# Hobson-Jobson/B

B
BABA, s. This is the word usually applied in Anglo-Indian families, by both Europeans and natives, to the children—often in the plural form, bābā lōg (lōg = folk). The word is not used by the natives among themselves in the same way, at least not habitually: and it would seem as if our word baby had influenced the use. The word bābā is properly Turki = 'father'; sometimes used to a child as a term of endearment (or forming part of such a term, as in the P. Bābājān, 'Life of your Father'). Compare the Russian use of batushka. [Bābājī is a common form of address to a Faḳīr, usually a member of one of the Musulman sects. And hence it is used generally as a title of respect.]
1826.—"I reached the hut of a Gossein ... and reluctantly tapped at the wicket, calling, 'O Baba, O Maharaj.'"—Pandurang Hari [ed. 1873, i. 76].
BABAGOOREE, s. H. Bābāghūrī, the white agate (or chalcedony?) of Cambay. [For these stones see Forbes, Or. Mem. 2nd ed. i. 323: Tavernier, ed. Ball, i. 68.] It is apparently so called from the patron saint or martyr of the district containing the mines, under whose special protection the miners place themselves before descending into the shafts. Tradition alleges that he was a prince of the great Ghori dynasty, who was killed in a great battle in that region. But this prince will hardly be found in history.
1554.—"In this country (Guzerat) is a profusion of Bābāghūrī and carnelians; but the best of these last are those coming from Yaman."—Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, in J.A.S.B. v. 463.
1590.—"By the command of his Majesty grain weights of bābāghūrī were made, which were used in weighing."—Āīn, i. 35, and note, p. 615 (Blochmann).
1818.—"On the summit stands the tomb ... of the titular saint of the country, Baba Ghor, to whom a devotion is paid more as a deity than as a saint...."—Copland, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo., i. 294.
BABBS, n.p. This name is given to the I. of Perim, in the St. of Babelmandel, in the quotation from Ovington. It was probably English sea-slang only. [Mr Whiteway points out that this is clearly from albabo, the Port. form of the Ar. word. João de Castro in Roteiro (1541), p. 34, says: "This strait is called by the neighbouring people, as well as those who dwell on the shores of the Indian Ocean, Albabo, which in Arabic signifies 'gates.'"]
[1611.—"There is at the Babb a ship come from Swahell."—Ibid. i. 111.]
1690.—"The Babbs is a small island opening to the Red Sea.... Between this and the Main Land is a safe Passage...."—Ovington, 458.
BABER, BHABUR, s. H. bābar, bhābar. A name given to those districts of the N.W. Provinces which lie immediately under the Himālaya to the dry forest belt on the talus of the hills, at the lower edge of which the moisture comes to the surface and forms the wet forest belt called Tarāī. (See TERAI.) The following extract from the report of a lecture on Indian Forests is rather a happy example of the danger of "a little learning" to a reporter:
BABI-ROUSSA, s. Malay babi ('hog') rūsa ('stag'). The 'Stag-hog,' a remarkable animal of the swine genus (Sus babirussa, L.; Babirussa alfurus, F. Cuvier), found in the island of Bourou, and some others of the I. Archipelago, but nowhere on continental Asia. Yet it seems difficult to apply the description of Pliny below, or the name and drawing given by Cosmas, to any other animal. The 4-horned swine of Aelian is more probably the African Wart-hog, called accordingly by F. Cuvier Phacochoerus Aeliani.
c. 250. "Λέγει δὲ Δίνων ἐν Αἰθιωπίᾳ γίνεσθαι ... ὕς τετράκερως."—Aelian, De Nat. Anim. xvii. 10.
c. 545.—"The Choirelaphus ('Hog-stag') I have both seen and eaten."—Cosmas Indicopleustes, in Cathay, &c., p. clxxv.
1555.—"There are hogs also with hornes, and parats which prattle much which they call noris (Lory)."—Galvano, Discoveries of the World, Hak. Soc. 120.
page 44a1658.—"Quadrupes hoc inusitatatae figurae monstrosis bestiis ascribunt Indi quod adversae speciei animalibus, Porco scilicet et Cervo, pronatum putent ... ita ut primo intuitu quatuor cornibus juxta se positis videatur armatum hoc animal Baby-Roussa."—Piso, App. to Bontius, p. 61.
BABOO, s. Beng. and H. Bābū [Skt. vapra, 'a father']. Properly a term of respect attached to a name, like Master or Mr., and formerly in some parts of Hindustan applied to certain persons of distinction. Its application as a term of respect is now almost or altogether confined to Lower Bengal (though C. P. Brown states that it is also used in S. India for 'Sir, My lord, your Honour'). In Bengal and elsewhere, among Anglo-Indians, it is often used with a slight savour of disparagement, as characterizing a superficially cultivated, but too often effeminate, Bengali. And from the extensive employment of the class, to which the term was applied as a title, in the capacity of clerks in English offices, the word has come often to signify 'a native clerk who writes English.'
1782.—"Cantoo Baboo" appears as a subscriber to a famine fund at Madras for 200 Sicca Rupees.—India Gazette, Oct. 12.
1791.
"Here Edmund was making a monstrous ado, About some bloody Letter and Conta Bah-Booh." Letters of Simkin the Second, 147.
page 44b1803.—"... Calling on Mr. Neave I found there Baboo Dheep Narrain, brother to Oodit Narrain, Rajah at Benares."—Lord Valentia's Travels, i. 112.
1824.—"... the immense convent-like mansion of some of the more wealthy Baboos...."—Heber, i. 31, ed. 1844.
1834.—"The Baboo and other Tales, descriptive of Society in India."—Smith & Elder, London. (By Augustus Prinsep.)
1850.—"If instruction were sought for from them (the Mohammedan historians) we should no longer hear bombastic Baboos, enjoying under our Government the highest degree of personal liberty ... rave about patriotism, and the degradation of their present position."—Sir H. M. Elliot, Orig. Preface to Mahom. Historians of India, in Dowson's ed., I. xxii.
c. 1866.
"But I'd sooner be robbed by a tall man who showed me a yard of steel, Than be fleeced by a sneaking Baboo, with a peon and badge at his heel." Sir A. C. Lyall, The Old Pindaree.
1873.—"The pliable, plastic, receptive Baboo of Bengal eagerly avails himself of this system (of English education) partly from a servile wish to please the Sahib logue, and partly from a desire to obtain a Government appointment."—Fraser's Mag., August, 209.
N.B.—In Java and the further East bābū means a nurse or female servant (Javanese word).
BABOOL, s. H. babūl, babūr (though often mispronounced bābul, as in two quotations below); also called kīkar. A thorny mimosa common in most parts of India except the Malabar Coast; the Acacia arabica, Willd. The Bhils use the gum as food.
1780.—"Price Current. Country Produce: Bable Trees, large, 5 pc. each tree."—Hickey's Bengal Gazette, April 29. [This is bāblā, the Bengali form of the word.]
1824.—"Rampoor is ... chiefly remarkable for the sort of fortification which surrounds it. This is a high thick hedge ... of bamboos ... faced on the outside by a formidable underwood of cactus and bâbool."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 290.
BABOON, s. This, no doubt, comes to us through the Ital. babuino; but it is probable that the latter word is a corruption of Pers. maimūn ['the auspicious one'], and then applied by way of euphemism or irony to the baboon or monkey. It also occurs in Ital. under the more direct form of maimone in gatto-maimone, 'cat-monkey,' or rather 'monkey-cat.' [The N.E.D. leaves the origin of the word doubtful, and does not discuss this among other suggested derivations.]
BACANORE and BARCELORE, nn.pp. Two ports of Canara often coupled together in old narratives, but which have entirely disappeared from modern maps and books of navigation, insomuch that it is not quite easy to indicate their precise position. But it would seem that Bacanore, Malayāl. Vakkanūr, is the place called in Canarese Bārkūr, the Barcoor-pettah of some maps, in lat. 13° 28½′. This was the site of a very old and important city, "the capital of the Jain kings of Tulava ... and subsequently a stronghold of the Vijiyanagar Rajas."—Imp. Gazet. [Also see Stuart, Man. S. Canara, ii. 264.]
Also that Barcelore is a Port. corruption of Basrūr [the Canarese Basarūru, 'the town of the waved-leaf fig tree.' (Mad. Adm. Man. Gloss., s.v.).] It must have stood immediately below the 'Barsilur Peak' of the Admiralty charts, and was apparently identical with, or near to, the place called Seroor in Scott's Map of the Madras Presidency, in about lat. 13° 55′. [See Stuart, ibid. ii. 242. Seroor is perhaps the Shirūr of Mr Stuart (ibid. p. 243).]
c. 1343.—"The first town of Mulaibār that we visited was Abu-Sarūr, which is small, situated on a great estuary, and abounding in coco-nut trees.... Two days after our departure from that town we arrived at Fākanūr, which is large and situated on an estuary. One sees there an abundance of sugar-cane, such as has no equal in that country."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 77–78.
c. 1420.—"Duas praeterea ad maritimas urbes, alteram Pachamuriam ... nomine, page 45bxx diebus transiit."—Conti, in Poggius de Var. Fort. iv.
1501.—"Bacanut," for Bacanur, is named in Amerigo Vespucci's letter, giving an account of Da Gama's discoveries, first published by Baldelli Boni, Il Milione, pp. liii. seqq.
1516.—"Passing further forward ... along the coast, there are two little rivers on which stand two places, the one called Bacanor, and the other Bracalor, belonging to the kingdom of Narsyngua and the province of Tolinate (Tulu-nāḍa, Tuluva or S. Canara). And in them is much good rice grown round about these places, and this is loaded in many foreign ships and in many of Malabar...."—Barbosa, in Lisbon Coll. 294.
1548.—"The Port of the River of Barcalor pays 500 loads (of rice as tribute)."—Botelho, Tombo, 246.
1552.—"Having dispatched this vessel, he (V. da Gama) turned to follow his voyage, desiring to erect the padrão (votive pillar) of which we have spoken; and not finding a place that pleased him better, he erected one on certain islets joined (as it were) to the land, giving it the name of Sancta Maria, whence these islands are now called Saint Mary's Isles, standing between Bacanor and Baticalá, two notable places on that coast."—De Barros, I. iv. 11.
" "... the city Onor, capital of the kingdom, Baticalá, Bendor, Bracelor, Bacanor."—Ibid. I. ix. 1.
1726.—"In Barseloor or Basseloor have we still a factory ... a little south of Basseloor lies Baquanoor and the little River Vier."—Valentijn, v. (Malabar) 6.
1727.—"The next town to the Southward of Batacola [Batcul] is Barceloar, standing on the Banks of a broad River about 4 Miles from the Sea.... The Dutch have a Factory here, only to bring up Rice for their Garrisons.... Baccanoar and Molkey lie between Barceloar and Mangalore, both having the benefit of Rivers to export the large quantities of Rice that the Fields produce."—A. Hamilton, i. 284–5. [Molkey is Mulki, see Stuart, op. cit. ii. 259.]
1780.—"St Mary's Islands lie along the coast N. and S. as far as off the river of Bacanor, or Callianpoor, being about 6 leagues.... In lat. 13° 50′ N., 5 leagues from Bacanor, runs the river Barsalor."—Dunn's N. Directory, 5th ed. 105.
BACKDORE, s. H. bāg-ḍor ('bridle-cord'); a halter or leading rein.
BACKSEE. Sea H. bāksī: nautical 'aback,' from which it has been formed (Roebuck).
page 46aBADEGA, n.p. The Tamil Vaḍagar, i.e. 'Northerners.' The name has at least two specific applications:
a. To the Telegu people who invaded the Tamil country from the kingdom of Vijayanagara (the Bisnaga or Narsinga of the Portuguese and old travellers) during the later Middle Ages, but especially in the 16th century. This word first occurs in the letters of St. Francis Xavier (1544), whose Parava converts on the Tinnevelly Coast were much oppressed by these people. The Badega language of Lucena, and other writers regarding that time, is the Telegu. The Badagas of St. Fr. Xavier's time were in fact the emissaries of the Nāyaka rulers of Madura, using violence to exact tribute for those rulers, whilst the Portuguese had conferred on the Paravas "the somewhat dangerous privilege of being Portuguese subjects."—See Caldwell, H. of Tinnevelly, 69 seqq.
1572.—"Gens est in regno Bisnagae quos Badagas vocant."—E. Acosta, 4 b.
1737.—"In eâ parte missionis Carnatensis in quâ Telougou, ut aiunt, lingua viget, seu inter Badagos, quinque annos versatus sum; neque quamdiu viguerunt vires ab illâ dilectissimâ et sanctissimâ Missione Pudecherium veni."—In Norbert, iii. 230.
b. To one of the races occupying the Nilgiri Hills, speaking an old Canarese dialect, and being apparently a Canarese colony, long separated from the parent stock.—(See Bp. Caldwell's Grammar, 2nd ed., pp. 34, 125, &c.) [The best recent account of this people is that by Mr Thurston in Bulletin of the Madras Museum, vol. ii. No. 1.] The name of these people is usually in English corrupted to Burghers.
BADGEER, s. P. bād-gīr, 'wind-catch.' An arrangement acting as a windsail to bring the wind down into a house; it is common in Persia and page 46bin Sind. [It is the Bādhanj of Arabia, and the Malkaf of Egypt (Burton, Ar. Nights, i. 237; Lane, Mod. Egypt, i. 23.]
[1598.—A similar arrangement at the same place is described by Linschoten, i. 51, Hak. Soc.]
1682.—At Gamron (Gombroon) "most of the houses have a square tower which stands up far above the roof, and which in the upper part towards the four winds has ports and openings to admit air and catch the wind, which plays through these, and ventilates the whole house. In the heat of summer people lie at night at the bottom of these towers, so as to get good rest."—Nieuhof, Zee en Lant-Reize, ii. 79.
[1798.—"The air in it was continually refreshed and renewed by a cool-sail, made like a funnel, in the manner of M. du Hamel."—Stavorinus, Voyage, ii. 104.]
1817.
"The wind-tower on the Emir's dome Can scarcely win a breath from heaven." Moore, Fire-worshippers.
1872.—"... Badgirs or windcatchers. You see on every roof these diminutive screens of wattle and dab, forming acute angles with the hatches over which they project. Some are moveable, so as to be turned to the S.W. between March and the end of July, when the monsoon sets in from that quarter."—Burton's Sind Revisited, 254.
BADJOE, BAJOO, s. The Malay jacket (Mal. bājū) [of which many varieties are described by Dennys (Disc. Dict. p. 107)].
1784.—"Over this they wear the badjoo, which resembles a morning gown, open at the neck, but fastened close at the wrist, and half-way up the arm."—Marsden, H. of Sumatra, 2nd ed. 44.
1878.—"The general Malay costume ... consists of an inner vest, having a collar to button tight round the neck, and the baju, or jacket, often of light coloured dimity, for undress."—McNair, 147.
BAEL, s. H. bel, Mahr. bail, from Skt. vilva, the Tree and Fruit of Aegle marmelos (Correa), or 'Bengal Quince,' as it is sometimes called, after the name (Marmelos de Benguala) given it by Garcia de Orta, who first described the virtues of this fruit in the treatment of dysentery, &c. These are noticed also by P. Vincenzo Maria and others, and have always been familiar in India. Yet they do not appear to have attracted serious attention in Europe till about the year 1850. It is a small tree, a native of various parts of India. The dried fruit is now imported into England.—(See Hanbury and Flückiger, 116); [Watt, Econ. Dict. i. 117 seqq.]. The shelly rind of the bel is in the Punjab made into carved snuff-boxes for sale to the Afghans.
[1614.—"One jar of Byle at ru. 5 per maund."—Foster, Letters, iii. 41.]
1631.—Jac. Bontius describes the bel as malum cydonium (i.e. a quince), and speaks of its pulp as good for dysentery and the cholerae immanem orgasmum.—Lib. vi. cap. viii.
1672.—"The Bili plant grows to no greater height than that of a man [this is incorrect], all thorny ... the fruit in size and hardness, and nature of rind, resembles a pomegranate, dotted over the surface with little dark spots equally distributed.... With the fruit they make a decoction, which is a most efficacious remedy for dysenteries or fluxes, proceeding from excessive heat...."—P. Vincenzo, 353.
BAFTA, s. A kind of calico, made especially at Baroch; from the Pers. bāfta, 'woven.' The old Baroch baftas seem to have been fine goods. Nothing is harder than to find intelligible explanations of the distinction between the numerous varieties of cotton stuffs formerly exported from India to Europe under a still greater variety of names; names and trade being generally alike obsolete. Baftas however survived in page 47bthe Tariffs till recently. [Bafta is at present the name applied to a silk fabric. (See quotation from Yusuf Ali below.) In Bengal, Charpata and Noakhali in the Chittagong Division were also noted for their cotton baftas (Birdwood, Industr. Arts, 249).]
[1605–6.—"Patta Kassa of the ffinest Totya, Baffa."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 73. We have also "Black Baffatta."—Ibid. 74.]
[1610.—"Baffata, the corge Rs. 100."—Danvers, Letters, i. 72.]
1612.—"Baftas or white Callicos, from twentie to fortie Royals the corge."—Capt. Saris, in Purchas, i. 347.
1638.—"... tisserans qui y font cette sorte de toiles de cotton, que l'on appelle baftas, qui sont les plus fines de toutes celles qui se font dans la Prouince de Guzaratta."—Mandelslo, 128.
1653.—"Baftas est un nom Indien qui signifie des toiles fort serrées de cotton, lesquelles la pluspart viennent de Baroche, ville du Royaume de Guzerat, appartenant au Grand Mogol."—De la B. le Gouz, 515.
1665.—"The Baftas, or Calicuts painted red, blue, and black, are carried white to Agra and Amadabad, in regard those cities are nearest the places where the Indigo is made that is us'd in colouring."—Tavernier, (E. T.) p. 127; [ed. Ball, ii. 5].
1672.—"Broach Baftas, broad and narrow."—Fryer, 86.
1727.—"The Baroach Baftas are famous throughout all India, the country producing the best Cotton in the World."—A. Hamilton, i. 144.
1875.—In the Calcutta Tariff valuation of this year we find Piece Goods, Cotton:
Baftahs, score, Rs. 30.
It is curious to find this word now current on Lake Nyanza. The burial of King Mtesa's mother is spoken of:
BAHAR, s. Ar. bahār, Malayāl. bhāram, from Skt. bhāra, 'a load.' A weight used in large trading transactions; it varied much in different localities; and though the name is of page 48aIndian origin it was naturalised by the Arabs, and carried by them to the far East, being found in use, when the Portuguese arrived in those seas, at least as far as the Moluccas. In the Indian islands the bahār is generally reckoned as equal to 3 peculs (q.v.), or 400 avoirdupois. But there was a different bahār in use for different articles of merchandise; or, rather, each article had a special surplus allowance in weighing, which practically made a different bahār (see PICOTA). [Mr. Skeat says that it is now uniformly equal to 400 lbs. av. in the British dominions in the Malay Peninsula; but Klinkert gives it as the equivalent of 12 pikuls of Agar-agar; 6 of cinnamon; 3 of Tripang.]
1506.—"In Cananor el suo Re si è zentil, e qui nasce zz. (i.e. zenzeri or 'ginger'); ma li zz. pochi e non cusi boni come quelli de Colcut, e suo peso si chiama baar, che sono K. (Cantari) 4 da Lisbona."—Relazione di Leonardo Ca' Masser, 26.
1510.—"If the merchandise about which they treat be spices, they deal by the bahar, which bahar weighs three of our cantari."—Varthema, p. 170.
1516.—"It (Malacca) has got such a quantity of gold, that the great merchants do not estimate their property, nor reckon otherwise than by bahars of gold, which are 4 quintals to each bahar."—Barbosa, 193.
1552.—"300 bahares of pepper."—Castanheda, ii. 301. Correa writes bares, as does also Couto.
1554.—"The baar of nuts (noz) contains 20 faraçolas, and 5 maunds more of picota; thus the baar, with its picota, contains 20½ faraçolas...."—A. Nunes, 6.
c. 1569.—"After this I saw one that would have given a barre of Pepper, which is two Quintals and a halfe, for a little Measure of water, and he could not have it."—C. Fredericke, in Hakl. ii. 358.
1598.—"Each Bhar of Sunda weigheth 330 catten of China."—Linschoten, 34: [Hak. Soc. i. 113].
1606.—"... their came in his company a Portugall Souldier, which brought a Warrant from the Capitaine to the Gouernor of Manillia, to trade with vs, and likewise to giue John Rogers, for his pains a Bahar of Cloues."—Middleton's Voyage, D. 2. b.
1613.—"Porque os naturaes na quelle tempo possuyão muytos bâres de ouro."—Godinho de Eredia, 4 v.
BAHAUDUR, s. H. Bahādur, 'a hero, or champion.' It is a title affixed commonly to the names of European officers in Indian documents, or when spoken of ceremoniously by natives (e.g. "Jones Ṣāhib Bahādur"), in which use it may be compared with "the gallant officer" of Parliamentary courtesy, or the Illustrissimo Signore of the Italians. It was conferred as a title of honour by the Great Mogul and by other native princes [while in Persia it was often applied to slaves (Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 114)]. Thus it was particularly affected to the end of his life by Hyder Ali, to whom it had been given by the Raja of Mysore (see quotation from John Lindsay below [and Wilks, Mysoor, Madras reprint, i. 280]). Bahādur and Sirdār Bahādur are also the official titles of members of the 2nd and 1st classes respectively of the Order of British India, established for native officers of the army in 1837. [The title of Rāē Bahādur is also conferred upon Hindu civil officers.]
As conferred by the Court of Delhi the usual gradation of titles was (ascending):—1. Bahādur; 2. Bahādur Jang; 3. Bahādur ud-Daulah; 4. Bahādur ul-mulk. At Hyderabad they had also Bahādur ul-Umrā (Kirkpatrick, in Tippoo's Letters, 354). [Many such titles of Europeans will be found in North Indian N. & Q., i. 35, 143, 179; iv. 17.]
In Anglo-Indian colloquial parlance the word denotes a haughty or pompous personage, exercising his brief authority with a strong sense of his own importance; a don rather than a swaggerer. Thackeray, who derived from his Indian birth and connections a humorous felicity in the use of Anglo-Indian expressions, has not omitted this serviceable word. In that brilliant burlesque, the Memoirs of Major Gahagan, we have the Mahratta traitor Bobachee Bahauder. It is said also that Mr Canning's malicious wit bestowed on Sir John Malcolm, who was not less great as a talker than as a soldier and statesman, the title, not included in the page 49aGreat Mogul's repertory, of Bahauder Jaw.
Bahādur is one of the terms which the hosts of Chingiz Khan brought with them from the Mongol Steppes. In the Mongol genealogies we find Yesugai Bahādur, the father of Chingiz, and many more. Subutai Bahādur, one of the great soldiers of the Mongol host, twice led it to the conquest of Southern Russia, twice to that of Northern China. In Sanang Setzen's poetical annals of the Mongols, as rendered by I. J. Schmidt, the word is written Baghatur, whence in Russian Bogatir still survives as a memento probably of the Tartar domination, meaning 'a hero or champion.' It occurs often in the old Russian epic ballads in this sense; and is also applied to Samson of the Bible. It occurs in a Russian chronicler as early as 1240, but in application to Mongol leaders. In Polish it is found as Bohatyr, and in Hungarian as Bátor,—this last being in fact the popular Mongol pronunciation of Baghatur. In Turki also this elision of the guttural extends to the spelling, and the word becomes Bātur, as we find it in the Dicts. of Vambéry and Pavet de Courteille. In Manchu also the word takes the form of Baturu, expressed in Chinese characters as Pa-tu-lu; the Kirghiz has it as Batyr; the Altai-Tataric as Paattyr, and the other dialects even as Magathyr. But the singular history of the word is not yet entirely told. Benfey has suggested that the word originated in Skt. bhaga-dhara ('happiness-possessing'). But the late lamented Prof. A. Schiefner, who favoured us with a note on the subject, was strongly of opinion that the word was rather a corruption "through dissimulation of the consonant," of the Zend bagha-puthra 'Son of God,' and thus but another form of the famous term Faghfūr, by which the old Persians rendered the Chinese Tien-tsz ('Son of Heaven'), applying it to the Emperor of China.
page 49b
"The Great Kaan names thee his Ulugh-Bitekchī [Great Secretary], Seeing thou art bitekchi and Behādir to boot; O Well-beloved, the yarlīgh [rescript] that thou dost issue is obeyed By Turk and Mongol, by Persian, Greek, and Barbarian!" Gesch. der Gold. Horde, 461.
c. 1400.—"I ordained that every Ameer who should reduce a Kingdom, or defeat an army, should be exalted by three things: by a title of honour, by the Tugh [Yak's tail standard], and by the Nakkára [great kettle drum]; and should be dignified by the title of Bahaudur."—Timour's Institutes, 283; see also 291–293.
1404.—"E elles le dixeron q̃ aquel era uno de los valiẽtes e Bahadures q'en el linage del Señor auia."—Clavijo, § lxxxix.
" "E el home q̃ este haze e mas vino beue dizen que es Bahadur, que dizen elles por homem rezio."—Do. § cxii.
1407.—"The Prince mounted, escorted by a troop of Bahadurs, who were always about his person."—Abdurrazāk's Hist. in Not. et Ext. xiv. 126.
Hardly any native name occurs more frequently in the Portuguese Hist. of India than this of Badur—viz. Bahādur Shāh, the warlike and powerful king of Guzerat (1526–37), killed in a fray which closed an interview with the Viceroy, Nuno da Cunha, at Diu.
We have said that the title Behauder (Bahādur) was one by which Hyder Ali of Mysore was commonly known in his day. Thus in the two next quotations:
page 50a
1800.—"One lac of Behaudry pagodas."—Wellington, i. 148.
1801.—"Thomas, who was much in liquor, now turned round to his sowars, and said—'Could any one have stopped Sahib Bahaudoor at this gate but one month ago?' 'No, no,' replied they; on which——"—Skinner, Mil. Mem. i. 236.
1872.—"... the word 'Bahádur' ... (at the Mogul's Court) ... was only used as an epithet. Ahmed Shah used it as a title and ordered his name to be read in the Friday prayer as 'Mujahid ud dín Muhammad Abú naçr Ahmad Sháh Bahádur. Hence also 'Kampaní Bahadur,' the name by which the E. I. Company is still known in India. The modern 'Khan Bahádur' is, in Bengal, by permission assumed by Muhammedan Deputy Magistrates, whilst Hindu Deputy Magistrates assume 'Rái Bahádur'; it stands, of course, for 'Khán-i-Bahádur,' 'the courageous Khán.' The compound, however, is a modern abnormal one; for 'Khán' was conferred by the Dihli Emperors, and so also 'Bahádur' and 'Bahádur Khán,' but not 'Khán Bahádur.'"—Prof. Blochmann, in Ind. Antiquary, i. 261.
1876.—"Reverencing at the same time bravery, dash, and boldness, and loving their freedom, they (the Kirghiz) were always ready to follow the standard of any batyr, or hero, ... who might appear on the stage."—Schuyler's Turkistan, i. 33.
1878.—"Peacock feathers for some of the subordinate officers, a yellow jacket for the successful general, and the bestowal of the Manchoo title of Baturu, or 'Brave,' on some of the most distinguished brigadiers, are probably all the honours which await the return of a triumphal army. The reward which fell to the share of 'Chinese Gordon' for the part he took in the suppression of the Taiping rebellion was a yellow jacket, and the title of Baturu has lately been bestowed on Mr Mesny for years of faithful service against the rebels in the province of Kweichow."—Saturday Rev., Aug. 10, p. 182.
" "There is nothing of the great bahawder about him."—Athenaeum, No. 2670, p. 851.
BAHIRWUTTEEA, s. Guj. bāhirwatū. A species of outlawry in page 50bGuzerat; bāhirwatīā, the individual practising the offence. It consists "in the Rajpoots or Grassias making their ryots and dependants quit their native village, which is suffered to remain waste; the Grassia with his brethren then retires to some asylum, whence he may carry on his depredations with impunity. Being well acquainted with the country, and the redress of injuries being common cause with the members of every family, the Bahirwutteea has little to fear from those who are not in the immediate interest of his enemy, and he is in consequence enabled to commit very extensive mischief."—Col. Walker, quoted in Forbes, Rās Māla, 2nd ed., p. 254–5. Col. Walker derives the name from bāhir, 'out,' and wāt, 'a road.' [Tod, in a note to the passage quoted below, says "this term is a compound of bār (bāhir) and wuttan (wat̤an), literally ex patriâ."]
The origin of most of the brigandage in Sicily is almost what is here described in Kattiwār.
BAIKREE, s. The Bombay name for the Barking-deer. It is Guzarātī bekṛī; and acc. to Jerdon and [Blandford, Mammalia, 533] Mahr. bekra or bekar, but this is not in Molesworth's Dict. [Forsyth (Highlands of C. I., p. 470) gives the Gond and Korku names as Bherki, which may be the original].
BAJRA, s. H. bājrā and bājrī (Penicillaria spicata, Willden.). One of the tall millets forming a dry crop in many parts of India. Forbes calls it bahjeree (Or. Mem. ii. 406; [2nd ed. i. 167), and bajeree (i. 23)].
BĀKIR-KHĀNĪ, s. P.—H. bāqir-khānī; a kind of cake almost exactly resembling pie-crust, said to owe its name to its inventor, Bākir Khān.
page 51a
BALÁCHONG, BLACHONG, s. Malay balāchān; [acc. to Mr Skeat the standard Malay is blachan, in full belachan.] The characteristic condiment of the Indo-Chinese and Malayan races, composed of prawns, sardines, and other small fish, allowed to ferment in a heap, and then mashed up with salt. [Mr Skeat says that it is often, if not always, trodden out like grapes.] Marsden calls it 'a species of caviare,' which is hardly fair to caviare. It is the ngāpi (Ngapee) of the Burmese, and trāsi of the Javanese, and is probably, as Crawfurd says, the Roman garum. One of us, who has witnessed the process of preparing ngāpi on the island of Negrais, is almost disposed to agree with the Venetian Gasparo Balbi (1583), who says "he would rather smell a dead dog, to say nothing of eating it" (f. 125v). But when this experience is absent it may be more tolerable.
1727.—"Bankasay is famous for making Ballichang, a Sauce made of dried Shrimps, Cod-pepper, Salt, and a Sea-weed or Grass, all well mixed and beaten up to the Consistency of thick Mustard."—A. Hamilton, ii. 194. The same author, in speaking of Pegu, calls the like sauce Prock (44), which was probably the Talain name. It appears also in Sonnerat under the form Prox (ii. 305).
1784.—"Blachang ... is esteemed a great delicacy among the Malays, and is by them exported to the west of India.... It is a species of caviare, and is extremely offensive and disgusting to persons who are not accustomed to it."—Marsden's H. of Sumatra, 2nd ed. 57.
[1871.—Riddell (Ind. Domest. Econ. p. 227) gives a receipt for Ballachong, of which the basis is prawns, to which are added chillies, salt, garlic, tamarind juice, &c.]
BALAGHAUT, used as n.p.; P. bālā, 'above,' H. Mahr., &c., ghāt, 'a pass,'—the country 'above the passes,' i.e. above the passes over the range of mountains which we call the "Western Ghauts." The mistaken idea that ghāt means 'mountains' causes Forbes page 51bto give a nonsensical explanation, cited below. The expression may be illustrated by the old Scotch phrases regarding "below and above the Pass" of so and so, implying Lowlands and Highlands.
1563.—"R. Let us get on horseback and go for a ride; and as we go you shall tell me what is the meaning of Nizamosha (Nizamaluco), for you often speak to me of such a person.
"O. I will tell you now that he is King in the Bagalate (misprint for Balagate), whose father I have often attended medically, and the son himself sometimes. From him I have received from time to time more than 12,000 pardaos; and he offered me a salary of 40,000 pardaos if I would visit him for so many months every year, but I would not accept."—Garcia de Orta, f. 33v.
1598.—"This high land on the toppe is very flatte and good to build upon, called Balagatte."—Linschoten, 20; [Hak. Soc. i. 65; cf. i. 235].
" "Ballagate, that is to say, above the hill, for Balla is above, and Gate is a hill...."—Ibid. 49; [Hak. Soc. i. 169].
1614.—"The coast of Coromandel, Balagatt or Telingana."—Sainsbury, i. 301.
1666.—"Balagate est une des riches Provinces du Grand Mogol.... Elle est au midi de celle de Candich."—Thevenot, v. 216.
1673.—"... opening the ways to Baligaot, that Merchants might with safety bring down their Goods to Port."—Fryer, 78.
This is nonsense, but the following are also absurd misdescriptions:—
BALASORE, n.p. A town and district of Orissa; the site of one of the earliest English factories in the "Bay," established in 1642, and then an important seaport; supposed to be page 52aproperly Bāleśvara, Skt. bāla, 'strong,' īśvara, 'lord,' perhaps with reference to Krishna. Another place of the same name in Madras, an isolated peak, 6762′ high, lat. 11° 41′ 43″, is said to take its name from the Asura Bana.
"When in the vale of Balaser I fought, And from Bengal the captive Monarch brought." Dryden, Aurungzebe, ii. 1.
BALASS, s. A kind of ruby, or rather a rose-red spinelle. This is not an Anglo-Indian word, but it is a word of Asiatic origin, occurring frequently in old travellers. It is a corruption of Balakhshī, a popular form of Badakhshī, because these rubies came from the famous mines on the Upper Oxus, in one of the districts subject to Badakhshān. [See Vambéry, Sketches, 255; Ball, Tavernier, i. 382 n.]
1404.—"Tenia (Tamerlan) vestido vna ropa et vn paño de seda raso sin lavores e ẽ la cabeça tenia vn sombrero blãco alto con un Balax en cima e con aljofar e piedras."—Clavijo, § cx.
1516.—"These balasses are found in Balaxayo, which is a kingdom of the mainland near Pegu and Bengal."—Barbosa, 213. This is very bad geography for Barbosa, who is usually accurate and judicious, but it is surpassed in much later days.
1581.—"I could never understand from whence those that be called Balassi come."—Caesar Fredericke, in Hakl. ii. 372.
[1598.—"The Ballayeses are likewise sold by weight."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 156.]
1611.—"Of Ballace Rubies little and great, good and bad, there are single two thousand pieces" (in Akbar's treasury).—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 217.
[1616.—"Fair pearls, Ballast rubies."—Foster, Letters, iv. 243.]
1653.—"Les Royaumes de Pegou, d'où viennent les rubis balets."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, 126.
1673.—"The last sort is called a Ballace Ruby, which is not in so much esteem as the Spinell, because it is not so well coloured."—Fryer, 215.
1681.—"... ay ciertos balaxes, que llmana candidos, que son como los diamantes."—Martinez de la Puente, 12.
BALCONY, s. Not an Anglo-Indian word, but sometimes regarded as of Oriental origin; a thing more than doubtful. The etymology alluded to by Mr. Schuyler and by the lamented William Gill in the quotations below, is not new, though we do not know who first suggested it. Neither do we know whether the word balagani, which Erman (Tr. in Siberia, E. T. i. 115) tells us is the name given to the wooden booths at the Nijnei Fair, be the same P. word or no. Wedgwood, Littré, [and the N.E.D.] connect balcony with the word which appears in English as balk, and with the Italian balco, 'a scaffolding' and the like, also used for 'a box' at the play. Balco, as well as palco, is a form occurring in early Italian. Thus Franc. da Buti, commenting on Dante (1385–87), says: "Balco è luogo alto doue si monta e scende." Hence naturally would be formed balcone, which we have in Giov. Villani, in Boccaccio and in Petrarch. Manuzzi (Vocabolario It.) defines balcone as = finestra (?).
It may be noted as to the modern pronunciation that whilst ordinary mortals (including among verse-writers Scott and Lockhart, Tennyson and Hood) accent the word as a dactyl (bālcŏny̆), the crême de la crême, if we are not mistaken, makes it, or did in the last generation make it, as Cowper does below, an amphibrach (bălcōny̆): "Xanthus his name with those of heavenly birth, But called Scamander by the sons of earth!" [According to the N.E.D. the present pronunciation, "which," said Sam. Rogers, "makes me sick," was established about 1825.]
c. 1340–50.—
"Il figliuol di Latona avea già nove Volte guardato dal balcon sovrano, Per quella, ch'alcun tempo mosse I suoi sospir, ed or gli altrui commove in vano." Petrarca, Rime, Pte. i. Sonn. 35, ed. Pisa, 1805.
page 53ac. 1340–50.—
"Ma si com' uom talor che piange, a parte Vede cosa che gli occhi, e 'l cor alletta, Così colei per ch'io son in prigione Standosi ad un balcone, Che fù sola a' suoi di cosa perfetta Cominciai a mirar con tale desío Che me stesso, e 'l mio mal pose in oblío: I'era in terra, e 'l cor mio in Paradiso." Petrarca, Rime, Pte. ii. Canzone 4.
1645–52.—"When the King sits to do Justice, I observe that he comes into the Balcone that looks into the Piazza."—Tavernier, E. T. ii. 64; [ed. Ball, i. 152].
1667.—"And be it further enacted, That in the Front of all Houses, hereafter to be erected in any such Streets as by Act of Common Council shall be declared to be High Streets, Balconies Four Foot broad with Rails and Bars of Iron ... shall be placed...."—Act 19 Car. II., cap. 3, sect. 13. (Act for Rebuilding the City of London.)
1783.
"At Edmonton his loving wife From the balcōny spied Her tender husband, wond'ring much To see how he did ride." John Gilpin.
1805.—
"For from the lofty balcŏny, Rung trumpet, shalm and psaltery." Lay of the Last Minstrel.
1833.—
"Under tower and balcŏny, By garden-wall and gallery, A gleaming shape she floated by, Dead pale between the houses high." Tennyson's Lady of Shalott.
1876.—"The houses (in Turkistan) are generally of but one story, though sometimes there is a small upper room called bala-khana (P. bala, upper, and khana, room) whence we get our balcony."—Schuyler's Turkistan, i. 120.
BALOON, BALLOON, &c., s. A rowing vessel formerly used in various parts of the Indies, the basis of which was a large canoe, or 'dug-out.' There is a Mahr. word balyānw, a kind of barge, which is probably the original. [See Bombay Gazetteer, xiv. 26.]
1634.—
"Neste tempo da terra para a armada Balões, e cal' luzes cruzar vimos...." Malaca Conquistada, iii. 44.
page 53b1673.—"The President commanded his own Baloon (a Barge of State, of Two and Twenty Oars) to attend me."—Fryer, 70.
1755.—"The Burmas has now Eighty Ballongs, none of which as [sic] great Guns."—Letter from Capt. R. Jackson, in Dalrymple Or. Repert. i. 195.
BALSORA, BUSSORA, &c., n.p. These old forms used to be familiar from their use in the popular version of the Arabian Nights after Galland. The place is the sea-port city of Basra at the mouth of the Shat-al-'Arab, or United Euphrates and Tigris. [Burton (Ar. Nights, x. 1) writes Bassorah.]
c. 1580.—"Balsara, altrimente detta Bassora, è una città posta nell' Arabia, la quale al presente e signoreggiata dal Turco ... è città di gran negocio di spetiarie, di droghe, e altre merci che uengono di Ormus; è abondante di dattoli, risi, e grani."—Balbi, f. 32f.
[1598.—"The town of Balsora; also Bassora."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 45.]
1671.—
"From Atropatia and the neighbouring plains Of Adiabene, Media, and the south Of Susiana to Balsara's Haven...." Paradise Regained, iii.
1747.—"He (the Prest. of Bombay) further advises us that they have wrote our Honble. Masters of the Loss of Madrass by way of Bussero, the 7th of November."—Ft. St. David Consn., 8th January 1746–7. MS. in India Office.
BALTY, s. H. bāltī, 'a bucket,' [which Platts very improbably connects with Skt. vări, 'water'], is the Port. balde.
BÁLWAR, s. This is the native servant's form of 'barber,' shaped by the 'striving after meaning' as bālwār, for bālwālā, i.e. 'capillarius,' 'hair-man.' It often takes the further form bāl-būr, another factitious hybrid, shaped by P. būrīdan, 'to cut,' quasi 'hair-cutter.' But though now obsolete, there was page 54aalso (see both Meninski and Vullers s.v.) a Persian word bărbăr, for a barber or surgeon, from which came this Turkish term "Le Berber-bachi, qui fait la barbe au Pacha," which we find (c. 1674) in the Appendix to the journal of Antoine Galland, pubd. at Paris, 1881 (ii. 190). It looks as if this must have been an early loan from Europe.
BAMBOO, s. Applied to many gigantic grasses, of which Bambusa arundinacea and B. vulgaris are the most commonly cultivated; but there are many other species of the same and allied genera in use; natives of tropical Asia, Africa, and America. This word, one of the commonest in Anglo-Indian daily use, and thoroughly naturalised in English, is of exceedingly obscure origin. According to Wilson it is Canarese bănbŭ [or as the Madras Admin. Man. (Gloss. s.v.) writes it, bombu, which is said to be "onomatopaeic from the crackling and explosions when they burn"]. Marsden inserts it in his dictionary as good Malay. Crawfurd says it is certainly used on the west coast of Sumatra as a native word, but that it is elsewhere unknown to the Malay languages. The usual Malay word is buluh. He thinks it more likely to have found its way into English from Sumatra than from Canara. But there is evidence enough of its familiarity among the Portuguese before the end of the 16th century to indicate the probability that we adopted the word, like so many others, through them. We believe that the correct Canarese word is baṇwu. In the 16th century the form in the Concan appears to have been mambu, or at least it was so represented by the Portuguese. Rumphius seems to suggest a quaint onomatopoeia: "vehementissimos edunt ictus et sonitus, quum incendio comburuntur, quando notum ejus nomen Bambu, Bambu, facile exauditur."—(Herb. Amb. iv. 17.) [Mr. Skeat writes: "Although buluh is the standard Malay, and bambu apparently introduced, I think bambu is the form used in the low Javanese vernacular, which is quite a different language from high Javanese. Even in low Javanese, however, it may be a borrowed word. It looks curiously like a trade corruption of the common Malay word samambu, which means page 54bthe well-known 'Malacca cane,' both the bamboo and the Malacca cane being articles of export. Klinkert says that the samambu is a kind of rattan, which was used as a walking-stick, and which was called the Malacca cane by the English. This Malacca cane and the rattan 'bamboo cane' referred to by Sir H. Yule must surely be identical. The fuller Malay name is actually rotan samambu, which is given as the equivalent of Calamus Scipionum, Lour. by Mr. Ridley in his Plant List (J.R.A.S., July 1897).]
