B (continued 5)

c. 1344.—"The profit of the treasury, which they call bandar, consists in the right of buying a certain portion of all sorts of cargo at a fixed price, whether the goods be only worth that or more; and this is called the Law of the Bandar."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 120.

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.

1809.—"On the new bunder or pier."—Maria Graham, 11.

[1847, 1860.—See quotations under APOLLO BUNDER.]

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.

1825.—"We crossed over ... in a stout boat called here a bundur boat. I suppose from 'bundur' a harbour, with two masts, and two lateen sails...."—Heber, ii. 121, ed. 1844.

BUNDOBUST, s. P.—H.—band-o-bast, lit. 'tying and binding.' Any system or mode of regulation; discipline; a revenue settlement.

[1768.—"Mr. Rumbold advises us ... he proposes making a tour through that province ... and to settle the Bandobust for the ensuing year."—Letter to the Court of Directors, in Verelst, View of Bengal, App. 77.]

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."

1880.—"There is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your travelling M.P. This unhappy creature, whose mind is a perfect blank regarding Faujdari and Bandobast...."—Ali Baba, 181.

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 al-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).]

[1875.—"Bandūqis, or orderlies of the Maharaja, carrying long guns in a loose red cloth cover."—Drew, Jummoo and Kashmir, 74.]

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 eight-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).]

A.H. 1041 = A.D. 1633.—"Under the rule of the Bengalis (darahd-i-Bangālīyān) a party of Frank merchants, who are inhabitants of Sundíp, came trading to Sátgánw. One kos above that place they occupied some ground on the banks of the estuary. Under the pretence that a building was necessary for their transactions in buying and selling, they erected several houses in the Bengálí style."—Bādshāhnāma, in Elliot, vii. 31.

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.

1781-83.—"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 little 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.

1875.—"The little groups of officers dispersed to their respective bungalows to dress and breakfast."—The Dilemma, ch. i.

[In Oudh the name was specially applied to Fyzabad.

[1858.—"Fyzabad ... was founded by the first rulers of the reigning family, and called for some time Bungalow, from a bungalow which they built on the verge of the stream."—Sleeman, Journey through the Kingdom of Oudh, i. 137.]

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.

1853.—"Dâk-bungalows have been described by some Oriental travellers as the 'Inns of India.' Playful satirists!"—Oakfield, ii. 17.

1866.—"The Dawk Bungalow; or, Is his Appointment Pucka?"—By G. O. Trevelyan, in Fraser's Magazine, vol. 73, p. 215.

1878.—"I am inclined to think the value of life to a dak bungalow fowl must be very trifling."—In my Indian Garden, 11.

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 servants 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.

1826.—"The Kalpa or Skinner, and the Bunghee, or Sweeper, are yet one step below the Dher."—Tr. Lit. Soc. Bombay, iii. 362.

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:—

"Appointed to be said or sung in all Mosques, Mutts, Tuckeahs, or Eedgahs within the Reserved Dominions."^[50]

1853.—"You will see within a week if this is anything more than a banau."—Oakfield, ii. 58.

[1870.—"We shall be satisfied with choosing for illustration, out of many, one kind of benowed or prepared evidence."—Chevers, Med. Jurisprud., 86.]

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.]

1807.—"The greater part of them were admitted by the Dutch to all the privileges of citizens under the denomination of Burghers."—Cordiner, Desc. of Ceylon.

1877.—"About 60 years ago the Burghers of Ceylon occupied a position similar to that of the Eurasians of India at the present moment."—Calcutta Review, cxvii. 180-1.

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.]

1726.—"2000 men on foot, called Bircandes, and 2000 pioneers to make the road, called Bieldars (see BILDAR)."—Valentijn, iv. Suratte, 276.

1793.—"Capt. Welsh has succeeded in driving the Bengal Berkendosses out of Assam."—Cornwallis, ii. 207.

1794.—"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.

[1832.—"The whole line of march is guarded in each procession by burkhandhars (matchlock men), who fire singly, at intervals, on the way."—Mrs Meer Hassan Ali, i. 87.]

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.^[51] 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 from 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.]

1516.—"Having passed the Kingdom of Bengale, along the coast which turns to the South, there is another Kingdom of Gentiles, called Berma.... They frequently are at war with the King of Peigu. We have no further information respecting this country, because it has no shipping."—Barbosa, 181.

[ " "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 predominance 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.

[c. 1819.—"In fact in their own language, their name is not Burmese, which we have borrowed from the Portuguese, but Biamma."—Sangermano, 36.]

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.]

1807.—"At table I have hitherto been allowed but one dish, namely the Burro Bebee, or lady of the highest rank."—Lord Minto in India, 29.

1848.—"The ladies carry their burrah-bibiship into the steamers when they go to England.... My friend endeavoured in vain to persuade them that whatever their social importance in the 'City of Palaces,' they would be but small folk in London."—Chow Chow, by Viscountess Falkland, i. 92.

[BURRA-DIN, s. H. baṛā-din. A 'great day,' the term applied by natives to a great festival of Europeans, particularly to Christmas Day.

