TUNCA, TUNCAW, &c., s. P.—H. tankhwāh, pron. tankhā. Properly an assignment on the revenue of a particular locality in favour of an individual; but in its most ordinary modern sense it is merely a word for the wages of a monthly servant. For a full account of the special older uses of the word see Wilson. In the second quotation the use is obscure; perhaps it means the villages on which assignments had been granted.

1758.—"Roydoolub ... has taken the discharge of the tuncaws and the arrears of the Nabob's army upon himself."—Orme, iii.; [ii. 361].

1760.—"You have been under the necessity of writing to Mr. Holwell (who was sent to collect in the tuncars).... The low men that are employed in the tuncars are not to be depended on."—The Nawab to the Prest. and Council of Ft. Wm., in Long, 233.

1778.—"These rescripts are called tuncaws, and entitle the holder to receive to the amount from the treasuries ... as the revenues come in."—Orme, ii. 276.

[1823.—"The Grassiah or Rajpoot chiefs ... were satisfied with a fixed and known tanka, or tribute from certain territories, on which they had a real or pretended claim."—Malcolm, Cent. India, 2nd. ed. i. 385.

[1851.—"The Sikh detachments ... used to be paid by tunkhwáhs, or assignments of the provincial collectors of revenue."—Edwardes, A Year on the Punjab Frontier, i. 19.]

TURA, s. Or. Turk. tūra. This word is used in the Autobiography of Baber, and in other Mahommedan military narratives of the 16th century. It is admitted by the translators of Baber that it is rendered by them quite conjecturally, and we cannot but think that they have missed the truth. The explanation of tūr which they quote from Meninski is "reticulatus," and combining this with the manner in which the quotations show these tūra to have been employed, we cannot but think that the meaning which best suits is 'a gabion.' Sir H. Elliot, in referring to the first passage from Baber, adopts the reading tūbra, and says: "Túbras are nose-bags, but ... Badáúni makes the meaning plain, by saying that they were filled with earth (Táríkh-i-Badáúni, f. 136).... The sacks used by Sher Sháh as temporary fortifications on his march towards Rájpútána were túbras" (Elliot, vi. 469). It is evident, however, that Baber's tūras were no [tobras], whilst a reference to the passage (Elliot, iv. 405) regarding Sher Shāh shows that the use of bags filled with sand on that occasion was regarded as a new contrivance. The tūbra of Badáúni may therefore probably be a misreading; whilst the use of gabions implies necessarily that they would be filled with earth.

1526.—(At the Battle of Pānipat) "I directed that, according to the custom of Rûm, the gun-carriages should be connected together with twisted bull-hides as with chains. Between every two gun-carriages were 6 or 7 tûras (or breastworks). The matchlockmen stood behind these guns and tûras, and discharged their matchlocks.... It was settled, that as Pânipat was a considerable city, it would cover one of our flanks by its buildings and houses while we might fortify our front by tûras...."—Baber, p. 304.

1528.—(At the siege of Chānderī) "overseers and pioneers were appointed to construct works on which the guns were to be planted. All the men of the army were directed to prepare tûras and scaling-ladders, and to serve the tûras which are used in attacking forts...."—Ibid. p. 376. The editor's note at the former passage is: "The meaning (viz. 'breastwork') assigned to Tûra here, and in several other places is merely conjectural, founded on Petis de la Croix's explanation, and on the meaning given by Meninski to Tûr, viz. reticulatus. The Tûras may have been formed by the branches of trees, interwoven like basket-work ... or they may have been covered defences from arrows and missiles...." Again: "These Tûras, so often mentioned, appear to have been a sort of testudo, under cover of which the assailants advanced, and sometimes breached the wall...."

TURAKA, n.p. This word is applied both in Mahratti and in Telugu to the Mahommedans (Turks). [The usual form in the inscriptions is Turushka (see Bombay Gazetteer, i. pt. i. 189).] Like this is Tarūk (see [TAROUK]) which the Burmese now apply to the Chinese.