The term applied to ṭābāshīr (Tabasheer), a siliceous concretion in the bamboo, in our first quotation seems to show that bambu or mambu was one of the words which the Portuguese inherited from an earlier use by Persian or Arab traders. But we have not been successful in finding other proof of this. With reference to sakkar-mambu Ritter says: "That this drug (Tabashir), as a product of the bamboo-cane, is to this day known in India by the name of Sacar Mambu is a thing which no one needs to be told" (ix. 334). But in fact the name seems now entirely unknown.
It is possible that the Canarese word is a vernacular corruption, or development, of the Skt. vaṇśa [or vambha], from the former of which comes the H. bāṇs. Bamboo does not occur, so far as we can find, in any of the earlier 16th-century books, which employ canna or the like.
In England the term bamboo-cane is habitually applied to a kind of walking-stick, which is formed not from any bamboo but from a species of rattan. It may be noted that some 30 to 35 years ago there existed along the high road between Putney Station and West Hill a garden fence of bamboos of considerable extent; it often attracted the attention of one of the present writers.
1578.—"Some of these (canes), especially in Malabar, are found so large that the people make use of them as boats (embarcaciones) not opening them out, but cutting one of the canes right across and using the natural knots to stop the ends, and so a couple of naked blacks go upon it ... each of them at his own end of the mambu [in orig. mãbu] (so they call it), being provided page 55awith two paddles, one in each hand ... and so upon a cane of this kind the folk pass across, and sitting with their legs clinging naked."—C. Acosta, Tractado, 296.
Again:
"... and many people on that river (of Cranganor) make use of these canes in place of boats, to be safe from the numerous Crocodiles or Caymoins (as they call them) which are in the river (which are in fact great and ferocious lizards)" [lagartos].—Ibid. 297.
These passages are curious as explaining, if they hardly justify, Ctesias, in what we have regarded as one of his greatest bounces, viz. his story of Indian canes big enough to be used as boats.
1586.—"All the houses are made of canes, which they call Bambos, and bee covered with Strawe."—Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 391.
1598.—"... a thicke reede as big as a man's legge, which is called Bambus."—Linschoten, 56; [Hak. Soc. i. 195].
1608.—"Iava multas producit arundines grossas, quas Manbu vocant."—Prima Pars Desc. Itin. Navalis in Indiam (Houtman's Voyage), p. 36.
c. 1610.—"Les Portugais et les Indiens ne se seruent point d'autres bastons pour porter leurs palanquins ou litieres. Ils l'appellent partout Bambou."—Pyrard, i. 237; [Hak. Soc. i. 329].
1615.—"These two kings (of Camboja and Siam) have neyther Horses, nor any fiery Instruments: but make use only of bowes, and a certaine kind of pike, made of a knottie wood like Canes, called Bambuc, which is exceeding strong, though pliant and supple for vse."—De Monfart, 33.
1621.—"These Forts will better appeare by the Draught thereof, herewith sent to your Worships, inclosed in a Bamboo."—Letter in Purchas, i. 699.
1623.—"Among the other trees there was an immense quantity of bambù, or very large Indian canes, and all clothed and covered with pretty green foliage that went creeping up them."—P. della Valle, ii. 640; [Hak. Soc. ii. 220].
c. 1666.—"Cette machine est suspendue à une longue barre que l'on appelle Pambou."—Thevenot, v. 162. (This spelling recurs throughout a chapter describing palankins, though elsewhere the traveller writes bambou.)
1673.—"A Bambo, which is a long hollow cane."—Fryer, 34.
1727.—"The City (Ava) tho' great and populous, is only built of Bambou canes."—A. Hamilton, ii. 47.
Bamboos are sometimes popularly distinguished (after a native idiom) as male and female; the latter embracing all the common species with hollow stems, the former title being applied to a certain kind (in fact, a sp. of a distinct genus, Dendrocalamus strictus), which has a solid or nearly solid core, and is much used for bludgeons (see LATTEE) and spear-shafts. It is remarkable that this popular distinction by sex was known to Ctesias (c. B.C. 400) who says that the Indian reeds were divided into male and female, the male having no ἐντερώνην.
One of the present writers has seen (and partaken of) rice cooked in a joint of bamboo, among the Khyens, a hill-people of Arakan. And Mr Markham mentions the same practice as prevalent among the Chunchos and savage aborigines on the eastern slopes of the Andes (J. R. Geog. Soc. xxv. 155). An endeavour was made in Pegu in 1855 to procure the largest obtainable bamboo. It was a little over 10 inches in diameter. But Clusius states that he had seen two great specimens in the University at Leyden, 30 feet long and from 14 to 16 inches in diameter. And E. Haeckel, in his Visit to Ceylon (1882), speaks of bamboo-stems at Peridenia, "each from a foot to two feet thick." We can obtain no corroboration of anything approaching 2 feet.—[See Gray's note on Pyrard, Hak. Soc. i. 330.]
BAMÓ, n.p. Burm. Bha-maw, Shan Manmaw; in Chinese Sin-Kai, 'New-market.' A town on the upper Irawadi, where one of the chief routes from China abuts on that river; regarded as the early home of the Karens. [(McMahon, Karens of the Golden Cher., 103.)] The old Shan page 56atown of Bamó was on the Tapeng R., about 20 m. east of the Irawadi, and it is supposed that the English factory alluded to in the quotations was there.
BANANA, s. The fruit of Musa paradisaica, and M. sapientum of Linnaeus, but now reduced to one species under the latter name by R. Brown. This word is not used in India, though one hears it in the Straits Settlements. The word itself is said by De Orta to have come from Guinea; so also Pigafetta (see below). The matter will be more conveniently treated under PLANTAIN. Prof. Robertson Smith points out that the coincidence of this name with the Ar. banān, 'fingers or toes,' and banāna, 'a single finger or toe,' can hardly be accidental. The fruit, as we learn from Muḳaddasī, grew in Palestine before the Crusades; and that it is known in literature only as mauz would not prove that the fruit was not somewhere popularly known as 'fingers.' It is possible that the Arabs, through whom probably the fruit found its way to W. Africa, may have transmitted with it a name like this; though historical evidence is still to seek. [Mr. Skeat writes: "It is curious that in Norwegian and Danish (and I believe in Swedish), the exact Malay word pisang, which is unknown in England, is used. Prof. Skeat thinks this may be because we had adopted the word banana before the word pisang was brought to Europe at all."]
1598.—"Other fruits there are termed Banana, which we think to be the Muses of Egypt and Soria ... but here they cut them yearly, to the end they may bear the better."—Tr. of Pigafetta's Congo, in Harleian Coll. ii. 553 (also in Purchas, ii. 1008.)
c. 1610.—"Des bannes (marginal rubric Bannanes) que les Portugais appellent figues d'Inde, et aux Maldives Quella."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 85; [Hak. Soc. i. 113]. The page 56bMaldive word is here the same as H. kelā (Skt. kadala).
1673.—"Bonanoes, which are a sort of Plantain, though less, yet much more grateful."—Fryer, 40.
BANCHOOT, BETEECHOOT, ss. Terms of abuse, which we should hesitate to print if their odious meaning were not obscure "to the general." If it were known to the Englishmen who sometimes use the words, we believe there are few who would not shrink from such brutality. Somewhat similar in character seem the words which Saul in his rage flings at his noble son (1 Sam. xx. 30).
There is a handsome tomb and mosque to the N. of Ahmedabad, erected by Hajji Malik Bahā-ud-dīn, a wazīr of Sultan Mohammed Bigara, in memory of his wife Bībī Achut or Achhūt; and probably the vile story to which the 17th-century travellers refer is founded only on a vulgar misrepresentation of this name.
BANCOCK, n.p. The modern capital of Siam, properly Bang-kok; see explanation by Bp. Pallegoix in quotation. It had been the site of forts erected on the ascent of the Menam to the old capital Ayuthia, by Constantine Phaulcon in 1675; here the modern city was established as the seat of government in 1767, after the capture of Ayuthia (see JUDEA) by the Burmese in that year. It is uncertain if the first quotation refer to Bancock.
page 57a
1611.—"They had arrived in the Road of Syam the fifteenth of August, and cast Anchor at three fathome high water.... The Towne lyeth some thirtie leagues vp along the Riuer, whither they sent newes of their arrivall. The Sabander (see SHAHBUNDER) and the Governor of Mancock (a place scituated by the Riuer), came backe with the Messengers to receiue his Majesties Letters, but chiefly for the presents expected."—P. Williamson Floris, in Purchas, i. 321.
1727.—The Ship arrived at Bencock, a Castle about half-way up, where it is customary for all Ships to put their Guns ashore."—A. Hamilton, i. 363.
BANDANNA, s. This term is properly applied to the rich yellow or red silk handkerchief, with diamond spots left white by pressure applied to prevent their receiving the dye. The etymology may be gathered from Shakespear's Dict., which gives "Bāndhnū: 1. A mode of dyeing in which the cloth is tied in different places, to prevent the parts tied from receiving the dye;... 3. A kind of silk cloth." A class or caste in Guzerat who do this kind of preparation for dyeing are called Bandhārā (Drummond). [Such handkerchiefs are known in S. India as Pulicat handkerchiefs. Cloth dyed in this way is in Upper India known as Chūnrī. A full account of the process will be found in Journ. Ind. Art, ii. 63, and S. M. Hadi's Mon. on Dyes and Dyeing, p. 35.]
1752.—"The Cossembazar merchants having fallen short in gurrahs, plain taffaties, ordinary bandannoes, and chappas."—In Long, 31.
1813.—"Bandannoes ... 800."—Milburn (List of Bengal Piece-goods, and no. to the ton), ii. 221.
1848.—"Mr Scape, lately admitted partner into the great Calcutta House of Fogle, Fake, and Cracksman ... taking Fake's place, who retired to a princely Park in Sussex (the Fogles have long been out of the firm, and Sir Horace Fogle is about to be raised to the peerage as Baron Bandanna), page 57b... two years before it failed for a million, and plunged half the Indian public into misery and ruin."—Vanity Fair, ii. ch. 25.
1866.—"'Of course,' said Toogood, wiping his eyes with a large red bandana handkerchief. 'By all means, come along, Major.' The major had turned his face away, and he also was weeping."—Last Chronicle of Barset, ii. 362.
BANDAREE, s. Mahr. Bhanḍārī, the name of the caste or occupation. It is applied at Bombay to the class of people (of a low caste) who tend the coco-palm gardens in the island, and draw toddy, and who at one time formed a local militia. [It has no connection with the more common Bhândârî, 'a treasurer or storekeeper.']
1644.—"The people ... are all Christians, or at least the greater part of them consisting of artizans, carpenters, chaudaris (this word is manifestly a mistranscription of bandaris), whose business is to gather nuts from the coco-palms, and corumbis (see KOONBEE) who till the ground...."—Bocarro, MS.
1673.—"The President ... if he go abroad, the Bandarines and Moors under two Standards march before him."—Fryer, 68.
" "... besides 60 Field-pieces ready in their Carriages upon occasion to attend the Militia and Bandarines."—Ibid. 66.
c. 1760.—"There is also on the island kept up a sort of militia, composed of the land-tillers, and bandarees, whose living depends chiefly on the cultivation of the coco-nut trees."—Grose, i. 46.
1808.—"... whilst on the Brab trees the cast of Bhundarees paid a due for extracting the liquor."—Bombay Regulation, i. of 1808, sect. vi. para. 2.
1810.—"Her husband came home, laden with toddy for distilling. He is a bandari or toddy-gatherer."—Maria Graham, 26.
c. 1836.—"Of the Bhundarees the most remarkable usage is their fondness for a peculiar species of long trumpet, called Bhongalee, which, ever since the dominion of the Portuguese, they have had the privilege of carrying and blowing on certain State occasions."—R. Murphy, in Tr. Bo. Geog. Soc. i. 131.
BANDEJAH, s. Port. bandeja, 'a salver,' 'a tray to put presents on.' We have seen the word used only in the following passages:—
[1717.—"Received the Phirmaund (see FIRMAUN) from Captain Boddam in a bandaye couered with a rich piece of Atlass (see ATLAS)."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. ccclx.]
1747.—"Making a small Cott (see COT) and a rattan Bandijas for the Nabob.... (Pagodas) 4: 32: 21."—Acct. Expenses at Fort St. David, Jany., MS. Records in India Office.
c. 1760.—"(Betel) in large companies is brought in ready made up on Japan chargers, which they call from the Portuguese name, Bandejahs, something like our tea-boards."—Grose, i. 237.
1766.—"To Monurbad Dowla Nabob—
| R. | R. | A. | P. |
| 1 Pair Pistols | 216 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 China Bandazes | 172 | 12 | 9 | " |
—Lord Clive's Durbar Charges, in Long, 433.
BANDEL, n.p. The name of the old Portuguese settlement in Bengal about a mile above Hoogly, where there still exists a monastery, said to be the oldest church in Bengal (see Imp. Gazeteer). The name is a Port. corruption of bandar, 'the wharf'; and in this shape the word was applied among the Portuguese to a variety of places. Thus in Correa, under 1541–42, we find mention of a port in the Red Sea, near the mouth, called Bandel dos Malemos ('of the Pilots'). Chittagong is called Bandel de Chatigão (e.g. in Bocarro, p. 444), corresponding to Bandar Chātgām in the Autobiog. of Jahāngīr (Elliot, vi. 326). [In the Diary of Sir T. Roe (see below) it is applied to Gombroon], and in the following passage the original no doubt runs Bandar-i-Hūghlī or Hūglī-Bandar.
page 58b
1631.—"... these Europeans increased in number, and erected large substantial buildings, which they fortified with cannons, muskets, and other implements of war. In due course a considerable place grew up, which was known by the name of Port of Hūglī."—'Abdul Hamīd, in Elliot, vii. 32.
1753.—"... les établissements formés pour assurer leur commerce sont situés sur les bords de cette rivière. Celui des Portugais, qu'ils ont appelé Bandel, en adoptant le terme Persan de Bender, qui signifie port, est aujourd'hui reduit à peu de chose ... et il est presque contigu à Ugli en remontant."—D'Anville, Éclaircissemens, p. 64.
BANDICOOT, s. Corr. from the Telegu pandi-kokku, lit. 'pig-rat.' The name has spread all over India, as applied to the great rat called by naturalists Mus malabaricus (Shaw), Mus giganteus (Hardwicke), Mus bandicota (Bechstein), [Nesocia bandicota (Blanford, p. 425)]. The word is now used also in Queensland, [and is the origin of the name of the famous Bendigo gold-field (3 ser. N. & Q. ix. 97)].
Fryer seems to exaggerate worse than the Moor:
The following surprisingly confounds two entirely different animals:
[1828.—"They be called Brandy-cutes."—Or. Sporting Mag. i. 128.]
page 59a1879.—"I shall never forget my first night here (on the Cocos Islands). As soon as the Sun had gone down, and the moon risen, thousands upon thousands of rats, in size equal to a bandicoot, appeared."—Pollok, Sport in B. Burmah, &c., ii. 14.
1880.—"They (wild dogs in Queensland) hunted Kangaroo when in numbers ... but usually preferred smaller and more easily obtained prey, as rats, bandicoots, and 'possums.'"—Blackwood's Mag., Jan., p. 65.
BANDICOY, s. The colloquial name in S. India of the fruit of Hibiscus esculentus; Tamil veṇḍai-khāi, i.e. unripe fruit of the veṇḍai, called in H. bhenḍi. See BENDY.
BANDO! H. imperative bāndho, 'tie or make fast.' "This and probably other Indian words have been naturalised in the docks on the Thames frequented by Lascar crews. I have heard a London lighter-man, in the Victoria Docks, throw a rope ashore to another Londoner, calling out, Bando!"—(M.-Gen. Keatinge.)
BANDY, s. A carriage, bullock-carriage, buggy, or cart. This word is usual in both the S. and W. Presidencies, but is unknown in Bengal, and in the N.W.P. It is the Tamil vaṇḍi, Telug. baṇḍi, 'a cart or vehicle.' The word, as bendi, is also used in Java. [Mr Skeat writes—"Klinkert has Mal. bendi, 'a chaise or caleche,' but I have not heard the word in standard Malay, though Clifford and Swett. have bendu, 'a kind of sedan-chair carried by men,' and the commoner word tandu 'a sedan-chair or litter,' which I have heard in Selangor. Wilkinson says that kereta (i.e. kreta bendi) is used to signify any two-wheeled vehicle in Johor."]
1800.—"No wheel-carriages can be used in Canara, not even a buffalo-bandy."—Letter of Sir T. Munro, in Life, i. 243.
1810.—"None but open carriages are used in Ceylon; we therefore went in bandies, or, in plain English, gigs."—Maria Graham, 88.
1826.—"Those persons who have not European coachmen have the horses of their ... 'bandies' or gigs, led by these page 59bmen.... Gigs and hackeries all go here (in Ceylon) by the name of bandy."—Heber (ed. 1844), ii. 152.
1829.—"A mighty solemn old man, seated in an open bundy (read bandy) (as a gig with a head that has an opening behind is called) at Madras."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 2nd ed. 84.
1860.—"Bullock bandies, covered with cajans met us."—Tennent's Ceylon, ii. 146.
BANG, BHANG, s. H. bhāng, the dried leaves and small stalks of hemp (i.e. Cannabis indica), used to cause intoxication, either by smoking, or when eaten mixed up into a sweetmeat (see MAJOON). Ḥashīsh of the Arabs is substantially the same; Birdwood says it "consists of the tender tops of the plants after flowering." [Bhang is usually derived from Skt. bhaṇga, 'breaking,' but Burton derives both it and the Ar. banj from the old Coptic Nibanj, "meaning a preparation of hemp; and here it is easy to recognise the Homeric Nepenthe."
1563.—"The great Sultan Badur told Martim Affonzo de Souza, for whom he had a great liking, and to whom he told all his secrets, that when in the night he had a desire to visit Portugal, and the Brazil, and Turkey, and Arabia, and Persia, all he had to do was to eat a little bangue...."—Garcia, f. 26.
1578.—"Bangue is a plant resembling hemp, or the Cannabis of the Latins ... the Arabs call this Bangue 'Axis'" (i.e. Ḥashīsh).—C. Acosta, 360–61.
1598.—"They have ... also many kinds of Drogues, as Amfion, or Opium, Camfora, Bangue and Sandall Wood."—Linschoten, 19; [Hak. Soc. i. 61; also see ii. 115].
1606.—"O mais de tẽpo estava cheo de bangue."—Gouvea, 93.
1638.—"Il se fit apporter vn petit cabinet d'or ... dont il tira deux layettes, et prit dans l'vne de l'offion, ou opium, et dans l'autre du bengi, qui est vne certaine drogue ou poudre, dont ils se seruent pour s'exciter à la luxure."—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 150.
page 60a1685.—"I have two sorts of the Bangue, which were sent from two several places of the East Indies; they both differ much from our Hemp, although they seem to differ most as to their magnitude."—Dr. Hans Sloane to Mr. Ray, in Ray's Correspondence, 1848, p. 160.
1673.—"Bang (a pleasant intoxicating Seed mixed with Milk)...."—Fryer, 91.
1711.—"Bang has likewise its Vertues attributed to it; for being used as Tea, it inebriates, or exhilarates them according to the Quantity they take."—Lockyer, 61.
1727.—"Before they engage in a Fight, they drink Bang, which is made of a Seed like Hemp-seed, that has an intoxicating Quality."—A. Hamilton, i. 131.
1763.—"Most of the troops, as is customary during the agitations of this festival, had eaten plentifully of bang...."—Orme, i. 194.
1784.—"... it does not appear that the use of bank, an intoxicating weed which resembles the hemp of Europe, ... is considered even by the most rigid (Hindoo) a breach of the law."—G. Forster, Journey, ed. 1808, ii. 291.
1789.—"A shop of Bang may be kept with a capital of no more than two shillings, or one rupee. It is only some mats stretched under some tree, where the Bangeras of the town, that is, the vilest of mankind, assemble to drink Bang."—Note on Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 308.
1868.—
"The Hemp—with which we used to hang Our prison pets, yon felon gang,— In Eastern climes produces Bang, Esteemed a drug divine. As Hashish dressed, its magic powers Can lap us in Elysian bowers; But sweeter far our social hours, O'er a flask of rosy wine." Lord Neaves.
BANGED—is also used as a participle, for 'stimulated by bang,' e.g. "banged up to the eyes."
BANGLE, s. H. bangṛī or bangrī. The original word properly means a ring of coloured glass worn on the wrist by women; [the chūrī of N. India;] but bangle is applied to any native ring-bracelet, and also to an anklet or ring of any kind worn on the ankle or leg. Indian silver bangles on the wrist have recently come into common use among English girls.
1809.—"Bangles, or bracelets."—Maria Graham, 13.
page 60b1810.—"Some wear ... a stout silver ornament of the ring kind, called a bangle, or karrah [kaṛā] on either wrist."—Williamson, V. M. i. 305.
1826.—"I am paid with the silver bangles of my enemy, and his cash to boot."—Pandurang Hari, 27; [ed. 1873, i. 36].
BANGUN, s.—See BRINJAUL.
BANGUR, s. Hind. bāngar. In Upper India this name is given to the higher parts of the plain country on which the towns stand—the older alluvium—in contradistinction to the khāḍar [Khādir] or lower alluvium immediately bordering the great rivers, and forming the limit of their inundation and modern divagations; the khāḍar having been cut out from the bāngar by the river. Medlicott spells bhāngar (Man. of Geol. of India, i. 404).
BANGY, BANGHY, &c. s. H. bahaṅgī, Mahr. baṅgī; Skt. vihaṅgamā, and vihaṅgikā.
a. A shoulder-yoke for carrying loads, the yoke or bangy resting on the shoulder, while the load is apportioned at either end in two equal weights, and generally hung by cords. The milkmaid's yoke is the nearest approach to a survival of the bangy-staff in England. Also such a yoke with its pair of baskets or boxes.—(See PITARRAH).
b. Hence a parcel post, carried originally in this way, was called bangy or dawk-bangy, even when the primitive mode of transport had long become obsolete. "A bangy parcel" is a parcel received or sent by such post.
a.—
"But I'll give them 2000, with Bhanges and Coolies, With elephants, camels, with hackeries and doolies." Letters of Simpkin the Second, p. 57.
1803.—"We take with us indeed, in six banghys, sufficient changes of linen."—Ld. Valentia, i. 67.
1810.—"The bangy-wollah, that is the bearer who carries the bangy, supports the bamboo on his shoulder, so as to equipoise the baskets suspended at each end."—Williamson, V. M. i. 323.
b.—
BANJO, s. Though this is a West- and not East-Indian term, it may be worth while to introduce the following older form of the word:
"Permit thy slaves to lead the choral dance To the wild banshaw's melancholy sound."—Grainger, iv.
BANKSHALL, s. a. A warehouse. b. The office of a Harbour Master or other Port Authority. In the former sense the word is still used in S. India; in Bengal the latter is the only sense recognised, at least among Anglo-Indians; in Northern India the word is not in use. As the Calcutta office stands on the banks of the Hoogly, the name is, we believe, often accepted as having some indefinite reference to this position. And in a late work we find a positive and plausible, but entirely unfounded, explanation of this kind, which we quote below. In Java the word has a specific application to the open hall of audience, supported by wooden pillars without walls, which forms part of every princely residence. The word is used in Sea Hindustani, in the forms bansār, and bangsāl for a 'store-room' (Roebuck).
Bankshall is in fact one of the oldest of the words taken up by foreign traders in India. And its use not only by Correa (c. 1561) but by King John (1524), with the regularly-formed Portuguese plural of words in -al, shows how early it was adopted by the Portuguese. Indeed, Correa does not page 61beven explain it, as is his usual practice with Indian terms.
More than one serious etymology has been suggested:—(1). Crawfurd takes it to be the Malay word bangsal, defined by him in his Malay Dict. thus: "(J.) A shed; a storehouse; a workshop; a porch; a covered passage" (see J. Ind. Archip. iv. 182). [Mr Skeat adds that it also means in Malay 'half-husked paddy,' and 'fallen timber, of which the outer layer has rotted and only the core remains.'] But it is probable that the Malay word, though marked by Crawfurd ("J.") as Javanese in origin, is a corruption of one of the two following:
(2) Beng. baṇkaśāla, from Skt. baṇik or vaṇik, 'trade,' and śāla, 'a hall.' This is Wilson's etymology.
(3). Skt. bhāṇḍaśāla, Canar. bhaṇdaśāle, Malayāl. pāṇḍiśāla, Tam. paṇḍaśālai or paṇḍakaśālai, 'a storehouse or magazine.'
It is difficult to decide which of the two last is the original word; the prevalence of the second in S. India is an argument in its favour; and the substitution of g for ḍ would be in accordance with a phonetic practice of not uncommon occurrence.
a.—
[1520.—"Collected in his bamgasal" (in the Maldives).—Doc. da Torre do Tombo, p. 452.]
1524.—A grant from K. John to the City of Goa, says: "that henceforward even if no market rent in the city is collected from the bacacés, viz. those at which are sold honey, oil, butter, betre (i.e. betel), spices, and cloths, for permission to sell such things in the said bacacés, it is our pleasure that they shall sell them freely." A note says: "Apparently the word should be bacaçaes, or bancacaes, or bangaçaes, which then signified any place to sell things, but now particularly a wooden house."—Archiv. Portug. Or., Fasc. ii. 43.
1561.—"... in the bengaçaes, in which stand the goods ready for shipment."—Correa, Lendas, i. 2, 260.
1610.—The form and use of the word have led P. Teixeira into a curious confusion (as it would seem) when, speaking of foreigners at Ormus, he says: "hay muchos gentiles, Baneanes [see BANYAN], Bangasalys, y Cambayatys"—where the word in italics page 62aprobably represents Bangalys, i.e. Bengālis (Rel. de Harmuz, 18).
c. 1610.—"Le facteur du Roy chrestien des Maldiues tenoit sa banquesalle ou plustost cellier, sur le bord de la mer en l'isle de Malé."—Pyrard de Laval, ed. 1679, i. 65; [Hak. Soc. i. 85; also see i. 267].
1613.—"The other settlement of Yler ... with houses of wood thatched extends ... to the fields of Tanjonpacer, where there is a bangasal or sentry's house without other defense."—Godinho de Eredia, 6.
1623.—"Bangsal, a shed (or barn), or often also a roof without walls to sit under, sheltered from the rain or sun."—Gaspar Willens, Vocabularium, &c., ins' Gravenhaage; repr. Batavia, 1706.
1734–5.—"Paid the Bankshall Merchants for the house poles, country reapers, &c., necessary for housebuilding."—In Wheeler, iii. 148.
1748.—"A little below the town of Wampo.... These people (compradores) build a house for each ship.... They are called by us banksalls. In these we deposit the rigging and yards of the vessel, chests, water-casks, and every thing that incommodes us aboard."—A Voyage to the E. Indies in 1747 and 1748 (1762), p. 294. It appears from this book (p. 118) that the place in Canton River was known as Banksall Island.
1750–52.—"One of the first things on arriving here (Canton River) is to procure a bancshall, that is, a great house, constructed of bamboo and mats ... in which the stores of the ship are laid up."—A Voyage, &c., by Olof Toreen ... in a series of letters to Dr Linnæus, Transl. by J. R. Forster (with Osbeck's Voyage), 1771.
1783.—"These people (Chulias, &c., from India, at Achin) ... on their arrival immediately build, by contract with the natives, houses of bamboo, like what in China at Wampo is called bankshall, very regular, on a convenient spot close to the river."—Forrest, V. to Mergui, 41.
1788.—"Banksauls—Storehouses for depositing ships' stores in, while the ships are unlading and refitting."—Indian Vocab. (Stockdale).
1813.—"The East India Company for seventy years had a large banksaul, or warehouse, at Mirzee, for the reception of the pepper and sandalwood purchased in the dominions of the Mysore Rajah."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 109.
b.—
page 62b1623.—"And on the Place by the sea there was the Custom-house, which the Persians in their language call Benksal, a building of no great size, with some open outer porticoes."—P. della Valle, ii. 465.
1673.—"... Their Bank Solls, or Custom House Keys, where they land, are Two; but mean, and shut only with ordinary Gates at Night."—Fryer, 27.
1683.—"I came ashore in Capt. Goyer's Pinnace to ye Bankshall, about 7 miles from Ballasore."—Hedges, Diary, Feb. 2; [Hak. Soc. i. 65].
1687.—"The Mayor and Aldermen, etc., do humbly request the Honourable President and Council would please to grant and assign over to the Corporation the petty dues of Banksall Tolls."—In Wheeler, i. 207.
1727.—"Above it is the Dutch Bankshall, a Place where their Ships ride when they cannot get further up for the too swift Currents."—A. Hamilton, ii. 6.
1789.—"And that no one may plead ignorance of this order, it is hereby directed that it be placed constantly in view at the Bankshall in the English and country languages."—Procl. against Slave-Trading in Seton-Karr, ii. 5.
BANTAM, n.p. The province which forms the western extremity of Java, properly Bāntan. [Mr Skeat gives Bantan, Crawfurd, Bantân.] It formed an independent kingdom at the beginning of the 17th century, and then produced much pepper (no longer grown), which caused it to be greatly frequented by European traders. An English factory was established here in 1603, and continued till 1682, when the Dutch succeeded in expelling us as interlopers.
BANTAM FOWLS, s. According to Crawfurd, the dwarf poultry which we call by this name were imported from Japan, and received the name "not from the place that produced them, but from that where our page 63avoyagers first found them."—(Desc. Dict. s.v. Bantam). The following evidently in Pegu describes Bantams:
1673.—"From Siam are brought hither little Champore Cocks with ruffled Feet, well armed with Spurs, which have a strutting Gate with them, the truest mettled in the World."—Fryer, 116.
This looks as if they came from Champa (q.v.).
(1) BANYAN, s. a. A Hindu trader, and especially of the Province of Guzerat, many of which class have for ages been settled in Arabian ports and known by this name; but the term is often applied by early travellers in Western India to persons of the Hindu religion generally. b. In Calcutta also it is (or perhaps rather was) specifically applied to the native brokers attached to houses of business, or to persons in the employment of a private gentleman doing analogous duties (now usually called sircar).
The word was adopted from Vāṇiya, a man of the trading caste (in Gujarāti vāṇiyo), and that comes from Skt. vaṇij, 'a merchant.' The terminal nasal may be a Portuguese addition (as in palanquin, mandarin, Bassein), or it may be taken from the plural form vāṇiyān. It is probable, however, that the Portuguese found the word already in use by the Arab traders. Sidi 'Ali, the Turkish Admiral, uses it in precisely the same form, applying it to the Hindus generally; and in the poem of Sassui and Panhu, the Sindian Romeo and Juliet, as given by Burton in his Sindh (p. 101), we have the form Wāniyān. P. F. Vincenzo Maria, who is quoted below absurdly alleges that the Portuguese called these Hindus of Guzerat Bagnani, because they were always washing themselves "... chiamati da Portughesi Bagnani, per la frequenza e superstitione, con quale si lauano piu page 63bvolte il giorno" (251). See also Luillier below. The men of this class profess an extravagant respect for animal life; but after Stanley brought home Dr. Livingstone's letters they became notorious as chief promoters of slave-trade in Eastern Africa. A. K. Forbes speaks of the mediæval Wānias at the Court of Anhilwāra as "equally gallant in the field (with Rajputs), and wiser in council ... already in profession puritans of peace, but not yet drained enough of their fiery Kshatri blood."—(Rās Māla, i. 240; [ed. 1878, 184].)
Bunya is the form in which vāṇiya appears in the Anglo-Indian use of Bengal, with a different shade of meaning, and generally indicating a grain-dealer.
1552.—"... Among whom came certain men who are called Baneanes of the same heathen of the Kingdom of Cambaia ... coming on board the ship of Vasco da Gama, and seeing in his cabin a pictorial image of Our Lady, to which our people did reverence, they also made adoration with much more fervency...."—Barros, Dec., I. liv. iv. cap. 6.
1555.—"We may mention that the inhabitants of Guzerat call the unbelievers Banyāns, whilst the inhabitants of Hindustan call them Hindū."—Sidi 'Ali Kapudān, in J. As., 1$^{ère}$ S. ix. 197–8.
1563.—"R. If the fruits were all as good as this (mango) it would be no such great matter in the Baneanes, as you tell me, not to eat flesh. And since I touch on this matter, tell me, prithee, who are these Baneanes ... who do not eat flesh?..."—Garcia, f. 136.
1608.—"The Gouernour of the Towne of Gandeuee is a Bannyan, and one of those kind of people that obserue the Law of Pythagoras."—Jones, in Purchas, i. 231.
[1610.—"Baneanes." See quotation under BANKSHALL, a.]
1623.—"One of these races of Indians is that of those which call themselves Vanià, but who are called, somewhat corruptly by the Portuguese, and by all our other Franks, Banians; they are all, for the most part, traders and brokers."—P. della Valle, i. 486–7; [and see i. 78 Hak. Soc.].
1630.—"A people presented themselves to mine eyes, cloathed in linnen garments, somewhat low descending, of a gesture and garbe, as I may say, maidenly and well nigh effeminate; of a countenance shy, and somewhat estranged; yet smiling out a glosed and bashful familiarity.... I page 64aasked what manner of people these were, so strangely notable, and notably strange. Reply was made that they were Banians."—Lord, Preface.
1665.—"In trade these Banians are a thousand times worse than the Jews; more expert in all sorts of cunning tricks, and more maliciously mischievous in their revenge."—Tavernier, E. T. ii. 58; [ed. Ball, i. 136, and see i. 91].
c. 1666.—"Aussi chacun a son Banian dans les Indes, et il y a des personnes de qualité qui leur confient tout ce qu'ils ont...."—Thevenot, v. 166. This passage shows in anticipation the transition to the Calcutta use (b., below).
1672.—"The inhabitants are called Guizeratts and Benyans."—Baldaeus, 2.
" "It is the custom to say that to make one Bagnan (so they call the Gentile Merchants) you need three Chinese, and to make one Chinese three Hebrews."—P. F. Vincenzo di Maria, 114.
1673.—"The Banyan follows the Soldier, though as contrary in Humour as the Antipodes in the same Meridian are opposite to one another.... In Cases of Trade they are not so hide-bound, giving their Consciences more Scope, and boggle at no Villainy for an Emolument."—Fryer, 193.
1677.—"In their letter to Ft. St. George, 15th March, the Court offer £20 reward to any of our servants or soldiers as shall be able to speak, write, and translate the Banian language, and to learn their arithmetic."—In Madras Notes and Exts., No. I. p. 18.
1705.—"... ceux des premieres castes, comme les Baignans."—Luillier, 106.
1813.—"... it will, I believe, be generally allowed by those who have dealt much with Banians and merchants in the larger trading towns of India, that their moral character cannot be held in high estimation."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 456.
b.—
1764.—"Resolutions and Orders. That no Moonshee, Linguist, Banian, or Writer, be allowed to any officer, excepting the Commander-in-Chief."—Ft. William Proc., in Long, 382.
1775.—"We have reason to suspect that the intention was to make him (Nundcomar) Banyan to General Clavering, to surround the General and us with the Governor's creatures, and to keep us totally unacquainted with the real state of the Government."—Minute by Clavering, Monson, and Francis, Ft. William, 11th April. In Price's Tracts, ii. 138.
page 64b1780.—"We are informed that the Juty Wallahs or Makers and Vendors of Bengal Shoes in and about Calcutta ... intend sending a Joint Petition to the Supreme Council ... on account of the great decay of their Trade, entirely owing to the Luxury of the Bengalies, chiefly the Bangans (sic) and Sarcars, as there are scarce any of them to be found who does not keep a Chariot, Phaeton, Buggy or Pallanquin, and some all four...."—In Hicky's Bengal Gazette, June 24th.
1783.—"Mr. Hastings' bannian was, after this auction, found possessed of territories yielding a rent of £140,000 a year."—Burke, Speech on E. I. Bill, in Writings, &c., iii. 490.
1786.—"The said Warren Hastings did permit and suffer his own banyan or principal black steward, named Canto Baboo, to hold farms ... to the amount of 13 lacs of rupees per annum."—Art. agst. Hastings, Burke, vii. 111.
" "A practice has gradually crept in among the Banians and other rich men of Calcutta, of dressing some of their servants ... nearly in the uniform of the Honourable Company's Sepoys and Lascars...."—Notification, in Seton Karr, i. 122.
1788.—"Banyan—A Gentoo servant employed in the management of commercial affairs. Every English gentleman at Bengal has a Banyan who either acts of himself, or as the substitute of some great man or black merchant."—Indian Vocabulary (Stockdale).
1810.—"The same person frequently was banian to several European gentlemen; all of whose concerns were of course accurately known to him, and thus became the subject of conversation at those meetings the banians of Calcutta invariably held...."—Williamson, V. M. i. 189.
(2). BANYAN, s. An undershirt, originally of muslin, and so called as resembling the body garment of the Hindus; but now commonly applied to under body-clothing of elastic cotton, woollen, or silk web. The following quotations illustrate the stages by which the word reached its present application. And they show that our predecessors in India used to adopt the native or Banyan costume in their hours of ease. C. P. Brown defines Banyan as "a loose dressing-gown, such as Hindu tradesmen wear." Probably this may have been the original use; but it is never so employed in Northern India.
1731.—"The Ensign (as it proved, for his first appearance, being undressed and in his banyon coat, I did not know him) came off from his cot, and in a very haughty manner cried out, 'None of your disturbance, Gentlemen.'"—In Wheeler, iii. 109.
1781.—"I am an Old Stager in this Country, having arrived in Calcutta in the Year 1736.... Those were the days, when Gentlemen studied Ease instead of Fashion; when even the Hon. Members of the Council met in Banyan Shirts, Long Drawers (q.v.), and Conjee (Congee) caps; with a Case Bottle of good old Arrack, and a Gouglet of Water placed on the Table, which the Secretary (a Skilful Hand) frequently converted into Punch...."—Letter from An Old Country Captain, in India Gazette, Feb. 24th.
[1773.—In a letter from Horace Walpole to the Countess of Upper Ossory, dated April 30th, 1773 (Cunningham's ed., v. 459) he describes a ball at Lord Stanley's, at which two of the dancers, Mr. Storer and Miss Wrottesley, were dressed "in banians with furs, for winter, cock and hen." It would be interesting to have further details of these garments, which were, it may be hoped, different from the modern Banyan.]
(3) BANYAN, s. See BANYAN-TREE.
BANYAN-DAY, s. This is sea-slang for a jour maigre, or a day on which no ration of meat was allowed; when (as one of our quotations above expresses it) the crew had "to observe the Law of Pythagoras."
BANYAN-FIGHT, s. Thus:
BANYAN-TREE, also elliptically Banyan, s. The Indian Fig-Tree (Ficus Indica, or Ficus bengalensis, L.), called in H. baṛ [or baṛgat, the latter page 65bthe "Bourgade" of Bernier (ed. Constable, p. 309).] The name appears to have been first bestowed popularly on a famous tree of this species growing near Gombroon (q.v.), under which the Banyans or Hindu traders settled at that port, had built a little pagoda. So says Tavernier below. This original Banyan-tree is described by P. della Valle (ii. 453), and by Valentijn (v. 202). P. della Valle's account (1622) is extremely interesting, but too long for quotation. He calls it by the Persian name, lūl. The tree still stood, within half a mile of the English factory, in 1758, when it was visited by Ives, who quotes Tickell's verses given below. [Also see CUBEER BURR.]
1624.—
"... The goodly bole being got To certain cubits' height, from every side The boughs decline, which, taking root afresh, Spring up new boles, and these spring new, and newer, Till the whole tree become a porticus, Or arched arbour, able to receive A numerous troop." Ben Jonson, Neptune's Triumph.
c. 1650.—"Cet Arbre estoit de même espece que celuy qui est a une lieue du Bander, et qui passe pour une merveille; mais dans les Indes il y en a quantité. Les Persans l'appellent Lul, les Portugais Arber de Reys, et les Français l'Arbre des Banianes; parce que les Banianes ont fait bâtir dessous une Pagode avec un carvansera accompagné de plusieurs petits étangs pour se laver."—Tavernier, V. de Perse, liv. v. ch. 23. [Also see ed. Ball, ii. 198.]
c. 1650.—"Near to the City of Ormus was a Bannians tree, being the only tree that grew in the Island."—Tavernier, Eng. Tr. i. 255.
c. 1666.—"Nous vimes à cent ou cent cinquante pas de ce jardin, l'arbre War dans toute son etenduë. On l'appelle aussi Ber, et arbre des Banians, et arbre des racines...."—Thevenot, v. 76.
page 66a1667.—
"The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renown'd; But such as at this day, to Indians known, In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother-tree, a pillar'd shade High over-arch'd, and echoing walks between." Paradise Lost, ix. 1101.
[Warton points out that Milton must have had in view a description of the Banyan-tree in Gerard's Herbal under the heading "of the arched Indian fig-tree."]
1672.—"Eastward of Surat two Courses, i.e. a League, we pitched our Tent under a Tree that besides its Leafs, the Branches bear its own Roots, therefore called by the Portugals, Arbor de Raiz; For the Adoration the Banyans pay it, the Banyan-Tree."—Fryer, 105.
1691.—"About a (Dutch) mile from Gamron ... stands a tree, heretofore described by Mandelslo and others.... Beside this tree is an idol temple where the Banyans do their worship."—Valentijn, v. 267–8.
1717.—
"The fair descendants of thy sacred bed Wide-branching o'er the Western World shall spread, Like the fam'd Banian Tree, whose pliant shoot To earthward bending of itself takes root, Till like their mother plant ten thousand stand In verdant arches on the fertile land; Beneath her shade the tawny Indians rove, Or hunt at large through the wide-echoing grove." Tickell, Epistle from a Lady in England to a Lady in Avignon.
1726.—"On the north side of the city (Surat) is there an uncommonly great Pichar or Waringin tree.... The Portuguese call this tree Albero de laiz, i.e. Root-tree.... Under it is a small chapel built by a Benyan.... Day and night lamps are alight there, and Benyans constantly come in pilgrimage, to offer their prayers to this saint."—Valentijn, iv. 145.
1771.—"... being employed to construct a military work at the fort of Triplasore (afterwards called Marsden's Bastion) it was necessary to cut down a banyan-tree which so incensed the brahmans of that place, that they found means to poison him" (i.e. Thomas Marsden of the Madras Engineers).—Mem. of W. Marsden, 7–8.
1809.—"Their greatest enemy (i.e. of the buildings) is the Banyan-Tree."—Ld. Valentia, i. 396.
page 66b1810.—
"In the midst an aged Banian grew. It was a goodly sight to see That venerable tree, For o'er the lawn, irregularly spread, Fifty straight columns propt its lofty head; And many a long depending shoot, Seeking to strike its root, Straight like a plummet grew towards the ground, Some on the lower boughs which crost their way, Fixing their bearded fibres, round and round, With many a ring and wild contortion wound; Some to the passing wind at times, with sway Of gentle motion swung; Others of younger growth, unmoved, were hung Like stone-drops from the cavern's fretted height." Southey, Curse of Kehama, xiii. 51. [Southey takes his account from Williamson, Orient. Field Sports, ii. 113.]
