30 Oranges and Lemons of India. 



pummelo proper, as we see it to-day, was not known 

 in India. Moreover, Roxburgh says that the pummelo 

 was brought to Calcutta from Java. 



In support of Roxburgh's statement, there are other 

 circumstances. The Bengalis, even at the present day, 

 call the pummelo batabi lemboo (Batavian citrus). 

 They have no v in their language, and therefore batavi, 

 would naturally be transformed into batabi. Then, 

 as this citrus was propagated, and crept up country 

 from Calcutta, still under the name of batabi lemboo, 

 its name underwent another transformation. Natives 

 of India have often a curious way of assimilating a 

 foreign name, by calling it by some Indian familiar 

 name, which sounds like it, irrespective of spelling. 

 For instance, the proper English name Newberry, is 

 at once turned by them into lomree, the native 

 name for a fox ; and the English name of Bidler is 

 turned by them into gooler, the name of one of their 

 numerous fig-trees (Ficus glomerata ?). So that it is 

 not improbable that they soon turned the foreign name 

 batabi into maJitabi, like a moon, mahtab being the 

 Persian name of that satellite. Curiously enough, the 

 large oblate pummelo is not, in size, very unlike the 

 apparent size of the moon. Another native name for 

 the pummelo is chakbtra. This also is good evidence 

 of this fruit being of foreign origin, the old name of 

 Batavia having been Jacatra. In the same way that 

 learned natives have derived the name of mahtabi from 

 maktab, the moon, so did Pundits endeavour to give a 

 Sanskrit origin to the word chakbtra, as will be seen in 

 the chapter on the derivations of citrus names. Further, 

 all the south Indian names of this fruit, though strangely 

 transformed, bear the stamp of a foreign derivation. 

 There remains little doubt then that the pummelo 

 proper in India, came from Java, and probably after 



