Punkah

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A punkah (Hindi pankha) is a type of fan. In its original sense the punkah is a portable fan, made from the leaf of the palmyra.

But notably in the colonial age, the word has come to be used in a special sense by Anglo-Indians in British India for a large swinging fan, fixed to the ceiling, and pulled by a coolie, called the punkahwalla, during the hot weather.

The date of this invention is not known, but it was familiar to the Arabs as early as the 8th century, though it does not seem to have come into common use in India before the end of the 18th century.

It was largely supplanted by the electric fan in barracks and other large buildings at the beginning of the 20th century.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.