Chapter GUAVA to GUDGE of G by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

GUDDA, s. A donkey, literal and metaphorical. H. gadha: [Skt. gardabha, ‘the roarer’]. The coincidence of the Scotch cuddy has been attributed to a loan from H. through the gypsies, who were the chief owners of the animal in Scotland, where it is not common. On the other hand, this is ascribed to a nickname Cuddy (for Cuthbert), like the English Neddy, similarly applied. [So the N.E.D. with hesitation.] A Punjab proverbial phrase is gadon khurki, “Donkeys’ rubbing” their sides together, a sort of ‘claw me and I’ll claw thee.’

GUDDY, GUDDEE, s. H. gaddi, Mahr. gadi. “The Throne.’ Properly it is a cushion, a throne in the Oriental sense, i.e. the seat of royalty, “a simple sheet, or mat, or carpet on the floor, with a large cushion or pillow at the head, against which the great man reclines” (Wilson). “To be placed on the guddee” is to succeed to the kingdom. The word is also used for the pad placed on an elephant’s back.

[1809.—“Seendhiya was seated nearly in the centre, on a large square cushion covered with gold brocade; his back supported by a round bolster, and his arms resting upon two flat cushions; all covered with the same costly material, and forming together a kind of throne, called a musnud, or guddee.”—Broughton, Letters from a Mahratta Camp, ed. 1892, p. 28.]

GUDGE, s. P.—H. gaz, and corr. gaj; a Persian yard measure or thereabouts; but in India applied to measures of very varying lengths, from the hath, or natural cubit, to the English yard. In the Ain [ed. Jarrett, ii. 58 seqq.] Abu’l Fazl details numerous gaz which had been in use under the Caliphs or in India, varying from 18 inches English (as calculated by J. Prinsep) to 52 1/8. The Ilahi gaz of Akbar was intended to supersede all these as a standard; and as it was the basis of all records of land- measurements and rents in Upper India, the determination of its value was a subject of much importance when the revenue surveys were undertaken about 1824. The results of enquiry were very discrepant, however, and finally an arbitrary value of 33 inches was assumed. The bigha (see BEEGAH), based on this, and containing 3600 square gaz=5/8 of an acre, is the standard in the N.W.P., but statistics are now always rendered in acres. See Gladwin’s Ayeen (1800) i. 302, seqq.; Prinsep’s Useful Tables, ed. Thomas, 122; [Madras Administration Manual, ii. 505.] [1532.—“…and if in quantity the measure and the weight, and whether ells, roods or gazes.”—Archiv. Port. Orient. f. 5, p. 1562.]

1754.—“Some of the townsmen again demanded of me to open my bales, and sell them some pieces of cloth; but…I rather chose to make several of them presents of 2¼ gaz of cloth, which is the measure they usually take for a coat.”—Hanway, i. 125.

1768–71.—“A gess or goss is 2 cobidos, being at Chinsurah 2 feet and 10 inches Rhineland measure.”—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 463.

1814.—“They have no measures but the gudge, which is from their elbow to the end of the middle finger, for measuring length.” Pearce, Acc. of the Ways of the Abyssinians, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. ii. 56.