Note 2070 — SECTION III. HINDŪSTĀN (continued 3)

I have not discovered the name of this old servant or the meaning of his seeming-sobriquet, Hindū. As a qūchīn he will have been a Mughūl or Turk. The circumstance of his service with a son of Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī (down to 905 AH.) makes it possible that he drew his name in his youth from the tract s.e. of Maḥmūd’s Ḥiṣār territory which has been known as Little Hind (Index s.n. Hind). This is however conjecture merely. Another suggestion is that as hindū can mean black, it may stand for the common qarā of the Turks, e.g. Qarā Barlās, Black Barlās.