[1625] _kūrūshūr waqt_ (Index _s.n._ _kūrūsh_).

[1626] Bābur's phrasing suggests beggary.

[1627] This might refer to the time when Ibrāhīm's commander

Bihār (Bahādur) Khān _Nūḥānī_ took Lāhor (Translator's Note

_in loco_ p. 441).

[1628] They were his father's. Erskine estimated the 3 _krors_

at £75,000.

[1629] _shiqq_, what hangs on either side, perhaps a satirical

reference to the ass' burden.

[1630] As illustrating Bābur's claim to rule as a Tīmūrid in

Hindūstān, it may be noted that in 814 AH. (1411 AD.), Khiẓr

Khān who is allowed by the date to have been a Sayyid ruler in

Dihlī, sent an embassy to Shāhrukh Mīrzā the then Tīmūrid

ruler of Samarkand to acknowledge his suzerainty

(_Maṯla`u's-sa`dain_, Quatremère, N. et Ex. xiv, 196).

[1631] Firishta says that Bābur mounted for the purpose of

preserving the honour of the Afghāns and by so doing enabled

the families in the fort to get out of it safely (lith. ed. p.

204).

[1632] _chuhra_; they will have been of the Corps of braves

(_yīgīt_; Appendix H. section _c._).

[1633] _kīm kullī gharẓ aul aīdī_; Pers. trs. _ka

gharẓ-i-kullī-i-au būd_.

[1634] Persice, the eves of Sunday and Monday; Anglice,

Saturday and Sunday nights.

[1635] Ghāzī Khān was learned and a poet (Firishta ii, 42).

[1636] _mullayāna khūd_, perhaps books of learned topic but

not in choice copies.

[1637] f. 257. It stands in 31° 50' N. and 76° E. (G. of I.).

[1638] This is on the Salt-range, in 32° 42' N. and 72° 50' E.

(_Āyīn-i-akbarī_ trs. Jarrett, i, 325; Provincial Gazetteer,

Jīhlam District).

[1639] He died therefore in the town he himself built. Kitta

Beg probably escorted the Afghān families from Milwat also;

Dilāwar Khān's own seems to have been there already (f. 257).

The _Bābur-nāma_ makes no mention of Daulat Khān's relations

with Nānak, the founder of the Sikh religion, nor does it

mention Nānak himself. A tradition exists that Nānak, when on

his travels, made exposition of his doctrines to an attentive

Bābur and that he was partly instrumental in bringing Bābur

against the Afghāns. He was 12 years older than Bābur and

survived him nine. (Cf. _Dabistān_ lith. ed. p. 270; and, for

Jahāngīr Pādshāh's notice of Daulat Khān, _Tūzūk-i-jahāngīrī_,

Rogers and Beveridge, p. 87).

[1640] I translate _dūn_ by _dale_ because, as its equivalent,

Bābur uses _julga_ by which he describes a more pastoral

valley than one he calls a _dara_.

[1641] _bīr āqār-sū._ Bābur's earlier uses of this term

[_q.v._ index] connect it with the swift flow of water in

irrigation channels; this may be so here but also the term may

make distinction between the rapid mountain-stream and the

slow movement of rivers across plains.

[1642] There are two readings of this sentence; Erskine's

implies that the neck of land connecting the fort-rock with

its adjacent hill measures 7-8 _qārī_ (yards) from side to

side; de Courteille's that where the great gate was, the

perpendicular fall surrounding the fort shallowed to 7-8

yards. The Turkī might be read, I think, to mean whichever

alternative was the fact. Erskine's reading best bears out

Bābur's account of the strength of the fort, since it allows

of a cleft between the hill and the fort some 140-160 feet

deep, as against the 21-24 of de Courteille's. Erskine may

have been in possession of information [in 1826] by which he

guided his translation (p. 300), "At its chief gate, for the

space of 7 or 8 _gez_ (_qārī_), there is a place that admits

of a draw-bridge being thrown across; it may be 10 or 12 _gez_

wide." If de Courteille's reading be correct in taking 7-8

_qārī_ only to be the depth of the cleft, that cleft may be

artificial.

[1643] _yīghāch_, which also means wood.

[1644] f. 257.

[1645] Chief scribe (f. 13 n. to `Abdu'l-wahhāb). Shaw's

Vocabulary explains the word as meaning also a "high official

of Central Asian sovereigns, who is supreme over all _qāzīs_

and _mullās_."

