Memoirs on the History, Folk-Lore, and Distribution of The

' *. 'fftOPE!. , / . PEIHCETGIT \ rstC, juiv 1 THEOLOGICAL iilttTlKV'ki ' • ** ~V ' • Dive , I) S 4-30 Sect; £46 — .v-..2 SUPPLEMENTAL GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN THE NORTH WESTERN PROVINCES. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/memoirsonhistory02elli ; MEMOIRS ON THE HISTORY, FOLK-LORE, AND DISTRIBUTION RACESOF THE OF THE NORTH WESTERN PROVINCES OF INDIA BEING AN AMPLIFIED EDITION OF THE ORIGINAL SUPPLEMENTAL GLOSSARY OF INDIAN TERMS, BY THE J.ATE SIR HENRY M. ELLIOT, OF THE HON. EAST INDIA COMPANY’S BENGAL CIVIL SEBVICB. EDITED REVISED, AND RE-ARRANGED , BY JOHN BEAMES, M.R.A.S., BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE ; MEMBER OP THE GERMAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, OP THE ASIATIC SOCIETIES OP PARIS AND BENGAL, AND OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIBTY OP LONDON. IN TWO VOLUMES. YOL. II. LONDON: TRUBNER & CO., 8 and 60, PATERNOSTER ROWV MDCCCLXIX. [.All rights reserved STEPHEN AUSTIN, PRINTER, HERTFORD. ; *> »vv . SUPPLEMENTAL GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN THE NORTH WESTERN PROVINCES. PART III. REVENUE AND OFFICIAL TERMS. [Under this head are included—1. All words in use in the revenue offices both of the past and present governments 2. Words descriptive of tenures, divisions of crops, fiscal accounts, like 3. and the ; Some articles relating to ancient territorial divisions, whether obsolete or still existing, with one or two geographical notices, which fall more appro- priately under this head than any other. —B.] Abkar, jlLT A distiller, a vendor of spirituous liquors. Abkari, or the tax on spirituous liquors, is noticed in the Glossary. With the initial a unaccented, Abkar means agriculture. Adabandi, The fixing a period for the performance of a contract or pay- ment of instalments. From performance, and (root Xj) to bind. YOL. II. 1 2 SUPPLEMENTAL GLOSSARY. Adhbatai, Division of produce in equal shares; from W’STT half, and division. Adhela, aLaol Half a pice, comprising 12J dams, or 4 damris, q.v. [Also an eight-ana piece, or half a rupee.] Adheli, jjuaol Half a Chauthia, q.v. A measure used for corn. —Saugor. Small fractional divisions of land.—Garhwal. Also an eight-ana piece, or half a rupee. Adheliya, LLjioI Adhelia, or Adhia, signifies a proprietor of a half share. Adhiyar, ^rfv^rrc; A man who passes half his time in one village, and half in is said another, to be adhiyar karna ; called adhbar in Rohil- khand. Adhiyar differs from pahikasht, inasmuch as adhiyar implies that there are two establishments, one in each of the two villages which are visited, [whereas pahikasht is a man who lives in one village and cultivates land in another]. Adhiyari, A half share. The word WVT half, enters into the composi- tion of all these words. Adhkachcha, A soil lying between the land named Pahara and the Tarai, in the district of Saharanpur. PART III. REVENUE AND OFFICIAL TERMS. 3 .V Adhkari, An instalment of eight anas in the rupee, or half of the Government Jama. Aghani, v^t L5 The produce of part of the Kharif season, or of the month of Aghan, (November-December). *** In Behar there are two rice crops, one in Bhadon, the other in Aghan the produce of the former is less valuable than ; that of the latter, and is only eaten by the lower classes, and by animals. —B. Agaur, j/\ wtT An advance of rent paid by Asamis to Zamindars in the months of Jeth and Asarh. —E. Oudh. The word is derived from age before, beyond. ’Ahd, An agreement or contract. Ahdnama is the written document containing an agreement. ’Ahddar, Literally, holder of a contract. An officer of the Mughal Government, who, for a commission of 2 or 3 per cent., engaged for the revenue of a district, and made himself responsible for the balance. Ajauri, Wfft Advances, particularly to agricultural labourers.—Eastern Oudh. Agraurihi is used in a similar sense in Baiswara. Both words are, perhaps, derived from age, before, in advance. All, JT A land measure equivalent to four Bisis. Nine All go to a — 4 SUPPLEMENTAL GLOSSARY. Jula.