Chapter DEWAUNY to DHOBY of D by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

DEWAUNY to DHOBY

DEWAUNY, DEWANNY, &c., s. Properly, diwani; popularly, dewani. The office of diwan (Dewaun); and especially the right of receiving as diwan the revenue of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, conferred upon the E. I. Company by the Great Mogul Shah ’Alam in 1765. Also used sometimes for the territory which was the subject of that grant.

1765.—(Lord Clive) “visited the Vezir, and having exchanged with him some sumptuous entertainments and curious and magnificent presents, he explained the project he had in his mind, and asked that the Company should be invested with the Divanship (no doubt in orig. Diwani) of the three provinces….”—Seir Mutaqherin, ii. 384.

1783.—(The opium monopoly) “is stated to have begun at Patna so early as the year 1761, but it received no considerable degree of strength until the year 1765; when the acquisition of the Duanne opened a wide field for all projects of this nature.”—Report of a Committee on Affairs of India, in Burke’s Life and Works, vi. 447.

DEWAUNY, DEWANNY, adj. Civil, as distinguished from Criminal; e.g. Diwani ’Adalat as opposite to Faujdari Adalat. (See ADAWLUT). The use of Diwani for civil as opposed to criminal is probably modern and Indian. For Kaempfer in his account of the Persian administration at the end of the 17th century, has: “Diwaen begì, id est, Supremus criminalis Judicii Dominus…de latrociniis et homicidiis non modo in hâc Regiâ metropoli, verùm etiam in toto Regno disponendi facultatem habet.”—Amoenit. Exot. 80.

DHALL. DOLL, s. Hind. dal, a kind of pulse much used in India, both by natives as a kind of porridge, and by Europeans as an ingredient in kedgeree (q.v.), or to mix with rice as a breakfast dish. It is best represented in England by what are called ‘split pease.’ The proper dal, which Wilson derives from the Skt. root dal, ‘to divide’ (and which thus corresponds in meaning also to ‘split pease’), is, according to the same authority, Phaseolus aureus: but, be that as it may, the dals most commonly in use are varieties of the shrubby plant Cajanus Indicus, Spreng., called in Hind. arhar, rahar, &c. It is not known where this is indigenous; [De Candolle thinks it probably a native of tropical Africa, introduced perhaps 3,000 years ago into India;] it is cultivated throughout India. The term is also applied occasionally to other pulses, such as mung, urd, &c. (See MOONG, OORD.) It should also be noted that in its original sense dal is not the name of a particular pea, but the generic name of pulses prepared for use by being broken in a hand-mill; though the peas named are those commonly used in Upper India in this way.

1673.—“At their coming up out of the Water they bestow the largess of Rice or Doll (an Indian Bean).”—Fryer, 101.

1690.—“Kitcheree…made of Dol, that is, a small round Pea, and Rice boiled together, and is very strengthening, tho’ not very savoury.”—Ovington, 310.

1727.—“They have several species of Legumen, but those of Doll are most in use, for some Doll and Rice being mingled together and boiled, make Kitcheree.”—A. Hamilton, i. 162; [ed. 1744].

1776.—“If a person hath bought the seeds of…doll…or such kinds of Grain, without Inspection, and in ten Days discovers any Defect in that Grain, he may return such Grain.”—Halhed, Code, 178.

1778.—“…the essential articles of a Sepoy’s diet, rice, doll (a species of pea), ghee (an indifferent kind of butter), &c., were not to be purchased.”—Acc. of the Gallant Defence made at Mangalore.

1809.—“…dol, split country peas.”—Maria Graham, 25.

[1813.—“Tuar (cytisus cajan, Lin.)…is called Dohll….”—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 35.]

DHAWK, s. Hind. dhak; also called palas. A small bushy tree, Butea frondosa (N. O. Leguminosae), which forms large tracts of jungle in the Punjab, and in many dry parts of India. Its deep orange flowers give a brilliant aspect to the jungle in the early part of the hot weather, and have suggested the occasional name of ‘Flame of the Forest.’ They are used for dyeing basanto, basanti, a fleeting yellow; and in preparing Holi (see HOOLY) powder. The second of the two Hindi words for this tree gave a name to the famous village of Plassy (Palasi), and also to ancient Magadha or Behar as Palasa or Parasa, whence Parasiya, a man of that region, which, if Gen. Cunningham’s suggestion be accepted, was the name represented by the Prasii of Strabo, Pliny, and Arrian, and the Pharrasii of Curtius (Anc. Geog. of India, p. 454).