1821.—
"Des banians touffus, par les brames adorés, Depuis longtemps la langueur nous implore, Courbés par le midi, dont l'ardeur les dévore, Ils étendent vers nous leurs rameaux altérés." Casimir Delavigne, Le Paria, iii. 6.
A note of the publishers on the preceding passage, in the edition of 1855, is diverting:
"Un journaliste allemand a accusé M. Casimir Delavigne d'avoir pris pour un arbre une secte religieuse de l'Inde...." The German journalist was wrong here, but he might have found plenty of matter for ridicule in the play. Thus the Brahmins (men) are Akebar (!), Idamore (!!), and Empsael (!!!); their women Néala (?), Zaide (!), and Mirza (!!).
1825.—"Near this village was the finest banyan-tree which I had ever seen, literally a grove rising from a single primary stem, whose massive secondary trunks, with their straightness, orderly arrangement, and evident connexion with the parent stock, gave the general effect of a vast vegetable organ. The first impression which I felt on coming under its shade was, 'What a noble place of worship!'"—Heber, ii. 93 (ed. 1844).
1834.—"Cast forth thy word into the everliving, everworking universe; it is a seed-grain that cannot die; unnoticed to-day, it will be found flourishing as a banyan-grove—(perhaps alas! as a hemlock forest) after a thousand years."—Sartor Resartus.
1856.—
"... its pendant branches, rooting in the air, Yearn to the parent earth and grappling fast, page 67aGrow up huge stems again, which shooting forth In massy branches, these again despatch Their drooping heralds, till a labyrinth Of root and stem and branch commingling, forms A great cathedral, aisled and choired in wood." The Banyan Tree, a Poem.
1865.—"A family tends to multiply families around it, till it becomes the centre of a tribe, just as the banyan tends to surround itself with a forest of its own offspring."—Maclennan, Primitive Marriage, 269.
BĀRASINHĀ, s. The H. name of the widely-spread Cervus Wallichii, Cuvier. This H. name ('12-horn') is no doubt taken from the number of tines being approximately twelve. The name is also applied by sportsmen in Bengal to the Rucervus Duvaucellii, or Swamp-Deer. [See Blanford, Mamm. 538 seqq.].
[BARBER'S BRIDGE, n.p. This is a curious native corruption of an English name. The bridge in Madras, known as Barber's Bridge, was built by an engineer named Hamilton. This was turned by the natives into Ambuton, and in course of time the name Ambuton was identified with the Tamil ambattan, 'barber,' and so it came to be called Barber's Bridge.—See Le Fanu, Man. of the Salem Dist. ii. 169, note.]
BARBICAN, s. This term of mediæval fortification is derived by Littré, and by Marcel Devic, from Ar. barbakh, which means a sewer-pipe or water-pipe. And one of the meanings given by Littré is, "une ouverture longue et étroite pour l'écoulement des eaux." Apart from the possible, but untraced, history which this alleged meaning may involve, it seems probable, considering the usual meaning of the word as 'an outwork before a gate,' that it is from Ar. P. bāb-khāna, 'gate-house.' This etymology was suggested in print about 50 years ago by one page 67bof the present writers, and confirmed to his mind some years later, when in going through the native town of Cawnpore, not long before the Mutiny, he saw a brand-new double-towered gateway, or gate-house, on the face of which was the inscription in Persian characters: "Bāb-Khāna-i-Mahommed Bakhsh," or whatever was his name, i.e. "The Barbican of Mahommed Bakhsh." [The N.E.D. suggests P. barbar-khānah, 'house on the wall,' it being difficult to derive the Romanic forms in bar- from bāb-khāna.]
The editor of the Chron. of K. James of Aragon (1833, p. 423) says that barbacana in Spain means a second, outermost and lower wall; i.e. a fausse-braye. And this agrees with facts in that work, and with the definition in Cobarruvias; but not at all with Joinville's use, nor with V.-le-Duc's explanation.
c. 1270.—"... on condition of his at once putting me in possession of the albarrana tower ... and should besides make his Saracens construct a barbacana round the tower."—James of Aragon, as above.
1309.—"Pour requerre sa gent plus sauvement, fist le roys faire une barbaquane devant le pont qui estoit entre nos dous os, en tel maniere que l'on pooit entrer de dous pars en la barbaquane à cheval."—Joinville, p. 162.
1552.—"Lourenço de Brito ordered an intrenchment of great strength to be dug, in the fashion of a barbican (barbacã) outside the wall of the fort ... on account of a well, a stone-cast distant...."—Barros, II. i. 5.
BARBIERS, s. This is a term which was formerly very current in the East, as the name of a kind of paralysis, often occasioned by exposure to chills. It began with numbness and imperfect command of the power of movement, sometimes also affecting the muscles of the neck and power of page 68aarticulation, and often followed by loss of appetite, emaciation, and death. It has often been identified with Beriberi, and medical opinion seems to have come back to the view that the two are forms of one disorder, though this was not admitted by some older authors of the last century. The allegation of Lind and others, that the most frequent subjects of barbiers were Europeans of the lower class who, when in drink, went to sleep in the open air, must be contrasted with the general experience that beriberi rarely attacks Europeans. The name now seems obsolete.
1690.—"Another Distemper with which the Europeans are sometimes afflicted, is the Barbeers, or a deprivation of the Vse and Activity of their Limbs, whereby they are rendered unable to move either Hand or Foot."—Ovington, 350.
1755.—(If the land wind blow on a person sleeping) "the consequence of this is always dangerous, as it seldom fails to bring on a fit of the Barbiers (as it is called in this country), that is, a total deprivation of the use of the limbs."—Ives, 77.
[c. 1757.—"There was a disease common to the lower class of Europeans, called the Barbers, a species of palsy, owing to exposure to the land winds after a fit of intoxication."—In Carey, Good Old Days, ii. 266.]
BARGANY, BRAGANY, H. bārakānī. The name of a small silver coin current in W. India at the time of the Portuguese occupation of Goa, and afterwards valued at 40 reis (then about 5¼d.). The name of the coin was apparently a survival of a very old system of coinage-nomenclature. Kānī is an old Indian word, perhaps Dravidian in origin, indicating ¼ of ¼ of ¼, or 1-64th part. It was applied to the jital (see JEETUL) or 64th part of the mediæval Delhi silver tanka—this latter coin being the prototype in weight and position of the Rupee, as the kānī therefore was of the modern Anglo-Indian pice (= 1-64th of a page 68bRupee). There were in the currency of Mohammed Tughlak (1324–1351) of Delhi, aliquot parts of the tanka, Dokānīs, Shash-kānīs, Hasht-kānīs, Dwāzda-kānīs, and Shānzda-kānīs, representing, as the Persian numerals indicate, pieces of 2, 6, 8, 12, and 16 kānīs or jitals. (See E. Thomas, Pathan Kings of Delhi, pp. 218–219.) Other fractional pieces were added by Fīroz Shāh, Mohammed's son and successor (see Id. 276 seqq. and quotation under c. 1360, below). Some of these terms long survived, e.g. do-kānī in localities of Western and Southern India, and in Western India in the present case the bārakānī or 12 kānī, a vernacular form of the dwāzda-kānī of Mohammed Tughlak.
c. 1350—"Sultan Fíroz issued several varieties of coins. There was the gold tanka and the silver tanka. There were also distinct coins of the respective value of 48, 25, 24, 12, 10, 8 and 6, and one jītal, known as chihal-o-hasht-gānī, bist-o-panjgānī, bist-o-chahār-gānī, dwāzdah-gānī, dah-gānī, hasht-gānī, shāsh-gānī, and yak jītal."—Ibid. 357–358.
1510.—Barganym, in quotation from Correa under Pardao.
1554.—"E as tamgas brancas que se recebem dos foros, são de 4 barganis a tamga, e de 24 leaes o bargany ..." i.e. "And the white tangas that are received in payment of land revenues are at the rate of 4 barganis to the tanga, and of 24 leals to the bargany."—A. Nunez, in Subsidios, p. 31.
" "Statement of the Revenues which the King our Lord holds in the Island and City of Guoa.
"Item—The Islands of Tiçoary, and Divar, and that of Chorão, and Johão, all of them, pay in land revenue (de foro) according to ancient custom 36,474 white tanguas, 3 barguanis, and 21 leals, at the tale of 3 barguanis to the tangua and 24 leals to the barguanim, the same thing as 24 bazarucos, amounting to 14,006 pardaos, 1 tangua and 47 leals, making 4,201,916$^2$⁄$_5$ reis. The Isle of Tiçoary (Salsette) is the largest, and on it stands the city of Guoa; the others are much smaller and are annexed to it, they being all contiguous, only separated by rivers."—Botelho, Tombo, ibid. pp. 46–7.
BARGEER, s. H. from P. bārgīr. A trooper of irregular cavalry who is not the owner of his troop horse and arms (as is the normal practice (see SILLADAR)), but is either put in by another person, perhaps a native officer in the regiment, who supplies horses and arms and receives the man's full pay, allowing him a reduced rate, or has his horse from the State in whose service he is. The P. word properly means 'a load-taker,' 'a baggage horse.' The transfer of use is not quite clear. ["According to a man's reputation or connections, or the number of his followers, would be the rank (mansab) assigned to him. As a rule, his followers brought their own horses and other equipment; but sometimes a man with a little money would buy extra horses, and mount relations or dependants upon them. When this was the case, the man riding his own horse was called, in later parlance, a silaḥdār (literally, 'equipment-holder'), and one riding somebody else's horse was a bārgīr ('burden-taker')."—W. Irvine, The Army of the Indian Moghuls, J.R.A.S. July 1896, p. 539.]
BARKING-DEER, s. The popular name of a small species of deer (Cervulus aureus, Jerdon) called in H. kākar, and in Nepal ratwā; also called Ribfaced-Deer, and in Bombay Baikree. Its common name is from its call, which is a kind of short bark, like that of a fox but louder, and may be heard in the jungles which it frequents, both by day and by night.—(Jerdon).
BARODA, n.p. Usually called by the Dutch and older English writers Brodera; proper name according to the Imp. Gazetteer, Wadodra; a large city of Guzerat, which has been since 1732 the capital of the Mahratta page 69bdynasty of Guzerat, the Gaikwārs. (See GUICOWAR).
1555.—"In a few days we arrived at Barūj; some days after at Baloudra, and then took the road towards Champaïz (read Champanīr?)."—Sidī 'Alī, p. 91.
1606.—"That city (Champanel) may be a day's journey from Deberadora or Barodar, which we commonly call Verdora."—Couto, IV. ix. 5.
[1614.—"We are to go to Amadavar, Cambaia and Brothera."—Foster, Letters, ii. 213; also see iv. 197.]
1638.—-"La ville de Brodra est située dans une plaine sablonneuse, sur la petite riviere de Wasset, a trente Cos, ou quinze lieües de Broitschea."—Mandelslo, 130.
1813.—Brodera, in Forbes, Or. Mem., iii. 268; [2nd ed. ii. 282, 389].
BAROS, n.p. A fort on the West Coast of Sumatra, from which the chief export of Sumatra camphor, so highly valued in China, long took place. [The name in standard Malay is, according to Mr Skeat, Barus.] It is perhaps identical with the Panṣūr or Fanṣūr of the Middle Ages, which gave its name to the Fanṣūrī camphor, famous among Oriental writers, and which by the perpetuation of a misreading is often styled Ḳaiṣūrī camphor, &c. (See CAMPHOR, and Marco Polo, 2nd ed. ii. 282, 285 seqq.) The place is called Barrowse in the E. I. Colonial Papers, ii. 52, 153.
BARRACKPORE, n.p. The auxiliary Cantonment of Calcutta, from which it is 15 m. distant, established in 1772. Here also is the country residence of the Governor-General, built by Lord Minto, and much frequented in former days before the annual migration to Simla was established. The name is a hybrid. (See ACHANOCK).
BARRAMUHUL, n.p. H. Bāramaḥall, 'Twelve estates'; an old designation of a large part of what is now the district of Salem in the Madras Presidency. The page 70aidentification of the Twelve Estates is not free from difficulty; [see a full note in Le Fanu's Man. of Salem, i. 83, seqq.].
BASHAW, s. The old form of what we now call pasha, the former being taken from bāshā, the Ar. form of the word, which is itself generally believed to be a corruption of the P. pādishāh. Of this the first part is Skt. patis, Zend. paitis, Old P. pati, 'a lord or master' (comp. Gr. δεσπότης). Pechah, indeed, for 'Governor' (but with the ch guttural) occurs in I. Kings x. 15, II. Chron. ix. 14, and in Daniel iii. 2, 3, 27. Prof. Max Müller notices this, but it would seem merely as a curious coincidence.—(See Pusey on Daniel, 567.)
1584.—
"Great kings of Barbary and my portly bassas." Marlowe, Tamburlane the Great, 1st Part, iii. 1.
c. 1590.—"Filius alter Osmanis, Vrchanis frater, alium non habet in Annalibus titulum, quam Alis bassa: quod bassae vocabulum Turcis caput significat."—Lennclavius, Annales Sultanorum Othmanidarum, ed. 1650, p. 402. This etymology connecting bāshā with the Turkish bāsh, 'head,' must be rejected.
c. 1610.—"Un Bascha estoit venu en sa Cour pour luy rendre compte du tribut qu'il luy apportoit; mais il fut neuf mois entiers à attendre que celuy qui a la charge ... eut le temps et le loisir de le compter...."—Pyrard de Laval (of the Great Mogul), ii. 161.
1702.—"... The most notorious injustice we have suffered from the Arabs of Muscat, and the Bashaw of Judda."—In Wheeler, ii. 7.
page 70bBASIN, s. H. besan. Pease-meal, generally made of Gram (q.v.) and used, sometimes mixed with ground orange-peel or other aromatic substance, to cleanse the hair, or for other toilette purposes.
BASSADORE, n.p. A town upon the island of Kishm in the Persian Gulf, which belonged in the 16th century to the Portuguese. The place was ceded to the British Crown in 1817, though the claim now seems dormant. The permission for the English to occupy the place as a naval station was granted by Saiyyid Sultan bin Aḥmad of 'Omān, about the end of the 18th century; but it was not actually occupied by us till 1821, from which time it was the depôt of our Naval Squadron in the Gulf till 1882. The real form of the name is, according to Dr. Badger's transliterated map (in H. of Imâns, &c. of Omân), Bāsīdū.
BASSAN, s. H. bāsan, 'a dinner-plate'; from Port. bacia (Panjab N. & Q. ii. 117).
BASSEIN, n.p. This is a corruption of three entirely different names, and is applied to various places remote from each other.
(1) Wasāi, an old port on the coast, 26 m. north of Bombay, called by the Portuguese, to whom it long pertained, Baçaim (e.g. Barros, I. ix. 1).
1756.—"Bandar Bassai."—Mirat-i-Ahmadi, Bird's tr., 129.
(2) A town and port on the river which forms the westernmost delta-arm of the Irawadi in the Province of Pegu. The Burmese name Bathein, was, according to Prof. Forchammer, a change, made by the Burmese conqueror Alompra, from the former page 71aname Kuthein (i.e. Kusein), which was a native corruption of the old name Kusima (see COSMIN). We cannot explain the old European corruption Persaim. [It has been supposed that the name represents the Besynga of Ptolemy (Geog. ii. 4; see M‘Crindle in Ind. Ant. xiii. 372); but (ibid. xxii. 20) Col. Temple denies this on the ground that the name Bassein does not date earlier than about 1780. According to the same authority (ibid. xxii. 19), the modern Burmese name is Patheng, by ordinary phonetics used for Putheng, and spelt Pusin or Pusim. He disputes the statement that the change of name was made by Alaungp'aya or Alompra. The Talaing pronunciation of the name is Pasem or Pasim, according to dialect.]
[1801.—"An ineffectual attempt was made to repossess and defend Bassien by the late Chekey or Lieutenant."—Symes, Mission, 16.]
(3) Basim, or properly Wāsim; an old town in Berar, the chief place of the district so-called. [See Berar Gazett. 176.]
BATÁRA, s. This is a term applied to divinities in old Javanese inscriptions, &c., the use of which was spread over the Archipelago. It was regarded by W. von Humboldt as taken from the Skt. avatāra (see AVATAR); but this derivation is now rejected. The word is used among R. C. Christians in the Philippines now as synonymous with 'God'; and is applied to the infant Jesus (Blumentritt, Vocabular). [Mr. Skeat (Malay Magic, 86 seqq.) discusses the origin of the word, and prefers the derivation given by Favre and Wilkin, Skt. bhaṭṭāra, 'lord.' A full account of the "Petara, or Sea Dyak gods," by Archdeacon J. Perham, will be found in Roth, Natives of Sarawak, I. 168 seqq.]
BATAVIA, n.p. The famous capital of the Dutch possessions in the Indies; occupying the site of the old city of Jakatra, the seat of a Javanese kingdom which combined page 71bthe present Dutch Provinces of Bantam, Buitenzorg, Krawang, and the Preanger Regencies.
The Governor-General, Jan Pietersen Coen, who had taken Jakatra, desired to have called the new fortress New Hoorn, from his own birth-place, Hoorn, on the Zuider Zee.
BATCUL, BATCOLE, BATECALA, &c., n.p. Bhatkal. A place often named in the older narratives. It is on the coast of Canara, just S. of Pigeon Island and Hog Island, in lat. 13° 59′, and is not to be confounded (as it has been) with BEITCUL.
1510.—The "Bathecala, a very noble city of India," of Varthema (119), though misplaced, must we think be this place and not Beitcul.
1548.—"Trelado (i.e. 'Copy') do Contrato que o Gouernador Gracia de Saa fez com a Raynha de Batecalaa por não aver Reey e ela reger o Reeyno."—In S. Botelho, Tombo, 242.
1599.—"... part is subject to the Queene of Baticola, who selleth great store of pepper to the Portugals, at a towne called Onor...."—Sir Fulke Greville to Sir Fr. Walsingham, in Bruce's Annals, i. 125.
1618.—"The fift of March we anchored at Batachala, shooting three Peeces to give notice of our arriuall...."—Wm. Hore, in Purchas, i. 657. See also Sainsbury, ii. p. 374.
[1624.—"We had the wind still contrary, and having sail'd three other leagues, at the usual hour we cast anchor near the Rocks of Baticala."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 390.]
1727.—"The next Sea-port, to the Southward of Onoar, is Batacola, which has the vestigia of a very large city...."—A. Hamilton, i. 282.
BATEL, BATELO, BOTELLA, s. A sort of boat used in Western India, Sind, and Bengal. Port. batell, a word which occurs in the Roteiro de V. da Gama, 91 [cf. PATTELLO].
page 72a
1838.—"The Botella may be described as a Dow in miniature.... It has invariably a square flat stern, and a long grab-like head."—Vaupell, in Trans. Bo. Geog. Soc. vii. 98.
1857.—"A Sindhi battéla, called Rahmatí, under the Tindal Kasim, laden with dry fish, was about to proceed to Bombay."—Lutfullah, 347. See also Burton, Sind Revisited (1877), 32, 33.
BATTA, s. Two different words are thus expressed in Anglo-Indian colloquial, and in a manner confounded.
a. H. bhata or bhātā: an extra allowance made to officers, soldiers, or other public servants, when in the field, or on other special grounds; also subsistence money to witnesses, prisoners, and the like. Military Batta, originally an occasional allowance, as defined, grew to be a constant addition to the pay of officers in India, and constituted the chief part of the excess of Indian over English military emoluments. The question of the right to batta on several occasions created great agitation among the officers of the Indian army, and the measure of economy carried out by Lord William Bentinck when Governor-General (G. O. of the Gov.-Gen. in Council, 29th November 1828) in the reduction of full batta to half batta, in the allowances received by all regimental officers serving at stations within a certain distance of the Presidency in Bengal (viz. Barrackpore, Dumdum, Berhampore, and Dinapore) caused an enduring bitterness against that upright ruler.
It is difficult to arrive at the origin of this word. There are, however, several Hindi words in rural use, such as bhāt, bhantā, 'advances made to ploughmen without interest,' and bhaṭṭa, bhaṇṭā, 'ploughmen's wages in kind,' with which it is possibly connected. It has also been suggested, without much probability, that it may be allied to bahut, 'much, excess,' an idea entering into the meaning of both a and b. It is just possible that the familiar military use of the term in India may have been influenced by page 72bthe existence of the European military term bât or bât-money. The latter is from bât, 'a pack-saddle,' [Late Lat. bastum], and implies an allowance for carrying baggage in the field. It will be seen that one writer below seems to confound the two words.
b. H. baṭṭā and bāṭṭā: agio, or difference in exchange, discount on coins not current, or of short weight. We may notice that Sir H. Elliot does not recognize an absolute separation between the two senses of Batta. His definition runs thus: "Difference of exchange; anything extra; an extra allowance; discount on uncurrent, or short-weight coins; usually called Batta. The word has been supposed to be a corruption of Bharta, increase, but it is a pure Hindi vocable, and is more usually applied to discount than to premium."—(Supp. Gloss. ii. 41.) [Platts, on the other hand, distinguishes the two words—Baṭṭa, Skt. vṛitta, 'turned,' or varta, 'livelihood'—"Exchange, discount, difference of exchange, deduction, &c.," and Bhaṭṭa, Skt. bhakta 'allotted,'—"advances to ploughmen without interest; ploughman's wages in kind."] It will be seen that we have early Portuguese instances of the word apparently in both senses.
The most probable explanation is that the word (and I may add, the thing) originated in the Portuguese practice, and in the use of the Canarese word bhatta, Mahr. bhāt, 'rice' in 'the husk,' called by the Portuguese bate and bata, for a maintenance allowance.
The word batty, for what is more generally called paddy, is or was commonly used by the English also in S. and W. India (see Linschoten, Lucena and Fryer quoted s.v. Paddy, and Wilson's Glossary, s.v. Bhatta).
The practice of giving a special allowance for mantimento began from a very early date in the Indian history of the Portuguese, and it evidently became a recognised augmentation of pay, corresponding closely to our batta, whilst the quotation from Botelho below shows also that bata and mantimento were used, more or less interchangeably, for this allowance. The correspondence with our Anglo-Indian batta went very far, and a case singularly parallel to the discontent raised in the Indian army by the reduction page 73aof full-batta to half-batta is spoken of by Correa (iv. 256). The mantimento had been paid all the year round, but the Governor, Martin Afonso de Sousa, in 1542, "desiring," says the historian, "a way to curry favour for himself, whilst going against the people and sending his soul to hell," ordered that in future the mantimento should be paid only during the 6 months of Winter (i.e. of the rainy season), when the force was on shore, and not for the other 6 months when they were on board the cruisers, and received rations. This created great bitterness, perfectly analogous in depth and in expression to that entertained with regard to Lord W. Bentinck and Sir John Malcolm, in 1829. Correa's utterance, just quoted, illustrates this, and a little lower down he adds: "And thus he took away from the troops the half of their mantimento (half their batta, in fact), and whether he did well or ill in that, he'll find in the next world."—(See also ibid. p. 430).
The following quotations illustrate the Portuguese practice from an early date:
1507.—(In establishing the settlement at Mozambique) "And the Captains took counsel among themselves, and from the money in the chest, paid the force each a cruzado a month for mantimento, with which the men greatly refreshed themselves...."—Ibid. 786.
a.
The following quotation shows battee (or batty) used at Madras in a way page 73bthat also indicates the original identity of batty, 'rice,' and batta, 'extra allowance':—
1707.—"... that they would allow Batta or subsistence money to all that should desert us."—In Wheeler, ii. 63.
1765.—"... orders were accordingly issued ... that on the 1st January, 1766, the double batta should cease...."—Caraccioli's Clive, iv. 160.
1789.—"... batta, or as it is termed in England, bât and forage money, which is here, in the field, almost double the peace allowance."—Munro's Narrative, p. 97.
The following shows Batty used for rice in Bombay:
1829.—"To the Editor of the Bengal Hurkaru.—Sir,—Is it understood that the Wives and daughters of officers on half batta are included in the order to mourn for the Queen of Wirtemberg; or will half-mourning be considered sufficient for them?"—Letter in above, dated 15th April 1829.
b.—
1680.—"The payment or receipt of Batta or Vatum upon the exchange of Pollicat for Madras pagodas prohibited, both coines being of the same Matt and weight, upon pain of forfeiture of 24 pagodas for every offence together with the loss of the Batta."—Ft. St. Geo. Consn., Feb. 10. In Notes and Exts., p. 17.
1760.—"The Nabob receives his revenues in the siccas of the current year only ... and all siccas of a lower date being page 74aesteemed, like the coin of foreign provinces, only a merchandize, are bought and sold at a certain discount called batta, which rises and falls like the price of other goods in the market...."—Ft. Wm. Cons., June 30, in Long, 216.
BATTAS, BATAKS, &c. n.p. [the latter, according to Mr. Skeat, being the standard Malay name]; a nation of Sumatra, noted especially for their singular cannibal institutions, combined with the possession of a written character of their own and some approach to literature.
c. 1539.—"This Embassador, that was Brother-in-law to the King of Battas ... brought him a rich Present of Wood of Aloes, Calambaa, and five quintals of Benjamon in flowers."—Cogan's Pinto, 15.
c. 1555.—"This Island of Sumatra is the first land wherein we know man's flesh to be eaten by certaine people which liue in the mountains, called Bacas (read Batas), who vse to gilde their teethe."—Galvano, Discoveries of the World, Hak. Soc. 108.
1586.—"Nel regno del Dacin sono alcuni luoghi, ne' quali si ritrouano certe genti, che mangiano le creature humane, e tali genti, si chaimano Batacchi, e quando frà loro i padri, e le madri sono vechhi, si accordano i vicinati di mangiarli, e li mangiano."—G. Balbi, f. 130.
1613.—"In the woods of the interior dwelt Anthropophagi, eaters of human flesh ... and to the present day continues that abuse and evil custom among the Battas of Sumatra."—Godinho de Eredia, f. 23v.
BAWUSTYE, s. Corr. of bobstay in Lascar dialect (Roebuck).
BAY, The, n.p. In the language of the old Company and its servants in the 17th century, The Bay meant the Bay of Bengal, and their factories in that quarter.
BAYA, s. H. baiā [bayā], the Weaver-bird, as it is called in books of Nat. Hist., Ploceus baya, Blyth (Fam. Fringillidae). This clever little bird is not only in its natural state the builder of those remarkable pendant nests which are such striking objects, hanging from eaves or palm-branches; but it is also docile to a singular degree in domestication, and is often exhibited by itinerant natives as the performer of the most delightful tricks, as we have seen, and as is detailed in a paper of Mr Blyth's quoted by Jerdon. "The usual procedure is, when ladies are present, for the bird on a sign from its master to take a cardamom or sweatmeat in its bill, and deposit it between a lady's lips.... A miniature cannon is then brought, which the bird loads with coarse grains of powder one by one ... it next seizes and skilfully uses a small ramrod: and then takes a lighted match from its master, which it applies to the touch-hole." Another common performance is to scatter small beads on a sheet; the bird is provided with a needle and thread, and proceeds in the prettiest way to thread the beads successively. [The quotation from Abul Faẓl shows that these performances are as old as the time of Akbar and probably older still.]
1790.—"The young Hindu women of Banáras ... wear very thin plates of gold, called tíca's, slightly fixed by way of ornament between the eyebrows; and when they pass through the streets, it is not uncommon for the youthful libertines, who amuse themselves with training Bayā's, to give them a sign, which they understand, and to send them to pluck the pieces of gold from the foreheads of their mistresses."—Asiat. Researches, ii. 110.
page 75aBAYADÈRE, s. A Hindu dancing-girl. The word is especially used by French writers, from whom it has been sometimes borrowed as if it were a genuine Indian word, particularly characteristic of the persons in question. The word is in fact only a Gallicized form of the Portuguese bailadeira, from bailar, to dance. Some 50 to 60 years ago there was a famous ballet called Le dieu et la bayadère, and under this title Punch made one of the most famous hits of his early days by presenting a cartoon of Lord Ellenborough as the Bayadère dancing before the idol of Somnāth; [also see DANCING-GIRL].
1526.—"XLVII. The dancers and danceresses (bayladores e bayladeiras) who come to perform at a village shall first go and perform at the house of the principal man of the village" (Gancar, see GAUM).—Foral de usos costumes dos Gancares e Lavradores de esta Ilha de Goa, in Arch. Port. Or., fascic. 5, 132.
1598.—"The heathenish whore called Balliadera, who is a dancer."—Linschoten, 74; [Hak. Soc. i. 264].
1599.—"In hâc icone primum proponitur Inda Balliadera, id est saltatrix, quae in publicis ludis aliisque solennitatibus saltando spectaculum exhibet."—De Bry, Text to pl. xii. in vol. ii. (also see p. 90, and vol. vii. 26), etc.
[c. 1676.—"All the Baladines of Gombroon were present to dance in their own manner according to custom."—Tavernier, ed. Ball, ii. 335.]
1782.—"Surate est renommé par ses Bayadères, dont le véritable nom est Dévédassi: celui de Bayadères que nous leur donnons, vient du mot Balladeiras, qui signifie en Portugais Danseuses."—Sonnerat, i. 7.
1794.—"The name of Balliadere, we never heard applied to the dancing girls; or saw but in Raynal, and 'War in Asia, by an Officer of Colonel Baillie's Detachment;' it is a corrupt Portuguese word."—Moor's Narrative of Little's Detachment, 356.
1825.—"This was the first specimen I had seen of the southern Bayadère, who differ considerably from the nâch girls of northern India, being all in the service of different temples, for which they are purchased young."—Heber, ii. 180.
BAYPARREE, BEOPARRY, s. H. bepārī, and byopārī (from Skt. vyāpārin); a trader, and especially a petty trader or dealer.
A friend long engaged in business in Calcutta (Mr J. F. Ogilvy, of Gillanders & Co.) communicates a letter from an intelligent Bengalee gentleman, illustrating the course of trade in country produce before it reaches the hands of the European shipper:
BAZAAR, s. H. &c. From P. bāzār, a permanent market or street of shops. The word has spread westward into page 76aArabic, Turkish, and, in special senses, into European languages, and eastward into India, where it has generally been adopted into the vernaculars. The popular pronunciation is băzár. In S. India and Ceylon the word is used for a single shop or stall kept by a native. The word seems to have come to S. Europe very early. F. Balducci Pegolotti, in his Mercantile Handbook (c. 1340) gives Bazarra as a Genoese word for 'market-place' (Cathay, &c. ii. 286). The word is adopted into Malay as pāsār, [or in the poems pasara].
1478.—Josafat Barbaro writes: "An Armenian Choza Mirech, a rich merchant in the bazar" (bazarro).—Ibid. f. 111v.
1563.—"... bazar, as much as to say the place where things are sold."—Garcia, f. 170.
1564.—A privilege by Don Sebastian of Portugal gives authority "to sell garden produce freely in the bazars (bazares), markets, and streets (of Goa) without necessity for consent or license from the farmers of the garden produce, or from any other person whatsoever."—Arch. Port. Or., fasc. 2, 157.
c. 1566.—"La Pescaria delle Perle ... si fa ogn' anno ... e su la costa all' in contro piantano vna villa di case, e bazarri di paglia."—Cesare de' Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 390.
1606.—"... the Christians of the Bazar."—Gouvea, 29.
1610.—"En la Ville de Cananor il y a vn beau marché tous les jours, qu'ils appellent Basare."—Pyrard de Laval, i. 325; [Hak. Soc. i. 448].
[1615.—"To buy pepper as cheap as we could in the busser."—Foster, Letters, iii. 114.]
[" "He forbad all the bezar to sell us victuals or else...."—Ibid. iv. 80.]
[1623.—"They call it Bezari Kelan, that is the Great Merkat...."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 96. (P. Kalān, 'great').]
1638.—"We came into a Bussar, or very faire Market place."—W. Bruton, in Hakl. v. 50.
1666.—"Les Bazards ou Marchés sont dans une grande rue qui est au pié de la montagne."—Thevenot, v. 18.
1672.—"... Let us now pass the Pale to the Heathen Town (of Madras) only parted by a wide Parrade, which is used for a Buzzar or Mercate-place."—Fryer, 38.
[1826.—"The Kotwall went to the bazaar-master."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, p. 156.]
1837.—"Lord, there is a honey bazar, page 76brepair thither."—Turnour's transl. of Mahawanso, 24.
BDELLIUM, s. This aromatic gum-resin has been identified with that of the Balsamodendron Mukul, Hooker, inhabiting the dry regions of Arabia and Western India; gugal of Western India, and moḳl in Arabic, called in P. bo-i-jahūdān (Jews' scent). What the Hebrew bdolah of the R. Phison was, which was rendered bdellium since the time of Josephus, remains very doubtful. Lassen has suggested musk as possible. But the argument is only this: that Dioscorides says some called bdellium μάδελκον; that μάδελκον perhaps represents Madālaka, and though there is no such Skt. word as madālaka, there might be madāraka, because there is madāra, which means some perfume, no one knows what! (Ind. Alterth. i. 292.) Dr. Royle says the Persian authors describe the Bdellium as being the product of the Doom palm (see Hindu Medicine, p. 90). But this we imagine is due to some ambiguity in the sense of moḳl. [See the authorities quoted in Encycl. Bibl. s.v. Bdellium which still leave the question in some doubt.]
c. 1230.—"Bdallyūn. A Greek word which as some learned men think, means 'The Lion's Repose.' This plant is the same as moḳl."—Ebn El-Baithár, i. 125.
BEADALA, n.p. Formerly a port of some note for native craft on the Rāmnād coast (Madura district) of the Gulf of Manar, Vadaulay in the Atlas of India. The proper name seems to be Vēdālai, by which it is mentioned in Bishop Caldwell's Hist. of Tinnevelly (p. 235), [and which is derived from Tam. vedu, 'hunting,' and al, 'a banyan-tree' (Mad. Adm. Man. Gloss. page 77ap. 953)]. The place was famous in the Portuguese History of India for a victory gained there by Martin Affonso de Sousa (Capitão Mór do Mar) over a strong land and sea force of the Zamorin, commanded by a famous Mahommedan Captain, whom the Portuguese called Pate Marcar, and the Tuḥfat-al Mujāhidīn calls 'Ali Ibrahīm Markār, 15th February, 1538. Barros styles it "one of the best fought battles that ever came off in India." This occurred under the viceroyalty of Nuno da Cunha, not of Stephen da Gama, as the allusions in Camões seem to indicate. Captain Burton has too hastily identified Beadala with a place on the coast of Malabar, a fact which has perhaps been the cause of this article (see Lusiads, Commentary, p. 477).
1562.—"The Governor, departing from Cochym, coasted as far as Cape Comoryn, doubled that Cape, and ran for Beadalá, which is a place adjoining the Shoals of Chilao [Chilaw]...."—Correa, iv. 324.
c. 1570.—"And about this time Alee Ibrahim Murkar, and his brother-in-law Kunjee-Alee-Murkar, sailed out with 22 grabs in the direction of Kaeel, and arriving off Bentalah, they landed, leaving their grabs at anchor.... But destruction overtook them at the arrival of the Franks, who came upon them in their galliots, attacking and capturing all their grabs.... Now this capture by the Franks took place in the latter part of the month of Shaban, in the year 944 [end of January, 1538]."—Tohfut-ul-Mujahideen, tr. by Rowlandson, 141.
1572.—
"E despois junto ao Cabo Comorim Huma façanha faz esclarecida, A frota principal do Samorim, Que destruir o mundo não duvida, Vencerá co o furor do ferro e fogo; Em si verá Beadála o martio jogo." Camões, x. 65.
By Burton (but whose misconception of the locality has here affected his translation):
"then well nigh reached the Cape 'clept Comorin, another wreath of Fame by him is won; the strongest squadron of the Samorim who doubted not to see the world undone, he shall destroy with rage of fire and steel: Be'adálá's self his martial yoke shall feel."
BEAR-TREE, BAIR, &c. s. H. ber, Mahr. bora, in Central Provinces bor, [Malay bedara or bidara China,] (Skt. badara and vadara) Zizyphus jujuba, Lam. This is one of the most widely diffused trees in India, and is found wild from the Punjab to Burma, in all which region it is probably native. It is cultivated from Queensland and China to Morocco and Guinea. "Sir H. Elliot identifies it with the lotus of the ancients, but although the large juicy product of the garden Zizyphus is by no means bad, yet, as Madden quaintly remarks, one might eat any quantity of it without risk of forgetting home and friends."—(Punjab Plants, 43.)
BEARER, s. The word has two meanings in Anglo-Indian colloquial: a. A palanquin-carrier; b. (In the Bengal Presidency) a domestic servant who has charge of his master's clothes, household furniture, and (often) of his ready money. The word in the latter meaning has been regarded as distinct in origin, and is stated by Wilson to be a corruption of the Bengali vehārā from Skt. vyavahāri, a domestic servant. There seems, however, to be no historical evidence for such an origin, e.g. in any habitual use of the term vehārā, whilst as a matter of fact the domestic bearer (or sirdār-bearer, as he is usually styled by his fellow-servants, often even when he has no one under him) was in Calcutta, in the penultimate generation when English gentlemen still kept palankins, usually just what this literally implies, viz. the head-man of a set of palankin-bearers. And throughout the Presidency the bearer, or valet, still, as a rule, belongs to the caste of Kahārs (see KUHAR), or palki-bearers. [See BOY.]
page 78aa.—
1768–71.—"Every house has likewise ... one or two sets of berras, or palankeen-bearers."—Stavorinus, i. 523.
1771.—"Le bout le plus court du Palanquin est en devant, et porté par deux Beras, que l'on nomme Boys à la Côte (c'est-à-dire Garçons, Serviteurs, en Anglois). Le long bout est par derrière et porte par trois Beras."—Anquetil du Perron, Desc. Prelim. p. xxiii. note.
1778.—"They came on foot, the town having neither horses nor palankin-bearers to carry them, and Colonel Coote received them at his headquarters...."—Orme, iii. 719.
b.—
c. 1815.—"Henry and his Bearer."—(Title of a well-known book of Mrs. Sherwood's.)
1824.—"... I called to my sirdar-bearer who was lying on the floor, outside the bedroom."—Seely, Ellora, ch. i.
1831.—"... le grand maître de ma garde-robe, sirdar beehrah."—Jacquemont, Correspondance, i. 114.
BEEBEE, s. H. from P. bībī, a lady. [In its contracted form bī, it is added as a title of distinction to the names of Musulman ladies.] On the principle of degradation of titles which is so general, this word in application to European ladies has been superseded by the hybrids Mem-Ṣāhib, or Madam-Ṣāhib, though it is often applied to European maid-servants or other Englishwomen of that rank of life. [It retains its dignity as the title of the Bībī of Cananore, known as Bībī Valiya, Malayāl., 'great lady,' who rules in that neighbourhood and exercises authority over three of the islands of the Laccadives, and is by race a Moplah Mohammedan.] The word also is sometimes applied to a prostitute. It is originally, it would page 78bseem, Oriental Turki. In Pavet de Courteille's Dict. we have "Bībī, dame, épouse légitime" (p. 181). In W. India the word is said to be pronounced bobo (see Burton's Sind). It is curious that among the Sákaláva of Madagascar the wives of chiefs are termed biby; but there seems hardly a possibility of this having come from Persia or India. [But for Indian influence on the island, see Encycl. Britt. 9th ed. xv. 174.] The word in Hova means 'animal.'—(Sibree's Madagascar, p. 253.)
1611.—"... the title Bibi ... is in Persian the same as among us, sennora, or doña."—Teixeira, Relacion ... de Hormuz. 19.
c. 1786.—"The word Lowndika, which means the son of a slave-girl, was also continually on the tongue of the Nawaub, and if he was angry with any one he called him by this name; but it was also used as an endearing fond appellation to which was attached great favour, until one day, Ali Zumán Khan ... represented to him that the word was low, discreditable, and not fit for the use of men of knowledge and rank. The Nawaub smiled, and said, 'O friend, you and I are both the sons of slave women, and the two Husseins only (on whom be good wishes and Paradise!) are the sons of a Bibi."—Hist. of Hydur Naik, tr. by Miles, 486.
BEECH-DE-MER, s. The old trade way of writing and pronouncing the name, bicho-de-mar (borrowed from the Portuguese) of the sea-slug or holothuria, so highly valued in China. [See menu of a dinner to which the Duke of Connaught was invited, in Ball, Things Chinese, 3rd ed. p. 247.] It is split, cleaned, dried, and then carried to the Straits for export to China, from the Maldives, the Gulf page 79aof Manar, and other parts of the Indian seas further east. The most complete account of the way in which this somewhat important article of commerce is prepared, will be found in the Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie, Jaarg. xvii. pt. i. See also SWALLOW and TRIPANG.
BEECHMÁN, also MEECHILMÁN, s. Sea-H. for 'midshipman.' (Roebuck).
BEEGAH, s. H. bīghā. The most common Hindu measure of land-area, and varying much in different parts of India, whilst in every part that has a bīghā there is also certain to be a pucka beegah and a kutcha beegah (vide CUTCHA and PUCKA), the latter being some fraction of the former. The beegah formerly adopted in the Revenue Survey of the N.W. Provinces, and in the Canal Department there, was one of 3025 sq. yards or ⅝ of an acre. This was apparently founded on Akbar's beegah, which contained 3600 sq. Ilāhi gaz, of about 33 inches each. [For which see Āīn, trans. Jarrett, ii. 62.] But it is now in official returns superseded by the English acre.
1823.—"A Begah has been computed at one-third of an acre, but its size differs in almost every province. The smallest Begah may perhaps be computed at one-third, and the largest at two-thirds of an acre."—Malcolm's Central India, ii. 15.
BEEGUM, BEGUM, &c. s. A Princess, a Mistress, a Lady of Rank; applied to Mahommedan ladies, and in the well-known case of the Beegum Sumroo to the professedly Christian (native) wife of a European. The word appears to be Or. Turki. bīgam, [which some connect with Skt. bhaga, 'lord,'] a feminine formation from Beg, 'chief, or lord,' like Khānum from Khān; hence P. begam. [Beg appears in the early travellers as Beage.]
page 79b
[1505.—"Begum." See quotation under KHANUM.]
[1617.—"Their Company that offered to rob the Beagam's junck."—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 454.]
1619.—"Behind the girl came another Begum, also an old woman, but lean and feeble, holding on to life with her teeth, as one might say."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 6.
1653.—"Begun, Reine, ou espouse du Schah."—De la Boullaye le Gouz, 127.