—Garhwal and Kamaon. See further under the articles Bisi and Jula. Algi, ^J\\ A separate cess levied by Zamindars in part of Behar over and above the regular Jama. They generally do this when short of funds. W. Altamgha,* ^fT^rT^T^T A royal grant, which the British Government have declared to convey a title to a rent-free tenure in perpetuity. Altamgha is derived from two Turkish words, A1 and Tamgha : both of which signify the royal signet. A1 in Persian implies ~> it also a scarlet colour, \j ~j , and therefore has been supposed to mean the Emperor’s red signet (Gladwin says, “a red patent,” and Harington, in his “Analysis,” I., 4, “a red seal—from which its name is derived”) : but it may be doubted if the Altamgha seal is necessarily a red one ; and the “ Burhan-i Kati’,” the “ Farhang-i Jahangiri,” and the “ Haft Kulzam,” while they give the meaning of scarlet to A1 in Per- sian, and at the same time mention the Hindi Al, noticed in a separate article, also add that, in Turkish, “it is the seal and ring of the king,” without any special mention of its being a red seal, or a red ring. It would appear, however, from the extract from the “Earhang-i Rasliidi,” given below, that Al- tamgha originally meant a red seal, and that Al, by itself, was never taken in the sense of signet, except by reason of its having been coupled with Tamgha, to imply that the Tamgha was red. Jr>. i The word is generally written 1 altamgha, not dltamghd, in Persian.—B. PART III. REVENUE AND OFFICIAL TERMS. 5 “And in Turkish it signifies the seal of the Padshah, which they call Altamgha, i.e., ‘red seal/ and sometimes they call it Al, for short, rejecting Tamgha.” The assertion therefore rests upon which is the best authority —the Burhan-i Kati’, coupled with the Jahangiri, or the Rashidi. The Haft Kulzam is a mere copy, and of no weight in such controversies. It is difficult to say when Altamgha began first to be used in the revenue language of India in the sense either of a seal or grant. In Persia and Central Asia we have notices of its use at an early period. Towards the close of the 13th century the illustrious Ghazan Khan caused the Altamgha, or the imperial seal of state, to be altered from a quadrangular to an oval shape, considered the most auspicious as well as most elegant of all forms, and on this he at the same time directed to be engraved the Mahomedan profession of faith. — Price’s “Retrospect of Mahomedan History,” Yol. II., p. 612. Again, Timur bestows upon the son of Bajazet the Govern- ment of Anatolia, under a patent containing the impression of “ his hand in red ink (Ibid. Yol. III., p. 423 ; and Sherefeddin,” it the title of this Lib. v., Cap. 60) ; but is not stated whether patent was Altamgha. In the Institutes of this tyrant, we find no mention of anything but Tamgha, and that with a different meaning. But, with respect to India, the term certainly does not appear to have been in common and practical use in the fiscal language of the country in Akbar’s time though, as we have seen from ; the extract just quoted, that it is mentioned in the “Farhang-i Jahangiri,” which was compiled at his dictation and dedicated his it is to that the authority of to son ; but then be considered certain poets is given for its use ; —which would of itself seem to imply that the word was a foreign importation, and up to that time had merely found admission into dictionaries and literary compositions. It is not once mentioned in the passage 6 SUPPLEMENTAL GLOSSARY. on in Sayurghal, his Institutes ; the perusal of which chapter, by the way, would afford an instructive lesson to those who assert that the Mughal Government never resumed rent-free tenures, for in it we have the very founder of the system enjoining resumption, and getting more and more exasperated at the shameless frauds practised upon the exchequer even by his own officers. Yet, notwithstanding this apparently modern introduction of the word, it is to be feared that some grants, purporting to be Altamgha of his reign, have been released by our officials. We find frequent mention of the word Tamgha in his time, but so far from conferring a privilege or immunity, it meant only a tax, or tribute, when applied fiscally. In the—following passage Baj ~ b “tax,” is coupled with Tamgha : “And it was ordered that the Baj and Tamgha were not to be collected except from arms and horses, elephants and camels, cows, sheep and goats and silken cloth, on which a small sum was to be levied in each Suba.” Tamgha is again called a tax which is raised in excess of the land revenue : —“ Umr levied a tax on foreigners in three classes which they called Jazia, and in every kingdom they demand something from every man’s property except peasants, and that they call Tamgha and in Iran and Turan ; they take some little in proportion to the wealth of the taxed.” In one of the general Farmans issued by him in the 37th year of his reign, by which he justly earned the love of his subjects and admiration of posterity, he remits the Tamgha, Baj, and Zikat, on all articles, with a few exceptions.* * It appears that previous to Akbar's time the tamgha had been remitted by Jahangir, and before that by Babar.

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