Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.9338

c10.9338

MEEANA, MYANNA, s. H.—P. miyāna, ‘middle-sized.’ The name of a kind of palankin; that kind out of which the palankin used by Europeans has been developed, and which has been generally adopted in India for the last century. [Buchanan Hamilton writes: "The lowest kind of palanquins, which are small litters suspended under a straight bamboo, by which they are carried, and shaded by a frame covered with cloth, do not admit the passenger to lie at length, and are here called miyana, or Mahapa. In some places, these terms are considered as synonymous, in others the Miyana is open at the sides, while the Mahapa, intended for women, is surrounded with curtains." (Eastern India, ii. 426).] In Williamson's Vade Mecum (i. 319) the word is written Mohannah.