Chapter ROWANNAH to RUBBEE of R by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

ROWANNAH to RUBBEE

ROWANNAH, s. Hind. from Pers. rawanah, from rawa, ‘going.’ A pass or permit.

[1764.—“…that the English shall carry on their trade…free from all duties…excepting the article of salt,…on which a duty is to be levied on the Rowana or Houghly market-price….”—Letter from Court, in Verelst, View of Bengal, App. 127.]

ROWCE, s. Hind. raus, rois, rauns. A Himalayan tree which supplies excellent straight and strong alpenstocks and walking-sticks, Cotoneaster bacillaris, Wall., also C. acuminata (N.O. Rosaceae). [See Watt, Econ. Dict. ii. 581.] 1838.—“We descended into the Khud, and I was amusing myself jumping from rock to rock, and thus passing up the centre of the brawling mountain stream, aided by my long pahari pole of rous wood.”—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, ii. 241; [also i. 112].

ROWNEE, s.

a. A fausse-braye, i.e. a subsidiary enceinte surrounding a fortified place on the outside of the proper wall and on the edge of the ditch; Hind. raoni. The word is not in Shakespear, Wilson, Platts or Fallon. But it occurs often in the narratives of Anglo-Indian siege operations. The origin of the word is obscure. [Mr. Irvine suggests Hind. rundhna, ‘to enclose as with a hedge,’ and says: “Fallon evidently knew nothing of the word rauni, for in his E. H. Dict. he translates fausse-braye by dh us, matti ka pushtah; which also shows that he had no definite idea of what a fausse-braye was, dhus meaning simply an earthen or mud fort.” Dr. Grierson suggests Hind. ramana, ‘a park,’ of which the fem., i.e. diminutive, would be ramani or raoni; or possibly the word may come from Hind. rev, Skt. renu, ‘sand,’ meaning “an entrenchment of sand.”]

1799.—“On the 20th I ordered a mine to be carried under (the glacis) because the guns could not bear on the rounee.”—Jas. Skinner’s Mil. Memoirs, i. 172. J. B. Fraser, the editor of Skinner, parenthetically interprets rounee here as ‘counterscarp’; but that is nonsense, as well as incorrect.

[1803.—Writing of Hathras, “Renny wall, with a deep, broad, dry ditch behind it surrounds the fort.”—W. Thorn, Mem. of the War in India, p. 400.]

1805.—In a work by Major L. F. Smith (Sketch of the Rise, &c., of the Regular Corps in the Service of the Native Princes of India) we find a plan of the attack of Aligarh, in which is marked “Lower Fort or Renny, well supplied with grape,” and again, “Lower Fort, Renny or Faussebraye.”

[1819.—“…they saw the necessity of covering the foot of the wall from an enemy’s fire, and formed a defence, similar to our fausse-braye, which they call Rainee.”—Fitzclarence, Journal of a Route to England, p. 245; also see 110.]

b. This word also occurs as representative of the Burmese yo-wet-ni, or (in Arakan pron.) ro-wet-ni, ‘red-leaf,’ the technical name of the standard silver of the Burmese ingot currency, commonly rendered Flowered-silver.

1796.—“Rouni or fine silver, Ummerapoora currency.”—Notification in Seton-Karr, ii. 179.

1800.—“The quantity of alloy varies in the silver current in different parts of the empire; at Rangoon it is adulterated 25 per cent.; at Ummerapoora, pure, or what is called flowered silver, is most common; in the latter all duties are paid. The modifications are as follows:

“Rouni, or pure silver.
Rounika, 5 per cent. of alloy.”

Symes, 327.

ROWTEE, s. A kind of small tent with pyramidal roof, and no projection of fly, or eaves. Hind. raoti.

[1813.—“…the military men, and others attached to the camp, generally possess a dwelling of somewhat more comfortable description, regularly made of two or three folds of cloth in thickness, closed at one end, and having a flap to keep out the wind and rain at the opposite one: these are dignified with the name of ruotees, and come nearer (than the pawl) to our ideas of a tent.”—Broughton, Letters, ed. Constable, p. 20.

[1875.—“For the servants I had a good rauti of thick lined cloth.”—Wilson, Abode of Snow, 90.]

ROY, s. A common mode of writing the title rai (see RAJA); which sometimes occurs also as a family name, as in that of the famous Hindu Theist Rammohun Roy.