SECTION III. HINDŪSTĀN (continued 2)

The anblī (H. imlī, Tamarindus indica, the tamarind) is another. By this name (anblī) people call the khurmā-i-hind (Indian date-tree).1838 It has finely-cut leaves (leaflets), precisely like those of the (T.) būīā, except that they are not so finely-cut.1839 It is a very good-looking tree, giving dense shade. It grows wild in masses too.

The (Beng.) mahuwā (Bassia latifolia) is another.1840 People call it also (P.) gul-chikān (or chigān, distilling-flower). This also is a very large tree. Most of the wood in the houses of HindūstānīsFol. 283b. is from it. Spirit (‘araq) is distilled from its flowers,1841 not only so, but they are dried and eaten like raisins, and from them thus dried, spirit is also extracted. The dried flowers taste just like kishmish;1842 they have an ill-flavour. The flowers are not bad in their natural state1843; they are eatable. The mahuwā grows wild also. Its fruit is tasteless, has rather a large seed with a thin husk, and from this seed, again,1844 oil is extracted.

The mimusops (Sans. khirnī, Mimusops kauki) is another. Its tree, though not very large, is not small. The fruit is yellow and thinner than the red jujube (T. chīkdā, Elæagnus angustifolia). It has just the grape’s flavour, but a rather bad after-taste; it is not bad, however, and is eatable. The husk of its stoneæ is thin.

The (Sans.) jāman (Eugenia jambolana)1845 is another. Its leaf, except for being thicker and greener, is quite like the willow’s (T. tāl). The tree does not want for beauty. Its fruit is like a black grape, is sourish, and not very good.

The (H.) kamrak (Beng. kamrunga, Averrhoa carambola) is another. Its fruit is five-sided, about as large as the ‘ain-ālū1846 and some 3 inches long. It ripens to yellow; gathered unripe, it is very bitter; gathered ripe, its bitterness has become sub-acid, not bad, not wanting in pleasantness.1847

The jack-fruit (H. kadhil, B. kanthal, Artocarpus integrifolia) is another.1848 This is a fruit of singular form and flavour; it looks Fol. 284.like a sheep’s stomach stuffed and made into a haggis (gīpa);1849 and it is sickeningly-sweet. Inside it are filbert-like stones1850 which, on the whole, resemble dates, but are round, not long, and have softer substance; these are eaten. The jack-fruit is very adhesive; for this reason people are said to oil mouth and hands before eating of it. It is heard of also as growing, not only on the branches of its tree, but on trunk and root too.1851 One would say that the tree was all hung round with haggises.1852

The monkey-jack (H. badhal, B. burhul, Artocarpus lacoocha) is another. The fruit may be of the size of a quince (var. apple). Its smell is not bad.1853 Unripe it is a singularly tasteless and empty1854 thing; when ripe, it is not so bad. It ripens soft, can be pulled to pieces and eaten anywhere, tastes very much like a rotten quince, and has an excellent little austere flavour.

The lote-fruit (Sans. ber, Zizyphus jujuba) is another. Its Persian name is understood to be kanār.1855 It is of several kinds: of one the fruit is larger than the plum (ālūcha)1856; another is shaped like the Ḥusainī grape. Most of them are not very good; we saw one in Bāndīr (Gūālīār) that was really good. The lote-tree sheds its leaves under the Signs S̤aur and Jauzā (Bull and Twins), burgeons under Sarat̤ān and Asad (Crab and Lion) which are the true rainy-season,—then becoming fresh and green, and it ripens its fruit under Dalū and Ḥaut (Bucket i.e. Aquarius, and Fish).

The (Sans.) karaūndā (Carissa carandas, the corinda) is another. It grows in bushes after the fashion of the (T.) chīka of our country.1857 but the chīka grows on mountains, the karaūndā on theFol. 284b. plains. In flavour it is like the rhubarb itself,1858 but is sweeter and less juicy.

The (Sans.) pānīyālā (Flacourtia cataphracta)1859 is another. It is larger than the plum (ālūcha) and like the red-apple unripe.1860 It is a little austere and is good. The tree is taller than the pomegranate’s; its leaf is like that of the almond-tree but smaller.

The (H.) gūlar (Ficus glomerata, the clustered fig)1861 is another. The fruit grows out of the tree-trunk, resembles the fig (P. anjīr), but is singularly tasteless.

The (Sans.) āmlā (Phyllanthus emblica, the myrobalan-tree) is another. This also is a five-sided fruit.1862 It looks like the unblown cotton-pod. It is an astringent and ill-flavoured thing, but confiture made of it is not bad. It is a wholesome fruit. Its tree is of excellent form and has very minute leaves.

The (H.) chirūnjī (Buchanania latifolia)1863 is another. This tree had been understood to grow in the hills, but I knew later about it, because there were three or four clumps of it in our gardens. It is much like the mahuwā. Its kernel is not bad, a thing between the walnut and the almond, not bad! rather smaller than the pistachio and round; people put it in custards (P. pālūda) and sweetmeats (Ar. ḥalwa).

The date-palm (P. khurmā, Phœnix dactylifera) is another. This is not peculiar to Hindūstān, but is here described because it is not in those countries (Tramontana). It grows in Lamghān also.1864 Its branches (i.e. leaves) grow from just one place at its top; its leaves (i.e. leaflets) grow on both sides of the branches (midribs) from neck (būīn) to tip; its trunk is rough and ill-coloured; Fol. 285.its fruit is like a bunch of grapes, but much larger. People say that the date-palm amongst vegetables resembles an animal in two respects: one is that, as, if an animal’s head be cut off, its life is taken, so it is with the date-palm, if its head is cut off, it dries off; the other is that, as the offspring of animals is not produced without the male, so too with the date-palm, it gives no good fruit unless a branch of the male-tree be brought into touch with the female-tree. The truth of this last matter is not known (to me). The above-mentioned head of the date-palm is called its cheese. The tree so grows that where its leaves come out is cheese-white, the leaves becoming green as they lengthen. This white part, the so-called cheese, is tolerable eating, not bad, much like the walnut. People make a wound in the cheese, and into this wound insert a leaf(let), in such a way that all liquid flowing from the wound runs down it.1865 The tip of the leaflet is set over the mouth of a pot suspended to the tree in such a way that it collects whatever liquor is yielded by the wound. This liquor is rather pleasant if drunk at once; if drunk after two or three days, people say it is quite exhilarating (kaifīyat). Once when I had gone to visit Bārī,1866 and made anFol. 285b. excursion to the villages on the bank of the Chaṃbal-river, we met in with people collecting this date-liquor in the valley-bottom. A good deal was drunk; no hilarity was felt; much must be drunk, seemingly, to produce a little cheer.

The coco-nut palm (P. nārgīl, Cocos nucifera) is another. An ‘Arab gives it Arabic form1867 and says nārjīl; Hindūstān people say nālīr, seemingly by popular error.1868 Its fruit is the Hindī-nut from which black spoons (qarā qāshūq) are made and the larger ones of which serve for guitar-bodies. The coco-palm has general resemblance to the date-palm, but has more, and more glistening leaves. Like the walnut, the coco-nut has a green outer husk; but its husk is of fibre on fibre. All ropes for ships and boats and also cord for sewing boat-seams are heard of as made from these husks. The nut, when stripped of its husk, near one end shews a triangle of hollows, two of which are solid, the third a nothing (būsh), easily pierced. Before the kernel forms, there is fluid inside; people pierce the soft hollow and drink this; it tastes like date-palm cheese in solution, and is not bad.

The (Sans.) tāṛ (Borassus flabelliformis, the Palmyra-palm) is another. Its branches (i.e. leaves) also are quite at its top. Just asFol. 286. with the date-palm, people hang a pot on it, take its juice and drink it. They call this liquor tāṛī;1869 it is said to be more exhilarating than date liquor. For about a yard along its branches (i.e. leaf-stems)1870 there are no leaves; above this, at the tip of the branch (stem), 30 or 40 open out like the spread palm of the hand, all from one place. These leaves approach a yard in length. People often write Hindī characters on them after the fashion of account rolls (daftar yūsūnlūq).

The orange (Ar. nāranj, Citrus aurantium) and orange-like fruits are others of Hindūstān.1871 Oranges grow well in the Lamghānāt, Bajaur and Sawād. The Lamghānāt one is smallish, has a navel,1872 is very agreeable, fragile and juicy. It is not at all like the orange of Khurāsān and those parts, being so fragile that many spoil before reaching Kābul from the Lamghānāt which may be 13-14 yīghāch (65-70 miles), while the Astarābād orange, by reason of its thick skin and scant juice, carries with Fol. 286b.less damage from there to Samarkand, some 270-280 yīghāch.1873 The Bajaur orange is about as large as a quince, very juicy and more acid than other oranges. Khwāja Kalān once said to me, “We counted the oranges gathered from a single tree of this sort in Bajaur and it mounted up to 7,000.” It had been always in my mind that the word nāranj was an Arabic form;1874 it would seem to be really so, since every-one in Bajaur and Sawād says (P.) nārang.1875

The lime (B. līmū, C. acida) is another. It is very plentiful, about the size of a hen’s egg, and of the same shape. If a person poisoned drink the water in which its fibres have been boiled, danger is averted.1876

The citron (P. turunj,1877 C. medica) is another of the fruits resembling the orange. Bajaurīs and Sawādīs call it bālang and hence give the name bālang-marabbā to its marmalade (marabbā) confiture. In Hindūstān people call the turunj bajaurī.1878 There are two kinds of turunj: one is sweet, flavourless and nauseating, of no use for eating but with peel that may be good for marmalade; it has the same sickening sweetness as the Lamghānāt turunj; the other, that of Hindūstān and Bajaur, is acid, quite deliciously acid, and makes excellent sherbet, well-flavoured, and wholesome drinking. Its size may be that of the Khusrawī melon; it has a thick skin, wrinkled and uneven, with one end thinner and beaked. It is of a deeper yellow than the orange (nāranj). Its tree has no trunk, is rather low, grows in bushes, and has a largerFol. 287. leaf than the orange.

The sangtāra1879 is another fruit resembling the orange (nāranj). It is like the citron (turunj) in colour and form, but has both ends of its skin level;1880 also it is not rough and is somewhat the smaller fruit. Its tree is large, as large as the apricot (aūrūq), with a leaf like the orange’s. It is a deliciously acid fruit, making a very pleasant and wholesome sherbet. Like the lime it is a powerful stomachic, but not weakening like the orange (nāranj).

The large lime which they call (H.) gal-gal1881 in Hindūstān is another fruit resembling the orange. It has the shape of a goose’s egg, but unlike that egg, does not taper to the ends. Its skin is smooth like the sangtāra’s; it is remarkably juicy.

The (H.) jānbīrī lime1882 is another orange-like fruit. It is orange-shaped and, though yellow, not orange-yellow. It smells like the citron (turunj); it too is deliciously acid.

The (Sans.) sadā-fal (phal)1883 is another orange-like fruit. This is pear-shaped, colours like the quince, ripens sweet, but not to the sickly-sweetness of the orange (nāranj).

