The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c16.s12: Appendix L: Khūṭ
The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehlī c16.s12
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Appendix L: Khūṭ
c16.s12.2
THE etymology of the word *khūṭ* is doubtful. It seems highly improbable that the rare Arabic word *khūṭ* meaning ‘a fine young man’ should have been applied to Hindu chiefs without any precedent. W. H. Moreland dismisses the theory that *khūṭ* is the arabicized form of *khot* which was in use in Gujrat and Konkan for two reasons :—
c16.s12.3
(i) the presence of two Arabic letters *kh* and *ṭ* in the words;
c16.s12.4
(ii) *khot* has not been traced further back than the sixteenth century. (*Moreland*, pp. 225-226.)
c16.s12.5
To take (ii) first, the word *khot* is probably a corruption of the word *kūta* in *grāmakūṭa*, a village official mentioned in *Kautilya's Arthashāstra*.
c16.s12.6
The existence of the Arabic *kh* (which is also Persian) and *ṭ* should cause no difficulty : the term was arabicized probably under the Ghaznavids whose *wazīr*s used Arabic (*‘Utbi*, pp. 366, 367). The nearest transliteration of *khot* would be *khūṭ* which can be read either as *khoṭ* or *khūṭ*. This would not be a solitary instance of such transliteration, e.g., Bahāṭiyah for Bhaṭiyah, which is common in *‘Utbī* and has been copied in other chronicles. These examples can be multiplied.
Linked texts (1)
- Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit