Chapter DORADO to DRAVIDIAN of D by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

their weapon of this kind, but we do not know if there is any relation but an accidental one with the Hind. word. [See drawing in Egerton, Handbook of Indian Arms, p. 84.] [1870.—“The Dao is the hill knife…. It is a blade about 18 inches long, narrow at the haft, and square and broad at the tip; pointless, and sharpened on one side only. The blade is set in a handle of wood; a bamboo root is considered the best. The fighting dao is differently shaped; this is a long pointless sword, set in a wooden or ebony handle; it is very heavy, and a blow of almost incredible power can be given by one of these weapons…. The weapon is identical with the ‘parang latok’ of the Malays….”—Lewin, Wild Races of S.E. India, 35 seq.

DOWLE, s. H. daul, daula. The ridge of clay marking the boundary between two rice fields, and retaining the water; called commonly in S. India a bund. It is worth noting that in Sussex doole is “a small conical heap of earth, to mark the bounds of farms and parishes in the downs” (Wright, Dict. of Obs. and Prov. English). [The same comparison was made by Sir H. Elliot (Supp. Gloss, s.v. Doula); the resemblance is merely accidental; see N.E.D. s.v. Dool.]

1851.—“In the N.W. corner of Suffolk, where the country is almost entirely open, the boundaries of the different parishes are marked by earthen mounds from 3 to 6 feet high, which are known in the neighbourhood as dools.”—Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. iv. p. 161.

DOWRA, s. A guide. H. dauraha, dauraha, daura, ‘a village runner, a guide,’ from daurna, ‘to run,’ Skt. drava, ‘running.’ 1827.—“The vidette, on his part, kept a watchful eye on the Dowrah, a guide supplied at the last village.”—Sir W. Scott, The Surgeon’s Daughter, ch. xiii.

[DRABI, DRABY, s. The Indian camp-followers’ corruption of the English ‘driver.’

[1900.—“The mule race for Drabis and grass-cutters was entertaining.”—Pioneer Mail, March 16.]

DRAVIDIAN, adj. The Skt. term Dravida seems to have been originally the name of the Conjevaram Kingdom (4th to 11th cent. A.D.), but in recent times it has been used as equivalent to ‘Tamil.’ About A.D. 700 Kumarila Bhatta calls the language of the South Andhradravida-bhasha, meaning probably, as Bishop Caldwell suggests, what we should now describe as ‘Telegu-Tamil-language.’ Indeed he has shown reason for believing that Tamil and Dravida, of which Dramida (written Tiramida), and Dramila are old forms, are really the same word. [Also see Oppert, Orig. Inhab. 25 seq., and Dravira, in a quotation from Al-biruni under MALABAR.] It may be suggested as possible that the Tropina of Pliny is also the same (see below). Dr. Caldwell proposed Dravidian as a convenient name for the S. Indian languages which belong to the Tamil family, and the cultivated members of which are Tamil, Malayalam, Canarese, Tulu, Kudagu (or Coorg), and Telegu; the uncultivated Tuda, Kota, Gond, Khond, Oraon, Rajmahali. [It has also been adopted as an enthnological term to designate the non-Aryan races of India (see Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, i. Intro. xxxi.).] c. A.D. 70.—“From the mouth of Ganges where he entereth into the sea unto the cape Calingon, and the town Dandagula, are counted 725 miles; from thence to Tropina where standeth the chiefe mart or towne of merchandise in all India, 1225 miles. Then to the promontorie of Perimula they reckon 750 miles, from which to the towne abovesaid Patale…620.”—Pliny, by Phil. Holland, vi. chap. xx.

A.D. 404.—In a south-western direction are the following tracts…Surashtrians, Bâdaras, and Drâvidas.—Varâha-mihira, in J.R.A.S., 2nd ser. v. 84.

” “The eastern half of the Narbadda district…the Pulindas, the eastern half of the Drâvidas…of all these the Sun is the Lord.”—Ibid. p. 231.

c. 1045.—“Moreover, chief of the sons of Bharata, there are, the nations of the South, the Drávidas…the Karnátakas, Máhishakas….”—Vishnu Purána, by H. H. Wilson, 1865, ii. 177 seq.

1856.—“The idioms which are included in this work under the general term ‘Dravidian’ constitute the vernacular speech of the great majority of the inhabitants of S. India.”—Caldwell, Comp. Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, 1st ed.

1869.—“The people themselves arrange their countrymen under two heads; five termed Panch- gaura, belonging to the Hindi, or as it is now generally called, the Aryan group, and the remaining five, or Panch-Dravida, to the Tamil type.”—Sir W. Elliot, in J. Ethn. Soc. N.S. i. 94.