Chapter DURJUN to DWARKA of D by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

DURJUN to DWARKA

DURJUN, s. H. darjan, a corr. of the English dozen.

DURWAUN, s. H. from P. darwan, darban. A doorkeeper. A domestic servant so called is usual in the larger houses of Calcutta. He is porter at the gate of the compound (q.v.).

[c. 1590.—“The Darbáns, or Porters. A thousand of these active men are employed to guard the palace.”—Ain, i. 258.]

c. 1755.—“Derwan.”—List of servants in Ives, 50.

1781.—(After an account of an alleged attempt to seize Mr. Hicky’s Darwan). “Mr. Hicky begs leave to make the following remarks. That he is clearly of opinion that these horrid Assassins wanted to dispatch him whilst he lay a sleep, as a Door- van is well known to be the alarm of the House, to prevent which the Villians wanted to carry him off,—and their precipitate flight the moment they heard Mr. Hicky’s Voice puts it past a Doubt.”—Reflections on the consequence of the late attempt made to Assassinate the Printer of the original Bengal Gazette (in the same, April 14).

1784.—“Yesterday at daybreak, a most extraordinary and horrid murder was committed upon the Dirwan of Thomas Martin, Esq.”—In Seton-Karr, i. 12.

” “In the entrance passage, often on both sides of it, is a raised floor with one or two open cells, in which the Darwans (or doorkeepers) sit, lie, and sleep—in fact dwell.”—Calc. Review, vol. lix. p. 207.

DURWAUZA-BUND. The formula by which a native servant in an Anglo-Indian household intimates that his master or mistress cannot receive a visitor—‘Not at home’—without the untruth. It is elliptical for darwaza band hai, ‘the door is closed.’

[1877.—“When they did not find him there, it was Darwaza bund.”—Allardyce, The City of Sunshine, i. 125.]

DUSSERA, DASSORA, DASEHRA, s. Skt. dasahara, H. dashara, Mahr. dasra; the nine-nights’ (or ten days’) festival in October, also called Durga-puja (see DOORGA-P.). In the west and south of India this holiday, taking place after the close of the wet season, became a great military festival, and the period when military expeditions were entered upon. The Mahrattas were alleged to celebrate the occasion in a way characteristic of them, by destroying a village! The popular etymology of the word and that accepted by the best authorities, is das, ‘ten (sins)’ and har, ‘that which takes away (or expiates).’ It is, perhaps, rather connected with the ten days’ duration of the feast, or with its chief day being the 10th of the month (Asvina); but the origin is decidedly obscure. c. 1590.—“The autumn harvest he shall begin to collect from the Deshereh, which is another Hindoo festival that also happens differently, from the beginning of Virgo to the commencement of Libra.”—Ayeen, tr. Gladwin, ed. 1800, i. 307; [tr. Jarrett, ii. 46].

1785.—“On the anniversary of the Dusharah you will distribute among the Hindoos, composing your escort, a goat to every ten men.”—Tippoo’s Letters, 162.

1799.—“On the Institution and Ceremonies of the Hindoo Festival of the Dusrah,” published (1820) in Trans. Bomb. Lit. Soc. iii. 73 seqq. (By Sir John Malcolm.)

1812.—“The Courts…are allowed to adjourn annually during the Hindoo festival called dussarah.”—Fifth Report, 37.

1813.—“This being the desserah, a great Hindoo festival…we resolved to delay our departure and see some part of the ceremonies.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 97; [2nd ed. ii. 450].

DUSTOOR, DUSTOORY, s. P.—H. dastur, ‘custom’ [see DESTOOR,] dasturi, ‘that which is customary. That commission or percentage on the money passing in any cash transaction which, with or without acknowledgement or permission, sticks to the fingers of the agent of payment. Such ‘customary’ appropriations are, we believe, very nearly as common in England as in India; a fact of which newspaper correspondence from time to time makes us aware, though Europeans in India, in condemning the natives, often forget, or are ignorant of this. In India the practice is perhaps more distinctly recognised, as the word denotes. Ibn Batuta tells us that at the Court of Delhi, in his time (c. 1340), the custom was for the officials to deduct 1\10 of every sum which the Sultan ordered to be paid from the treasury (see I. B. pp. 408, 426, &c.).

[1616.—“The dusturia in all bought goodes…is a great matter.”—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 350.]

1638.—“Ces vallets ne sont point nourris au logis, mais ont leurs gages, dont ils s’entretiennent, quoy qu’ils ne montent qu’à trois ou quatre Ropias par moys…mais ils ont leur tour du baston, qu’ils appellent Testury,