Chapter BHOOT to BIRD OF PARADISE of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

BHOOT to BIRD OF PARADISE

[BHOOT, s. H. &c., bhut, bhuta, Skt. bhuta, ‘formed, existent,’ the common term for the multitudinous ghosts and demons of various kinds by whom the Indian peasant is so constantly beset.]

[1623.—“All confessing that it was Buto, i.e. the Devil.”—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. ii. 341.]

[1826.—“The sepoys started up, and cried ‘B,hooh, b,hooh, arry arry.’ This cry of ‘a ghost’ reached the ears of the officer, who bid his men fire into the tree, and that would bring him down. If there.”—Pandurang Hari, edition 1873, i. 107.]

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.

1673.—“Seva Gi, derived from an Ancient Line of Rajahs, of the Cast of the Bounceloes, a Warlike and Active Offspring.”—Fryer, 171.

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.”—Khafi Khan, 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.

1782.—“…le Bonzolo, les Marates, et les Mogols.”—Sonnerat, i. 60.

BHYACHARRA, s. H. bhayachara. 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.]

BICHÀNA, s. Bedding of any kind. H. bichhana.

1689.—“The Heat of the Day is spent in Rest and Sleeping…sometimes upon Cotts, and sometimes upon Bechanahs. which are thick Quilts.”—Orington, 313.

BIDREE, BIRDY, s. H. Bidri; the name applied to a kind of ornamental metal-work, made in t he Deccan, and deriving its name from the city of Bidar (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 descrbed by B. Heyne in 1813.

BILABUNDY, s. H. bilabandi. 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-bandi, ‘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 behri-bandi, from behri, ‘a share,’ ‘a quota,’ is probably right.

[1858.—“This transfer of responsibility, from the landholder to his tenants, is called ‘Jumog Lagána,’ or transfer of jumma. The assembly of the tenants, for the purpose of such adjustment, is called zunjeer bundee, or linking together. The adjustment thus made is called the bilabundee.”—Sleeman, Journey through Oudh, i. 208.]

BILAYUT, BILLAIT, &c. n.p. Europe. The word is properly Ar. Wilayat, ‘a kingdom, a province,’ variously used with specific denotation, as the Afghans term their own country often by this name; and in India