Chapter KOTUL to KUTTAUR of K by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

houses it contained made of earth in the fashion of houses of the Gola people.”—Inscr. at Kalyani near Pegu, in Forchhammer, ii. 5.

1795.—“They were still anxious to know why a person consulting his own amusement, and master of his own time, should walk so fast; but on being informed that I was a ‘Colar,’ or stranger, and that it was the custom of my country, they were reconciled to this. …”—Symes, Embassy, p. 290.

1855.—“His private dwelling was a small place on one side of the court, from which the women peeped out at the Kalás; …”—Yule, Mission to the Court of Ava (Phayre’s), p. 5.

„ “By a curious self-delusion, the Burmans would seem to claim that in theory at least they are white people. And what is still more curious, the Bengalees appear indirectly to admit the claim; for our servants in speaking of themselves and their countrymen, as distinguished from the Burmans, constantly made use of the term kálá admi—‘black man,’ as the representative of the Burmese kalá, a foreigner.”—Ibid. p. 37.

KUMPÁSS, s. Hind. kampás, corruption of English compass, and hence applied not only to a marine or a surveying compass, but also to theodolites, levelling instruments, and other elaborate instruments of observation, and even to the shaft of a carriage. Thus the sextant used to be called tikunta kampass, “the 3-cornered compass.”

[1866.—“Many an amusing story did I hear of this wonderful kumpass. It possessed the power of reversing everything observed. Hence if you looked through the doorbeen at a fort, everything inside was revealed. Thus the Feringhees so readily took forts, not by skill or by valour, but by means of the wonderful power of the door-been.”—Confess. of an Orderly, 175.]

KUNKUR, CONKER, &c., s. Hind. kankar, ‘gravel.’ As regards the definition of the word in Anglo- Indian usage it is impossible to improve on Wilson: “A coarse kind of limestone found in the soil, in large tabular strata, or interspersed throughout the superficial mould, in nodules of various sizes, though usually small.” Nodular kunkur, wherever it exists, is the usual material for road metalling, and as it binds when wetted and rammed into a compact, hard, and even surface, it is an admirable material for the purpose. c. 1781.—“Etaya is situated on a very high bank of the river Jumna, the sides of which consist of what in India is called concha, which is originally sand, but the constant action of the sun in the dry season forms it almost into a vitrification” (!)—Hodges, 110.

1794.—“Konker” appears in a Notification for tenders in Calcutta Gazette.—In Seton-Karr, ii. 135.

c. 1809.—“We came within view of Cawnpore. Our long, long voyage terminated under a high conkur bank.”—Mrs. Sherwood, Autobiog. 381.

1810.—“… a weaker kind of lime is obtained by burning a substance called kunkur, which, at first, might be mistaken for small rugged flints, slightly coated with soil.”—Williamson, V. M. ii. 13.

KUREEF, KHURREEF, s. Hind. adopted from Ar. kharif (‘autumn’). The crop sown just before, or at the beginning of, the rainy season, in May or June, and reaped after the rains in November—December. This includes rice, maize, the tall millets, &c. (See RUBBEE).

[1824.—“The basis on which the settlements were generally founded, was a measurement of the Khureef, or first crop, when it is cut down, and of the Rubbee, or second, when it is about half a foot high. …”—Malcolm, Central India, ii. 29.]

KURNOOL, n.p. The name of a city and territory in the Deccan, Karnul of the Imp. Gazetteer; till 1838 a tributary Nawabship; then resumed on account of treason; and now since 1858 a collectorate of Madras Presidency. Properly Kandanur; Canoul of Orme. Kirkpatrick says that the name Kurnool, Kunnool, or Kundnool (all of which forms seem to be applied corruptly to the place) signifies in the language of that country ‘fine spun, clear thread,’ and according to Meer Husain it has its name from its beautiful cotton fabrics. But we presume the town must have existed before it made cotton fabrics? This is a specimen of the stuff that men, even so able as Kirkpatrick, sometimes repeat after those native authorities who “ought to know better,” as we are often told. [The Madras Gloss. gives the name as Tam. karnulu, from kandena, ‘a mixture of lamp-oil and burnt straw used in greasing cart-wheels’ and prolu, ‘village,’ because when the temple at Alampur was being built, the wheels of the carts were greased here, and thus a settlement was formed.]