sb. Also sanga, sung(h)a. [Pashtō sangar = Panjābī saṅghar.] A breast work of stone. Also attrib.
1841. in Sir T. Seaton, Cadet to Colonel (1866), I. viii. 215. [Havelock, who was turning one of the spurs of the hill, called out] ‘Here’s the sunga; come on, it’s nothing.’
1857. Bellew, Jrnl. Mission Afghanistan, II. i. (1862), 127. They had thrown up barricades and breastworks of wood and stone (‘murcha’ and ‘sanga’ respectively).
1879. C. R. Low, Afghan War, iii. 210. A stone breast-work, or sungha,… obstructed the flankers.
1892. Kipling, Barrack-R. Ball., Ball. King’s Mercy, 51. When the red-coats crawl to the sungar wall.
1893. Edin. Rev., July, 214. Fire was opened on us from numerous sangas opposite.
1897. Ld. Roberts, 41 Yrs. in India, xxxv. II. 15. The summit [of the hill] was strengthened by sangars.
Hence Sungar, sangar v. trans., to fortify with a sungar.
1901. ‘Linesman,’ in Blackw. Mag., June, 758/1. The night was spent in ‘sangaring’ the position.
1905. E. Candler, Unveiling of Lhasa, viii. 147. At other times they [sc. the Tibetans] will forsake a strongly sangared position at the first shot.
