Punkah

Punkahs in the house of a British couple in India c. 1880
A punkah in the house of French colonials in Indochina c. 1930
Church interior with an intricate system of punkahs c. 1900

A punkah, also pankha (Urdu: پَنکھا, Hindi: पंखा, paṅkhā), is a type of fan used since the early 6th century BC. The word pankha originated from pankh, the wings of a bird which produce a current of air when flapped.