COOJA, s. P. kūza; an earthenware water-vessel (not long-necked, like the ṣurāḥī—see [SERAI]). It is a word used at Bombay chiefly, [but is not uncommon among Mahommedans in N. India].
[1611.—"One sack of cusher to make coho."—Danvers, Letters, i. 128.
[1871.—"Many parts of India are celebrated for their coojahs or guglets, but the finest are brought from Bussorah, being light, thin, and porous, made from a whitish clay."—Riddell, Indian Domestic Economy, 7th ed., p. 362.]
1883.—"They (tree-frogs) would perch pleasantly on the edge of the water cooja, or on the rim of a tumbler."—Tribes on my Frontier, 118.
COOK-ROOM, s. Kitchen; in Anglo-Indian establishments always detached from the house.
1758.—"We will not in future admit of any expenses being defrayed by the Company either under the head of cook-rooms, gardens, or other expenses whatever."—The Court's Letter, March 3, in Long, 130.
1878.—"I was one day watching an old female monkey who had a young one by her side to whom she was giving small bits of a piece of bread which she had evidently just received from my cook-room."—Life in the Mofussil, ii. 44.
COOLCURNEE, s. This is the title of the village accountant and writer in some of the central and western parts of India. Mahr. kuḷkaraṇī, apparently from kuḷa, 'tribe,' and karaṇa, writer, &c., the patwārī of N. India (see under [CRANNY], [CURNUM]). [Kula "in the revenue language of the S. appears to be applied especially to families, or individual heads of families, paying revenue" (Wilson).]
c. 1590.—"... in this Soobah (Berar) ... a chowdry they call Deysmuck; a Canoongou with them is Deyspandeh; a Mokuddem ... they style Putiel; and a Putwaree they name Kulkurnee."—Gladwin's Ayeen Akbery, ii. 57; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 228].
[1826.—"You potails, coolcunnies, &c., will no doubt ... contrive to reap tolerable harvests."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, ii. 47.]