The Cannons of Lucknow (35 page)

Achkan:
knee-length tunic (also Chup Kan)

Ayah:
nurse or maid servant

Babu:
clerk, loosely applied to those able to write

Bazaar:
market

Bearer:
personal, usually head, servant

Bhang:
hashish

Bhisti:
water carrier

Brahmin:
high-caste

Hindu Cantonments:
European quarters, residences, civil or military, usually military

Chapatti:
unleavened cake of wheat flour

Charpoy:
string bed

Daffadar:
sergeant, cavalry

Dhal:
flour

Din:
faith, Moslem war cry “For the Faith!”

Dhoolie:
stretcher or covered litter

Eurasian:
half-caste, usually children of British fathers and Indian mothers

Fakir/Sadhu:
itinerant holy man, Hindu

Feringhi:
foreigner, term of disrespect

Ghat:
landing place, river bank, quay

Godown:
storeroom, warehouse

Golandaz:
gunner, native

Gram:
coarse grain, usually fed to horses

Hanuman:
Hindu monkey god

Havildar:
sergeant, infantry

Jemadar:
native officer, all arms, lieutenant

Khitmatgar:
table servant

Lal-kote:
British soldier

Lines:
long rows of huts for accommodation of native troops

Moulvi:
teacher of religion, Moslem

Nana:
lit. grandfather, popular title bestowed on Mahratta chief

Oudh:
kingdom of, recently annexed by Hon. East India Company

Paltan:
regiment

Pandy:
name for mutineers, taken from the first to revolt, Sepoy Mangal Pandy, 34th Native Infantry

Peishwa:
ruler or king of the Mahratta race

Poorbeah:
from the East, an inhabitant of Oudh

Puggree:
turban

Raj:
rule

Rissala:
cavalry

Rissaldar/Rissaldar-Major:
native officer, cavalry:

RSM Ryot:
peasant small holder

Sepoy:
infantry soldier

Sowar:
cavalry trooper

Subadar/Subedar-Major:
native officer, infantry

Sweeper:
low-caste servant

Tulwar:
sword or sabre

Vakeel:
agent

Zamindar:
landowner

Zenana:
Harem quarters. Seraglio