The amrd-fal (sic. Ḥai. MS.—Sans. amrit-phal)1884 is another orange-like fruit.

The lemon (H. karnā, C. limonum) is another fruit resembling the orange (nāranj); it may be as large as the gal-gal and is also acid.

The (Sans.) amal-bīd1885 is another fruit resembling the orange. After three years (in Hindūstān), it was first seen to-day.1886 They say a needle melts away if put inside it,1887 either from its acidityFol. 287b. or some other property. It is as acid, perhaps, as the citron and lemon (turunj and līmū).1888

(m. Vegetable products of Hindūstān:—Flowers.)

In Hindūstān there is great variety of flowers. One is the (D.) jāsūn (Hibiscus rosa sinensis), which some Hindūstānīs call (Hindī) gaẕhal.1889 *It is not a grass (giyāh); its tree (is in stems like the bush of the red-rose; it) is rather taller than the bush of the red-rose.1890* The flower of the jāsūn is fuller in colour than that of the pomegranate, and may be of the size of the red-rose, but, the red-rose, when its bud has grown, opens simply, whereas, when the jāsūn-bud opens, a stem on which other petals grow, is seen like a heart amongst its expanded petals. Though the two are parts of the one flower, yet the outcome of the lengthening and thinning of that stem-like heart of the first-opened petals gives the semblance of two flowers.1891 It is not a common matter. The beautifully coloured flowers look very well on the tree, but they do not last long; they fade in just one day. The jāsūn blossoms very well through the four months of the rains; it seems indeed to flower all through the year; with this profusion, however, it gives no perfume.

The (H.) kanīr (Nerium odorum, the oleander)1892 is another. It grows both red and white. Like the peach-flower, it is five petalled. It is like the peach-bloom (in colour?), but opens 14 or 15 flowers from one place, so that seen from a distance, they look like one great flower. The oleander-bush is taller than the rose-bush. The red oleander has a sort of scent, faint and agreeable. (Like the jāsūn,) it also blooms well and profusely in the Fol. 288.rains, and it also is had through most of the year.

The (H.) (kīūrā) (Pandanus odoratissimus, the screw-pine) is another.1893 It has a very agreeable perfume.1894 Musk has the defect of being dry; this may be called moist musk—a very agreeable perfume. The tree’s singular appearance notwithstanding, it has flowers perhaps 1-1/2 to 2 qārīsh (13-1/2 to 18 inches) long. It has long leaves having the character of the reed (P.) gharau1895 and having spines. Of these leaves, while pressed together bud-like, the outer ones are the greener and more spiny; the inner ones are soft and white. In amongst these inner leaves grow things like what belongs to the middle of a flower, and from these things comes the excellent perfume. When the tree first comes up not yet shewing any trunk, it is like the bush (būta) of the male-reed,1896 but with wider and more spiny leaves. What serves it for a trunk is very shapeless, its roots remaining shewn.

The (P.) yāsman (jasmine) is another; the white they call (B.) champa.1897 It is larger and more strongly scented than our yāsman-flower.

(n. Seasons of the year.)

Again:—whereas there are four seasons in those countries,1898 there are three in Hindūstān, namely, four months are summer; four are the rains; four are winter. The beginning of their months is from the welcome of the crescent-moons.1899 Every three years they add a month to the year; if one had been added to the rainy season, the next is added, three years later, to the winter months, the next, in the same way, to the hot months. This is their mode of intercalation.1900 (Chait, Baisākh, Jeṭh andFol. 288b. Asāṛh) are the hot months, corresponding with the Fish, (Ram, Bull and Twins; Sāwan, Bhādoṅ, Kū,ār and Kātik) are the rainy months, corresponding with the Crab, (Lion, Virgin and Balance; Aghan, Pūs, Māgh and Phālgun) are the cold months, corresponding with the Scorpion, (Archer, Capricorn, and Bucket or Aquarius).

The people of Hind, having thus divided the year into three seasons of four months each, divide each of those seasons by taking from each, the two months of the force of the heat, rain,1901 and cold. Of the hot months the last two, i.e. Jeṭh and Asāṛh are the force of the heat; of the rainy months, the first two, i.e. Sāwan and Bhādoṅ are the force of the rains; of the cold season, the middle two, i.e. Pūs and Māgh are the force of the cold. By this classification there are six seasons in Hindūstān.

(o. Days of the week.)

To the days also they have given names:—1902 (Sanīchar is Saturday; Rabī-bār is Sunday; Som-wār is Monday; Mangal-wār is Tuesday; Budh-bār is Wednesday; Brihaspat-bār is Thursday; Shukr-bār is Friday).

(p. Divisions of time.)

Fol. 289.(Author’s note on the daqīqa.) The daqīqa is about as long as six repetitions of the Fātiḥa with the Bismillāh, so that a day-and-night is as long as 8640 repetitions of the Fātiḥa with the Bismillāh.

As in our countries what is known by the (Turkī) term kīcha-gūndūz (a day-and-night, nycthemeron) is divided into 24 parts, each called an hour (Ar. sā‘at), and the hour is divided into 60 parts, each called a minute (Ar. daqīqa), so that a day-and-night consists of 1440 minutes,—so the people of Hind divide the night-and-day into 60 parts, each called a (S.) g’harī.1903 They also divide the night into four and the day into four, calling each part a (S.) pahr (watch) which in Persian is a pās. A watch and watchman (pās u pāsbān) had been heard about (by us) in those countries (Transoxania), but without these particulars. Agreeing with the division into watches, a body of g’harīālīs1904 is chosen and appointed in all considerable towns of Hindūstān. They cast a broad brass (plate-) thing,1905 perhaps as large as a tray (t̤abaq) and about two hands'-thickness; this they call a g’harīāl and hang up in a high place (bīr buland yīr-dā). Also they have a vessel perforated at the bottom like an hour-cup1906 and filling in one g’harī (i.e. 24 minutes). The g’harīālīs put this into water and wait till it fills. For example, they will put the perforatedFol. 289b. cup into water at day-birth; when it fills the first time, they strike the gong once with their mallets; when a second time, twice, and so on till the end of the watch. They announce the end of a watch by several rapid blows of their mallets. After these they pause; then strike once more, if the first day-watch has ended, twice if the second, three times if the third, and four times if the fourth. After the fourth day-watch, when the night-watches begin, these are gone through in the same way. It used to be the rule to beat the sign of a watch only when the watch ended; so that sleepers chancing to wake in the night and hear the sound of a third or fourth g’harī, would not know whether it was of the second or third night-watch. I therefore ordered that at night or on a cloudy day the sign of the watch should be struck after that of the g’harī, for example, that after striking the third g’harī of the first night-watch, the g’harīālīs were to pause and then strike the sign of the watch, in order to make it known that this third g’harī was of the first night-watch,—and that after striking four g’harīs of the third night-watch, they should pause and then strike the sign of the third watch, in order to make it known that this fourth g’harī was of the third night-watch. It did very well; anyone happening to wake in the night and hear the gong, would know what g’harī of what watch of night it was.

Again, they divide the g’harī into 60 parts, each part being called a pal;1907 by this each night-and-day will consist of 3,500 pals.Fol. 290.

(Author’s note on the pal.) They say the length of a pal is the shutting and opening of the eyelids 60 times, which in a night-and-day would be 216,000 shuttings and openings of the eyes. Experiment shews that a pal is about equal to 8 repetitions of the Qul-huwa-allāh1908 and Bismillāh; this would be 28,000 repetitions in a night-and-day.

(q. Measures.)

The people of Hind have also well-arranged measures:—1909 8 ratīs = 1 māsha; 4 māsha = 1 tānk = 32 ratīs; 5 māsha = 1 miṣqāl = 40 ratīs; 12 māsha = 1 tūla = 96 ratīs; 14 tūla = 1 ser.

This is everywhere fixed:—40 ser = 1 mānbān; 12 mānbān = 1 mānī; 100 mānī they call a mīnāsa.1910

Pearls and jewels they weigh by the tānk.

(r. Modes of reckoning.)

The people of Hind have also an excellent mode of reckoning: 100,000 they call a lak; 100 laks, a krūr; 100 krūrs, an arb; 100 arbs, 1 karb; 100 karb’s, 1 nīl; 100 nīls, 1 padam; 100 padams, 1 sāng. The fixing of such high reckonings as these is proof of the great amount of wealth in Hindūstān.

(s. Hindū inhabitants of Hindūstān.)

Most of the inhabitants of Hindūstān are pagans; they call a pagan a Hindū. Most Hindūs believe in the transmigration of souls. All artisans, wage-earners, and officials are Hindūs. In our countries dwellers in the wilds (i.e. nomads) get tribal names; Fol. 290b.here the settled people of the cultivated lands and villages get tribal names.1911 Again:—every artisan there is follows the trade that has come down to him from forefather to forefather.

(t. Defects of Hindūstān.)

Hindūstān is a country of few charms. Its people have no good looks; of social intercourse, paying and receiving visits there is none; of genius and capacity none; of manners none; in handicraft and work there is no form or symmetry, method or quality; there are no good horses, no good dogs, no grapes, musk-melons or first-rate fruits, no ice or cold water, no good bread or cooked food in the bāzārs, no Hot-baths, no Colleges, no candles, torches or candlesticks.

In place of candle and torch they have a great dirty gang they call lamp-men (diwatī), who in the left hand hold a smallish wooden tripod to one corner of which a thing like the top of a candlestick is fixed, having a wick in it about as thick as the thumb. In the right hand they hold a gourd, through a narrow slit made in which, oil is let trickle in a thin thread when the wick needs it. Great people keep a hundred or two of these lamp-men. This is the Hindūstān substitute for lamps and candlesticks! If their rulers and begs have work at night needing candles, these dirty lamp-men bring these lamps, go close up andFol. 291. there stand.

Except their large rivers and their standing-waters which flow in ravines or hollows (there are no waters). There are no running-waters in their gardens or residences (‘imāratlār).1912 These residences have no charm, air (hawā), regularity or symmetry.

Peasants and people of low standing go about naked. They tie on a thing called lungūtā,1913 a decency-clout which hangs two spans below the navel. From the tie of this pendant decency-clout, another clout is passed between the thighs and made fast behind. Women also tie on a cloth (lung), one-half of which goes round the waist, the other is thrown over the head.

(u. Advantages of Hindūstān.)

Pleasant things of Hindūstān are that it is a large country and has masses of gold and silver. Its air in the Rains is very fine. Sometimes it rains 10, 15 or 20 times a day; torrents pour down all at once and rivers flow where no water had been. While it rains and through the Rains, the air is remarkably fine, not to be surpassed for healthiness and charm. The fault is that the air becomes very soft and damp. A bow of those (Transoxanian) countries after going through the Rains in Hindūstān, may not be drawn even; it is ruined; not only the bow, everything isFol. 291b. affected, armour, book, cloth, and utensils all; a house even does not last long. Not only in the Rains but also in the cold and the hot seasons, the airs are excellent; at these times, however, the north-west wind constantly gets up laden with dust and earth. It gets up in great strength every year in the heats, under the Bull and Twins when the Rains are near; so strong and carrying so much dust and earth that there is no seeing one another. People call this wind Darkener of the Sky (H. āndhī). The weather is hot under the Bull and Twins, but not intolerably so, not so hot as in Balkh and Qandahār and not for half so long.

