Chapter BAEL to BAHAUDUR of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

early as 1240, but in application to Mongol leaders. In Polish it is found as Bohatyr, and in Hungarian as Bátor,—this last being in fact the popular Mongol pronunciation of Baghatur. In Turki also this elision of the guttural extends to the spelling, and the word becomes Batur, as we find it in the Dicts. of Vambéry and Pavet de Courteille. In Manchu also the word takes the form of Baturu, expressed in Chinese characters as Pa-tu-lu;² the Kirghiz has it as Batyr; the Altai-Tataric as Paattyr, and the other dialects even as Magathyr. But the singular history of the word is not yet entirely told. Benfey has suggested that the word originated in Skt. bhaga-dhara (‘happiness-possessing’).³ But the late lamented Prof. A. Schiefner, who favoured us with a note on the subject, was strongly of opinion that the word was rather a corruption “through dissimulation of the consonant,” of the Zend bagha-puthra ‘Son of God,’ and thus but another form of the famous term Faghfur, by which the old Persians rendered the Chinese Tien-tsz (‘Son of Heaven’), applying it to the Emperor of China.

12 80–90.—In an eccentric Persian poem purposely stuffed with Mongol ex pressions, written by Purbaha Jami in praise of Arghun Khan of Persia, of which Hammer has given a German translation, we have the following:—

“The Great Kaan names thee his Ulugh-Bitekchi [Great Secretary],
Seeing thou art bitekchi and Behadir to boot;
O Well-beloved, the yarligh [rescript] that thou dost issue is obeyed
By Turk and Mongol, by Persian, Greek, and Barbarian!”

Gesch. der Gold. Horde, 461.

c. 1400.—“I ordained that every Ameer who should reduce a Kingdom, or defeat an army, should be exalted by three things: by a title of honour, by the Tugh [Yak’s tail standard], and by the Nakkára [great kettle drum]; and should be dignified by the title of Bahaudur.”—Timour’s Institutes, 283; see also 291–293.

1404.—“E elles le dixeronq aquel era uno de los valietes e Bahadures q’en el linage del Señor auia.”—Clavijo, § lxxxix.

“E el homeq este haze e mas vino beue dizen que es Bahadur, que dizen elles por homem rezio.”—Do. § cxii.

1407.—“The Prince mounted, escorted by a troop of Bahadurs, who were always about his person.”—Abdurrazak’s Hist. in Not. et Ext. xiv. 126.

1536.—( As a proper name.) “Itaq ille potentissimus Rex Badur, Indiae universae terror, a quo n onulli regnu Pori maximi quõdam regis teneri affirmant. …”—Letter from John III. of Portugal to Pope Paul III.

Hardly any native name occurs more frequently in the Portuguese Hist. of India than this of Badur—viz. Bahadur Shah, the warlike and powerful king of Guzerat (1526–37), killed in a fray which closed an interview with the Viceroy, Nuno da Cunha, at Diu.

1754.—“The Kirgeese Tartars … are divided into three Hordas, under the Government of a Khan. That part which borders on the Russian dominions was under the authority of Jean Beek, whose name on all occasions was honoured with the title of Bater.”—Hanway, i. 239. The name Jean Beek is probably Janibek, a name which one finds among the hordes as far back as the early part of the 14th century (see Ibn Batuta, ii. 397).

1759.—“From Shah Alum Bahadre, son of Alum Guire, the Great Mogul, and successor of the Empire, to Colonel Sabut Jung Bahadre” (i.e. Clive).—Letter in Long, page 163.

We have said that the title Behauder (Bahadur) was one by which Hyder Ali of Mysore was commonly known in his day. Thus in the two next quotations:

1781.—“Sheikh Hussein upon the guard tells me that our army has beat the Behauder [i.e. Hyder Ali], and that peace was making. Another sepoy in the afternoon tells us that the Behauder had destroyed our army, and was besieging Madras.”—Captivity of Hon. John Lindsay, in Lives of the Lindsays, iii. 296.

1800.—“One lac of Behaudry pagodas.”—Wellington, i. 148.

1801.—“Thomas, who was much in liquor, now turned round to his sowars, and said—‘Could any one have stopped Sahib Bahaudoor at this gate but one month ago?’ ‘No, no,’ replied they; on which—”—Skinner, Mil. Mem. i. 236.

1872.—“…the word ‘Bahádur’…(at the Mogul’s Court)…was only used as an epithet. Ahmed Shah used it as a title and ordered his name to be read in the Friday prayer as ’Mujahid ud dín Muhammad Abú naçr Ahmad Sháh Bahádur. Hence also ‘Kampaní Bahadur,’ the name by which the E. I. Company is still known in India. The modern ‘Khan Bahádur’ is, in Bengal, by permission assumed by Muhammedan