1776.—"If a person hath bought the seeds of ... doll ... or such kinds of Grain, without Inspection, and in ten Days discovers any Defect in that Grain, he may return such Grain."—Halhed, Code, 178.
1778.—"... the essential articles of a Sepoy's diet, rice, doll (a species of pea), ghee (an indifferent kind of butter), &c., were not to be purchased."—Acc. of the Gallant Defence made at Mangalore.
1809.—"... dol, split country peas."—Maria Graham, 25.
[1813.—"Tuar (cytisus cajan, Lin.) ... is called Dohll...."—Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 35.]
DHAWK, s. Hind. dhāk; also called palās. A small bushy tree, Butea frondosa (N. O. Leguminosae), which forms large tracts of jungle in the Punjab, and in many dry parts of India. Its deep orange flowers give a brilliant aspect to the jungle in the early part of the hot weather, and have suggested the occasional name of 'Flame of the Forest.' They are used for dyeing basanto, basantī, a fleeting yellow; and in preparing Holī (see [HOOLY]) powder. The second of the two Hindī words for this tree gave a name to the famous village of Plassy (Palāśī), and also to ancient Magadha or Behār as Palāśa or Parāśa, whence Parāśiya, a man of that region, which, if Gen. Cunningham's suggestion be accepted, was the name represented by the Prasii of Strabo, Pliny, and Arrian, and the Pharrasii of Curtius (Anc. Geog. of India, p. 454). [The derivation of the word from Skt. Prāchyās 'Inhabitants of the east country,' is supported by McCrindle, Ancient India, 365 seq. So the dhāk tree possibly gave its name to [Dacca]].
1761.—"The pioneers, agreeably to orders, dug a ditch according to custom, and placed along the brink of it an abattis of dhák trees, or whatever else they could find."—Saiyid Ghulām 'Ali, in Elliot, viii. 400.
DHOBY, DOBIE, s. A washerman; H. dhobī, [from dhonā, Skt. dhāv, 'to wash.'] In colloquial Anglo-Indian use all over India. A common H. proverb runs: Dhobī kā kuttā kā sā, na ghar kā na ghāṭ kā, i.e. "Like a Dhoby's dog belonging neither to the house nor to the river side." [Dhoby's itch is a troublesome cutaneous disease supposed to be communicated by clothes from the wash, and Dhoby's earth is a whitish-grey sandy efflorescence, found in many places, from which by boiling and the addition of quicklime an alkali of considerable strength is obtained.
[c. 1804.—"Dobes." See under [DIRZEE]].
DHOOLY, DOOLIE, s. A covered litter; Hind. ḍolī. It consists of a cot or frame, suspended by the four corners from a bamboo pole, and is carried by two or four men (see figure in Herklots, Qanoon-e-Islam, pl. vii. fig. 4). Ḍoli is from ḍolnā, 'to swing.' The word is also applied to the meat- (or milk-) safe, which is usually slung to a tree, or to a hook in the verandah. As it is lighter and cheaper than a palankin it costs less both to buy or hire and to carry, and is used by the poorer classes. It also forms the usual ambulance of the Indian army. Hence the familiar story of the orator in Parliament who, in celebrating a battle in India, spoke of the "ferocious Doolies rushing down from the mountain and carrying off the wounded"; a story which, to our regret, we have not been able to verify. [According to one account the words were used by Burke: "After a sanguinary engagement, the said Warren Hastings had actually ordered ferocious Doolys to seize upon the wounded" (2nd ser. Notes & Queries, iv. 367).
[But Burke knew too much of India to make this mistake. In the Calcutta Review (Dec. 1846, p. 286, footnote) Herbert Edwardes, writing on the first Sikh War, says: "It is not long since a member of the British Legislature, recounting the incidents of one of our Indian fights, informed his countrymen that 'the ferocious Dūlī' rushed from the hills and carried off the wounded soldiers.">[ Dūla occurs in Ibn Batuta, but the translators render 'palankin,' and do not notice the word.