Chapter DOAB to DONDERA HEAD of D by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

DOAB to DONDERA HEAD

DOAB, s. and n.p. P.—H. doab, ‘two waters,’ i.e. ‘Mesopotamia,’ the tract between two confluent rivers. In Upper India, when used absolutely, the term always indicates the tract between the Ganges and Jumna. Each of the like tracts in the Punjab has its distinctive name, several of them compounded of the names of the limiting rivers, e.g. Richna Doab, between Ravi and Chenab, Jech Doab, between Jelam and Chenab, &c. These names are said to have been invented by the Emperor Akbar. [Ain, ed. Jarrett, ii. 311 seq.] The only Doab known familiarly by that name in the south of India is the Raichur Doab in the Nizam’s country, lying between the Kistna and Tungabhadra.

DOAI! DWYE! Interj. Properly H. dohai, or duhai, Gujarati dawahi, an exclamation (hitherto of obscure etymology) shouted aloud by a petitioner for redress at a Court of Justice, or as any one passes who is supposed to have it in his power to aid in rendering the justice sought. It has a kind of analogy, as Thevenot pointed out over 200 years ago, to the old Norman Haro! Haro! viens à mon aide, mon Prince!¹ but does not now carry the privilege of the Norman cry; though one may conjecture, both from Indian analogies and from the statement of Ibn Batuta quoted below, that it once did. Every Englishman in Upper India has often been saluted by the calls of, ‘Dohai Khudawand ki! Dohai Maharaj! Dohai Kompani Bahadur!’ ‘Justice, my Lord! Justice, O King! Justice, O Company!’—perhaps in consequence of some oppression by his followers, perhaps in reference to some grievance with which he has no power to interfere. “Until 1860 no one dared to ignore the appeal of dohai to a native Prince within his territory. I have heard a serious charge made against a person for calling the dohai needlessly” (M.-Gen. Keatinge).

Wilson derives the exclamation from do, ‘two’ or repeatedly, and hai ‘alas,’ illustrating this by the phrase ‘do hai tihai karna,’ ‘to make exclamation (or invocation of justice) twice and thrice.’ [Platts says, do-hay, Skt. hri-haha,’ a crying twice “alas!”] This phrase, however, we take to be merely an example of the ‘striving after meaning,’ usual in cases where the real origin of the phrase is forgotten. We cannot doubt that the word is really a form of the Skt. droha, ‘injury, wrong.’ And this is confirmed by the form in Ibn Batuta, and the Mahr. durahi; “an exclamation or expression used in prohibiting in the name of the Raja…implying an imprecation of his vengeance in case of disobedience” (Molèsworth’s Dict.); also Tel. and Canar. durai, ‘protest, prohibition, caveat, or veto in arrest of proceedings’ (Wilson and C. P. B., MS.)

c. 1340.—“It is a custom in India that when money is due from any person who is favoured by the Sultan, and the creditor wants his debt settled, he lies in wait at the Palace gate for the debtor, and when the latter is about to enter he assails him with the exclamation Darohai us - Sultan! ‘O Enemy of the Sultan.—I swear by the head of the King thou shalt not enter till thou hast paid me what thou owest.’ The debtor cannot then stir from the spot, until he has satisfied the creditor, or has obtained his consent to the respite.”—Ibn Batuta, iii. 412. The signification assigned to the words by the Moorish traveller probably only shows that the real meaning was unknown to his Musulman friends at Delhi, whilst its form strongly corroborates our etymology, and shows that it still kept close to the Sanskrit.

1609.—“He is severe enough, but all helpeth not; for his poore Riats or clownes complaine of Iniustice done them, and cry for justice at the King’s hands.”—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 223.

c. 1666.—“Quand on y vent arrêter une personne, on crie seulement Doa padecha; cette clameur a autant de force que celle de haro en Normandie; et si on defend à quelqu’un de sortir, du lieu où il est, en disant Doa padecha, il ne peut partir sans se rendre criminel, et il est obligé de se presentir à la Justice.”—Thevenot, v. 61.

1834.—“The servant woman began to make a great outcry, and wanted to leave the ship, and cried Dohaee to the Company, for she was murdered and kidnapped.”—The Baboo, ii. 242.

DOAR, n.p. A name applied to the strip of moist land, partially cultivated with rice, which extends at the foot of the Himalaya mountains to Bhotan. It corresponds to the Terai further west; but embraces the conception of the passes or accesses to the hill country from this last verge of the plain, and is apparently the Skt. dvara, a gate or entrance. [The E. Dwars of Goalpara District, and the W. Dwars of Jalpaiguri were annexed in 1864 to stop the raids of the Bhutias.]