Chapter TANGUN to TANK of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

TANGUN to TANK

TANGUN, TANYAN, s. Hind. taghan, tangan; apparently from Tibetan rTanan, the vernacular name of this kind of horse (rTa, ‘horse’). The strong little pony of Bhutan and Tibet.

c. 1590.—“In the confines of Bengal, near Kuch [-Bahár], another kind of horses occurs, which rank between the gút (see GOONT) and Turkish horses, and are called tang’han: they are strong and powerful.”—Ain, i. 133.

1774.—“2d. That for the possession of the Chitchanotta Province, the Deb Raja shall pay an annual tribute of five Tangan Horses to the Honorable Company, which was the acknowledgment paid to the Deb Raja.”—Treaty of Peace between the H.E.I.C. and the Rajah of Bootan, in Aitchison’s Treaties, i. 144.

„ “We were provided with two tangun ponies of a mean appearance, and were prejudiced against them unjustly. On better acquaintance they turned out patient, sure-footed, and could climb the Monument.”—Bogle’s Narrative, in Markham, 17.

1780.—“ … had purchased 35 Jhawah or young elephants, of 8 or 9 years old, 60 Tankun, or ponies of Manilla and Pegu.”—H. of Hydur Naik, 383.

„ “ … small horses brought from the mountains on the eastern side of Bengal. These horses are called tanyans, and are mostly pyebald.”—Hodges, Travels, 31.

1782.—“To be sold, a Phaeton, in good condition, with a pair of young Tanyan Horses, well broke.”—India Gazette, Oct. 26.

1793.—“As to the Tanguns or Tanyans, so much esteemed in India for their hardiness, they come entirely from the Upper Tibet, and notwithstanding their make, are so sure footed that the people of Nepaul ride them without fear over very steep mountains, and along the brink of the deepest precipices.”—Kirkpatrick’s Nepaul, 135.

1854.—“These animals, called Tanghan, are wonderfully strong and enduring; they are never shod, and the hoof often cracks.… The Tibetans give the foals of value messes of pig’s blood and raw liver, which they devour greedily, and it is said to strengthen them wonderfully; the custom is, I believe, general in Central Asia.”—Hooker, Himalayan Journals, 1st ed. ii. 131.

TANJORE, n.p. A city and District of S. India; properly Tañjavur (‘Low Town’?), so written in the inscription on the great Tanjore Pagoda (11th century). [The Madras Manual gives two derivations: “Tañjavur, familiarly called Tañjai by the natives. It is more fully given as Tañjai-managaram, Tañjan’s great city, after its founder. Tañjam means ‘refuge, shelter’” (ii. 216). The Gloss. gives Tañjavur, Tam. tañjam, ‘asylum,’ ur, ‘village.’]

[1816.—“The Tanjore Pill, it is said, is made use of with great success in India against the bite of mad dogs, and that of the most venemous serpents.”—Asiatic Journal, ii. 381.]

TANK, s. A reservoir, an artificial pond or lake, made either by excavation or by damming. This is one of those perplexing words which seem to have a double origin, in this case one Indian, the other European.

As regards what appears to be the Indian word, Shakespear gives: “Tank’h (in Guzerat), an underground reservoir for water.” [And so Platts.] Wilson gives: “Tánken or táken, Mahr.… Tánkh (said to be Guzeráthí). A reservoir of water, an artificial pond, commonly known to Europeans in India as a Tank. Tánki, Guz. A reservoir of water; a small well.” R. Drummond, in his Illustrations of Guzerattee, &c., gives: “Tanka (Mah.) and Tankoo (Guz.) Reservoirs, constructed of stone or brick or lime, of larger and lesser size, generally inside houses.… They are almost entirely covered at top, having but a small aperture to let a pot or bucket down.”…“In the towns of Bikaner,” says Tod, “most families have large cisterns or reservoirs called Tankas, filled by the rains” (Rajputana, ii. 202). Again, speaking of towns in the desert of Márwár, he says; “they collect the rain water in reservoirs called Tanka, which they are obliged to use sparingly, as it is said to produce night blindness” (ii. 300). Again, Dr. Spilsbury (J.A.S.B. ix. pt. 2, 891), describing a journey in the Nerbudda Basin, cites the word, and notes; “I first heard this word used by a native in the Betool district; on asking him if at the top of Bowergurh there was any spring, he said No, but there was a Tanka or place made of pukka (stone and cement) for holding water.” Once more, in an Appendix to the Report of the Survey of India for 1881–1882, Mr. G. A. MacGill, speaking of the rain cisterns in the driest part of Rajputana, says: “These cisterns or wells are called by the people tánkás” (App. p. 12). See also quotation below from a Report by Major Strahan. It is not easy to doubt the genuineness of the word, which may possibly be from Skt. tadaga, tataga, tataka, ‘a pond, pool, or tank.’

Fr. Paolino, on the other hand, says the word tanque used by the Portuguese in India was Portoghesa corrotta, which is vague. But in fact tanque is a word which appears in all Por tuguese dictionaries, and which is used by authors so early after the opening of communication with India (we do not know if there is an instance actually earlier) that we can hardly conceive it to have been borrowed from an Indian language,