Chapter JOGEE to JOMPON of J by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

of P. Jansz (1876) gives: “Djempånå—dragstoel (i.e. portable chair), or sedan of a person of rank.” [Klinkert has jempana, djempana, sempana as a State sedan - chair, and he connects sempana with Skt. sam-panna, ‘that which has turned out well, fortunate.’ Wilkinson has: “jempana, Skt.? a kind of Stat e carriage or sedan for ladies of the court.”] The word cannot, however, have been introduced into India by the officers who served in Java (1811-15), for its use is much older in the Himalaya, as may be seen from the quotation from P. Desideri.

It seems just possible that the name may indicate the thing to have been borrowed from Japan. But the fact that dpyan means ‘hang’ in Tibetan may indicate another origin.

Wilson, however, has the following: “Jhámpán, Bengali. A stage on which snake-catchers and other juggling vagabonds exhibit; a kind of sedan used by travellers in the Himalaya, written Jámpaun (?).” [Both Platts and Fallon give the word jhappan as Hind.; the former does not attempt a derivation; the latter gives Hind. jhanp, ‘a cover,’ and this on the whole seems to be the most probable etymology. It may have been originally in India, as it is now in the Straits, a closed litter for ladies of rank, and the word may have become appropriated to the open conveyance in which European ladies are carried.]

1716.—“The roads are nowhere practicable for a horseman, or for a Jampan, a sort of palankin.”—Letter of P. Ipolito Desideri, dated April 10, in Lettres Edif. XV. 184.

1783.—(After a description) “… by these central poles the litter, or as it is here called, the Sampan, is supported on the shoulders of four men.”—Forster’s Journey, ed. 1808, ii. 3.

[1822.—“The Chumpaun, or as it is more frequently called, the Chumpala, is the usual vehicle in which persons of distinction, especially females, are carried. …”—Lloyd, Gerard, Narr. i. 105.

[1842.—“… a conveyance called a Jaumpaun, which is like a short palankeen, with an arched top, slung on three poles (like what is called a Tonjon in India). …”—Elphinstone, Caubul, ed. 1842, i. 137.

[1849.—“A Jhappan is a kind of arm chair with a canopy and curtains; the canopy, &c., can be taken off.”—Mrs. Mackenzie, Life in the Mission, ii. 103.]

1879.—“The gondola of Simla is the ‘jampan’ or ‘jampot, as it is sometimes called, on the same linguistic principle … as that which converts asparagus into sparrow-grass. … Every lady on the hills keeps her jampan and jampanees … just as in the plains she keeps her carriage and footmen.”—Letter in Times, Aug. 17.