Chapter KOTUL to KUTTAUR of K by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

KOTUL to KUTTAUR

KOTUL, s. This appears to be a Turki word, though adopted by the Afghans. Kotal, ‘a mountain pass, a col.’ Pavet de Courteille quotes several passages, in which it occurs, from Baber’s original Turki.

[1554.—“Koutel.” See under RHINOCEROS.

[1809.—“We afterwards went on through the hills, and crossed two Cotuls or passes.”—Elphinstone, Caubul, ed. 1842, i. 51.]

KUBBER, KHUBBER, s. Ar.—P.—H. khabar, ‘news,’ and especially as a sporting term, news of game, e.g. “There is pucka khubber of a tiger this morning.”

[1828.—“… the servant informed us that there were some gongwalas, or villagers, in waiting, who had some khubber (news about tigers) to give us.”—Mundy, Pen and Pencil Sketches, ed. 1858, p. 53.]

1878.—“Khabar of innumerable black partridges had been received.”—Life in the Mofussil, i. 159.

1879.—“He will not tell me what khabbar has been received.”—‘Vanity Fair,’ Nov. 29, p. 299.

KUBBERDAUR. An interjectional exclamation, ‘Take care!’ Pers. khabar-dar! ‘take heed!’ (see KUBBER). It is the usual cry of chokidars to show that they are awake. [As a substantive it has the sense of a ‘scout’ or ‘spy.’]

c. 1664.—“Each omrah causeth a guard to be kept all the night long, in his particular camp, of such men that perpetually go the round, and cry Kaber-dar, have a care.”—Bernier, E.T. 119; [ed. Constable, 369].

c. 1665.—“Les archers crient ensuite a pleine tête, Caberdar, c’est à dire prends garde.”—Thevenot, v. 58.

[1813.—“There is a strange custom which prevails at all Indian courts, of having a servant called a khubur-dar, or newsman, who is an admitted spy upon the chief, about whose person he is employed.”—Broughton, Letters from a Mahratta Camp, ed. 1892, p. 25.]

KUHÁR, s. Hind. Kahar, [Skt. skandha-kara, ‘one who carries loads on his shoulders’]. The name of a Sudra caste of cultivators, numerous in Bahar and the N.W. Provinces, whose speciality is to carry palankins. The name is, therefore, in many parts of India synonymous with ‘palankin-bearer,’ and the Hindu body-servants called bearers (q.v.) in the Bengal Presidency are generally of this caste.

c. 1350.—“It is the custom for every traveller in India … also to hire kahars, who carry the kitchen furniture, whilst others carry himself in the palankin, of which we have spoken, and carry the latter when it is not in use.”—Ibn Batuta, iii. 415.

c. 1550.—“So saying he began to make ready a present, and sent for bulbs, roots, and fruit, birds and beasts, with the finest of fish … which were brought by kahars in basketfuls.”—Ramayana of Tulsi Das, by Growse, 1878, ii. 101.

1673.—“He (the President of Bombay) goes sometimes in his Coach, drawn by large Milk-white Oxen, sometimes on Horseback, other times in Palankeens, carried by Cohors, Musselmen Porters.”—Fryer, 68.

1810.—“The Cahar, or palanquin-bearer, is a servant of peculiar utility in a country where, for four months, the intense heat precludes Europeans from taking much exercise.”—Williamson, V.M. i. 209.

1873.—“Bhuí Kahár. A widely spread caste of rather inferior rank, whose occupation is to carry palkis, dolis, water-skins, &c.; to act as Porters … they eat flesh and drink spirits: they are an ignorant but industrious class. Buchanan describes them as of Telinga descent. …”—Dr. H. V. Carter’s Notices of Castes in Bombay Pry., quoted in Ind. Antiq. ii. 154.

KULÁ, KLÁ, n.p. Burmese name of a native of Continental India; and hence misapplied also to the English and other Westerns who have come from India to Burma; in fact used generally for a Western foreigner.

The origin of this term has been much debated. Some have supposed it to be connected with the name of the Indian race, the Kols; another suggestion has connected it with Kalinga (see KLING); and a third with the Skt. kula, ‘caste or tribe’; whilst the Burmese popular etymology renders it from ku, ‘to cross over,’ and la, ‘to come,’ therefore ‘the people that come across (the sea).’ But the true history of the word has for the first time been traced by Professor Forchhammer, to Gola, the name applied in old Pegu inscriptions to the Indian Buddhist immigrants, a name which he identifies with the Skt. Gauda, the ancient name of Northern Bengal, whence the famous city of Gaur (see GOUR, c).

14th cent.—“The Heroes Sona and Uttara were sent to Ramañña, which forms a part of Suvannabhumi, to propagate the holy faith. … This town is called to this day Golamattikanagara, because of the many