Chapter DABUL to DAGBAIL of D by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

DABUL to DAGBAIL

DABUL, n.p. Dabhol. In the later Middle Ages a famous port of the Konkan, often coupled with Choul (q.v.), carrying on extensive trade with the West of Asia. It lies in the modern dist. of Ratnagiri, in lat. 17° 34’, on the north bank of the Anjanwel or Vashishti R. In some maps (e.g. A. Arrowsmith’s of 1816, long the standard map of India), and in W. Hamilton’s Gazetteer, it is confo unded with Dapoli, 12 m. north, and not a seaport.

c. 1475.—“Dabyl is also a very extensive seaport, where many horses are brought from Mysore,¹ Rabast [Arabistan? i.e. Arabia], Khorassan, Turkistan, Neghostan.”—Nikitin, p. 20. “It is a very large town, the great meeting-place for all nations living along the coast of India and of Ethiopia.”—Ibid. 30.

1502.—“The gale abated, and the caravels reached land at Dabul, where they rigged their lateen sails, and mounted their artillery.”—Correa, Three Voyages of V. da Gama, Hak. Soc. 308.

1510.—“Having seen Cevel and its customs, I went to another city, distant from it two days journey, which is called Dabuli.…There are Moorish merchants here in very great numbers.”—Varthema, 114.

1516.—“This Dabul has a very good harbour, where there always congregate many Moorish ships from various ports, and especially from Mekkah, Aden, and Ormuz with horses, and from Cambay, Diu, and the Malabar country.”—Barbosa, 72.

1554.—“23d Voyage, from Dabul to Aden.”—The Mohit, in J. As. Soc. Beng., v. 464.

1572.—See Camões, x. 72.

[c. 1665.—“The King of Bijapur has three good ports in this kingdom: these are Rajapur, Dabhol, and Kareputtun.”—Tavernier, ed. Ball, i. 181 seq.]

DACCA, n.p. Properly Dhaka, [‘the wood of dhak (see DHAWK) trees’; the Imp. Gaz. su ggests Dhakeswari, ‘the concealed goddess’]. A city in the east of Bengal, once of great importance, especially in the later Mahommedan history; famous also for the “Dacca muslins” woven there, the annual advances for which, prior to 1801, are said to have amounted to £250,000. [Taylor, Descr. and Hist. Account of the Cotton Manufacture of Dacca in Bengal]. Daka is throughout Central Asia applied to all muslins imported through Kabul.

c. 1612.—“…liberos Osmanis assecutus vivos cepit, eosque cum elephantis et omnibus thesauris defuncti, post quam Daeck Bengalae metropolim est reversus, misit ad regem.”—De Laet, quoted by B lochmann, Ain, i. 521.

[c. 1617.—“Dekaka” in Sir T. Roe’s List, Hak. Soc. ii. 538.]

c. 1660.—“The same Robbers took Sultan-Sujah at Daka, to carry him away in their Galeasses to Rakan.…”—Bernier, E.T. 55; [ed. Constable, 109].

1665.—“Daca is a great Town, that extends itself only in length; every one coveting to have an House by the Ganges side. The length…is above two leagues.…These Houses are properly no more than paltry Huts built up with Bambouc’s, and daub’d over with fat Earth.”—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 55; [ed. Ball, i. 128].

1682.—“The only expedient left was for the Agent to go himself in person to the Nabob and Duan at Decca.”—Hedges, Diary, Oct. 9; [Hak. Soc. i. 33].

DACOIT, DACOO, s. Hind. dakait, dakayat, daku; a robber belonging to an armed gang. The term, being current in Bengal, got into the Penal Code. By law, to constitute dacoity, there must be five or more in the gang committing the crime. Beames derives the word from dakna, ‘to shout,’ a sense not in Shakespear’s Dict. [It is to be found in Platts, and Fallon gives it as used in E. H. It appears to be connected with Skt. dashta, ‘pressed together.’]

1810.—“Decoits, or water-robbers.”— Williamson, V. M. ii. 396.

1812.—“Dacoits, a species of depredators who infest the country in gangs.”—Fifth Report, p. 9.

1817.—“The crime of dacoity” (that is, robbery by gangs), says Sir Henry Strachey, “…has, I believe, increased greatly since the British administration of justice.”—Mill, H. of B. I., v. 466.

1834.—“It is a conspiracy! a false warrant!—they are Dakoos! Dakoos!!”—The Baboo, ii. 202.

1872.—“Daroga! Why, what has he come here for? I have not heard of any dacoity or murder in the Village.”—Govinda Samanta, i. 264.

DADNY, s.H. dandi, [P. dadan, ‘to give’]; an advance made to a craftsman, a weaver, or the like, by one who trades in the goods produced.

1678.—“Wee met with Some trouble About y^e Investment of Taffaties w^ch hath Continued ever Since, Soe y^t wee had not been able to give out any daudne on Muxadavad Side many weauours absenting