A rope-and-pulley device used to fan or cool a room, consisting of a large flat piece of cloth or canvas suspended from the ceiling and pulled back and forth by servants to create air circulation.
From Hindi धुचकी (dhunchkī) or related words. The device was particularly common in Indian households before mechanical fans, especially during hot summers, and was operated by pulling a rope.
The dhunchee (or punkah) is brilliant low-tech engineering—a rope-pulled fan that could cool an entire room without electricity. Colonial sahibs in India considered having someone pull the punkah a mark of status, not realizing they were using an ancient Indian invention!
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