By Burton:
"Narsinga's Kingdom, with her rich display
Of gold and gems, but poor in martial vein ..."
1580.—"In the Kingdom of Narsingua to this day, the wives of their priests are buried alive with the bodies of their husbands; all other wives are burnt at their husbands' funerals."—Montaigne, by Cotton, ch. xi. (What is here said about priests applies to [Lingaits], q.v.).
1611.—"... the Dutch President on the coast of Choromandell, shewed us a Caul (see [COWLE]) from the King of Narsinga, Wencapati, Raia, wherein was granted that it should not be lawfull for any one that came out of Europe to trade there, but such as brought Prince Maurice his Patent, and therefore desired our departure."—P. W. Floris, in Purchas, i. 320.
1681.—"Coromandel. Ciudad muy grande, sugeta al Rey de Narsinga, el qual Reyno e llamado por otre nombre Bisnaga."—Martinez de la Puente, Compendio, 16.
NASSICK, n.p. Nāsik; Νασίκα of Ptolemy (vii. i. 63); an ancient city of Hindu sanctity on the upper course of the Godavery R., and the headquarter of a district of the same name in the Bombay Presidency. A curious discussion took place at the R. Geog. Society in 1867, arising out of a paper by Mr. (afterwards Sir) George Campbell, in which the selection of a capital for British India was determined on logical principles in favour of Nassick. But logic does not decide the site of capitals, though government by logic is quite likely to lose India. Certain highly elaborated magic squares and magic cubes, investigated by the Rev. A. H. Frost (Cambridge Math. Jour., 1857) have been called by him Nasik squares, and Nasik cubes, from his residence in that ancient place (see Encyc. Britan. 9th ed. xv. 215).
NAT, s. Burmese nāt, [apparently from Skt. nātha, 'lord']; a term applied to all spiritual beings, angels, elfs, demons, or what not, including the gods of the Hindus.
[1878.—"Indeed, with the country population of Pegu the worship, or it should rather be said the propitiation of the 'Náts' or spirits, enters into every act of their ordinary life, and Buddha's doctrine seems kept for sacred days and their visits to the [kyoung] (monastery) or to the pagoda."—Forbes, British Burma, 222.]
NAUND, s. Hind. nānd. A coarse earthen vessel of large size, resembling in shape an inverted bee-hive, and useful for many economic and domestic purposes. The dictionary definition in Fallon, 'an earthen trough,' conveys an erroneous idea.