[1799.—"... Ahmood Sollay ... drew his tolwa on one of them."—Jackson, Journey from India, 49.
[1829.—"... the panchās huzār turwar Rahtorān, meaning the 'fifty thousand Rahtore swords,' is the proverbial phrase to denote the muster of Maroo...."—Tod, Annals, Calcutta reprint, ii. 179.]
1853.—"The old native officer who carried the royal colour of the regiments was cut down by a blow of a Sikh tulwar."—Oakfield, ii. 78.
TUMASHA, s. An entertainment, a spectacle (in the French sense), a popular excitement. It is Ar. tamāshi, 'going about to look at anything entertaining.' The word is in use in Turkestan (see Schuyler, below).
1610.—"Heere are also the ruines of Ranichand (qu. Ramchand's?) Castle and Houses which the Indians acknowledge for the great God, saying that he took flesh vpon him to see the Tamasha of the World."—Finch, in Purchas, i. 436.
1631.—"Hic quoque meridiem prospicit, ut spectet Thamasham id est pugnas Elephantum Leonum Buffalorum et aliarum ferarum...."—De Laet, De Imperio Magni Mogolis, 127. (For this quotation I am indebted to a communication from Mr. Archibald Constable of the Oudh and Rohilkund Railway.—Y.)
1673.—"... We were discovered by some that told our Banyan ... that two Englishmen were come to the Tomasia, or Sight...."—Fryer, 159.
1705.—"Tamachars. Ce sont des réjouissances que les Gentils font en l'honneur de quelqu'unes de leurs divinitez."—Luillier, Tab. des Matières.
1840.—"Runjeet replied, 'Don't go yet; I am going myself in a few days, and then we will have burra tomacha.'"—Osborne, Court and Camp of Runjeet Singh, 120-121.
1876.—"If you told them that you did not want to buy anything, but had merely come for tomasha, or amusement, they were always ready to explain and show you everything you wished to see."—Schuyler's Turkistan, i. 176.