A History of the Mahrattas v1.c9.35

v1.c9.35

⁵ Ferishta. [This is the Persian word Bārgīr, ‘a load-taker,’ ‘a baggage-horse.’ Bārgīrs were frequently the relatives or dependents of a Mansabdār. who was rich enough to purchase extra horses and equipment. In practice, these mercenaries were often permitted to realize arrears of pay by looting the country, and the word bārgīr became in popular speech the designation of a Marāthā trooper. In Bengal the word appears in the form borgi in a nursery rhyme intended to frighten a restless child. (Yule’s Hobson-Jobson, ed. Crooke (1903), p. 69; Irvine’s Army of the Indian Moghuls, J.R.A.S., July 1896, p. 539; Census of India, 1901, vol. i, p. 94.)]