[1880.—"This being the Burra Din, or great day, the fact of an animal being shot was interpreted by the men as a favourable augury."—Ball, Jungle Life, 279.]

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.

[1880.—"To go out to a burra khana, or big dinner, which is succeeded in the same or some other house by a larger evening party."—Wilson, Abode of Snow, 51.]

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 department to designate the head of that department, local or remote.

[1889.—"At any rate a few of the great lords and ladies (Burra Sahib and Burra Mem Sahib) did speak to me without being driven to it."—Lady Dufferin, 34.]

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.

1552.—Barros does not mention the name before us, but the Brahmaputra seems to be the river of Caor, which traversing the kingdom so called (Gour) and that of Comotay, and that of Cirote (see SILHET), issues above Chatigão (see CHITTAGONG), in that notable arm of the Ganges which passes through the island of Sornagam.

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.

1793.—"... till the year 1765, the Burrampooter, as a capital river, was unknown in Europe. On tracing this river in 1765, I was no less surprised at finding it rather larger than the Ganges, than at its course previous to its entering Bengal.... I could no longer doubt that the Burrampooter and Sanpoo were one and the same river."—Rennell, Memoir, 3rd ed. 356.

BURREL, 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.

[1828.—"That very extraordinary disease, the bursattee."—Or. Sport. Mag., reprint, 1873, i. 125.

[1832.—"Horses are subject to an infectious disease, which generally makes its appearance in the rainy season, and therefore called burrhsaatie."—Mrs Meer Hassan Ali, ii. 27.]

b. But the word is also applied to a waterproof cloak, or the like. (See BRANDY COORTEE.)

1880.—"The scenery has now been arranged for the second part of the Simla season ... and the appropriate costume for both sexes is the decorous bursatti."—Pioneer Mail, July 8.

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!

1853.—"'And if you pass,' say my dear good-natured friends, 'you may get an appointment. Bus! (you see my Hindostanee knowledge already carries me the length of that emphatic monosyllable)....'"—Oakfield, 2nd ed. i. 42.

BUSHIRE, n.p. The principal modern Persian seaport on the Persian Gulf; properly Abūshahr.

1727.—"Bowchier is also a Maritim Town.... It stands on an Island, and has a pretty good Trade."—A. Hamilton, i. 90.

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 in Calcutta to the separate groups of huts in the humbler native quarters, the sanitary state of which has often been held up to reprobation.

[1889.—"There is a dreary bustee in the neighbourhood which is said to make the most of any cholera that may be going."—R. Kipling, City of Dreadful Night, 54.]

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.)

1616.—"Yosky the butler, being sick, asked lycense to goe to his howse to take phisick."—Cocks, i. 135.

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.

1879.—"... the moment when it occurred to him (i.e. the Nyoung-young Prince of Burma) that he ought really to assume the guise of a Madras butler, and be off to the Residency, was the happiest inspiration of his life."—Standard, July 11.

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 words; 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.^[52] 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 the 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 of 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.

1298.—"There is another marvel performed by those Bacsi, of whom I have been speaking as knowing so many enchantments...."—Marco Polo, Bk. I. ch. 61.

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 nobleman 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.

1874.—"Before the depositions were taken down, the gomasta of the planter drew aside the Bakshí, who is a police-officer next to the darogá."—Govinda Samanta, ii. 235.

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.]

[1690.—The Mogul army was divided into three classes—Suwārān, or mounted men; Topkhānah, artillery; Aḥshām, infantry and artificers.

["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 hundred 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:

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).

1850.—"Another point to which Clive turned his attention ... was the organization of an efficient native regular force.... Hitherto the native troops employed at Calcutta ... designated Buxarries were nothing more than Burkandāz, armed and equipped in the usual native manner."—Broome, Hist. of the Rise and Progress of the Bengal Army, i. 92.

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 tribe, 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.]

1758.—"... The Cavalry of the Rao ... received such a defeat from Hydur's Bedes or Kuzzaks that they fled and never looked behind them until they arrived at Goori Bundar."—Hist. of Hydur Naik, p. 120.

1785.—"Byde Horse, out of employ, have committed great excesses and depredations in the Sircar's dominions."—Letters of Tippoo Sultan, 6.

1802.—"The Kakur and Chapao horse.... (Although these are included in the Bede tribe, they carry off the palm even from them in the arts of robbery)...."—H. of Tipú, by Hussein 'Ali Khan Kirmāni, tr. by Miles, p. 76.

[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.

[1841.—"A native bylee will usually produce, in gold and silver of great purity, ten times the weight of precious metals to be obtained from a general officer's equipage."—Society in India, i. 162.

[1854.—"Most of the party ... were in a barouch, but the rich man himself [one of the Muttra Seths] still adheres to the primitive conveyance of a bylis, a thing like a footboard on two wheels, generally drawn by two oxen, but in which he drives a splendid pair of white horses, sitting cross-legged the while!"—Mrs Mackenzie, Life in the Mission, &c., ii. 205.]