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| ayah | a nanny |
| boxwallah | originally an Indian travelling salesman it became a term used for a British businessman in India. |
| cantonment | military station |
| charpoy | a string bed |
| chowkidar | village policeman |
| chummery | house shared by bachelors |
| cutchery | courthouse |
| dandy | a kind of hammock on a pole carried by coolies |
| factor | buyer/seller. 2nd Class of East India Co's servants. Staff were promoted by grades: writer, factor, junior and senior merchant. Usually spent three years at this level before moving up to Junior Merchant. |
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| factory | trading station. Each consisted of an office, warehouses and living accommodation. |
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| griffin | newcomer in his first year in India |
| jampan | a kind of sedan chair carried by two pairs of men known as i>jampannies |
| kheddah | the capture of wild elephants |
| ma-bap | used to denote a paternalistic District Officer (literally means 'mother and father') |
| maidan | open space in a town |
| Nizam | Hereditary rulers of Hydrabad |
| nabob | a rich Anglo-Indian businessman of the eighteenth century |
| patel | village headman |
| punkah | cloth flan on a frame suspended from the ceiling and activated by an Indian servant known as a punkah wallah pulling a rope |
| rajput | member of the Hindu warrior caste. They lived mostly in Rajputana or the North-Western Provinces |
| rani | wife of a raja |
| royot | farmer |
| sepoy | an Indian private solidier in the armies of the East India Company and later of the Indian Army. |
| sowar | an Indian trooper |
| Supercargoes | Temporary factories often because local authorities would not permit permanent residence by foreigners, or if there was not enough trade for a year-round presence. |
| tiffin | midday snack or early lunch |
| tonga | a light, two-wheeled vehicle, usually drawn by ponies |
| Vedas | ancient, sacred Hindu books |
| writer | A clerk in HEIC. Lowest grade for staff of a Factory. Usually spent five years at this level before becoming a Factor. |
| zamindar | large landowner and rent collector in Bengal |
| zamindari system | the settlement of land revenue whereby landlords collected agricultural rents and paid part of it into the exchequer |
| zenna | area in a house where women were kept secluded |