Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.788

c10.788

1872.—“. . . the word ‘Bahādur’ . . . was only used as an epithet. Ahmed Shah used it as a title and ordered his name to be read in the Friday prayer as ‘Mujahid ud dín Muhammad Abū naṣr Ahmad Shāh Bahādur. Hence also ‘Kampanī Bahādur,’ the name by which the E. I. Company is still known in India. The modern ‘Khān Bahādur’ is, in Bengal, by permission assumed by Muhammadan Deputy Magistrates, whilst Hindu Deputy Magistrates assume ‘Rāi Bahādur’; it stands, of course, for ‘Khān-i-Bahādur,’ ‘the courageous Khān.’ The compound, however, is a modern abnormal one; for ‘Khān’ was conferred by the Dihli Emperors, and so also ‘Bahādur’ and ‘Bahādur Khān,’ but not ‘Khān Bahādur.’”—Prof. Blochmann, in Ind. Antiquary, i. 261.