Another good thing in Hindūstān is that it has unnumbered and endless workmen of every kind. There is a fixed caste (jam‘ī) for every sort of work and for every thing, which has done that work or that thing from father to son till now. Mullā Sharaf, writing in the Z̤afar-nāma about the building of Tīmūr Beg’s Stone Mosque, lays stress on the fact that on it 200 stone-cutters worked, from Āẕarbāījān, Fars, Hindūstān and other countries. But 680 men worked daily on my buildings in Āgra and of Āgra stone-cutters only; while 1491 stone-cutters worked daily on my buildings in Āgra, Sīkrī, Bīāna, Dūlpūr, Gūālīār and Kūīl. In Fol. 292.the same way there are numberless artisans and workmen of every sort in Hindūstān.

(v. Revenues of Hindūstān.)

The revenue of the countries now held by me (935 AH.-1528 AD.) from Bhīra to Bihār is 52 krūrs,1914 as will be known in detail from the following summary.1915 Eight or nine krūrs of this are from parganas of rāīs and rājas who, as obedient from of old, receive allowance and maintenance.

Revenues of Hindūstān from what has so far come under the victorious standards

Sarkārs. Krūrs. Laks. Tankas.

Trans-sutluj:--Bhīra, Lāhūr, Sīālkūt, Dībālpūr, etc. 3 33 15,989

Sihrind 1 29 31,985

Ḥiṣār-fīrūza 1 30 75,174

The capital Dihlī and Mīān-dū-āb 3 69 50,254

Mīwāt, not included in Sikandar’s time 1 69 81,000

Bīāna 1 44 14,930 Fol. 292b.

Āgra 29 76,919

Mīān-wilāyat (Midlands) 2 91 19

Gūālīār 2 23 57,450

Kālpī and Sehoṇda (Seondhā) 4 28 55,950

Qanauj 1 36 63,358

Saṃbhal 1 38 44,000

Laknūr and Baksar 1 39 82,433

Khairābād 12 65,000

Aūd (Oude) and Bahraj (Baraich) 1 17 1,369 Fol. 293.

Jūnpūr 4 ·0 88,333

Karra and Mānikpūr 1 63 27,282

Bihār 4 5 60,000

Sāran 1 10 17,506½

Sarwār 1 55 18,373

Champāran 1 90 86,060

Kandla 1 43 30,300

Tirhut from Rāja Rup-narāīn’s tribute, silver 1 43 55,000

black (i.e. copper) 1 27 50,300

Rantanbhūr from Būlī, Chātsū, and Malarna 20 00,000

Nagūr -- -- --

Rāja Bikrāmajīt in Rantanbhūr -- -- --

Kalanjarī -- -- --

Rāja Bīr-sang-deo (or, Sang only) -- -- --

Rāja Bikam-deo -- -- --

Rāja Bikam-chand -- -- --

1916 So far as particulars and details about the land and people of the country of Hindūstān have become definitely known, they have been narrated and described; whatever matters worthy of record may come to view hereafter, I shall write down.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE RESUMED.

(a. Distribution of treasure in Āgra.)1917

(May 12th) On Saturday the 29th1918 of Rajab the examination and distribution of the treasure were begun. To Humāyūn were given 70 laks from the Treasury, and, over and above this, a treasure house was bestowed on him just as it was, without ascertaining and writing down its contents. To some begs 10 laks were given, 8, 7, or 6 to others.1919 Suitable money-gifts were bestowed from the Treasury on the whole army, to every tribe there was, Afghān, Hazāra, ‘Arab, Bīlūch etc. to each according to its position. Every trader and student, indeed every man who had come with the army, took ample portion and share of bounteous gift and largess. To those not with the army went a mass of treasure in gift and largess, as for instance, 17 laks to Kāmran, 15 laks to Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā, while to ‘Askarī, Hindāl and indeed to the whole various train of relations and younger children1920 went masses of red and white (gold and silver), of plenishing, jewels and slaves.1921 Many gifts went to the begs and soldiery on that side (Tramontana). Valuable gifts (saughāt) Fol. 294.were sent for the various relations in Samarkand, Khurāsān, Kāshghar and ‘Irāq. To holy men belonging to Samarkand and Khurāsān went offerings vowed to God (nuẕūr); so too to Makka and Madīna. We gave one shāhrukhi for every soul in the country of Kābul and the valley-side1922 of Varsak, man and woman, bond and free, of age or non-age.1923

(b. Disaffection to Bābur.)

On our first coming to Āgra, there was remarkable dislike and hostility between its people and mine, the peasantry and soldiers running away in fear of our men. Dilhī and Āgra excepted, not a fortified town but strengthened its defences and neither was in obedience nor submitted. Qāsim Saṃbhalī was in Saṃbhal; Niz̤ām Khān was in Bīāna; in Mīwāt was Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī himself, impious mannikin! who was the sole leader of the trouble and mischief.1924 Muḥammad Zaitun was in Dūlpūr; Tātār Khān Sārang-khānī1925 was in Gūālīār; Ḥusain Khān Nuḥānī was in Rāprī; Qut̤b Khān was in Itāwa (Etāwa); ‘Ālam Khān (Kālpī) was in Kālpī. Qanauj and the other side of Gang (Ganges) was all held by Afghāns in independent hostility,1926 such as Naṣīr Khān Nuḥānī, Ma‘rūf Farmūlī and a crowd of other amīrs. These had been in rebellion for three or four years before Ibrāhīm’s death and when I defeated him, were holding Qanauj and the whole country beyond it. At the present time they were lying two or three marches on our side of Qanauj and had made Bihār Khān the son of Daryā Khān Nuḥānī their pādshāh, under the style Sult̤ān Muḥammad.Fol. 294b. Marghūb the slave was in Mahāwīn (Muttra?); he remained there, thus close, for some time but came no nearer.

(c. Discontent in Bābur’s army.)

It was the hot-season when we came to Āgra. All the inhabitants (khalāīq) had run away in terror. Neither grain for ourselves nor corn for our horses was to be had. The villages, out of hostility and hatred to us had taken to thieving and highway-robbery; there was no moving on the roads. There had been no chance since the treasure was distributed to send men in strength into the parganas and elsewhere. Moreover the year was a very hot one; violent pestilential winds struck people down in heaps together; masses began to die off.

On these accounts the greater part of the begs and best braves became unwilling to stay in Hindūstān, indeed set their faces for leaving it. It is no reproach to old and experienced begs if they speak of such matters; even if they do so, this man (Bābur) has enough sense and reason to get at what is honest or what is mutinous in their representations, to distinguish between loss and gain. But as this man had seen his task whole, for himself, when he resolved on it, what taste was there in their reiterating that things should be done differently? What recommends the expression of distasteful opinions by men of little standing Fol. 295.(kīchīk karīm)? Here is a curious thing:—This last time of our riding out from Kābul, a few men of little standing had just been made begs; what I looked for from them was that if I went through fire and water and came out again, they would have gone in with me unhesitatingly, and with me have come out, that wherever I went, there at my side would they be,—not that they would speak against my fixed purpose, not that they would turn back from any task or great affair on which, all counselling, all consenting, we had resolved, so long as that counsel was not abandoned. Badly as these new begs behaved, Secretary Aḥmadī and Treasurer Walī behaved still worse. Khwāja Kalān had done well in the march out from Kābul, in Ibrāhīm’s defeat and until Āgra was occupied; he had spoken bold words and shewn ambitious views. But a few days after the capture of Āgra, all his views changed,—the one zealous for departure at any price was Khwāja Kalān.1927

(d. Bābur calls a council.)

When I knew of this unsteadiness amongst (my) people, I summoned all the begs and took counsel. Said I, “There is no supremacy and grip on the world without means and resources; without lands and retainers sovereignty and command (pādshāhlīq u amīrlīq) are impossible. By the labours of several years, by encountering hardship, by long travel, by flinging myself and the army into battle, and by deadly slaughter, we, through God’sFol. 295b. grace, beat these masses of enemies in order that we might take their broad lands. And now what force compels us, what necessity has arisen that we should, without cause, abandon countries taken at such risk of life? Was it for us to remain in Kābul, the sport of harsh poverty? Henceforth, let no well-wisher of mine speak of such things! But let not those turn back from going who, weak in strong persistence, have set their faces to depart!” By these words, which recalled just and reasonable views to their minds, I made them, willy-nilly, quit their fears.

(e. Khwāja Kalān decides to leave Hindūstān.)

As Khwāja Kalān had no heart to stay in Hindūstān, matters were settled in this way:—As he had many retainers, he was to convoy the gifts, and, as there were few men in Kābul and Ghaznī, was to keep these places guarded and victualled. I bestowed on him Ghaznī, Girdīz and the Sult̤ān Mas‘ūdī Hazāra, gave also the Hindūstān pargana of G’hūram,1928 worth 3 or 4 laks. It was settled for Khwāja Mīr-i-mīrān also to go to Kābul; the gifts were put into his immediate charge, under the custody of Mullā Ḥasan the banker (ṣarrāf) and Tūka1929 Hindū.

Loathing Hindūstān, Khwāja Kalān, when on his way, had the following couplet inscribed on the wall of his residence Fol. 296. (‘imāratī) in Dihlī:—

It was ill-mannered in him to compose and write up this partly-jesting verse while I still stayed in Hind. If his departure caused me one vexation, such a jest doubled it.1930 I composed the following off-hand verse, wrote it down and sent it to him:—

(f. Accretions to Bābur’s force.)

At this juncture, Mullā Apāq was sent into Kūl with royal letters of favour for the soldiers and quiver-wearers (tarkash-band) of that neighbourhood. Shaikh Gūran (G’hūran)1932 came trustfully and loyally to do obeisance, bringing with him from 2 to 3,000 soldiers and quiver-wearers from Between-two-waters (Mīān-dū-āb).

(Author’s note on Mullā Apāq.) Formerly he had been in a very low position indeed, but two or three years before this time, had gathered his elder and younger brethren into a compact body and had brought them in (to me), together with the Aūrūq-zāī and other Afghāns of the banks of the Sind.

Yūnas-i-‘alī when on his way from Dihlī to Āgra1933 had lost his way a little and got separated from Humāyūn; he then met in with ‘Alī Khān Farmūlī’s sons and train,1934 had a small affair with them, took them prisoners and brought them in. Taking advantage of this, one of the sons thus captured was sent to his Fol. 296b.father in company with Daulat-qadam Turk’s son Mīrzā Mughūl who conveyed royal letters of favour to ‘Alī Khān. At this time of break-up, ‘Alī Khān had gone to Mīwāt; he came to me when Mīrzā Mughūl returned, was promoted, and given valid(?) parganas1935 worth 25 laks.

(g. Action against the rebels of the East.)

