BABAR'S INVASIONS OF INDIA
Into the first period of Indian history, that extending from the
earliest times to the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni, in the beginning
of the eleventh century, I do not propose to enter. The world,
indeed, possesses little detailed knowledge of that period. It is
known that from the Indus to Cape Comorin the country was peopled by
several distinct races, speaking a variety of languages; that the
prevailing religions were those of the Brahman, the Buddhist, and the
Jain; and that the wars periodically occurring between the several
kings of the several provinces or divisions were mostly religious
wars.
The invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni came first, in the year 1001, to
disturb the existing system. But although Mahmud, and his successors
of the Ghazni dynasty, penetrated to Delhi, to Rajputana, and to the
furthest extremities of Gujarat, they did not practically extend
their permanent rule beyond the Punjab. The territories to the
south-east of the Sutlej still remained subject to Hindu sovereigns.
But in 1186, the dynasty of the Ghaznivis was destroyed by the
dynasty of Ghor or Ghur, founded by an Afghan of Ghur, a {27}
district in Western Afghanistan, a hundred and twenty miles to the
south-east of the city of Herat, on the road to Kabul. The Ghuri
dynasty was, in its turn, supplanted, in 1288, by that of the Khilji
or Ghilji. The princes of this House, after reigning with great
renown for thirty-three years over Delhi and a portion of the
territories now known as the North-west Provinces, and, pushing their
conquests beyond the Narbada and the Deccan, made way, in 1321, for
the Tughlak dynasty, descended from Turki slaves. The Tughlaks did
not possess the art of consolidation. During the ninety-one years of
their rule the provinces ruled by their predecessors gradually
separated from the central authority at Delhi. The invasion of Taimur
(1388-9) dealt a fatal blow to an authority already crumbling. The
chief authority lingered indeed for twelve years in the hands of the
then representative, Sultan Mahmud. It then passed for a time into
the hands of a family which did not claim the royal title. This
family, known in history as the Saiyid dynasty, ruled nominally in
Northern India for about thirty-three years, but the rule had no
coherence, and a powerful Afghan of the Lodi family took the
opportunity to endeavour to concentrate power in his own hands.
The Muhammadan rule in India had indeed become by this time the rule
of several disjointed chiefs over several disjointed provinces,
subject in point of fact to no common head. Thus, in 1450, Delhi,
with a small territory around it, was held by the {28} representative
of the Saiyid family. Within fourteen miles of the capital, Ahmad
Khan ruled independently in Mewat. Sambhal, or the province now known
as Rohilkhand, extending to the very walls of Delhi, was occupied by
Darya Khan Lodi. Jalesar, now the Itah district, by Isa Khan Turk:
the district now known as Farukhabad by Raja Partab Singh: Biana by
Daud Khan Lodi: and Lahore, Dipalpur, and Sirhind, as far south as
Panipat, by Behlul Lodi. Multan, Jaunpur, Bengal, Malwa, and Gujarat,
each had its separate king.
Over most of these districts, and as far eastward as the country
immediately to the north of Western Bihar, Behlul Lodi, known as
Sultan Behlul, succeeded on the disappearance of the Saiyids in
asserting his sole authority, 1450-88. His son and successor, Sultan
Sikandar Lodi, subdued Behar, invaded Bengal, which, however, he
subsequently agreed to yield to Allah-u-din, its sovereign, and not
to invade it again; and overran a great portion of Central India. On
his death, in 1518, he had concentrated under his own rule the
territories now known as the Punjab; the North-western Provinces,
including Jaunpur; a great part of Central India; and Western Bihar.
But, in point of fact, the concentration was little more than
nominal. The Afghan nobles, to whom from necessity the Lodi Sultan
committed the charge of the several districts, were indeed bound to
their sovereign by a kind of feudal tenure, but within the circle of
his own charge each of them made his own will {29} absolute, and
insisted on obedience to his decrees alone.
The result of this arrangement was that when Sultan Sikandar died the
several important nobles, impatient even of nominal obedience,
resolved, acting in concert, to assign to his son, Ibrahim, the
kingdom of Delhi only, and to divide the rest of the deceased
Sultan's dominions amongst themselves, Jaunpur alone excepted. This
province was to be assigned to the younger brother of Ibrahim, as a
separate kingdom, in subordination to Delhi. It would appear that
when the proposal was first made to him, Ibrahim, probably seeing no
remedy, assented. Upon the remonstrances of his kinsmen, Khan Jahan
Lodi, however, he withdrew his assent and recalled his brother, who
had already set out for Jaunpur. The brother refused to return. A
civil war ensued in which Ibrahim was victorious. On the death of his
brother, in 1518, Ibrahim endeavoured to assert his authority over
his ambitious nobles. They rebelled. He quelled the rebellion. But
the cruel use he made of his victory, far from quenching the
discontent, caused fresh revolts. The nobles of Behar, of Oudh, of
Jaunpur, flew to arms: the Punjab followed the example. The civil war
was conducted with great fury and with varying fortunes on both
sides. It was when the crisis was extreme that Allah-u-din, uncle of
Sultan Ibrahim, fled to the camp of Babar, then engaged in the
pacification of the Kandahar districts, and implored him to place him
on the throne of Delhi. Almost {30} simultaneously there came to the
King of Kabul a still more tempting offer from Daolat Khan, Governor
of Lahore, and who was hard pressed by Ibrahim's general, begging for
assistance, and offering in return to acknowledge him as his
sovereign. Babar agreed, and marched at once in the direction of
Lahore.
