H-ASIA: Term for opium query (fwd)

[Dominik Wujastyk]

On Wed, 15 May 1996, Frank Conlon wrote:

> Query on term for opium
> ****************************************************************************
> From: Richard Barz <Richard.Barz at anu.edu.au>
>
> I have an etymological problem that I need help with.  There is a Hindi
> word, chandukhana (caNDuukhaanaa), which means "a place where opium is
> used", the word chandu (the suffix "khana" means 'house') has no likely
> Hindi root.  Since one Hindi-English dictionary defines chandu as "a mixed
> preparation of opium (of Chinese type) for smoking", could chandu be a
> borrowing from Chinese?  Does anyone know of such a word with the meaning
> of opium or some type of opium?

The botanical reference books available to me (Nadkarni, Kirtikar & Basu)
do not list Chandu[khana] amongst the many names for the several species
of Opium.

--
Dominik Wujastyk