[1646] Bābur's persistent interest in Balkh attracts

attention, especially at this time so shortly before he does

not include it as part of his own territories (f. 270).

Since I wrote of Balkh _s.a._ 923 AH. (1517 AD.), I have

obtained the following particulars about it in that year; they

are summarized from the _Ḥabību's-siyar_ (lith. ed. iii, 371).

In 923 AH. Khwānd-amīr was in retirement at Pasht in

Ghūrjistān where also was Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā. The two went

in company to Balkh where the Mīrzā besieged Bābur's man

Ibrāhīm _chāpūk_ (Slash-face), and treacherously murdered one

Aūrdū-shāh, an envoy sent out to parley with him. Information

of what was happening was sent to Bābur in Kābul. Bābur

reached Balkh when it had been besieged a month. His presence

caused the Mīrzā to retire and led him to go into the

Darā-i-gaz (Tamarind-valley). Bābur, placing in Balkh

Faqīr-i-`alī, one of those just come up with him, followed the

Mīrzā but turned back at Āq-guṃbaz (White-dome) which lies

between Chāch-charān in the Herī-rūd valley and the Ghūrjistān

border, going no further because the Ghūrjistānīs favoured the

Mīrzā. Bābur went back to Kābul by the Fīrūz-koh, Yaka-aūlāng

(cf. f. 195) and Ghūr; the Mīrzā was followed up by others,

captured and conveyed to Kābul.

[1647] Both were amīrs of Hind. I understand the cognomen

Maẕhab to imply that its bearer occupied himself with the

Muḥammadan Faith in its exposition by divines of Islām

(_Hughes' Dictionary of Islām_).

[1648] These incidents are included in the summary of `Ālam

Khān's affairs in section _i_ (f. 255_b_). It will be observed

that Bābur's wording implies the "waiting" by one of lower

rank on a superior.

[1649] Elph. MS. Karnāl, obviously a clerical error.

[1650] Shaikh Sulaimān Effendi (Kunos) describes a _tunqiṯār_

as the guardian in war of a prince's tent; a night-guard; and

as one who repeats a prayer aloud while a prince is mounting.

[1651] _rūd_, which, inappropriate for the lower course of the

Ghaggar, may be due to Bābur's visit to its upper course

described immediately below. As has been noted, however, he

uses the word _rūd_ to describe the empty bed of a

mountain-stream as well as the swift water sometimes filling

that bed. The account, here-following, of his visit to the

upper course of the Ghaggar is somewhat difficult to

translate.

[1652] _Hindūstāndā daryālārdīn bāshqa, bīr āqār-sū kīm bār_

(_dūr_, is added by the Elph. MS.), _bū dūr_. Perhaps the

meaning is that the one (chief?) irrigation stream, apart from

great rivers, is the Ghaggar. The bed of the Ghaggar is

undefined and the water is consumed for irrigation (G. of I.

xx, 33; Index _s.n._ _āqār-sū_).

[1653] in Patiāla. Maps show what may be Bābur's strong

millstream joining the Ghaggar.

[1654] Presumably he was of Ibrāhīm's own family, the

Sāhū-khail. His defeat was opportune because he was on his way

to join the main army.

[1655] At this place the Elphinstone Codex has preserved,

interpolated in its text, a note of Humāyūn's on his first use

of the razor. Part of it is written as by Bābur:—"Today in

this same camp the razor or scissors was applied to Humāyūn's

face." Part is signed by Humāyūn:—"As the honoured dead,

earlier in these Acts (_wāqi`āt_) mentions the first

application of the razor to his own face (f. 120), so in

imitation of him I mention this. I was then at the age of 18;

now I am at the age of 48, I who am the sub-signed Muḥammad

Humāyūn." A scribe's note attests that this is "copied from

the hand-writing of that honoured one". As Humāyūn's 48th

(lunar) birthday occurred a month before he left Kābul, to

attempt the re-conquest of Hindūstān, in November 1554 AD. (in

the last month of 961 AH.), he was still 48 (lunar) years old

on the day he re-entered Dihlī on July 23rd 1555 AD. (Ramẓān

1st 962 AH.), so that this "shaving passage" will have been

entered within those dates. That he should study his Father's

book at that time is natural; his grandson Jahāngīr did the

same when going to Kābul; so doubtless would do its author's

more remote descendants, the sons of Shāh-jahān who

reconquered Transoxiana.

