1616.—"These entered the Kingdom of Candy ... and had an encounter with the enemy at Matalé, where they cut off five-and-thirty heads of their people and took certain araches and modiliares who are chiefs among them, and who had ... deserted and gone over to the enemy as is the way of the Chingalas."—Bocarro, 495.
1648.—"The 5 August followed from Candy the Modeliar, or Great Captain ... in order to inspect the ships."—Van Spilbergen's Voyage, 33.
1685.—"The Modeliares ... and other great men among them put on a shirt and doublet, which those of low caste may not wear."—Ribeiro, f. 46.
1708.—"Mon Révérend Père. Vous êtes tellement accoûtumé à vous mêler des affaires de la Compagnie, que non obstant la prière que je vous ai réitérée plusieurs fois de nous laisser en repos, je ne suis pas étonné si vous prenez parti dans l'affaire de Lazaro ci-devant courtier et Modeliar de la Compagnie."—Norbert, Mémoires, i. 274.
1726.—"Modelyaar. This is the same as Captain."—Valentijn (Ceylon), Names of Officers, &c., 9.
1810.—"We ... arrived at Barbareen about two o'clock, where we found that the provident Modeliar had erected a beautiful rest-house for us, and prepared an excellent collation."—Maria Graham, 98.
MOFUSSIL, s., also used adjectively, "The provinces,"—the country stations and districts, as contra-distinguished from 'the Presidency'; or, relatively, the rural localities of a district as contra-distinguished from the [sudder] or chief station, which is the residence of the district authorities. Thus if, in Calcutta, one talks of the Mofussil, he means anywhere in Bengal out of Calcutta; if one at Benares talks of going into the Mofussil, he means going anywhere in the Benares division or district (as the case might be) out of the city and station of Benares. And so over India. The word (Hind. from Ar.) mufaṣṣal means properly 'separate, detailed, particular,' and hence 'provincial,' as mufaṣṣal 'adālat, a 'provincial court of justice.' This indicates the way in which the word came to have the meaning attached to it.
About 1845 a clever, free-and-easy newspaper, under the name of The Mofussilite, was started at Meerut, by Mr. John Lang, author of Too Clever by Half, &c., and endured for many years.
1781.—"... a gentleman lately arrived from the Moussel" (plainly a misprint).—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, March 31.
" "A gentleman in the Mofussil, Mr. P., fell out of his chaise and broke his leg...."—Ibid., June 30.