1781.—(After an account of an alleged attempt to seize Mr. Hicky's Darwān). "Mr. Hicky begs leave to make the following remarks. That he is clearly of opinion that these horrid Assassins wanted to dispatch him whilst he lay a sleep, as a Door-van is well known to be the alarm of the House, to prevent which the Villians wanted to carry him off,—and their precipitate flight the moment they heard Mr. Hicky's Voice puts it past a Doubt."—Reflections on the consequence of the late attempt made to Assassinate the Printer of the original Bengal Gazette (in the same, April 14).
1784.—"Yesterday at daybreak, a most extraordinary and horrid murder was committed upon the Dirwan of Thomas Martin, Esq."—In Seton-Karr, i. 12.
" "In the entrance passage, often on both sides of it, is a raised floor with one or two open cells, in which the Darwans (or doorkeepers) sit, lie, and sleep—in fact dwell."—Calc. Review, vol. lix. p. 207.
DURWAUZA-BUND. The formula by which a native servant in an Anglo-Indian household intimates that his master or mistress cannot receive a visitor—'Not at home'—without the untruth. It is elliptical for darwāza band hai, 'the door is closed.'
[1877.—"When they did not find him there, it was Darwaza bund."—Allardyce, The City of Sunshine, i. 125.]
DUSSERA, DASSORA, DASEHRA, s. Skt. daśaharā, H. dasharā, Mahr. dasrā; the nine-nights' (or ten days') festival in October, also called Durgā-pūjā (see [DOORGA-P.]). In the west and south of India this holiday, taking place after the close of the wet season, became a great military festival, and the period when military expeditions were entered upon. The Mahrattas were alleged to celebrate the occasion in a way characteristic of them, by destroying a village! The popular etymology of the word and that accepted by the best authorities, is daś, 'ten (sins)' and har, 'that which takes away (or expiates).' It is, perhaps, rather connected with the ten days' duration of the feast, or with its chief day being the 10th of the month (Aśvina); but the origin is decidedly obscure.
c. 1590.—"The autumn harvest he shall begin to collect from the Deshereh, which is another Hindoo festival that also happens differently, from the beginning of Virgo to the commencement of Libra."—Ayeen, tr. Gladwin, ed. 1800, i. 307; [tr. Jarrett, ii. 46].
1785.—"On the anniversary of the Dusharah you will distribute among the Hindoos, composing your escort, a goat to every ten men."—Tippoo's Letters, 162.
1799.—"On the Institution and Ceremonies of the Hindoo Festival of the Dusrah," published (1820) in Trans. Bomb. Lit. Soc. iii. 73 seqq. (By Sir John Malcolm.)
1812.—"The Courts ... are allowed to adjourn annually during the Hindoo festival called dussarah."—Fifth Report, 37.