[c. 1660.—"The Prince ... sent his eldest son, Sultan Banque, to the King of Racan, or Mog."—Bernier (ed. Constable), 109.]
c. 1665.—"Knowing that it is impossible to pass any Cavalry by Land, no, not so much as any Infantry, from Bengale into Rakan, because of the many channels and rivers upon the Frontiers ... he (the Governor of Bengal) thought upon this experiment, viz. to engage the Hollanders in his design. He therefore sent a kind of Ambassador to Batavia."—Bernier, E. T., 55 [(ed. Constable, 180)].
1673.—"... A mixture of that Race, the most accursedly base of all Mankind who are known for their Bastard-brood lurking in the Islands at the Mouths of the Ganges, by the name of Racanners."—Fryer, 219. (The word is misprinted Buccaneers; but see Fryer's Index.)
1726.—"It is called by some Portuguese Orrakan, by others among them Arrakaon, and by some again Rakan (after its capital) and also Mog (Mugg)."—Valentijn, v. 140.
1727.—"Arackan has a Conveniency of a noble spacious River."—A. Hamilton, ii. 30.
ARBOL TRISTE, s. The tree or shrub, so called by Port. writers, appears to be the Nyctanthes arbor tristis, or Arabian jasmine (N. O. Jasmineae), a native of the drier parts of India. [The quotations explain the origin of the name.]
[c. 1610.—"Many of the trees they call tristes, of which they make saffron."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc., i. 411.
" "That tree called triste, which is produced in the East Indies, is so named because it blooms only at night."—Ibid. ii. 362; and see Burnell's Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 58-62.
1624.—"I keep among my baggage to show the same in Italy, as also some of the tree trifoe (in orig. Arbor Trisoe, a misprint for Tristo) with its odoriferous flowers, which blow every day and night, and fall at the approach of day."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 406.]
ARCOT, n.p. Arkāt, a famous fortress and town in the Madras territory, 65 miles from Madras. The name is derived by Bp. Caldwell from Tam. āṛkāḍ, the 'Six Forests,' confirmed by the Tam.-Fr. Dict. which gives a form āṛukāḍu = 'Six forêts' ["the abode of six Rishis in former days. There are several places of this name in the southern districts besides the town of Arcot near Vellore. One of these in Tanjore would correspond better than that with Harkatu of Ibn Batuta, who reached it on the first evening of his march inland after landing from Ceylon, apparently on the shallow coast of Madura or Tanjore."—Madras Ad. Man. ii. 211]. Notwithstanding the objection made by Maj.-Gen. Cunningham in his Geog. of Ancient India, it is probable that Arcot is the Ἀρκατοῦ βασίλειον Σῶρα of Ptolemy, 'Arkatu, residence of K. Sora.'