Chapter HINDEE to HINDOSTAN of H by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

HINDEE to HINDOSTAN

HINDEE, s. This is the Pers. adjective form from Hind, ‘India,’ and illustration of its use for a native of India will be found under HINDOO. By Europeans it is most comm only used for those dialects of Hindustani speech which are less modified by P. vocables than the usual Hindustani, and which are spoken by the rural population of the N.W. Provinces and its outskirts. The earliest literary work in Hindi is the great poem of Chand Bardai (c. 1200), which records the deeds of Prithiraja, the last Hindu sovereign of Delhi. [On this literature see Dr. G. A. Grierson, The Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindustan, in J.A.S.B. Part I., 1888.] The term Hinduwi appears to have been formerly used, in the Madras Presidency, for the Marathi language. (See a note in Sir A. Arbuthnot’s ed. of Munro’s Minutes, i. 133.) HIN DKI, HINDEKI, n.p. This modification of the name is applied to people of Indian descent, but converted to Islam, on the Peshawar frontier, and scattered over other parts of Afghanistan. They do the banking business, and hold a large part of the trade in their hands.

[1842.—“The inhabitants of Peshawer are of Indian origin, but speak Pushtoo as well as Hindkee.”—Elphinstone, Caubul, i. 74.]

HINDOO, n.p. P. Hindu. A person of Indian religion and race. This is a term derived from the use of the Mahommedan conquerers (see under INDIA). The word in this form is Persian; Hindi is that used in Arabic, e.g. c. 940.—“An inhabitant of Mansura in Sind, among the most illustrious and powerful of that city … had brought up a young Indian or Sindian slave (Hindi aw Sindi).”— Mas’udi, vi. 264.

In the following quotation from a writer in Persian observe the distinction made between Hindu and Hindi:

c. 1290.—“Whatever live Hindú fell into the King’s hands was pounded into bits under the feet of elephants. The Musalmáns, who were Hindís (country born), had their lives spared.”—Amir Khosru, in Elliot, iii. 539.

1563.—“… moreover if people of Arabia or Persia would ask of the men of this country whether they are Moors or Gentoos, they ask in these words: ‘Art thou Mosalman or Indu?’ ”—Garcia, f. 137b.

1653.—“Les Indous gardent soigneusement dans leurs Pagodes les Reliques de Ram, Schita (Sita), et les autres personnes illustres de l’antiquité.”—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, 191.

Hindu is often used on the Peshawar frontier as synonymous with bunya (see under BANYAN). A soldier (of the tribes) will say: ‘I am going to the Hindu,’ i.e. to the bunya of the company.

HINDOO KOOSH, n.p. Hindu-Kush; a term applied by our geographers to the whole of the Alpine range which separates the basins of the Kabul River and the Helmand from that of the Oxus. It is, as Rennell points out, properly that part of the range immediately north of Kabul, the Caucasus of the historians of Alexander, who crossed and recrossed it somewhere not far from the longitude of that city. The real origin of the name is not known; [the most plausible explanation is perhaps that it is a corruption of Indicus Caucasus]. It is, as far as we know, first used in literature by Ibn Batuta, and the explanation of the name which he gives, however doubtful, is still popular. The name has been by some later writers modified into Hindu Koh (mountain), but this is factitious, and throws no light on the origin of the name.

c. 1334.—“Another motive for our stoppage was the fear of snow; for there is midway on the road a mountain called Hindu-Kush, i.e. ‘the Hindu-Killer,’ because so many of the slaves, male and female, brought from India, die in the passage of this mountain, owing to the severe cold and quantity of snow.”—Ibn Batuta, iii. 84.

1504.—“The country of Kâbul is very strong, and of difficult access.… Between Balkh, Kundez, and Badakshân on the one side, and Kâbul on the other, is interposed the mountain of Hindû- kûsh, the passes over which are seven in number.”—Baber, p. 139.

1548.—“From this place marched, and entered the mountains called Hindu-Kush.” —Mem. of Emp. Humayun, 89.

„ “It was therefore determined to invade Badakshan … The Emperor, passing over the heel of the Hindu-Kush, encamped at Shergirán.”—Tab akat-i-Akbari, in Elliot, v. 223.

1753.—“Les montagnes qui donnent naissance à l’Indus, et à plusieurs des rivières qu’il recoit, se-nomment Hendou Kesh, et c’est l’histoire de Timur qui m’instruit de cette denomination. Elle est composée du nom d’Hendou ou Hind, qui désigne l’Inde … et de kush ou kesh … que je remarque être propre à diverses montagnes.” —D’Anville, p. 16.

1793.—“The term Hindoo - Kho, or Hindoo-Kush, is not applied to the ridge throughout its full extent; but seems confined to that part of it which forms the N.W. boundary of Cabul; and this is the INDIAN CAUCASUS of Alexander.”—Rennell,