Bundobust/Bandobast.

Before we started on The Brothers Karamazov, my wife and I were reading Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet (see this post), and I had meant to write about one of the most remarkable Anglo-Indian words I learned from it, which occurs in the sentence “Then something went wrong with the camp bandobast” (p. 323 in my edition, p. 332 here). The context is no help with the meaning, so I went to my trusty Hobson-Jobson: BUNDOBUST, s. P.-H. — band-o-bast, lit. ‘tying and binding.’ Any system or mode of regulation; discipline; a revenue settlement. [1768. — “Mr. Rumbold advises us . . . he proposes making a tour through that province . . . and to settle the Bandobust for the ensuing year.” — Letter to the Court of Directors, in Verelst, View of Bengal, App. 77.] c. 1843. — “There must be bahut achch’hā bandobast (i.e. very good order or discipline) in your country,” said an aged Khānsamā (in Hindustani) to one of the present writers. “When I have gone to the Sandheads to meet a young gentleman from…