Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 104

86
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MAY, 1931
And he himself speaks of his own son, Prince Khurram (who afterwards became Emperor with the title of Shah Jahan) repeatedly as Baba Khurram.-Ibid., 180, 186, 247, 256, etc.
And Shah Jahan, in his turn, inentions his favourite son, Dårå Shikoh as 'Dark Shikoh Baba'in a letter written by him to Mahâbat Khân, which Khafi Khân has transcribed in his Muntakhabu'l-lubab.
But the matter does not end here. Ziau'd-dîn Barani [c. 1358) puts into the mouth of Malik Fakhru'd-dîn Kotwal a long sermon or preachment addressed to his nephew and sonin-law, Malik Nizâmu'd-din. In this the latter is addressed as 'Baba'04 (Tarikh-jFirüzsham, Bibl. Indica Text 138, 1. 7); and the same word is again used in the identical connection by this writer at p. 216, 1. 11, and p. 218, 1. 1.
Another writer of the same century—the fourteenth-also makes a great saint of the day, Shaikh Qutbu'd-din Munawwar, address Sultân Firûz Tughlaq as Bába (child).-Tarikh. i-Firüzshahi of Shams-i-Siraj, Bibl. Indica Text, p. 79, 1. 12. Elsewhere this author makes another highly venerated individual, Sayyad Jalalu'd-dîn of Uocha, use the same expression in a speech addressed to the people of Tatta, to assure them that the siege of their town would be soon raised and that peace was in sight.-Ibid., p. 241, 1. 10.
It would appear that Babd was commonly used in India long before the coming of the English, for the young as well as grown-up persons, as a term of endearment, that parents habitually spoke of or to their children as Baba, and that persons of saintly character and religious preceptors also used the same expression in speaking to the laity as their spiritual children. Briefly, it seems to me that these facts militate with some force against the sup. position advanced by Yule in regard to the influence of 'Baby.'
Bacanore.-The earliest reference to this place that is cited in Hobson-Jobson is from the Travels of Ibn Batuia (c. 1313), but this old port is mentioned also by Rashidu'd-din, whose Jamiu't-tawarikh was completed several years earlier :
[1310.] “Of the cities on the shore (of Malabar which stretches from Karoha to Kûlam, i.o., Quilon), the first is Sindabûr, then Faknûr, then the country of Manjarûr, then the country of Hili, then the country of Sadars& [recte, Fandarana), then Jangli, then Kalam." Elliot and Dowson, History of India, I, 68.
Here Sindabûr is Chintapur near Goa, Manjarûr is Mangalore, Hili is Mount D'ely, Sadarsa is Fandaraina or Pandarâni, Jangli is Chinkali or Cranganor, and Kulam is Quilon.
Badgeer.-Mr. Crooke draws attention to Linschoten's description of a similar arrangement at the same place (Hormuz), but there is an earlier reference still in Barbosa who writes :"...... [1516] and, because that country is very hot, all the houses are built in such wise as to make the wind blow from the highest to the lowest storeys, when they have need of it."-The Book of Duarte Barbosa, trans. Dames, I, 01.
Bahár.--This word ocours in the Kitabi-masalik wa-l-mamalik of the Arab writer, Ibn Khûrdadbih (d. 912 A.C.):
[c. 912.] "Multán is called the farj of the house of gold,' because Muhammad son of Qasim, lieutenant of Al Hajjaj found forty bahars of gold in one house of that city, which was henceforth called the House of Gold'... ... bahar is worth 333 mans, and each man two ritla." Elliot and Dowson, History of India, I, 14. Soe also text and translation in Journals Asiatique, 1865, p. 277.
The same statement is made by Idrisi [c. 1154], Nuzhat al-mushtaq, in Elliot and Dowson, ibid., I, 82-3.
Bandicoot. It is not Fryer only who "exaggerates worse than the Moor," Ibn Batų ta), or who compares them to pige. Another European traveller had done the same:
[1698.) "There are likewise great numbers of Rattes, and some as bigge as young Pigges, so that the Cattes dare not touch them. Sometimes they digge down the houses, for that they undermine the walles and foundations through and through whereby many