Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an arrangement.

1781		Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 19-26 May n.p.: All of them think it both prudent, and Just / To make what the[y] call a Neez Bundobust.
1855		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Dec. 139/1: Glad—elated, Ram Bux Kishen, / To his work devoutly ran; / And with Lalla Sunker Misser, / A great ‘bundoobust’ began.
1861		Hills & Plains I 25: [F]finally saying how razee he should be if she would make a bundobust for a shadee with him.
1888		Kipling ‘His Brother’s Keeper’ in Civil & Military Gaz. 7 Apr. (1909) 114: ‘[T]he more he thought about it, the better sort of bundobust it seemed to be’.
1892		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 6 Aug. 1/4: [I intended] to make my bundobust about coolies, bullocks to tie up, etc, in the afternoon and beat next morning.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 39: Bundabust: (Hind.—Band-o-bast— a tying or binding). Preparations: preliminary arrangements.

2. discipline, regulations.

1886

Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson (1996) 127/2: bundobust [...] any system or mode of regulation; discipline; a revenue settlement.

3. a revenue settlement.

1886

see sense 1.