1679.—"On perusal of several letters relating to the procuring of the Great Mogul's Phyrmaund for trade, custome free, in the Bay of Bengall, the Chief in Council at Hugly is ordered to procure the same, for the English to be Customs free in [Bengal], [Orixa] and Bearra...."—Ft. St. Geo. Cons., 20th Feb. in Notes and Exts., Pt. ii. p. 7.
BEHUT, n.p. H. Behat. One of the names, and in fact the proper name, of the Punjab river which we now call Jelum (i.e. Jhīlam) from a town on its banks: the Hydaspes or Bidaspes of the ancients. Both Behat and the Greek name are corruptions, in different ways, of the Skt. name Vitastā. Sidi 'Alī (p. 200) calls it the river of Bahra. Bahra or Bhera was a district on the river, and the town and taḥsīl still remain, in Shahpur Dist. [It "is called by the natives of Kaśmīr, where it rises, the Bedasta, which is but a slightly-altered form of its Skt. name, the Vitastā, which means 'wide-spread.'"—McCrindle, Invasion of India, 93 seqq.]
BEIRAMEE, BYRAMEE, also BYRAMPAUT, s. P. bairam, bairamī. The name of a kind of cotton stuff which appears frequently during the flourishing period of the export of these from India; but the exact character of which we have been unable to ascertain. In earlier times, as appears from the first quotation, it was a very fine stuff. [From the quotation dated 1609 below, they appear to have resembled the fine linen known as "Holland" (for which see Draper's Dict. s.v.).]
c. 1343.—Ibn Batuta mentions, among presents sent by Sultan Mahommed Tughlak of Delhi to the great Kaan, "100 suits of raiment called bairamīyah, i.e. of a cotton stuff, which were of unequalled beauty, and were each worth 100 dīnārs [rupees]."—iv. 2.
[1498.—"20 pieces of white stuff, very fine, with gold embroidery which they call Beyramies."—Correa, Hak. Soc. 197.]
1510.—"Fifty ships are laden every year in this place (Bengala) with cotton and silk stuffs ... that is to say bairam."—Varthema, 212.
[1513.—"And captured two Chaul ships laden with beirames."—Albuquerque, Cartas, p. 166.]
1554.—"From this country come the muslins called Candaharians, and those of Daulatābād, Berūpātri, and Bairami."—Sidi 'Ali, in J.A.S.B., v. 460.
" "And for 6 beirames for 6 surplices, which are given annually ... which may be worth 7 pardaos."—S. Botelho, Tombo, 129.
[1609.—"A sort of cloth called Byramy resembling Holland cloths."—Danvers, Letters, i. 29.]