Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Adigar (abbr. Adigarama): chief officer in the Kandyan Kingdom, chief minister.

Angula: flat-bottomed boat.

Arrack: spirit distilled from coconut palm sap; highly alcoholic (from Arabic araq=juice).

Atapattuwa (also atapattu): name of a class of militia who acted as the king's bodyguard (see also: maduva)

Ayuveda: indigenous system of medicine.

B

Batta: rice; extra allowance of pay granted to troops in India.

Bo-tree (also bodhi): a tree sacred to Buddhists (ficus religiosa).

Burgher: person of European ancestry.

C

Cadjan: palm leaves matted or plaited together to form a thatch or roof.

Caffree (also kaffir): African native, brought to Ceylon as a slave or mercenary soldier by Portuguese, Dutch or British.

Candia: variant term for Kandy.

Chalia: caste mainly employed in collecting cinnamon.

Chetty (also chitty, chettiar): individual of any of the South-Indian trading castes; merchant, banker, money-lender, broker.

Cinnamonchena: high land used for shifting cultivation.

Cingalese (also Cinglasse) – early variant spelling for Sinhalese people.

Coir: rope or cordage made from the fibrous husks of the coconut.

Conocopolly: personal secretary – a person responsible for paying accounts, supervising servants, and assisting in buying, selling and debt collection.

Coolie: person who carries a load.

Creese (also Kris): dagger or knife with a curved blade used by Malays.

Crore: numerical value of ten million.

D

Dagoba: a solid hemispherical dome enshrining religious relics or the remains of kings.

Dalada: tooth-relic of the Buddha.

Dalada Maligava: Temple of the Tooth Relic (in Kandy).

Deniya: low, marshy ground.

Devale (or devala): temple or shrine (Buddhist or Hindu).

Disava (also disawa): governor of a province or disavane in the Kandyan Kingdom.

Dhony (also dhoney or dony): a small sailing vessel or ferry boat.

Disavane(also disawane): province.

Dooly (also dhooly): a covered chair or palanquin, often used to carry a sick person.

Dutch Burgher: (primarily) the descendants of the Dutch who came to Sri Lanka in C16th-C18th.

E

Elephant Rupee: British silver rixdollar.

Esala Perahera: festival of the full moon in the month of Esala (July-August).

F

Fanam: small coin, one-twelfth of a rixdollar.

G

Gabadagama: royal village.

Gama (pl. gam): village.

Gamika: village headman.

H

HEIC: Honourable East India Company [English], established in 1600.

Havildaru(also havildar): Sepoy non-commissioned officer, corresponding to a sergeant.

Hevaya: native soldier [named lascarin by Europeans].

I

J

Jaggery: brown sugar made from palm sap.

Jawas: Malays brought to Ceylon as soldiers by the Dutch; some were in the Kandyan service.

Jungle: originally meant waste-land or uncultivated ground; later, ground covered with shrubs, trees or long grass; Anglo-Indian application is to a forest, thicket, or tangled wilderness.

K

Kadawatu: thorn gates used for closing and guarding public thoroughfares.

Katcheri (also cutchery, kachcheri): local government office.

Korala: official responsible for the administration of a pattuva.

Korale (also Korle): territorial division, unit of administration.

L

Lakh: numerical value of 100,000.

Lanka: Ceylon.

Lascar: deck-hand on board ship; also labourer employed in dragging artillery or pitching military tents ( i.e. gun-lascar).

Lascarin (also Lascareen): term used by Europeans to describe Sri Lankan auxiliary troops; inferior in discipline to a sepoy.

M

Maduva: Kandyan military force - divided into several departments to form a small standing army or militia.

Malays: originally came to Sri Lanka as soldiers of the Dutch army in the C18th.

Modelliar or modliar: a native headman or chief military officer.

Mohindiram: a title of rank - a senior official.

Moonstone: the semi-circular stone step at the entrance to a shrine; also a gemstone.

