FOUJDAR, PHOUSDAR, &c., s. Properly a military commander (P. fauj, 'a military force,' fauj-dār, 'one holding such a force at his disposal'), or a military governor of a district. But in India, an officer of the Moghul Government who was invested with the charge of the police, and jurisdiction in criminal matters. Also used in Bengal, in the 18th century, for a criminal judge. In the Āīn, a Faujdār is in charge of several pergunnahs under the Sipāh-sālār, or Viceroy and C.-in-Chief of the Subah (Gladwin's Ayeen, i. 294; [Jarrett, ii. 40]).
[1687.—"Mullick Burcoordar Phousdardar of Hughly."—Ibid. ii. lxv.]
1690.—"... If any Thefts or Robberies are committed in the Country, the Fousdar, another officer, is oblig'd to answer for them...."—Ovington, 232.
1702.—"... Perwannas directed to all Foujdars."—Wheeler, i. 405.
[1727.—"Fouzdaar." See under HOOGLY.]
1754.—"The Phousdar of Vellore ... made overtures offering to acknowledge Mahomed Ally."—Orme, i. 372.
1757.—"Phousdar...."—Ives, 157.
1783.—"A complaint was made that Mr. Hastings had sold the office of phousdar of Hoogly to a person called Khân Jehân Khân, on a corrupt agreement."—11th Report on Affairs of India, in Burke, vi. 545.
1786.—"... the said phousdar (of Hoogly) had given a receipt of bribe to the patron of the city, meaning Warren Hastings, to pay him annually 36,000 rupees a year."—Articles agst. Hastings, in Ibid. vii. 76.
1809.—"The Foojadar, being now in his capital, sent me an excellent dinner of fowls, and a pillau."—Ld. Valentia, i. 409.
1810.—
"For ease the harass'd Foujdar prays
When crowded Courts and sultry days
Exhale the noxious fume,
While poring o'er the cause he hears
The lengthened lie, and doubts and fears
The culprit's final doom."
Lines by Warren Hastings.
FOUJDARRY, PHOUSDARRY, s. P. faujdārī, a district under a faujdār (see FOUJDAR); the office and jurisdiction of a faujdār; in Bengal and Upper India, 'police jurisdiction,' 'criminal' as opposed to 'civil' justice. Thus the chief criminal Court at Madras and Bombay, up to 1863, was termed the Foujdary Adawlut, corresponding to the Nizamut Adawlut of Bengal. (See ADAWLUT.)
FOWRA, s. In Upper India, a mattock or large hoe; the tool generally employed in digging in most parts of India. Properly speaking (H.) phāoṛā. (See MAMOOTY.)
[1848.—"On one side Bedullah and one of the grasscutters were toiling away with fowrahs, a kind of spade-pickaxe, making water-courses."—Mrs. Mackenzie, Life in the Mission, i. 373.]
1880.—"It so fell out the other day in Cawnpore, that, when a patwari endeavoured to remonstrate with some cultivators for taking water for irrigation from a pond, they knocked him down with the handle of a phaora and cut off his head with the blade, which went an inch or more into the ground, whilst the head rolled away several feet."—Pioneer Mail, March 4.
FOX, FLYING. (See FLYING-FOX.)
FRAZALA, FARASOLA, FRAZIL, FRAIL, s. Ar. fārsala, a weight formerly much used in trade in the Indian seas. As usual, it varied much locally, but it seems to have run from 20 to 30 lbs., and occupied a place intermediate between the (smaller) maund and the Bahar; the fārsala being generally equal to ten (small) maunds, the bahār equal to 10, 15, or 20 fārsalas. See Barbosa (Hak. Soc.) 224; Milburn, i. 83, 87, &c.; Prinsep's Useful Tables, by Thomas, pp. 116, 119.