Sl. Ibrāhīm had appointed several amīrs under Muṣt̤afa Farmūlī and Fīrūz Khān Sārang-khānī, to act against the rebel amīrs of the East (Pūrab). Muṣt̤afa had fought them and thoroughly drubbed them, giving them more than one good beating. He dying before Ibrāhīm’s defeat, his younger brother Shaikh Bāyazīd—Ibrāhīm being occupied with a momentous matter1936—had led and watched over his elder brother’s men. He now came to serve me, together with Fīrūz Khān, Maḥmūd Khān Nuḥānī and Qāẓī Jīā. I shewed them greater kindness and favour than was their claim; giving to Fīrūz Khān 1 krūr, 46 laks and 5000 tankas from Jūnpūr, to Shaikh Bāyazīd 1 krūr, 48 laks and 50,000 tankas from Aūd (Oude), to Maḥmūd Khān 90 laks and 35,000 tankas from Ghāzīpūr, and to Qāẓī Jīā 20 laks.1937

(h. Gifts made to various officers.)

It was a few days after the ‘Īd of Shawwāl1938 that a large party was held in the pillared-porch of the domed building standing in the middle of Sl. Ibrāhīm’s private apartments. At this party there were bestowed on Humāyūn a chār-qab,1939 a sword-belt,1940 a tīpūchāq horse with saddle mounted in gold; on Chīn-tīmūr Sult̤ān, Mahdī Khwāja and Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā chār-qabs, sword-belts and dagger-belts; and to the begs andFol. 297. braves, to each according to his rank, were given sword-belts, dagger-belts, and dresses of honour, in all to the number specified below:—

2 items (rā’s) of tīpūchāq horses with saddles.

16items (qabẓa) of poinards, set with jewels, etc.

8items (qabẓa) of purpet over-garments.

2items (tob) of jewelled sword-belts.

—items (qabẓa) of broad daggers (jamd’kar) set with jewels.

25items of jewelled hangers (khanjar).

—items of gold-hilted Hindī knives (kārd).

51pieces of purpet.

On the day of this party it rained amazingly, rain falling thirteen times. As outside places had been assigned to a good many people, they were drowned out (gharaq).

(i. Of various forts and postings.)

Samāna (in Patīāla) had been given to Muḥammadī Kūkūldāsh and it had been arranged for him to make swift descent on Saṃbal (Saṃbhal), but Saṃbal was now bestowed on Humāyūn, in addition to his guerdon of Ḥiṣār-fīrūza, and in his service was Hindū Beg. To suit this, therefore, Hindū Beg was sent to make the incursion in Muḥammadī’s place, and with him Kitta Beg, Bābā Qashqa’s (brother) Malik Qāsim and his elder and younger brethren, Mullā Apāq and Shaikh Gūran (G’hūran) with the quiver-wearers from Between-two-waters (Mīān-dū-āb). Fol. 297b.Three or four times a person had come from Qāsim Saṃbalī, saying, “The renegade Bīban is besieging Saṃbal and has brought it to extremity; come quickly.” Bīban, with the array and the preparation (hayāt) with which he had deserted us,1941 had gone skirting the hills and gathering up Afghān and Hindūstānī deserters, until, finding Saṃbal at this juncture ill-garrisoned, he laid siege to it. Hindū Beg and Kitta Beg and the rest of those appointed to make the incursion, got to the Ahār-passage1942 and from there sent ahead Bābā Qashqa’s Malik Qāsim with his elder and younger brethren, while they themselves were getting over the water. Malik Qāsim crossed, advanced swiftly with from 100 to 150 men—his own and his brethren’s—and reached Saṃbal by the Mid-day Prayer. Bīban for his part came out of his camp in array. Malik Qāsim and his troop moved rapidly forward, got the fort in their rear, and came to grips. Bīban could make no stand; he fled. Malik Qāsim cut off the heads of part of his force, took many horses, a few elephants and a mass of booty. Next day when the other begs arrived, Qāsim Saṃbalī came out and saw them, but not liking to surrender the fort, made them false pretences. One day Shaikh Gūran (G’hūran) and Hindū Beg having talked the matter over with them, got Qāsim Saṃbalī out to the presence of the begs, and took men of ours into the fort. They brought Qāsim’s wife and dependents safely out, and sent Qāsim (to Court).1943

Qalandar the foot-man was sent to Niz̤ām Khān in Bīāna with royal letters of promise and threat; with these was sentFol. 298. also the following little off-hand (Persian) verse:—1944

Bīāna being one of the famous forts of Hindūstān, the senseless mannikin, relying on its strength, demanded what not even its strength could enforce. Not giving him a good answer, we ordered siege apparatus to be looked to.

Bābā Qulī Beg was sent with royal letters of promise and threat to Muḥammad Zaitūn (in Dūlpūr); Muḥammad Zaitūn also made false excuses.

While we were still in Kābul, Rānā Sangā had sent an envoy to testify to his good wishes and to propose this plan: “If the honoured Pādshāh will come to near Dihlī from that side, I from this will move on Āgra.” But I beat Ibrāhīm, I took Dihlī and Āgra, and up to now that Pagan has given no sign soever of moving. After a while he went and laid siege to Kandār1945 a fort in which was Makan’s son, Ḥasan by name. This Ḥasan-of-Makan had sent a person to me several times, but had not shewn himself. We had not been able to detachFol. 298b. reinforcement for him because, as the forts round-about—Atāwa (Etāwa), Dūlpūr, and Bīāna—had not yet surrendered, and the Eastern Afghāns were seated with their army in obstinate rebellion two or three marches on the Āgra side of Qanūj, my mind was not quite free from the whirl and strain of things close at hand. Makan’s Ḥasan therefore, becoming helpless, had surrendered Kandār two or three months ago.

Ḥusain Khān (Nuḥānī) became afraid in Rāprī, and he abandoning it, it was given to Muḥammad ‘Alī Jang-jang.

To Qut̤b Khān in Etāwa royal letters of promise and threat had been sent several times, but as he neither came and saw me, nor abandoned Etāwa and got away, it was given to Mahdī Khwāja and he was sent against it with a strong reinforcement of begs and household troops under the command of Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī, Muḥammad ‘Alī Jang-jang and ‘Abdu’l-‘azīz the Master of the Horse. Qanūj was given to Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī; he was also (as mentioned) appointed against Etāwa; so too were Fīrūz Khān, Maḥmūd Khān, Shaikh Bāyazīd and Qāẓī Jīā, highly favoured commanders to whom Eastern parganas had been given.

Fol. 299.Muḥammad Zaitūn, who was seated in Dūlpūr, deceived us and did not come. We gave Dūlpūr to Sl. Junaid Barlās and reinforced him by appointing ‘Ādil Sult̤ān, Muḥammadī Kūkūldāsh, Shāh Manṣūr Barlās, Qūtlūq-qadam, Treasurer Walī, Jān Beg, ‘Abdu’l-lāh, Pīr-qulī, and Shāh Ḥasan Yāragī (or Bāragī), who were to attack Dūlpūr, take it, make it over to Sl. Junaid Barlās and advance on Bīāna.

(j. Plan of operations adopted.)

These armies appointed, we summoned the Turk amīrs1946 and the Hindūstān amīrs, and tossed the following matters in amongst them:—The various rebel amīrs of the East, that is to say, those under Nāṣir Khān Nuḥānī and Ma‘rūf Farmūlī, have crossed Gang (Ganges) with 40 to 50,000 men, taken Qanūj, and now lie some three miles on our side of the river. The Pagan Rānā Sangā has captured Kandār and is in a hostile and mischievous attitude. The end of the Rains is near. It seems expedient to move either against the rebels or the Pagan, since the task of the forts near-by is easy; when the great foes are got rid of, what road will remain open for the rest? Rānā Sangā is thought not to be the equal of the rebels.

To this all replied unanimously, “Rānā Sangā is the most distant, and it is not known that he will come nearer; the enemy who is closest at hand must first be got rid of. We are for riding against the rebels.” Humāyūn then represented,Fol. 299b. “What need is there for the Pādshāh to ride out? This service I will do.” This came as a pleasure to every-one; the Turk and Hind amīrs gladly accepted his views; he was appointed for the East. A Kābulī of Aḥmad-i-qāsim’s was sent galloping off to tell the armies that had been despatched against Dūlpūr to join Humāyūn at Chandwār;1947 also those sent against Etāwa under Mahdī Khwāja and Muḥammad Sl. M. were ordered to join him.

(August 21st) Humāyūn set out on Thursday the 13th of Ẕū’l-qa´da, dismounted at a little village called Jilīsīr (Jalesar) some 3 kurohs from Āgra, there stayed one night, then moved forward march by march.

(k. Khwāja Kalān’s departure.)

(August 28th) On Thursday the 20th of this same month, Khwāja Kalān started for Kābul.

(l. Of gardens and pleasaunces.)

One of the great defects of Hindūstān being its lack of running-waters,1948 it kept coming to my mind that waters should be made to flow by means of wheels erected wherever I might settle down, also that grounds should be laid out in an orderly and symmetrical way. With this object in view, we crossed the Jūn-water to look at garden-grounds a few days after entering Āgra. Those grounds were so bad and unattractive that we traversed them with a hundred disgusts and repulsions. So ugly and displeasing were they, that the idea of making aFol. 300. Chār-bāgh in them passed from my mind, but needs must! as there was no other land near Āgra, that same ground was taken in hand a few days later.

The beginning was made with the large well from which water comes for the Hot-bath, and also with the piece of ground where the tamarind-trees and the octagonal tank now are. After that came the large tank with its enclosure; after that the tank and tālār1949 in front of the outer(?) residence1950; after that the private-house (khilwat-khāna) with its garden and various dwellings; after that the Hot-bath. Then in that charmless and disorderly Hind, plots of garden1951 were seen laid out with order and symmetry, with suitable borders and parterres in every corner, and in every border rose and narcissus in perfect arrangement.

(m. Construction of a chambered-well.)

Three things oppressed us in Hindūstān, its heat, its violent winds, its dust. Against all three the Bath is a protection, for in it, what is known of dust and wind? and in the heats it is so chilly that one is almost cold. The bath-room in which the heated tank is, is altogether of stone, the whole, except for the īzāra (dado?) of white stone, being, pavement and roofing, of red Bīāna stone.

Khalīfa also and Shaikh Zain, Yūnas-i-‘alī and whoever got Fol. 300b.land on that other bank of the river laid out regular and orderly gardens with tanks, made running-waters also by setting up wheels like those in Dīpālpūr and Lāhor. The people of Hind who had never seen grounds planned so symmetrically and thus laid out, called the side of the Jūn where (our) residences were, Kābul.