(Concerning the "shaving passage" _vide_ the notes on the

Elphinstone Codex in JRAS. 1900 p. 443, 451; 1902 p. 653; 1905

p. 754; and 1907 p. 131.)

[1656] This ancient town of the Sahāranpūr district is

associated with a saint revered by Hindūs and Muḥammadans. Cf.

W. Crooke's _Popular Religion of Northern India_ p. 133. Its

_chashma_ may be inferred (from Bābur's uses of the word

_q.v._ Index) as a water-head, a pool, a gathering place of

springs.

[1657] He was the eighth son of Bābur's maternal-uncle Sl.

Aḥmad Khān _Chaghatāī_ and had fled to Bābur, other brothers

following him, from the service of their eldest brother

Manṣūr, Khāqān of the Mughūls (_Tārīkh-i-rashīdī_ trs. p.

161).

[1658] _fars̱-waqtī_, when there is light enough to

distinguish one object from another.

[1659] _dīm kūrūldī_ (Index _s.n._ _dīm_). Here the L. & E.

_Memoirs_ inserts an explanatory passage in Persian about the

_dīm_. It will have been in one of the _Wāqi`āt-i-bāburī MSS._

Erskine used; it is in Muḥ. _Shīrāzī_'s lithograph copy of the

Udaipūr Codex (p. 173). It is not in the Turkī text or in all

the MSS. of the Persian translation. Manifestly, it was

entered at a time when Bābur's term _dīm kūrūldī_ requires

explanation in Hindustan. The writer of it himself does not

make details clear; he says only, "It is manifest that people

declare (the number) after counting the mounted army in the

way agreed upon amongst them, with a whip or a bow held in the

hand." This explanation suggests that in the march-past the

troops were measured off as so many bow- or whip-lengths

(Index _s.n._ _dīm_).

[1660] These _arāba_ may have been the baggage-carts of the

army and also carts procured on the spot. Erskine omits

(_Memoirs_ p. 304) the words which show how many carts were

collected and from whom. Doubtless it would be through not

having these circumstances in his mind that he took the

_arāba_ for gun-carriages. His incomplete translation, again,

led Stanley Lane-Poole to write an interesting note in his

_Bābur_ (p. 161) to support Erskine against de Courteille

(with whose rendering mine agrees) by quoting the circumstance

that Humāyūn had 700 guns at Qanauj in 1540 AD. It must be

said in opposition to his support of Erskine's "gun-carriages"

that there is no textual or circumstantial warrant for

supposing Bābur to have had guns, even if made in parts, in

such number as to demand 700 gun-carriages for their

transport. What guns Bābur had at Pānī-pat will have been

brought from his Kābul base; if he had acquired any, say from

Lāhor, he would hardly omit to mention such an important

reinforcement of his armament; if he had brought many guns on

carts from Kābul, he must have met with transit-difficulties

harassing enough to chronicle, while he was making that long

journey from Kābul to Pānī-pat, over passes, through

skirt-hills and many fords. The elephants he had in Bīgrām may

have been his transport for what guns he had; he does not

mention his number at Pānī-pat; he makes his victory a

bow-man's success; he can be read as indicating that he had

two guns only.

[1661] These Ottoman (text, _Rūmī_, Roman) defences Ustād

`Alī-qulī may have seen at the battle of Chāldirān fought some

40 leagues from Tābrīz between Sl. Salīm _Rūmī_ and Shāh

Ismā`īl _Ṣafawī_ on Rajab 1st 920 AH. (Aug. 22nd 1514 AD.). Of

this battle Khwānd-amīr gives a long account, dwelling on the

effective use made in it of chained carts and palisades

(_Ḥabību's-siyar_ iii, part 4, p. 78; _Akbar-nāma_ trs. i,

241).

[1662] Is this the village of the Pānī Afghāns?

[1663] Index _s.n._ arrow.

[1664] _Pareshān jam`ī u jam`ī pareshān;

Giriftār qaumī u qaumī `ajā'ib._

These two lines do not translate easily without the context of

their original place of occurrence. I have not found their

source.

[1665] _i.e._ of his father and grandfather, Sikandar and

Buhlūl.

