Chapter MADRAS to MADURA of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

MADRAS to MADURA

MADRAS, s. This name is applied to large bright-coloured handkerchiefs, of silk warp and cotton woof, which were formerly exported from Madras, and much used by the negroes in the W. Indies as head- dresses. The word is preserved in French, but is now obsolete in England.

c. 1830.—“… We found President Petion, the black Washington, sitting on a very old ragged sofa, amidst a confused mass of papers, dressed in a blue military undress frock, white trowsers, and the everlasting Madras handkerchief bound round his brows.”—Tom Cringle, ed. 1863, p. 425.

1846.—“Et Madame se manifesta! C’etait une de ces vieilles dévinées par Adrien Brauwer dans ses sorcières pour le Sabbat … coiffée d’un Madras, faisant encore papillottes avec les imprimés, que recevait gratuitement son maître.”—Balzac, Le Cousin Pons, ch. xviii.

MADREMALUCO, n.p. The name given by the Portuguese to the Mahommedan dynasty of Berar, called ’Imad-shahi. The Portuguese name represents the title of the founder ’Imad-ul-Mulk, (‘Pillar of the State’), otherwise Fath Ullah ’Imad Shah. The dynasty was the most obscure of those founded upon the dissolution of the Bahmani monarchy in the Deccan. (See COTAMALUCO, IDALCAN, MELIQUE VERIDO, NIZAMALUCO, SABAIO.) It began about 1484, and in 1572 was merged in the kingdom of Ahmednagar. There is another Madremaluco (or ’Imad-ul-Mulk) much spoken of in Portuguese histories, who was an important personage in Guzerat, and put to death with his own hand the king Sikandar Shah (1526) (Barros, IV. v. 3; Correa, ii. 272, 344, &c.; Couto, Decs. v. and vi. passim).

[1543.—See under COTAMALUCO.]

1553.—“The Madre Maluco was married to a sister of the Hidalchan (see IDALCAN), and the latter treated this brother-in-law of his, and Meleque Verido as if they were his vassals, especially the latter.”—Barros, IV. vii. 1.

1563.—“The Imademaluco or Madremaluco, as we corruptly style him, was a Circassian (Cherques) by nation, and had originally been a Christian, and died in 1546. … Imad is as much as to say ‘prop,’ and thus the other (of these princes) was called Imadmaluco, or ‘Prop of the Kingdom.’ …”—Garcia, f. 36v.

Nei ther the chronology of De Orta here, nor the statement of Imad-ul-Mulk’s Circassian origin, agree with those of Firishta. The latter says that Fath-Ullah ’Imad Shah was descended from the heathen of Bijanagar (iii. 485).

MADURA, n.p., properly Madurei, Tam. Mathurai. This is still the name of a district in S. India, and of a city which appears in the Tables of Ptolemy as [Greek Text] “Modoura basileion PandionoV.” The name is generally supposed to be the same as that of Mathura, the holy and much more ancient city of Northern India, from which the name was adopted (see MUTTRA), but modified after Tamil pronunciation.¹ [On the other hand, a writer in J.R. As. Soc. (xiv. 578, n. 3) derives Madura from the Dravidian Madur in the sense of ‘Old Town,’ and suggests that the northern Mathura may be an offshoot from it.] Madura was, from a date, at least as earl y as the Christian era, the seat of the Pandya sovereigns. These, according to Tamil tradition, as stated by Bp. Caldwell, had previously held their residence at Kolkei on the Tamraparni, the [Greek Text] Kolcoi of Ptolemy. (See Caldwell, pp. 16, 95, 101). The name of Madura, probably as adopted from the holier northern Muttra, seems to have been a favourite among the Eastern settlements under Hindu influence. Thus we have Matura in Ceylon; the city and island of Madura adjoining Java; and a town of the same name (Madura) in Burma, not far north of Mandalé, Madeya of the maps.

A.D. c. 70–80.—“Alius utilior portus gentis Neacyndon qui vocatur Becare. Ibi regnabat Pandion, longe ab emporio mediterraneo distante oppido quod vocatur Modura.”—Pliny, vi. 26.

[c. 1315.—“Mardi.” See CRORE.]

c. 1347.—“The Sultan stopped a month at Fattan, and then departed for his capital. I stayed 15 days after his departure, and then started for his residence, which was at Mutra, a great city with wide streets.…I found there a pest raging of which people died in brief space…when I went out I saw only the dead and dying.”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 200–1.

1311.—“…the royal canopy moved from Bírdhúl…and 5 days afterwards they arrived at the city of Mathra…the dwelling-place of the brother of the Ráí Sundar Pándya. They found the city empty, for the Ráí had fled with the Ránís, but had left two or three elephants in the temple of Jagnár (Jaganath).”—Amír Khusrú, in Elliot, iii. 91.

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