[1708.—"They are called for this reason 'Begom,' which means Free from Care or Solicitude" (as if P. be-gham, 'without care'!)—Catrou, H. of the Mogul Dynasty in India, E. T., 287.]
BEEJOO, s. Or 'Indian badger,' as it is sometimes called, H. bījū [bijjū], Mellivora indica, Jerdon, [Blanford, Mammalia, 176]. It is also often called in Upper India the Grave-digger, [gorkhodo] from a belief in its bad practices, probably unjust.
BEER, s. This liquor, imported from England, [and now largely made in the country], has been a favourite in India from an early date. Porter seems to have been common in the 18th century, judging from the advertisements in the Calcutta Gazette; and the Pale Ale made, it is presumed, expressly for the India market, appears in the earliest years of that publication. That expression has long been disused in India, and beer, simply, has represented the thing. Hodgson's at the beginning of this century, was the beer in almost universal use, replaced by Bass, and Allsopp, and of late years by a variety of other brands. [Hodgson's ale is immortalised in Bon Gualtier.]
1690.—(At Surat in the English Factory) "... Europe Wines and English Beer, because of their former acquaintance with our Palates, are most coveted and most desirable Liquors, and tho' sold at high page 80aRates, are yet purchased and drunk with pleasure."—Ovington, 395.
1784.—"London Porter and Pale Ale, light and excellent ... 150 Sicca Rs. per hhd...."—In Seton-Karr, i. 39.
1810.—"Porter, pale-ale and table-beer of great strength, are often drank after meals."—Williamson, V. M. i. 122.
1814.—
"What are the luxuries they boast them here? The lolling couch, the joys of bottled beer."
BEER, COUNTRY. At present, at least in Upper India, this expression simply indicates ale made in India (see COUNTRY) as at Masūri, Kasauli, and Ootacamund Breweries. But it formerly was (and in Madras perhaps still is) applied to ginger-beer, or to a beverage described in some of the quotations below, which must have become obsolete early in the last century. A drink of this nature called Sugar-beer was the ordinary drink at Batavia in the 17th century, and to its use some travellers ascribed the prevalent unhealthiness. This is probably what is described by Jacob Bontius in the first quotation:
1789.—"They use a pleasant kind of drink, called Country-beer, with their victuals; which is composed of toddy ... porter, and brown-sugar; is of a brisk nature, but when cooled with saltpetre and water, becomes a very refreshing draught."—Munro, Narrative, 42.
BEER-DRINKING. Up to about 1850, and a little later, an ordinary page 80bexchange of courtesies at an Anglo-Indian dinner-table in the provinces, especially a mess-table, was to ask a guest, perhaps many yards distant, to "drink beer" with you; in imitation of the English custom of drinking wine together, which became obsolete somewhat earlier. In Western India, when such an invitation was given at a mess-table, two tumblers, holding half a bottle each, were brought to the inviter, who carefully divided the bottle between the two, and then sent one to the guest whom he invited to drink with him.
BEETLEFAKEE, n.p. "In some old Voyages coins used at Mocha are so called. The word is Bait-ul-fākiha, the 'Fruit-market,' the name of a bazar there." So C. P. Brown. The place is in fact the Coffee-mart of which Hodeida is the port, from which it is about 30 m. distant inland, and 4 marches north of Mocha. And the name is really Bait-al-Faḳīh, 'The House of the Divine,' from the tomb of the Saint Aḥmad Ibn Mūsā, which was the nucleus of the place.—(See Ritter, xii. 872; see also BEETLE-FACKIE, Milburn, i. 96.)
1710.—"They daily bring down coffee from the mountains to Betelfaquy, which is not above 3 leagues off, where there is a market for it every day of the week."—(French) Voyage to Arabia the Happy, E. T., London, 1726, p. 99.
BEGAR, BIGARRY, s. H. begārī, from P. begār, 'forced labour' [be 'without,' gār (for kār), 'one who works']; a person pressed to carry a load, or do other work really or professedly for public service. In some provinces page 81abegār is the forced labour, and bigārī the pressed man; whilst in Karnāta, begārī is the performance of the lowest village offices without money payment, but with remuneration in grain or land (Wilson). C. P. Brown says the word is Canarese; but the P. origin is hardly doubtful.
[1525.—"The inhabitants of the villages are bound to supply begarins who are workmen."—Archiv. Port. Orient. Fasc. V. p. 126.]
[1535.—"Telling him that they fought like heroes and worked (at building the fort) like bygairys."—Correa, iii. 625.]
1554.—"And to 4 begguaryns, who serve as water carriers to the Portuguese and others in the said intrenchment, 15 leals a day to each...."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 78.
1673.—"Gocurn, whither I took a Pilgrimage, with one other of the Factors, Four Peons, and Two Biggereens, or Porters only."—Fryer, 158.
1800.—"The bygarry system is not bearable: it must be abolished entirely."—Wellington, i. 244.
1815.—Aitchison's Indian Treaties, &c., contains under this year numerous sunnuds issued, in Nepāl War, to Hill Chiefs, stipulating for attendance when required with "begarees and sepoys."—ii. 339 seqq.
BEHAR, n.p. H. Bihār. That province of the Mogul Empire which lay on the Ganges immediately above Bengal, was so called, and still retains the name and character of a province, under the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, and embracing the ten modern districts of Patna, Sāran, Gāya, Shāhābād, Tirhut, Champāran, the Santāl Parganas, Bhāgalpūr, Monghyr, and Purnīah. The name was taken from the old city of Bihār, and that derived its title from being the site of a famous Vihāra in Buddhist times. In the later days of Mahommedan rule the three provinces of Bengal, Behar and Orissa were under one Subadar, viz. the Nawāb, who resided latterly at Murshidābād.
The following is the first example we have noted of the occurrence of the three famous names in combination:
BEHUT, n.p. H. Behat. One of the names, and in fact the proper name, of the Punjab river which we now call Jelum (i.e. Jhīlam) from a town on its banks: the Hydaspes or Bidaspes of the ancients. Both Behat and the Greek name are corruptions, in different ways, of the Skt. name Vitastā. Sidi 'Alī (p. 200) calls it the river of Bahra. Bahra or Bhera was a district on the river, and the town and taḥsīl still remain, in Shahpur Dist. [It "is called by the natives of Kaśmīr, where it rises, the Bedasta, which is but a slightly-altered form of its Skt. name, the Vitastā, which means 'wide-spread.'"—McCrindle, Invasion of India, 93 seqq.]
BEIRAMEE, BYRAMEE, also BYRAMPAUT, s. P. bairam, bairamī. The name of a kind of cotton stuff which appears frequently during the flourishing period of the export of these from India; but the exact character of which we have been unable to ascertain. In earlier times, as appears from the first quotation, it was a very fine stuff. [From the quotation dated 1609 below, they appear to have resembled the fine linen known as "Holland" (for which see Draper's Dict. s.v.).]
[1498.—"20 pieces of white stuff, very fine, with gold embroidery which they call Beyramies."—Correa, Hak. Soc. 197.]
1510.—"Fifty ships are laden every year in this place (Bengala) with cotton and silk page 82astuffs ... that is to say bairam."—Varthema, 212.
[1513.—"And captured two Chaul ships laden with beirames."—Albuquerque, Cartas, p. 166.]
1554.—"From this country come the muslins called Candaharians, and those of Daulatābād, Berūpātri, and Bairami."—Sidi 'Ali, in J.A.S.B., v. 460.
" "And for 6 beirames for 6 surplices, which are given annually ... which may be worth 7 pardaos."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 129.
[1609.—"A sort of cloth called Byramy resembling Holland cloths."—Danvers, Letters, i. 29.]
[1610.—"Bearams white will vent better than the black."—Ibid. i. 75].
1615.—"10 pec. byrams nill (see ANILE) of 51 Rs. per corg...."—Cocks's Diary, i. 4.
[1648.—"Beronis." Quotation from Van Twist, s.v. GINGHAM.]
[c. 1700.—"50 blew byrampants" (read byrampauts, H. pāt, 'a length of cloth').—In Notes and Queries, 7th Ser. ix. 29.]
1727.—"Some Surat Baftaes dyed blue, and some Berams dyed red, which are both coarse cotton cloth."—A. Hamilton, ii. 125.
BEITCUL, n.p. We do not know how this name should be properly written. The place occupies the isthmus connecting Carwar Head in Canara with the land, and lies close to the Harbour of Carwar, the inner part of which is Beitcul Cove.
BELGAUM, n.p. A town and district of the Bombay Presidency, in the S. Mahratta country. The proper name is said to be Canarese Vennu-grāmā, 'Bamboo-Town.' [The name of a place of the same designation in the Vizagapatam district in Madras is said to be derived from Skt. bila-grāma, 'cave-village.'—Mad. Admin. Man. Gloss. s.v.] The name occurs in De Barros under the form "Cidade de Bilgan" (Dec. IV., liv. vii. cap. 5).
BENAMEE, adj. P.—H. be-nāmī, 'anonymous'; a term specially applied page 82bto documents of transfer or other contract in which the name entered as that of one of the chief parties (e.g. of a purchaser) is not that of the person really interested. Such transactions are for various reasons very common in India, especially in Bengal, and are not by any means necessarily fradulent, though they have often been so. ["There probably is no country in the world except India, where it would be necessary to write a chapter 'On the practice of putting property into a false name.'"—(Mayne, Hindu Law, 373).] In the Indian Penal Code (Act XLV. of 1860), sections 421–423, "on fraudulent deeds and dispositions of Property," appear to be especially directed against the dishonest use of this benamee system.
It is alleged by C. P. Brown on the authority of a statement in the Friend of India (without specific reference) that the proper term is banāmī, adopted from such a phrase as banāmī chiṭṭhī, 'a transferable note of hand,' such notes commencing, 'ba-nām-i-fulāna,' 'to the name or address of' (Abraham Newlands). This is conceivable, and probably true, but we have not the evidence, and it is opposed to all the authorities: and in any case the present form and interpretation of the term be-nāmī has become established.
"The presumption of the Hindoo law, in a joint undivided family, is that the whole property of the family is joint estate ... where a purchase of real estate is made by a Hindoo in the name of one of his sons, the presumption of the Hindoo law is in favour of its being a benamee purchase, and the burthen of proof lies on the party in whose name it was purchased, to prove that he was solely entitled."—Note by the Editor of above Vol., p. 53.
1861.—"The decree Sale law is also one chief cause of that nuisance, the benamee system.... It is a peculiar contrivance for getting the benefits and credit of property, and avoiding its charges and liabilities. It consists in one man holding land, nominally for himself, but really in secret trust for another, and by ringing the changes between the two ... relieving the land from being page 83aattached for any liability personal to the proprietor."—W. Money, Java, ii. 261.
BENARES, n.p. The famous and holy city on the Ganges. H. Banāras from Skt. Vārānasī. The popular Pundit etymology is from the names of the streams Varaṇā (mod. Barnā) and Āsī, the former a river of some size on the north and east of the city, the latter a rivulet now embraced within its area; [or from the mythical founder, Rājā Bānār]. This origin is very questionable. The name, as that of a city, has been (according to Dr. F. Hall) familiar to Sanscrit literature since B.C. 120. The Buddhist legends would carry it much further back, the name being in them very familiar.
c. 637.—"The Kingdom of P'o-lo-nis-se (Vârânaçî Bénarès) is 4000 li in compass. On the west the capital adjoins the Ganges...."—Hiouen Thsang, in Pèl. Boudd. ii. 354.
c. 1020.—"If you go from Bárí on the banks of the Ganges, in an easterly direction, you come to Ajodh, at the distance of 25 parasangs; thence to the great Benares (Bānāras) about 20."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 56.
BENCOOLEN, n.p. A settlement on the West Coast of Sumatra, which long pertained to England, viz. from 1685 to 1824, when it was given over to Holland in exchange for Malacca, by the Treaty of London. The name is a corruption of Malay Bangkaulu, and it appears as Mangkoulou or Wénkouléou in Pauthier's Chinese geographical quotations, of which the date is not given (Marc. Pol., p. 566, note). The page 83bEnglish factory at Bencoolen was from 1714 called Fort Marlborough.
1690.—"We ... were forced to bear away to Bencouli, another English Factory on the same Coast.... It was two days before I went ashoar, and then I was importuned by the Governour to stay there, to be Gunner of the Fort."—Dampier, i. 512.
1727.—"Bencolon is an English colony, but the European inhabitants not very numerous."—A. Hamilton, ii. 114.
BENDAMEER, n.p. Pers. Bandamīr. A popular name, at least among foreigners, of the River Kur (Araxes) near Shiraz. Properly speaking, the word is the name of a dam constructed across the river by the Amīr Fanā Khusruh, otherwise called Aded-ud-daulah, a prince of the Buweih family (A.D. 965), which was thence known in later days as the Band-i-Amīr, "The Prince's Dam." The work is mentioned in the Geog. Dict. of Yāḳūt (c. 1220) under the name of Sikru Fannā-Khusrah Khurrah and Kirdu Fannā Khusrah (see Barb. Meynard, Dict. de la Perse, 313, 480). Fryer repeats a rigmarole that he heard about the miraculous formation of the dam or bridge by Band Haimero (!) a prophet, "wherefore both the Bridge and the Plain, as well as the River, by Boterus is corruptly called Bindamire" (Fryer, 258).
1621.—"... having to pass the Kur by a longer way across another bridge called Bend' Emir, which is as much as to say the Tie (ligatura), or in other words the Bridge, of the Emir, which is two leagues distant from Chehil minar ... and which is so called after a certain Emir Hamza the Dilemite who built it.... Fra Filippo Ferrari, in his Geographical Epitome, attributes the name of Bendemir to the river, but he is wrong, for Bendemir is the name of the bridge and not of the river."—P. della Valle, ii. 264.
page 84a1686.—"Il est bon d'observer, que le commun Peuple appelle le Bend-Emir en cet endroit ab pulneu, c'est à dire le Fleuve du Pont Neuf; qu'on ne l'appelle par son nom de Bend-Emir que proche de la Digue, qui lui a fait donner ce nom."—Chardin (ed. 1711), ix. 45.
1809.—"We proceeded three miles further, and crossing the River Bend-emir, entered the real plain of Merdasht."—Morier (First Journey), 124. See also (1811) 2nd Journey, pp. 73–74, where there is a view of the Band-Amir.
1813.—"The river Bund Emeer, by some ancient Geographers called the Cyrus, takes its present name from a dyke (in Persian a bund) erected by the celebrated Ameer Azad-a-Doulah Delemi."—Macdonald Kinneir, Geog. Mem. of the Persian Empire, 59.
1817.—
"There's a bower of roses by Bendameer's stream, And the nightingale sings round it all the day long."—Lalla Rookh.
1850.—"The water (of Lake Neyriz) ... is almost entirely derived from the Kur (known to us as the Bund Amir River)...."—Abbott, in J.R.G.S., xxv. 73.
BENDÁRA, s. A term used in the Malay countries as a title of one of the higher ministers of state—Malay bandahāra, Jav. bendårå, 'Lord.' The word enters into the numerous series of purely honorary Javanese titles, and the etiquette in regard to it is very complicated. (See Tijdschr. v. Nederl. Indie, year viii. No. 12, 253 seqq.). It would seem that the title is properly bānḍārā, 'a treasurer,' and taken from the Skt. bhāṇḍārin, 'a steward or treasurer.' Haex in his Malay-Latin Dict. gives Banḍàri, 'Oeconomus, quaestor, expenditor.' [Mr. Skeat writes that Clifford derives it from Benda-hara-an, 'a treasury,' which he again derives from Malay benda, 'a thing,' without explaining hara, while Wilkinson with more probability classes it as Skt.]
1539.—"There the Bandara (Bendara) of Malaca, (who is as it were Chief Justicer among the Mahometans), (o supremo no mando, na honra e ne justica dos mouros) page 84bwas present in person by the express commandment of Pedro de Faria for to entertain him."—Pinto (orig. cap. xiv.), in Cogan, p. 17.
1552.—"And as the Bendara was by nature a traitor and a tyrant, the counsel they gave him seemed good to him."—Castanheda, ii. 359, also iii. 433.
1561.—"Então manson ... que dizer que matára o seu bandara polo mao conselho que lhe deve."—Correa, Lendas, ii. 225.
[1610.—An official at the Maldives is called Rana-bandery Tacourou, which Mr. Gray interprets—Singh. ran, 'gold,' bandhara, 'treasury,' ṭhakkura, Skt., 'an idol.'—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 58.]
1613.—"This administration (of Malacca) is provided for a three years' space with a governor ... and with royal officers of revenue and justice, and with the native Bendara in charge of the government of the lower class of subjects and foreigners."—Godinho de Eredia, 6v.
1631.—"There were in Malaca five principal officers of dignity ... the second is Bendará, he is the superintendent of the executive (veador da fazenda) and governs the Kingdom: sometimes the Bendará holds both offices, that of Puduca raja and of Bendará."—D'Alboquerque, Commentaries (orig.), 358–359.
1634.—
"O principal sogeito no governo De Mahomet, e privanca, era o Bendára, Magistrado supremo." Malaca Conquistada, iii. 6.
1726.—"Bandares or Adassing are those who are at the Court as Dukes, Counts, or even Princes of the Royal House."—Valentijn (Ceylon), Names of Officers, &c., 8.
1810.—"After the Raja had amused himself with their speaking, and was tired of it ... the bintara with the green eyes (for it is the custom that the eldest bintara should have green shades before his eyes, that he may not be dazzled by the greatness of the Raja, and forget his duty) brought the books and packets, and delivered them to the bintara with the black baju, from whose hands the Raja received them, one by one, in order to present them to the youths."—A Malay's account of a visit to Govt. House, Calcutta, transl. by Dr. Leyden in Maria Graham, p. 202.
BENDY, BINDY, s.: also BANDICOY (q.v.), the form in S. India; H. bhinḍī, [bhenḍī], Dakh. bhenḍī, Mahr. bhenḍā; also in H. rāmturaī; the fruit of the plant Abelmoschus esculentus, also Hibiscus esc. It is called in Arab. bāmiyah (Lane, Mod. Egypt, ed. 1837, i. 199: [5th ed. i. 184: Burton, Ar. page 85aNights, xi. 57]), whence the modern Greek μπάμια. In Italy the vegetable is called corni de' Greci. The Latin name Abelmoschus is from the Ar. ḥabb-ul-mushk, 'grain of musk' (Dozy).
1813.—"The banda (Hibiscus esculentus) is a nutritious oriental vegetable."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 32; [2nd ed. i. 22].
BENDY-TREE, s. This, according to Sir G. Birdwood, is the Thespesia populnea, Lam. [Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. iv. 45 seqq.], and gives a name to the 'Bendy Bazar' in Bombay. (See PORTIA.)
BENGAL, n.p. The region of the Ganges Delta and the districts immediately above it; but often in English use with a wide application to the whole territory garrisoned by the Bengal army. This name does not appear, so far as we have been able to learn, in any Mahommedan or Western writing before the latter part of the 13th century. In the earlier part of that century the Mahommedan writers generally call the province Lakhnaotī, after the chief city, but we have also the old form Bang, from the indigenous Vaṅga. Already, however, in the 11th century we have it as Vaṅgālam on the Inscription of the great Tanjore Pagoda. This is the oldest occurrence that we can cite.
The alleged City of Bengala of the Portuguese which has greatly perplexed geographers, probably originated with the Arab custom of giving an important foreign city or seaport the name of the country in which it lay (compare the city of Solmandala, under COROMANDEL). It long kept a place in maps. The last occurrence that we know of is in a chart of 1743, in page 85bDalrymple's Collection, which identifies it with Chittagong, and it may be considered certain that Chittagong was the place intended by the older writers (see Varthema and Ovington). The former, as regards his visiting Banghella, deals in fiction—a thing clear from internal evidence, and expressly alleged, by the judicious Garcia de Orta: "As to what you say of Ludovico Vartomano, I have spoken, both here and in Portugal, with men who knew him here in India, and they told me that he went about here in the garb of a Moor, and then reverted to us, doing penance for his sins; and that the man never went further than Calecut and Cochin."—Colloquios, f. 30.
1298.—"Bangala is a Province towards the south, which up to the year 1290 ... had not yet been conquered...." (&c.).—Marco Polo, Bk. ii. ch. 55.
c. 1300.—"... then to Bijalár (but better reading Bangālā), which from of old is subject to Delhi...."—Rashīduddīn, in Elliot, i. 72.
c. 1345.—"... we were at sea 43 days and then arrived in the country of Banjāla, which is a vast region abounding in rice. I have seen no country in the world where provisions are cheaper than in this; but it is muggy, and those who come from Khorāsān call it 'a hell full of good things.'"—Ibn Batuta, iv. 211. (But the Emperor Aurungzebe is alleged to have "emphatically styled it the Paradise of Nations."—Note in Stavorinus, i. 291.)
c. 1350.—
"Shukr shikan shawand hama ṭūṭiān-i-Hind Zīn ḳand-i-Pārsī kih ba Bangāla mi rawad." Hāfiz.
i.e.,
"Sugar nibbling are all the parrots of Ind From this Persian candy that travels to Bengal" (viz. his own poems).
1498.—"Bemgala: in this Kingdom are many Moors, and few Christians, and the King is a Moor ... in this land are many cotton cloths, and silk cloths, and much silver; it is 40 days with a fair wind from Calicut."—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 2nd ed. p. 110.
1506.—"A Banzelo, el suo Re è Moro, e li se fa el forzo de' panni de gotton...."—Leonardo do Ca' Masser, 28.
1510.—"We took the route towards the city of Banghella ... one of the best that I had hitherto seen."—Varthema, 210.
page 86a1516.—"... the Kingdom of Bengala, in which there are many towns.... Those of the interior are inhabited by Gentiles subject to the King of Bengala, who is a Moor; and the seaports are inhabited by Moors and Gentiles, amongst whom there is much trade and much shipping to many parts, because this sea is a gulf ... and at its inner extremity there is a very great city inhabited by Moors, which is called Bengala, with a very good harbour."—Barbosa, 178–9.
c. 1590.—"Bungaleh originally was called Bung; it derived the additional al from that being the name given to the mounds of earth which the ancient Rajahs caused to be raised in the low lands, at the foot of the hills."—Ayeen Akbery, tr. Gladwin, ii. 4 (ed. 1800); [tr. Jarrett, ii. 120].
BENGAL, s. This was also the designation of a kind of piece-goods exported from that country to England, in the 17th century. But long before, among the Moors of Spain, a fine muslin seems to have been known as al-bangala, surviving in Spanish albengala. (See Dozy and Eng. s.v. [What were called "Bengal Stripes" were striped ginghams brought first from Bengal and first made in Great Britain at Paisley. (Draper's Dict. s.v.). So a particular kind of silk was known as "Bengal wound," because it was "rolled in the rude and artless manner immemorially practised by the natives of that country." (Milburn, in Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. 3, 185.) See N.E.D. for examples of the use of the word as late as Lord Macaulay.]
BENGALA, s. This is or was also applied in Portuguese to a sort of cane carried in the army by sergeants, &c. (Bluteau).
BENGALEE, n.p. A native of Bengal [Baboo]. In the following page 86bearly occurrence in Portuguese, Bengala is used:
[1610.—"Bangasalys." See quotation from Teixeira under BANKSHALL.]
[In modern Anglo-Indian parlance the title is often applied in provinces other than Bengal to officers from N. India. The following from Madras is a curious early instance of the same use of the word:—
BENIGHTED, THE, adj. An epithet applied by the denizens of the other Presidencies, in facetious disparagement to Madras. At Madras itself "all Carnatic fashion" is an habitual expression among older English-speaking natives, which appears to convey a similar idea. (See MADRAS, MULL.)
BENJAMIN, BENZOIN, &c., s. A kind of incense, derived from the resin of the Styrax benzoin, Dryander, in Sumatra, and from an undetermined species in Siam. It got from the Arab traders the name lubān-Jāwī, i.e. 'Java Frankincense,' corrupted in the Middle Ages into such forms as we give. The first syllable of the Arabic term was doubtless taken as an article—lo bengioi, whence bengioi, benzoin, and so forth. This etymology is given correctly by De Orta, and by Valentijn, and suggested by Barbosa in the quotation below. Spanish forms are benjui, menjui; Modern Port. beijoim, beijuim; Ital. belzuino, &c. The terms Jāwā, Jāwī were applied by the Arabs to the Malay countries generally (especially page 87aSumatra) and their products. (See Marco Polo, ii. 266; [Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 96] and the first quotation here.)
1461.—"Have these things that I have written to thee next thy heart, and God grant that we may be always at peace. The presents (herewith): Benzoi, rotoli 30. Legno Aloë, rotoli 20. Due paja di tapeti...."—Letter from the Soldan of Egypt to the Doge Pasquale Malipiero, in the Lives of the Doges, Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, xxii. col. 1170.
1498.—"Xarnauz ... is from Calecut 50 days' sail with a fair wind (see SARNAU) ... in this land there is much beijoim, which costs iii cruzados the farazalla, and much aloee which costs xxv cruzados the farazalla" (see FRAZALA).—Roteiro da Viagem de V. da Gama, 109–110.
1516.—"Benjuy, each farazola lx, and the very good lxx fanams."—Barbosa (Tariff of Prices at Calicut), 222.
" "Benjuy, which is a resin of trees which the Moors call luban javi."—Ibid. 188.
1539.—"Cinco quintais de beijoim de boninas."—Pinto, cap. xiii.
1563.—"And all these species of benjuy the inhabitants of the country call cominham, but the Moors call them louan jaoy, i.e. 'incense of Java' ... for the Arabs call incense louan."—Garcia, f. 29v.
1584.—"Belzuinum mandolalo from Sian and Baros. Belzuinum, burned, from Bonnia" (Borneo?).—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 413.
BENUA, n.p. This word, Malay banuwa, [in standard Malay, according to Mr. Skeat, benuwa or benua], properly means 'land, country,' and the Malays use orang-banuwa in the sense of aborigines, applying it to the wilder tribes of the Malay Peninsula. Hence "Benuas" has been used by Europeans as a proper name of those tribes.—See Crawfurd, Dict. Ind. Arch. sub voce.
page 87bBERBERYN, BARBERYN, n.p. Otherwise called Beruwala, a small port with an anchorage for ships and a considerable coasting trade, in Ceylon, about 35 m. south of Columbo.
c. 1618.—"At the same time Barreto made an attack on Berbelim, killing the Moorish modeliar [Modelliar] and all his kinsfolk."—Bocarro, Decada, 713.
1780.—"Barbarien Island."—Dunn, New Directory, 5th ed. 77.
1836.—"Berberyn Island.... There is said to be an anchorage north of it, in 6 or 7 fathoms, and a small bay further in ... where small craft may anchor."—Horsburgh, 5th ed. 551.
BERIBERI, s. An acute disease, obscure in its nature and pathology, generally but not always presenting dropsical symptoms, as well as paralytic weakness and numbness of the lower extremities, with oppressed breathing. In cases where debility, oppression, anxiety and dyspnœa are extremely severe, the patient sometimes dies in 6 to 30 hours. Though recent reports seem to refer to this disease as almost confined to natives, it is on record that in 1795, in Trincomalee, 200 Europeans died of it.
The word has been alleged to be Singhalese beri [the Mad. Admin. Man. Gloss. s.v. gives baribari], 'debility.' This kind of reduplication is really a common Singhalese practice. It is also sometimes alleged to be a W. Indian Negro term; and other worthless guesses have been made at its origin. The Singhalese origin is on the whole most probable [and is accepted by the N.E.D.]. In the quotations from Bontius and Bluteau, the disease described seems to be that formerly known as Barbiers. Some authorities have considered these diseases as quite distinct, but Sir Joseph Fayrer, who has paid attention to beriberi and written upon it (see The Practitioner, January 1877), regards Barbiers as "the dry form of beri-beri," and Dr. Lodewijks, quoted below, says briefly that "the Barbiers of some French writers is incontestably the same disease." (On this page 88ait is necessary to remark that the use of the term Barbiers is by no means confined to French writers, as a glance at the quotations under that word will show). The disease prevails endemically in Ceylon, and in Peninsular India in the coast-tracts, and up to 40 or 60 m. inland; also in Burma and the Malay region, including all the islands, at least so far as New Guinea, and also Japan, where it is known as kakké: [see Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. p. 238 seqq.]. It is very prevalent in certain Madras Jails. The name has become somewhat old-fashioned, but it has recurred of late years, especially in hospital reports from Madras and Burma. It is frequently epidemic, and some of the Dutch physicians regard it as infectious. See a pamphlet, Beri-Beri door J. A. Lodewijks, ondofficier van Gezondheit bij het Ned. Indische Leger, Harderwijk, 1882. In this pamphlet it is stated that in 1879 the total number of beri-beri patients in the military hospitals of Netherlands-India, amounted to 9873, and the deaths among these to 1682. In the great military hospitals at Achin there died of beri-beri between 1st November 1879, and 1st April 1880, 574 persons, of whom the great majority were dwangarbeiders, i.e. 'forced labourers.' These statistics show the extraordinary prevalence and fatality of the disease in the Archipelago. Dutch literature on the subject is considerable.
Sir George Birdwood tells us that during the Persian Expedition of 1857 he witnessed beri-beri of extraordinary virulence, especially among the East African stokers on board the steamers. The sufferers became dropsically distended to a vast extent, and died in a few hours.
In the second quotation scurvy is evidently meant. This seems much allied by causes to beriberi though different in character.
c. 1610.—"Ce ne fut pas tout, car i'eus encor ceste fascheuse maladie de louende que les Portugais appellent autrement berber et les Hollandais scurbut."—Mocquet, 221.
1613.—"And under the orders of the said General André Furtado de Mendoça, the discoverer departed to the court of Goa, page 88bbeing ill with the malady of the berebere, in order to get himself treated."—Godinho de Eredia, f. 58.
1631.—"... Constat frequenti illorum usu, praesertim liquoris saguier dicti, non solum diarrhaeas ... sed et paralysin Beriberi dictam hinc natam esse."—Jac. Bontii, Dial. iv. See also Lib. ii. cap. iii., and Lib. iii. p. 40.
1659.—"There is also another sickness which prevails in Banda and Ceylon, and is called Barberi; it does not vex the natives so much as foreigners."—Sarr, 37.
1682.—"The Indian and Portuguese women draw from the green flowers and cloves, by means of firing with a still, a water or spirit of marvellous sweet smell ... especially is it good against a certain kind of paralysis called Berebery."—Nieuhof, Zee en Lant-Reize, ii. 33.
1685.—"The Portuguese in the Island suffer from another sickness which the natives call béri-béri."—Ribeiro, f. 55.
1720.—"Berebere (termo da India). Huma Paralysia bastarde, ou entorpecemento, com que fica o corpo como tolhido."—Bluteau, Dict. s.v.
1809.—"A complaint, as far as I have learnt, peculiar to the island (Ceylon), the berri-berri; it is in fact a dropsy that frequently destroys in a few days."—Ld. Valentia, i. 318.
1835.—(On the Maldives) "... the crew of the vessels during the survey ... suffered mostly from two diseases; the Beri-beri which attacked the Indians only, and generally proved fatal."—Young and Christopher, in Tr. Ro. Geog. Soc., vol. i.
1837.—"Empyreumatic oil called oleum nigrum, from the seeds of Celastrus nutans (Malkungnee) described in Mr. Malcolmson's able prize Essay on the Hist. and Treatment of Beriberi ... the most efficacious remedy in that intractable complaint."—Royle on Hindu Medicine, 46.
1880.—"A malady much dreaded by the Japanese, called Kakké.... It excites a most singular dread. It is considered to be the same disease as that which, under the name of Beriberi, makes such havoc at times on crowded jails and barracks."—Miss Bird's Japan, i. 288.
1882.—"Berbá, a disease which consists in great swelling of the abdomen."—Blumentritt, Vocabular, s.v.
1885.—"Dr. Wallace Taylor, of Osaka, Japan, reports important discoveries respecting the origin of the disease known as beri-beri. He has traced it to a microscopic spore largely developed in rice. He has finally detected the same organism in the earth of certain alluvial and damp localities."—St. James's Gazette, Aug. 9th.
BERYL, s. This word is perhaps a very ancient importation from India to page 89athe West, it having been supposed that its origin was the Skt. vaidūrya, Prak. velūriya, whence [Malay baiduri and biduri], P. billaur, and Greek βήρυλλος. Bochart points out the probable identity of the two last words by the transposition of l and r. Another transposition appears to have given Ptolemy his Ὀρούδια ὄρη (for the Western Ghats), representing probably the native Vaidūrya mountains. In Ezekiel xxvii. 13, the Sept. has Βηρύλλιον, where the Hebrew now has tarshīsh, [another word with probably the same meaning being shohsm (see Professor Ridgeway in Encycl. Bibl. s.v. Beryl)]. Professor Max Müller has treated of the possible relation between vaidūrya and vidāla, 'a cat,' and in connection with this observes that "we should, at all events, have learnt the useful lesson that the chapter of accidents is sometimes larger than we suppose."—(India, What can it Teach us?" p. 267). This is a lesson which many articles in our book suggest; and in dealing with the same words, it may be indicated that the resemblance between the Greek αἴλουρος, bilaur, a common H. word for a cat, and the P. billaur, 'beryl,' are at least additional illustrations of the remark quoted.
BETEL, s. The leaf of the Piper betel, L., chewed with the dried areca-nut (which is thence improperly called betel-nut, a mistake as old as Fryer—1673,—see p. 40), chunam, etc., by the natives of India and the Indo-Chinese countries. The word is Malayāl. veṭṭila, i.e. veru + ila = 'simple or mere leaf,' and comes to us through the Port. betre and betle. Pawn (q.v.) is the term more generally used by modern Anglo-Indians. In former times the betel-leaf was in S. India the subject of a monopoly of the E. I. Co.
1498.—In Vasco da Gama's Roteiro, p. 59, the word used is atombor, i.e. al-tambūl (Arab.) from the Skt. tāmbūla. See also Acosta, p. 139. [See TEMBOOL.]
1510.—"This betel resembles the leaves of the sour orange, and they are constantly eating it."—Varthema, p. 144.
1516.—"We call this betel Indian leaf."—Barbosa, 73.
[1521.—"Bettre (or vettele)." See under ARECA.]
1552.—"... at one side of the bed ... stood a man ... who held in his hand a gold plate with leaves of betelle...."—De Barros, Dec. I. liv. iv. cap. viii.
1563.—"We call it betre, because the first land known by the Portuguese was Malabar, and it comes to my remembrance that in Portugal they used to speak of their coming not to India, but to Calecut ... insomuch that in all the names that occur, which are not Portuguese, are Malabar, like betre."—Garcia, f. 37g.
1582.—The transl. of Castañeda by N. L. has betele (f. 35), and also vitele (f. 44).
1585.—A King's letter grants the revenue from betel (betre) to the bishop and clergy of Goa.—In Arch. Port. Or., fasc. 3, p. 38.
1615.—"He sent for Coco-Nuts to give the Company, himselfe chewing Bittle and lime of Oyster-shels, with a Kernell of Nut called Arracca, like an Akorne, it bites in the mouth, accords rheume, cooles the head, strengthens the teeth, & is all their Phisicke."—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 537; [with some trifling variations in Foster's ed. (Hak. Soc.) i. 19].
1623.—"Celebratur in universo oriente radix quaedam vocata Betel, quam Indi et reliqui in ore habere et mandere consueverunt, atque ex eâ mansione mire recreantur, et ad labores tolerandos, et ad languores discutiendos ... videtur autem esse ex narcoticis, quia magnopere denigrat dentes."—Bacon, Historia Vitae et Mortis, ed. Amst. 1673, p. 97.
1672.—"They pass the greater part of the day in indolence, occupied only with talk, and chewing Betel and Areca, by which means their lips and teeth are always stained."—P. di Vincenzo Maria, 232.
1677.—The Court of the E. I. Co. in a letter to Ft. St. George, Dec. 12, disapprove of allowing "Valentine Nurse 20 Rupees a month for diet, 7 Rs. for house-rent, 2 for a cook, 1 for Beetle, and 2 for a Porter, which is a most extravagant rate, which we shall not allow him or any other."—Notes and Exts., No. i. p. 21.
BETTEELA, BEATELLE, &c., s. The name of a kind of muslin constantly mentioned in old trading-lists and narratives. This seems to be a Sp. and Port. word beatilla or beatilha, for 'a veil,' derived, according to Cobarruvias, from "certain beatas, who invented or used the like." Beata is a religieuse. ["The Betilla is a certain kind of white E. I. chintz made at Masulipatam, and known under the name of Organdi."—Mad. Admin. Man. Gloss. p. 233.]
1572.—
"Vestida huma camisa preciosa Trazida de delgada beatilha, Que o corpo crystallino deixa ver-se; Que tanto bem não he para esconder-se." Camões, vi. 21.
1598.—"... this linnen is of divers sorts, and is called Serampuras, Cassas, Comsas, Beattillias, Satopassas, and a thousand such names."—Linschoten, 28; [Hak. Soc. i. 95; and cf. i. 56].
1685.—"To servants, 3 pieces beteelaes."—In Wheeler, i. 149.
1727.—"Before Aurangzeb conquered Visiapore, this country (Sundah) produced the finest Betteelas or Muslins in India."—A. Hamilton, i. 264.
BEWAURIS, adj. P.—H. be-wāris, 'without heir.' Unclaimed, without heir or owner.
BEYPOOR, n.p. Properly Veppūr, or Bēppūr, [derived from Malayāl. veppu, 'deposit,' ur, 'village,' a place formed by the receding of the sea, which has been turned into the Skt. form Vāyupura, 'the town of the Wind-god']. The terminal town of the Madras Railway on the Malabar coast. It stands north of the river; whilst the railway station is on the S. of the river—(see CHALIA). Tippoo Sahib tried to make a great port of Beypoor, and to call it Sultanpatnam. [It is one of the many places which have been suggested as the site of Ophir (Logan, Malabar, i. 246), and is probably the Belliporto of Tavernier, "where page 90bthere was a fort which the Dutch had made with palms" (ed. Ball, i. 235).]
"Chamará o Samorim mais gente nova; Virão Reis de Bipur, e de Tanor...." Camões, x. 14.
BEZOAR, s. This word belongs, not to the A.-Indian colloquial, but to the language of old oriental trade and materia medica. The word is a corruption of the P. name of the thing, pādzahr, 'pellens venenum,' or pāzahr. The first form is given by Meninski as the etymology of the word, and this is accepted by Littré [and the N.E.D.]. The quotations of Littré from Ambrose Paré show that the word was used generically for 'an antidote,' and in this sense it is used habitually by Avicenna. No doubt the term came to us, with so many others, from Arab medical writers, so much studied in the Middle Ages, and this accounts for the b, as Arabic has no p, and writes bāzahr. But its usual application was, and is, limited to certain hard concretions found in the bodies of animals, to which antidotal virtues were ascribed, and especially to one obtained from the stomach of a wild goat in the Persian province of Lar. Of this animal and the bezoar an account is given in Kaempfer's Amoenitates Exoticae, pp. 398 seqq. The Bezoar was sometimes called Snake-Stone, and erroneously supposed to be found in the head of a snake. It may have been called so really because, as Ibn Baithar states, such a stone was laid upon the bite of a venomous creature (and was believed) to extract the poison. Moodeen Sheriff, in his Suppt. to the Indian Pharmacopœia, says there are various bezoars in use (in native mat. med.), distinguished according to the animal producing them, as a goat-, camel-, fish-, and snake-bezoar; the last quite distinct from Snake-Stone (q.v.).
[A false Bezoar stone gave occasion for the establishment of one of the great distinctions in our Common Law, viz. between actions founded upon contract, and those founded upon wrongs: Chandelor v. Lopus was decided in 1604 (reported in 2. Croke, and in Smith's Leading Cases). The head-note page 91aruns—"The defendant sold to the plaintiff a stone, which he affirmed to be a Bezoar stone, but which proved not to be so. No action lies against him, unless he either knew that it was not a Bezoar stone, or warranted it to be a Bezoar stone" (quoted by Gray, Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 484).]
[1528.—"Near this city (Lara) in a small mountain are bred some animals of the size of a buck, in whose stomach grows a stone they call bazar."—Tenreiro, ch. iii. p. 14.]
[1554.—Castanheda (I. ch. 46) calls the animal whence bezoar comes bagoldaf, which he considers an Indian word.]
c. 1580.—"... adeo ut ex solis Bezahar nonnulla vasa conflata viderim, maxime apud eos qui a venenis sibi cavere student."—Prosper Alpinus, Pt. i. p. 56.
1599.—"Body o' me, a shrewd mischance. Why, had you no unicorn's horn, nor bezoar's stone about you, ha?"—B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, Act v. sc. 4.
[" "Bezar sive bazar"; see quotation under MACE.]
1605.—The King of Bantam sends K. James I. "two beasar stones."—Sainsbury, i. 143.
1610.—"The Persian calls it, par excellence, Pazahar, which is as much as to say 'antidote' or more strictly 'remedy of poison or venom,' from Zahar, which is the general name of any poison, and pá, 'remedy'; and as the Arabic lacks the letter p, they replace it by b, or f, and so they say, instead of Pázahar, Bázahar, and we with a little additional corruption Bezar."—P. Teixeira, Relaciones, &c., p. 157.
1613.—"... elks, and great snakes, and apes of bazar stone, and every kind of game birds."—Godinho de Eredia, 10v.
1617.—"... late at night I drunke a little bezas stone, which gave me much paine most parte of night, as though 100 Wormes had byn knawing at my hart; yet it gave me ease afterward."—Cocks's Diary, i. 301; [in i. 154 he speaks of "beza stone"].
1634.—Bontius claims the etymology just quoted from Teixeira, erroneously, as his own.—Lib. iv. p. 47.
1673.—"The Persians then call this stone Pazahar, being a compound of Pa and Zahar, the first of which is against, and the other is Poyson."—Fryer, 238.
" "The Monkey Bezoars which are long, are the best...."—Ibid. 212.
1711.—"In this animal (Hog-deer of Sumatra, apparently a sort of chevrotain or Tragulus) is found the bitter Bezoar, called Pedra di Porco Siacca, valued at ten times its Weight in Gold."—Lockyer, 49.
BHAT, s. H. &c. bhāṭ (Skt. bhàṭṭa, a title of respect, probably connected with bhàrtṛi, 'a supporter or master'), a man of a tribe of mixed descent, whose members are professed genealogists and poets; a bard. These men in Rājputāna and Guzerat had also extraordinary privileges as the guarantors of travellers, whom they accompanied, against attack and robbery. See an account of them in Forbes's Rās Mālā, I. ix. &c., reprint 558 seqq.; [for Bengal, Risley, Tribes & Castes, i. 101 seqq.; for the N.W.P., Crooke, Tribes & Castes, ii. 20 seqq.
c. 1555.—"Among the infidel Bānyāns in this country (Guzerat) there is a class of literati known as Bāts. These undertake to be guides to traders and other travellers ... when the caravans are waylaid on the road by Rāshbūts, i.e. Indian horsemen, coming to pillage them, the Bāt takes out his dagger, points it at his own breast, and says: 'I have become surety! If aught befals the caravan I must kill myself!' On these words the Rāshbūts let the caravan pass unharmed."—Sidi 'Ali, 95.
