Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 153

August, 1929 1
NOTES ON HOBSOX-JOBSON
143
enormous bulk. ... in the form of steps (or terraces) like so many ledges ; and these terraces run all round the pond, reaching to a height of more than a man's stature. On the surface of the stones between two terraces they construct staircases rising like pinnacles." Alberúni's India, Tr. Sachau, II, 144.
Ibri Batata and Babur both speak of búin or wain. The Arab traveller Shamsu'd-din Dimishqi also uses the same word, though Dowson has not recognized the fact. “Each of them," he writes, “amassed a treasure amounting to seventy babins, and all these treasures are still at my disposal." "The word babin," Dowson adds," signifies a very large cistern, into which there is a descent by a ladder on cach of the four sides" (Elliot and Dowson, III, 585). Dowson seeks to connect the word with Hind. Babni, a snake's hole, but the word as written by the author is bain, the first ye' having been misread as a be. "Bowly” is a later form and a diminutive of the Gujarâtî wîv or Hindi bâv.
Bungalow..." On the 3rd of this month (Jumada I, A.4.982=A.C. 1574], the Emperor came to Patna. ... And one of the remarkable things is that in that kingdom there are some houses called chapparband fetching 30,000 or 40,000 rupees each, although they are only covered with wood." Badaoni, Tr. Lowe, II, 185.
And Abul Fazl in his description of the Süha of Bengal says: "Their houses are madle of bamboos, some of which are so constructed that the cost of a single ono will be five thousand rupees or more and will last a long time." Ain-i-Akbari, Tr. Jarrett, II, 122.
The same writer informs us in his chronicle of the 14th year fa.c. 1569] of Akbar veion that the Emperor "alighted in the centre of the citadel (of Agra) in the Bangáli-Mahal. which had been newly constructed," after returning from the conquest of Ranthambhor. Albarnáma, Tr. Beveridge, II, 497.
It would also appear from Pelsaert's description of Agra, which is copied by de Laet, that in the reign of Jahangîr the palace in which“ lived the foreign concubincs of the king we called the Bengaly Mahal.' De Imperio Magni Mogolis, Tr. Hoyland. p. 40.
And the word Bangalah Ally itself is used frequently in the History of Shah Jahan written by 'Abdul Hamid Lahore about A.c. 1648. In his description of the great fire by which tho palaces and kårkhånas of the Prince Shah Shujá-who was then şübadâr of Bengal
-were destroyed, he says that the conflagration began in the Fort of Akbarnagar, and “reached in a short time the bangalahå which wero in the Mahal Palace of the Prince."
در گرفت چنانچه در مختصر مهلتی به بنگاهائی که در محل پادشای
درون قلعه اکبر نگر آتش زاده بیدار بخت بود رسيد
Badshahnama, Bibl. Ind., Text, II, 177, last line.
And the word occurs thrice in the same writer's description of the Am-Khas" buildings which were crected in Agra fort, by the orders of Shah-Jahan in a.c. 1637.
و در جانب آن دو شاه نشین است و در وسط این منزل اقبال و شاه برج بنگله در من مبارک است در صدن این مبانی بنگله ایست مشرف به دریای جون قرينة بنگله مبارک
Ibid., vol. I, part II, 240, 1. 12, and 241, II. 7-8.
This word 'bangalah' also occurs in the Alamgirnima, Bibl. Ind., Text, 451, 468 and the Ma'arir-
illamgiri, Ibid., 468, which are both contomporary histories of Aurangzeb.
Those extracts from native historians' give no countenance to Yule's suggestion that " when Europeans began to build houses of this character in Behår 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." On the contrary, they show that the word was used for certain fine buildings (and not mere huts ') attached to the imperial residences in Bengal, Kashmir and Delhi long before "the Europeans began to build houses of this character " anywhere.
Caharres.--- [1619.) "If the rains prevent the despatch of the hides, etc., the liquor should be sent by Caharres on Masoores, expresse." Foster, English Factories in India (1618-21), p. 106.