[1666] As to the form of this word the authoritative MSS. of

the Turkī text agree and with them also numerous good ones of

the Persian translation. I have made careful examination of

the word because it is replaced or explained here and there in

MSS. by _s:hb:ndī_, the origin of which is said to be obscure.

The sense of _b:d-hindī_ and of _s:hb:ndī_ is the same, _i.e._

irregular levy. The word as Bābur wrote it must have been

understood by earlier Indian scribes of both the Turkī and

Persian texts of the _Bābur-nāma_. Some light on its

correctness may be thought given by Hobson Jobson (Crooke's

ed. p. 136) _s.n._ Byde or Bede Horse, where the word Byde is

said to be an equivalent of _pindārī_, _lūtī_, and _qāzzāq_,

raider, plunderer, so that Bābur's word _b:d-hindī_ may mean

_qāzzāq_ of Hind. Wherever I have referred to the word in many

MSS. it is pointed to read _b:d_, and not _p:d_, thus

affording no warrant for understanding _pad_, foot, foot-man,

infantry, and also negativing the spelling _bīd_, _i.e._ with

a long vowel as in _Byde_.

It may be noted here that Muḥ. _Shīrāzī_ (p. 174) substituted

_s:hb:ndī_ for Bābur's word and that this led our friend the

late William Irvine to attribute mistake to de Courteille who

follows the Turkī text (_Army of the Mughūls_ p. 66 and

_Mémoires_ ii, 163).

[1667] _bī tajarba yīgīt aīdī_ of which the sense may be that

Bābur ranked Ibrāhīm, as a soldier, with a brave who has not

yet proved himself deserving of the rank of beg. It cannot

mean that he was a youth (_yīgīt_) without experience of

battle.

[1668] Well-known are the three decisive historical battles

fought near the town of Pānī-pat, _viz._ those of Bābur and

Ibrāhīm in 1526, of Akbar and Hīmū in 1556, and of Aḥmad

_Abdālī_ with the Mahratta Confederacy in 1761. The following

lesser particulars about the battle-field are not so

frequently mentioned:—(_i_) that the scene of Bābur's victory

was long held to be haunted, Badāyūnī himself, passing it at

dawn some 62 years later, heard with dismay the din of

conflict and the shouts of the combatants; (_ii_) that Bābur

built a (perhaps commemorative) mosque one mile to the n.e. of

the town; (_iii_) that one of the unaccomplished desires of

Sher Shāh _Sūr_, the conqueror of Bābur's son Humāyūn, was to

raise two monuments on the battle-field of Pānī-pat, one to

Ibrāhīm, the other to those Chaghatāī sulṯāns whose martyrdom

he himself had brought about; (_iv_) that in 1910 AD. the

British Government placed a monument to mark the scene of Shāh

_Abdālī's_ victory of 1761 AD. This monument would appear,

from Sayyid Ghulām-i-`alī's _Nigār-nāma-i-hind_, to stand

close to the scene of Bābur's victory also, since the

Mahrattas were entrenched as he was outside the town of

Pānī-pat. (Cf. E. & D. viii, 401.)

[1669] This important date is omitted from the L. & E.

_Memoirs_.

[1670] This wording will cover armour of man and horse.

[1671] _ātlāndūk_, Pers. trs. _sūwār shudīm_. Some later

oriental writers locate Bābur's battle at two or more miles

from the town of Pānī-pat, and Bābur's word _ātlāndūk_ might

imply that his cavalry rode forth and arrayed outside his

defences, but his narrative allows of his delivering attack,

through the wide sally-ports, after arraying behind the carts

and mantelets which checked his adversary's swift advance. The

Mahrattas, who may have occupied the same ground as Bābur,

fortified themselves more strongly than he did, as having

powerful artillery against them. Aḥmad Shāh _Abdālī's_ defence

against them was an ordinary ditch and _abbattis_, [Bābur's

ditch and branch,] mostly of _dhāk_ trees (_Butea frondosa_),

a local product Bābur also is likely to have used.

[1672] The preceding three words seem to distinguish this Shāh

Ḥusain from several others of his name and may imply that he

was the son of _Yāragī Mughūl Ghānchī_ (Index and I.O. 217 f.

184b l. 7).