* * * * * * *
The foregoing sketch of the internal condition of India during the
five centuries which had elapsed since the invasion of Mahmud of
Ghazni will explain, I hope sufficiently clearly, how it was that
none of the successive dynasties had taken root in the soil. Whether
that dynasty were Ghaznivi, or Ghuri, or Tughlak, or Saiyid, or Lodi,
the representative had fought merely for his own hand and his own
advantage. The nobles of the ruling sovereign had in this respect
followed the example of their master. Hindustan had thus been overrun
and partly occupied by the feudal followers of chiefs, who in turn
owed feudal allegiance which they would or would not render,
according to the power and capacity of the supreme lord. There had
been no welding of the interest of the conquerors and the conquered
such as took place in England after the Conquest. The Muhammadans sat
as despotic rulers of an alien people, who obeyed him because they
could not resist. There was no thought of attaching those people to
the ruling dynasty either by sympathy or by closer union. The
conquerors had come as aliens, and as aliens they remained. Their
hold on the country was thus superficial: it had {31} no root in the
affections of the people, and it could be maintained only by the
sword. It was in this respect that it differed so widely from the
Mughal dynasty, as represented by Akbar, that was to succeed it.
The first invasion of India by Babar, not reckoning the hasty visit
spoken of in Chapter III, occurred in 1519. Some historians assert
that there was a second invasion the same year. But Ferishta is
probably correct when he says that this so-called invasion amounted
simply to an expedition against the Yusufzais, in the course of which
Babar advanced as far as Peshawar, but did not cross the Indus. There
is no doubt, however, that he made an expedition, called the third,
in 1520. On this occasion he crossed the Indus, marched into the part
known now as the Rawal Pindi division, crossed the Jehlam, reached
Sialkot, which he spared, and then marched on Saiyidpur, which he
plundered. He was called from this place to Kabul to meet a
threatened attack upon that capital.
The abortive result of this third expedition more than ever convinced
Babar that no invasion of Hindustan could with certainty succeed
unless he could secure his base at Kandahar. He spent, therefore, the
next two or three years in securing that stronghold and the territory
between Ghazni and Khorasan. He had just succeeded in settling these
districts on an efficient basis when he received the messages from
Allah-u-din Lodi and Daolat Khan of Lahore, the latter of which
decided him to undertake his fourth expedition to India. Once more
did he cross the Indus, the {32} Jehlam, and the Chenab, and advanced
within ten miles of Lahore. There he was met by, and there he
defeated, the army of the adherents of the House of Lodi. Lahore fell
a prize to his troops. But he halted there but four days; then
pushing on, reached and stormed Dipalpur.[1] Here he was joined by
Daolat Khan and his sons. These, however, dissatisfied with the
rewards meted out to them, began to intrigue against their new
master. Babar was approaching Sirhind, on his way to Delhi, when he
discovered their machinations. He determined, then, to renounce for
the moment his forward movement, and to return to Kabul. This he did
after having parcelled out the Punjab among chiefs upon whom he hoped
he could depend.
[Footnote 1: Dipalpur is a town in the Montgomery district to the
south-west of Lahore and forty miles from it. In Babar's time it was
a place of great importance.]
Scarcely had he crossed the Indus when the Punjab became the scene of
a renewed struggle. Allah-u-din Lodi, to whom the district of
Dipalpur had been consigned, fled in despair to Kabul, hoping that
Babar would himself undertake the invasion of India. At the moment
Babar could not comply, for the Uzbeks were laying siege to Balkh.
However he supplied Allah-u-din with troops and ordered his generals
in the Punjab to support him. But again did the expedition of this
prince fail, and he fled from Delhi in confusion to the Punjab. At
the time that he entered it, a fugitive, Babar was preparing for his
fifth and last invasion of India.
{33} Of that invasion I must be content to give the barest outline.
Accompanied by his son, Humayun, Babar descended the Khaibar Pass to
Peshawar, halted there two days, crossed the Indus the 16th of
December, and pushed on rapidly to Sialkot. On his arrival there,
December 29th, he heard of the defeat and flight of Allah-u-din.[2]
Undismayed, he marched the following morning to Parsaror, midway
between Sialkot and Kalanaur on the Ravi; thence to Kalanaur, where
he crossed the Ravi; thence to the Bias, which he crossed, and thence
to the strong fortress of Milwat, in which his former adherent Daolat
Khan, had taken refuge. Milwat soon fell. Babar then marched through
the Jalandhar Duab to the Sutlej, placing, as he writes, 'his foot in
the stirrup of resolution, and his hand on the reins of
confidence-in-God,' crossed it near Rupar, then by way of Ambala, to
the Jumna, opposite Sirsawa.[3] Thence he held down the river for two
marches. Two more brought him to Panipat, fifty-three miles to the
north-west of Delhi. There he halted and fortified his camp. The date
was April 12, 1526.
[Footnote 2: Of this march there is a detailed and most interesting
account given by Babar in his _Memoirs_, page 290, and the pages
following.]
[Footnote 3: Sirsawa lies on the south bank of the Jumna, ten miles
west-north-west of Saharanpur.]
Nine days later Ibrahim Lodi, at the head of an army computed by
Babar to have been a hundred thousand strong, attacked the invader in
his intrenched camp. 'The sun had mounted spear-high,' {34} writes
Babar, 'when the onset of the battle began, and the combat lasted
till midday, when the enemy were completely broken and routed.' The
victory was in all respects decisive. Ibrahim Lodi was killed,
bravely fighting, and Hindustan lay at the feet of the victor. That
very day Babar despatched troops to occupy Delhi and Agra. These
results were accomplished on the 24th of April and 4th of May
respectively.[4]
[Footnote 4: In his _Memoirs_, Babar, after recounting how, from
comparatively small beginnings, he had become conqueror 'of the noble
country of Hindustan,' adds: 'This success I do not ascribe to my own
strength, nor did this good fortune flow from my own efforts, but
from the fountain of the favour and mercy of God.']
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