Anglo-Ind. Also choltry. [Corruption of Telugu cháwaḍi, or Malayālam cháwaṭi, Dakhanī chāoṛi; sometimes more accurately represented as chawadī, chowree, chouri.]
1. A place for the reception and accommodation of travellers; an inn, caravanserai; also used for the transaction of public business (Yule).
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 82 (Y.). Little better Tenements than Booths stiled by the name of Choultries.
1783. Burke, Sp. Fox’s E. India Bill, Wks. IV. 79. The country was full of choultries, which were inns and hospitals where the traveller and the poor were relieved.
1816. Poetry, in Ann. Reg., 637. This Choultry’s ample space The way-worn traveller’s resting place.
1858. J. B. Norton, Topics, 197. Posting up a copy of this document in the choultry or most conspicuous place in each village.
2. The pillared hall or colonnade of a temple.
1772. Call, Signs Zodiac, in Phil. Trans., LXII. 353. I searched in my travels many other pagodas, or choultrys, for similar carvings.
1858. Beveridge, Hist. India, II. IV. iv. 147. Another appendage of these temples is the choultry, or pillared colonnade.
1862. R. Patterson, Ess. Hist. & Art, 417. In front of the temple or choultry where the idol reposes.
