Chapter RESIDENT to RHOTASS of R by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

RESSALDAR, Ar.—P.—H. Risaladar (Ressala). Originally in Upper India the commander of a corps of Hindustani horse, though the second quotation shows it, in the south, applied to officers of infantry. Now applied to the native officer who commands a ressala in one of our regiments of “Irregular Horse.” This title is applied honorifically to overseers of post-horses or stables. (See Panjab Notes & Queries, ii. 84.)

[c. 1590.—“Besides, there are several copyists who write a good hand and a lucid style. They receive the yáddásht (memorandum) when completed, keep it with themselves, and make a proper abridgement of it. After signing it, they return this instead of the yaddásht, when the abridgement is signed and sealed by the Waqi’ahnawis, and the Risalahdar (in orig. risalah).…”—Ain, i. 259.]

1773.—“The Nawaub now gave orders to the Risaladárs of the regular and irregular infantry, to encircle the fort, and then commence the attack with their artillery and musketry.”—H. of Hydur Naik, 327.

1803.—“The rissaldars finding so much money in their hands, began to quarrel about the division of it, while Perron crossed in the evening with the bodyguard.”—Mil. Mem. of James Skinner, i. 274.

c. 1831.—“Le lieutenant de ma troupe a bonne chance d’être fait Capitaine (resseldar).”—Jacquemont, Corresp. ii. 8.

REST-HOUSE, s. Much the same as Dawk Bungalow (q.v.). Used in Ceylon only. [But the word is in common use in Northern India for the chokies along roads and canals.]

[1894.—“ ‘Rest - Houses’ or ‘staging bungalows’ are erected at intervals of twelve or fifteen miles along the roads.”—G. W. MacGeorge, Ways and Works in India, p. 78.]

RESUM, s. Lascar’s Hind. for ration (Roebuck).

RHINOCEROS, s. W e introduce this word for the sake of the quotations, showing that even in the 16th century this anima l was familiar not only in the Western Himalaya, but in the forests near Peshawar. It is probable that the nearest rhinoceros to be found at the present time would be not less than 800 miles, as the crow flies, from Peshawar. See also GANDA, [and for references to the animal in Greek accounts of India, McCrindle, Ancient India, its Invasion by Alexander, 186].

c. 1387.—“In the month of Zí-l Ka’da of the same year he (Prince Muhammed Khan) went to the mountains of Sirmor (W. of the Jumna) and spent two months in hunting the rhinoceros and the elk.”—Táríkh-i- Mubárak-Sháhí, in Elliot, iv. 16.

1398.—(On the frontier of Kashmir). “Comme il y avoit dans ces Pays un lieu qui par sa vaste étendue, et la grande quantité de gibiers, sembloit inviter les passans à chasser.… Timur s’en donna le divertissement…ils prisent une infinité de gibiers, et l’on tua plusiers rhinoceros à coups de sabre et de lances, quoique cet animal…a la peau si ferme, qu’on ne peut la percer que par des efforts extraordinaires.”—Petis de la Croix, H: de Timur-Bec, iii. 159.

1519.—“After sending on the army towards the river (Indus), I myself set off for Sawâti, which they likewise call Karak Khaneh (kark-khana, ‘the rhinoceros- haunt’), to hunt the rhinoceros. We started many rhinoceroses, but as the country abounds in brushwood, we could not get at them. A she rhinoceros, that had whelps, came out, and fied along the plain; many arrows were shot at her, but…she gained cover. We set fire to the brushwood, but the rhinoceros was not to be found. We got sight of another, that, having been scorched in the fire, was lamed and unable to run. We killed it, and every one cut off a bit as a trophy of the chase.”—Baber, 253.

1554.—“Nous vinmes à la ville de Pourschewer (Peshawur), et ayant heureusement passe le Koutel (Kotul), nous gagnâmes la ville de Djouschayeh. Sur le Koutel nous apercûmes des rhinoceros, dont la grosseur approchait celle d’un elephant.…”—Sidi ’Ali, in J. As., 1st ser. tom. ix. 201–202.

RHOTASS, n.p. This (Rohtas) is the name of two famous fortresses in India, viz. a. a very ancient ro ck-fort in the Shahabad district of Behar, occupying part of a tabular hill which rises on the north bank of the Son river to a height of 1490 feet. It was an important stronghold of Sher Shah, the successful rival of the Mogul Humayun: b. A fort at the north end of the Salt-range in the Jhelum District, Punjab,