Chapter BAEL to BAHAUDUR of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

those seas, at least as far as the Moluccas. In the Indian islands the bahar is generally reckoned as equal to 3 peculs (q.v.), or 400 avoirdupois. But there was a different bahar in use for different articles of merchandise; or, rather, each article had a special surplus allowance in weighing, which practically made a different bahar (see PICOTA). [Mr. Skeat says that it is now uniformly equal to 400 lbs. av. in the British dominions in the Malay Peninsula; but Klinkert gives it as the equivalent of 12 pikuls of Agar-agar; 6 of cinnamon; 3 of Tripang.]

1498.—“… and begged him to send to the King his Lord a bagar of cinnamon, and another of clove … for sample” (a mostra).—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 78.

1506.—“In Cananor el suo Re si è zentil, e qui nasce zz. (i.e. zenzeri or ‘ginger’); ma li zz. pochi e non cusi boni come quelli de Colcut, e suo peso si chiama baar, che sono K. (Cantari) 4 da Lisbona.”—Relazione di Leonardo Ca’ Masser, 26.

1510.—“If the merchandise about which they treat be spices, they deal by the bahar, which bahar weighs three of our cantari.”—Varthema, page 170.

1516.—“It (Malacca) has got such a quantity of gold, that the great merchants do not estimate their property, nor reckon otherwise than by bahars of gold, which are 4 quintals to each bahar.”—Barbosa, 193.

1552.—“300 bahares of pepper.”—Castanheda, ii. 301. Correa writes bares, as does also Couto.

1554.—“The baar of nuts (noz) contains 20 faraçolas, and 5 maunds more of picota; thus the baar, with its picota, contains 20½ faraçolas. …”—A. Nunes, 6.

c. 1569.—“After this I saw one that would have given a barre of Pepper, which is two Quintals and a halfe, for a little Measure of water, and he could not have it.”—C. Fredericke, in Hakl. ii. 358.

1598.—“Each Bhar of Sunda weigheth 330 catten of China.”—Linschoten, 34: [Hak. Soc. i. 113].

1606.—“… their came in his company a Portugall Souldier, which brought a Warrant from the Capitaine to the Gouernor of Manillia, to trade with vs, and likewise to giue John Rogers, for his pains a Bahar of Cloues.”—Middleton’s Voyage, D. 2. b.

1613.—“Porque os naturaes na quelle tempo possuyão muytos bâres de ouro.”—Godinho de Eredia, 4 v.

[1802.—“That at the proper season for gathering the pepper and for a Pallam weighing 13 rupees and 1½ Viessam 120 of which are equal to a Tulam or Maund weighing 1,732 rupees, calculating, at which standard for one barom or Candy the Sircar’s price is Rs. 120.”—Procl. at Malabar, in Logan, iii. 348. This makes the barom equal to 650 lbs.]

BAHAUDUR, s. H. Bahadur, ‘a hero, or champion.’ It is a title affixed commonly to the names of European officers in Indian documents, or when spoken of ceremoniously by natives (e.g. “Jones Sahib Bahadur”), in which use it may be compared with “the gallant officer” of Parliamentary courtesy, or the Illustrissimo Signore of the Italians. It was conferred as a title of honour by the Great Mogul and by other native princes [while in Persia it was often applied to slaves (Burton, Ar. Nights, iii. 114)]. Thus it was particularly affected to the end of his life by Hyder Ali, to whom it had been given by the Raja of Mysore (see quotation from John Lindsay below [and Wilks, Mysoor, Madras reprint, i. 280]). Bahadur and Sirdar Bahadur are also the official titles of members of the 2nd and 1st classes respectively of the Order of British India, established for native officers of the army in 1837. [The title of Rae Bahadur is also conferred upon Hindu civil officers.]

As conferred by the Court of Delhi the usual gradation of titles was (ascending):—1. Bahadur; 2. Bahadur Jang; 3. Bahadur ud-Daulah; 4. Bahadur ul-mulk. At Hyderabad they had also Bahadur ul-Umra (Kirk-patrick, in Tippoo’s Letters, 354). [Many such titles of Europeans will be found in North Indian N. & Q., i. 35, 143, 179; iv. 17.]

In Anglo-Indian colloquial parlance the word denotes a haughty or pompous personage, exercising his brief authority with a strong sense of his own importance; a don rather than a swaggerer. Thackeray, who derived from his Indian birth and connections a humorous felicity in the use of Anglo-Indian expressions, has not omitted this serviceable word. In that brilliant burlesque, the Memoirs of Major Gahagan, we have the Mahratta traitor Bobachee Bahauder. It is said also that Mr Canning’s malicious wit bestowed on Sir John Malcolm, who was not less great as a talker than as a soldier and statesman, the title, not included in the Great Mogul’s repertory, of Bahauder Jaw.¹

Bahadur is one of the terms which the hosts of Chingiz Khan brought with them from the Mongol Steppes. In the Mongol genealogies we find Yesugai Bahadur, the father of Chingiz, and many more. Subutai Bahadur, one of the great soldiers of the Mongol host, twice led it to the conquest of Southern Russia, twice to that of Northern China. In Sanang Setzen’s poetical annals of the Mongols, as rendered by I. J. Schmidt, the word is written Baghatur, whence in Russian Bogatir still survives as a memento probably of the Tartar domination, meaning ‘a hero or champion.’ It occurs often in the old Russian epic ballads in this sense; and is also applied to Samson of the Bible. It occurs in a Russian chronicler as