[1623.—"Those who perform the office of Priests, whom they call Boti."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 80.]
1775.—"The Hindoo rajahs and Mahratta chieftains have generally a Bhaut in the family, who attends them on public occasions ... sounds their praise, and proclaims their titles in hyperbolical and figurative language ... many of them have another mode of living; they offer themselves as security to the different governments for payment of their revenue, and the good behaviour of the Zemindars, patels, and public farmers; they also become guarantees for treaties between native princes, and the performance of bonds by individuals."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 89; [2nd ed. i. 377; also see ii. 258]. See TRAGA.
1810.—"India, like the nations of Europe, had its minstrels and poets, concerning whom there is the following tradition: At the marriage of Siva and Parvatty, the immortals having exhausted all the amusements then known, wished for something new, when Siva, wiping the drops of sweat from his brow, shook them to earth, upon which the Bawts, or Bards, immediately sprang up."—Maria Graham, 169.
BHEEL, n.p. Skt. Bhilla; H. Bhīl. The name of a race inhabiting the hills and forests of the Vindhya, Malwa, and page 92aof the N.-Western Deccan, and believed to have been the aborigines of Rājputāna; some have supposed them to be the Φυλλῖται of Ptolemy. They are closely allied to the Coolies (q.v.) of Guzerat, and are believed to belong to the Kolarian division of Indian aborigines. But no distinct Bhīl language survives.
BHEEL, s. A word used in Bengal—bhīl: a marsh or lagoon; same as Jeel (q.v.)
BHEESTY, s. The universal word in the Anglo-Indian households of N. India for the domestic (corresponding to the saḳḳā of Egypt) who supplies the family with water, carrying it in a mussuck, (q.v.), or goatskin, slung on his back. The word is P. bihishtī, a person of bihisht or paradise, though the application appears to be peculiar to Hindustan. We have not been able to trace the history of this term, which does not apparently occur in the Āīn, even in the curious account of the way in which water was cooled and supplied in the Court of Akbar (Blochmann, tr. i. 55 seqq.), or in the old travellers, and is not given in Meninski's lexicon. Vullers gives it only as from Shakespear's Hindustani Dict. [The trade must be of ancient origin in India, as the leather bag is mentioned in the Veda and Manu (Wilson, Rig Veda, ii. 28; Institutes, ii. 79.) Hence Col. Temple (Ind. Ant., xi. 117) suggests that the word is Indian, and connects it with the Skt. vish, 'to sprinkle.'] It is one of the fine titles which Indian servants page 92brejoice to bestow on one another, like Mehtar, Khalīfa, &c. The title in this case has some justification. No class of men (as all Anglo-Indians will agree) is so diligent, so faithful, so unobtrusive, and uncomplaining as that of the bihishtīs. And often in battle they have shown their courage and fidelity in supplying water to the wounded in face of much personal danger.
1773.—"Bheestee, Waterman" (etc.)—Fergusson, Dict. of the Hindostan Language, &c.
1781.—"I have the happiness to inform you of the fall of Bijah Gurh on the 9th inst. with the loss of only 1 sepoy, 1 beasty, and a cossy (? Cossid) killed...."—Letter in India Gazette of Nov. 24th.
1782.—(Table of Wages in Calcutta),
| Consummah | 10 | Rs. |
| Kistmutdar | 6 | " |
| Beasty | 5 | " |
| India Gazette, Oct. 12. |||
Five Rupees continued to be the standard wage of a bihishtī for full 80 years after the date given.
1810.—"... If he carries the water himself in the skin of a goat, prepared for that purpose, he then receives the designation of Bheesty."—Williamson, V.M. i. 229.
1829.—"Dressing in a hurry, find the drunken bheesty ... has mistaken your boot for the goglet in which you carry your water on the line of march."—Camp Miseries, in John Shipp, ii. 149. N.B.—We never knew a drunken bheesty.
1878.—"Here comes a seal carrying a porpoise on its back. No! it is only our friend the bheesty."—In my Indian Garden, 79.
[1898.
"Of all them black-faced crew, The finest man I knew Was our regimental bhisti, Ganga Din." R. Kipling, Barrack-room Ballads, p. 23.]
BHIKTY, s. The usual Calcutta name for the fish Lates calcarifer. See COCKUP.
[BHOOSA, s. H. Mahr. bhus, bhusa; the husks and straw of various kinds of corn, beaten up into chaff by the feet of the oxen on the threshing-floor; used as the common food of cattle all over India.
[BHOOT, s. H. &c., bhūt, bhūta, Skt. bhūta, 'formed, existent,' the common term for the multitudinous ghosts and demons of various kinds by whom the Indian peasant is so constantly beset.]
BHOUNSLA, n.p. Properly Bhoslah or Bhonslah, the surname of Sivaji, the founder of the Mahratta empire. It was also the surname of Parsoji and Raghuji, the founders of the Mahratta dynasty of Berar, though not of the same family as Sivaji.
c. 1730.—"At this time two parganas, named Púna and Súpa, became the jagír of Sáhú Bhoslah. Sívají became the manager.... He was distinguished in his tribe for courage and intelligence; and for craft and trickery he was reckoned a sharp son of the devil."—Khāfī Khān, in Elliot, vii. 257.
1780.—"It was at first a particular tribe governed by the family of Bhosselah, which has since lost the sovereignty."—Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 214.
BHYACHARRA, s. H. bhayāchārā. This is a term applied to settlements made with the village as a community, the several claims and liabilities being regulated by established customs, or special traditional rights. Wilson interprets it as "fraternal establishments." [This hardly explains the tenure, at least as found in the N.W.P., and it would be difficult to do so without much detail. In its perhaps most common form each man's holding is the measure of his interest in the estate, irrespective of the share to which he may be entitled by ancestral right.]
page 93bBICHÁNA, s. Bedding of any kind. H. bichhānā.
BIDREE, BIDRY, s. H. Bidrī; the name applied to a kind of ornamental metal-work, made in the Deccan, and deriving its name from the city of Bīdar (or Bedar), which was the chief place of manufacture. The work was, amongst natives, chiefly applied to hooka-bells, rose-water bottles and the like. The term has acquired vogue in England of late amongst amateurs of "art manufacture." The ground of the work is pewter alloyed with one-fourth copper: this is inlaid (or damascened) with patterns in silver; and then the pewter ground is blackened. A short description of the manufacture is given by Dr. G. Smith in the Madras Lit. Soc. Journ., N.S. i. 81–84; [by Sir G. Birdwood, Indust. Arts, 163 seqq.; Journ. Ind. Art, i. 41 seqq.] The ware was first described by B. Heyne in 1813.
BILABUNDY, s. H. bilabandī. An account of the revenue settlement of a district, specifying the name of each mahal (estate), the farmer of it, and the amount of the rent (Wilson). In the N.W.P. it usually means an arrangement for securing the payment of revenue (Elliot). C. P. Brown says, quoting Raikes (p. 109), that the word is bila-bandī, 'hole-stopping,' viz. stopping those vents through which the coin of the proprietor might ooze out. This, however, looks very like a 'striving after meaning,' and Wilson's suggestion that it is a corruption of behrī-bandī, from behrī, 'a share,' 'a quota,' is probably right.
BILAYUT, BILLAÏT, &c. n.p. Europe. The word is properly Ar. Wilāyat, 'a kingdom, a province,' variously used with specific denotation, as the Afghans term their own country page 94aoften by this name; and in India again it has come to be employed for distant Europe. In Sicily Il Regno is used for the interior of the island, as we use Mofussil in India. Wilāyat is the usual form in Bombay.
BILAYUTEE PAWNEE, BILÁTEE PANEE. The adject. bilāyatī or wilāyatī is applied specifically to a variety of exotic articles, e.g. bilāyatī baingan (see BRINJAUL), to the tomato, and most especially bilāyatī pānī, 'European water,' the usual name for soda-water in Anglo-India.
BILDÁR, s. H. from P. beldār, 'a spade-wielder,' an excavator or digging labourer. Term usual in the Public Works Department of Upper India for men employed in that way.
"Ye Lyme is alle oute! Ye Masouns lounge aboute! Ye Beldars have alle strucke, and are smoaking atte their Eese! Ye Brickes are alle done! Ye Kyne are Skynne and Bone, And ye Threasurour has bolted with xii thousand Rupeese!" Ye Dreme of an Executive Engineere.
BILOOCH, BELOOCH. n.p. The name (Balūch or Bilūch) applied to the race inhabiting the regions west of the Lower Indus, and S.E. of Persia, called from them Bilūchistān; they were dominant in Sind till the English conquest in 1843. [Prof. Max Müller (Lectures, i. 97, note) identified the name with Skt. mlechcha, used in the sense of the Greek βάρβαρος for a despised foreigner.]
c. 1200.—"He gave with him from Kandahār and Lār, mighty Balochis, servants ... with nobles of many castes, horses, elephants, men, carriages, charioteers, and page 94bchariots."—The Poem of Chand Bardāi, in Ind. Ant. i. 272.
c. 1211.—"In the desert of Khabis there was a body ... of Buluchís who robbed on the highway.... These people came out and carried off all the presents and rarities in his possession."—'Utbi, in Elliot, ii. 193.
1556.—"We proceeded to Gwādir, a trading town. The people here are called Balŭj; their prince was Malik Jalaluddīn, son of Malik Dīnār."—Sidi 'Ali, p. 73.
[c. 1590.—"This tract is inhabited by an important Baloch tribe called Kalmani."—Āīn, trans. Jarret, ii. 337.]
1613.—The Boloches are of Mahomet's Religion. They deale much in Camels, most of them robbers...."—N. Whittington, in Purchas, i. 485.
1648.—"Among the Machumatists next to the Pattans are the Blotias of great strength" [? Wilāyatī].—Van Twist, 58.
1727.—"They were lodged in a Caravanseray, when the Ballowches came with about 300 to attack them; but they had a brave warm Reception, and left four Score of their Number dead on the Spot, without the loss of one Dutch Man."—A. Hamilton, i. 107.
1813.—Milburn calls them Bloaches (Or. Com. i. 145).
BINKY-NABOB, s. This title occurs in documents regarding Hyder and Tippoo, e.g. in Gen. Stewart's desp. of 8th March 1799: "Mohammed Rezza, the Binky Nabob." [Also see Wilks, Mysoor, Madras reprint, ii. 346.] It is properly benkī-nawāb, from Canarese benkī, 'fire,' and means the Commandant of the Artillery.
BIRD OF PARADISE. The name given to various beautiful birds of the family Paradiseidae, of which many species are now known, inhabiting N. Guinea and the smaller islands adjoining it. The largest species was called by Linnæus Paradisaea apoda, in allusion to the fable that these birds had no feet (the dried skins brought for sale to the Moluccas having usually none attached to them). The name Manucode which Buffon adopted for these birds occurs in the form Manucodiata in some of the following quotations. It is a corruption of the Javanese page 95aname Manuk-devata, 'the Bird of the Gods,' which our popular term renders with sufficient accuracy. [The Siamese word for 'bird,' according to Mr. Skeat, is nok, perhaps from manok.]
1552.—"The Kings of the said (Moluccas) began only a few years ago to believe in the immortality of souls, taught by no other argument than this, that they had seen a most beautiful little bird, which never alighted on the ground or on any other terrestrial object, but which they had sometimes seen to come from the sky, that is to say, when it was dead and fell to the ground. And the Machometan traders who traffic in those islands assured them that this little bird was a native of Paradise, and that Paradise was the place where the souls of the dead are; and on this account the princes attached themselves to the sect of the Machometans, because it promised them many marvellous things regarding this place of souls. This little bird they called by the name of Manucodiata...."—Letter of Maximilian of Transylvania, Sec. to the Emp. Charles V., in Ramusio, i. f. 351v; see also f. 352.
c. 1524.—"He also (the K. of Bachian) gave us for the King of Spain two most beautiful dead birds. These birds are as large as thrushes; they have small heads, long beaks, legs slender like a writing pen, and a span in length; they have no wings, but instead of them long feathers of different colours, like plumes; their tail is like that of the thrush. All the feathers, except those of the wings (?), are of a dark colour; they never fly except when the wind blows. They told us that these birds come from the terrestrial Paradise, and they call them 'bolon dinata,' [burung-dewata, same as Javanese Manuk-dewata, supra] that is, divine birds."—Pigafetta, Hak. Soc. 143.
1598.—"... in these Ilands (Moluccas) onlie is found the bird, which the Portingales call Passaros de Sol, that is Foule of the Sunne, the Italians call it Manu codiatas, and the Latinists Paradiseas, by us called Paradice birdes, for ye beauty of their feathers which passe al other birds: these birds are never seene alive, but being dead they are found vpon the Iland; they flie, as it is said, alwaies into the Sunne, and keepe themselues continually in the ayre ... for they haue neither feet nor wings, but onely head and bodie, and the most part tayle...."—Linschoten, 35; [Hak. Soc. i. 118].
1572.—
"Olha cá pelos mares do Oriente As infinitas ilhas espalhadas * * * * * * *  Aqui as aureas aves, que não decem Nunca á terra, e só mortas aparecem." Camões, x. 132.
page 95bEnglished by Burton:
"Here see o'er oriental seas bespread infinite island-groups and alwhere strewed * * * * * * *  here dwell the golden fowls, whose home is air, and never earthward save in death may fare."
1645.—"... the male and female Manucodiatae, the male having a hollow in the back, in which 'tis reported the female both layes and hatches her eggs."—Evelyn's Diary, 4th Feb.
1674.—
"The strangest long-wing'd hawk that flies, That like a Bird of Paradise, Or herald's martlet, has no legs...." Hudibras, Pt. ii. cant. 3.
1591.—"As for the story of the Manucodiata or Bird of Paradise, which in the former Age was generally received and accepted for true, even by the Learned, it is now discovered to be a fable, and rejected and exploded by all men" (i.e. that it has no feet).—Ray, Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation, ed. 1692, Pt. ii. 147.
1705.—"The Birds of Paradice are about the bigness of a Pidgeon. They are of varying Colours, and are never found or seen alive; neither is it known from whence they come...."—Funnel, in Dampier's Voyages, iii. 266–7.
BIRDS' NESTS. The famous edible nests, formed with mucus, by certain swiftlets, Collocalia nidifica, and C. linchi. Both have long been known on the eastern coasts of the B. of Bengal, in the Malay Islands [and, according to Mr. Skeat in the islands of the Inland Sea (Tale Sap) at Singora]. The former is also now known to visit Darjeeling, the Assam Hills, the Western Ghats, &c., and to breed on the islets off Malabar and the Concan.
BISCOBRA, s. H. biskhoprā or biskhaprā. The name popularly applied to a large lizard alleged, and commonly believed, to be mortally venomous. It is very doubtful whether there is any real lizard to which this name applies, and it may be taken as certain that there is none in India with the qualities attributed. It is probable that the name does carry to many the terrific character which the ingenious author of Tribes on My Frontier alleges. But the name has nothing to do with either page 96abis in the sense of 'twice,' or cobra in that of 'snake.' The first element is no doubt bish, (q.v.) 'poison,' and the second is probably khoprā, 'a shell or skull.' [See J. L. Kipling, Beast and Man in India (p. 317), who gives the scientific name as varanus dracaena, and says that the name biscobra is sometimes applied to the lizard generally known as the ghoṛpad, for which see GUANA.]
BISH, BIKH, &c., n. H. from Skt. visha, 'poison.' The word has several specific applications, as (a) to the poison of various species of aconite, particularly Aconitum ferox, otherwise more specifically called in Skt. vatsanābha, 'calf's navel,' corrupted into bachnābh or bachnāg, &c. But it is also applied (b) in the Himālaya to the effect of the rarefied atmosphere at great heights on the body, an effect which there and over Central Asia is attributed to poisonous emanations from the soil, or from plants; a doctrine somewhat naïvely accepted by Huc in his famous narrative. The Central Asiatic (Turki) expression for this is Esh, 'smell.'
a.—
b.—
page 96b1661–2.—"Est autem Langur mons omnium altissimus, ita ut in summitate ejus viatores vix respirare ob aëris subtilitatim queant: neque is ob virulentas nonnullarum herbarum exhalationes aestivo tempore, sine manifesto vitae periculo transire possit."—PP. Dorville and Grueber, in Kircher, China Illustrata, 65. It is curious to see these intelligent Jesuits recognise the true cause, but accept the fancy of their guides as an additional one!
(?) "La partie supérieure de cette montagne est remplie d'exhalaisons pestilentielles."—Chinese Itinerary to Hlassa, in Klaproth, Magasin Asiatique, ii. 112.
1812.—"Here begins the Esh—this is a Turkish word signifying Smell ... it implies something the odour of which induces indisposition; far from hence the breathing of horse and man, and especially of the former, becomes affected."—Mir Izzet Ullah, in J. R. As. Soc. i. 283.
1815.—"Many of the coolies, and several of the Mewattee and Ghoorkha sepoys and chuprasees now lagged, and every one complained of the bīs or poisoned wind. I now suspected that the supposed poison was nothing more than the effect of the rarefaction of the atmosphere from our great elevation."—Fraser, Journal of a Tour, &c., 1820, p. 442.
1819.—"The difficulty of breathing which at an earlier date Andrada, and more recently Moorcroft had experienced in this region, was confirmed by Webb; the Butias themselves felt it, and call it bis ki huwa, i.e. poisonous air; even horses and yaks ... suffer from it."—Webb's Narrative, quoted in Ritter, Asien., ii. 532, 649.
[BISMILLAH, intj., lit. "In the name of God"; a pious ejaculation used by Mahommedans at the commencement of any undertaking. The ordinary form runs—Bi-'smi 'llāhi 'r-raḥmāni 'r-raḥīm, i.e. "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful," is of Jewish origin, and is used at the commencement of meals, putting on new clothes, beginning any new work, &c. In the second form, used page 97aat the time of going into battle or slaughtering animals, the allusion to the attribute of mercy is omitted.
BISNAGAR, BISNAGA, BEEJANUGGER, n.p. These and other forms stand for the name of the ancient city which was the capital of the most important Hindu kingdom that existed in the peninsula of India, during the later Middle Ages, ruled by the Rāya dynasty. The place is now known as Humpy (Hampī), and is entirely in ruins. [The modern name is corrupted from Pampa, that of the river near which it stood. (Rice, Mysore, ii. 487.)] It stands on the S. of the Tungabhadra R., 36 m. to the N.W. of Bellary. The name is a corruption of Vijayanagara (City of Victory), or Vidyanagara (City of learning), [the latter and earlier name being changed into the former (Rice, Ibid. i. 342, note).] Others believe that the latter name was applied only since the place, in the 13th century, became the seat of a great revival of Hinduism, under the famous Sayana Mādhava, who wrote commentaries on the Vedas, and much besides. Both the city and the kingdom were commonly called by the early Portuguese Narsinga (q.v.), from Narasimha (c. 1490–1508), who was king at the time of their first arrival. [Rice gives his dates as 1488–1508.]
1442.—"... the chances of a maritime voyage had led Abd-er-razzak, the author of this work, to the city of Bidjanagar. He saw a place extremely large and thickly peopled, and a King possessing greatness and sovereignty to the highest degree, whose dominion extends from the frontier of Serendib to the extremity of the county of Kalbergah—from the frontiers of Bengal to the environs of Malabar."—Abdurrazzāk, in India in XV. Cent., 22.
c. 1470.—"The Hindu sultan Kadam is a very powerful prince. He possesses a numerous army, and resides on a mountain at Bichenegher."—Athan. Nikitin, in India in XV. Cent., 29.
1516.—"45 leagues from these mountains page 97binland, there is a very great city, which is called Bijanagher...."—Barbosa, 85.
BISON, s. The popular name, among Southern Anglo-Indian sportsmen, of the great wild-ox called in Bengal gaur and gaviāl (Gavaeus gaurus, Jerdon); [Bos gaurus, Blanford]. It inhabits sparsely all the large forests of India, from near Cape Comorin to the foot of the Himālayas (at least in their Eastern portion), and from Malabar to Tenasserim.
BLACAN-MATEE, n.p. This is the name of an island adjoining Singapore, which forms the beautiful 'New Harbour' of that port; Malay bĕlākang, or blakang-māti, lit. 'Dead-Back island,' [of which, writes Mr. Skeat, no satisfactory explanation has been given. According to Dennys (Discr. Dict., 51), "one explanation is that the Southern, or as regards Singapore, hinder, face was so unhealthy that the Malays gave it a designation signifying by onomatopoea that death was to be found behind its ridge"]. The island (Blacan-mati) appears in one of the charts of Godinho de Eredia (1613) published in his Malaca, &c. (Brussels, 1882), and though, from the excessive looseness of such old charts, the island seems too far from Singapore, we are satisfied after careful comparison with the modern charts that the island now so-called is intended.
BLACK, s. Adj. and substantive denoting natives of India. Old-fashioned, and heard, if still heard, only from the lower class of Europeans; even in the last generation its habitual use was chiefly confined to these, and to old officers of the Queen's Army.
1676.—"We do not approve of your sending any persons to St. Helena against their wills. One of them you sent there makes a great complaint, and we have page 98aordered his liberty to return again if he desires it; for we know not what effect it may have if complaints should be made to the King that we send away the natives; besides that it is against our inclination to buy any blacks, and to transport them from their wives and children without their own consent."—Court's Letter to Ft. St. Geo., in Notes and Exts. No. i. p. 12.
1747.—"Vencatachlam, the Commanding Officer of the Black Military, having behaved very commendably on several occasions against the French; In consideration thereof Agreed that a Present be made him of Six hundred Rupees to buy a Horse, that it may encourage him to act in like manner."—Ft. St. David Cons., Feb. 6. (MS. Record, in India Office).
1750.—"Having received information that some Blacks residing in this town were dealing with the French for goods proper for the Europe market, we told them if we found any proof against any residing under your Honors' protection, that such should suffer our utmost displeasure."—Ft. Wm. Cons., Feb. 4, in Long, 24.
1753.—"John Wood, a free merchant, applies for a pass which, if refused him, he says 'it will reduce a free merchant to the condition of a foreigner, or indeed of the meanest black fellow.'"—Ft. Wm. Cons., in Long, p. 41.
1761.—"You will also receive several private letters from Hastings and Sykes, which must convince me as Circumstances did me at the time, that the Dutch forces were not sent with a View only of defending their own Settlements, but absolutely with a Design of disputing our Influence and Possessions; certain Ruin must have been the Consequence to the East India Company. They were raising black Forces at Patna, Cossimbazar, Chinsura, &c., and were working Night and day to compleat a Field Artillery ... all these preparations previous to the commencement of Hostilities plainly prove the Dutch meant to act offensively not defensively."—Holograph Letter from Clive (unpublished) in the India Office Records. Dated Berkeley Square, and indorsed "27th Decr. 1761."
1762.—"The Black inhabitants send in a petition setting forth the great hardship they labour under in being required to sit as arbitrators in the Court of Cutcherry."—Ft. Wm. Cons., in Long, 277.
1782.—See quotation under Sepoy, from Price.
" "... the 35th Regiment, commanded by Major Popham, which had lately behaved in a mutinous manner ... was broke with infamy.... The black officers with halters about their necks, and the sepoys stript of their coats and turbands were drummed out of the Cantonments."—India Gazette, March 30.
1787.—"As to yesterday's particular charge, the thing that has made me most inveterate and unrelenting in it is only that it related to cruelty or oppression inflicted page 98bon two black ladies...."—Lord Minto, in Life, &c., i. 128.
1789.—"I have just learned from a Friend at the India House, y$^t$ the object of Treves' ambition at present is to be appointed to the Adaulet of Benares, w$^h$ is now held by a Black named Alii Caun. Understanding that most of the Adaulets are now held by Europeans, and as I am informed y$^t$ it is the intention y$^t$ the Europeans are to be so placed in future, I s$^{hd}$ be vastly happy if without committing any injustice you c$^d$ place young Treves in y$^t$ situation."—George P. of Wales, to Lord Cornwallis, in C.'s Corresp. ii. 29.
The phrase is in use among natives, we know not whether originating with them, or adopted from the usage of the foreigner. But Kālā ādmī 'black man,' is often used by them in speaking to Europeans of other natives. A case in point is perhaps worth recording. A statue of Lord William Bentinck, on foot, and in bronze, stands in front of the Calcutta Town Hall. Many years ago a native officer, returning from duty at Calcutta to Barrackpore, where his regiment was, reported himself to his adjutant (from whom we had the story in later days). 'Anything new, Sūbadār, Sāhib?' said the Adjutant. 'Yes,' said the Sūbadār, 'there is a figure of the former Lord Sahib arrived.' 'And what do you think of it?' 'Sāhib,' said the Sūbadār, 'abhi hai kālā ādmī kā sā, jab potā ho jaegā jab achchhā hogā!' ('It is now just like a native—'a black man'; when the whitewash is applied it will be excellent.')
In some few phrases the term has become crystallised and semi-official. Thus the native dressers in a hospital were, and possibly still are, called Black Doctors.
In the following the meaning is special:
BLACK ACT. This was the name given in odium by the non-official Europeans in India to Act XI., 1836, of the Indian Legislature, which laid down that no person should by reason of his place of birth or of his descent be, in any civil proceeding, excepted from the jurisdiction of the Courts named, viz.: Sudder Dewanny Adawlut, Zillah and City Judge's Courts, Principal Sudder Ameens, Sudder Ameens, and Moonsiff's Court, or, in other words, it placed European subjects on a level with natives as to their subjection in civil causes to all the Company's Courts, including those under Native Judges. This Act was drafted by T. B. Macaulay, then Legislative Member of the Governor-General's Council, and brought great abuse on his head. Recent agitation caused by the "Ilbert Bill," proposing to make Europeans subject to native magistrates in regard to police and criminal charges, has been, by advocates of the latter measure, put on all fours with the agitation of 1836. But there is much that discriminates the two cases.
[BLACK BEER, s. A beverage mentioned by early travellers in Japan. It was probably not a malt liquor. Dr. Aston suggests that it was kuro-hi, a dark-coloured saké used in the service of the Shinto gods.
BLACK-BUCK, s. The ordinary name of the male antelope (Antilope bezoartica, Jerdon) [A. cervicapra, Blanford], from the dark hue of its back, by no means however literally black.
page 99bBLACK COTTON SOIL.—(See REGUR.)
[BLACK JEWS, a term applied to the Jews of S. India; see 2 ser. N. & Q., iv. 4. 429; viii. 232, 418, 521; Logan, Malabar, i. 246 seqq.]
BLACK LANGUAGE. An old-fashioned expression, for Hindustani and other vernaculars, which used to be common among officers and men of the Royal Army, but was almost confined to them.
BLACK PARTRIDGE, s. The popular Indian name of the common francolin of S.E. Europe and Western Asia (Francolinus vulgaris, Stephens), notable for its harsh quasi-articulate call, interpreted in various parts of the world into very different syllables. The rhythm of the call is fairly represented by two of the imitations which come nearest one another, viz. that given by Sultan Baber (Persian): 'Shīr dāram, shakrak' ('I've got milk and sugar'!) and (Hind.) one given by Jerdon: 'Lahsan piyāz adrak' ('Garlic, onion, and ginger'!) A more pious one is: Khudā terī ḳudrat, 'God is thy strength!' Another mentioned by Capt. Baldwin is very like the truth: 'Be quick, pay your debts!' But perhaps the Greek interpretation recorded by Athenaeus (ix. 39) is best of all: τρὶς τοῖς κακούργοις κακά 'Three-fold ills to the ill-doers!' see Marco Polo, Bk. i. ch. xviii. and note 1; [Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 234, iv. 17].
BLACK TOWN, n.p. Still the popular name of the native city of Madras, as distinguished from the Fort and southern suburbs occupied by the English residents, and the bazars which supply their wants. The term is also used at Bombay.
1727.—"The Black Town (of Madras) is inhabited by Gentows, Mahometans, and Indian Christians.... It was walled in towards the Land, when Governor Pit ruled it."—A. Hamilton, i. 367.
1780.—"Adjoining the glacis of Fort St. George, to the northward, is a large town commonly called the Black Town, and which is fortified sufficiently to prevent any surprise by a body of horse."—Hodges, p. 6.
page 100a1780.—"... Cadets upon their arrival in the country, many of whom ... are obliged to take up their residence in dirty punch-houses in the Black Town...."—Munro's Narrative, 22.
1782.—"When Mr. Hastings came to the government he added some new regulations ... divided the black and white town (Calcutta) into 35 wards, and purchased the consent of the natives to go a little further off."—Price, Some Observations, &c., p. 60. In Tracts, vol. i.
[1813.—"The large bazar, or the street in the Black Town, (Bombay) ... contained many good Asiatic houses."—Forbes, Or. Mem., 2nd ed., i. 96. Also see quotation (1809) under BOMBAY.]
BLACK WOOD. The popular name for what is in England termed 'rose-wood'; produced chiefly by several species of Dalbergia, and from which the celebrated carved furniture of Bombay is made. [The same name is applied to the Chinese ebony used in carving (Ball, Things Chinese, 3rd ed., 107).] (See SISSOO.)
[1813.—"Black wood furniture becomes like heated metal."—Forbes, Or. Mem., 2nd ed., i. 106.]
BLANKS, s. The word is used for 'whites' or 'Europeans' (Port. branco) in the following, but we know not if anywhere else in English:
[BLATTY, adj. A corr. of wilāyatī, 'foreign' (see BILAYUT). A name applied to two plants in S. India, the Sonneratia acida, and Hydrolea zeylanica (see Mad. Admin. Man. Gloss. s.v.). In the old records it is applied to a kind of cloth. Owen (Narrative, i. 349) uses Blat as a name for the land-wind in Arabia, of which the origin is perhaps the same.
page 100b
BLIMBEE, s. Malayāl. vilimbi; H. belambū [or bilambū;] Malay. bălimbing or belimbing. The fruit of Averrhoa bilimbi, L. The genus was so called by Linnæus in honour of Averrhoes, the Arab commentator on Aristotle and Avicenna. It embraces two species cultivated in India for their fruits; neither known in a wild state. See for the other CARAMBOLA.
BLOOD-SUCKER, s. A harmless lizard (Lacerta cristata) is so called, because when excited it changes in colour (especially about the neck) from a dirty yellow or grey, to a dark red.
BOBACHEE, s. A cook (male). This is an Anglo-Indian vulgarisation of bāwarchī, a term originally brought, according to Hammer, by the hordes of Chingiz Khan into Western Asia. At the Mongol Court the Bāwarchī was a high dignitary, 'Lord Sewer' or the like (see Hammer's Golden Horde, 235, 461). The late Prof. A. Schiefner, however, stated to us that he could not trace a Mongol origin for the word, which appears to be Or. Turki. [Platts derives it from P. bāwar, 'confidence.']
c. 1590.—Bāwarchī is the word used for cook in the original of the Āīn (Blochmann's Eng. Tr. i. 58).
1810.—"... the dripping ... is returned to the meat by a bunch of feathers ... tied to the end of a short stick. This little neat, cleanly, and cheap dripping-ladle, answers admirably; it being in the power of the babachy to baste any part with great precision."—Williamson, V. M. i. 238.
1866.—
"And every night and morning The bobachee shall kill The sempiternal moorghee, And we'll all have a grill." The Dawk Bungalow, 223.
page 101aBOBACHEE CONNAH, s. H. Bāwarchī-khāna, 'Cook-house,' i.e. Kitchen; generally in a cottage detached from the residence of a European household.
BOBBERY, s. For the origin see BOBBERY-BOB. A noise, a disturbance, a row.
1830.—"When the band struck up (my Arab) was much frightened, made bobbery, set his foot in a hole and nearly pitched me."—Mem. of Col. Mountain, 2nd ed., 106.
Bobbery is used in 'pigeon English,' and of course a Chinese origin is found for it, viz. pa-pi, Cantonese, 'a noise.' [The idea that there is a similar English word (see 7 ser. N. & Q., v. 205, 271, 338, 415, 513) is rejected by the N.E.D.]
BOBBERY-BOB! interj. The Anglo-Indian colloquial representation of a common exclamation of Hindus when in surprise or grief—'Bāp-rē! or Bap-rē Bāp,' 'O Father!' (we have known a friend from north of Tweed whose ordinary interjection was 'My great-grandmother!'). Blumenroth's Philippine Vocabulary gives Nacú! = Madre mia, as a vulgar exclamation of admiration.
" "If an Hindoo was to see a house on fire, to receive a smart slap on the face, break a china basin, cut his finger, see two Europeans boxing, or a sparrow shot, he page 101bwould call out Ah-baup-aree!"—From Report of Select Committee of H. of C., Ibid. pp. 9–10.
1834.—"They both hastened to the spot, where the man lay senseless, and the syce by his side muttering Bāpre bāpre."—The Baboo, i. 48.
1863–64.—"My men soon became aware of the unwelcome visitor, and raised the cry, 'A bear, a bear!'
BOBBERY-PACK, s. A pack of hounds of different breeds, or (oftener) of no breed at all, wherewith young officers hunt jackals or the like; presumably so called from the noise and disturbance that such a pack are apt to raise. And hence a 'scratch pack' of any kind, as a 'scratch match' at cricket, &c. (See a quotation under BUNOW.)
The following occurs in a letter received from an old Indian by one of the authors, some years ago:
BOCCA TIGRIS, n.p. The name applied to the estuary of the Canton River. It appears to be an inaccurate reproduction of the Portuguese Boca do Tigre, and that to be a rendering of the Chinese name Hu-mēn, "Tiger Gate." Hence in the second quotation Tigris is supposed to be the name of the river.
1770.—"The City of Canton is situated on the banks of the Tigris, a large river...."—Raynal (tr. 1771), ii. 258.
1782.—"... à sept lieues de la bouche du Tigre, on apperçoit la Tour du Lion."—Sonnerat, Voyage, ii. 234.
BOCHA, s. H. bochā. A kind of chair-palankin formerly in use in Bengal, but now quite forgotten.
BOGUE, n.p. This name is applied by seamen to the narrows at the mouth of the Canton River, and is a corruption of Boca. (See BOCCA TIGRIS.)
BOLIAH, BAULEAH, s. Beng. bāūlīa. A kind of light accommodation boat with a cabin, in use on the Bengal rivers. We do not find the word in any of the dictionaries. Ives, in the middle of the 18th century, describes it as a boat very long, but so narrow that only one man could sit in the breadth, though it carried a multitude of rowers. This is not the character of the boat so called now. [Buchanan Hamilton, writing about 1820, says: "The bhauliya is intended for the same purpose, [conveyance of passengers], and is about the same size as the Pansi (see PAUNCHWAY). It is sharp at both ends, rises at the ends less than the Pansi, and its tilt is placed in the middle, the rowers standing both before and behind the place of accommodation of passengers. On the Kosi, the Bhauliya is a large fishing-boat, carrying six or seven men." (Eastern India, iii. 345.) Grant (Rural Life, p. 5) gives a drawing and description of the modern boat.]
1810.—"On one side the picturesque boats of the natives, with their floating huts; on the other the bolios and pleasure-boats of the English."—Maria Graham, 142.
1811.—"The extreme lightness of its construction gave it incredible ... speed. An example is cited of a Governor General who in his Bawaleea performed in 8 days the voyage from Lucknow to Calcutta, a distance of 400 marine leagues."—Solvyns, iii. The drawing represents a very light skiff, with only a small kiosque at the stern.
1824.—"We found two Bholiahs, or large row-boats, with convenient cabins...."—Heber, i. 26.
BOLTA, s. A turn of a rope; sea H. from Port. volta (Roebuck).
BOMBASA, n.p. The Island of Mombasa, off the E. African Coast, is page 102bso called in some old works. Bombāsī is used in Persia for a negro slave; see quotation.
BOMBAY, n.p. It has been alleged, often and positively (as in the quotations below from Fryer and Grose), that this name is an English corruption from the Portuguese Bombahia, 'good bay.' The grammar of the alleged etymon is bad, and the history is no better; for the name can be traced long before the Portuguese occupation, long before the arrival of the Portuguese in India. C. 1430, we find the islands of Mahim and Mumba-Devi, which united form the existing island of Bombay, held, along with Salsette, by a Hindu Rāī, who was tributary to the Mohammedan King of Guzerat. (See Rās Mālā, ii. 350); [ed. 1878, p. 270]. The same form reappears (1516) in Barbosa's Tana-Mayambu (p. 68), in the Estado da India under 1525, and (1563) in Garcia de Orta, who writes both Mombaim and Bombaim. The latter author, mentioning the excellence of the areca produced there, speaks of himself having had a grant of the island from the King of Portugal (see below). It is customarily called Bombaim on the earliest English Rupee coinage. (See under RUPEE.) The shrine of the goddess Mumba-Devī from whom the name is supposed to have been taken, stood on the Esplanade till the middle of the 17th century, when it was removed to its present site in the middle of what is now the most frequented part of the native town.
1508.—"The Viceroy quitted Dabul, passing by Chaul, where he did not care to go in, to avoid delay, and anchored at Bombaim, whence the people fled when they saw the fleet, and our men carried off page 103amany cows, and caught some blacks whom they found hiding in the woods, and of these they took away those that were good, and killed the rest."—Correa, i. 926.
1516.—"... a fortress of the before-named King (of Guzerat), called Tana-mayambu, and near it is a Moorish town, very pleasant, with many gardens ... a town of very great Moorish mosques, and temples of worship of the Gentiles ... it is likewise a sea port, but of little trade."—Barbosa, 69. The name here appears to combine, in a common oriental fashion, the name of the adjoining town of Thana (see TANA) and Bombay.
1525.—"E a Ilha de Mombayn, que no forall velho estaua em catorze mill e quatro cento fedeas ... j̃ xiiij. iiii.$^c$ fedeas.
"E os anos otros estaua arrendada por mill trezentos setenta e cinque pardaos ... j̃ iii.$^c$ lxxv. pardaos.
"Foy aforada a mestre Dioguo pelo dito governador, por mill quatro centos trinta dous pardaos méo ... j̃ iiij.$^c$ xxxij. pardaos méo."—Tombo do Estada da India, 160–161.
1531.—"The Governor at the island of Bombaim awaited the junction of the whole expedition, of which he made a muster, taking a roll from each captain, of the Portuguese soldiers and sailors and of the captive slaves who could fight and help, and of the number of musketeers, and of other people, such as servants. And all taken together he found in the whole fleet some 3560 soldiers (homens d'armas), counting captains and gentlemen; and some 1450 Portuguese seamen, with the pilots and masters; and some 2000 soldiers who were Malabars and Goa Canarines; and 8000 slaves fit to fight; and among these he found more than 3000 musketeers (espingardeiros), and 4000 country seamen who could row (marinheiros de terra remeiros), besides the mariners of the junks who were more than 800; and with married and single women, and people taking goods and provisions to sell, and menial servants, the whole together was more than 30,000 souls...."—Correa, iii. 392.
1538.—"The Isle of Bombay has on the south the waters of the bay which is called after it, and the island of Chaul; on the N. the island of Salsete; on the east Salsete also; and on the west the Indian Ocean. The land of this island is very low, and covered with great and beautiful groves of trees. There is much game, and abundance of meat and rice, and there is no memory of any scarcity. Nowadays it is called the island of Boa-Vida; a name given to it by Hector da Silveira, because when his fleet was cruising on this coast his soldiers had great refreshment and enjoyment there."—J. de Castro, Primeiro Roteiro, p. 81.
1552.—"... a small stream called Bate which runs into the Bay of Bombain, and which is regarded as the demarcation between the Kingdom of Guzurate and the Kingdom of Decan."—Barros, I. ix. 1.
page 103b1552.—"The Governor advanced against Bombaym on the 6th February, which was moreover the very day on which Ash Wednesday fell."—Couto, IV., v. 5.
1554.—"Item of Mazaguao 8500 fedeas.
"Item of Monbaym, 17,000 fedeas.
"Rents of the land surrendered by the King of Canbaya in 1543, from 1535 to 1548."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 139.
1563.—"... and better still is (that the areca) of Mombaim, an estate and island which the King our Lord has graciously granted me on perpetual lease."—Garcia De Orta, f. 91v.
" "Servant. Sir, here is Simon Toscano, your tenant at Bombaim, who has brought this basket of mangoes for you to make a present to the Governor; and he says that when he has moored his vessel he will come here to put up."—Ibid. f. 134v.
1644.—"Description of the Port of Mombaym.... The Viceroy Conde de Linhares sent the 8 councillors to fortify this Bay, so that no European enemy should be able to enter. These Ministers visited the place, and were of opinion that the width (of the entrance) being so great, becoming even wider and more unobstructed further in, there was no place that you could fortify so as to defend the entrance...."—Bocarro, MS. f. 227.
1666.—"Ces Tchérons ... demeurent pour la plupart à Baroche, à Bambaye et à Amedabad."—Thevenot, v. 40.
" "De Bacaim à Bombaiim il y a six lieues."—Ibid. 248.
1673.—"December the Eighth we paid our Homage to the Union-flag flying on the Fort of Bombaim."—Fryer, 59.
" "Bombaim ... ventures furthest out into the Sea, making the Mouth of a spacious Bay, whence it has its Etymology; Bombaim, quasi Boon bay."—Ibid. 62.
1676.—"Since the present King of England married the Princess of Portugall, who had in Portion the famous Port of Bombeye ... they coin both Silver, Copper, and Tinn."—Tavernier, E. T., ii. 6.
1677.—"Quod dicta Insula de Bombaim, una cum dependentiis suis, nobis ab origine bonâ fide ex pacto (sicut oportuit) tradita non fuerit."—King Charles II. to the Viceroy L. de Mendoza Furtado, in Descn., &c. of the Port and Island of Bombay, 1724, p. 77.
1690.—"This Island has its Denomination from the Harbour, which ... was originally called Boon Bay, i.e. in the Portuguese Language, a Good Bay or Harbour."—Ovington, 129.
page 104a1711.—Lockyer declares it to be impossible, with all the Company's Strength and Art, to make Bombay "a Mart of great Business."—P. 83.
c. 1760.—"... one of the most commodious bays perhaps in the world, from which distinction it received the denomination of Bombay, by corruption from the Portuguese Buona-Bahia, though now usually written by them Bombaim."—Grose, i. 29.
1770.—"No man chose to settle in a country so unhealthy as to give rise to the proverb That at Bombay a man's life did not exceed two monsoons."—Raynal (E. T., 1777), i. 389.
