I would think that Lower rooms would mean the ground floor rooms and the Upper rooms would be above the ground floor rooms. A Pucka building would mean a solid building made from Bricks and Cement Pucka has many meanings for instance a Pucka Sahib is a perfect gentleman. I feel a Pucka idiot writing this sentence means I feel an absolute idiot writing this sentence. Pucka also means ripe and Kutcha has the opposite meaning that is raw. Joyce Munro -----Original Message----- Subject: Re: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Upper and Lower Roomed Houses (Puckavariety of course!) Hi Sylvia: My guess is that: Upper roomed = double storey Lower roomed = single storey These terms must have been an English transliteration from the Danish Moira Breen USA _____ I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users. It has removed 78 spam emails to date. Paying users do not have this message in their emails. Try SPAMfighter <http://www.spamfighter.com/len> for free now!

Thanks for this. Indeed Pucka is a solid bricks and mortar or 'proper' building. As you all identify, the word is an adjective with many applications. Like Moira, I tend to think that the 'upper roomed' house is one of two stories, but as I have also seen the description "upper and lower roomed" it raises the possibility of a house with, say, (and I am only speculating here) stables, coach garage or storage space on the ground floor (or maybe servants sleeping quarters?) with the residential areas on an upper floor. Lower roomed does suggest single storey, but that I think would be a Bungalow, which is different (see below). However, your suggestion of transliteration from the Danish does not fit as the enumeration was made in English (except for one sheet, which I'm having trouble with - put your hands up now if you can read Danish!) In any case I have seen these house descriptions previously in the Calcutta House Assessment Books. Prof. S N Mukherjee in "Calcutta - Essays in Urban History" makes statistical references to the housing in Calcutta in his 1806 survey and counts these types: Bungalow Commercial Residential Commercial Residential (upper) Lower Roomed House Upper Roomed House Straw Hut Tiled Hut Unfortunately he did not define the LRH & URH which are the only ones that are not self evident! Cheers Sylvia > -----Original Message----- > From: india-british-raj-bounces@rootsweb.com > [mailto:india-british-raj-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of MunroZoo > Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 6:10 AM > To: - Rajlist - Rootsweb > Subject: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Upper and Lower Roomed Houses > (Puckavariety ofcourse!) > > I would think that Lower rooms would mean the ground floor > rooms and the Upper rooms would be above the ground floor rooms. > > A Pucka building would mean a solid building made from Bricks > and Cement > > > Pucka has many meanings for instance a Pucka Sahib is a > perfect gentleman. I feel a Pucka idiot writing this sentence > means I feel an absolute idiot writing this sentence. Pucka > also means ripe and Kutcha has the opposite meaning that is raw. > > Joyce Munro > > -----Original Message----- > > Subject: Re: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Upper and Lower Roomed > Houses (Puckavariety of course!) > > Hi Sylvia: > > My guess is that: > > Upper roomed = double storey > > Lower roomed = single storey > > These terms must have been an English transliteration from the Danish > > Moira Breen > > USA >

G'day Sylvia, On 14/07/2008, at 9:50 AM, Sylvia Murphy wrote: > However, your suggestion of transliteration from the Danish does > not fit as the enumeration was made in English (except for one > sheet, which I'm having trouble with - put your hands up now if > you can read Danish!) Sylvia, I can help with that. ooroo If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door. Anon.