Moors: Muslim traders from the Arabian peninsular and South India - first mentioned in Ceylon in early C8th. To the Kandyan Sinhalese those Muslims domiciled in the Kingdom were known as marakkalayo and those on the coast as hanbankarayo; known by the Portuguese as Moors.

Mudaliyar: chief military officer commanding hevaya or Sinhalese militia; higher in rank than a mohindiram.

Muncheel (also monchiel): a type of hammock-litter slung on long poles, used as a substitute for a palanquin or dooly.

N

Nayakkars: last ruling dynasty of Sri Lanka. Founded in 1739 by Sri Vijaya Rajasingha, who ascended the Kandyan throne. The Nayakkars were of Telegu origin from Madurai, South India; integrated themselves fully into Sinhalese-Buddhist society - all of them were keen patrons of Buddhism. Last king: Sri Vikrama Raja Sinha (1780-1832) was captured by the British in 1815 and exiled to Vellore, India.

Nulla [also Nullah]: watercourse.

O

Ola: palm-leaf on which writing is inscribed with a stylus and afterwards rubbed with lamp-black and gum.

Oya: seasonal river.

P

Q

Paddy: rice in the husk.

Paduva: caste of palanquin bearers.

Pagoda: gold coin current in South India and Ceylon. Two kinds: (1) Star pagoda, coined by the East India company at Madras and worth 8 shillings; (2) Porto Novo pagoda, coined by the Dutch at Tuticorin and by the Nawabs of Arcot. 100 Star pagodas were worth 120 Porto Novo pagodas.

Palanquin (also palankin): a box-shaped litter with poles attached (for a single person), carried on men's shoulders (see: paduva).

Pattamar: a lateen-rigged ship, with one, two or three masts. Common on the western coast of India.

Pattuva (pl. pattu): subdivided district within a korale.

Peon (also pion): orderly or messenger.

Perahara: procession, pageant; the most important of which is the Kandy Esala Perahera.

Pettah: town attached or adjacent to a fortress; pettah was sometimes separately fortified.

Punkah: fan-like device for circulating air in a room, operated by a cord pulled by hand.

Pura: city, town.

Putrid fever: early colloquialism for typhus.

R

Raj: rule.

Raja: king, ruler; prefix maha means great.

Rata: district.

Rixdollar: name of the Spanish dollar (peso) struck by the British East India Company for Ceylon from 1803. The value of the coin in 1814 was equivalent to 2½ English shillings. The name is part-copy, part-translation of the Dutch coinage rijksdaalder, consisting of 12 fanams or 48 stuivers.

S

Salver: tray used for handing out refreshments, or presenting letters, visiting cards etc.

Sepoy: Indian private soldier (of infantry), commonly used as an adjective (e.g. 'sepoy regiment') or in the plural to describe Indian soldiers in general.

Sinhala: language of the Sinhalese people.

Stiver: British coin issued in Ceylon in early C19th; English spelling of Dutch coin stuiver.

Subedar: officer rank corresponding to lieutenant.

T

Tank: lake or artificial pond created for irrigation or bathing.

Tappal: courier post.

Tiffen: midday meal.

Toddy: lightly-fermented drink from coconut palm sap.

Tope: grove of trees, commonly of coconut or palmyras.

Toni or Tony (also Dhoney or Dony): a small native sailing vessel; a ferry boat.

U

V

Veddas: aborigines of Sri Lanka who inhabited the island prior to the arrival of immigrant settlers from India; remnant tribal group who lived in the forest/jungle area in northern and eastern Sri Lanka in C19th.

Vihar: Buddhist place of worship.

VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie): Dutch East India Company; established in 1602.

W

X

Y

Z

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Sources:
LEWIS, Ivor. Sahibs, Nabobs and Boxwallahs: a dictionary of the words of Anglo-India. Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1991.

YULE, Henry and Burnell, A.C. Hobson-Jobson: a glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1968 (2nd ed.). [New ed. edited by William Crooke].

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