In an empty space inside the fort, which was between Ibrāhīm’s residence and the ramparts, I ordered a large chambered-well (wāīn) to be made, measuring 10 by 10,1952 a large well with a flight of steps, which in Hindūstān is called a wāīn.1953 This well was begun before the Chār-bāgh1954; they were busy digging it in the true Rains (‘aīn bīshkāl, Sāwan and Bhadon); it fell in several times and buried the hired workmen; it was finished after the Holy Battle with Rānā Sangā, as is stated in the inscription on the stone that bears the chronogram of its completion. It is a complete wāīn, having a three-storeyed house in it. The lowest storey consists of three rooms, each of which opens on the descending steps, at intervals of three steps from one another. When the water is at its lowest, it is one step below the bottom chamber; when it rises in the Rains, it sometimes goes into the top storey. In the middle storey an inner chamber has been excavated which connects with the domed building in which the bullock turns the well-wheel. TheFol. 301. top storey is a single room, reached from two sides by 5 or 6 steps which lead down to it from the enclosure overlooked from the well-head. Facing the right-hand way down, is the stone inscribed with the date of completion. At the side of this well is another the bottom of which may be at half the depth of the first, and into which water comes from that first one when the bullock turns the wheel in the domed building afore-mentioned. This second well also is fitted with a wheel, by means of which water is carried along the ramparts to the high-garden. A stone building (tāshdīn ‘imārat) stands at the mouth of the well and there is an outer(?) mosque1955 outside (tāshqārī) the enclosure in which the well is. The mosque is not well done; it is in the Hindūstānī fashion.

(n. Humāyūn’s campaign.)

At the time Humāyūn got to horse, the rebel amīrs under Naṣīr Khān Nuḥānī and Ma‘rūf Farmūlī were assembled at Jājmāū.1956 Arrived within 20 to 30 miles of them, he sent out Mūmin Ātāka for news; it became a raid for loot; Mūmin Ātāka was not able to bring even the least useful information. The rebels heard about him however, made no stay but fled and got away. After Mūmin Ātāka, Qusm-nāī(?) was sent for news, with Bābā Chuhra1957 and Būjka; they brought it of the breaking-up and flight of the rebels. Humāyūn advancing, took Jājmāū Fol. 301b.and passed on. Near Dilmāū1958 Fatḥ Khān Sarwānī came and saw him, and was sent to me with Mahdī Khwāja and Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā.

(o. News of the Aūzbegs.)

This year ‘Ubaidu’l-lāh Khān (Aūzbeg) led an army out of Bukhārā against Marv. In the citadel of Marv were perhaps 10 to 15 peasants whom he overcame and killed; then having taken the revenues of Marv in 40 or 50 days,1959 he went on to Sarakhs. In Sarakhs were some 30 to 40 Red-heads (Qīzīl-bāsh) who did not surrender, but shut the Gate; the peasantry however scattered them and opened the Gate to the Aūzbeg who entering, killed the Red-heads. Sarakhs taken, he went against T̤ūs and Mashhad. The inhabitants of Mashhad being helpless, let him in. T̤ūs he besieged for 8 months, took possession of on terms, did not keep those terms, but killed every man of name and made their women captive.

(p. Affairs of Gujrāt.)

In this year Bahādur Khān,—he who now rules in Gujrāt in the place of his father Sl. Muz̤affar Gujrātī—having gone to Sl. Ibrāhīm after quarrel with his father, had been received without honour. He had sent dutiful letters to me while I was near Pānī-pat; I had replied by royal letters of favour and kindness summoning him to me. He had thought of coming, but changing his mind, drew off from Ibrāhīm’s army towards Gujrāt. Meantime his father Sl. Muz̤affar had died (Friday Jumāda II. 2nd AH.-March 16th 1526 AD.); his elder brother Sikandar Shāh who was Sl. Muz̤affar’s eldest son, had become ruler in their father’s place and, owing to his evil disposition,Fol. 302. had been strangled by his slave ‘Imādu’l-mulk, acting with others (Sha‘ban 14th—May 25th). Bahādur Khān, while he was on his road for Gujrāt, was invited and escorted to sit in his father’s place under the style Bahādur Shāh (Ramẓān 26th—July 6th). He for his part did well; he retaliated by death on ‘Imādu’l-mulk for his treachery to his salt, and killed some others of his father’s begs.1960 People point at him as a dreadnaught (bī bāk) youth and a shedder of much blood.

933 AH.-OCT. 8th 1526 to SEP. 27th 1527 AD.1961

(a. Announcement of the birth of a son.)

In Muḥarram Beg Wais brought the news of Fārūq’s birth; though a foot-man had brought it already, he came this month for the gift to the messenger of good tidings.1962 The birth must have been on Friday eve, Shawwāl 23rd (932 AH.-August 2nd 1526 AD.); the name given was Fārūq.

(b. Casting of a mortar.)

(October 22nd-Muḥarram 15th) Ustād ‘Alī-qulī had been ordered to cast a large mortar for use against Bīāna and other forts which had not yet submitted. When all the furnaces and materials were ready, he sent a person to me and, on Monday the 15th of the month, we went to see the mortar cast. Round the mortar-mould he had had eight furnaces made in which Fol. 302b.were the molten materials. From below each furnace a channel went direct to the mould. When he opened the furnace-holes on our arrival, the molten metal poured like water through all these channels into the mould. After awhile and before the mould was full, the flow stopped from one furnace after another. Ustād ‘Alī-qulī must have made some miscalculation either as to the furnaces or the materials. In his great distress, he was for throwing himself into the mould of molten metal, but we comforted him, put a robe of honour on him, and so brought him out of his shame. The mould was left a day or two to cool; when it was opened, Ustād ‘Alī-qulī with great delight sent to say, “The stone-chamber (tāsh-awī) is without defect; to cast the powder-compartment (dārū-khāna) is easy.” He got the stone-chamber out and told off a body of men to accoutre1963 it, while he busied himself with casting the powder-compartment.

(c. Varia.)

Mahdī Khwāja arrived bringing Fatḥ Khān Sarwānī from Humāyūn’s presence, they having parted from him in Dilmāū. I looked with favour on Fatḥ Khān, gave him the parganas that had been his father ‘Az̤am-humāyūn’s, and other lands also, one pargana given being worth a krūr and 60 laks.1964

In Hindūstān they give permanent titles [muqarrarī khit̤āblār] to highly-favoured amīrs, one such being ‘Az̤am-humāyūn (August Might), one Khān-i-jahān (Khan-of-the-world), anotherFol. 303. Khān-i-khānān (Khān-of-khāns). Fatḥ Khān’s father’s title was ‘Az̤am-humāyūn but I set this aside because on account of Humāyūn it was not seemly for any person to bear it, and I gave Fatḥ Khān Sarwānī the title of Khān-i-jahān.

(November 14th) On Wednesday the 8th of Ṣafar1965 awnings were set up (in the Chār-bāgh) at the edge of the large tank beyond the tamarind-trees, and an entertainment was prepared there. We invited Fatḥ Khān Sarwānī to a wine-party, gave him wine, bestowed on him a turban and head-to-foot of my own wearing, uplifted his head with kindness and favour1966 and allowed him to go to his own districts. It was arranged for his son Maḥmūd to remain always in waiting.

(d. Various military matters.)

(November 30th) On Wednesday the 24th of Muḥarram1967 Muḥammad ‘Alī (son of Mihtar) Ḥaidar the stirrup-holder was sent (to Humāyūn) with this injunction, “As—thanks be to God!—the rebels have fled, do you, as soon as this messenger arrives, appoint a few suitable begs to Jūnpūr, and come quickly to us yourself, for Rānā Sangā the Pagan is conveniently close; let us think first of him!”

After (Humāyūn’s) army had gone to the East, we appointed, to make a plundering excursion into the Bīāna neighbourhood, Tardī Beg (brother) of Qūj Beg with his elder brother Sher-afgan, Muḥammad Khalīl the master-gelder (akhta-begī) with his brethren and the gelders (akhtachīlār),1968 Rustam Turkmān with his brethren, and also, of the Hindūstānī people, Daud Sarwānī. Fol. 303b.If they, by promise and persuasion, could make the Bīāna garrison look towards us, they were to do so; if not, they were to weaken the enemy by raid and plunder.

In the fort of Tahangar1969 was ‘Ālam Khān the elder brother of that same Niz̤ām Khān of Bīāna. People of his had come again and again to set forth his obedience and well-wishing; he now took it on himself to say, “If the Pādshāh appoint an army, it will be my part by promise and persuasion to bring in the quiver-weavers of Bīāna and to effect the capture of that fort.” This being so, the following orders were given to the braves of Tardī Beg’s expedition, “As ‘Ālam Khān, a local man, has taken it on himself to serve and submit in this manner, act you with him and in the way he approves in this matter of Bīāna.” Swordsmen though some Hindūstānīs may be, most of them are ignorant and unskilled in military move and stand (yūrūsh u tūrūsh), in soldierly counsel and procedure. When our expedition joined ‘Ālam Khān, he paid no attention to what any-one else said, did not consider whether his action was good or bad, but went close up to Bīāna, taking our men with him. Our expedition numbered from 250 to 300 Turks with somewhat over 2000 Hindūstānīs and local people, while Niz̤ām Khān of Bīāna’s Afghāns and sipāhīs1970 were an army of over 4000 horse and of Fol. 304.foot-men themselves again, more than 10,000. Niz̤ām Khān looked his opponents over, sallied suddenly out and, his massed horse charging down, put our expeditionary force to flight. His men unhorsed his elder brother ‘Ālam Khān, took 5 or 6 others prisoner and contrived to capture part of the baggage. As we had already made encouraging promises to Niz̤ām Khān, we now, spite of this last impropriety, pardoned all earlier and this later fault, and sent him royal letters. As he heard of Rānā Sangā’s rapid advance, he had no resource but to call on Sayyid Rafī‘1971 for mediation, surrender the fort to our men, and come in with Sayyid Rafī‘, when he was exalted to the felicity of an interview.1972 I bestowed on him a pargana in Mīān-dū-āb worth 20 laks.1973 Dost, Lord-of-the-gate was sent for a time to Bīāna, but a few days later it was bestowed on Madhī Khwāja with a fixed allowance of 70 laks,1974 and he was given leave to go there.

Tātār Khān Sārang-khānī, who was in Gūālīār, had been sending constantly to assure us of his obedience and good-wishes. After the pagan took Kandār and was close to Bīāna, Dharmankat, one of the Gūālīār rājas, and another pagan styled Khān-i-jahān, went into the Gūālīār neighbourhood and, coveting the fort, began to stir trouble and tumult. Tātār Khān, thus placed in difficulty, was for surrendering Gūālīār (to us). Most of our begs, household and best braves being away with (Humāyūn’s) army or on various raids, we joined to Raḥīm-dādFol. 304b. a few Bhīra men and Lāhorīs with Hastachī1975 tūnqit̤ār and his brethren. We assigned parganas in Gūālīār itself to all those mentioned above. Mullā Apāq and Shaikh Gurān (G’hurān) went also with them, they to return after Raḥīm-dād was established in Gūālīār. By the time they were near Gūālīār however, Tātār Khān’s views had changed, and he did not invite them into the fort. Meantime Shaikh Muḥammad Ghaus̤ (Helper), a darwīsh-like man, not only very learned but with a large following of students and disciples, sent from inside the fort to say to Raḥīm-dād, “Get yourselves into the fort somehow, for the views of this person (Tātār Khān) have changed, and he has evil in his mind.” Hearing this, Raḥīm-dād sent to say to Tātār Khān, “There is danger from the Pagan to those outside; let me bring a few men into the fort and let the rest stay outside.” Under insistence, Tātār Khān agreed to this, and Raḥīm-dād went in with rather few men. Said he, “Let our people stay near this Gate,” posted them near the Hātī-pul (Elephant-gate) and through that Gate during that same night brought in the whole of his troop. Next day, Tātār Khān, reduced to helplessness, willy-nilly, made over the fort, and set out to come and wait on me in Āgra. A subsistence allowance of 20 laks was assigned to him on Bīānwān pargana.1976

Fol. 305.Muḥammad Zaitūn also took the only course open to him by surrendering Dūlpūr and coming to wait on me. A pargana worth a few laks was bestowed on him. Dūlpūr was made a royal domain (khālṣa) with Abū’l-fatḥ Turkmān1977 as its military-collector (shiqdār).

