East Ind. [Urdū (Pers.) khāliçah, khālça(h, fem. of Arab. khāliç pure, real, proper, properly belonging.]
1. The revenue department of the government in Indian states; the state exchequer. Also attrib., as khalsa-grain, -land.
1776. Trial of Joseph Fowke, B 14/1. I will procure for you the Kallaut of the Aumeen [= Aumil] of the Khalsa.
1801. R. Patton, Asiat. Mon., 129. The injunctions on this head from the khalsa, or revenue department, are imperious and strong. Ibid., 157. The nankar lands of the zemindar, which have … been converted into khalsah lands.
1862. Beveridge, Hist. India, II. V. vi. 418. The officers of the khalsa (revenue office).
1897. Ld. Roberts, 41 Yrs. India, liii. (1898), 427. The headmen in the neighbourhood refused to deliver the khalsa grain.
2. The Sikh community or sect.
1790. G. Forster, Journ. Bengal to Eng. (1798), I. 267, note. The government at large, and their armies, are [by the Sicques] denominated Khalsa and Khalsajee.
1882. Wood, trans. Barth’s Relig. India, 246. Govind Singh … completed the transformation of the sect, or, as it was henceforth called … the Khâlsâ, ‘the property, the portion (of God).’
