[1616.—"Addick Raia Pongolo, Corcon of this place."—Ibid. iv. 167.]
1826.—"My benefactor's chief carcoon or clerk allowed me to sort out and direct despatches to officers at a distance who belonged to the command of the great Sawant Rao."—Pandurang Hari, 21; [ed. 1873, i. 28.]
CARÉNS, n.p. Burm. Ka-reng, Kirāta tribe (see the question discussed by McMahon, The Karens of the Golden Chersonese, 43 seqq.)]. A name applied to a group of non-Burmese tribes, settled in the forest and hill tracts of Pegu and the adjoining parts of Burma, from Mergui in the south, to beyond Toungoo in the north, and from Arakan to the Salwen, and beyond that river far into Siamese territory. They do not know the name Kareng, nor have they one name for their own race; distinguishing, among these whom we call Karens, three tribes, Sgaw, Pwo, and Bghai, which differ somewhat in customs and traditions, and especially in language. "The results of the labours among them of the American Baptist Mission have the appearance of being almost miraculous, and it is not going too far to state that the cessation of blood feuds, and the peaceable way in which the various tribes are living ... and have lived together since they came under British rule, is far more due to the influence exercised over them by the missionaries than to the measures adopted by the English Government, beneficial as these doubtless have been" (Br. Burma Gazetteer, [ii. 226]). The author of this excellent work should not, however, have admitted the quotation of Dr. Mason's fanciful notion about the identity of Marco Polo's Carajan with Karen, which is totally groundless.
1759.—"There is another people in this country called Carianners, whiter than either (Burmans or Peguans), distinguished into Buraghmah and Pegu Carianners; they live in the woods, in small Societies, of ten or twelve houses; are not wanting in industry, though it goes no further than to procure them an annual subsistence."—In Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 100.
1799—"From this reverend father (V. Sangermano) I received much useful information. He told me of a singular description of people called Carayners or Carianers, that inhabit different parts of the country, particularly the western provinces of Dalla and Bassein, several societies of whom also dwell in the district adjacent to Rangoon. He represented them as a simple, innocent race, speaking a language distinct from that of the Birmans, and entertaining rude notions of religion.... They are timorous, honest, mild in their manners, and exceedingly hospitable to strangers."—Symes, 207.
c. 1819.—"We must not omit here the Carian, a good and peaceable people, who live dispersed through the forests of Pegù, in small villages consisting of 4 or 5 houses ... they are totally dependent upon the despotic government of the Burmese."—Sangermano, p. 34.
CARICAL, n.p. Etymology doubtful; Tam. Karaikkāl, [which is either kārai, 'masonry' or 'the plant, thorny webera': kāl, 'channel' (Madras Adm. Man. ii. 212, Gloss. s.v.)]. A French settlement within the limits of Tanjore district.
CARNATIC, n.p. Karṇāṭaka and Kārṇāṭaka, Skt. adjective forms from Karṇāṭa or Kārṇāṭa, [Tam. kar, 'black,' nādu, 'country']. This word in native use, according to Bp. Caldwell, denoted the Telegu and Canarese people and their language, but in process of time became specially the appellation of the people speaking Canarese and their language (Drav. Gram. 2nd ed. Introd. p. 34). The Mahommedans on their arrival in S. India found a region which embraces Mysore and part of Telingāna (in fact the kingdom of Vijayanagara), called the Karṇāṭaka country, and this was identical in application (and probably in etymology) with the [Canara] country (q.v.) of the older Portuguese writers. The Karṇāṭaka became extended, especially in connection with the rule of the Nabobs of Arcot, who partially occupied the Vijayanagara territory, and were known as Nawābs of the Karṇāṭaka, to the country below the Ghauts, on the eastern side of the Peninsula, just as the other form Canara had become extended to the country below the Western Ghauts; and eventually among the English the term Carnatic came to be understood in a sense more or less restricted to the eastern low country, though never quite so absolutely as Canara has become restricted to the western low country. The term Carnatic is now obsolete.
c. A.D. 550.—In the Bṛihat-Saṅhitā of Varāhamihira, in the enumeration of peoples and regions of the south, we have in Kern's translation (J. R. As. Soc. N.S. v. 83) Karnatic; the original form, which is not given by Kern, is Karnāta.
c. A.D. 1100.—In the later Sanskrit literature this name often occurs, e.g. in the Kathasaritsāgara, or 'Ocean of Rivers of Stories,' a collection of tales (in verse) of the beginning of the 12th century, by Somadeva, of Kashmir; but it is not possible to attach any very precise meaning to the word as there used. [See refs. in Tawney, tr. ii. 651.]