Continuing on the H-Words (Fifth Essay)

Several of the words on the list from the preceding essay are Arabic or Hindi-derived words. Among them are hamal, hamman, and halalcor. Let's begin with yet another word, hakim. Spelled in various ways (with hakim being the most familiar), the word hakim is Arabic for "doctor," but has morphed over the years in English to mean also a judge, ruler or governor. The word first came into our language in the late 16th century, as a result of "face to face" knowledge of "The Turks" (i.e., the Ottoman Empire) as they were then called. At first we in the West were taught to hate them because of their "foreign" religion and culture, but sooner or later they just became another player on the geopolitical stage, finally succumbing, or "Westernizing," after the 1st World War. "Al-Hakim" is one of the 99 names of Allah in the Qur'an. The other 98 will have to await another essay or two...

2. I had never heard of halalcor until recently, but it is Persian/Urdu for "one of the lowest and most despised class in India, Iran, etc." The name, however, is colorfully derived; it is taken from the Arabic halal--"a thing religiously lawful or indifferent." Thus, a member of the halalcor is one to whom all food is "lawful." Such a person, obviously, eats "garbage" along with good things. A person who eats garbage---well, you just finish the thought. From as long ago as 1696: "The Halalchors...are another Sort of Indians at Suratt, the most contemptible..." Wow, if we wanted to take some time with names for contemptible people we would also take a journey on pariah (originally a drummer in South India--in Southern Kerala and Tamil Nadu) and Panchama Bandham, a historical term to describe, in South India, the fifth and lowest division of society, outside the four brahminic divisions. Just as we will need to develop a fully-rounded vocabulary for the various stages of enlightenment or, for that matter, various levels of conflict into which groups get themselves, why not learn a variety of terms for people of "low caste"? We need to be armed with all the words... I just did a Google search and realized that the spelling halalkhor is 5X as prevalent as halalcor, the OED spelling.

3. Speaking of the word Panchama, from the previous word, we can take a brief detour on the word panchakarma. The Sanskrit panca means "five" and karma, well, we know what that is. So, panchakarma is, "in Ayurvedic medicine: an integrated program of five types of treatment and procedures for cleansing the body of toxins and thus restoring its balance of humors." What would a modern Western naturopath say to this? By the way, the five procedures? They are, according to a 1948 quotation: "emetics, purgatives, cleansing clysters, oily clysters, stemutatories (should be sternutatories; the OED has either made a copying mistake or the there was a mistake in the original text--Zimmer's Hindu Medicine) against pains in the head and throat."

4. While in this section of the OED, my eye also fell on Panchen Lama, a term which has been known popularly in the West since the early 1970s, when the Dalai Lama decided to go international with his plight. But the word panchen here is not related to the Sanskrit word pancham (five) above. Here it is a Tibetan word meaning "great scholar" or "great learned one," and is especially associated, in Tibetan Buddhism, with the head lama of the Tashilhunpo monastery in Central Tibet. He is second in prominence to the Dalai Lama in the spiritual and political hierarchy of Tibetan Buddhism. In 2004 we had this from the Times of India: "The XIth Panchen Lama is still under Chinese custody and his safety and whereabouts is still a matter of grave concern." Here is an article on the current controversy over this young man.

5. I just can't quite get back to the "h's," because I ran across another interesting word, panchreston. It was formed off the analogy of panacea, which is a universal medicine, and, in modern days, it means "an explanation or theory which can be made to fit all cases, being used in a such a variety of ways as to become meaningless" (the Greek word chrestos means "useful"). Thus, it is what you might called a "universal explanatory panacea." When I was in college I had a professor, a German, trained in classics and the history of ancient religions, who just couldn't seem to "get it" that the 1960s brought some massive changes to our society. When he was asked for his explanation of a variety of bad things in our 1970s culture, the totality of the problem was, according to him, a "failure to read the classics." This was his panchreston. A theory that fits all cases can, arguably, be said to fit no case--and thus, I used to listen to my professor with wry, but respectful, silence...

6. An obsolete (according to the OED), but still interesting terms, is panchymagogue. Let's take it apart and see it effloresce before us. Pan is the Greek word for "all," chyma is a "fluid" or "humor" (chyme in English) and agogos means "leading" or "bringing out." Thus, a panchymagogue is "a medicine thought to expel all unhealthy humors from the body." If only there were one electuary, one theriaca, one catholicon, one panchymagogue, one medicine, which would get rid of all unhealthy thoughts and fluids... Hm, what does it say about us that we have so many terms for "one medicine" that will cure us of everything? I guess languages, as well as individuals, live in longing...

7. I have gotten so far away from my "h's," that you wonder how a return trip is possible. This is often the case in life--we fell so distant from the springs of our own being, so far removed from rhythms that at one time joyfully defined our lives that we don't know what to do. But what I will do here is a good illustration for life--you are a lot closer to that healthy, old, laid-out path than you seem to be. We can clamber back on it by simply returning to the next word: hamal. Because it is an Arabic word coming into English (hammal is Arabic for "porter," from hamala, "to carry"), it can be spelled many ways. The most prominent alternative is hammal. It is, in short: "A Turkish or Oriental porter; in Western India, a palanquin-bearer." From Henry Stanley in 1878: "Hamals, bearing clove and cinamon bags." They will carry anything, according to this 1967 quotation: "Grey-clad hamals, porters who will carry anything anywhere." It just seems that Arabic is in my future, don't you think?

More "H" words beckon.

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