[1673] For Bābur's terms _vide_ f. 209_b_

[1674] This is Mīrzā Khān's son, _i.e._ Wais _Mīrān-shāhī's_.

[1675] A dispute for this right-hand post of honour is

recorded on f. 100_b_, as also in accounts of Culloden.

[1676] _tartīb u yāsāl_, which may include, as Erskine took it

to do, the carts and mantelets; of these however, Ibrāhīm can

hardly have failed to hear before he rode out of camp.

[1677] f. 217_b_ and note; Irvine's _Army of the Indian

Mughuls_ p. 133. Here Erskine notes (_Mems._ p. 306) "The size

of these artillery at this time is very uncertain. The word

_firingī_ is now (1826 AD.) used in the Deccan for a swivel.

At the present day, _zarb-zan_ in common usage is a small

species of swivel. Both words in Bābur's time appear to have

been used for field-cannon." (For an account of guns,

intermediate in date between Bābur and Erskine, _see_ the

_Āyīn-i-akbarī_. Cf. f. 264 n. on the carts (_arāba_).)

[1678] Although the authority of the

_Tārīkh-i-salāṯīn-i-afaghāna_ is not weighty its reproduction

of Afghān opinion is worth consideration. It says that

astrologers foretold Ibrāhīm's defeat; that his men, though

greatly outnumbering Bābur's, were out-of-heart through his

ill-treatment of them, and his amīrs in displeasure against

him, but that never-the-less, the conflict at Pānī-pat was

more desperate than had ever been seen. It states that Ibrāhīm

fell where his tomb now is (_i.e._ in _circa_ 1002 AH.-1594

AD.); that Bābur went to the spot and, prompted by his tender

heart, lifted up the head of his dead adversary, and said,

"Honour to your courage!", ordered brocade and sweetmeats made

ready, enjoined Dilāwar Khān and Khalīfa to bathe the corpse

and to bury it where it lay (E. & D. v, 2). Naturally, part of

the reverence shewn to the dead would be the burial together

of head and trunk.

[1679] f. 209_b_ and App. H. section _c._ Bābā _chuhra_ would

be one of the corps of braves.

[1680] He was a brother of Muḥibb-i-`alī's mother.

[1681] To give Humāyūn the title Mīrzā may be a scribe's

lapse, but might also be a _nuance_ of Bābur's, made to shew,

with other _minutiae_, that Humāyūn was in chief command. The

other minute matters are that instead of Humāyūn's name being

the first of a simple series of commanders' names with the

enclitic accusative appended to the last one (here Walī), as

is usual, Humāyūn's name has its own enclitic _nī_; and,

again, the phrase is "_Humāyūn with_" such and such begs, a

turn of expression differentiating him from the rest. The same

unusual variations occur again, just below, perhaps with the

same intention of shewing chief command, there of Mahdī

Khwāja.

[1682] A small matter of wording attracts attention in the

preceding two sentences. Bābur, who does not always avoid

verbal repetition, here constructs two sentences which, except

for the place-names Dihlī and Āgra, convey information of

precisely the same action in entirely different words.

[1683] d. 1325 AD. The places Bābur visited near Dihlī are

described in the _Reports of the Indian Archaeological

Survey_, in Sayyid Aḥmad's _As̤ār Sanādīd_ pp. 74-85, in

Keene's _Hand-book to Dihlī_ and Murray's _Hand-book to Bengal

etc._ The last two quote much from the writings of Cunningham

and Fergusson.

[1684] and on the same side of the river.

[1685] d. 1235 AD. He was a native of Aūsh [Ush] in Farghāna.

[1686] d. 1286 AD. He was a Slave ruler of Dihlī.

[1687] `Alāu'u'd-dīn Muḥ. Shāh _Khiljī Turk_ d. 1316 AD. It is

curious that Bābur should specify visiting his Minār

(_minārī_, Pers. trs. I.O. 217 f. 185_b_, _minār-i-au_) and

not mention the Quṯb Minār. Possibly he confused the two. The

`Alāī Minār remains unfinished; the Quṯb is judged by

Cunningham to have been founded by Quṯbu'd-dīn Aībak _Turk_,

_circa_ 1200 AD. and to have been completed by Sl.

Shamsu'd-dīn Altamsh (Aīltimīsh?) _Turk_, _circa_ 1220 AD. Of

the two tanks Bābur visited, the Royal-tank (_ḥauẓ-i-khāẓ_)

was made by `Alāu'u'd-dīn in 1293 AD.