BOMBAY BOX-WORK. This well-known manufacture, consisting in the decoration of boxes, desks, &c., with veneers of geometrical mosaic, somewhat after the fashion of Tunbridge ware, is said to have been introduced from Shiraz to Surat more than a century ago, and some 30 years later from Surat to Bombay. The veneers are formed by cementing together fine triangular prisms of ebony, ivory, green-stained ivory, stag's horn, and tin, so that the sections when sawn across form the required pattern, and such thin sections are then attached to the panels of the box with strong glue.
BOMBAY DUCK.—See BUMMELO.
BOMBAY MARINE. This was the title borne for many years by the meritorious but somewhat depressed service which in 1830 acquired the style of the "Indian Navy," and on 30th April, 1863, ceased to exist. The detachments of this force which took part in the China War (1841–42) were known to their brethren of the Royal Navy, under the temptation of alliteration, as the "Bombay Buccaneers." In their earliest employment against the pirates of Western India and the Persian Gulf, they had been known as "the Grab Service." But, no matter for these names, the history of this Navy is full of brilliant actions and services. We will quote two noble examples of public virtue:
(1) In July 1811, a squadron under Commodore John Hayes took two page 104blarge junks issuing from Batavia, then under blockade. These were lawful prize, laden with Dutch property, valued at £600,000. But Hayes knew that such a capture would create great difficulties and embarrassments in the English trade at Canton, and he directed the release of this splendid prize.
(2) 30th June 1815, Lieut. Boyce in the brig 'Nautilus' (180 tons, carrying ten 18-pr. carronades, and four 9-prs.) encountered the U. S. sloop-of-war 'Peacock' (539 tons, carrying twenty 32-pr. carronades, and two long 18-prs.). After he had informed the American of the ratification of peace, Boyce was peremptorily ordered to haul down his colours, which he answered by a flat refusal. The 'Peacock' opened fire, and a short but brisk action followed, in which Boyce and his first lieutenant were shot down. The gallant Boyce had a special pension from the Company (£435 in all) and lived to his 93rd year to enjoy it.
We take the facts from the History of this Navy by one of its officers, Lieut. C. R. Low (i. 294), but he erroneously states the pension to have been granted by the U.S. Govt.
BONITO, s. A fish (Thynnus pelamys, Day) of the same family (Scombridae) as mackerel and tunny, very common in the Indian seas. The name is Port., and apparently is the adj. bonito, 'fine.'
1615.—"Bonitoes and albicores are in colour, shape, and taste much like to Mackerils, but grow to be very large."—Terry, in Purchas, ii. 1464.
c. 1620.—
"How many sail of well-mann'd ships As the Bonito does the Flying-fish Have we pursued...." Beaum. & Flet., The Double Marriage, ii. 1.
c. 1760.—"The fish undoubtedly takes its name from relishing so well to the taste of the Portuguese ... that they call it page 105aBonito, which answers in our tongue to delicious."—Grose, i. 5.
1764.—
"While on the yard-arm the harpooner sits, Strikes the boneta, or the shark ensnares."—Grainger, B. ii.
BONZE, s. A term long applied by Europeans in China to the Buddhist clergy, but originating with early visitors to Japan. Its origin is however not quite clear. The Chinese Fán-sēng, 'a religious person' is in Japanese bonzi or bonzô; but Köppen prefers fă-sze, 'Teacher of the Law,' pron. in Japanese bo-zi (Die Rel. des Buddha, i. 321, and also Schott's Zur Litt. des Chin. Buddhismus, 1873, p. 46). It will be seen that some of the old quotations favour one, and some the other, of these sources. On the other hand, Bandhya (for Skt. vandya, 'to whom worship or reverence is due, very reverend') seems to be applied in Nepal to the Buddhist clergy, and Hodgson considers the Japanese bonze (bonzô?) traceable to this. (Essays, 1874, p. 63.) The same word, as bandhe or bande, is in Tibetan similarly applied.—(See Jaeschke's Dict., p. 365.) The word first occurs in Jorge Alvarez's account of Japan, and next, a little later, in the letters of St. Francis Xavier. Cocks in his Diary uses forms approaching boze.
1552.—"Erubescunt enim, et incredibiliter confunduntur Bonzii, ubi male cohaerere, ac pugnare inter sese ea, quae docent, palam ostenditur."—Scti. Fr. Xaverii Epistt. V. xvii., ed. 1667.
1572.—"... sacerdotes ... qui ipsorum linguâ Bonzii appellantur."—E. Acosta, 58.
1585.—"They have amongst them (in Japan) many priests of their idols whom they call Bonsos, of the which there be great convents."—Parkes's Tr. of Mendoza (1589), ii. 300.
1590.—"This doctrine doe all they embrace, which are in China called Cen, but with us at Iapon are named Bonzi."—An page 105bExct. Treatise of the Kingd. of China, &c., Hakl. ii. 580.
c. 1606.—"Capt. Saris has Bonzees."—Purchas, i. 374.
1618.—"And their is 300 boze (or pagon pristes) have alowance and mentaynance for eaver to pray for his sole, in the same sorte as munkes and fryres use to doe amongst the Roman papistes."—Cocks's Diary, ii. 75; [in i. 117, bose]; bosses (i. 143).
[1676.—"It is estimated that there are in this country (Siam) more than 200,000 priests called Bonzes."—Tavernier, ed. Ball, ii. 293.]
1727.—"... or perhaps make him fadge in a China bonzee in his Calendar, under the name of a Christian Saint."—A. Hamilton, i. 253.
1794–7.—
"Alike to me encas'd in Grecian bronze Koran or Vulgate, Veda, Priest, or Bonze." Pursuits of Literature, 6th ed., p. 335.
c. 1814.—
"While Fum deals in Mandarins, Bonzes, Bohea— Peers, Bishops, and Punch, Hum—are sacred to thee." T. Moore, Hum and Fum.
[(1) BORA, BOORA, s. Beng. bhada, a kind of cargo-boat used in the rivers of Bengal.
(2) BORA s. H. and Guz. bohrā and bohorā, which H. H. Wilson refers to the Skt. vyavahārī, 'a trader, or man of affairs,' from which are formed the ordinary H. words byoharā, byohariyā (and a Guzerati form which comes very near bohorā). This is confirmed by the quotation from Nurullah below, but it is not quite certain. Dr. John Wilson (see below) gives an Arabic derivation which we have been unable to verify. [There can be no reasonable doubt that this is incorrect.]
There are two classes of Bohrās belonging to different Mohammedan sects, and different in habit of life.
1. The Shī'a Bohrās, who are essentially townspeople, and especially congregate in Surat, Burhanpur, Ujjain, &c. They are those best known far and wide by the name, and are usually devoted to trading and money-lending. page 106aTheir original seat was in Guzerat, and they are most numerous there, and in the Bombay territory generally, but are also to be found in various parts of Central India and the N.-W. Provinces, [where they are all Hindus]. The word in Bombay is often used as synonymous with pedlar or boxwallah. They are generally well-to-do people, keeping very cleanly and comfortable houses. [See an account of them in Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 470 seqq. 2nd ed.] These Bohras appear to form one of the numerous Shī'a sects, akin in character to, and apparently of the same origin as, the Ismāīlīyah (or Assassins of the Middle Ages), and claim as their original head and doctor in India one Ya'ḳūb, who emigrated from Egypt, and landed in Cambay A.D. 1137. But the chief seat of the doctrine is alleged to have been in Yemen, till that country was conquered by the Turks in 1538. A large exodus of the sect to India then took place. Like the Ismāīlīs they attach a divine character to their Mullah or chief Pontiff, who now resides at Surat. They are guided by him in all things, and they pay him a percentage on their profits. But there are several sectarian subdivisions: Dāūdi Bohrās, Sulaimāni Bohrās, &c. [See Forbes, Rās Mālā, ed. 1878, p. 264 seqq.]
2. The Sunni Bohrās. These are very numerous in the Northern Concan and Guzerat. They are essentially peasants, sturdy, thrifty, and excellent cultivators, retaining much of Hindu habit; and are, though they have dropped caste distinctions, very exclusive and "denominational" (as the Bombay Gazetteer expresses it). Exceptionally, at Pattan, in Baroda State, there is a rich and thriving community of trading Bohrās of the Sunni section; they have no intercourse with their Shī'a namesakes.
The history of the Bohrās is still very obscure; nor does it seem ascertained whether the two sections were originally one. Some things indicate that the Shī'a Bohrās may be, in accordance with their tradition, in some considerable part of foreign descent, and that the Sunni Bohrās, who are unquestionably of Hindu descent, may have been native converts of the foreign immigrants, afterwards forcibly page 106bbrought over to Sunnism by the Guzerat Sultans. But all this must be said with much reserve. The history is worthy of investigation.
The quotation from Ibn Batuta, which refers to Gandari on the Baroda river, south of Cambay, alludes most probably to the Bohrās, and may perhaps, though not necessarily, indicate an origin for the name different from either of those suggested.
c. 1620.—Nurullah of Shuster, quoted by Colebrooke, speaks of this class as having been converted to Islam 300 years before. He says also: "Most of them subsist by commerce and mechanical trades; as is indicated by the name Bohrah, which signifies 'merchant' in the dialect of Gujerat."—In As. Res., vii. 338.
1673.—"... The rest (of the Mohammedans) are adopted under the name of the Province or Kingdom they are born in, as Mogul ... or Schisms they have made, as Bilhim, Jemottee, and the lowest of all is Borrah."—Fryer, 93.
c. 1780.—"Among the rest was the whole of the property of a certain Muhammad Mokrim, a man of the Bohra tribe, the Chief of all the merchants, and the owner of three or four merchant ships."—H. of Hydur Naik, 383.
1810.—"The Borahs are an inferior set of travelling merchants. The inside of a Borah's box is like that of an English country shop, spelling-books, prayer-books, lavender water, eau de luce, soap, tapes, scissors, knives, needles, and thread make but a small part of the variety."—Maria Graham, 33.
1825.—"The Boras (at Broach) in general are unpopular, and held in the same estimation for parsimony that the Jews are in England."—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 119; also see 72.
1853.—"I had the pleasure of baptizing Ismail Ibraim, the first Bohorá who, as far as we know, has yet embraced Christianity in India.... He appears thoroughly divorced from Muhammad, and from 'Ali the son-in-law of Muhammad, whom the Bohorás or Initiated, according to the meaning of the Arabic word, from which the name is derived, esteem as an improvement on his father-in-law, having a higher degree of inspiration, which has in good measure, as they imagine, manifested itself among his successors, recognised by the Bohoras and by the Ansariyah, Ismaeliyah, Drus, and Metawileh of Syria...."—Letter of Dr. John Wilson, in Life, p. 456.
BORNEO, n.p. This name, as applied to the great Island in its entirety, is taken from that of the capital town of the chief Malay State existing on it when it became known to Europeans, Bruné, Burné, Brunai, or Burnai, still existing and known as Brunei.
1521.—"The two ships departed thence, and running among many islands came on one which contained much cinnamon of the finest kind. And then again running among many islands they came to the Island of Borneo, where in the harbour they found many junks belonging to merchants from all the parts about Malacca, who make a great mart in that Borneo."—Correa, ii. 631.
1584.—"Camphora from Brimeo (misreading probably for Bruneo) neare to China."—Barret, in Hakl. ii. 412.
[1610.—"Bornelaya are with white and black quarls, like checkers, such as Polingknytsy are."—Danvers, Letters, i. 72.]
The cloth called Bornelaya perhaps took its name from this island.
[" "There is brimstone, pepper, Bournesh camphor."—Danvers, Letters, i. 79.]
1614.—In Sainsbury, i. 313 [and in Foster, Letters, ii. 94], it is written Burnea.
BORO-BODOR, or -BUDUR, n.p. The name of a great Buddhistic monument of Indian character in the district of Kadū in Java; one of the most remarkable in the world. It is a quasi-pyramidal structure occupying the summit of a hill, which apparently forms the core of the building. It is quadrangular in plan, the sides, however, broken by successive projections; each side of the basement, 406 feet. Including the basement, it rises in six successive terraces, four of them forming corridors, the sides of which are panelled with bas-reliefs, which Mr. Fergusson calculated would, if extended in a single line, cover three miles of ground. These represent scenes in the life of Sakya Muni, scenes from the Jātakas, or pre-existences of Sakya, and other series of Buddhistic groups. Above the corridors the structure page 107bbecomes circular, rising in three shallower stages, bordered with small dagobas (72 in number), and a large dagoba crowns the whole. The 72 dagobas are hollow, built in a kind of stone lattice, and each contains, or has contained, within, a stone Buddha in the usual attitude. In niches of the corridors also are numerous Buddhas larger than life, and about 400 in number. Mr. Fergusson concludes from various data that this wonderful structure must date from A.D. 650 to 800.
This monument is not mentioned in Valentijn's great History of the Dutch Indies (1726), nor does its name ever seem to have reached Europe till Sir Stamford Raffles, the British Lieut.-Governor of Java, visited the district in January 1814. The structure was then covered with soil and vegetation, even with trees of considerable size. Raffles caused it to be cleared, and drawings and measurements to be made. His History of Java, and Crawfurd's Hist. of the Indian Archipelago, made it known to the world. The Dutch Government, in 1874, published a great collection of illustrative plates, with a descriptive text.
The meaning of the name by which this monument is known in the neighbourhood has been much debated. Raffles writes it Bóro Bódo [Hist. of Java, 2nd ed., ii. 30 seqq.]. [Crawfurd, Descr. Dict. (s.v.), says: "Boro is, in Javanese, the name of a kind of fish-trap, and budor may possibly be a corruption of the Sanscrit buda, 'old.'"] The most probable interpretation, and accepted by Friedrich and other scholars of weight, is that of 'Myriad Buddhas.' This would be in some analogy to another famous Buddhist monument in a neighbouring district, at Brambánan, which is called Chandi Sewu, or the "Thousand Temples," though the number has been really 238.
BOSH, s. and interj. This is alleged to be taken from the Turkish bosh, signifying "empty, vain, useless, void of sense, meaning or utility" (Redhouse's Dict.). But we have not been able to trace its history or first appearance in English. [According to the N.E.D. the word seems to have come into use about 1834 under the influence of Morier's novels, Ayesha, Hajji Baba, page 108a&c. For various speculations on its origin see 5 ser. N. & Q. iii. 114, 173, 257.
BOSMÁN, BOCHMÁN, s. Boatswain. Lascar's H. (Roebuck).
BOTICKEER, s. Port. botiqueiro. A shop or stall-keeper. (See BOUTIQUE.)
BO TREE, s. The name given in Ceylon to the Pipal tree (see PEEPUL) as reverenced by the Buddhists; Singh. bo-gās. See in Emerson Tennent (Ceylon, ii. 632 seqq.), a chronological series of notices of the Bo-tree from B.C. 288 to A.D. 1739.
BOTTLE-TREE, s. Qu. Adansonia digitata, or 'baobab'? Its aspect is somewhat suggestive of the name, but we have not been able to ascertain. [It has also been suggested that it refers to the Babool, on which the Baya, often builds its nest. "These are formed in a very ingenious manner, by long grass woven together in the shape of a bottle." Forbes, Or. Mem., 2nd ed., i. 33.)]
[BOUND-HEDGE, s. A corruption of boundary-hedge, and applied in old military writers to the thick plantation of bamboo or prickly-pear which used to surround native forts.
page 108b
BOUTIQUE, s. A common word in Ceylon and the Madras Presidency (to which it is now peculiar) for a small native shop or booth: Port. butica or boteca. From Bluteau (Suppt.) it would seem that the use of butica was peculiar to Portuguese India.
1554.—"... nas quaes buticas ninguem pode vender senão os que se concertam com o Rendeiro."—Botelho, Tombo do Estado da India, 50.
c. 1561.—"The Malabars who sold in the botecas."—Correa, i. 2, 267.
1739.—"That there are many battecas built close under the Town-wall."—Remarks on Fortfns. of Fort St. George, in Wheeler, iii. 188.
1742.—In a grant of this date the word appears as Butteca.—Selections from Records of S. Arcot District, ii. 114.
1767.—"Mr. Russell, as Collector-General, begs leave to represent to the Board that of late years the Street by the river side ... has been greatly encroached upon by a number of golahs, little straw huts, and boutiques...."—In Long, 501.
1772.—"... a Boutique merchant having died the 12th inst., his widow was desirous of being burnt with his body."—Papers relating to E. I. Affairs, 1821, p. 268.
1780.—"You must know that Mrs. Henpeck ... is a great buyer of Bargains, so that she will often go out to the Europe Shops and the Boutiques, and lay out 5 or 600 Rupees in articles that we have not the least occasion for."—India Gazette, Dec. 9.
1782.—"For Sale at No. 18 of the range Botiques to the northward of Lyon's Buildings, where musters (q.v.) may be seen...." India Gazette, Oct. 12.
BOWLA, s. A portmanteau. H. bāolā, from Port. baul, and bahu, 'a trunk.'
BOWLY, BOWRY, s. H. bāolī, and bāorī, Mahr. bāvaḍi. C. P. Brown (Zillah Dict. s.v.) says it is the Telegu bāviḍi; bāvī and bāviḍi, = 'well.' This is doubtless the same word, but in all its forms it is probably connected with Skt. vavra, 'a hole, a well,' or with vāpi, 'an oblong reservoir, a pool or lake.' There is also in Singhalese væva, 'a lake or pond,' and in inscriptions vaviya. There is again Maldivian page 109aweu, 'a well,' which comes near the Guzerati forms mentioned below. A great and deep rectangular well (or tank dug down to the springs), furnished with a descent to the water by means of long flights of steps, and generally with landings and loggie where travellers may rest in the shade. This kind of structure, almost peculiar to Western and Central India, though occasionally met with in Northern India also, is a favourite object of private native munificence, and though chiefly beneath the level of the ground, is often made the subject of most effective architecture. Some of the finest specimens are in Guzerat, where other forms of the word appear to be wāo and wāīn. One of the most splendid of these structures is that at Asārwa in the suburbs of Ahmedabad, known as the Well of Dhāī (or 'the Nurse') Harīr, built in 1485 by a lady of the household of Sultan Mohammed Bigara (that famous 'Prince of Cambay' celebrated by Butler—see under CAMBAY), at a cost of 3 lakhs of rupees. There is an elaborate model of a great Guzerati bāolī in the Indian Museum at S. Kensington.
We have seen in the suburbs of Palermo a regular bāolī, excavated in the tufaceous rock that covers the plain. It was said to have been made at the expense of an ancestor of the present proprietor (Count Ranchibile) to employ people in a time of scarcity.
1526.—"There was an empty space within the fort (of Agra) between Ibrahim's palace and the ramparts. I directed a large wâin to be constructed on it, ten gez by ten. In the language of Hindostân they denominate a large well having a staircase down it wâin."—Baber, Mem., 342.
1775.—"Near a village called Sevasee Contra I left the line of march to sketch a remarkable building ... on a near approach I discerned it to be a well of very superior workmanship, of that kind which the natives call Bhouree or Bhoulie."—Forbes, Or. Mem. ii. 102; [2nd ed. i. 387].
1808.—"'Who-so digs a well deserves the page 109blove of creatures and the grace of God,' but a Vavidee is said to value 10 Kooas (or wells) because the water is available to bipeds without the aid of a rope."—R. Drummond, Illustrations of Guzerattee, &c.
1825.—"These boolees are singular contrivances, and some of them extremely handsome and striking...."—Heber, ed. 1844, ii. 37.
1856.—"The wāv (Sansk. wápeeká) is a large edifice of a picturesque and stately as well as peculiar character. Above the level of the ground a row of four or five open pavilions at regular distances from each other ... is alone visible.... The entrance to the wāv is by one of the end pavilions."—Forbes, Rās Mālā, i. 257; [reprint 1878, p. 197].
BOXWALLAH, s. Hybrid H. Bakas- (i.e. box) wālā. A native itinerant pedlar, or packman, as he would be called in Scotland by an analogous term. The Boxwālā sells cutlery, cheap nick-nacks, and small wares of all kinds, chiefly European. In former days he was a welcome visitor to small stations and solitary bungalows. The Borā of Bombay is often a boxwālā, and the boxwālā in that region is commonly called Borā. (See BORA.)
BOY, s.
a. A servant. In Southern India and in China a native personal servant is so termed, and is habitually summoned with the vocative 'Boy!' The same was formerly common in Jamaica and other W. I. Islands. Similar uses are familiar of puer (e.g. in the Vulgate Dixit Giezi puer Viri Dei. II Kings v. 20), Ar. walad, παιδάριον, garçon, knave (Germ. Knabe); and this same word is used for a camp-servant in Shakespeare, where Fluelen says: "Kill the Poys and the luggage! 'tis expressly against the laws of arms."—See also Grose's Mil. Antiquities, i. 183, and Latin quotation from Xavier under Conicopoly. The page 110aword, however, came to be especially used for 'Slave-boy,' and applied to slaves of any age. The Portuguese used moço in the same way. In 'Pigeon English' also 'servant' is Boy, whilst 'boy' in our ordinary sense is discriminated as 'smallo-boy!'
b. A Palankin-bearer. From the name of the caste, Telug. and Malayāl. bōyi, Tam. bōvi, &c. Wilson gives bhoi as H. and Mahr. also. The word is in use northward at least to the Nerbudda R. In the Konkan, people of this class are called Kahār bhūī (see Ind. Ant. ii. 154, iii. 77). P. Paolino is therefore in error, as he often is, when he says that the word boy as applied by the English and other Europeans to the coolies or facchini who carry the dooly, "has nothing to do with any Indian language." In the first and third quotations (under b), the use is more like a, but any connection with English at the dates seems impossible.
a.—
" "My Boy Stephen Grovenor."—Hawkins, in Purchas, 211. See also 267, 296.
1681.—"We had a black boy my Father brought from Porto Nova to attend upon him, who seeing his Master to be a Prisoner in the hands of the People of his own Complexion, would not now obey his Command."—Knox, 124.
1696.—"Being informed where the Chief man of the Choultry lived, he (Dr. Brown) took his sword and pistol, and being followed by his boy with another pistol, and his horse keeper...."—In Wheeler, i. 300.
1784.—"Eloped. From his master's House at Moidapore, a few days since, A Malay Slave Boy."—In Seton-Karr, i. 45; see also pp. 120, 179.
1836.—"The real Indian ladies lie on a sofa, and if they drop their handkerchief, they just lower their voices and say Boy! in a very gentle tone."—Letters from Madras, 38.
Also used by the French in the East:
1875.—"He was a faithful servant, or boy, page 110bas they are here called, about forty years of age."—Thomson's Malacca, 228.
b.—
[1563.—"And there are men who carry this umbrella so dexterously to ward off the sun, that although their master trots on his horse, the sun does not touch any part of his body, and such men are called in India boi."—Barros, Dec. 3, Bk. x. ch. 9.]
1591.—A proclamation of the viceroy, Matthias d'Alboquerque, orders: "that no person, of what quality or condition soever, shall go in a palanquim without my express licence, save they be over 60 years of age, to be first proved before the Auditor-General of Police ... and those who contravene this shall pay a penalty of 200 cruzados, and persons of mean estate the half, the palanquys and their belongings to be forfeited, and the bois or mouços who carry such palanquys shall be condemned to his Majesty's galleys."—Archiv. Port. Orient., fasc. 3, 324.
1608–10.—"... faisans les graues et obseruans le Sossiego à l'Espagnole, ayans tousiours leur boay qui porte leur parasol, sans lequel ils n'osent sortir de logis, ou autrement on les estimeroit picaros et miserables."—Mocquet, Voyages, 305.
1610.—"... autres Gentils qui sont comme Crocheteurs et Porte-faix, qu'ils appellent Boye, c'est a dire Bœuf pour porter quelque pesãt faix que ce soit."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 27; [Hak. Soc. ii. 44. On this Mr. Gray notes: "Pyrard's fanciful interpretation 'ox,' Port. boi, may be due either to himself or to some Portuguese friend who would have his joke. It is repeated by Boullaye-de-Gouz (p. 211), who finds a parallel indignity in the use of the term mulets by the French gentry towards their chair-men."]
1673.—"We might recite the Coolies ... and Palenkeen Boys; by the very Heathens esteemed a degenerate Offspring of the Holencores (see HALALCORE)."—Fryer, 34.
1720.—"Bois. In Portuguese India are those who carry the Andores (see ANDOR), and in Salsete there is a village of them which pays its dues from the fish which they sell, buying it from the fishermen of the shores."—Bluteau, Dict. s.v.
1755–60.—"... Palankin-boys."—Ives, 50.
1778.—"Boys de palanquim, Kàhàr."—Gramatica Indostana (Port.), Roma, 86.
1782.—"... un bambou arqué dans le milieu, qui tient au palanquin, et sur page 111ales bouts duquel se mettent 5 ou 6 porteurs qu'on appelle Boués."—Sonnerat, Voyage, i. 58.
1785.—"The boys with Colonel Lawrence's palankeen having straggled a little out of the line of march, were picked up by the Morattas."—Carraccioli, Life of Clive, i. 207.
1804.—"My palanquin boys will be laid on the road on Monday."—Wellington, iii. 553.
1809.—"My boys were in high spirits, laughing and singing through the whole night."—Ld. Valentia, i. 326.
BOYA, s. A buoy. Sea H. (Roebuck). [Mr. Skeat adds: "The Malay word is also boya or bai-rop, which latter I cannot trace."]
[BOYANORE, BAONOR, s. A corr. of the Malayāl. Vāllunavar, 'Ruler.'
BRAB, s. The Palmyra Tree (see PALMYRA) or Borassus flabelliformis. The Portuguese called this Palmeira brava ('wild' palm), whence the English corruption. The term is unknown in Bengal, where the tree is called 'fan-palm,' 'palmyra,' or by the H. name tāl or tār.
c. 1666.—"Tous les Malabares écrivent comme nous de gauche à droit sur les feuïlles des Palmeras Bravas."—Thevenot, v. 268.
1673.—"Another Tree called Brabb, bodied like the Cocoe, but the leaves grow round like a Peacock's Tail set upright."—Fryer, 76.
1759.—"Brabb, so called at Bombay: Palmira on the coast; and Tall at Bengal."—Ives, 458.
c. 1760.—"There are also here and there interspersed a few brab-trees, or rather wild palm-trees (the word brab being derived from Brabo, which in Portuguese signifies wild) ... the chief profit from that is the toddy."—Grose, i. 48.
page 111b[1808.—See quotation under BANDAREE.]
BRAHMIN, BRAHMAN, BRAMIN, s. In some parts of India called Bahman; Skt. Brāhmaṇa. This word now means a member of the priestly caste, but the original meaning and use were different. Haug, (Brahma und die Brahmanen, pp. 8–11) traces the word to the root brih, 'to increase,' and shows how it has come to have its present signification. The older English form is Brachman, which comes to us through the Greek and Latin authors.
c. B.C. 300.—"Ἄλλην δὲ διαίρεσιν ποιεῖται περὶ τῶν φιλοσόφων δύο γενη φάσκων, ὥν τοὺς μὲν Βραχμᾶνας καλεῖ, τοὺς δὲ Γαρμάνας [Σαρμάνας?]"—From Megasthenes, in Strabo, xv. c. 59.
c. A.D. 150.—"But the evil stars have not forced the Brahmins to do evil and abominable things; nor have the good stars persuaded the rest of the (Indians) to abstain from evil things."—Bardesanes, in Cureton's Spicilegium, 18.
c. A.D. 500.—"Βραχμᾶνες; Ἰνδικὸν ἔθνος σοφώτατον οὓς καὶ βράχμας καλοῦσιν."—Stephanus Byzantinus.
1298.—Marco Polo writes (pl.) Abraiaman or Abraiamin, which seems to represent an incorrect Ar. plural (e.g. Abrāhamīn) picked up from Arab sailors; the correct Ar. plural is Barāhima.
1444.—Poggio taking down the reminiscences of Nicolo Conti writes Brammones.
1555.—"Among these is ther a people called Brachmanes, whiche (as Didimus their Kinge wrote unto Alexandre ...) live a pure and simple life, led with no likerous lustes of other mennes vanities."—W. Watreman, Fardle of Faciouns.
1572.—
"Brahmenes são os seus religiosos, Nome antiguo, e de grande preeminencia: Observam os preceitos tão famosos D'hum, que primeiro poz nomo á sciencia." Camões, vii. 40.
1578.—Acosta has Bragmen.
1582.—"Castañeda, tr. by N. L.," has Bramane.
1630.—"The Bramanes ... Origen, cap. 13 & 15, affirmeth to bee descended from Abraham by Cheturah, who seated page 112athemselves in India, and that so they were called Abrahmanes."—Lord, Desc. of the Banian Rel., 71.
1676.—
"Comes he to upbraid us with his innocence? Seize him, and take this preaching Brachman hence." Dryden, Aurungzebe, iii. 3.
1688.—"The public worship of the pagods was tolerated at Goa, and the sect of the Brachmans daily increased in power, because these Pagan priests had bribed the Portuguese officers."—Dryden, Life of Xavier.
BRAHMINY BULL, s. A bull devoted to Śiva and let loose; generally found frequenting Hindu bazars, and fattened by the run of the Bunyas' shops. The term is sometimes used more generally (Brahminy bull, -ox, or -cow) to denote the humped Indian ox as a species.
BRAHMINY BUTTER, s. This seems to have been an old name for Ghee (q.v.). In MS. "Acct. Charges, Dieting, &c., at Fort St. David for Nov.-Jany., 1746–47," in India Office, we find:
| " | Butter | Pagodas | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| | Brahminy do. | " | 1 | 13 | 0 | ." |
BRAHMINY DUCK, s. The common Anglo-Indian name of the handsome bird Casarca rutila (Pallas), or 'Ruddy Shieldrake'; constantly seen on the sandy shores of the Gangetic rivers in single pairs, the pair almost always at some distance apart. The Hindi name is chakwā, and the chakwā-chakwī (male and female of the species) afford a commonplace comparison in Hindi literature for faithful lovers and spouses. "The Hindus have a legend that two lovers for their indiscretion were transformed into Brahminy Ducks, that they are condemned to pass the night apart from each other, on opposite banks of the river, and that all night long each, in its turn, asks its mate if it shall come across, but the question page 112bis always met by a negative—"Chakwa, shall I come?" "No, Chakwi." "Chakwi, shall I come?" "No, Chakwa."—(Jerdon.) The same author says the bird is occasionally killed in England.
BRAHMINY KITE, s. The Milvus Pondicerianus of Jerdon, Haliastur Indus, Boddaert. The name is given because the bird is regarded with some reverence by the Hindus as sacred to Vishnu. It is found throughout India.
1673.—"... 'tis Sacrilege with them to kill a Cow or Calf; but highly piacular to shoot a Kite, dedicated to the Brachmins, for which Money will hardly pacify."—Fryer, 33.
BRAHMO-SOMÁJ, s. The Bengali pronunciation of Skt. Brahma Samāja, 'assembly of Brahmists'; Brahma being the Supreme Being according to the Indian philosophic systems. The reform of Hinduism so called was begun by Ram Mohun Roy (Rāma Mohana Rāī) in 1830. Professor A. Weber has shown that it does not constitute an independent Indian movement, but is derived from European Theism. [Also see Monier-Williams, Brahmanism, 486.]
BRANDUL, s. 'Backstay,' in Sea H. Port. brandal (Roebuck).
BRANDY COORTEE, -COATEE, s. Or sometimes simply Brandy. A corruption of bārānī, 'a cloak,' literally pluviale, from P. bārān, 'rain.' Bārānī-kurtī seems to be a kind of hybrid shaped by the English word coat, though kurtā and kurtī are true P. words for various forms of jacket or tunic.
[The word Bārānī is now commonly used to describe those crops which are dependent on the annual rains, not on artificial irrigation.
BRANDYPAWNEE, s. Brandy and water; a specimen of genuine Urdū, i.e. Camp jargon, which hardly needs interpretation. H. panī, 'water.' Williamson (1810) has brandy-shraub-pauny (V. M. ii. 123).
BRASS, s. A brace. Sea dialect.—(Roebuck.)
[BRASS-KNOCKER, s. A term applied to a réchauffé or serving up again of yesterday's dinner or supper. It is said to be found in a novel by Winwood Reade called Liberty Hall, as a piece of Anglo-Indian slang; and it is supposed to be a corruption of bāsī khāna, H. 'stale food'; see 5 ser. N. & Q., 34, 77.]
BRATTY, s. A word, used only in the South, for cakes of dry cow-dung, used as fuel more or less all over India. It is Tam. varaṭṭi, [or virāṭṭi], 'dried dung.' Various terms are current elsewhere, but in Upper India the most common is uplā.—(Vide OOPLA).
BRAVA, n.p. A sea-port on the east coast of Africa, lat. 1° 7′ N., long. 44° 3′, properly Barāwa.
BRAZIL-WOOD, s. This name is now applied in trade to the dye-wood page 113bimported from Pernambuco, which is derived from certain species of Caesalpinia indigenous there. But it originally applied to a dye-wood of the same genus which was imported from India, and which is now known in trade as Sappan (q.v.). [It is the andam or baḳḳam of the Arabs (Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 49).] The history of the word is very curious. For when the name was applied to the newly discovered region in S. America, probably, as Barros alleges, because it produced a dye-wood similar in character to the brazil of the East, the trade-name gradually became appropriated to the S. American product, and was taken away from that of the E. Indies. See some further remarks in Marco Polo, 2nd ed., ii. 368–370 [and Encycl. Bibl. i. 120].
This is alluded to also by Camões (x. 140):
"But here where Earth spreads wider, ye shall claim realms by the ruddy Dye-wood made renown'd; these of the 'Sacred Cross' shall win the name: by your first Navy shall that world be found." Burton.
The medieval forms of brazil were many; in Italian it is generally verzi, verzino, or the like.
1552.—"... when it came to the 3d of May, and Pedralvares was about to set sail, in order to give a name to the land thus newly discovered, he ordered a very great Cross to be hoisted at the top of a tree, after mass had been said at the foot of the tree, and it had been set up with the solemn benediction of the priests, and then he gave the country the name of Sancta Cruz.... But as it was through the symbol of the Cross that the Devil lost his dominion over us ... as soon as the red wood called Brazil began to arrive from that country, he wrought that that name should abide in the mouth of the people, and that the name of Holy Cross should be lost, as if the name of a wood for colouring cloth were of more moment than that wood which imbues all the sacraments with the tincture of salvation, which is the Blood of Jesus Christ."—Barros, I. v. 2.
1554.—"The baar (Bahar) of Brazil contains 20 faraçolas (see FRAZALA), weighing it in a coir rope, and there is no picotaa (see PICOTA)"—A. Nunes, 18.
page 114aBREECH-CANDY, n.p. A locality on the shore of Bombay Island to the north of Malabar Hill. The true name, as Dr. Murray Mitchell tells me, is believed to be Burj-khāḍī, 'the Tower of the Creek.'
BRIDGEMÁN, s. Anglo-Sepoy H. brijmān, denoting a military prisoner, of which word it is a quaint corruption.
BRINJARRY, s. Also BINJARREE, BUNJARREE, and so on. But the first form has become classical from its constant occurrence in the Indian Despatches of Sir A. Wellesley. The word is properly H. banjārā, and Wilson derives it from Skt. baṇij, 'trade,' kāra, 'doer.' It is possible that the form brinjārā may have been suggested by a supposed connection with the Pers. birinj, 'rice.' (It is alleged in the Dict. of Words used in the E. Indies, 2nd ed., 1805, to be derived from brinj, 'rice,' and ara, 'bring'!) The Brinjarries of the Deccan are dealers in grain and salt, who move about, in numerous parties with cattle, carrying their goods to different markets, and who in the days of the Deccan wars were the great resource of the commissariat, as they followed the armies with supplies for sale. They talk a kind of Mahratta or Hindi patois. Most classes of Banjārās in the west appear to have a tradition of having first come to the Deccan with Moghul camps as commissariat carriers. In a pamphlet called Some Account of the Bunjarrah Class, by N. R. Cumberlege, District Sup. of Police, Basein, Berar (Bombay, 1882; [North Indian N. & Q. iv. 163 seqq.]), the author attempts to distinguish between brinjarees as 'grain-carriers,' and bunjarrahs, from bunjār, 'waste land' (meaning banjar or bānjaṛ). But this seems fanciful. In the N.-W. Provinces the name is also in use, and is applied to a numerous tribe spread along the skirt of the Himālaya from Hardwār to Gorakhpur, some of whom are settled, whilst the rest move about with their cattle, sometimes transporting goods for hire, and sometimes carrying grain, salt, lime, forest produce, or other merchandise for sale. [See Crooke, Tribes and Castes, i. 149 seqq.] Vanjārās, as they are called about Bombay, used to come down from Rajputāna and Central India, with page 114blarge droves of cattle, laden with grain, &c., taking back with them salt for the most part. These were not mere carriers, but the actual dealers, paying ready money, and they were orderly in conduct.
1516.—"The Moors and Gentiles of the cities and towns throughout the country come to set up their shops and cloths at Cheul ... they bring these in great caravans of domestic oxen, with packs, like donkeys, and on the top of these long white sacks placed crosswise, in which they bring their goods; and one man drives 30 or 40 beasts before him."—Barbosa, 71.
1563.—"... This King of Dely took the Balagat from certain very powerful gentoos, whose tribe are those whom we now call Venezaras, and from others dwelling in the country, who are called Colles; and all these, Colles, and Venezaras, and Reisbutos, live by theft and robbery to this day."—Garcia De O., f. 34.
c. 1632.—"The very first step which Mohabut Khan [Khān Khānān] took in the Deccan, was to present the Bunjaras of Hindostan with elephants, horses, and cloths; and he collected (by these conciliatory measures) so many of them that he had one chief Bunjara at Agrah, another in Goojrat, and another above the Ghats, and established the advanced price of 10 sers per rupee (in his camp) to enable him to buy it cheaper."—MS. Life of Mohabut Khan (Khan Khanan), in Briggs's paper quoted below, 183.
1638.—"Il y a dans le Royaume de Cuncam vn certain peuple qu'ils appellent Venesars, qui achettent le bled et le ris ... pour le reuendre dans l'Indosthan ... ou ils vont auec des Caffilas ou Caravances de cinq ou six, et quelque fois de neuf ou dix mille bestes de somme...."—Mandelslo, 245.
1793.—"Whilst the army halted on the 23rd, accounts were received from Captain Read ... that his convoy of brinjarries had been attacked by a body of horse."—Dirom, 2.
1800.—"The Binjarries I look upon in the light of servants of the public, of whose grain I have a right to regulate the sale ... always taking care that they have a proportionate advantage."—A. Wellesley, in Life of Sir T. Munro, i. 264.
" "The Brinjarries drop in by degrees."—Wellington, i. 175.
1810.—"Immediately facing us a troop of Brinjarees had taken up their residence for the night. These people travel from one end of India to the other, carrying salt, grain, assafœtida, almost as necessary to an army as salt."—Maria Graham, 61.
page 115a1813.—"We met there a number of Vanjarrahs, or merchants, with large droves of oxen, laden with valuable articles from the interior country, to commute for salt on the sea-coast."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 206; [2nd ed. i. 118; also see ii. 276 seqq.].
" "As the Deccan is devoid of a single navigable river, and has no roads that admit of wheel-carriages, the whole of this extensive intercourse is carried on by laden bullocks, the property of that class of people known as Bunjaras."—Acc. of Origin, Hist., and Manners of ... Bunjaras, by Capt. John Briggs, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. i. 61.
1825.—"We passed a number of Brinjarrees who were carrying salt.... They ... had all bows ... arrows, sword and shield.... Even the children had, many of them, bows and arrows suited to their strength, and I saw one young woman equipped in the same manner."—Heber, ii. 94.
BRINJAUL, s. The name of a vegetable called in the W. Indies the Egg-plant, and more commonly known to the English in Bengal under that of bangun (prop. baingan). It is the Solanum Melongena, L., very commonly cultivated on the shores of the Mediterranean as well as in India and the East generally. Though not known in a wild state under this form, there is no reasonable doubt that S. Melongena is a derivative of the common Indian S. insanum, L. The word in the form brinjaul is from the Portuguese, as we shall see. But probably there is no word of the kind which has undergone such extraordinary variety of modifications, whilst retaining the same meaning, as this. The Skt. is bhaṇṭākī, H. bhāṇṭā, baigan, baingan, P. badingān, badilgān, Ar. badinjān, Span. alberengena, berengena, Port. beringela, bringiela, bringella, Low Latin melangolus, merangolus, Ital. melangola, melanzana, mela insana, &c. (see P. della Valle, below), French aubergine (from alberengena), melongène, merangène, and provincially belingène, albergaine, albergine, albergame. (See Marcel Devic, p. 46.) Littré, we may remark, explains (dormitante Homero?) aubergine as 'espèce de morelle,' giving the etym. as "diminutif de auberge" (in the sense of a kind of peach). Melongena is no real Latin word, but a factitious page 115brendering of melanzana, or, as Marcel Devic says, "Latin du botaniste." It looks as if the Skt. word were the original of all. The H. baingan again seems to have been modified from the P. badingān, [or, as Platts asserts, direct from the Skt. vanga, vangana, 'the plant of Bengal,'] and baingan also through the Ar. to have been the parent of the Span. berengena, and so of all the other European names except the English 'egg-plant.' The Ital. mela insana is the most curious of these corruptions, framed by the usual effort after meaning, and connecting itself with the somewhat indigestible reputation of the vegetable as it is eaten in Italy, which is a fact. When cholera is abroad it is considered (e.g. in Sicily) to be an act of folly to eat the melanzana. There is, however, behind this, some notion (exemplified in the quotation from Lane's Mod. Egypt. below) connecting the badinjān with madness. [Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 417.] And it would seem that the old Arab medical writers give it a bad character as an article of diet. Thus Avicenna says the badinjān generates melancholy and obstructions. To the N. O. Solanaceae many poisonous plants belong.
The word has been carried, with the vegetable, to the Archipelago, probably by the Portuguese, for the Malays call it berinjalā. [On this Mr. Skeat writes: "The Malay form brinjal, from the Port., not berinjalā, is given by Clifford and Swettenham, but it cannot be established as a Malay word, being almost certainly the Eng. brinjaul done into Malay. It finds no place in Klinkert, and the native Malay word, which is the only word used in pure Peninsular Malay, is terong or trong. The form berinjalā, I believe, must have come from the Islands if it really exists."]
c. 1580.—"Trifolium quoque virens comedunt Arabes, mentham Judaei crudam, ... mala insana...."—Prosper Alpinus, i. 65.
1611.—"We had a market there kept page 116aupon the Strand of diuers sorts of prouisions, towit ... Pallingenies, cucumbers...."—N. Dounton, in Purchas, i. 298.
