Chapter JAGHEERDAR to JAMBOO of J by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

JAGHEERDAR to JAMBOO

JAGHEERDAR, s. P.—H. jagirdar, the holder of a jagheer.

[1813.—“… in the Mahratta empire the principal Jaghiredars, or nobles, appear in the field. …”—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 328.]

1826.—“The Resident, many officers, men of rank … jagheerdars, Brahmins, and Pundits, were present, assembled round my father.”—Pandurang Hari, 389; [ed. 1873, ii. 259].

1883.—“The Sikhs administered the country by means of jagheerdars, and paid them by their jagheers: the English administered it by highly paid British officers, at the same time that they endeavoured to lower the land-tax, and to introduce grand material reforms.”—Bosworth Smith, L. of Ld. Lawrence, i. 378.

JAIL-KHANA, s. A hybrid word for ‘a gaol,’ commonly used in the Bengal Presidency.

JAIN, s. and adj. The non-Brahmanical sect so called; believed to represent the earliest heretics of Buddhism, at present chiefly to be found in the Bombay Presidency. There are a few in Mysore, Canara, and in some parts of the Madras Presidency, but in the Middle Ages they appear to have been numerous on the coast of the Peninsula generally. They are also found in various parts of Central and Northern India and Behar. The Jains are generally merchants, and some have been men of enormous wealth (see Colebrooke’s Essays, i. 378 seqq.; [Lassen, in Ind. Antiq. ii. 193 seqq., 258 seqq.]). The name is Skt. jaina, meaning a follower of jina. The latter word is a title applied to certain saints worshipped by the sect in the place of gods; it is also a name of the Buddhas. An older name for the followers of the sect appears to have been Nirgrantha, ‘without bond,’ properly the title of Jain ascetics only (otherwise Yatis), [and in particular of the Digambara or ‘sky-clad,’ naked branch]. (Burnell, S. Indian Palaeography, p. 47, note.)

[c. 1590.—“Jaina. The founder of this wonderful system was Jina, also called Arhat, or Arhant.”—Ain, ed. Jarrett, iii. 188.]

JALEEBOTE, s. Jalibto. A marine corruption of jolly-boat (Roebuck). (See GALLEVAT.)

JAM, s. Jam.

a. A title borne by certain chie fs in Kutch, in Kathiawar, and on the lower Indus. The derivation is very obscure (see Elliot, i. 495). The title is probably Biluch originally. There are several Jams in Lower Sind and its borders, and notably the Jam of L as Bela St ate, a well -known dependency of Kelat, bordering the sea. [Mr. Longworth Dames writes: “I do not think the word is of Balochi origin, although it is certainly made use of in the Balochi language. It is rather Sindhi, in the broad sense of the word, using Sindhi as the natives do, referring to the tribes of the Indus valley without regard to the modern boundaries of the province of Sindh. As far as I know, it is used as a title, not by Baloches, but by indigenous tribes of Rajput or Jat origin, now, of course, all Musulmans. The Jam of Las Bela belongs to a tribe of this nature known as the Jamhat. In the Dera Ghazi Khan District it is used by certain local notables of this class, none of them Baloches. The principal tribe there using it is the Udhana. It is also an honorific title among the Mochis of Dera Ghazi Khan town.”]

[c. 1590.—“On the Gujarat side towards the south is a Zamíndár of note whom they call Jám. …”—Ain, ed. Jarrett, ii. 250.

[1843.—See under DAWK.]

b. A nautical measure, Ar. zam, pl. azwam. It occurs in the form geme in a quotation of 1614 under JASK. It is repeatedly used in the Mohit of Sidi ’Ali, published in the J. As. Soc. Bengal. It would appear from J. Prinsep’s remarks there that the word is used in various ways. Thus Baron J. Hammer writes to Prinsep: “Concerning the measure of azwam the first section of the IIId. chapter explains as follows: ‘The zam is either the practical one (’arfi), or the rhetorical (istilahi—but this the acute Prinsep suggests should be astarlabi, ‘pertaining to the divisions of the astrolabe’). The practical is one of the 8 parts into which day and night are divided; the rhetorical (but read the astrolabic) is the 8th part of an inch (isaba) in the ascension and descension of the stars; … an explanation which helps me not a bit to understand the true measure of a zam, in the reckoning of a ship’s course.” Prinsep then elucidates this: The zam in practical parlance is said to be the 8th part of day and night; it is in fact a nautical watch or Hindu pahar (see PUHUR). Again, it is the 8th part of the ordinary inch, like the jau or barleycorn of the Hindus (the 8th part of an angul or digit), of which jau, zam is possibly a corruption. Again, the isaba or inch, and the zam or 1/8 of an inch, had been