Chapter TELOOGOO to TERAI of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

TELOOGOO to TERAI

TELOOGOO, n.p. The first in point of diffusion, and the second in culture and copiousness, of the Dravidian languages of the Indian Peninsula. It is “spoken all along the eastern coast of the Peninsula, from the neighbourhood of Pulicat” (24 m. N. of Madras) “where it supersedes Tamil, to Chicacole, where it begins to yield to the Oriya (see OORIYA), and inland it prevails as far as the eastern boundary of the Marâtha country and Mysore, including within its range the ‘Ceded Districts’ and Karnûl (see KURNOOL), a considerable part of the territories of the Nizam … and a portion of the Nâgpûr country and Gondvâna” (Bp. Caldwell’s Dravid. Gram. Introd. p. 29). Telugu is the name given to the language of the people themselves (other forms being, according to Bp. Caldwell, Telunga, Telinga, Tailinga, Tenugu, and Tenungu), as the language of Telingana (see TELINGA (1)). It is this language (as appears in the passage from Fryer) that used to be, perhaps sometimes is, called Gentoo at Madras. [Also see BADEGA.]

1673.—“Their Language they call generally Gentu … the peculiar name of their speech is Telinga.”—Fryer, 33.

1793.—“The Tellinga language is said to be in use, at present, from the River Pennar in the Carnatic, to Orissa, along the coast, and inland to a very considerable distance.”—Rennell, Memoir, 3rd ed. p. [cxi].

TEMBOOL, Betel-leaf. Skt. tambula, adopted in Pers. as tambul, and in Ar. al-tambul. [It gives its name to the Tambolis or Tamolis, sellers of betel in the N. Indian bazars.]

1298.—“All the people of this city, as well as the rest of India, have a custom of perpetually keeping in the mouth a certain leaf called Tembul. … ”—Marco Polo, ii. 358.

1498.—“And he held in his left hand a very great cup of gold as high as a half almude pot … into which he spat a certain herb which the men of this country chew for solace, and which herb they call atambor.”—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 59.

1510.—“He also eats certain leaves of herbs, which are like the leaves of the sour orange, called by some tamboli.”—Varthema, 110.

1563.—“Only you should know that Avicenna calls the betre (Betel) tembul, which seems a word somewhat corrupted, since everybody pronounces it tambul, and not tembul.”—Garcia, f. 37h.

TENASSERIM, n.p. A city and territory on the coast of the Peninsula of Further India. It belonged to the ancient kingdom of Pegu, and fell with that to Ava. When we took from the latter the provinces east and south of the Delta of the Irawadi, after the war of 1824–26, these were officially known as “the Martaban and Tenasserim Province,” or often as “the Tenasserim Provinces.” We have the name probably from the Malay form Tanasari. We do not know to what language the name originally belongs. The Burmese call it Ta-nen-tha-ri. [“The name Tenasserim (Malay Tanah-sari), ‘the land of happiness or delight,’ was long ago given by the Malays to the Burma province, which still keeps it, the Burmese corruption being Tanang-sari” (Gray, on Pyrard de Laval, quoted below).]

c. 1430.—“Relicta Taprobane ad urbem Thenasserim supra ostium fluvii eodem nomine vocitati diebus XVI tempestate actus est. Quae regio et elephantis et verzano (brazil-wood) abundat.”—Nic. Conti, in Poggio de Var. Fort. lib. iv.

1442.—“The inhabitants of the shores of the Ocean come thither (to Hormuz) from the countries of Chin (China), Javah, Bangala, the cities of Zirbad (q.v.), of Tenaseri, of Sokotara, of Shahrinao (see SARNAU), of the Isles of Diwah Mahal (Maldives).”—Abdur-razzak, in Not. et Exts. xiv. 429.

1498.—“Tenaçar is peopled by Christians, and the King is also a Christian … in this land is much brasyll, which makes a fine vermilion, as good as the grain, and it costs here 3 cruzados a bahar, whilst in Quayro (Cairo) it costs 60; also there is here aloes-wood, but not much.”—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 110.

1501.—Tanaser appears in the list of places in the East Indies of which Amerigo Vespucci had heard from the Portuguese fleet at C. Verde. Printed in Baldelli Boni’s Il Milione, pp. liii. seqq.

1506.—“At Tenazar grows all the verzi (brazil), and it costs 1½ ducats the baar (bahar), equal to 4 kantars. This place, though on the coast, is on the mainland. The King is a Gentile; and thence come pepper, cinnamon, galanga, camphor that is eaten, and camphor that is not eaten. … This is indeed the first mart of spices in India.”—Leonardo Ca’ Masser, in Archiv. Stor. Ital. p. 28.

1510.—“The city of Tarnassari is situated near the sea, etc.”—Varthema, 196. This adventurer’s account of Tenasserim is an imposture. He describes it by implication as in India Proper, somewhere to the north of Coromandel.

1516.—“And from the Kingdom of Peigu as far as a city which has a seaport, and is named Tanasery, there are a hundred leagues. … ”—Barbosa, 188.

1568.—“The Pilot told vs that wee were by his altitude not farre