Chapter RAMASAMMY to RAM - RAM ! of R by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

RAM - RAM ! The commonest salutation between two Hindus meeting on the road; an invocation of the divinity.

[1652.—“…then they approach the idol waving them (their hands) and repeating many times (the words) Ram, Ram, i.e. God, God.”—Tavernier, ed. Ball, i. 263.]

1673.—“Those whose Zeal transports them no further than to die at home, are immediately Washed by the next of Kin, and bound up in a Sheet; and as many as go with him carry them by turns on a Colt-staff; and the rest run almost naked and shaved, crying after him Ram, Ram.”—Fryer, 101.

1726.—“The wives of Bramines (when about to burn) first give away their jewels and ornaments, or perhaps a pinang, (q.v.), which is under such circumstances a great present, to this or that one of their male or female friends who stand by, and after taking leave of them, go and lie over the corpse, calling out only Ram, Ram.”—Valentijn, v. 51.

[1828.—See under SUTTEE.]

c. 1885.—Sir G. Birdwood writes: “In 1869–70 I saw a green parrot in the Crystal Palace aviary very doleful, dull, and miserable to behold. I called it ‘pretty poll,’ and coaxed it in every way, but no notice of me would it take. Then I bethought me of its being a Mahratta poput, and hailed it Ram Ram! and spoke in Mahratti to it; when at once it roused up out of its lethargy, and hopped and swung about, and answered me back, and cuddled up close to me against the bars, and laid its head against my knuckles. And every day thereafter, when I visited it, it was always in an eager flurry to salute me as I drew near to it.”