Chapter CHUCKLER to CHUNÁM of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

pa ttern, made originally at Rampur on the Sutlej; and of late years largely imported into England: [(see the Panjab Mono. on Wool, p. 9) . Curiously enough a claim to the derivation of the title from Rampur, in Rohilkhand, N.W.P. is made in the Imperial Gazetteer, 1st ed. (s.v.).]

CHUL! CHULLO! v. in imperative; ‘Go on! Be quick.’ H. chalo! imper. of chalna, to go, go speedily. [Another common use of the word in Anglo-Indian slang is—“It won’t chul,” ‘it won’t answer, succeed.’]

c. 1790.—“Je montai de très-bonne heure dans mon palanquin.—Tschollo (c’est-à-dire, marche), crièrent mes coulis, et aussitôt le voyage commença.”—Haafner, ii. 5.

[CHUMAR, s. H. Chamar, Skt. charma-kara, ‘one who works in leather,’ and thus answering to the Chuckler of S. India; an important caste found all through N. India, whose primary occupation is tanning, but a large number are agriculturists and day labourers of various kinds. [1823.—“From this abomination, beef-eating…they [the Bheels] only rank above the Choomars, or shoemakers, who feast on dead carcases, and are in Central India, as elsewhere, deemed so unclean that they are not allowed to dwell within the precincts of the village.”—Malcolm, Central India, 2nd ed. ii. 179.]

CHUMPUK, s. A highly ornamental and sacred tree (Michelia champaca, L., also M. Rheedii), a kind of magnolia, whose odorous yellow blossoms are much prized by Hindus, offered at shrines, and rubbed on the body at marriages, &c. H. champak, Skt. champaka. Drury strangely says that the name is “derived from Ciampa, an island between Cambogia and Cochin China, where the tree grows.” Champa is not an island, and certainly derives its Sanskrit name from India, and did not give a name to an Indian tree. The tree is found wild in the Himalaya from Nepal, eastward; also in Pegu and Tenasserim, and along the Ghauts to Travancore. The use of the term champaka extends to the Philippine Islands. [Mr. Skeat notes that it is highly prized by Malay women, who put it in their hair.]

1623.—“Among others they showed me a flower, in size and form not unlike our lily, but of a yellowish white colour, with a sweet and powerful scent, and which they call champà [ciampá].”—P. della Valle, ii. 517; [Hak. Soc. i. 40].

1786.—“The walks are scented with blossoms of the champac and nagisar, and the plantations of pepper and coffee are equally new and pleasing.”—Sir W. Jones, in Mem., &c., ii. 81.

1810.—“Some of these (birds) build in the sweet-scented champaka and the mango.”—Maria Graham, 22.

1819.—

“The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream;
And the chumpak’s odours fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream.”

Shelley, Lines to an Indian Air.

1821.—

“Some chumpak flowers proclaim
it yet divine.“

Medwin, Sketches in Hindoostan, 73.

CHUNÁM s. Prepared lime; also specially used for fine polished plaster. Forms of this word occur both in Dravidian languages and Hind. In the latter chuna is from Skt. churna, ‘powder’; in the former it is somewhat uncertain whether the word is, or is not, an old derivative from the Sanskrit. In the first of the following quotations the word used seems taken from the Malayal. chunnamba, Tam. shunnambu.

1510.—“And they also eat with the said leaves (betel) a certain lime made from oyster shells, which they call cionama.”—Varthema, 144.

1563.—“…so that all the names you meet with that are not Portuguese are Malabar; such as betre (betel), chuna, which is lime.…”—Garcia. f. 37g.

c. 1610.—“…l’vn porte son éventail, l’autre la boëte d’argent pleine de betel, l’autre une boëte ou il y a du chunan, qui est de la chaux.”—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 84; [Hak. Soc. ii. 135].

1614.—“Having burnt the great idol into chunah, he mixed the powdered lime with pan leaves, and gave it to the Rajputs that they might eat the objects of their