properly Himālăya, 'the Abode of Snow'; also called Himavat, 'the Snowy'; Himagiri and Himaśaila; Himādri, Himakūta, &c., from various forms of which the ancients made Imaus, Emōdus, &c. Pliny had got somewhere the true meaning of the name: "... a montibus Hemodis, quorum promontorium Imaus vocatur nivosum significante ..." (vi. 17). We do not know how far back the use of the modern name is to be found. [The references in early Hindu literature are collected by Atkinson (Himalayan Gazetteer, ii. 273 seqq.).] We do not find it in Baber, who gives Siwālak as the Indian name of the mountains (see [SIWALIK]). The oldest occurrence we know of is in the Āīn, which gives in the Geographical Tables, under the Third Climate, Koh-i-Himālah (orig. ii. 36); [ed. Jarrett, iii. 69]). This is disguised in Gladwin's version by a wrong reading into Kerdehmaleh (ed. 1800, ii. 367).[[143]] This form (Himmaleh) is used by Major Rennell, but hardly as if it was yet a familiar term. In Elphinstone's Letters Himāleh or some other spelling of that form is always used (see below). When we get to Bishop Heber we find Himalaya, the established English form.
1822.—"What pleases me most is the contrast between your present enjoyment, and your former sickness and despondency. Depend upon it England will turn out as well as Hemaleh."—Elphinstone to Major Close, in Life, ii. 139; see also i. 336, where it is written Himalleh.
HINDEE, s. This is the Pers. adjective form from Hind, 'India,' and illustration of its use for a native of India will be found under [HINDOO]. By Europeans it is most commonly used for those dialects of Hindustani speech which are less modified by P. vocables than the usual Hindustani, and which are spoken by the rural population of the N.W. Provinces and its outskirts. The earliest literary work in Hindi is the great poem of Chand Bardai (c. 1200), which records the deeds of Prithirāja, the last Hindu sovereign of Delhi. [On this literature see Dr. G. A. Grierson, The Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindustān, in J.A.S.B. Part I., 1888.] The term Hinduwī appears to have been formerly used, in the Madras Presidency, for the Marāṭhī language. (See a note in Sir A. Arbuthnot's ed. of Munro's Minutes, i. 133.)
HINDKĪ, HINDEKĪ, n.p. This modification of the name is applied to people of Indian descent, but converted to Islam, on the Peshawar frontier, and scattered over other parts of Afghanistan. They do the banking business, and hold a large part of the trade in their hands.
[1842.—"The inhabitants of Peshawer are of Indian origin, but speak Pushtoo as well as Hindkee."—Elphinstone, Caubul, i. 74.]
HINDOO, n.p. P. Hindū. A person of Indian religion and race. This is a term derived from the use of the Mahommedan conquerors (see under [INDIA]). The word in this form is Persian; Hindī is that used in Arabic, e.g.
c. 940.—"An inhabitant of Mansūra in Sind, among the most illustrious and powerful of that city ... had brought up a young Indian or Sindian slave (Hindī aw Sindī)."—Maṣ'ūdī, vi. 264.
In the following quotation from a writer in Persian observe the distinction made between Hindū and Hindī:
c. 1290.—"Whatever live Hindú fell into the King's hands was pounded into bits under the feet of elephants. The Musalmáns, who were Hindís (country born), had their lives spared."—Amīr Khosrū, in Elliot, iii. 539.
1563.—"... moreover if people of Arabia or Persia would ask of the men of this country whether they are Moors or Gentoos, they ask in these words: 'Art thou Mosalman or Indu?'"—Garcia, f. 137b.