DACCA, n.p. Properly Dhākā, ['the wood of ḍhāk (see [DHAWK]) trees'; the Imp. Gaz. suggests Ḍhakeswarī, 'the concealed goddess']. A city in the east of Bengal, once of great importance, especially in the later Mahommedan history; famous also for the "Dacca muslins" woven there, the annual advances for which, prior to 1801, are said to have amounted to £250,000. [Taylor, Descr. and Hist. Account of the Cotton Manufacture of Dacca in Bengal]. Dāka is throughout Central Asia applied to all muslins imported through Kabul.
c. 1612.—"... liberos Osmanis assecutus vivos cepit, eosque cum elephantis et omnibus thesauris defuncti, post quam Daeck Bengalae metropolim est reversus, misit ad regem."—De Laet, quoted by Blochmann, Āīn, i. 521.
[c. 1617.—"Dekaka" in Sir T. Roe's List, Hak. Soc. ii. 538.]
c. 1660.—"The same Robbers took Sultan-Sujah at Daka, to carry him away in their Galeasses to Rakan...."—Bernier, E.T. 55; [ed. Constable, 109].
1665.—"Daca is a great Town, that extends itself only in length; every one coveting to have an House by the Ganges side. The length ... is above two leagues.... These Houses are properly no more than paltry Huts built up with Bambouc's, and daub'd over with fat Earth."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 55; [ed. Ball, i. 128].
1682.—"The only expedient left was for the Agent to go himself in person to the Nabob and Duan at Decca."—Hedges, Diary, Oct. 9; [Hak. Soc. i. 33].
DACOIT, DACOO, s. Hind. ḍakait, ḍākāyat, ḍākū; a robber belonging to an armed gang. The term, being current in Bengal, got into the Penal Code. By law, to constitute dacoity, there must be five or more in the gang committing the crime. Beames derives the word from ḍāknā, 'to shout,' a sense not in Shakespear's Dict. [It is to be found in Platts, and Fallon gives it as used in E. H. It appears to be connected with Skt. dashṭa, 'pressed together.']
1810.—"Decoits, or water-robbers."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 396.
1812.—"Dacoits, a species of depredators who infest the country in gangs."—Fifth Report, p. 9.
1817.—"The crime of dacoity" (that is, robbery by gangs), says Sir Henry Strachey, "... has, I believe, increased greatly since the British administration of justice."—Mill, H. of B. I., v. 466.