i. The Term

Banda (NPers.) and its precursors bandak/bandag (Mid. Pers.) and bandaka (OPers.) meant “henchman, (loyal) servant, vassal,” but not “slave” (for which see barda and bardadārī). Occurrences of the word baⁿdaka in the inscription of Darius I at Bīsotūn (DB) provide the earliest evidence.

The New Babylonian rendering of bandaka is ^lúqal-la-a “subordinate,” and the Elamite rendering is ^mú li-ba-ru-ri, i.e. lipar-ú-ri (ú meaning “I”) “my henchman” or “servant.” It should be noted that in the Akkadian version the word for “subjects” in section 7 (corresponding to DB l. 19) is not qallu (cf. Arabic qalīl “little,” base QLL) but ^lúir^pl = ardū, which is the Old Babylonian word wardum (root wrd “to be under”). In the Elamite version the concept is expressed by an abstract noun: li-ba-me^mú-ni-na hu-ud-da-iš “they rendered service to me” (cf. NPers. bandagī kardand).

Extensions of nouns designating persons and professions by means of the suffix ka occur frequently in the Aryan languages. Thus OPers. bandaka is from banda (cf. the Old Indian masculine noun bandha “bond, fetter”) from the Indo-European root bhendh, also the source of English “bind, band, bond.” OPers. bandaka thus has a meaning similar to that of English “bondsman.” OInd. bandhaka, however, came to mean “one who binds with fetters” or “captures,” having undergone a semantic evolution different from that of OPers. bandaka to NPers. banda.

C. Bartholomae went astray in interpreting the word literally as “one who wears fetters.” NPers. banda, plur. bandagān (Pahlavi bandakān) and its long-attested doublet bastagān (a passive participle from the same root) mean “dependent” or “relative” and are synonymous with ḵᵛīšān and ḵᵛīšāvandān. NPers. ḵᵛīšāvand, a compound of ḵᵛēš and ā-vand (from °βant), has much the same meaning of “own folk” as qawm-e ḵᵛīš, ahl-e ḵᵛīš, ḵīšān or familiares among the Romans and oikeîoi/oikétai among the Greeks. In addition to the meaning of relatives by blood or marriage, all these words carry a connotation of duty to serve (more explicitly conveyed in NPers. ḵānazād). In the modern language, the human relationship of “binding” and “being bound” is expressed in many uses of the verb bastan/band and its derivatives and in locations into which they enter.

In Middle Iranian, bandag (bndk/g) is found in Pahlavi and has the same meaning of “(loyal) servant” as in Achaemenid and modern times. The same is true of the Sogdian βantak. In the Turfan fragments bandag has become bannag through a process of assimilation also seen in the main dialect of Persis (Southwestern Mid. Pers. bng as against Northwestern, i.e. Parthian bndg). Although the Frahang ī pahlavīk (beginning of chapter 13) does not clearly vouch for ʿbd (aḇdīn?) as the ideogram for bandak (bavandak?), the Aramaic ʿaḇd(ā) with the phonetic suffix ak, meaning “servant,” is well attested in Sasanian inscriptions, where the abstract noun for “service” also is found in the Mid. Pers. form bandakīh (written OBDkyhy) and the Parth. form bandakīf (written OBDkpy). The Pahlavi Psalter has OBDk for bandak. In line 16 of the Apsʾy inscription at Bīšāpūr there is a mention of “menservants and maidservants,” bandak ut kanīsak (written OBDk W knysky, the latter word having an anomalous s instead of s¡ = č).

The word occurs as a patronymic in the list of dignitaries in Šāpūr I’s inscription on the Kaʿba-ye Zardošt at Naqš-e Rostam: Bandagān (Mid. Pers. Bndkʾn, Parth. Bndkn, Greek Bandigan) father of Zurvāndāt.

Compounds of banda(k) occur frequently as personal names but otherwise are uncommon. The word ḵarbanda, meaning (1) “ass keeper” or “ass driver” (taken into Syriac in the Sasanian period as ḥarəḇandəqā) and (2) “mule,” probably began as a compound ending in the stem of the verb bastan “to bind,” like dīvband “exorciser,” kārband “industrious, docile.”

Among the many examples of men’s names with the component banda(k) are Āturbandak “Servant of the Fire” (Justi, Namenbuch, pp. 51a, 488), Barāzbanda “Servant of the Wild Boar,” i.e., Bahrām (Justi, p. 349b), Jošnaspbanda (= Gošnāspbanda) “Servant of the Fire of the Stallion” (Justi, p. 355a), Hazārbanda “Servant of the Thousand” (scil., yazatas), or simply “He who has a thousand servants” (Justi, p. 128a), Māhbandak “Servant of the moon” (but see Justi, pp. 185b, 490), Mihrevandak (with v from β) “Servant of the god Mithra,” an Iranian general whom the Armenians defeated in a.d. 571 (Justi, p. 214b), Šāhbanda (Safavid period; Justi, p. 274a), Otrārbanda “toward (the place) Otrār” (a.d. 810-11; Justi, pp. 336f.).

Ḵodābanda (= Banda-ye Ḵōda) “Servant of God” has been a name of rulers and dignitaries from medieval to modern times. It accords with an age-old formula which goes back to Akkadian Warad-ilim and can be traced through Old Testament Hebrew ʿAḇdəʾel/ʿAḇdiʾēl and Syriac ʿAbdallāhā to Arabic ʿAbd-Allāh. It reappears in Christian calques such as Greek Theodoulos and German Gottschalk and finally in Turkish names with suffixed qolī.

Also to be placed in this category (notwithstanding the contrary opinion of W. B. Henning and H. S. Nyberg) are the personal names with the suffix vand (from βand/t) peculiar to chiefs of the Zagros region in the Middle Ages, such as ʿAbbāsvand, Aḥmadāvand, Jalāl(ā)vand, Jalīlvand, Ḥamavand (= Moḥammadvand), Ḥasanāvand, etc. Many of these have subsequently become names of tribes or places. In the toponymy of southwestern Iran, some of the names which evolved in this way (man’s name > tribe’s name > place name) have kept the b of band, e.g., Farrāšband and Esmāʿīlband west of Fīrūzābād in Fārs. The word formation is analogous to that of ḵᵛīšāvand “relative, dependent” (discussed above) and has no connection with the OPers. and Aryan suffix vant.

In the polite speech of modern times, banda “(your) servant” is used as a substitute for man “I” and therefore takes the first person of the verb (e.g., banda ānjā būdam “I was there”). Conversely sarkār or ḥażrat/janāb-e ʿālī “(your) excellency” replaces šomā “you” and takes the second person. The locution has ancient oriental precedents in Akkadian waradka (fem. waradkī) and Old Testament Hebrew ʿaḇdəḵā “your servant,” polite for “I,” and fem. ămāṯəḵā “your maid,” but these take the third person. Expressions such as kamtarīn banda “(your) most humble servant” are still used today in letter endings. In progressive circles, however, such styles and likewise the use of banda for “I” are now generally avoided.