[1798.—In Kashmīr "many of them ... were obliged to live on the Kernel of the singerah, or water-nut...."—Forster, Travels, ii. 29.
[1809.—Buchanan-Hamilton writes singghara.—Eastern India, i. 241.]
1835.—"Here, as in most other parts of India, the tank is spoiled by the water-chestnut, singhara (Trapa bispinosa), which is everywhere as regularly planted and cultivated in fields under a large surface of water, as wheat or barley is in the dry plains.... The nut grows under the water after the flowers decay, and is of a triangular shape, and covered with a tough brown integument adhering strongly to the kernel, which is wholly esculent, and of a fine cartilaginous texture. The people are very fond of these nuts, and they are carried often upon bullocks' backs two or three hundred miles to market."—Sleeman, Rambles, &c. (1844), i. 101; [ed. Smith, i. 94.]
1839.—"The nuts of the Trapa bispinosa, called Singhara, are sold in all the Bazaars of India; and a species called by the same name, forms a considerable portion of the food of the inhabitants of Cashmere, as we learn from Mr. Forster [loc. cit.] that it yields the Government 12,000l. of revenue; and Mr. Moorcroft mentions nearly the same sum as Runjeet Sing's share, from 96,000 to 128,000 ass-loads of this nut, yielded by the Lake of Oaller."—Royle, Him. Plants, i. 211.
SIPAHSELAR, s. A General-in-chief; Pers. sipāh-sālār, 'army-leader,' the last word being the same as in the title of the late famous Minister-Regent of Hyderabad, Sir Sālār Jang, i.e. 'the leader in war.'
c. 1000-1100.—"Voici quelle étoit alors la gloire et la puissance des Orpélians dans le royaume. Ils possédoient la charge de sbasalar, ou de généralissime de toute la Georgie. Tous les officiers du palais étoient de leur dependance."—Hist. of the Orpélians, in St. Martin, Mem. sur l'Arménie, ii. 77.
c. 1358.—"At 16 my father took me by the hand, and brought me to his own Monastery. He there addressed me: 'My boy, our ancestors from generation to generation have been commanders of the armies of the Jagtay and the Berlas family. The dignity of (Sepah Salar) Commander-in-Chief has now descended to me, but as I am tired of this world ... I mean therefore to resign my public office...."—Autob. Mem. of Timour, E.T. p. 22.
1712.—"Omnibus illis superior est ... Sipah Salaar, sive Imperator Generalis Regni, Praesidem dignitate excipiens...."—Kaempfer, Amoen. Exot. 73.
1726.—A letter from the Heer Van Maatzuiker "to His Highness Chan Chanaan, Sapperselaar, Grand Duke, and General in Chief of the Great Mogol in Assam, Bengal, &c."—Valentijn, v. 173.
1755.—"After the Sipahsalar Hydur, by his prudence and courage, had defeated the Mahrattas, and recovered the country taken by them, he placed the government of Seringaputtun on a sure and established basis...."—Meer Hussein Ali Khan, H. of Hydur Naik, O. T. F. p. 61.