casho or Chowter” (Diary, i. 86); and in 1615 they are called “Cowter” (Foster, iv. 51).]

1525.—“Chader of Cambaya.”—Lembrança, 56.

[c. 1610.—“From Bengal comes another sort of hanging, of fine linen painted and ornamented with colours in a very agreeable fashion; these they call iader.”—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 222.]

1614.—“Pintados, chints and chadors.”—Peyton, in Purchas, i. 530.

1673.—“The habit of these waternymphs was fine Shudders of lawn embroidered on the neck, wrist, and skirt with a border of several coloured silks or threads of gold.”—Herbert, 3rd ed. 191.

1832.—“Chuddur…a large piece of cloth or sheet, of one and a half or two breadths, thrown over the head, so as to cover the whole body. Men usually sleep rolled up in it.”—Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, xii.- xiii.

1878.—“Two or three women, who had been chattering away till we appeared, but who, on seeing us, drew their ‘chadders’…round their faces, and retired to the further end of the boat.”—Life in the Mofussil, i. 79.

The Rampore Chudder is a kind of shawl, of the Tibetan shawl-wool, of uniform colour without