1616.—"It seems to me to be one of those fruits which are called in good Tuscan petronciani, but which by the Lombards are called melanzane, and by the vulgar at Rome marignani; and if my memory does not deceive me, by the Neapolitans in their patois molegnane."—P. della Valle, i. 197.
1673.—"The Garden ... planted with Potatoes, Yawms, Berenjaws, both hot plants...."—Fryer, 104.
1738.—"Then follow during the rest of the summer, calabashas ... bedin-janas, and tomatas."—Shaw's Travels, 2nd ed. 1757, p. 141.
c. 1740.—"This man (Balaji Rao), who had become absolute in Hindostan as well as in Decan, was fond of bread made of Badjrah ... he lived on raw Bringelas, on unripe mangoes, and on raw red pepper."—Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 229.
1782.—Sonnerat writes Béringédes.—i. 186.
1783.—Forrest spells brinjalles (V. to Mergui, 40); and (1810) Williamson biringal (V. M. i. 133). Forbes (1813), bringal and berenjal (Or. Mem. i. 32) [in 2nd ed. i. 22, bungal,] ii. 50; [in 2nd ed. i. 348].
1810.—"I saw last night at least two acres covered with brinjaal, a species of Solanum."—Maria Graham, 24.
1826.—"A plate of poached eggs, fried in sugar and butter; a dish of badenjâns, slit in the middle and boiled in grease."—Hajji Baba, ed. 1835, p. 150.
1835.—"The neighbours unanimously declared that the husband was mad.... One exclaimed: 'There is no strength nor power but in God! God restore thee!' Another said: 'How sad! He was really a worthy man.' A third remarked: 'Badingâns are very abundant just now.'"—Lane, Mod. Egyptians, ed. 1860, 299.
BROACH, n.p. Bharōch, an ancient and still surviving city of Guzerat, on the River Nerbudda. The original forms of the name are Bhṛigu-kachchha, and Bhāru-Kachchha, which last form appears in the Sunnar Cave Inscription No. ix., and this was written with fair correctness by the Greeks as Βαρυγάζα and Βαργόση. "Illiterate Guzerattees would in attempting to page 116barticulate Bhreeghoo-Kshetra (sic), lose the half in coalescence, and call it Barigache."—Drummond, Illus. of Guzerattee, &c.
c. A.D. 80.—"On the right, at the very mouth of the gulf, there is a long and narrow strip of shoal.... And if one succeeds in getting into the gulf, still it is hard to hit the mouth of the river leading to Barygaza, owing to the land being so low ... and when found it is difficult to enter, owing to the shoals of the river near the mouth. On this account there are at the entrances fishermen employed by the King ... to meet ships as far off as Syrastrene, and by these they are piloted up to Barygaza."—Periplus, sect. 43. It is very interesting to compare Horsburgh with this ancient account. "From the sands of Swallow to Broach a continued bank extends along the shore, which at Broach river projects out about 5 miles.... The tide flows here ... velocity 6 knots ... rising nearly 30 feet.... On the north side of the river, a great way up, the town of Broach is situated; vessels of considerable burden may proceed to this place, as the channels are deep in many places, but too intricate to be navigated without a pilot."—India Directory (in loco).
c. 718.—Barús is mentioned as one of the places against which Arab attacks were directed.—See Elliot, i. 441.
c. 1300.—"... a river which lies between the Sarsut and Ganges ... has a south-westerly course till it falls into the sea near Bahrúch."—Al-Birūni, in Elliot, i. 49.
A.D. 1321.—"After their blessed martyrdom, which occurred on the Thursday before Palm Sunday, in Thana of India, I baptised about 90 persons in a certain city called Parocco, 10 days' journey distant therefrom...."—Friar Jordanus, in Cathay, &c., 226.
1552.—"A great and rich ship said to belong to Meleque Gupij, Lord of Baroche."—Barros, II. vi. 2.
1555.—"Sultan Ahmed on his part marched upon Barūj."—Sidī 'Ali, 85.
[1615.—"It would be necessary to give credit unto two or three Guzzaratts for some cloth to make a voyage to Burrouse."—Foster, Letters, iv. 94.]
1617.—"We gave our host ... a peece of backar baroche to his children to make page 117athem 2 coates."—Cocks's Diary, i. 330. [Backar here seems to represent a port connected with Broach, called in the Āīn (ii. 243) Bhankora or Bhakor; Bayley gives Bhakorah as a village on the frontier of Gujerat.]
1623.—"Before the hour of complines ... we arrived at the city of Barochi, or Behrug as they call it in Persian, under the walls of which, on the south side, flows a river called Nerbedà."—P. della Valle, ii. 529; [Hak. Soc. i. 60].
1648.—In Van Twist (p. 11), it is written Broichia.
[1676.—"From Surat to Baroche, 22 coss."—Tavernier, ed. Ball, i. 66.]
1756.—"Bandar of Bhrōch."—(Bird's tr. of) Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 115.
BUCK, v. To prate, to chatter, to talk much and egotistically. H. baknā. [A buck-stick is a chatterer.]
BUCKAUL, s. Ar. H. baḳḳāl, 'a shopkeeper;' a bunya (q.v. under BANYAN). In Ar. it means rather a 'second-hand' dealer.
1800.—"... a buccal of this place told me he would let me have 500 bags to-morrow."—Wellington, i. 196.
BUCKSHAW, s. We have not been able to identify the fish so called, or the true form of the name. Perhaps it is only H. bachchā, Mahr. bachchā (P. bacha, Skt. vatsa), 'the young of any creature.' But the Konkani Dict. gives 'boussa—peixe pequeno de qualquer sorte,' 'little fish of any kind.' This is perhaps the real word; but it also may represent bachcha. The practice of manuring the coco-palms with putrid fish is still rife, as residents of the Government House at Parell never page 117bforget. The fish in use is refuse bummelo (q.v.). [The word is really the H. bachhuā, a well-known edible fish which abounds in the Ganges and other N. Indian rivers. It is either the Pseudoutropius garua, or P. murius of Day, Fish. Ind., nos. 474 or 471; Fau. Br. Ind. i. 141, 137.]
1727.—"The Air is somewhat unhealthful, which is chiefly imputed to their dunging their Cocoa-nut trees with Buckshoe, a sort of small Fishes which their Sea abounds in."—A. Hamilton, i. 181.
c. 1760.—"... manure for the coconut-tree ... consisting of the small fry of fish, and called by the country name of Buckshaw."—Grose, i. 31.
BUCKSHAW, s. This is also used in Cocks's Diary (i. 63, 99) for some kind of Indian piece-goods, we know not what. [The word is not found in modern lists of piece-goods. It is perhaps a corruption of Pers. buḳchah, 'a bundle,' used specially of clothes. Tavernier (see below) uses the word in its ordinary sense.]
[1615.—"80 pieces Boxsha gingams"; "Per Puxshaws, double piece, at 9 mas."—Ibid. iii. 156; iv. 50.
BUCKSHEESH, BUXEES, s. P. through P.—H. bakhshish. Buonamano, Trinkgeld, pourboire; we don't seem to have in England any exact equivalent for the word, though the thing is so general; 'something for (the driver)' is a poor expression; tip is accurate, but is slang; gratuity is official or dictionary English.
1759.—"To Presents:—
| R. | R. | A. | P. |
| 2 Pieces of flowered Velvet | 532 | 7 | 0 |
| 1 ditto of Broad Cloth | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| Buxis to the Servants | 50 | 0 | 0 | " |
Cost of Entertainment to Jugget Set. In Long, 190.
page 118ac. 1760.—"... Buxie money."—Ives, 51.
1810.—"... each mile will cost full one rupee (i.e. 2s. 6d.), besides various little disbursements by way of buxees, or presents, to every set of bearers."—Williamson, V. M. ii. 235.
1823.—"These Christmas-boxes are said to be an ancient custom here, and I could almost fancy that our name of box for this particular kind of present ... is a corruption of buckshish, a gift or gratuity, in Turkish, Persian, and Hindoostanee."—Heber, i. 45.
BUCKYNE, s. H. bakāyan, the tree Melia sempervivens, Roxb. (N. O. Meliaceae). It has a considerable resemblance to the nīm tree (see NEEM); and in Bengali is called mahā-nīm, which is also the Skt. name, mahā-nimba. It is sometimes erroneously called Persian Lilac.
BUDDHA, BUDDHISM, BUDDHIST. These words are often written with a quite erroneous assumption of precision Bhudda, &c. All that we shall do here is to collect some of the earlier mentions of Buddha and the religion called by his name.
c. 240.—"Wisdom and deeds have always from time to time been brought to mankind by the messengers of God. So in one age they have been brought to mankind by the messenger called Buddha to India, in another by Zarâdusht to Persia, in another by Jesus to the West. Thereupon this revelation has come down, this prophecy in this last age, through me, Mânî, the messenger of the God of truth to Babylonia."—The Book of Mānī, called Shābūrkān, quoted by Albirūnī, in his Chronology, tr. by Sachau, p. 190.
c. 400.—"Apud Gymnosophistas Indiae quasi per manus hujus opinionis auctoritas traditur, quod Buddam principem dogmatis eorum, e latere suo virgo generaret. Nec hoc mirum de barbaris, quum Minervam quoque de capite Jovis, et Liberum patrem de femore ejus procreatos, docta finxit Graecia."—St. Jerome, Adv. Jovinianum, Lib. i. ed. Vallarsii, ii. 309.
c. 440.—"... Τηνικαῦτα γαρ τὸ Ἐμπεδοκλέους τοῦ παρ' Ἕλλησι φιλοσόφου δόγμα, διὰ τοῦ Μανιχαίου χριστιανισμὸν ὑπεκρίνατο ... τούτου δὲ τοῦ Σκυθιανοῦ μαθητὴς γίνεται Βούδδας, πρότερον Τερέβινθος καλούμενος ... κ. τ. λ." page 118b(see the same matter from Georgius Cedrenus below).—Socratis, Hist. Eccles. Lib. I. cap. 22.
c. 840.—"An certè Bragmanorum sequemur opinionem, ut quemadmodum illi sectae suae auctorem Bubdam, per virginis latus narrant exortum, ita nos Christum fuisse praedicemus? Vel magis sic nascitur Dei sapientia de virginis cerebro, quomodo Minerva de Jovis vertice, tamquam Liber Pater de femore? Ut Christicolam de virginis partu non solennis natura, vel auctoritas sacrae lectionis, sed superstitio Gentilis, et commenta perdoceant fabulosa."—Ratramni Corbeiensis L. de Nativitate Xti., cap. iii. in L. D'Achery, Spicilegium, tom. i. p. 54, Paris, 1723.
c. 870.—"The Indians give in general the name of budd to anything connected with their worship, or which forms the object of their veneration. So, an idol is called budd."—Biládurí, in Elliot, i. 123.
c. 904.—"Budāsaf was the founder of the Sabaean Religion ... he preached to mankind renunciation (of this world) and the intimate contemplation of the superior worlds.... There was to be read on the gate of the Naobihar at Balkh an inscription in the Persian tongue of which this is the interpretation: 'The words of Budāsaf: In the courts of kings three things are needed, Sense, Patience, Wealth.' Below had been written in Arabic: 'Budāsaf lies. If a free man possesses any of the three, he will flee from the courts of Kings.'"—Mas'ūdī, iv. 45 and 49.
1000.—"... pseudo-prophets came forward, the number and history of whom it would be impossible to detail.... The first mentioned is Bûdhâsaf, who came forward in India."—Albirûnî, Chronology, by Sachau, p. 186. This name given to Buddha is specially interesting as showing a step nearer the true Bodhisattva, the origin of the name Ἰωάσαφ, under which Buddha became a Saint of the Church, and as elucidating Prof. Max Müller's ingenious suggestion of that origin (see Chips, &c., iv. 184; see also Academy, Sept. 1, 1883, p. 146).
c. 1030.—"A stone was found there in the temple of the great Budda on which an inscription ... purporting that the temple had been founded 50,000 years ago...."—Al 'Utbi, in Elliot, ii. 39.
c. 1060.—"This madman then, Manēs (also called Scythianus) was by race a Brachman, and he had for his teacher Budas, formerly called Terebinthus, who having been brought up by Scythianus in the learning of the Greeks became a follower of the sect of Empedocles (who said there were two first principles opposed to one another), and when he entered Persia declared that he had been born of a virgin, and had been brought up among the hills ... and this Budas (alias Terebinthus) did perish, crushed by an unclean spirit."—Georg. Cedrenus, Hist. Comp., page 119aBonn ed., 455 (old ed. i. 259). This wonderful jumble, mainly copied, as we see, from Socrates (supra), seems to bring Buddha and Manes together. "Many of the ideas of Manicheism were but fragments of Buddhism."—E. B. Cowell, in Smith's Dict. of Christ. Biog.
c. 1190.—"Very grieved was Sārang Deva. Constantly he performed the worship of the Arihant; the Buddhist religion he adopted; he wore no sword."—The Poem of Chand Bardai, paraphr. by Beames, in Ind. Ant. i. 271.
1610.—"... This Prince is called in the histories of him by many names: his proper name was Dramá Rajo; but that by which he has been known since they have held him for a saint is the Budao, which is as much as to say 'Sage' ... and to this name the Gentiles throughout all India have dedicated great and superb Pagodas."—Couto, Dec. V., liv. vi. cap. 2.
[1615.—"The image of Dibottes, with the hudge collosso or bras imadg (or rather idoll) in it."—Cocks's Diary, i. 200.]
c. 1666.—"There is indeed another, a seventh Sect, which is called Bauté, whence do proceed 12 other different sects; but this is not so common as the others, the Votaries of it being hated and despised as a company of irreligious and atheistical people, nor do they live like the rest."—Bernier, E. T., ii. 107; [ed. Constable, 336].
1685.—"Above all these they have one to whom they pay much veneration, whom they call Bodu; his figure is that of a man."—Ribeiro, f. 40b.
1728.—"Before Gautama Budhum there have been known 26 Budhums—viz.:...."—Valentijn, v. (Ceylon) 369.
1753.—"Edrisi nous instruit de cette circonstance, en disant que le Balahar est adorateur de Bodda. Les Brahmènes du Malabar disent que c'est le nom que Vishtnu a pris dans une de ses apparitions, et on connoît Vishtnu pour une des trois principales divinités Indiennes. Suivant St. Jerôme et St. Clément d'Alexandrie, Budda ou Butta est le legislateur des Gymno-Sophistes de l'Inde. La secte des Shamans ou Samanéens, qui est demeurée la dominante dans tous les royaumes d'au delà du Gange, a fait de Budda en cette qualité son objet d'adoration. C'est la première des divinités Chingulaises ou de Ceilan, selon Ribeiro. Samano-Codom (see GAUTAMA), la grande idole des Siamois, est par eux appelé Putti."—D'Anville, Éclaircissemens, 75. What knowledge and apprehension, on a subject then so obscure, is shown by this great Geographer! Compare the pretentious ignorance of the flashy Abbé Raynal in the quotations under 1770.
1770.—"Among the deities of the second order, particular honours are paid to Buddou, who descended upon earth to take upon himself the office of mediator between God and mankind."—Raynal (tr. 1777), i. 91.
"The Budzoists are another sect of Japan, of which Budzo was the founder.... The page 119bspirit of Budzoism is dreadful. It breathes nothing but penitence, excessive fear, and cruel severity."—Ibid. i. 138. Raynal in the two preceding passages shows that he was not aware that the religions alluded to in Ceylon and in Japan were the same.
1779.—"Il y avoit alors dans ces parties de l'Inde, et principalement à la Côte de Coromandel et à Ceylan, un Culte dont on ignore absolument les Dogmes; le Dieu Baouth, dont on ne connoit aujourd'hui, dans l'Inde que le Nom et l'objet de ce Culte; mais il est tout-à-fait aboli, si ce n'est, qu'il se trouve encore quelques familles d'Indiens séparées et méprisées des autres Castes, qui sont restées fidèles à Baouth, et qui ne reconnoissent pas la religion des Brames."—Voyage de M. Gentil, quoted by W. Chambers, in As. Res. i. 170.
1801.—"It is generally known that the religion of Bouddhou is the religion of the people of Ceylon, but no one is acquainted with its forms and precepts. I shall here relate what I have heard upon the subject."—M. Joinville, in As. Res. vii. 399.
1806.—"... The head is covered with the cone that ever adorns the head of the Chinese deity Fo, who has been often supposed to be the same as Boudah."—Salt, Caves of Salsette, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. i. 50.
It is remarkable how many poems on the subject of Buddha have appeared of late years. We have noted:
1. Buddha, Epische Dichtung in Zwanzig Gesängen, i.e. an Epic Poem in 20 cantos (in ottava rima). Von Joseph Vittor Widmann, Bern. 1869.
2. The Story of Gautama Buddha and his Creed: An Epic by Richard Phillips, Longmans, 1871. This is also printed in octaves, but each octave consists of 4 heroic couplets.
3. Vasavadatta, a Buddhist Idyll; by Dean Plumtre. Republished in Things New and Old, 1884. The subject is the story of the Courtesan of Mathura ("Vāsavadattā and Upagupta"), which is given in Burnouf's Introd. a l'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien, 146–148; a touching story, even in its original crude form.
It opens:
"Where proud Mathoura rears her hundred towers...."
The Skt. Dict. gives indeed as an alternative Mathūra, but Mathŭra is the usual name, whence Anglo-Ind. Muttra.
4. The brilliant Poem of Sir Edwin Arnold, called The Light of Asia, or the Great Renunciation, being the Life and page 120aTeaching of Gautama, Prince of India, and Founder of Buddhism, as told in verse by an Indian Buddhist, 1879.
BUDGE-BUDGE, n.p. A village on the Hooghly R., 15 m. below Calcutta, where stood a fort which was captured by Clive when advancing on Calcutta to recapture it, in December, 1756. The Imperial Gazetteer gives the true name as Baj-baj, [but Hamilton writes Bhuja-bhuj].
BUDGEROW, s. A lumbering keelless barge, formerly much used by Europeans travelling on the Gangetic rivers. Two-thirds of the length aft was occupied by cabins with Venetian windows. Wilson gives the word as H. and B. bajrā; Shakespear gives H. bajrā and bajra, with an improbable suggestion of derivation from bajar, 'hard or heavy.' Among Blochmann's extracts from Mahommedan accounts of the conquest of Assam we find, in a detail of Mīr Jumla's fleet in his expedition of 1662, mention of 4 bajras (J. As. Soc. Ben. xli. pt. i. 73). The same extracts contain mention of war-sloops called bach'haris (pp. 57, 75, 81), but these last must be different. Bajra may possibly have been applied in the sense of 'thunder-bolt.' This may seem unsuited to the modern budgerow, but is not more so than the title of 'lightning-darter' is to the modern Burkundauze (q.v.)! We remember how Joinville says of the approach of the great galley of the Count of Jaffa:—"Sembloit que foudre cheist des ciex." It is however perhaps more probable that bajrā may have been a variation of baglā. And this is especially suggested by the existence of the Portuguese form pajeres, and of the Ar. form bagara (see under BUGGALOW). Mr. Edye, Master Shipwright of the Naval Yard in Trincomalee, in a paper on the Native Craft of India and Ceylon, speaks of the page 120bBaggala or Budgerow, as if he had been accustomed to hear the words used indiscriminately. (See J. R. A. S., vol. i. p. 12). [There is a drawing of a modern Budgerow in Grant, Rural Life, p. 5.]
1662.—(Blochmann's Ext. as above).
1705.—"... des Bazaras qui sont de grands bateaux."—Luillier, 52.
1723.—"Le lendemain nous passâmes sur les Bazaras de la compagnie de France."—Lett. Edif. xiii. 269.
1727.—"... in the evening to recreate themselves in Chaises or Palankins; ... or by water in their Budgeroes, which is a convenient Boat."—A. Hamilton, ii. 12.
1737.—"Charges, Budgrows ... Rs. 281. 6. 3."—MS. Account from Ft. William, in India Office.
1780.—"A gentleman's Bugerow was drove ashore near Chaun-paul Gaut...."—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, May 13th.
1781.—"The boats used by the natives for travelling, and also by the Europeans, are the budgerows, which both sail and row."—Hodges, 39.
1783.—"... his boat, which, though in Kashmire (it) was thought magnificent, would not have been disgraced in the station of a Kitchen-tender to a Bengal budgero."—G. Forster, Journey, ii. 10.
1784.—"I shall not be at liberty to enter my budgerow till the end of July, and must be again at Calcutta on the 22nd of October."—Sir W. Jones, in Mem. ii. 38.
1785.—"Mr. Hastings went aboard his Budgerow, and proceeded down the river, as soon as the tide served, to embark for Europe on the Berrington."—In Seton-Karr, i. 86.
1794.—"By order of the Governor-General in Council ... will be sold the Hon'ble Company's Budgerow, named the Sonamookhee ... the Budgerow lays in the nullah opposite to Chitpore."—Ibid. ii. 114.
1830.—
"Upon the bosom of the tide Vessels of every fabric ride; The fisher's skiff, the light canoe, * * * * * *  The Bujra broad, the Bholia trim, Or Pinnaces that gallant swim, With favouring breeze—or dull and slow Against the heady current go...." H. H. Wilson, in Bengal Annual, 29.
page 121aBUDGROOK, s. Port. bazarucco. A coin of low denomination, and of varying value and metal (copper, tin, lead, and tutenague), formerly current at Goa and elsewhere on the Western Coast, as well as at some other places on the Indian seas. It was also adopted from the Portuguese in the earliest English coinage at Bombay. In the earliest Goa coinage, that of Albuquerque (1510), the leal or bazarucco was equal to 2 reis, of which reis there went 420 to the gold cruzado (Gerson da Cunha). The name appears to have been a native one in use in Goa at the time of the conquest, but its etymology is uncertain. In Van Noort's Voyage (1648) the word is derived from bāzār, and said to mean 'market-money' (perhaps bāzār-rūka, the last word being used for a copper coin in Canarese). [This view is accepted by Gray in his notes on Pyrard (Hak. Soc. ii. 68), and by Burnell (Linschoten, Hak. Soc. ii. 143). The Madras. Admin. Man. Gloss. (s.v.) gives the Can. form as bajāra-rokkha, 'market-money.'] C. P. Brown (MS. notes) makes the word = baḍaga-rūka, which he says would in Canarese be 'base-penny,' and he ingeniously quotes Shakspeare's "beggarly denier," and Horace's "vilem assem." This is adopted in substance by Mr. E. Thomas, who points out that rukā or rukkā is in Mahratti (see Molesworth, s.v.) one-twelfth of an anna. But the words of Khāfi Khān below suggest that the word may be a corruption of the P. buzurg, 'big,' and according to Wilson, budrūkh (s.v.) is used in Mahratti as a dialectic corruption of buzūrg. This derivation may be partially corroborated by the fact that at Mocha there is, or was formerly, a coin (which had become a money of account only, 80 to the dollar) called kabīr, i.e. 'big' (see Ovington, 463, and Milburn, i. 98). If we could attach any value to Pyrard's spelling—bousuruques—this would be in favour of the same etymology; as is also the form besorg given by Mandelslo. [For a full examination of the value of the budgrook based on the most recent authorities, see Whiteway, Rise of the Port. Power, p. 68.]
[1584.—Basaruchies, Barret, in Hakl. See SHROFF.]
1598.—"They pay two Basarukes, which is as much as a Hollander's Doit.... It is molten money of badde Tinne."—Linschoten, 52, 69; [Hak. Soc. i. 180, 242].
1609.—"Le plus bas argent, sont Basarucos ... et sont fait de mauvais Estain."—Houtmann, in Navigation des Hollandois, i. 53v.
c. 1610.—"Il y en a de plusieurs sortes. La premiere est appellée Bousuruques, dont il en faut 75 pour une Tangue. Il y a d'autre Bousuruques vieilles, dont il en faut 105 pour le Tangue.... Il y a de cette monnoye qui est de fer; et d'autre de callin, metal de Chine" (see CALAY).—Pyrard, ii. 39; see also 21; [Hak. Soc. ii. 33, 68].
1611.—"Or a Viceroy coins false money; for so I may call it, as the people lose by it. For copper is worth 40 xerafims (see XERAFINE) the hundred weight, but they coin the basaruccos at the rate of 60 and 70. The Moors on the other hand, keeping a keen eye on our affairs, and seeing what a huge profit there is, coin there on the mainland a great quantity of basarucos, and gradually smuggle them into Goa, making a pitful of gold."—Couto, Dialogo do Soldado Pratico, 138.
1638.—"They have (at Gombroon) a certain Copper Coin which they call Besorg, whereof 6 make a Peys, and 10 Peys make a Chay (Shāhī) which is worth about 5d. English."—V. and Tr. of J. A. Mandelslo into the E. Indies, E. T. 1669, p. 8.
1672.—"Their coins (at Tanor in Malabar) ... of Copper, a Buserook, 20 of which make a Fanam."—Fryer, 53. [He also spells the word Basrook. See quotation under REAS.]
1677.—"Rupees, Pices and Budgrooks."—Letters Patent of Charles II. in Charters of the E. I. Co., p. 111.
1711.—"The Budgerooks (at Muskat) are mixt Mettle, rather like Iron than anything else, have a Cross on one side, and were coin'd by the Portuguese. Thirty of them make a silver Mamooda, of about Eight Pence Value."—Lockyer, 211.
c. 1720–30.—"They (the Portuguese) also use bits of copper which they call buzurg, and four of these buzurgs pass for a fulús."—Khāfī Khān, in Elliot, v. 345.
c. 1760.—"At Goa the sceraphim is worth 240 Portugal reas, or about 16d. sterling; 2 reas make a basaraco, 15 basaracos a vintin, 42 vintins a tanga, 4 tangas a paru, 2½ parues a pagoda of gold."—Grose, i. 282.
1838.—"Only eight or ten loads (of coffee) were imported this year, including two loads of 'Kopes' (see COPECK), the copper currency of Russia, known in this country by the name of Bughrukcha. They are converted to the same uses as copper."—Report from Kabul, by A. Burnes; in Punjab Trade Report, App. p. iii.
BUDLEE, s. A substitute in public or domestic service. H. badlī, 'exchange; a person taken in exchange; a locum tenens'; from Ar. badal, 'he changed.' (See MUDDLE.)
BUDMÁSH, s. One following evil courses; Fr. mauvais sujet; It. malandrino. Properly bad-ma'āsh, from P. bad, 'evil,' and Ar. ma'āsh, 'means of livelihood.'
BUDZAT, s. H. from P. badzāt, 'evil race,' a low fellow, 'a bad lot,' a blackguard.
BUFFALO, s. This is of course originally from the Latin bubalus, which we have in older English forms, buffle and buff and bugle, through the French. The present form probably came from India, as it seems to be the Port. bufalo. The proper meaning of bubalus, according to Pliny, was not an animal of the ox-kind (βοόβαλις was a kind of African antelope); but in Martial, as quoted, it would seem to bear the vulgar sense, rejected by Pliny.
At an early period of our connection with India the name of buffalo appears to have been given erroneously to the common Indian ox, whence came the still surviving misnomer of London shops, 'buffalo humps.' (See also the quotation from Ovington.) The buffalo has no hump. Buffalo tongues are another matter, and an old luxury, as the third quotation shows. The ox having appropriated the name of the buffalo, the true Indian domestic buffalo was differentiated as the 'water page 122bbuffalo,' a phrase still maintained by the British soldier in India. This has probably misled Mr. Blochmann, who uses the term 'water buffalo,' in his excellent English version of the Āīn (e.g. i. 219). We find the same phrase in Barkley's Five Years in Bulgaria, 1876: "Besides their bullocks every well-to-do Turk had a drove of water-buffaloes" (32). Also in Collingwood's Rambles of a Naturalist (1868), p. 43, and in Miss Bird's Golden Chersonese (1883), 60, 274. [The unscientific use of the word as applied to the American Bison is as old as the end of the 18th century (see N.E.D.).]
The domestic buffalo is apparently derived from the wild buffalo (Bubalus arni, Jerd.; Bos bubalus, Blanf.), whose favourite habitat is in the swampy sites of the Sunderbunds and Eastern Bengal, but whose haunts extend north-eastward to the head of the Assam valley, in the Terai west to Oudh, and south nearly to the Godavery; not beyond this in the Peninsula, though the animal is found in the north and north-east of Ceylon.
The domestic buffalo exists not only in India but in Java, Sumatra, and Manilla, in Mazanderan, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Adherbijan, Egypt, Turkey, and Italy. It does not seem to be known how or when it was introduced into Italy.—(See Hehn.) [According to the Encycl. Britt. (9th ed. iv. 442), it was introduced into Greece and Italy towards the close of the 6th century.]
c. A.D. 90.—
"Ille tulit geminos facili cervice juvencos Illi cessit atrox bubalus atque bison." Martial, De Spectaculis, xxiv.
c. 1580.—"Veneti mercatores linguas Bubalorum, tanquam mensis optimas, sale conditas, in magna copia Venetias mittunt."—Prosperi Alpini, Hist. Nat. Aegypti, P. I. p. 228.
1585.—"Here be many Tigers, wild Bufs, and great store of wilde Foule...."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 389.
"Here are many wilde buffes and Elephants."—Ibid. 394.
page 123a"The King (Akbar) hath ... as they doe credibly report, 1000 Elephants, 30,000 horses, 1400 tame deere, 800 concubines; such store of ounces, tigers, Buffles, cocks and Haukes, that it is very strange to see."—Ibid. 386.
1589.—"They doo plough and till their ground with kine, bufalos, and bulles."—Mendoza's China, tr. by Parkes, ii. 56.
[c. 1590.—Two methods of snaring the buffalo are described in Āīn, Blochmann, tr. i. 293.]
1598.—"There is also an infinite number of wild buffs that go wandering about the desarts."—Pigafetta, E. T. in Harleian Coll. of Voyages, ii. 546.
[1623.—"The inhabitants (of Malabar) keep Cows, or buffalls."—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 207.]
1630.—"As to Kine and Buffaloes ... they besmeare the floores of their houses with their dung, and thinke the ground sanctified by such pollution."—Lord, Discoverie of the Banian Religion, 60–61.
1644.—"We tooke coach to Livorno, thro' the Great Duke's new Parke, full of huge corke-trees; the underwood all myrtills, amongst which were many buffalos feeding, a kind of wild ox, short nos'd, horns reversed."—Evelyn, Oct. 21.
1666.—"... it produces Elephants in great number, oxen and buffaloes" (bufaros).—Faria y Souza, i. 189.
1689.—"... both of this kind (of Oxen), and the Buffaloes, are remarkable for a big piece of Flesh that rises above Six Inches high between their Shoulders, which is the choicest and delicatest piece of Meat upon them, especially put into a dish of Palau."—Ovington, 254.
1808.—"... the Buffala milk, and curd, and butter simply churned and clarified, is in common use among these Indians, whilst the dainties of the Cow Dairy is prescribed to valetudinarians, as Hectics, and preferred by vicicous (sic) appetites, or impotents alone, as that of the caprine and assine is at home."—Drummond, Illus. of Guzerattee, &c.
1810.—
"The tank which fed his fields was there ... There from the intolerable heat The buffaloes retreat; Only their nostrils raised to meet the air, Amid the shelt'ring element they rest." Curse of Kehama ix. 7.
BUGGALOW, s. Mahr. baglā, bagalā. A name commonly given on the W. coast of India to Arab vessels of the old native form. It is also in common use in the Red Sea (bakalā) for the larger native vessels, all built page 123bof teak from India. It seems to be a corruption of the Span. and Port. bajel, baxel, baixel, baxella, from the Lat. vascellum (see Diez, Etym. Wörterb. i. 439, s.v.). Cobarruvias (1611) gives in his Sp. Dict. "Baxel, quasi vasel" as a generic name for a vessel of any kind going on the sea, and quotes St. Isidore, who identifies it with phaselus, and from whom we transcribe the passage below. It remains doubtful whether this word was introduced into the East by the Portuguese, or had at an earlier date passed into Arabic marine use. The latter is most probable. In Correa (c. 1561) this word occurs in the form pajer, pl. pajeres (j and x being interchangeable in Sp. and Port. See Lendas, i. 2, pp. 592, 619, &c.). In Pinto we have another form. Among the models in the Fisheries Exhibition (1883), there was "A Zaroogat or Bagarah from Aden." [On the other hand Burton (Ar. Nights, i. 119) derives the word from the Ar. baghlah, 'a she-mule.' Also see BUDGEROW.]
c. 1539.—"Partida a nao pera Goa, Fernão de Morais ... seguio sua viage na volta do porto de Dabul, onde chegou ao outro dia as nove horas, e tomando nelle hũ paguel de Malavares, carregado de algodao e de pimenta, poz logo a tormento o Capitano e o piloto delle, os quaes confessarão...."—Pinto, ch. viii.
1842.—"As store and horse boats for that service, Capt. Oliver, I find, would prefer the large class of native buggalas, by which so much of the trade of this coast with Scinde, Cutch ... is carried on."—Sir G. Arthur, in Ind. Admin. of Lord Ellenborough, 222.
BUGGY, s. In India this is a (two-wheeled) gig with a hood, like the gentleman's cab that was in vogue in London about 1830–40, before broughams came in. Latham puts a (?) after the word, and the earliest examples that he gives are from the second quarter of this century (from Praed and I. D'Israeli). Though we trace the word much further back, we have not discovered its birthplace or etymology. The word, though used in England, has never been very common there; it is better known both in page 124aIreland and in America. Littré gives boghei as French also. The American buggy is defined by Noah Webster as "a light, one-horse, four-wheel vehicle, usually with one seat, and with or without a calash-top." Cuthbert Bede shows (N. & Q. 5 ser. v. p. 445) that the adjective 'buggy' is used in the Eastern Midlands for 'conceited.' This suggests a possible origin. "When the Hunterian spelling-controversy raged in India, a learned Member of Council is said to have stated that he approved the change until —— —— began to spell buggy as bagī. Then he gave it up."—(M.-G. Keatinge.) I have recently seen this spelling in print. [The N.E.D. leaves the etymology unsettled, merely saying that it has been connected with bogie and bug. The earliest quotation given is that of 1773 below.]
1780.—
"Shall D(onal)d come with Butts and tons And knock down Epegrams and Puns? With Chairs, old Cots, and Buggies trick ye? Forbid it, Phœbus, and forbid it, Hicky!" In Hicky's Bengal Gazette, May 13th.
" "... go twice round the Race-Course as hard as we can set legs to ground, but we are beat hollow by Bob Crochet's Horses driven by Miss Fanny Hardheart, who in her career oversets Tim Capias the Attorney in his Buggy...."—In India Gazette, Dec. 23rd.
1782.—"Wanted, an excellent Buggy Horse about 15 Hands high, that will trot 15 miles an hour."—India Gazette, Sept. 14.
1784.—"For sale at Mr. Mann's, Rada Bazar. A Phaeton, a four-spring'd Buggy, and a two-spring'd ditto...."—Calcutta Gazette, in Seton-Karr, i. 41.
1793.—"For sale. A good Buggy and Horse...."—Bombay Courier, Jan. 20th.
1824.—"... the Archdeacon's buggy and horse had every appearance of issuing from the back-gate of a college in Cambridge on Sunday morning."—Heber, i. 192 (ed. 1844).
[1837.—"The vehicles of the place page 124b(Monghir), amounting to four Buggies (that is a foolish term for a cabriolet, but as it is the only vehicle in use in India, and as buggy is the only name for said vehicle, I give it up), ... were assembled for our use."—Miss Eden, Up the Country, i. 14.]
c. 1838.—"But substitute for him an average ordinary, uninteresting Minister; obese, dumpy ... with a second-rate wife—dusty, deliquescent—... or let him be seen in one of those Shem-Ham-and-Japhet buggies, made on Mount Ararat soon after the subsidence of the waters...."—Sydney Smith, 3rd Letter to Archdeacon Singleton.
1848.—"'Joseph wants me to see if his—his buggy is at the door.'
"'What is a buggy, papa?'
"'It is a one-horse palanquin,' said the old gentleman, who was a wag in his way."—Vanity Fair, ch. iii.
1872.—"He drove his charger in his old buggy."—A True Reformer, ch. i.
1878.—"I don't like your new Bombay buggy. With much practice I have learned to get into it, I am hanged if I can ever get out."—Overland Times of India, 4th Feb.
BUGIS, n.p. Name given by the Malays to the dominant race of the island of Celébes, originating in the S.-Western limb of the island; the people calling themselves Wugi. But the name used to be applied in the Archipelago to native soldiers in European service, raised in any of the islands. Compare the analogous use of Telinga (q.v.) formerly in India.
1656.—"Thereupon the Hollanders resolv'd to unite their forces with the Bouquises, that were in rebellion against their Soveraign."—Tavernier, E. T. ii. 192.
1688.—"These Buggasses are a sort of warlike trading Malayans and mercenary soldiers of India. I know not well whence they come, unless from Macassar in the Isle of Celebes."—Dampier, ii. 108.
[1697.—"... with the help of Buggesses...."—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cxvii.]
1758.—"The Dutch were commanded by Colonel Roussely, a French soldier of fortune. They consisted of nearly 700 Europeans, and as many buggoses, besides country troops."—Narr. of Dutch attempt in Hoogly, in Malcolm's Clive, ii. 87.
1783.—"Buggesses, inhabitants of Celebes."—Forrest, Voyage to Mergui, p. 59.
page 125a1783.—"The word Buggess has become among Europeans consonant to soldier, in the east of India, as Sepoy is in the West."—Ibid. 78.
1811.—"We had fallen in with a fleet of nine Buggese prows, when we went out towards Pulo Mancap."—Lord Minto in India, 279.
BULBUL, s. The word bulbul is originally Persian (no doubt intended to imitate the bird's note), and applied to a bird which does duty with Persian poets for the nightingale. Whatever the Persian bulbul may be correctly, the application of the name to certain species in India "has led to many misconceptions about their powers of voice and song," says Jerdon. These species belong to the family Brachipodidae, or short-legged thrushes, and the true bulbuls to the sub-family Pycnonotinae, e.g. genera Hypsipetes, Hemixos, Alcurus, Criniger, Ixos, Kelaartia, Rubigula, Brachipodius, Otocompsa, Pycnonotus (P. pygaeus, common Bengal Bulbul; P. haemorhous, common Madras Bulbul). Another sub-family, Phyllornithinae, contains various species which Jerdon calls green Bulbuls.
1784.—"We are literally lulled to sleep by Persian nightingales, and cease to wonder that the Bulbul, with a thousand tales, makes such a figure in Persian poetry."—Sir W. Jones, in Memoirs, &c., ii. 37.
1813.—"The bulbul or Persian nightingale.... I never heard one that possessed the charming variety of the English nightingale ... whether the Indian bulbul and that of Iran entirely correspond I have some doubts."—Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, i. 50; [2nd ed. i. 34].
BULGAR, BOLGAR, s. P. bulghār. The general Asiatic name for what we call 'Russia leather,' from the fact that the region of manufacture and export was originally Bolghār on the Volga, a kingdom which stood for page 125bmany centuries, and gave place to Kazan in the beginning of the 15th century. The word was usual also among Anglo-Indians till the beginning of last century, and is still in native Hindustani use. A native (mythical) account of the manufacture is given in Baden-Powell's Punjab Handbook, 1872, and this fanciful etymology: "as the scent is derived from soaking in the pits (ghār), the leather is called Balghār" (p. 124).
c. 1333.—"I wore on my feet boots (or stockings) of wool; over these a pair of linen lined, and over all a thin pair of Borghāli, i.e. of horse-leather lined with wolf skin."—Ibn Batuta, ii. 445.
[1614.—"Of your Bullgaryan hides there are brought hither some 150."—Foster, Letters, iii. 67.]
1623.—Offer of Sheriff Freeman and Mr. Coxe to furnish the Company with "Bulgary red hides."—Court Minutes, in Sainsbury, iii. 184.
1624.—"Purefy and Hayward, Factors at Ispahan to the E. I. Co., have bartered morse-teeth and 'bulgars' for carpets."—Ibid. p. 268.
1673.—"They carry also Bulgar-Hides, which they form into Tanks to bathe themselves."—Fryer, 398.
c. 1680.—"Putting on a certain dress made of Bulgar-leather, stuffed with cotton."—Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 387.
1759.—Among expenses on account of the Nabob of Bengal's visit to Calcutta we find:
"To 50 pair of Bulger Hides at 13 per pair, Rs. 702 : 0 : 0."—Long, 193.
1786.—Among "a very capital and choice assortment of Europe goods" we find "Bulgar Hides."—Cal. Gazette, June 8, in Seton-Karr, i. 177.
1811.—"Most of us furnished at least one of our servants with a kind of bottle, holding nearly three quarts, made of bulghár ... or Russia-leather."—W. Ousely's Travels, i. 247.
BULKUT, s. A large decked ferry-boat; from Telug. balla, a board. (C. P. Brown).
BULLUMTEER, s. Anglo-Sepoy dialect for 'Volunteer.' This distinctive title was applied to certain regiments of the old Bengal Army, whose terms of enlistment embraced service page 126abeyond sea; and in the days of that army various ludicrous stories were current in connection with the name.
BUMBA, s. H. bamba, from Port. bomba, 'a pump.' Haex (1631) gives: "Bomba, organum pneumaticum quo aqua hauritur," as a Malay word. This is incorrect, of course, as to the origin of the word, but it shows its early adoption into an Eastern language. The word is applied at Ahmedabad to the water-towers, but this is modern; [and so is the general application of the word in N. India to a canal distributary].
"'Alija, disse o mestre rijamente, Alija tudo ao mar, não falte acordo Vão outros dar á bomba, não cessando; Á bomba que nos imos alagando.'" Camões, vi. 72.
By Burton:
"'Heave!' roared the Master with a mighty roar, 'Heave overboard your all, together's the word! Others go work the pumps, and with a will: The pumps! and sharp, look sharp, before she fill!'"
BUMMELO, s. A small fish, abounding on all the coasts of India and the Archipelago; Harpodon nehereus of Buch. Hamilton; the specific name being taken from the Bengali name nehare. The fish is a great delicacy when fresh caught and fried. When dried it becomes the famous Bombay Duck (see DUCKS, BOMBAY), which is now imported into England.
The origin of either name is obscure. Molesworth gives the word as Mahratti with the spelling bombīl, or bombīla (p. 595 a). Bummelo occurs in the Supp. (1727) to Bluteau's Dict. in the Portuguese form bambulim, as "the name of a very savoury fish in India." The same word bambulim is also explained to mean 'humas pregas na saya a moda,' 'certain plaits in the fashionable ruff,' but we know not if there is any connection between the two. The form Bombay Duck has an analogy to Digby Chicks which are sold in the London shops, also a kind of dried fish, pilchards we believe, and the name may have originated in imitation of this or some similar page 126bEnglish name. [The Digby Chick is said to be a small herring cured in a peculiar manner at Digby, in Lincolnshire: but the Americans derive them from Digby in Nova Scotia; see 8 ser. N. & Q. vii. 247.]