[1688] The familiar Turkī word Tūghlūq would reinforce much

else met with in Dihlī to strengthen Bābur's opinion that, as

a Turk, he had a right to rule there. Many, if not all, of the

Slave dynasty were Turks; these were followed by the Khiljī

Turks, these again by the Tūghlūqs. Moreover the Panj-āb he

had himself taken, and lands on both sides of the Indus

further south had been ruled by Ghaznawid Turks. His latest

conquests were "where the Turk had ruled" (f. 226_b_) long,

wide, and with interludes only of non-Turkī sway.

[1689] Perhaps this charity was the _Khams_ (Fifth) due from a

victor.

[1690] Bikramājīt was a Tūnūr Rājpūt. Bābur's unhesitating

statement of the Hindu's destination at death may be called a

fruit of conviction, rather than of what modern opinion calls

intolerance.

[1691] 120 years (Cunningham's _Report of the Archaeological

Survey_ ii, 330 _et seq._).

[1692] The _Tārīkh-i-sher-shāhī_ tells a good deal about the

man who bore this title, and also about others who found

themselves now in difficulty between Ibrāhīm's tyranny and

Bābur's advance (E. & D. iv, 301).

[1693] Gūālīār was taken from Bikramājīt in 1518 AD.

[1694] _i.e._ from the Deccan of which `Alāu'u'd-dīn is said

to have been the first Muḥammadan invader. An account of this

diamond, identified as the Koh-i-nūr, is given in _Hobson

Jobson_ but its full history is not told by Yule or by

Streeter's _Great Diamonds of the World_, neither mentioning

the presentation of the diamond by Humāyūn to Taḥmāsp of which

Abū'l-faẓl writes, dwelling on its overplus of payment for all

that Humāyūn in exile received from his Persian host

(_Akbar-nāma_ trs. i, 349 and note; _Asiatic Quarterly

Review_, April 1899 H. Beveridge's art. _Bābur's diamond_;

_was it the Koh-i-nūr?_).

[1695] 320 _ratīs_ (Erskine). The _ratī_ is 2.171 Troy grains,

or in picturesque primitive equivalents, is 8 grains of rice,

or 64 mustard seeds, or 512 poppy-seeds,—uncertain weights

which Akbar fixed in cat's-eye stones.

[1696] Bābur's plurals allow the supposition that the three

men's lives were spared. Malik Dād served him thenceforth.

[1697] Erskine estimated these as _dams_ and worth about

£1750, but this may be an underestimate (_H. of I._ i, App.

E.).

[1698] "These begs of his" (or hers) may be the three written

of above.

[1699] These will include cousins and his half-brothers

Jahāngīr and Nāṣir as opposing before he took action in 925

AH. (1519 AD.). The time between 910 AH. and 925 AH. at which

he would most desire Hindūstān is after 920 AH. in which year

he returned defeated from Transoxiana.

[1700] _kīchīk karīm_, which here seems to make contrast

between the ruling birth of members of his own family and the

lower birth of even great begs still with him. Where the

phrase occurs on f. 295, Erskine renders it by "down to the

dregs", and de Courteille (ii, 235) by "_de toutes les

bouches_" but neither translation appears to me to suit

Bābur's uses of the term, inasmuch as both seem to go too low

(cf. f. 270_b_).

[1701] _aīūrūshūb_, Pers. trs. _chaspīda_, stuck to.

[1702] The first expedition is fixed by the preceding passage

as in 925 AH. which was indeed the first time a passage of the

Indus is recorded. Three others are found recorded, those of

926, 930 and 932 AH. Perhaps the fifth was not led by Bābur in

person, and may be that of his troops accompanying `Ālam Khān

in 931 AH. But he may count into the set of five, the one made

in 910 AH. which he himself meant to cross the Indus. Various

opinions are found expressed by European writers as to the

dates of the five.

[1703] Muḥammad died 632 AD. (11 AH.).

[1704] Tramontana, n. of Hindū-kush. For particulars about the

dynasties mentioned by Bābur see Stanley Lane-Poole's

_Muḥammadan Dynasties_.

[1705] Maḥmūd of Ghaznī, a Turk by race, d. 1030 AD. (421

AH.).