In the Ḥiṣār-fīrūza neighbourhood Ḥamīd Khān Sārang-khānī with a body of his own Afghāns and of the Panī Afghāns he had collected—from 3 to 4,000 in all—was in a hostile and troublesome attitude. On Wednesday the 15th Ṣafar (Nov. 21st) we appointed against him Chīn-tīmūr Sl. (Chaghatāī) with the commanders Secretary Aḥmadī, Abū’l-fatḥ Turkmān, Malik Dād Kararānī1978 and Mujāhid Khān of Multān. These going, fell suddenly on him from a distance, beat his Afghāns well, killed a mass of them and sent in many heads.

(e. Embassy from Persia.)

In the last days of Ṣafar, Khwājagī Asad who had been sent to Shāh-zāda T̤ahmāsp1979 in ‘Irāq, returned with a Turkmān named Sulaimān who amongst other gifts brought two Circassian girls (qīzlār).

(f. Attempt to poison Bābur.)

(Dec. 21st) On Friday the 16th of the first Rabī‘ a strange event occurred which was detailed in a letter written to Kābul. That letter is inserted here just as it was written, without addition or taking-away, and is as follows:—1980

“The details of the momentous event of Friday the 16th of the first Rabī‘ in the date 933 [Dec. 21st 1526 AD.] are as follows:—The ill-omened old woman1981 Ibrāhim’s mother heardFol. 305b. that I ate things from the hands of Hindūstānīs—the thing being that three or four months earlier, as I had not seen Hindūstānī dishes, I had ordered Ibrāhīm’s cooks to be brought and out of 50 or 60 had kept four. Of this she heard, sent to Atāwa (Etāwa) for Aḥmad the chāshnīgīr—in Hindūstān they call a taster (bakāwal) a chāshnīgīr—and, having got him,1982 gave a tūla of poison, wrapped in a square of paper,—as has been mentioned a tūla is rather more than 2 mis̤qāls1983—into the hand of a slave-woman who was to give it to him. That poison Aḥmad gave to the Hindūstānī cooks in our kitchen, promising them four parganas if they would get it somehow into the food. Following the first slave-woman that ill-omened old woman sent a second to see if the first did or did not give the poison she had received to Aḥmad. Well was it that Aḥmad put the poison not into the cooking-pot but on a dish! He did not put it into the pot because I had strictly ordered the tasters to compel any Hindūstānīs who were present while food was cooking in the pots, to taste that food.1984 Our graceless tasters were neglectful when the food (āsh) was being dished up. Thin slices of bread were put on a porcelain dish; on these less than half of the paper packet of poison was sprinkled, and over this buttered Fol. 306.fritters were laid. It would have been bad if the poison had been strewn on the fritters or thrown into the pot. In his confusion, the man threw the larger half into the fire-place.”

“On Friday, late after the Afternoon Prayer, when the cooked meats were set out, I ate a good deal of a dish of hare and also much fried carrot, took a few mouthfuls of the poisoned Hindūstānī food without noticing any unpleasant flavour, took also a mouthful or two of dried-meat (qāq). Then I felt sick. As some dried meat eaten on the previous day had had an unpleasant taste, I thought my nausea due to the dried-meat. Again and again my heart rose; after retching two or three times I was near vomiting on the table-cloth. At last I saw it would not do, got up, went retching every moment of the way to the water-closet (āb-khāna) and on reaching it vomited much. Never had I vomited after food, used not to do so indeed while drinking. I became suspicious; I had the cooks put in ward and ordered some of the vomit given to a dog and the dog to be watched. It was somewhat out-of-sorts near the first watch of the next day; its belly was swollen and however much people threw stones at it and turned it over, it did not get up. In that state it remained till mid-day; it then got up; it did not die. Fol. 306b.One or two of the braves who also had eaten of that dish, vomited a good deal next day; one was in a very bad state. In the end all escaped. (Persian) ‘An evil arrived but happily passed on!’ God gave me new-birth! I am coming from that other world; I am born today of my mother; I was sick; I live; through God, I know today the worth of life!”1985

“I ordered Pay-master Sl. Muḥammad to watch the cook; when he was taken for torture (qīn), he related the above particulars one after another.”

“Monday being Court-day, I ordered the grandees and notables, amīrs and wazīrs to be present and that those two men and two women should be brought and questioned. They there related the particulars of the affair. That taster I had cut in pieces, that cook skinned alive; one of those women I had thrown under an elephant, the other shot with a match-lock. The old woman (būā) I had kept under guard; she will meet her doom, the captive of her own act.”1986

“On Saturday I drank a bowl of milk, on Sunday ‘araq in which stamped-clay was dissolved.1987 On Monday I drank milk in which were dissolved stamped-clay and the best theriac,1988 a strong purge. As on the first day, Saturday, something very dark like parched bile was voided.”

“Thanks be to God! no harm has been done. Till now I had not known so well how sweet a thing life can seem! As the line has it, ‘He who has been near to death knows the worth of life.’ Spite of myself, I am all upset whenever the dreadfulFol. 307. occurrence comes back to my mind. It must have been God’s favour gave me life anew; with what words can I thank him?”

“Although the terror of the occurrence was too great for words, I have written all that happened, with detail and circumstance, because I said to myself, ‘Don’t let their hearts be kept in anxiety!’ Thanks be to God! there may be other days yet to see! All has passed off well and for good; have no fear or anxiety in your minds.”

“This was written on Tuesday the 20th of the first Rabī‘, I being then in the Chār-bāgh.”

When we were free from the anxiety of these occurrences, the above letter was written and sent to Kābul.

(g. Dealings with Ibrāhīm’s family.)

As this great crime had raised its head through that ill-omened old woman (būā-i-bad-bakht), she was given over to Yūnas-i-‘alī and Khwājagī Asad who after taking her money and goods, slaves and slave-women (dādūk), made her over for careful watch to ‘Abdu’r-raḥīm shaghāwal.1989 Her grandson, Ibrāhīm’s son had been cared for with much respect and delicacy, but as the attempt on my life had been made, clearly, by that family, it did not seem advisable to keep him in Agra; he was joined therefore to Mullā Sarsān—who had come from Kāmrān on important business—and was started off with the Mullā to Kāmrān on Thursday Rabī‘ I. 29th (Jan. 3rd 1527 AD.).1990

(h. Humāyūn’s campaign.)

Fol. 307b.Humāyūn, acting against the Eastern rebels1991 took Jūna-pūr (sic), went swiftly against Naṣīr Khān (Nūḥānī) in Ghāzī-pūr and found that he had gone across the Gang-river, presumably on news* of Humāyūn’s approach. From Ghāzī-pūr Humāyūn went against Kharīd1992 but the Afghāns of the place had crossed the Sārū-water (Gogra) presumably on the news* of his coming. Kharīd was plundered and the army turned back.

Humāyūn, in accordance with my arrangements, left Shāh Mīr Ḥusain and Sl. Junaid with a body of effective braves in Jūna-pūr, posted Qāẓī Jīā with them, and placed Shaikh Bāyazīd [Farmūlī] in Aude (Oude). These important matters settled, he crossed Gang from near Karrah-Mānikpūr and took the Kālpī road. When he came opposite Kālpī, in which was Jalāl Khān Jik-hat’s (son) ‘Ālam Khān who had sent me dutiful letters but had not waited on me himself, he sent some-one to chase fear from ‘Ālam Khān’s heart and so brought him along (to Āgra).

Humāyūn arrived and waited on me in the Garden of Eight-paradises1993 on Sunday the 3rd of the 2nd Rabī‘ (Jan. 6th 1527 AD.). On the same day Khwāja Dost-i-khāwand arrived from Kābul.

(i. Rānā Sangā’s approach.)1994

Meantime Mahdī Khwāja’s people began to come in, treading on one another’s heels and saying, “The Rānā’s advance is certain. Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī is heard of also as likely to join him. They must be thought about above all else. It would favour our fortune, if a troop came ahead of the army to reinforce Bīāna.”Fol. 308.

Deciding to get to horse, we sent on, to ride light to Bīāna, the commanders Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, Yūnas-i-‘alī, Shāh Manṣūr Barlās, Kitta Beg, Qismatī1995 and Būjka.

In the fight with Ibrāhīm, Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī’s son Nāhar Khān had fallen into our hands; we had kept him as an hostage and, ostensibly on his account, his father had been making comings-and-goings with us, constantly asking for him. It now occurred to several people that if Ḥasan Khān were conciliated by sending him his son, he would thereby be the more favourably disposed and his waiting on me might be the better brought about. Accordingly Nāhar Khān was dressed in a robe of honour; promises were made to him for his father, and he was given leave to go. That hypocritical mannikin [Ḥasan Khān] must have waited just till his son had leave from me to go, for on hearing of this and while his son as yet had not joined him, he came out of Alūr (Alwar) and at once joined Rānā Sangā in Toda(bhīm, Āgra District). It must have been ill-judged to let his son go just then.

Meantime much rain was falling; parties were frequent; even Humāyūn was present at them and, abhorrent though it was to him, sinned1996 every few days.

(j. Tramontane affairs.)

One of the strange events in these days of respite1997 was this:—When Humāyūn was coming from Fort Victory. (Qila‘-i-z̤afar) to join the Hindūstān army, (Muḥ. 932 AH.-Oct. 1525 AD.)Fol. 308b. Mullā Bābā of Pashāghar (Chaghatāī) and his younger brother Bābā Shaikh deserted on the way, and went to Kītīn-qarā Sl. (Aūzbeg), into whose hands Balkh had fallen through the enfeeblement of its garrison.1998 This hollow mannikin and his younger brother having taken the labours of this side (Cis-Balkh?) on their own necks, come into the neighbourhood of Aībak, Khurram and Sār-bāgh.1999

Shāh Sikandar—his footing in Ghūrī lost through the surrender of Balkh—is about to make over that fort to the Aūzbeg, when Mullā Bābā and Bābā Shaikh, coming with a few Aūzbegs, take possession of it. Mīr Hamah, as his fort is close by, has no help for it; he is for submitting to the Aūzbeg, but a few days later Mullā Bābā and Bābā Shaikh come with a few Aūzbegs to Mīr Hamah’s fort, purposing to make the Mīr and his troop march out and to take them towards Balkh. Mīr Hamah makes Bābā Shaikh dismount inside the fort, and gives the rest felt huts (aūtāq) here and there. He slashes at Bābā Shaikh, puts him and some others in bonds, and sends a man galloping off to Tīngrī-bīrdī (Qūchīn, in Qūndūz). Tīngrī-bīrdī sends off Yār-i-‘alī and ‘Abdu’l-lat̤īf with a few effective braves, but before they reach Mīr Hamah’s fort, Mullā Bābā has arrived there with his Aūzbegs; he had thought of a hand-to-hand fight (aūrūsh-mūrūsh), but he can do nothing. Mīr Hamah and his men joined Tīngrī-bīrdī’s and came to Qūndūz. Bābā Shaikh’s wound must have been severe; they cut his head off and Mīr Hamah brought Fol. 309.it (to Āgra) in these same days of respite. I uplifted his head with favour and kindness, distinguishing him amongst his fellows and equals. When Bāqī shaghāwal went [to Balkh]2000 I promised him a ser of gold for the head of each of the ill-conditioned old couple; one ser of gold was now given to Mīr Hamah for Bābā Shaikh’s head, over and above the favours referred to above.2001

(k. Action of part of the Bīāna reinforcement.)

