[c. 1590.—"In the city of Sambal is a temple called Hari Mandal (the temple of Vishnu) belonging to a Brahman, from among whose descendants the tenth avatar will appear at this spot."—Āīn, tr. Jarrett, ii. 281.]
1672.—"Bey den Benjanen haben auch diese zehen Verwandlungen den Namen daas sie Altare heissen, und also hat Mats Altar als dieser erste, gewähret 2500 Jahr."—Baldaeus, 472.
1784.—"The ten Avatárs or descents of the deity, in his capacity of Preserver."—Sir W. Jones, in Asiat. Res. (reprint) i. 234.
1812.—"The Awatars of Vishnu, by which are meant his descents upon earth, are usually counted ten...."—Maria Graham, 49.
1821.—"The Irish Avatar."—Byron.
1845.—"In Vishnu-land what Avatar?"—Browning, Dramatic Romances, Works, ed. 1870, iv. pp. 209, 210.
1872.—"... all which cannot blind us to the fact that the Master is merely another avatar of Dr Holmes himself."—Sat. Review, Dec. 14, p. 768.
1873.—"He ... builds up a curious History of Spiritualism, according to which all matter is mediately or immediately the avatar of some Intelligence, not necessarily the highest."—Academy, May 15th, 172b.
1875.—"Balzac's avatars were a hundredfold as numerous as those of Vishnu."—Ibid., April 24th, p. 421.
AVERAGE, s. Skeat derives this in all its senses from L. Latin averia, used for cattle; for his deduction of meanings we must refer to his Dictionary. But it is worthy of consideration whether average, in its special marine use for a proportionate contribution towards losses of those whose goods are cast into the sea to save a ship, &c., is not directly connected with the Fr. avarie, which has quite that signification. And this last Dozy shows most plausibly to be from the Ar. 'awār, spoilt merchandise.' [This is rejected by the N.E.D., which concludes that the Ar. 'awār is "merely a mod. Arabic translation and adaptation of the Western term in its latest sense."] Note that many European words of trade are from the Arabic; and that avarie is in Dutch avarij, averij, or haverij.—(See Dozy, Oosterlingen.)
AYAH, s. A native lady's-maid or nurse-maid. The word has been adopted into most of the Indian vernaculars in the forms āya or āyā, but it is really Portuguese (f. aia, 'a nurse, or governess'; m. aio, 'the governor of a young noble'). [These again have been connected with L. Latin aidus, Fr. aide, 'a helper.']
1779.—"I was sitting in my own house in the compound, when the iya came down and told me that her mistress wanted a candle."—Kitmutgar's evidence, in the case of Grand v. Francis. Ext. in Echoes of Old Calcutta, 225.
1782.—(A Table of Wages):—
"Consumah.........10 (rupees a month).
* * * * * *
Eyah....................5."—India Gazette, Oct. 12.
1810.—"The female who attends a lady while she is dressing, etc., is called an Ayah."—Williamson, V. M. i. 337.
1826.—"The lieutenant's visits were now less frequent than usual; one day, however, he came ... and on leaving the house I observed him slip something, which I doubted not was money, into the hand of the Ayah, or serving woman, of Jane."—Pandurang Hari, 71; [ed. 1873, i. 99].
1842.—"Here (at Simla) there is a great preponderence of Mahometans. I am told that the guns produced absolute consternation, visible in their countenances. One Ayah threw herself upon the ground in an agony of despair.... I fired 42 guns for Ghuzni and Cabul; the 22nd (42nd?) gun—which announced that all was finished—was what overcame the Mahometans."—Lord Ellenborough, in Indian Administration 295. This stuff was written to the great Duke of Wellington!
1873.—"The white-robed ayah flits in and out of the tents, finding a home for our various possessions, and thither we soon retire."—Fraser's Mag., June, i. 99.
1879.—"He was exceedingly fond of his two children, and got for them servants; a man to cook their dinner, and an ayah to take care of them."—Miss Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, 7.
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.]
[1685.—"A Letter from the Pettepolle Bobba."—Pringle, Diary, Fort St. Geo. iv. 92.]
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].
[1880.—"While Sunny Baba is at large, and might at any time make a raid on Mamma, who is dozing over a novel on the spider chair near the mouth of the thermantidote, the Ayah and Bearer dare not leave their charge."—Aberigh-Mackay, Twenty-one Days, p. 94.]
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.
