Chapter BRANDYPAWNEE to BRIDGEMÁN of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

BRIDGEMÁN, s. Anglo-Sepoy H. brijman, denoting a military prisoner, of which word it is a quaint corruption.

, and so on. But the first form has become classical from its constant occurrence in the Indian Despatches of Sir A. Wellesley. The word is properly H. banjara, and Wilson derives it from Skt. banij, trade,’ kara, ‘doer.’ It is possible that the form brinjara may have been suggested by a supposed connection with the Pers. birinj, ‘rice.’ (It is alleged in the Dict. of Words used in the E. Indies, 2nd ed., 1805, to be derived from brinj, ‘rice,’ and ara, ‘bring’!) The Brinjarries of the De ccan are dealers in grain and salt, who move about, in numerous parties with cattle, carrying their g oods to different markets, and who in the days of the Deccan wars were the great resource of the commissariat, as they followed the armies with supplies for sale. They talk a kind of Mahratta or Hindi patois. Most classes of Banjaras in the west appear to have a tradition of having first come to the Deccan with Moghul camps as commissariat carriers. In a pamphlet called Some Account of the Bunjarrah Class, by N. R. Cumberlege, District Sup. of Police, Basein, Berar (Bombay, 1882; [North Indian N. & Q. iv. 163 seqq.]), the author attempts to distinguish between brinjarees as ‘grain-carriers,’ and bunjarrahs, from bunjar, ‘waste land’ (meaning banjar or banjar). But this seems fanc iful. In the N.-W. Provinces the name is also in use, and is applied to a numerous tribe spread along the skirt of the Himalaya from Hardwar to Gorakhpur, some of whom are settled, whilst the rest move about with their cattle, sometimes transporting goods for hire, and sometimes carrying grain, salt, lime, forest produce, or other merchandise for sale. [See Crooke, Tribes and Castes, i. 149 seqq.] Vanjaras, as they are called about Bombay, used to come down from Rajputana and Central India, with large droves of cattle, laden with grain, &c., taking back with them salt for the most part. These were not mere carriers, but the actual dealers, paying ready money, and they were orderly in conduct.

c. 1505.—“As scarcity was felt in his camp (Sultan Sikandar Lodi’s) in consequence of the non-arrival of the Banjáras, he despatched ’Azam Humáyun for the purpose of bringing in supplies.”—Ni’amat Ullah, in Elliot, v. 100 (written c. 1612).

1516.—“The Moors and Gentiles of the cities and towns throughout the country come to set up their shops and cloths at Cheul … they bring these in great caravans of domestic oxen, with packs, like donkeys, and on the top of these long white sacks placed crosswise, in which they bring their goods; and one man drives 30 or 40 beasts before him.”—Barbosa, 71.

1563.—“… This King of Dely took the Balagat from certain very powerful gentoos, whose tribe are those whom we now call Venezaras, and from others dwelling in the country, who are called Colles; and all these, Colles, and Venezaras, and Reisbutos, live by theft and robbery to this day.”—Garcia De O., f. 34.

c. 1632.—“The very first step which Mohabut Khar [Khan Khanan] took in the Deccan, was to present the Bunjaras of Hindostan with elephants, horses, and cloths; and he collected (by these conciliatory measures) so many of them that he had one chief Bunjara at Agrah, another in Goojrat, and another above the Ghats, and established the advanced price of 10 sers per rupee (in his camp) to enable him to buy it cheaper.”—MS. Life of Mohabut Khan (Khan Khanan), in Briggs’s paper quoted below, 183.

1638.—“Il y a dans le Royaume de Cuncam vn certain peuple qu’ils appellent Venesars, qui achettent le bled et le ris … pour le reuendre dans l’Indosthan … ou ils vont auec des Caffilas ou Caravances de cinq ou six, et quelque fois de neuf ou dix mille bestes de somme.…”—Mandelslo, 245.

1793.—“Whilst the army halted on the 23rd, accounts were received from Captain Read … that his convoy of brinjarries had been attacked by a body of horse.”—Dirom, 2.

1800.—“The Binjarries I look upon in the light of servants of the public, of whose grain I have a right to regulate the sale … always taking care that they have a proportionate advantage.”—A. Wellesley, in Life of Sir T. Munro, i. 264.

„ “The Brinjarries drop in by degrees.”—Wellington, i. 175.

1810.—“Immediately facing us a troop of Brinjarees had taken up their residence for the night. These people travel from one end of India to the other, carrying salt, grain, assafœtida, almost as necessary to an army as salt.”—Maria Graham, 61.

1813.—“We met there a number of Vanjarrahs, or merchants, with large droves of oxen, laden with valuable articles from the interior country to commute for salt on the sea-coast.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 206; [2nd ed. i. 118; also see ii. 276 seqq.].

„ “As the Deccan is devoid of a single navigable river, and has no roads that admit of wheel-carriages, the whole of this extensive intercourse is carried on by laden bullocks, the property of that class of people known as Bunjaras.”—Acc. of Origin, Hist., and Manners of … Bunjaras, by Capt. John Briggs, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. i. 61.

1825.—“We passed a number of Brinjarrees who were carrying salt.… They … had all bows … arrows sword and shield.… Even the children had, many of them, bows and arrows suited to their strength,