In an old chart of Chittagong River (by B. Plaisted, 1764, published by A. Dalrymple, 1785) we find a point called Bumbello Point.
1785.—"My friend General Campbell, Governor of Madras, tells me that they make Speldings in the East Indies, particularly at Bombay, where they call them Bumbaloes."—Note by Boswell in his Tour to the Hebrides, under August 18th, 1773.
1810.—"The bumbelo is like a large sand-eel; it is dried in the sun, and is usually eaten at breakfast with kedgeree."—Maria Graham, 25.
1813.—Forbes has bumbalo; Or. Mem., i. 53; [2nd ed., i. 36].
BUNCUS, BUNCO, s. An old word for cheroot. Apparently from the Malay bungkus, 'a wrapper, bundle, thing wrapped.'
1726.—"After a meal, and on other occasions it is one of their greatest delights, both men and women, old and young, to eat Pinang (areca), and to smoke tobacco, which the women do with a Bongkos, or dry leaf rolled up, and the men with a Gorregorri (a little can or flower pot) whereby they both manage to pass most of their time."—Valentijn, v. Chorom., 55. [Gorregorri is Malay guri-guri, 'a small earthenware pot, also used for holding provisions' (Klinkert).]
" (In the retinue of Grandees in Java):
"One with a coconut shell mounted in gold or silver to hold their tobacco or bongkooses (i.e. tobacco in rolled leaves)."—Valentijn, iv. 61.
page 127aBUND, s. Any artificial embankment, a dam, dyke, or causeway. H. band. The root is both Skt. (bandh) and P., but the common word, used as it is without aspirate, seems to have come from the latter. The word is common in Persia (e.g. see BENDAMEER). It is also naturalised in the Anglo-Chinese ports. It is there applied especially to the embanked quay along the shore of the settlements. In Hong Kong alone this is called (not bund, but) praia (Port. 'shore' [see PRAYA]), probably adopted from Macao.
1860.—"The natives have a tradition that the destruction of the bund was effected by a foreign enemy."—Tennent's Ceylon, ii. 504.
1875.—"... it is pleasant to see the Chinese ... being propelled along the bund in their hand carts."—Thomson's Malacca, &c., 408.
BUNDER, s. P. bandar, a landing-place or quay; a seaport; a harbour; (and sometimes also a custom-house). The old Ital. scala, mod. scalo, is the nearest equivalent in most of the senses that occurs to us. We have (c. 1565) the Mīr-bandar, or Port Master, in Sind (Elliot, i. 277) [cf. Shabunder]. The Portuguese often wrote the word bandel. Bunder is in S. India the popular native name of Masulipatam, or Machli-bandar.
c. 1346.—"So we landed at the bandar, which is a large collection of houses on the sea-shore."—Ibid. 228.
1552.—"Coga-atar sent word to Affonzo d'Alboquerque that on the coast of the main land opposite, at a port which is called Bandar Angon ... were arrived two ambassadors of the King of Shiraz."—Barros, II. ii. 4.
[1616.—"Besides the danger in intercepting our boats to and from the shore, &c., their firing from the Banda would be with much difficulty."—Foster, Letters, iv. 328.]
1673.—"We fortify our Houses, have Bunders or Docks for our Vessels, to which belong Yards for Seamen, Soldiers, and Stores."—Fryer, 115.
page 127b1809.—"On the new bunder or pier."—Maria Graham, 11.
BUNDER-BOAT, s. A boat in use on the Bombay and Madras coast for communicating with ships at anchor, and also much employed by officers of the civil departments (Salt, &c.) in going up and down the coast. It is rigged as Bp. Heber describes, with a cabin amidships.
BUNDOBUST, s. P.—H.—band-o-bast, lit. 'tying and binding.' Any system or mode of regulation; discipline; a revenue settlement.
c. 1843.—"There must be bahut achch'hā bandobast (i.e. very good order or discipline) in your country," said an aged Khānsamā (in Hindustani) to one of the present writers. "When I have gone to the Sandheads to meet a young gentleman from Bilāyat, if I gave him a cup of tea, 'tānki tānki,' said he. Three months afterwards this was all changed; bad language, violence, no more tānki."
BUNDOOK, s. H. bandūḳ, from Ar. bunduḳ. The common H. term for a musket or matchlock. The history of the word is very curious. Bunduḳ, pl. banādiḳ, was a name applied by the Arabs to filberts (as some allege) because they came from Venice (Banadiḳ, comp. German Venedig). The name was transferred to the nut-like pellets shot from cross-bows, and thence the cross-bows or arblasts were called bunduḳ, elliptically for kaus al-b., 'pellet-bow.' From cross-bows the name was transferred again to firearms, as in the parallel case of arquebus. [Al-Banduḳāni, 'the man of the pellet-bow,' was one of the names by which the Caliph Hārūn-al-Rashīd was known, and Al Zahir Baybars page 128aal-Banduḳdāri, the fourth Baharite Soldan (A.D. 1260–77) was so entitled because he had been slave to a Bandukdār, or Master of Artillery (Burton, Ar. Nights, xii. 38).]
BUNGALOW, s. H. and Mahr. banglā. The most usual class of house occupied by Europeans in the interior of India; being on one story, and covered by a pyramidal roof, which in the normal bungalow is of thatch, but may be of tiles without impairing its title to be called a bungalow. Most of the houses of officers in Indian cantonments are of this character. In reference to the style of the house, bungalow is sometimes employed in contradistinction to the (usually more pretentious) pucka house; by which latter term is implied a masonry house with a terraced roof. A bungalow may also be a small building of the type which we have described, but of temporary material, in a garden, on a terraced roof for sleeping in, &c., &c. The word has also been adopted by the French in the East, and by Europeans generally in Ceylon, China, Japan, and the coast of Africa.
Wilson writes the word bānglā, giving it as a Bengālī word, and as probably derived from Banga, Bengal. This is fundamentally the etymology mentioned by Bp. Heber in his Journal (see below), and that etymology is corroborated by our first quotation, from a native historian, as well as by that from F. Buchanan. It is to be remembered that in Hindustan proper the adjective 'of or belonging to Bengal' is constantly pronounced as bangălā or banglā. Thus one of the eras used in E. India is distinguished as the Banglā era. The probability is that, when Europeans began to build houses of this character in Behar and Upper India, these were called Banglā or 'Bengal-fashion' houses; that the name was adopted by the Europeans themselves and their followers, and so was brought back to Bengal itself, as well as carried to other parts of India. ["In Bengal, and notably in the districts near Calcutta, native houses to this day are divided into ath-chala, chau-chala, and Bangala, or page 128beight-roofed, four-roofed, and Bengali, or common huts. The first term does not imply that the house has eight coverings, but that the roof has four distinct sides with four more projections, so as to cover a verandah all round the house, which is square. The Bangala, or Bengali house, or bungalow has a sloping roof on two sides and two gable ends. Doubtless the term was taken up by the first settlers in Bengal from the native style of edifice, was materially improved, and was thence carried to other parts of India. It is not necessary to assume that the first bungalows were erected in Behar." (Saturday Rev., 17th April 1886, in a review of the first ed. of this book).]
c. 1680.—In the tracing of an old Dutch chart in the India Office, which may be assigned to about this date, as it has no indication of Calcutta, we find at Hoogly: "Ougli ... Hollantze Logie ... Bangelaer of Speelhuys," i.e. "Hoogly ... Dutch Factory ... Bungalow, or Pleasure-house."
1711.—"Mr. Herring, the Pilot's, Directions for bringing of Ships down the River of Hughley.
"From Gull Gat all along the Hughley Shore until below the New Chaney almost as far as the Dutch Bungelow lies a Sand...."—Thornton, The English Pilot, Pt. III. p. 54.
1711.—"Natty Bungelo or Nedds Bangalla River lies in this Reach (Tanna) on the Larboard side...."—Ibid. 56. The place in the chart is Nedds Bengalla, and seems to have been near the present Akra on the Hoogly.
1747.—"Nabob's Camp near the Hedge of the Bounds, building a Bangallaa, raising Mudd Walls round the Camp, making Gun Carriages, &c. ... (Pagodas) 55:10:73."—Acct. of Extraordinary Charges ... January, at Fort St. David, MS. Records in India Office.
1758.—"I was talking with my friends in Dr. Fullerton's bangla when news came of Ram Narain's being defeated."—Seir Mutaqherin, ii. 103.
1780.—"To be Sold or Let, A Commodious Bungalo and out Houses ... situated on the Road leading from the Hospital to the Burying Ground, and directly opposite to the Avenue in front of Sir Elijah Impey's House...."—The India Gazette, Dec. 23.
page 129a1781–83.—"Bungelows are buildings in India, generally raised on a base of brick, one, two, or three feet from the ground, and consist of only one story: the plan of them usually is a large room in the center for an eating and sitting room, and rooms at each corner for sleeping; the whole is covered with one general thatch, which comes low to each side; the spaces between the angle rooms are viranders or open porticoes ... sometimes the center viranders at each end are converted into rooms."—Hodges, Travels, 146.
1784.—"To be let at Chinsurah.... That large and commodious House.... The out-buildings are—a warehouse and two large bottle-connahs, 6 store-rooms, a cook-room, and a garden, with a bungalow near the house."—Cal. Gazette, in Seton-Karr, i. 40.
1787.—"At Barrackpore many of the Bungalows much damaged, though none entirely destroyed."—Ibid. p. 213.
1793.—"... the bungalo, or Summer-house...."—Dirom, 211.
" "For Sale, a Bungalo situated between the two Tombstones, in the Island of Coulaba."—Bombay Courier, Jan. 12.
1794.—"The candid critic will not however expect the parched plains of India, or bungaloes in the land-winds, will hardly tempt the Aonian maids wont to disport on the banks of Tiber and Thames...."—Hugh Boyd, 170.
1809.—"We came to a small bungalo or garden-house, at the point of the hill, from which there is, I think, the finest view I ever saw."—Maria Graham, 10.
c. 1810.—"The style of private edifices that is proper and peculiar to Bengal consists of a hut with a pent roof constructed of two sloping sides which meet in a ridge forming the segment of a circle.... This kind of hut, it is said, from being peculiar to Bengal, is called by the natives Banggolo, a name which has been somewhat altered by Europeans, and applied by them to all their buildings in the cottage style, although none of them have the proper shape, and many of them are excellent brick houses."—Buchanan's Dinagepore (in Eastern India, ii. 922).
1817.—"The Yorŭ-bangala is made like two thatched houses or bangalas, placed side by side.... These temples are dedicated to different gods, but are not now frequently seen in Bengal."—Ward's Hindoos, Bk. II. ch. i.
c. 1818.—"As soon as the sun is down we will go over to the Captain's bungalow."—Mrs Sherwood, Stories, &c., ed. 1873, p. 1. The original editions of this book contain an engraving of "The Captain's Bungalow at Cawnpore" (c. 1811–12), which shows that no material change has occurred in the character of such dwellings down to the present time.
1824.—"The house itself of Barrackpore ... barely accommodates Lord Amherst's own family; and his aides-de-camp and visitors sleep in bungalows built at some page 129blittle distance from it in the Park. Bungalow, a corruption of Bengalee, is the general name in this country for any structure in the cottage style, and only of one floor. Some of these are spacious and comfortable dwellings...."—Heber, ed. 1844, i. 33.
1872.—"L'emplacement du bungalou avait été choisi avec un soin tout particulier."—Rev. des Deux Mondes, tom. xcviii. 930.
[In Oudh the name was specially applied to Fyzabad.
BUNGALOW, DAWK-, s. A rest-house for the accommodation of travellers, formerly maintained (and still to a reduced extent) by the paternal care of the Government of India. The matériel of the accommodation was humble enough, but comprised the things essential for the weary traveller—shelter, a bed and table, a bathroom, and a servant furnishing food at a very moderate cost. On principal lines of thoroughfare these bungalows were at a distance of 10 to 15 miles apart, so that it was possible for a traveller to make his journey by marches without carrying a tent. On some less frequented roads they were 40 or 50 miles apart, adapted to a night's run in a palankin.
1866.—"The Dawk Bungalow; or, Is his Appointment Pucka?"—By G. O. Trevelyan, in Fraser's Magazine, vol. 73, p. 215.
BUNGY, s. H. bhangī. The name of a low caste, habitually employed as sweepers, and in the lowest menial offices, the man being a house sweeper and dog-boy, [his wife an Ayah]. Its members are found throughout Northern and Western India, and every European household has a servant of this class. The colloquial application of the term bungy to such page 130aservants is however peculiar to Bombay, [but the word is commonly used in the N.W.P. but always with a contemptuous significance]. In the Bengal Pry. he is generally called Mehtar (q.v.), and by politer natives Halālkhor (see HALALCORE), &c. In Madras totī (see TOTY) is the usual word; [in W. India Dheṛ or Dheḍ]. Wilson suggests that the caste name may be derived from bhang (see BANG), and this is possible enough, as the class is generally given to strong drink and intoxicating drugs.
BUNOW, s. and v. H. banāo, used in the sense of 'preparation, fabrication,' &c., but properly the imperative of banānā, 'to make, prepare, fabricate.' The Anglo-Indian word is applied to anything fictitious or factitious, 'a cram, a shave, a sham'; or, as a verb, to the manufacture of the like. The following lines have been found among old papers belonging to an officer who was at the Court of the Nawāb Sa'ādat 'Ali at Lucknow, at the beginning of the last century:—
"Young Grant and Ford the other day Would fain have had some Sport, But Hound nor Beagle none had they, Nor aught of Canine sort. A luckless Parry came most pat When Ford—'we've Dogs enow! Here Maitre—Kawn aur Doom ko Kaut Juld! Terrier bunnow!'
"So Saadut with the like design (I mean, to form a Pack) To * * * * * t gave a Feather fine And Red Coat to his Back; A Persian Sword to clog his side, And Boots Hussar sub-nyah, Then eyed his Handiwork with Pride, Crying Meejir myn bunnayah!!!"
"Appointed to be said or sung in all Mosques, Mutts, Tuckeahs, or Eedgahs within the Reserved Dominions."
1853.—"You will see within a week if page 130bthis is anything more than a banau."—Oakfield, ii. 58.
BURDWÁN, n.p. A town 67 m. N.W. of Calcutta—Bardwān, but in its original Skt. form Vardhamāna, 'thriving, prosperous,' a name which we find in Ptolemy (Bardamana), though in another part of India. Some closer approximation to the ancient form must have been current till the middle of 18th century, for Holwell, writing in 1765, speaks of "Burdwan, the principal town of Burdomaan" (Hist. Events, &c., 1. 112; see also 122, 125).
BURGHER. This word has three distinct applications.
a. s. This is only used in Ceylon. It is the Dutch word burger, 'citizen.' The Dutch admitted people of mixt descent to a kind of citizenship, and these people were distinguished by this name from pure natives. The word now indicates any persons who claim to be of partly European descent, and is used in the same sense as 'half-caste' and 'Eurasian' in India Proper. [In its higher sense it is still used by the Boers of the Transvaal.]
b. n.p. People of the Nilgherry Hills, properly Baḍagas, or Northerners.'—See under BADEGA.
c. s. A rafter, H. bargā.
BURKUNDAUZE, s. An armed retainer; an armed policeman, or other armed unmounted employé of a civil department; from Ar.-P. barḳandāz, 'lightning-darter,' a word of the same class as jān-bāz, &c. [Also see BUXERRY.]
1793.—"Capt. Welsh has succeeded in driving the Bengal Berkendosses out of Assam."—Cornwallis, ii. 207.
page 131a1794.—"Notice is hereby given that persons desirous of sending escorts of burkundazes or other armed men, with merchandise, are to apply for passports."—In Seton-Karr, ii. 139.
BURMA, BURMAH (with BURMESE, &c.) n.p. The name by which we designate the ancient kingdom and nation occupying the central basin of the Irawadi River. "British Burma" is constituted of the provinces conquered from that kingdom in the two wars of 1824–26 and 1852–53, viz. (in the first) Arakan, Martaban, Tenasserim, and (in the second) Pegu. [Upper Burma and the Shan States were annexed after the third war of 1885.]
The name is taken from Mran-mā, the national name of the Burmese people, which they themselves generally pronounce Bam-mā, unless when speaking formally and emphatically. Sir Arthur Phayre considers that this name was in all probability adopted by the Mongoloid tribes of the Upper Irawadi, on their conversion to Buddhism by missionaries from Gangetic India, and is identical with that (Brām-mā) by which the first and holy inhabitants of the world are styled in the (Pali) Buddhist Scriptures. Brahma-desa was the term applied to the country by a Singhalese monk returning thence to Ceylon, in conversation with one of the present writers. It is however the view of Bp. Bigandet and of Prof. Forchhammer, supported by considerable arguments, that Mran, Myan, or Myen was the original name of the Burmese people, and is traceable in the names given to them by their neighbours; e.g. by Chinese Mien (and in Marco Polo); by Kakhyens, Myen or Mren; by Shans, Mān; by Sgaw Karens, Payo; by Pgaw Karens, Payān; by Paloungs, Parān, &c. Prof. F. considers that Mran-mā (with this honorific suffix) does not date beyond the 14th century. [In J. R. A. Soc. (1894, p. 152 seqq.), Mr. St John suggests that the word Myamma is derived page 131bfrom myan, 'swift,' and ma, 'strong,' and was taken as a soubriquet by the people at some early date, perhaps in the time of Anawrahta, A.D. 1150.]
[" "Verma." See quotation under ARAKAN.
[1538.—"But the war lasted on and the Bramãs took all the kingdom."—Correa, iii. 851.]
1543.—"And folk coming to know of the secrecy with which the force was being despatched, a great desire took possession of all to know whither the Governor intended to send so large an armament, there being no Rumis to go after, and nothing being known of any other cause why ships should be despatched in secret at such a time. So some gentlemen spoke of it to the Governor, and much importuned him to tell them whither they were going, and the Governor, all the more bent on concealment of his intentions, told them that the expedition was going to Pegu to fight with the Bramas who had taken that Kingdom."—Ibid. iv. 298.
c. 1545.—"How the King of Bramâ undertook the conquest of this kingdom of Sião (Siam), and of what happened till his arrival at the City of Odiâ."—F. M. Pinto (orig.) cap. 185.
[1553.—"Bremá." See quotation under JANGOMAY.]
1606.—"Although one's whole life were wasted in describing the superstitions of these Gentiles—the Pegus and the Bramas—one could not have done with the half, therefore I only treat of some, in passing, as I am now about to do."—Couto, viii. cap. xii.
[1639.—"His (King of Pegu's) Guard consists of a great number of Souldiers, with them called Brahmans, is kept at the second Port."—Mandelslo, Travels, E. T. ii. 118.]
1680.—"Articles of Commerce to be proposed to the King of Barma and Pegu, in behalfe of the English Nation for the settling of a Trade in those countrys."—Ft. St. Geo. Cons., in Notes and Exts., iii. 7.
1727.—"The Dominions of Barma are at present very large, reaching from Moravi near Tanacerin, to the Province of Yunan in China."—A. Hamilton, ii. 41.
1759.—"The Bûraghmahs are much more numerous than the Peguese and more addicted to commerce; even in Pegu their numbers are 100 to 1."—Letter in Dalrymple, O. R., i. 99. The writer appears desirous to convey by his unusual spelling some accurate reproduction of the name as he had heard it. His testimony as to the page 132apredominance of Burmese in Pegu, at that date even, is remarkable.
[1763.—"Burmah." See quotation under MUNNEEPORE.
[1767.—"Buraghmagh." See quotation under SONAPARANTA.
[1782.—"Bahmans." See quotation under GAUTAMA.]
1793.—"Burmah borders on Pegu to the north, and occupies both banks of the river as far as the frontiers of China."—Rennell's Memoir, 297.
[1795.—"Birman." See quotation under SHAN.
BURRA-BEEBEE, s. H. baṛī bībī, 'Grande dame.' This is a kind of slang word applied in Anglo-Indian society to the lady who claims precedence at a party. [Nowadays Baṛī Mem is the term applied to the chief lady in a Station.]
[BURRA-DIN, s. H. baṛā-din. A 'great day,' the term applied by natives to a great festival of Europeans, particularly to Christmas Day.
BURRA-KHANA, s. H. baṛā khāna, 'big dinner'; a term of the same character as the two last, applied to a vast and solemn entertainment.
BURRA SAHIB. H. baṛā, 'great'; 'the great Ṣāḥib (or Master),' a term constantly occurring, whether in a family to distinguish the father or the elder brother, in a station to indicate the Collector, Commissioner, or whatever officer may be the recognised head of the society, or in a page 132bdepartment to designate the head of that department, local or remote.
BURRAMPOOTER, n.p. Properly (Skt.) Brahmaputra ('the son of Brahmā'), the great river Brahmputr of which Assam is the valley. Rising within 100 miles of the source of the Ganges, these rivers, after being separated by 17 degrees of longitude, join before entering the sea. There is no distinct recognition of this great river by the ancients, but the Diardanes or Oidanes, of Curtius and Strabo, described as a large river in the remoter parts of India, abounding in dolphins and crocodiles, probably represents this river under one of its Skt. names, Hlādini.
c. 1590.—"There is another very large river called Berhumputter, which runs from Khatai to Coach (see COOCH BEHAR) and from thence through Bazoohah to the sea."—Ayeen Akberry (Gladwin) ed. 1800, ii. 6; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 121].
1726.—"Out of the same mountains we see ... a great river flowing which ... divides into two branches, whereof the easterly one on account of its size is called the Great Barrempooter."—Valentijn, v. 154.
1753.—"Un peu au-dessous de Daka, le Gange est joint par une grosse rivière, qui sort de la frontière du Tibet. Le nom de Bramanpoutre qu'on lui trouve dans quelques cartes est une corruption de celui de Brahmaputren, qui dans le langage du pays signifie tirant son origine de Brahma."—D'Anville, Éclaircissemens, 62.
1767.—"Just before the Ganges falls into ye Bay of Bengall, it receives the Baramputrey or Assam River. The Assam River is larger than the Ganges ... it is a perfect Sea of fresh Water after the Junction of the two Rivers...."—MS. Letter of James Rennell, d. 10th March.
page 133aBURREL, s. H. bharal; Ovis nahura, Hodgson. The blue wild sheep of the Himālaya. [Blanford, Mamm. 499, with illustration.]
BURSAUTEE, s. H. barsātī, from barsāt, 'the Rains.'
a. The word properly is applied to a disease to which horses are liable in the rains, pustular eruptions breaking out on the head and fore parts of the body.
b. But the word is also applied to a waterproof cloak, or the like. (See BRANDY COORTEE.)
BUS, adv. P.-H. bas, 'enough.' Used commonly as a kind of interjection: 'Enough! Stop! Ohe jam satis! Basta, basta!' Few Hindustani words stick closer by the returned Anglo-Indian. The Italian expression, though of obscure etymology, can hardly have any connection with bas. But in use it always feels like a mere expansion of it!
BUSHIRE, n.p. The principal modern Persian seaport on the Persian Gulf; properly Abūshahr.
BUSTEE, s. An inhabited quarter, a village. H. bastī, from Skt. vas = 'dwell.' Many years ago a native in Upper India said to a European assistant in the Canal Department: "You Feringis talk much of your country and its power, but we know that the whole of you come from five villages" (pānch basti). The word is applied page 133bin Calcutta to the separate groups of huts in the humbler native quarters, the sanitary state of which has often been held up to reprobation.
BUTLER, s. In the Madras and Bombay Presidencies this is the title usually applied to the head-servant of any English or quasi-English household. He generally makes the daily market, has charge of domestic stores, and superintends the table. As his profession is one which affords a large scope for feathering a nest at the expense of a foreign master, it is often followed at Madras by men of comparatively good caste. (See CONSUMAH.)
1689.—"... the Butlers are enjoin'd to take an account of the Place each Night, before they depart home, that they (the Peons) might be examin'd before they stir, if ought be wanting."—Ovington, 393.
1782.—"Wanted a Person to act as Steward or Butler in a Gentleman's House, he must understand Hairdressing."—India Gazette, March 2.
1789.—"No person considers himself as comfortably accommodated without entertaining a Dubash at 4 pagodas per month, a Butler at 3, a Peon at 2, a Cook at 3, a Compradore at 2, and kitchen boy at 1 pagoda."—Munro's Narrative of Operations, p. 27.
1873.—"Glancing round, my eye fell on the pantry department ... and the butler trimming the reading lamps."—Camp Life in India, Fraser's Mag., June, 696.
BUTLER-ENGLISH. The broken English spoken by native servants in the Madras Presidency; which is not very much better than the Pigeon-English of China. It is a singular dialect; the present participle (e.g.) being used for the future indicative, and the preterite indicative being formed by 'done'; thus I telling = 'I will tell'; I done tell = 'I have told'; done come = 'actually arrived.' Peculiar meanings are also attached to page 134awords; thus family = 'wife.' The oddest characteristic about this jargon is (or was) that masters used it in speaking to their servants as well as servants to their masters.
BUXEE, s. A military paymaster; H. bakhshī. This is a word of complex and curious history.
In origin it is believed to be the Mongol or Turki corruption of the Skt. bhikshu, 'a beggar,' and thence a Buddhist or religious mendicant or member of the ascetic order, bound by his discipline to obtain his daily food by begging. Bakshi was the word commonly applied by the Tartars of the host of Chingiz and his successors, and after them by the Persian writers of the Mongol era, to the regular Buddhist clergy; and thus the word appears under various forms in the works of medieval European writers from whom examples are quoted below. Many of the class came to Persia and the west with Hulākū and with Bātū Khān; and as the writers in the Tartar camps were probably found chiefly among the bakshis, the word underwent exactly the same transfer of meaning as our clerk, and came to signify a literatus, scribe or secretary. Thus in the Latino-Perso-Turkish vocabulary, which belonged to Petrarch and is preserved at Venice, the word scriba is rendered in Comanian, i.e. the then Turkish of the Crimea, as Bacsi. The change of meaning did not stop here.
Abu'l-Faẓl in his account of Kashmīr (in the Āīn, [ed. Jarrett, iii. 212]) recalls the fact that bakhshī was the title given by the learned among Persian and Arabic writers to the Buddhist priests whom the Tibetans styled lāmās. But in the time of Baber, say circa 1500, among the Mongols the word had come to mean surgeon; a change analogous again, in some measure, to our colloquial use of doctor. The modern Mongols, according to Pallas, use the word in the sense of 'Teacher,' and apply it to the most venerable or learned priest of a community. Among page 134bthe Kirghiz Kazzāks, who profess Mahommedanism, it has come to bear the character which Marco Polo more or less associates with it, and means a mere conjurer or medicine-man; whilst in Western Turkestan it signifies a 'Bard' or 'Minstrel.' [Vambéry in his Sketches of Central Asia (p. 81) speaks of a Bakhshi as a troubadour.]
By a further transfer of meaning, of which all the steps are not clear, in another direction, under the Mohammedan Emperors of India the word bakhshi was applied to an officer high in military administration, whose office is sometimes rendered 'Master of the Horse' (of horse, it is to be remembered, the whole substance of the army consisted), but whose duties sometimes, if not habitually, embraced those of Paymaster-General, as well as, in a manner, of Commander-in-Chief, or Chief of the Staff. [Mr. Irvine, who gives a detailed account of the Bakhshi under the latter Moguls (J. R. A. Soc., July 1896, p. 539 seqq.), prefers to call him Adjutant-General.] More properly perhaps this was the position of the Mīr Bakhshī, who had other bakhshīs under him. Bakhshīs in military command continued in the armies of the Mahrattas, of Hyder Ali, and of other native powers. But both the Persian spelling and the modern connection of the title with pay indicate a probability that some confusion of association had arisen between the old Tartar title and the P. bakhsh, 'portion,' bakhshīdan, 'to give,' bakhshīsh, 'payment.' In the early days of the Council of Fort William we find the title Buxee applied to a European Civil officer, through whom payments were made (see Long and Seton-Karr, passim). This is obsolete, but the word is still in the Anglo-Indian Army the recognised designation of a Paymaster.
This is the best known existing use of the word. But under some Native Governments it is still the designation of a high officer of state. And according to the Calcutta Glossary it has been used in the N.W.P. for 'a collector of a house tax' (?) and the like; in Bengal for 'a superintendent of peons'; in Mysore for 'a treasurer,' &c. [In the N.W.P. the Bakhshī, popularly known to natives as 'Bakhshī Tikkas,' 'Tax Bakhshi,' is the person in charge page 135aof one of the minor towns which are not under a Municipal Board, but are managed by a Panch, or body of assessors, who raise the income needed for watch and ward and conservancy by means of a graduated house assessment.] See an interesting note on this word in Quatremère, H. des Mongols, 184 seqq.; also see Marco Polo, Bk. i. ch. 61, note.
c. 1300.—"Although there are many Bakhshis, Chinese, Indian and others, those of Tibet are most esteemed."—Rashid-uddín, quoted by D'Ohsson, ii. 370.
c. 1300.—"Et sciendum, quod Tartar quosdam homines super omnes de mundo honorant: boxitas, scilicet quosdam pontifices ydolorum."—Ricoldus de Montecrucis, in Peregrinatores, IV. p. 117.
c. 1308.—"Ταῦτα γὰρ Κουτζίμπαξις ἐπανήκων πρὸς βασιλέα διεβεβαίον· πρῶτος δὲ τῶν ἱερομάγων, τοὔνομα τοῦτο ἐξελληνίζεται."—Georg. Pachymeres de Andronico Palaeologo, Lib. vii. The last part of the name of this Kutzimpaxis, 'the first of the sacred magi,' appears to be Bakhshi; the whole perhaps to be Khoja-Bakhshi, or Kūchin-Bakhshi.
c. 1340.—"The Kings of this country sprung from Jinghiz Khan ... followed exactly the yassah (or laws) of that Prince and the dogmas received in his family, which consisted in revering the sun, and conforming in all things to the advice of the Bakshis."—Shihābuddīn, in Not. et Extr. xiii. 237.
1420.—"In this city of Kamcheu there is an idol temple 500 cubits square. In the middle is an idol lying at length, which measures 50 paces.... Behind this image ... figures of Bakshis as large as life...."—Shah Rukh's Mission to China, in Cathay, i: cciii.
1615.—"Then I moved him for his favor for an English Factory to be Resident in the Towne, which hee willingly granted, and gave present order to the Buxy, to draw a Firma both for their comming vp, and for their residence."—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 541; [Hak. Soc. i. 93.]
c. 1660.—"... obliged me to take a Salary from the Grand Mogol in the quality of a Phisitian, and a little after from Danechmend-Kan, the most knowing man of Asia, who had been Bakchis, or Great Master of the Horse."—Bernier, E.T. p. 2; [ed. Constable, p. 4].
1701.—"The friendship of the Buxie is not so much desired for the post he is now in, but that he is of a very good family, and has many relations near the King."—In Wheeler, i. 378.
1706–7.—"So the Emperor appointed a page 135bnobleman to act as the bakshí of Kám Bakhsh, and to him he intrusted the Prince, with instructions to take care of him. The bakshí was Sultan Hasan, otherwise called Mír Malang."—Dowson's Elliot, vii. 385.
1711.—"To his Excellency Zulfikar Khan Bahadur, Nurzerat Sing (Nasrat-Jang?) Backshee of the whole Empire."—Address of a Letter from President and Council of Fort St. George, in Wheeler, ii. 160.
1712.—"Chan Dhjehaan ... first Baksi general, or Muster-Master of the horsemen."—Valentijn, iv. (Suratte), 295.
1753.—"The Buxey acquaints the Board he has been using his endeavours to get sundry artificers for the Negrais."—In Long, 43.
1756.—Barth. Plaisted represents the bad treatment he had met with for "strictly adhering to his duty during the Buxy-ship of Messrs. Bellamy and Kempe"; and "the abuses in the post of Buxy."—Letter to the Hon. the Court of Directors, &c., p. 3.
1763.—"The buxey or general of the army, at the head of a select body, closed the procession."—Orme, i. 26 (reprint).
1766.—"The Buxey lays before the Board an account of charges incurred in the Buxey Connah ... for the relief of people saved from the Falmouth."—Ft. William, Cons., Long, 457.
1793.—"The bukshey allowed it would be prudent in the Sultan not to hazard the event."—Dirom, 50.
1804.—"A buckshee and a body of horse belonging to this same man were opposed to me in the action of the 5th; whom I daresay that I shall have the pleasure of meeting shortly at the Peshwah's durbar."—Wellington, iii. 80.
1811.—"There appear to have been different descriptions of Buktshies (in Tippoo's service). The Buktshies of Kushoons were a sort of commissaries and paymasters, and were subordinate to the sipahdâr, if not to the Resâladâr, or commandant of a battalion. The Meer Buktshy, however, took rank of the Sipahdâr. The Buktshies of the Ehsham and Jyshe were, I believe, the superior officers of these corps respectively."—Note to Tippoo's Letters, 165.
1823.—"In the Mahratta armies the prince is deemed the Sirdar or Commander; next to him is the Bukshee or Paymaster, who is vested with the principal charge and responsibility, and is considered accountable for all military expenses and disbursements."—Malcolm, Central India, i. 534.
1827.—"Doubt it not—the soldiers of the Beegum Mootee Mahul ... are less hers than mine. I am myself the Bukshee ... and her Sirdars are at my devotion."—Walter Scott, The Surgeon's Daughter, ch. xii.
1861.—"To the best of my memory he was accused of having done his best to urge the people of Dhar to rise against our Government, and several of the witnesses deposed to this effect; amongst them the Bukshi."—Memo. on Dhar, by Major McMullen.
BUXERRY, s. A matchlock man; apparently used in much the same sense as Burkundauze (q.v.) now obsolete. We have not found this term excepting in documents pertaining to the middle decades of 18th century in Bengal; [but see references supplied by Mr. Irvine below;] nor have we found any satisfactory etymology. Buxo is in Port. a gun-barrel (Germ. Buchse); which suggests some possible word buxeiro. There is however none such in Bluteau, who has, on the other hand, "Butgeros, an Indian term, artillery-men, &c.," and quotes from Hist. Orient. iii. 7: "Butgeri sunt hi qui quinque tormentis praeficiuntur." This does not throw much light. Bajjar, 'thunderbolt,' may have given vogue to a word in analogy to P. barḳandāz, 'lightning-darter,' but we find no such word. As an additional conjecture, however, we may suggest Baksāris, from the possible circumstance that such men were recruited in the country about Baksār (Buxar), i.e. the Shāhābād district, which up to 1857 was a great recruiting ground for sepoys. [There can be no doubt that this last suggestion gives the correct origin of the word. Buchanan Hamilton, Eastern India, i. 471, describes the large number of men who joined the native army from this part of the country.]
["Aḥshām—Bandūqchī-i-jangī—Baksariyah wa Bundelah Aḥshām, i.e. regular matchlock-men, Baksariyahs and Bundelahs."—Dastūr-ul-'amal, written about 1690–1; B. Museum MS., No. 1641, fol. 58b.]
1748.—"Ordered the Zemindars to send Buxerries to clear the boats and bring them up as Prisoners."—Ft. William Cons., April, in Long, p. 6.
" "We received a letter from ... Council at Cossimbazar ... advising of their having sent Ensign McKion with all the Military that were able to travel, 150 buxerries, 4 field pieces, and a large quantity of ammunition to Cutway."—Ibid. p. 1.
1749.—"Having frequent reports of several straggling parties of this banditti plundering about this place, we on the 2d November ordered the Zemindars to entertain one page 136bhundred buxeries and fifty pike-men over and above what were then in pay for the protection of the outskirts of your Honor's town."—Letter to Court, Jan. 13, Ibid. p. 21.
1755.—"Agreed, we despatch Lieutenant John Harding of a command of soldiers 25 Buxaries in order to clear these boats if stopped in their way to this place."—Ibid. 55.
" "In an account for this year we find among charges on behalf of William Wallis, Esq., Chief at Cossimbazar:
| | Rs. |
| "'4 Buxeries | 20 (year) | 240.'" |
| MS. Records in India Office. ||
1761.—"The 5th they made their last effort with all the Sepoys and Buxerries they could assemble."—In Long, 254.
" "The number of Buxerriés or matchlockmen was therefore augmented to 1500."—Orme (reprint), ii. 59.
" "In a few minutes they killed 6 buxerries."—Ibid. 65; see also 279.
1772.—"Buckserrias. Foot soldiers whose common arms are only sword and target."—Glossary in Grose's Voyage, 2nd ed. [This is copied, as Mr. Irvine shows, from the Glossary of 1757 prefixed to An Address to the Proprietors of E. I. Stock, in Holwell's Indian Tracts, 3rd ed., 1779.]
1788.—"Buxerries—Foot soldiers, whose common arms are swords and targets or spears."—Indian Vocabulary (Stockdale's).
BYDE, or BEDE HORSE, s. A note by Kirkpatrick to the passage below from Tippoo's Letters says Byde Horse are "the same as Pindârehs, Looties, and Kuzzâks" (see PINDARRY, LOOTY, COSSACK). In the Life of Hyder Ali by Hussain 'Ali Khān Kirmāni, tr. by Miles, we read that Hyder's Kuzzaks were under the command of "Ghazi Khan Bede." But whether this leader was so called from leading the "Bede" Horse, or gave his name to them, does not appear. Miles has the highly intelligent note: 'Bede is another name for (Kuzzak): Kirkpatrick supposed the word Bede meant infantry, which, I believe, it does not' (p. 36). The quotation from the Life of Tippoo seems to indicate that it was the name of a caste. And we find in Sherring's Indian Tribes and Castes, among those of Mysore, mention of the Bedar as a page 137atribe, probably of huntsmen, dark, tall, and warlike. Formerly many were employed as soldiers, and served in Hyder's wars (iii. 153; see also the same tribe in the S. Mahratta country, ii. 321). Assuming -ar to be a plural sign, we have here probably the "Bedes" who gave their name to these plundering horse. The Bedar are mentioned as one of the predatory classes of the peninsula, along with Marawars, Kallars, Ramūsis (see RAMOOSY), &c., in Sir Walter Elliot's paper (J. Ethnol. Soc., 1869, N.S. pp. 112–13). But more will be found regarding them in a paper by the late Gen. Briggs, the translator of Ferishta's Hist. (J. R. A. Soc. xiii.). Besides Bedar, Bednor (or Nagar) in Mysore seems to take its name from this tribe. [See Rice, Mysore, i. 255.]
1785.—"Byde Horse, out of employ, have committed great excesses and depredations in the Sircar's dominions."—Letters of Tippoo Sultan, 6.
[BYLEE, s. A small two-wheeled vehicle drawn by two oxen. H. bahal, bahlī, bailī, which has no connection, as is generally supposed, with bail, 'an ox'; but is derived from the Skt. vah, 'to carry.' The bylee is used only for passengers, and a larger and more imposing vehicle of the same class is the Rut. There is a good drawing of a Panjab bylee in Kipling's Beast and Man (p. 117); also see the note on the quotation from Forbes under HACKERY.
* ↑ This word takes a ludicrous form in Dampier: "All the Indians who spake Malayan ... lookt on those Meangians as a kind of Barbarians; and upon any occasion of dislike, would call them Bobby, that is Hogs."—i. 515.
* ↑ ["Mr Burke's method of pronouncing it."]
* ↑ At Lord Wellesley's table, Major Malcolm mentioned as a notable fact that he and three of his brothers had once met together in India. "Impossible, Malcolm, quite impossible!" said the Governor-General. Malcolm persisted. "No, no," said Lord Wellesley, "if four Malcolms had met, we should have heard the noise all over India!"
* ↑ See Chinese Recorder, 1876, vii. 324, and Kovalefski's Mongol Dict. No. 1058.
* ↑ Orient und Occident, i. 137.
* ↑ Waringin is the Javanese name of a sp. kindred to the banyan, Ficus benjamina, L.
* ↑ In a Glossary of Military Terms, appended to Fortification for Officers of the Army and Students of Military History, Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1851.
* ↑ Aurut-dar is āṛhat-dār, from H. āṛhat, 'agency'; phorea = H. phaṛiyā, 'a retailer.'
* ↑ The "Bahadur" could hardly have read Don Quixote! But what a curious parallel presents itself! When Sancho is bragging of his daughter to the "Squire of the Wood," and takes umbrage at the free epithet which the said Squire applies to her (= laundikā and more); the latter reminds him of the like term of apparent abuse (hardly reproduceable here) with which the mob were wont to greet a champion in the bull-ring after a deft spear-thrust, meaning only the highest fondness and applause!—Part ii. ch. 13.
* ↑ "The Greeks call it the Araxes, Khondamīr the Kur."
* 1 2 On benjuy de boninas ("of flowers"), see De Orta, ff. 28, 30, 31. And on benjuy de amendoada or mandolalo (mandolado? "of almond") id. 30v.
* ↑ Kamañan or Kamiñan in Malay and Javanese.
* ↑ Folium indicum of the druggist is, however, not betel, but the leaf of the wild cassia (see MALABATHRUM.)
* ↑ "Terra e ilha de que El-Rei nosso senhor me fez mercê, aforada em fatiota." Em fatiota is a corruption apparently of emphyteuta, i.e. properly the person to whom land was granted on a lease such as the Civil Law called emphyteusis. "The emphyteuta was a perpetual lessee who paid a perpetual rent to the owner."—English Cycl. s.v. Emphyteusis.
* ↑ Naobihār = Nava-Vihāra ('New Buddhist Monastery') is still the name of a district adjoining Balkh.
* ↑ This (Sonamukhi, 'Chrysostoma') has continued to be the name of the Viceroy's river yacht (probably) to this day. It was so in Lord Canning's time, then represented by a barge adapted to be towed by a steamer.
* ↑ I.e. Pariah dog.
* ↑ "Mehtar! cut his ears and tail, quick; fabricate a Terrier!"
* ↑ All new.
* ↑ "See, I have fabricated a Major!"
* ↑ The writer of these lines is believed to have been Captain Robert Skirving, of Croys, Galloway, a brother of Archibald Skirving, a Scotch artist of repute, and the son of Archibald Skirving, of East Lothian, the author of a once famous ballad on the battle of Prestonpans. Captain Skirving served in the Bengal army from about 1780 to 1806, and died about 1840.
* ↑ Forchhammer argues further that the original name was Ran or Yan, with m', mā, or pa as a pronominal accent.
* ↑ In a note with which we were favoured by the late Prof. Anton Schiefner, he expressed doubts whether the Bakshi of the Tibetans and Mongols was not of early introduction through the Uigurs from some other corrupted Sanskrit word, or even of præ-buddhistic derivation from an Iranian source. We do not find the word in Jaeschke's Tibetan Dictionary.