Chapter BUND to BUNGALOW of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

dukani, ‘the man of the pellet-bow,’ was one of the names by which the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid was known, and Al Zahir Baybars al-Bandukdari, the fourth Baharite Soldan (A.D. 1260-77) was so entitled because he had been slave to a Bandukdar, or Master of Artillery (Burton, Ar. Nights, xii. 38).]

[1875.—“Banduqis, or orderlies of the Maharaja, carrying long guns in a loose red cloth cover.”—Drew, Jummoo and Kashmir, 74.]

BUNGALOW, s. H. and Mahr. bangla. The most usual class of house occupied by Europeans in the interior of India; being on one story, and covered by a pyramidal roof, which in the normal bungalow is of thatch, but may be of tiles without impairing its title to be called a bungalow. Most of the houses of officers in Indian cantonments are of this character. In reference to the style of the house, bungalow is sometimes employed in contradistinction to the (usually more pretentious) pucka house; by which latter term is implied a masonry house with a terraced roof. A bungalow may also be a small building of the type which we have described, but of temporary material, in a garden, on a terraced roof for sleeping in, &c., &c. The word has also been adopted by the French in the East, and by Europeans generally in Ceylon, China, Japan, and the coast of Africa.

Wilson writes the word bangla, giving it as a Bengali word, and as probably derived from Banga, Bengal. This is fundamentally the etymology mentioned by Bp. Heber in his Journal (see below), and that etymology is corroborated by our first quotation, from a native historian, as well as by that from F. Buchanan. It is to be remembered that in Hindustan proper the adjective ‘of or belonging to Bengal’ is constantly pronounced as bangala or bangla. Thus one of the eras used in E. India is distinguished as the Bangla era. The probability is that, when Europeans began to build houses of this character in Behar and Upper India, these were called Bangla or ‘Bengal- fashion’ houses; that the name was adopted by the Europeans themselves and their followers, and so was brought back to Bengal itself, as well as carried to other parts of India. [“In Bengal, and notably in the districts near Calcutta, native houses to this day are divided into ath-chala, chau-chala, and Bangala, or eight-roofed, four-roofed, and Bengali, or common huts. The first term does not imply that the house has eight coverings, but that the roof has four distinct sides with four more projections, so as to cover a verandah all round the house, which is square. The Bangala, or Bengali house, or bungalow has a sloping roof on two sides and two gable ends. Doubtless the term was taken up by the first settlers in Bengal from the native style of edifice, was materially improved, and was thence carried to other parts of India. It is not necessary to assume that the first bungalows were erected in Behar.” (Saturday Rev., 17th April 1886, in a review of the first ed. of this book).]

A.H. 1041=A.D. 1633.—“Under the rule of the Bengalis (darand-i-Bangaliyan) a party of Frank merchants, who are inhabitants of Sundíp, came trading to Sátgánw. One kos above that place they occupied some ground on the banks of the estuary. Under the pretence that a building was necessary for their transactions in buying and selling, they erected several houses in the Bengálí style.” —Badshahnama, in Elliot, vii. 31.

c. 1680.—In the tracing of an old Dutch chart in the India Office, which may be assigned to about this date, as it has no indication of Calcutta, we find at Hoogly: “Ougli…Hollantze Logie … Bangelaer of Speelhuys,” i.e. “Hoogly … Dutch Factory … Bungalow, or Pleasure-house.”

1711.—“Mr. Herring, the Pilot’s, Directions for bringing of Ships down the River of Hughley.

“From Gull Gat all along the Hughley Shore until below the New Chaney almost as far as the Dutch Bungelow lies a Sand. …”—Thornton, The English Pilot, Pt. III. p. 54.

1711.—“Natty Bungelo or Nedds Bangalla River lies in this Reach (Tanna) on the Larboard side…”—Ibid. 56. The place in the chart is Nedds Bengalla, and seems to have been near the present Akra on the Hoogly.

1747.—“Nabob’s Camp near the Hedge of the Bounds, building a Bangallaa, raising Mudd Walls round the Camp, making Gun Carriages, &c. … (Pagodas) 55 : 10 : 73.” —Acct. of Extraordinary Charges … January, at Fort St. David, MS. Records in India Office.

1758.—“I was talking with my friends in Dr. Fullerton’s bangla when news came of Ram Narain’s being defeated.”—Seir Mutaqherin, ii. 103.

1780.—“To be Sold or Let, A Commodious Bungalo and out Houses … situated on the Road leading from the Hospital to the Burying Ground, and directly opposite to the Avenue in front of Sir Elijah Impey’s House.…”—The India Gazette, Dec. 23.

1781-83.—“Bungelows are buildings in India, generally raised on a base of brick, one, two, or three feet from the ground, and consist of only one story: the plan of them usually is a large room in the center for an eating and sitting room, and rooms at each corner for sleeping; the whole is covered with one general thatch, which comes low to each side; the spaces between the angle rooms are viranders or open porticoes … sometimes the center viranders at