c. 1530.—"Another is the jaman.... It is on the whole a fine looking tree. Its fruit resembles the black grape, but has a more acid taste, and is not very good."—Baber, 325. The note on this runs: "This, Dr. Hunter says, is the Eugenia Jambolana, the rose-apple (Eugenia jambolana, but not the rose-apple, which is now called Eugenia jambu.—D.W.). The jâman has no resemblance to the rose-apple; it is more like an oblong sloe than anything else, but grows on a tall tree."
1563.—"I will eat of those olives,——, at least they look like such; but they are very astringent (ponticas) as if binding,——, and yet they do look like ripe Cordova olives.
"O. They are called jambolones, and grow wild in a wood that looks like a myrtle grove; in its leaves the tree resembles the arbutus; but like the jack, the people of the country don't hold this fruit for very wholesome."—Garcia, f. 111y.
1859.—"The Indian jamli.... It is a noble tree, which adorns some of the coast villages and plantations, and it produces a damson-like fruit, with a pleasant sub-acid flavour."—Burton, in J.R.G.S. ix. 36.
JANCADA, s. This name was given to certain responsible guides in the Nair country who escorted travellers from one inhabited place to another, guaranteeing their security with their own lives, like the Bhāts of Guzerat. The word is Malayāl. chaṅṅāḍam (i.e. changngāḍam, [the Madras Gloss. writes channātam, and derives it from Skt. sanghāta, 'union']), with the same spelling as that of the word given as the origin of jangar or jangada, 'a raft.' These jancadas or jangadas seem also to have been placed in other confidential and dangerous charges. Thus:
1543.—"This man who so resolutely died was one of the jangadas of the Pagode. They are called jangades because the kings and lords of those lands, according to a custom of theirs, send as guardians of the houses of the Pagodes in their territories, two men as captains, who are men of honour and good cavaliers. Such guardians are called jangadas, and have soldiers of guard under them, and are as it were the Counsellors and Ministers of the affairs of the pagodes, and they receive their maintenance from the establishment and its revenues. And sometimes the king changes them and appoints others."—Correa, iv. 328.
c. 1610.—"I travelled with another Captain ... who had with him these Jangai, who are the Nair guides, and who are found at the gates of towns to act as escort to those who require them.... Every one takes them, the weak for safety and protection, those who are stronger, and travel in great companies and well armed, take them only as witnesses that they are not aggressors in case of any dispute with the Nairs."—Pyrard de Laval, ch. xxv.; [Hak. Soc. i. 339, and see Mr. Gray's note in loco].
1672.—"The safest of all journeyings in India are those through the Kingdom of the Nairs and the Samorin, if you travel with Giancadas, the most perilous if you go alone. These Giancadas are certain heathen men, who venture their own life and the lives of their kinsfolk for small remuneration, to guarantee the safety of travellers."—P. Vincenzo Maria, 127.
See also Chungathum, in Burton's Goa, p. 198.
JANGAR, s. A raft. Port. jangada. ["A double platform canoe made by placing a floor of boards across two boats, with a bamboo railing." (Madras Gloss.).] This word, chiefly colloquial, is the Tamil-Malayāl. shangāḍam, channātam (for the derivation of which see [JANCADA]). It is a word of particular interest as being one of the few Dravidian words, [but perhaps ultimately of Skt. origin], preserved in the remains of classical antiquity, occurring in the Periplus as our quotation shows. Bluteau does not call the word an Indian term.