Qismatī who had ridden light for Bīāna, brought back several heads he had cut off; when he and Būjka had gone with a few braves to get news, they had beaten two of the Pagan’s scouting-parties and had made 70 to 80 prisoners. Qismatī brought news that Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī really had joined Rānā Sangā.

(l. Trial-test of the large mortar of f. 302.)

(Feb. 10th) On Sunday the 8th of the month (Jumāda I.), I went to see Ustād ‘Alī-qulī discharge stones from that large mortar of his in casting which the stone-chamber was without defect and which he had completed afterwards by casting the powder-compartment. It was discharged at the Afternoon Prayer; the throw of the stone was 1600 paces. A gift was made to the Master of a sword-belt, robe of honour, and tīpūchāq (horse).

(m. Bābur leaves Āgra against Rānā Sangā.)

(Feb. 11th) On Monday the 9th of the first Jumāda, we got out of the suburbs of Āgra, on our journey (safar) for the Holy War, and dismounted in the open country, where we remained three or four days to collect our army and be its rallying-point.2002 As little confidence was placed in Hindūstānī people, the Hindūstān amīrs were inscribed for expeditions to this or to that side:—‘Ālam Khān (Tahangarī) was sent hastily to Gūālīār toFol. 309b. reinforce Raḥīm-dād; Makan, Qāsim Beg Sanbalī (Saṃbhalī), Ḥamīd with his elder and younger brethren and Muḥammad Zaitūn were inscribed to go swiftly to Sanbal.

(n. Defeat of the advance-force.)

Into this same camp came the news that owing to Rānā Sangā’s swift advance with all his army,2003 our scouts were able neither to get into the fort (Bīāna) themselves nor to send news into it. The Bīāna garrison made a rather incautious sally too far out; the enemy fell on them in some force and put them to rout.2004 There Sangur Khān Janjūha became a martyr. Kitta Beg had galloped into the pell-mell without his cuirass; he got one pagan afoot (yāyāglātīb) and was overcoming him, when the pagan snatched a sword from one of Kitta Beg’s own servants and slashed the Beg across the shoulder. Kitta Beg suffered great pain; he could not come into the Holy-battle with Rānā Sangā, was long in recovering and always remained blemished.

Whether because they were themselves afraid, or whether to frighten others is not known but Qismatī, Shāh Manṣūr Barlās and all from Bīāna praised and lauded the fierceness and valour of the pagan army.

Qāsim Master-of-the-horse was sent from the starting-ground (safar qīlghān yūrt) with his spadesmen, to dig many wells where the army was next to dismount in the Madhākūr pargana.

(Feb. 16th) Marching out of Āgra on Saturday the 14th of the first Jumāda, dismount was made where the wells had been Fol. 310.dug. We marched on next day. It crossed my mind that the well-watered ground for a large camp was at Sīkrī.2005 It being possible that the Pagan was encamped there and in possession of the water, we arrayed precisely, in right, left and centre. As Qismatī and Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān in their comings and goings had seen and got to know all sides of Bīāna, they were sent ahead to look for camping-ground on the bank of the Sīkrī-lake (kūl). When we reached the (Madhākūr) camp, persons were sent galloping off to tell Mahdī Khwāja and the Bīāna garrison to join me without delay. Humāyūn’s servant Beg Mīrak Mughūl was sent out with a few braves to get news of the Pagan. They started that night, and next morning brought word that he was heard of as having arrived and dismounted at a place one kuroh (2 miles) on our side (aīlkārāk) of Basāwar.2006 On this same day Mahdī Khwāja and Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā rejoined us with the troops that had ridden light to Bīāna.

(o. Discomfiture of a reconnoitring party.)

The begs were appointed in turns for scouting-duty. When it was ‘Abdu’l-‘azīz’s turn, he went out of Sīkrī, looking neither before nor behind, right out along the road to Kanwā which is 5 kuroh (10 m.) away. The Rānā must have been marching forward; he heard of our men’s moving out in their reinless (jalāū-sīz) way, and made 4 or 5,000 of his own fall suddenly on them. With ‘Abdu’l-‘azīz and Mullā Apāq may have been 1000 to 1500 men; they took no stock of their opponents but justFol. 310b. got to grips; they were hurried off at once, many of them being made prisoner.

On news of this, we despatched Khalīfa’s Muḥibb-i-‘alī with Khalīfa’s retainers. Mullā Ḥusain and some others aūbrūqsūbrūq2007* were sent to support them,2008 and Muḥammad ‘Alī Jang-jang also. Presumably it was before the arrival of this first, Muḥibb-i-‘alī’s, reinforcement that the Pagan had hurried off ‘Abdu’l-‘azīz and his men, taken his standard, martyred Mullā Ni‘mat, Mullā Dāūd and the younger brother of Mullā Apāq, with several more. Directly the reinforcement arrived the pagans overcame T̤āhir-tibrī, the maternal uncle of Khalīfa’s Muḥibb-i-‘alī, who had not got up with the hurrying reinforcement[?].2009 Meantime Muḥibb-i-‘alī even had been thrown down, but Bāltū getting in from the rear, brought him out. The enemy pursued for over a kuroh (2 m.), stopped however at the sight of the black mass of Muḥ. ‘Alī Jang-jang’s troops.

Foot upon foot news came that the foe had come near and nearer. We put on our armour and our horses’ mail, took our arms and, ordering the carts to be dragged after us, rode out at the gallop. We advanced one kuroh. The foe must have turned aside.

(p. Bābur fortifies his camp.)

For the sake of water, we dismounted with a large lake (kūl) on one side of us. Our front was defended by carts chained together*, the space between each two, across which the chains stretched, being 7 or 8 qārī (circa yards). Must̤afa Rūmī had Fol. 311.had the carts made in the Rūmī way, excellent carts, very strong and suitable.2010 As Ustād ‘Alī-qulī was jealous of him, Must̤afa was posted to the right, in front of Humāyūn. Where the carts did not reach to, Khurāsānī and Hindūstānī spadesmen and miners were made to dig a ditch.

Owing to the Pagan’s rapid advance, to the fighting-work in Bīāna and to the praise and laud of the pagans made by Shāh Manṣūr, Qismatī and the rest from Bīāna, people in the army shewed sign of want of heart. On the top of all this came the defeat of ‘Abdu’l-‘azīz. In order to hearten our men, and give a look of strength to the army, the camp was defended and shut in where there were no carts, by stretching ropes of raw hide on wooden tripods, set 7 or 8 qārī apart. Time had drawn out to 20 or 25 days before these appliances and materials were fully ready.2011

(q. A reinforcement from Kābul.)

Just at this time there arrived from Kābul Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sl. (Aūzbeg Shaibān) who is the son of a daughter of Sl. Ḥusain M. (Bāī-qarā), and with him Aḥmad-i-yūsuf (Aūghlāqchī), Qawwām-i-aūrdū Shāh and also several single friends of mine, counting up in all to 500 men. Muḥammad Sharīf, the astrologer of ill-augury, came with them too, so did Bābā Dost the water-bearer (sūchī) who, having gone to Kābul for wine, had thereFol. 311b. loaded three strings of camels with acceptable Ghaznī wines.

At a time such as this, when, as has been mentioned, the army was anxious and afraid by reason of past occurrences and vicissitudes, wild words and opinions, this Muḥammad Sharīf, the ill-augurer, though he had not a helpful word to say to me, kept insisting to all he met, “Mars is in the west in these days;2012 who comes into the fight from this (east) side will be defeated.” Timid people who questioned the ill-augurer, became the more shattered in heart. We gave no ear to his wild words, made no change in our operations, but got ready in earnest for the fight.

(Feb. 24th) On Sunday the 22nd (of Jumāda 1.) Shaikh Jamāl was sent to collect all available quiver-wearers from between the two waters (Ganges and Jumna) and from Dihlī, so that with this force he might over-run and plunder the Mīwāt villages, leaving nothing undone which could awaken the enemy’s anxiety for that side. Mullā Tark-i-‘alī, then on his way from Kābul, was ordered to join Shaikh Jamāl and to neglect nothing of ruin and plunder in Mīwāt; orders to the same purport were given also to Maghfūr the Dīwān. They went; they over-ran and raided a few villages in lonely corners (būjqāq); they took some prisoners; but their passage through did not arouse much anxiety!

(r. Bābur renounces wine.)

On Monday the 23rd of the first Jumāda (Feb. 25th), whenFol. 312. I went out riding, I reflected, as I rode, that the wish to cease from sin had been always in my mind, and that my forbidden acts had set lasting stain upon my heart. Said I, “Oh! my soul!”

(Persian) “How long wilt thou draw savour from sin? Repentance is not without savour, taste it!”2013

(Turkī) Through years how many has sin defiled thee? How much of peace has transgression given thee? How much hast thou been thy passions’ slave? How much of thy life flung away? With the Ghāzī’s resolve since now thou hast marched, Thou hast looked thine own death in the face! Who resolves to hold stubbornly fast to the death, Thou knowest what change he attains, That far he removes him from all things forbidden, That from all his offences he cleanses himself. With my own gain before me, I vowed to obey, In this my transgression,2014 the drinking of wine.2015 The flagons and cups of silver and gold, the vessels of feasting, I had them all brought; I had them all broken up2016 then and there. Thus eased I my heart by renouncement of wine.

The fragments of the gold and silver vessels were shared out to deserving persons and to darwīshes. The first to agree in renouncing wine was ‘Asas;2017 he had already agreed also about leaving his beard untrimmed.2018 That night and next day some Fol. 312b.300 begs and persons of the household, soldiers and not soldiers, renounced wine. What wine we had with us was poured on the ground; what Bābā Dost had brought was ordered salted to make vinegar. At the place where the wine was poured upon the ground, a well was ordered to be dug, built up with stone and having an almshouse beside it. It was already finished in Muḥarram 935 (AH.-Sep. 1528 AD.) at the time I went to Sīkrī from Dūlpūr on my way back from visiting Gūālīār.

(s. Remission of a due.)

I had vowed already that, if I gained the victory over Sangā the pagan, I would remit the tamghā2019 to all Musalmāns. Of this vow Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān and Shaikh Zain reminded me at the time I renounced wine. Said I, “You do well to remind me.”