1516.—"They also find in this town (Limadura in Guzerat) much chalcedony, which they call babagore. They make beads with it, and other things which they wear about them."—Barbosa, 67.
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.
1849.—Among ten kinds of carnelians specified in H. Briggs's Cities of Gujaráshtra we find "Bawa Gori Akik, a veined kind."—p. 183.
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.'"]
[1610.—"We attempting to work up to the Babe."—Danvers, Letters, i. 52.]
[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.
[1769.—"Yet they made no estimation of the currents without the Babs"; (note), "This is the common sailors' phrase for the Straits of Babelmandel."—Bruce, Travels to discover the Source of the Nile, ed. 1790, Bk. i. cap. ii.]
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:
1877.—"Beyond that (the Tarāī) lay another district of about the same breadth, called in the native dialect the Bahadar. That in fact was a great filter-bed of sand and vegetation."—London Morning Paper of 26th May.
BABI-ROUSSA, s. Malay babi[30] ('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. A.D. 70.—"The wild bores of India have two bowing fangs or tuskes of a cubit length, growing out of their mouth, and as many out of their foreheads like calves hornes."—Pliny, viii. 52 (Holland's Tr. i. 231).
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.
1658.—"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.
[1869.—"The wild pig seems to be of a species peculiar to the island (Celebes); but a much more curious animal of this family is the Babirusa or Pig-deer, so named by the Malays from its long and slender legs, and curved tusks resembling horns. This extraordinary creature resembles a pig in general appearance, but it does not dig with its snout, as it feeds on fallen fruits.... Here again we have a resemblance to the Wart-hogs of Africa, whose upper canines grow outwards and curve up so as to form a transition from the usual mode of growth to that of the Babirusa. In other respects there seems no affinity between these animals, and the Babirusa stands completely isolated, having no resemblance to the pigs of any other part of the world."—Wallace, Malay Archip. (ed. 1890), p. 211, seqq.]
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.'
1781.—"I said.... From my youth to this day I am a servant to the English. I have never gone to any Rajahs or Bauboos nor will I go to them."—Depn. of Dooud Sing, Commandant. In Narr. of Insurn. at Banaras in 1781. Calc. 1782. Reprinted at Roorkee, 1853. App., p. 165.
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."[31]
Letters of Simkin the Second, 147.
1803.—"... 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.
[1880.—"English officers who have become de-Europeanised from long residence among undomesticated natives.... Such officials are what Lord Lytton calls White Baboos."—Aberigh-Mackay, Twenty-one Days, p. 104.]
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.
1666.—"L'eau de Vie de ce Païs ... qu'on y boit ordinairement, est faicte de jagre ou sucre noir, qu'on met dans l'eau avec de l'écorce de l'arbre Baboul, pour y donner quelque force, et ensuite on les distile ensemble."—Thevenot, v. 50.
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.
1849.—"Look at that great tract from Deesa to the Hāla mountains. It is all sand; sometimes it has a little ragged clothing of bābul or milk-bush."—Dry Leaves from Young Egypt, 1.
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. 1330.—"Thence (from Hannaur) the traveller came to Bāsarūr, a small city...."—Abulfeda, in Gildemeister, 184.
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, xx 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.
1814.—"Barcelore, now frequently called Cundapore."—Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 109, also see 113; [2nd ed. II. 464].
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).
BADEGA, 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.
1544.—"Ego ad Comorinum Promontorium contendo eòque naviculas deduco xx. cibariis onustas, ut miseris illis subveniam Neophytis, qui Bagadarum (read Badagarum) acerrimorum Christiani nominis hostium terrore perculsi, relictis vicis, in desertas insulas se abdiderunt."—S. F. Xav. Epistt. I. vi., ed. 1677.
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.
1875.—"Mr C. P. Brown informs me that the early French missionaries in the Guntur country wrote a vocabulary 'de la langue Talenga, dite vulgairement le Badega."—Bp. Caldwell, Dravidian Grammar, Intr. p. 33.
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 in Sind. [It is the Bādhanj of Arabia, and the Malkaf of Egypt (Burton, Ar. Nights, i. 237; Lane, Mod. Egypt, i. 23.]
1298.—"The heat is tremendous (at Hormus), and on that account the houses are built with ventilators (ventiers) to catch the wind. These ventilators are placed on the side from which the wind comes, and they bring the wind down into the house to cool it."—Marco Polo, ii. 450.
