Chapter GOONT to GORAWALLAH of G by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

GOOZERAT, GUZERAT, n.p. The name of a famous province in Western India, Skt. Gurjjara, Gurjjara- rashtra, Prakrit passing into H. and Mahr. Gujarat, Gujrat, taking its name from the Gujar (see GOOJUR) tr ibe. The name covers the British Districts of Surat, Broach, Kaira, Panch Mahals, and Ahmedabad, besides the territories of the Gaekwar (see GUICOWAR) of Baroda, and a multitude of native States. It is also often used as including the peninsula of Kathiawar or Surashtra, which alone embraces 180 petty States.

c. 640.—Hwen T’sang passes through Kiuchi-lo, i.e. Gurjjara, but there is some difficulty as to the position which he assigns to it.—Pèlerins Bouddh., iii. 166; [Cunningham, Arch. Rep. ii. 70 seqq.].

1298.—“Gozurat, is a great Kingdom.…The people are the most desperate pirates in existence.…”—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 26.

c. 1300.—“Guzerat, which is a large country, within which are Kambáy, Somnát, Kanken- Tána, and several other cities and towns.”—Rashiduddin, in Elliot, i. 67.

1300.—“The Sultan despatched Ulugh Khán to Ma’bar and Gujarát for the destruction of the idol-temple of Somnát, on the 20th of Jumádá’-l awwal, 698 H.…”—Amir Khusru, in Elliot, iii. 74.

[c. 1330.—“Juzrat.” See under LAR.]

1554.—“At last we made the land of Guchrát in Hindustan.”—Sidi’Ali, page 79.

The name is sometimes used by the old writers for the people, and especially for the Hindu merchants or banyans (q.v.) of Guzerat. See Sainsbury, i. 445 and passim.

[c. 1605.—“And alsoe the Guzatts do saile in the Portugalls shipps in euery porte of the East Indies…”—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 85.]

GOOZUL-KHANA, s. A bathroom; H. from Ar.—P. ghusl-khana, of corresponding sense. The apartment so called was used by some of the Great Moghuls as a place of private audience. 1616.—“At eight, after supper he comes down to the guzelcan (v.l. gazelcan), a faire Court wherein in the middest is a Throne erected of freestone.”—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, ii.; [Hak. Soc. i. 106].

„ “The thirteenth, at night I went to the Gussell Chan, where is best opportunitie to doe business, and tooke with me the Italian, determining to walk no longer in darknesse, but to prooue the King.…”—Ibid. page 543; [in Hak. Soc. i. 202, Guzelchan; in ii. 459, Gushel choes].

c. 1660.—“The grand hall of the Am-Kas opens into a more retired chamber, called the gosel-kane, or the place to wash in. But few are suffered to enter there.…There it is where the king is seated in a chair…and giveth a more particular Audience to his officers.”—Bernier, E.T. page 85: [ed. Constable, 265; ibid. 361 gosle-kane].

GOPURA, s. The meaning of the word in Skt. is ‘city-gate,’ go ‘eye,’ pura, ‘city.’ But in S. India the gopuram is that remarkable feature of architecture, peculiar to the Peninsula, the great pyramidal tower over the entrance-gate to the precinct of a temple. See Fergusson’s Indian and Eastern Architecture, 325, &c. [ The same feature has been reproduced in the great temple of the Seth at Brindaban, which is designed on a S. Indian model. (Growse, Mathura, 260).] This feature is not, in any of the S. Indian temples, older than the 15th or 16th cent., and was no doubt adopted for purposes of defence, as indeed the Silpa-sastra (‘Books of Mechanical Arts’) treatises imply. This fact may sufficiently dispose of the idea that the feature indicates an adoption of architecture from ancient Egypt.

1862.—“The gopurams or towers of the great pagoda.”—Markham, Peru and India, 408.

GORA, s. H. gora, ‘fair-complexioned.’ A white man; a European soldier; any European who is not a sahib (q.v.). Plural gora-log, ‘white people.’ [1861.—“The cavalry…rushed into the lines…declaring that the Gora Log (the European soldiers) were coming down upon them.”—Cave Browne, Punjab and Delhi, i. 243.]

GORAWALLAH, s. H. ghorawala, ghora, ‘a horse.’ A groom or horsekeeper; used at Bombay. On the Bengal side syce (q.v.) is always used, on the Madras side horsekeeper (q.v.).

1680.—Gurrials, apparently for ghorawalas (Gurrials would be alligators, Gavial), are allowed with the horses kept with the Hoogly Factory.—See Fort St. Geo. Consns. on Tour, Dec. 12, in Notes and