Deccan

English

Alternative forms

• Decan, Dekkan, Dekhan

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

Anglicisation of Hindi दक्खिन / Urdu دکھن (dakkhin). The alternative spellings in English reflect the various forms of the Hindustani etymon.

Proper noun

the Deccan

1. A large plateau covering most of central and southern India.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, lines 1099-106:

     So counſell'd he, and both together went / Into the thickeſt wood : there ſoon they choſe / The fig-tree ; not that kind for fruit renown'd ; / But ſuch as at this day to Indians known / In Malabar or Decan, ſpreads her arms / Branching ſo broad and long, that in the ground / The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow / About the mother-tree, […]

   • 1794, Jonathan Scott, “Introduction”, in Ferishta's History of Dekkan, from the First Mahummedan Conquests […] ‎^[1], volume I, page ix:

     Dekkan, or the ſouthern diviſion of “Hindooſtan, called by European geographers, The Peninſula, has varied in boundary, at different periods, with the poſſeſſions of its rulers in adjacent provinces.

   • 1822, “Canto V”, in Heera. The Maid of the Dekhan. A poem. In Five Cantos.‎^[2], pages 109-10:

     The spies affirmed, that busy fame, / Declared aloud the gallant name, / Of Hussein Khan, the Sooltan’s son, / Whose brand in battle oft had shone, / And spread his youthful glory wide, / Till stood he forth the Dekhan's pride,— / Now called the Moslem force to lead, / And fire their souls to vengeance dread.

   • 1996, Shanti Sadiq Ali, The African Dispersal in the Deccan: From Medieval to Modern Times‎^[3], pages 27-28:

     In India, it is generally considered that the earliest Muslims to settle in the Deccan were the Arabs of the Navayat clan, who had made the Konkan their permanent home about the year a.d. 701 when they fled from the Kufah (in the Euphrates valley) to escape the cruelties of the governor, Hajjaj bin Yusuf. Even prior to the Muslim conquest of the Deccan, the Rashtrakutas had Arabs and Abyssinians in their armies.

Related terms

• Deccani (adjective/noun)

Descendants

• ⇒ New Latin: deccanensis

Anagrams

• accend