*The tamghā was remitted to all Musalmāns of the dominions I held.2020 I sent for the clerks (munshīlār), and ordered them to write for their news-letters (akhbar) the farmān concerning the two important acts that had been done. Shaikh Zain wrote the farmān with his own elegance (inshāsī bīla) and his fine letter (inshā) was sent to all my dominions. It is as follows:—2021

FARMĀN ANNOUNCING BĀBUR’S RENUNCIATION OF WINE.2022

2023 Let us praise the Long-suffering One who loveth the penitent and who loveth the cleansers of themselves; and let thanks be rendered to the Gracious One who absolveth His debtors, and forgiveth those who seek forgiveness. Blessings be upon Muḥammad the Crown of Creatures, on the Holy family, on the pure Companions, and on the mirrors of the glorious congregation, to wit, the Masters of Wisdom who are treasure-houses of the pearls of purity and who bear the impress of the sparkling jewels of this purport:—that the nature of man is prone to evil, and that the abandonment of sinful appetites is only feasible by Divine aidFol. 313. and the help that cometh from on high. “Every soul is prone unto evil,”2024 (and again) “This is the bounty of God; He will give the same unto whom He pleaseth; and God is endued with great bounty.”2025

Our motive for these remarks and for repeating these statements is that, by reason of human frailty, of the customs of kings and of the great, all of us, from the Shāh to the sipāhī, in the heyday of our youth, have transgressed and done what we ought not to have done. After some days of sorrow and repentance, we abandoned evil practices one by one, and the gates of retrogression became closed. But the renunciation of wine, the greatest and most indispensable of renunciations, remained under a veil in the chamber of deeds pledged to appear in due season, and did not show its countenance until the glorious hour when we had put on the garb of the holy warrior and had encamped with the army of Islām over against the infidels in order to slay them. On this occasion I received a secret inspiration and heard an infallible voice say “Is not the time yet come unto those who believe, that their hearts should humbly submit to the admonition of God, and that truth which hath been revealed?”2026 Thereupon we set ourselves to extirpate the things of wickedness, and we earnestly knocked at the gates of repentance. The Guide of Help assisted us, according to the saying “Whoever knocks and re-knocks, to him it will be opened”, and an order was given that with the Holy War there should Fol. 313b.begin the still greater war which has to be waged against sensuality. In short, we declared with sincerity that we would subjugate our passions, and I engraved on the tablet of my heart “I turn unto Thee with repentance, and I am the first of true believers”.2027 And I made public the resolution to abstain from wine, which had been hidden in the treasury of my breast. The victorious servants, in accordance with the illustrious order, dashed upon the earth of contempt and destruction the flagons and the cups, and the other utensils in gold and silver, which in their number and their brilliance were like the stars of the firmament. They dashed them in pieces, as, God willing! soon will be dashed the gods of the idolaters,—and they distributed the fragments among the poor and needy. By the blessing of this acceptable repentance, many of the courtiers, by virtue of the saying that men follow the religion of their kings, embraced abstinence at the same assemblage, and entirely renounced the use of wine, and up till now crowds of our subjects hourly attain this auspicious happiness. I hope that in accordance with the saying “He who incites to good deeds has the same reward as he who does them” the benefit of this action will react on the royal fortune and increase it day by day by victories.

After carrying out this design an universal decree was issued that in the imperial dominions—May God protect them fromFol. 314. every danger and calamity—no-one shall partake of strong drink, or engage in its manufacture, nor sell it, nor buy it or possess it, nor convey it or fetch it. “Beware of touching it.” “Perchance this will give you prosperity.”2028

In thanks for these great victories,2029 and as a thank-offering for God’s acceptance of repentance and sorrow, the ocean of the royal munificence became commoved, and those waves of kindness, which are the cause of the civilization of the world and of the glory of the sons of Adam, were displayed,—and throughout all the territories the tax (tamghā) on Musalmāns was abolished,—though its yield was more than the dreams of avarice, and though it had been established and maintained by former rulers,—for it is a practice outside of the edicts of the Prince of Apostles (Muḥammad). So a decree was passed that in no city, town, road, ferry, pass, or port, should the tax be levied or exacted. No alteration whatsoever of this order is to be permitted. “Whoever after hearing it makes any change therein, the sin of such change will be upon him.”2030

The proper course (sabīl) for all who shelter under the shade of the royal benevolence, whether they be Turk, Tājik, ‘Arab, Hindī, or Fārsī (Persian), peasants or soldiers, of every nation or tribe of the sons of Adam, is to strengthen themselves by the tenets of religion, and to be full of hope and prayer for the dynasty which is linked with eternity, and to adhere to these ordinances, and not in any way to transgress them. It behoves all to act according to this farmān; they are to accept it as authentic when it comes attested by the Sign-Manual.

Written by order of the Exalted one,—May his excellence endure for ever! on the 24th of Jumāda I. 933 (February 26th 1527).

(t. Alarm in Bābur’s camp.)

Fol. 314b.In these days, as has been mentioned, (our people) great and small, had been made very anxious and timid by past occurrences. No manly word or brave counsel was heard from any one soever. What bold speech was there from the wazīrs who are to speak out (dīgūchī), or from the amīrs who will devour the land (wilāyat-yīghūchī)?2031 None had advice to give, none a bold plan of his own to expound. Khalīfa (however) did well in this campaign, neglecting nothing of control and supervision, painstaking and diligence.

At length after I had made enquiry concerning people’s want of heart and had seen their slackness for myself, a plan occurred to me; I summoned all the begs and braves and said to them, “Begs and braves!

(Persian) Who comes into the world will die; What lasts and lives will be God.

(Turkī) He who hath entered the assembly of life, Drinketh at last of the cup of death. He who hath come to the inn of life, Passeth at last from Earth’s house of woe.

“Better than life with a bad name, is death with a good one.

(Persian) Well is it with me, if I die with good name! A good name must I have, since the body is death’s.2032

“God the Most High has allotted to us such happiness and has created for us such good-fortune that we die as martyrs, we kill as avengers of His cause. Therefore must each of you take oathFol. 315. upon His Holy Word that he will not think of turning his face from this foe, or withdraw from this deadly encounter so long as life is not rent from his body.” All those present, beg and retainer, great and small, took the Holy Book joyfully into their hands and made vow and compact to this purport. The plan was perfect; it worked admirably for those near and afar, for seërs and hearers, for friend and foe.

(u. Bābur’s perilous position.)

In those same days trouble and disturbance arose on every side:—Ḥusain Khān Nuḥānī went and took Rāprī; Qut̤b Khān’s man took Chandwār2033; a mannikin called Rustam Khān who had collected quiver-wearers from Between-the-two-waters (Ganges and Jamna), took Kūl (Koel) and made Kīchīk ‘Alī prisoner; Khwāja Zāhid abandoned Saṃbal and went off; Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī came from Qanūj to me; the Gūālīār pagans laid siege to that fort; ‘Ālam Khān when sent to reinforce it, did not go to Gūālīār but to his own district. Every day bad news came from every side. Desertion of many Hindūstānīs set in; Haibat Khān Karg-andāz2034 deserted and went to Saṃbal; Ḥasan Khān of Bārī deserted and joined the Pagan. We gave attention to none of them but went straight on with our own affair.

(v. Bābur advances to fight.)

The apparatus and appliances, the carts and wheeled tripods being ready, we arrayed in right, left and centre, and marched forward on New Year’s Day,2035 Tuesday, the 9th of the secondFol. 315b. Jumāda (March 13th), having the carts2036 and wheeled tripods moving in front of us, with Ustād ‘Alī-qulī and all the matchlock-men ranged behind them in order that these men, being on foot, should not be left behind the array but should advance with it.

When the various divisions, right, left and centre, had gone each to its place, I galloped from one to another to give encouragement to begs, braves, and sipāhīs. After each man had had assigned to him his post and usual work with his company, we advanced, marshalled on the plan determined, for as much as one kuroh (2 m.)2037 and then dismounted.

The Pagan’s men, for their part, were on the alert; they came from their side, one company after another.

The camp was laid out and strongly protected by ditch and carts. As we did not intend to fight that day, we sent a few unmailed braves ahead, who were to get to grips with the enemy and thus take an omen. They made a few pagans prisoner, cut off and brought in their heads. Malik Qāsim also cut off and brought in a few heads; he did well. By these successes the hearts of our men became very strong.

When we marched on next day, I had it in my mind to fight, but Khalīfa and other well-wishers represented that the camping-ground previously decided on was near and that it would favour our fortunes if we had a ditch and defences made there and went there direct. Khalīfa accordingly rode off to get Fol. 316.the ditch dug; he settled its position with the spades-men, appointed overseers of the work and returned to us. (w. The battle of Kānwa.)2038

On Saturday the 13th of the second Jumāda (March 17th, 1527 AD.) we had the carts dragged in front of us (as before), made a kuroh (2 m.) of road, arrayed in right, left and centre, and dismounted on the ground selected.

A few tents had been set up; a few were in setting up when news of the appearance of the enemy was brought. Mounting instantly, I ordered every man to his post and that our array should be protected with the carts.2039

*As the following Letter-of-victory (Fatḥ-nāma) which is what Shaikh Zain had indited, makes known particulars about the army of Islām, the great host of the pagans with the position of their arrayed ranks, and the encounters had between them and the army of Islām, it is inserted here without addition or deduction.2040

SHAIKH ZAIN’S LETTER-OF-VICTORY.

(a. Introduction.)

Praise be to God the Faithful Promiser, the Helper of His servants, the Supporter of His armies, the Scatterer of hostile hosts, the One alone without whom there is nothing.Fol. 316b.

O Thou the Exalter of the pillars of Islām, Helper of thy faithful minister, Overthrower of the pedestals of idols, Overcomer of rebellious foes, Exterminator to the uttermost of the followers of darkness!

Lauds be to God the Lord of the worlds, and may the blessing of God be upon the best of His creatures Muḥammad, Lord of ghāzīs and champions of the Faith, and upon his companions, the pointers of the way, until the Day of judgment.

The successive gifts of the Almighty are the cause of frequent praises and thanksgivings, and the number of these praises and thanksgivings is, in its turn, the cause of the constant succession of God’s mercies. For every mercy a thanksgiving is due, and every thanksgiving is followed by a mercy. To render full thanks is beyond men’s power; the mightiest are helpless to discharge their obligations. Above all, adequate thanks cannot be rendered for a benefit than which none is greater in the world and nothing is more blessed, in the world to come, to wit, victory over most powerful infidels and dominion over wealthiest heretics, “these are the unbelievers, the wicked.”2041 In the eyes of the judicious, no blessing can be greater than this. Thanks be to God! that this great blessing and mighty boon, which from the cradle until now has been the real object of this right-thinking mind (Bābur’s), has now manifested itself by the graciousness of the King of the worlds; the Opener who dispenses his treasures without awaiting solicitation, hath opened them with a master-key before our victorious Nawāb (Bābur),2042 so that the names of our2043 conquering heroes have been emblazoned in the records of glorious ghāzīs. By the help of our victorious soldiers the Fol. 317.standards of Islām have been raised to the highest pinnacles. The account of this auspicious fortune is as follows:—