[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.
1881.—"A number of square turrets stick up all over the town; these are badgirs or ventilators, open sometimes to all the winds, sometimes only to one or two, and divided inside like the flues of a great chimney, either to catch the draught, or to carry it to the several rooms below."—Pioneer Mail, March 8th.
BADJOE, BAJOO, s. The Malay jacket (Mal. bājū) [of which many varieties are described by Dennys (Disc. Dict. p. 107)].
[c. 1610.—"The women (Portuguese) take their ease in their smocks or Bajus, which are more transparent and fine than the most delicate crape of those parts."—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 112.]
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.
1883.—"They wear above it a short-sleeved jacket, the baju, beautifully made, and often very tastefully decorated in fine needlework."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 139.
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.
1563.—"And as I knew that it was called beli in Baçaim, I enquired of those native physicians which was its proper name, cirifole or beli, and they told me that cirifole [śriphala] was the physician's name for it."—Garcia De O., ff. 221 v., 222.
[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.
1879.—"... On this plain you will see a large bél-tree, and on it one big bél-fruit."—Miss Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, 140.
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 the 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).]
1598.—"There is made great store of Cotton Linnen of diuers sort ... Boffetas."—Linschoten, p. 18. [Hak. Soc. i. 60.]
[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.
[1900.—"Akin to the pot thāns is a fabric known as Bafta (literally woven), produced in Benares; body pure silk, with butis in kalabatun or cloth; ... used for angarkhas, kots, and women's paijamas (Musulmans)."—Yusuf Ali, Mon. on Silk Fabrics, 97.]
It is curious to find this word now current on Lake Nyanza. The burial of King Mtesa's mother is spoken of:
1883.—"The chiefs half filled the nicely-padded coffin with bufta (bleached calico) ... after that the corpse and then the coffin was filled up with more bufta...."—In Ch. Missy. Intelligencer, N.S., viii. p. 543.
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 Indian 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.]
1498.—"... and begged him to send to the King his Lord a bagar of cinnamon, and another of clove ... for sample" (a mostra).—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 78.
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.
[1802.—"That at the proper season for gathering the pepper and for a Pallam weighing 13 rupees and 1½ Viessam 120 of which are equal to a Tulam or Maund weighing 1,732 rupees, calculating, at which standard for one barom or Candy the Sircar's price is Rs. 120."—Procl. at Malabar, in Logan, iii. 348. This makes the barom equal to 650 lbs.]
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 Great Mogul's repertory, of Bahauder Jaw.[32]
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;[33] 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').[34] 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.
1280-90.—In an eccentric Persian poem purposely stuffed with Mongol expressions, written by Purbahā Jāmī in praise of Arghūn Khān of Persia, of which Hammer has given a German translation, we have the following:—
"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.
1536.—(As a proper name.) "Itaq̃ ille potentissimus Rex Badur, Indiae universae terror, a quo nonulli regnũ Pori maximi quõdam regis teneri affirmant...."—Letter from John III. of Portugal to Pope Paul III.
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.
1754.—"The Kirgeese Tartars ... are divided into three Hordas, under the Government of a Khan. That part which borders on the Russian dominions was under the authority of Jean Beek, whose name on all occasions was honoured with the title of Bater."—Hanway, i. 239. The name Jean Beek is probably Janibek, a name which one finds among the hordes as far back as the early part of the 14th century (see Ibn Batuta, ii. 397).
1759.—"From Shah Alum Bahadre, son of Alum Guire, the Great Mogul, and successor of the Empire, to Colonel Sabut Jung Bahadre" (i.e. Clive).—Letter in Long, p. 163.
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:
1781.—"Sheikh Hussein upon the guard tells me that our army has beat the Behauder [i.e. Hyder Ali], and that peace was making. Another sepoy in the afternoon tells us that the Behauder had destroyed our army, and was besieging Madras."—Captivity of Hon. John Lindsay, in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 296.
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.
1879.—"This strictly prohibitive Proclamation is issued by the Provincial Administrative Board of Likim ... and Chang, Brevet-Provincial Judge, chief of the Foochow Likim Central Office, Taot'ai for special service, and Bat'uru with the title of 'Awe-inspiring Brave'"—Transl. of Proclamation against the cultivation of the Poppy in Foochow, July 1879.
BAHIRWUTTEEA, s. Guj. bāhirwatū. A species of outlawry in Guzerat; 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."]