—Tennyson, Locksley Hall.
The following is in the true [Hobson-Jobson] manner:
[1859.—"This term Marhatta or Mârhutta, is derived from the mode of warfare adopted by these men. Mar means to strike, and hutna, to get out of the way, i.e. those who struck a blow suddenly and at once retreated out of harm's way."—H. Dundas Robertson, District Duties during the Revolt in 1857, p. 104, note.]
MAHRATTA DITCH, n.p. An excavation made in 1742, as described in the extract from Orme, on the landward sides of Calcutta, to protect the settlement from the Mahratta bands. Hence the term, or for shortness 'The Ditch' simply, as a disparaging name for Calcutta (see [DITCHER]). The line of the Ditch corresponded nearly with the outside of the existing Circular Road, except at the S.E. and S., where the work was never executed. [There is an excavation known by the same name at Madras excavated in 1780. (Murray, Handbook, 1859, p. 43).]
1742.—"In the year 1742 the Indian inhabitants of the Colony requested and obtained permission to dig a ditch at their own expense, round the Company's bounds, from the northern parts of Sootanatty to the southern part of Govindpore. In six months three miles were finished: when the inhabitants ... discontinued the work, which from the occasion was called the Morattoe ditch."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 45.
1757.—"That the Bounds of Calcutta are to extend the whole Circle of Ditch dug upon the Invasion of the Marattes; also 600 yards without it, for an Esplanade."—Articles of Agreement sent by Colonel Clive (previous to the Treaty with the Nabob of May 14). In Memoirs of the Revolution in Bengal, 1760, p. 89.
1782.—"To the Proprietors and Occupiers of Houses and other Tenements within the Mahratta Entrenchment."—India Gazette, Aug. 10.
[1840.—"Less than a hundred years ago, it was thought necessary to fortify Calcutta against the horsemen of Berar, and the name of the Mahratta Ditch still preserves the memory of the danger."—Macaulay, Essay on Clive.]
1872.—"The Calcutta cockney, who glories in the Mahratta Ditch...."—Govinda Samanta, i. 25.
MAHSEER, MASEER, MASAL, &c. Hind. mahāsir, mahāser, mahāsaulā, s. The name is applied to perhaps more than one of the larger species of Barbus (N.O. Cyprinidae), but especially to B. Mosul of Buchanan, B. Tor, Day, B. megalepis, McLelland, found in the larger Himālayan rivers, and also in the greater perennial rivers of Madras and Bombay. It grows at its largest, to about the size of the biggest salmon, and more. It affords also the highest sport to Indian anglers; and from these circumstances has sometimes been called, misleadingly, the 'Indian salmon.' The origin of the name Mahseer, and its proper spelling, are very doubtful. It may be Skt. mahā-śiras, 'big-head,' or mahā-śalka, 'large-scaled.' The latter is most probable, for the scales are so large that Buchanan mentions that playing cards were made from them at Dacca. Mr. H. S. Thomas suggests mahā-āsya, 'great mouth.' [The word does not appear in the ordinary dicts.; on the whole, perhaps the derivation from mahā-śiras is most probable.]