Chapter KHOTI to KHYBER PASS of K by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

KHOTI to KHYBER PASS

KHOTI, s. The holder of the peculiar khot tenure in the Bombay Presidency.

KHUDD, KUDD, s. This is a term chiefly employed in the Himalaya, khadd, meaning a precipitous hill- side, also a deep valley. It is not in the dictionaries, but is probably allied to the Hind. khat, ‘a pit,’ Dakh.—Hind. khaddü. [Platts gives Hind. khad. This is from Skt. khanda, ‘a gap, a chasm,’ while khat comes from Skt. khata, ‘an excavation.’] The word is in constant Anglo-Indian colloquial use at Simla and other Himalayan stations.

1837.—“The steeps about Mussoori are so very perpendicular in many places, that a person of the strongest nerve would scarcely be able to look over the edge of the narrow footpath into the Khud, without a shudder.”—Bacon, First Impressions, ii. 146.

1838.—“On my arrival I found one of the ponies at the estate had been killed by a fall over the precipice, when bringing up water from the khud.”—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, ii. 240.

1866.—“When the men of the 43d Regt. refused to carry the guns any longer, the Eurasian gunners, about 20 in number, accompanying them, made an attempt to bring them on, but were unequal to doing so, and under the direction of this officer (Capt. Cockburn, R.A.) threw them down a Khud, as the ravines in the Himalaya are called. …”—Bhotan and the H. of the Dooar War, by Surgeon Rennie, M.D. p. 199.

1879.—“The commander-in-chief … is perhaps alive now because his horse so judiciously chose the spot on which suddenly to swerve round that its hind hoofs were only half over the chud” (sic).—Times Letter, from Simla, Aug. 15.

KHURREEF, s. Ar. kharif, ‘autumn’; and in India the crop, or harvest of the crop, which is sown at the beginning of the rainy season (April and May) and gathered in after it, including rice, the tall millets, maize, cotton, rape, sesamum, &c. The obverse crop is rubbee (q.v.).

[1809.—“Three weeks have not elapsed since the Kureef crop, which consists of Bajru (see BAJRA), Jooar (see JOWAUR), several smaller kinds of grain, and cotton, was cleared from off the fields, and the same ground is already ploughed … and sown for the great Rubbee crop of wheat, barley and chunu (see GRAM).”—Broughton, Letters from a Mahrattu Camp, ed. 1892, p. 215.]

KHUTPUT, s. This is a native slang term in Western India for a prevalent system of intrigue and corruption. The general meaning of khatpat in Hind. and Mahr. is rather ‘wrangling’ and ‘worry,’ but it is in the former sense that the word became famous (1850–54) in consequence of Sir James Outram’s struggles with the rascality, during his tenure of the Residency of Baroda. [1881.—“Khutput, or court intrigue, rules more or less in every native State, to an extent incredible among the more civilised nations of Europe.”—Frazer, Records of Sport, 204.]

KHUTTRY, KHETTRY, CUTTRY, s. Hind. Khattri, Khatri, Skt. Kshatriya. The second, or military caste, in the theoretical or fourfold division of the Hindus. [But the word is more commonly applied to a mercantile caste, which has its origin in the Punjab, but is found in considerable numbers in other parts of India. Whether they are really of Kshatriya descent is a matter on which there is much difference of opinion. See Crooke, Tribes and Castes of N.W.P., iii. 264 seqq.] The [Greek Text] Xatriaioi whom Ptolemy locates apparently towards Rajputana are probably Kshatriyas.

[1623.—“They told me Ciautru was a title of honour.”—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 312.

1630.—“And because Cuttery was of a martiall temper God gave him power to sway Kingdomes with the scepter.”—Lord, Banians, 5.

1638.—“Les habitans … sont la pluspart Benyans et Ketteris, tisserans, teinturiers, et autres ouuriers en coton.”—Mandelslo, ed. 1659, 130.

[1671.—“There are also Cuttarees, another Sect Principally about Agra and those parts up the Country, who are as the Banian Gentoos here.”—In Yule, Hedges’ Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cccxi.]

1673.—“Opium is frequently eaten in great quantities by the Rashpoots, Queteries, and Patans.”—Fryer, 193.

1726.—“The second generation in rank among these heathen is that of the Settre’as.”—Valentijn, Chorom. 87.

1782.—“The Chittery occasionally betakes himself to traffic, and the Sooder has become the inheritor of principalities.”—G. Forster’s Journey, ed. 1808, i. 64.

1836.—“The Banians are the mercantile caste of the original Hindoos. … They call themselves Shudderies, which signifies innocent or harmless(!)”—Sir R. Phillips, Million of Facts, 322.