Chapter RUSSUD to RUTTEE of R by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

RUSSUD to RUTTEE

RUSSUD, s. Pers. rasad. The provisions of grain, forage, and other necessaries got ready by the local officers at the camping ground of a military force or official cortège. The vernacular word has some other technical meanings (see Wilson), but this is its meaning in an Anglo-Indian mouth.

[c. 1640–50.—Rasad. (See under TANA.)

RUT, s. Hind. rath, ‘a chariot.’ Now applied to a native carriage drawn by a pony, or oxen, and used by women on a journey. Also applied to the car in which idols are carried forth on festival days. [See ROOK.] [1810–17.—“Tippoo’s Aumil…wanted iron, and determined to supply himself from the rut, (a temple of carved wood fixed on wheels, drawn in procession on public occasions, and requiring many thousand persons to effect its movement).”—Wilks, Sketches, Madras reprint, ii. 281.

[1813.—“In this camp hackeries and ruths, as they are called when they have four wheels, are always drawn by bullocks, and are used, almost exclusively, by the Baees, the Nach girls, and the bankers.”—Broughton, Letters, ed. 1892, p. 117.]

1829.—“This being the case I took the liberty of taking the rut and horse to camp as prize property.”—Mem. of John Shipp, ii. 183.

RUTTEE, RETTEE, s. Hind. ratti, rati, Skt. raktika, from rakta, ‘red.’ The seed of a leguminous creeper (Abrus precatorius, L.) sometimes called country liquorice—a pretty scarlet pea with a black spot—used from time immemorial in India as a goldsmith’s weight, and known in England as ‘Crab’s eyes.’ Mr. Thomas has shown that the ancient ratti may be taken as equal to 1·75 grs. Troy (Numismata Orientalia, New ed., Pt. I. pp. 12–14). This work of Mr. Thomas’s contains interesting information regarding the old Indian custom of basing standard weights upon the weight of seeds, and we borrow from his paper the following extract from Manu (viii. 132): “The very small mote which may be discerned in a sunbeam passing through a lattice is the first of quantities, and men call it a trasarenu. 133. Eight of these trasarenus are supposed equal in weight to one minute poppy-seed (likhyá), three of those seeds are equal to one black mustard - seed (raja - sarshapa), and three of these last to a white mustard-seed (gaura-sarshapa). 134. Six white mustard-seeds are equal to a middle-sized barley-corn (yava), three such barley-corns to one krishnala (or raktika), five krishnalas of gold are one másha, and sixteen such máshas one suvarna,” &c. (ibid. p. 13). In the Ain, Abul Fazl calls the ratti surkh, which is a translation (Pers. for ‘red’). In Persia the seed is called chashm-i-khurus, ‘Cock’s eye’ (see Blochmann’s E.T., i. 16 n., and Jarrett, ii. 354). Further notices of the rati used as a weight for precious stones will be found in Sir W. Elliot’s Coins of Madras (p. 49). Sir Walter’s experience is that the rati of the gem-dealers is a double rati, and an approximation to the manjadi (see MANGELIN). This accounts for Tavernier’s valuation at 3½ grs. [Mr. Ball gives the weight at 2·66 Troy grs. (Tavernier, ii. 448).]

c. 1676.—“At the mine of Soumelpour in Bengala, they weigh by Rati’s, and the Rati is seven eighths of a Carat, or three grains and a half.”—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 140; [ed. Ball, ii. 89].