Chapter BARGEER to BASSEIN of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

BARGEER to BASSEIN

BARGEER, s. H. from P. bargir. 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 silahdar (literally, ‘equipment-holder’), and one riding somebody else’s horse was a bargir (‘burden-taker’)”—W. Irvine, The Army of the Indian Moghuls, J.R.A.S. July 1896, p. 539.]

1844.—“If the man again has not the cash to purchase a horse, he rides one belonging to a native officer, or to some privileged person, and becomes what is called his bargeer….”—Calcutta Rev., vol ii. p. 57.

BARKING-DEER, s. The popular name of a small species of deer (Cervulus aureus, Jerdon) called in H. kakar, and in Nepal ratwa; 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).

[1873.—“I caught the cry of a little barking - deer.”—Cooper, Mishmee Hills, 177.]

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 dynasty of Guzerat, the Gaikwars. (See GUICOWAR).

1552.—In Barros, “Cidade de Barodar,” IV. vi. 8.

1555.—“In a few days we arrived at Baruj; some days after at Baloudra, and then took the road towards Champaiz (read Champanir ?).”—Sidi’Ali, 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].

1857.—“The town of Baroda, originally Barpatra (or a bar leaf, i.e.. leaf of the Ficus indica, in shape), was the first large city I had seen.”—Autob. of Lutfullah, 39.

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 Pansur or Fansur of the Middle Ages, which gave its name to the Fansuri camphor, famous among Oriental writers, and which by the perpetuation of a misreading is often styled Kaisuri 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.

1727.—“Baros is the next place that abounds in Gold, Camphire, and Benzoin, but admits of no foreign Commerce.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 113.

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).