The peasants drink not from the humble well.
* * * * *
Nor tanks of costliest masonry dispense
To those in towns who dwell,
The work of kings in their beneficence."
Kehama, xiii. 6.
1883.—"... all through sheets[[263]] 124, 125, 126, and 131, the only drinking water is from 'tankas,' or from 'tobs.' The former are circular pits puddled with clay, and covered in with wattle and daub domes, in the top of which are small trap doors, which are kept locked; in these the villages store rain-water; the latter are small and somewhat deep ponds dug in the valleys where the soil is clayey, and are filled by the rain; these latter of course do not last long, and then the inhabitants are entirely dependent on their tankas, whilst their cattle migrate to places where the well-water is fit for use."—Report on Cent. Ind. and Rajputana Topogr. Survey (Bickaneer and Jeysulmeer). By Major C. Strachan, R.E., in Report of the Survey in India, 1882-83, App. p. 4. [The writer in the Rajputana Gazetteer (Bikanir) (i. 182) calls these covered pits kund, and the simple excavations sār.]
TANOR, n.p. An ancient town and port about 22 miles south of Calicut. There is a considerable probability that it was the Tyndis of the Periplus. It was a small kingdom at the arrival of the Portuguese, in partial subjection to the Zamorin. [The name is Malayāl. Tānūr, tanni, the tree Terminalis belerica, ūr, village.]
1516.—"Further on ... are two places of Moors 5 leagues from one another. One is called Paravanor, and the other Tanor, and inland from these towns is a lord to whom they belong; and he has many Nairs, and sometimes he rebels against the King of Calicut. In these towns there is much shipping and trade, for these Moors are great merchants."—Barbosa, Hak. Soc. 153.
1521.—"Cotate was a great man among the Moors, very rich, and lord of Tanor, who carried on a great sea-trade with many ships, which trafficked all about the coast of India with passes from our Governors, for he only dealt in wares of the country; and thus he was the greatest possible friend of the Portuguese, and those who went to his dwelling were entertained with the greatest honour, as if they had been his brothers. In fact for this purpose he kept houses fitted up, and both cots and bedsteads furnished in our fashion, with tables and chairs and casks of wine, with which he regaled our people, giving them entertainments and banquets, insomuch that it seemed as if he were going to become a Christian...."—Correa, ii. 679.