Chapter DEUTI to DEWALLY of D by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

and scarcely to be heard without shuddering; I can only compare it to a boy in torture, whose screams are being stopped by being strangled.”—Mr. Mitford’s Note in Tennent’s Ceylon, i. 167.

1881.—“The uncanny cry of the devil-bird, Syrnium Indrani…”—Haeckel’s Visit to Ceylon, 235.

DEVIL’S REACH, n.p. This was the old name of a reach on the Hoogly R. a little above Pulta (and about 15 miles above Calcutta). On that reach are several groups of dewals, or idol-temples, which probably gave the name.

1684.—“August 28.—I borrowed the late Dutch Fiscall’s Budgero (see BUDGEROW), and went in Company with Mr. Beard, Mr. Littleton” (etc.) “as far as y^e Devill’s Reach, where I caused y^e tents to be pitched in expectation of y^e President’s arrivall and lay here all night.”—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 156.

1711.—“From the lower Point of Devil’s Reach you must keep mid-channel, or nearest the Starboard Shore, for the Larboard is shoal until you come into the beginning of Pulta or Poutto Reach, and there abreast of a single great Tree, you must edge over to the East Shore below Pulta.”—The English Pilot, 54.

DEVIL WORSHIP. This phrase is a literal translation of bhuta-puja, i.e. worship of bhutas [see BHOOT], a word which appears in slightly differing forms in various languages of India, including the Tamil country. A bhuta, or as in Tamil more usually, pey, is a malignant being which is conceived to arise from the person of anyone who has come to a violent death. This superstition, in one form or another, seems to have formed the religion of the Dravidian tribes of S. India before the introduction of Brahmanism, and is still the real religion of nearly all the low castes in that region, whilst it is often patronized also by the higher castes. These superstitions, and especially the demonolatrous rites called ‘devil-dancing,’ are identical in character with those commonly known as Shamanism [see SHAMAN], and which are spread all over Northern Asia, among the red races of America, and among a vast variety of tribes in Ceylon and in Indo-China, not excluding the Burmese. A full account of the demonworship of Tinnevelly was given by Bp. Caldwell in a small pamphlet on the “Tinnevelly Shanars” (Madras 1849), and interesting evidence of its identity with the Shamanism of other regions will be found in his Comparative Grammar (2nd ed. 579 seqq.); see also Marco Polo, 2nd ed. ii. 79 seq.; [Oppert. Orig. Inhabit. of Bharatavarsa, 554 seqq.]

DÉWAL, DÉWÁLÉ, s. H. dewal, Skt. deva-alaya; a Temple or pagoda. This, or Dewalgarh, is the phrase commonly used in the Bombay territory for a Christian church. In Ceylon Déwélé is a temple dedicated to a Hindu god.

1681.—“The second order of Priests are those called Koppuhs, who are the Priests that belong to the Temples of the other Gods (i.e. other than Boddou, or Buddha). Their Temples are called Dewals.”—Knox, Ceylon, 79.

[1797.—“The Company will settle…the dewal or temple charge.”—Treaty, in Logan, Malabar, iii. 285.

[1813.—“They plant it (the nayna tree) near the dewals or Hindoo temples, improperly called Pagodas.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 15].

DEWALEEA, s. H. diwaliya, ‘a bankrupt,’ from diwala, ‘bankruptcy,’ and that, though the etymology is disputed, is alleged to be connected with dipa, ‘a lamp’; because “it is the custom…when a merchant finds himself failing, or failed, to set up a blazing lamp in his house, shop, or office, and abscond therefrom for some time until his creditors are satisfied by a disclosure of his accounts or dividend of assets.”—Drummond’s Illustrations (s.v.).

DEWALLY, s. H. diwali, from Skt. dipa-alika, ‘a row of lamps,’ i.e. an illumination. An aut umnal feast attributed to the celebration of various divinities, as of Lakshmi and of Bhavani, and also in honour of Krishna’s slaying of the demon Naraka, and the release of 16,000 maidens, his prisoners. It is held on the last two days of the dark half of the month Asvina or Asan, and on the new moon and four following days of Karttikar, i.e. usually some time in October. But there are variations of Calendar in different parts of India, and feasts will not always coincide, e.g. at the three Presidency towns, nor will any curt expression define the dates. In Bengal the name Diwali is not used; it is Kali Puja, the feast of that grim goddess, a midnight festival on the most moonless nights of the month, celebrated by illuminations