1300.—"The Sultan despatched Ulugh Khán to Ma'bar and Gujarát for the destruction of the idol-temple of Somnát, on the 20th of Jumádá'-l awwal, 698 H...."—Amīr Khusrū, in Elliot, iii. 74.
[c. 1330.—"Juzrat." See under [LAR].]
1554.—"At last we made the land of Guchrát in Hindustan."—Sidi 'Ali, p. 79.
The name is sometimes used by the old writers for the people, and especially for the Hindu merchants or [banyans] (q.v.) of Guzerat. See Sainsbury, i. 445 and passim.
[c. 1605.—"And alsoe the Guzatts do saile in the Portugalls shipps in euery porte of the East Indies...."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 85.]
GOOZUL-KHANA, s. A bathroom; H. from Ar.—P. ghusl-khāna, of corresponding sense. The apartment so called was used by some of the Great Moghuls as a place of private audience.
1616.—"At eight, after supper he comes down to the guzelcan (v.l. gazelcan), a faire Court wherein in the middest is a Throne erected of freestone."—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, ii.; [Hak. Soc. i. 106].
" "The thirteenth, at night I went to the Gussell Chan, where is best opportunitie to doe business, and tooke with me the Italian, determining to walk no longer in darknesse, but to prooue the King...."—Ibid. p. 543; [in Hak. Soc. i. 202, Guzel-chan; in ii. 459, Gushel choes].
c. 1660.—"The grand hall of the Am-Kas opens into a more retired chamber, called the gosel-kane, or the place to wash in. But few are suffered to enter there.... There it is where the king is seated in a chair ... and giveth a more particular Audience to his officers."—Bernier, E.T. p. 85; [ed. Constable, 265; ibid. 361 gosle-kane].
GOPURA, s. The meaning of the word in Skt. is 'city-gate,' go 'eye,' pura, 'city.' But in S. India the gopuram is that remarkable feature of architecture, peculiar to the Peninsula, the great pyramidal tower over the entrance-gate to the precinct of a temple. See Fergusson's Indian and Eastern Architecture, 325, &c. [The same feature has been reproduced in the great temple of the Seth at Brindāban, which is designed on a S. Indian model. (Growse, Mathura, 260).] This feature is not, in any of the S. Indian temples, older than the 15th or 16th cent., and was no doubt adopted for purposes of defence, as indeed the Śilpa-śāstra ('Books of Mechanical Arts') treatises imply. This fact may sufficiently dispose of the idea that the feature indicates an adoption of architecture from ancient Egypt.