Chapter TANOR to TAPPAUL of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

TANOR to TAPPAUL

TANOR, n.p. An ancient town and port about 22 miles south of Calicut. There is a considerable probability that it was the Tyndis of the Periplus. It was a small kingdom at the arrival of the Portuguese, in partial subjection to the Zamorin. [The name is Malayal. Tanur, tanni, the tree Terminalis belerica, ur, village.]

1516.—“Further on … are two places of Moors 5 leagues from one another. One is called Paravanor, and the other Tanor, and inland from these towns is a lord to whom they belong; and he has many Nairs, and sometimes he rebels against the King of Calicut. In these towns there is much shipping and trade, for these Moors are great merchants.”—Barbosa, Hak. Soc. 153.

1521.—“Cotate was a great man among the Moors, very rich, and lord of Tanor, who carried on a great sea-trade with many ships, which trafficked all about the coast of India with passes from our Governors, for he only dealt in wares of the country; and thus he was the greatest possible friend of the Portuguese, and those who went to his dwelling were entertained with the greatest honour, as if they had been his brothers. In fact for this purpose he kept houses fitted up, and both cots and bed-steads furnished in our fashion, with tables and chairs and casks of wine, with which he regaled our people, giving them entertainments and banquets, insomuch that it seemed as if he were going to become a Christian.… ”—Correa, ii. 679.

1528.—“And in the year (A.H.) 935, a ship belonging to the Franks was wrecked off Tanoor.… Now the Ray of that place affording aid to the crew, the Zamorin sent a messenger to him demanding of him the surrender of the Franks who composed it, together with such parts of the cargo of the ship as had been saved, but that chieftain having refused compliance with this demand, a treaty of peace was entered into with the Franks by him; and from this time the subjects of the Ray of Tanoor traded under the protection of the passes of the Franks.”—Tohfut-ul-Mujahideen, E.T. 124–125.

1553.—“For Lopo Soares having arrived at Cochin after his victory over the Çamorin, two days later the King of Tanor, the latter’s vassal, sent (to Lopo) to complain against the Çamorin by ambassadors, begging for peace and help against him, having fallen out with him for reasons that touched the service of the King of Portugal.”—Barros, I. vii. 10.

1727.—“Four leagues more southerly is Tannore, a Town of small Trade, inhabited by Mahometans.”—A. Hamilton, i. 322; [ed. 1744].

TAPPAUL, s. The word used in S. India for ‘post,’ in all the senses in which dawk (q.v.) is used in Northern India. Its origin is obscure. C. P. Brown suggests connection with the Fr. étape (which is the same originally as the Eng. staple). It is sometimes found in the end of the 18th century written tappa or tappy. But this seems to have been derived from Telugu clerks, who sometimes write tappa as a singular of tappalu, taking the latter for a plural (C.P.B.). Wilson appears to give the word a southern origin. But though its use is confined to the South and West, Mr. Beames assigns to it an Aryan origin: “tappa ‘post-office,’ i.e. place where letters are stamped, tappal ‘letter-post’ (tappa + alya = ‘stamping-house’),” connecting it radically with tapa ‘a coop,’ tapna ‘to tap,’ ‘flatten,’ ‘beat down,’ tapak ‘a sledge hammer,’ tipna ‘to press,’ &c. [with which Platts agrees.]

1799.—“You will perceive that we have but a small chance of establishing the tappal to Poonah.”—Wellington, i. 50.

1800.—“The Tappal does not go 30 miles a day.”—T. Munro, in Life, i. 244.

1809.—“Requiring only two sets of bearers I knew I might go by tappaul the whole way to Seringapatam.”—Ld. Valentia, i. 385.