[1878.—"The Cho-Ka-Shun, or boats in which the Mandarins travel, are not unlike large floating caravans."—Gray, China, ii. 270.]
MANDARIN LANGUAGE, s. The language spoken by the official and literary class in China, as opposed to local dialects. In Chinese it is called Kuan-Hua. It is substantially the language of the people of the northern and middle zones of China, extending to Yun-nan. It is not to be confounded with the literary style which is used in books. [See Ball, Things Chinese, 169 seq.]
1674.—"The Language ... is called Quenhra (hua), or the Language of Mandarines, because as they spread their command they introduced it, and it is used throughout all the Empire, as Latin in Europe. It is very barren, and as it has more Letters far than any other, so it has fewer words."—Faria y Sousa, E.T. ii. 468.
MANGALORE, n.p. The only place now well known by this name is (a) Mangaḷ-ūr, a port on the coast of Southern Canara and chief town of that district, in lat. 12° 51′ N. In Mīr Husain Ali's Life of Haidar it is called "Gorial Bunder," perhaps a corr. of Kandiāl, which is said in the Imp. Gaz. to be the modern native name. [There is a place called Gurupura close by; see Madras Gloss. s.v. Goorpore.] The name in this form is found in an inscription of the 11th century, whatever may have been its original form and etymology. [The present name is said to be taken from the temple of Mangalā Devī.] But the name in approximate forms (from mañgala, 'gladness') is common in India. One other port (b) on the coast of Peninsular Guzerat was formerly well known, now commonly called Mungrole. And another place of the name (c) Manglavar in the valley of Swat, north of Peshāwar, is mentioned by Hwen T'sang as a city of Gandhāra. It is probably the same that appears in Skt. literature (see Williams, s.v. Mangala) as the capital of Udyāna.
a. Mangalore of Canara.
c. 150.—"Μεταξὺ δὲ τοῦ Ψευδοστόμου καὶ τοῦ Βάριος πόλεις αἵδε· Μαγγάνουρ."—Ptolemy, VII. i. 86.
c. 545.—"And the most notable places of trade are these ... and then the five ports of Malé from which pepper is exported, to wit, Parti, Mangaruth...."—Cosmas, in Cathay, &c. clxxvii.
[c. 1300.—"Manjarur." See under [SHINKALI].]
c. 1343.—"Quitting Fākanūr (see [BACANORE]) we arrived after three days at the city of Manjarūr, which is large and situated on an estuary.... It is here that most of the merchants of Fars and Yemen land; pepper and ginger are very abundant."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 79-80.
1442.—"After having passed the port of Bendinaneh (see [PANDARANI]) situated on the coast of Melibar, (he) reached the port of Mangalor, which forms the frontier of the kingdom of Bidjanagar...."—Abdurrazzāk, in India in the XVth Cent., 20.