BENAMEE, adj. P.—H. be-nāmī, 'anonymous'; a term specially applied to documents of transfer or other contract in which the name entered as that of one of the chief parties (e.g. of a purchaser) is not that of the person really interested. Such transactions are for various reasons very common in India, especially in Bengal, and are not by any means necessarily fradulent, though they have often been so. ["There probably is no country in the world except India, where it would be necessary to write a chapter 'On the practice of putting property into a false name.'"—(Mayne, Hindu Law, 373).] In the Indian Penal Code (Act XLV. of 1860), sections 421-423, "on fraudulent deeds and dispositions of Property," appear to be especially directed against the dishonest use of this benamee system.

It is alleged by C. P. Brown on the authority of a statement in the Friend of India (without specific reference) that the proper term is banāmī, adopted from such a phrase as banāmī chiṭṭhī, 'a transferable note of hand,' such notes commencing, 'ba-nām-i-fulāna,' 'to the name or address of' (Abraham Newlands). This is conceivable, and probably true, but we have not the evidence, and it is opposed to all the authorities: and in any case the present form and interpretation of the term be-nāmī has become established.

1854.—"It is very much the habit in India to make purchases in the name of others, and from whatever causes the practice may have arisen, it has existed for a series of years: and these transactions are known as 'Benamee transactions'; they are noticed at least as early as the year 1778, in Mr. Justice Hyde's Notes."—Ld. Justice Knight Bruce, in Moore's Reports of Cases on Appeal before the P. C., vol. vi. p. 72.

"The presumption of the Hindoo law, in a joint undivided family, is that the whole property of the family is joint estate ... where a purchase of real estate is made by a Hindoo in the name of one of his sons, the presumption of the Hindoo law is in favour of its being a benamee purchase, and the burthen of proof lies on the party in whose name it was purchased, to prove that he was solely entitled."—Note by the Editor of above Vol., p. 53.

1861.—"The decree Sale law is also one chief cause of that nuisance, the benamee system.... It is a peculiar contrivance for getting the benefits and credit of property, and avoiding its charges and liabilities. It consists in one man holding land, nominally for himself, but really in secret trust for another, and by ringing the changes between the two ... relieving the land from being attached for any liability personal to the proprietor."—W. Money, Java, ii. 261.

1862.—"Two ingredients are necessary to make up the offence in this section (§ 423 of Penal Code). First a fraudulent intention, and secondly a false statement as to the consideration. The mere fact that an assignment has been taken in the name of a person not really interested, will not be sufficient. Such ... known in Bengal as benamee transactions ... have nothing necessarily fraudulent."—J. D. Mayne's Comm. on the Penal Code, Madras, 1862, p. 257.

BENARES, n.p. The famous and holy city on the Ganges. H. Banāras from Skt. Vārānasī. The popular Pundit etymology is from the names of the streams Varaṇā (mod. Barnā) and Āsī, the former a river of some size on the north and east of the city, the latter a rivulet now embraced within its area; [or from the mythical founder, Rājā Bānār]. This origin is very questionable. The name, as that of a city, has been (according to Dr. F. Hall) familiar to Sanscrit literature since B.C. 120. The Buddhist legends would carry it much further back, the name being in them very familiar.

[c. 250 A.D.—"... and the Errenysis from the Mathai, an Indian tribe, unite with the Ganges."—Aelian, Indika, iv.]

c. 637.—"The Kingdom of P'o-lo-nis-se (Vârânaçî Bénarès) is 4000 li in compass. On the west the capital adjoins the Ganges...."—Hiouen Thsang, in Pèl. Boudd. ii. 354.

c. 1020.—"If you go from Bárí on the banks of the Ganges, in an easterly direction, you come to Ajodh, at the distance of 25 parasangs; thence to the great Benares (Bānāras) about 20."—Al-Birūnī, in Elliot, i. 56.