[1706] known as Muḥ. _Ghūrī_, d. 1206 AD. (602 AH.).

[1707] _sūrūbtūrlār_, lit. drove them like sheep (cf. f.

154b).

[1708] _khūd_, itself, not Bābur's only Hibernianism.

[1709] "This is an excellent history of the Musalmān world

down to the time of Sl. Nāṣir of Dihlī A.D. 1252. It was

written by Abū `Umar Minḥāj al Jūrjānī. See Stewart's

catalogue of Tipoo's Library, p. 7" (Erskine). It has been

translated by Raverty.

[1710] _bargustwān-wār_; Erskine, cataphract horse.

[1711] The numerous instances of the word _pādshāh_ in this

part of the _Bābur-nāma_ imply no such distinction as attaches

to the title Emperor by which it is frequently translated

(Index _s.n._ _pādshāh_).

[1712] d. 1500 AD. (905 AH.).

[1713] d. 1388 AD. (790 AH.).

[1714] The ancestor mentioned appears to be Naṣrat Shāh, a

grandson of Fīrūz Shāh _Tūghlūq_ (S. L. Poole p. 300 and

Beale, 298).

[1715] His family belonged to the Rājpūt sept of Tānk, and had

become Muḥammadan in the person of Sadharān the first ruler of

Gujrāt (Crooke's _Tribes and Castes; Mirāt-i-sikandarī_,

Bayley p. 67 and n.).

[1716] S. L.-Poole p. 316-7.

[1717] Mandāū (Mandū) was the capital of Malwā.

[1718] Stanley Lane-Poole shews (p. 311) a dynasty of three

Ghūrīs interposed between the death of Fīrūz Shāh in 790 AH.

and the accession in 839 AH. of the first Khiljī ruler of

Gujrāt Maḥmūd Shāh.

[1719] He reigned from 1518 to 1532 AD. (925 to 939 AH.

S.L.-P. p. 308) and had to wife a daughter of Ibrāhīm _Lūdī_

(_Riyaẓu's-salāṯīn_). His dynasty was known as the

Ḥusain-shāhī, after his father.

[1720] "Strange as this custom may seem, a similar one

prevailed down to a very late period in Malabar. There was a

jubilee every 12 years in the Samorin's country, and any-one

who succeeded in forcing his way through the Samorin's guards

and slew him, reigned in his stead. 'A jubilee is proclaimed

throughout his dominions at the end of 12 years, and a tent is

pitched for him in a spacious plain, and a great feast is

celebrated for 10 or 12 days with mirth and jollity, guns

firing night and day, so, at the end of the feast, any four of

the guests that have a mind to gain a throne by a desperate

action in fighting their way through 30 or 40,000 of his

guards, and kill the Samorin in his tent, he that kills him,

succeeds him in his empire.' See Hamilton's _New Account of

the East Indies_ vol. i. p. 309. The attempt was made in 1695,

and again a very few years ago, but without success" (Erskine

p. 311).

The custom Bābur writes of—it is one dealt with at length in

Frazer's _Golden Bough_—would appear from Blochmann's

_Geography and History of Bengal_ (JASB 1873 p. 286) to have

been practised by the Habshī rulers of Bengal of whom he

quotes Faria y Souza as saying, "They observe no rule of

inheritance from father to son, but even slaves sometimes

obtain it by killing their master, and whoever holds it three

days, they look upon as established by divine providence. Thus

it fell out that in 40 years space they had 13 kings

successively."

[1721] No doubt this represents Vijāyanagar in the Deccan.

[1722] This date places the composition of the _Description of

Hindustan_ in agreement with Shaikh Zain's statement that it

was in writing in 935 AH.

[1723] Are they the Khas of Nepal and Sikkim? (G. of I.).

[1724] Here Erskine notes that the Persian (trs.) adds, "_mīr_

signifying a hill, and _kas_ being the name of the natives of

the hill-country." This may not support the name _kas_ as

correct but may be merely an explanation of Bābur's meaning.

It is not in I.O. 217 f. 189 or in Muḥ. _Shīrāzī_'s

lithographed _Wāqi`āt-i-bāburī_ p. 190.

[1725] Either yak or the tassels of the yak. See Appendix M.

[1726] My husband tells me that Bābur's authority for this

interpretation of Sawālak may be the _Z̤afar-nāma_ (Bib. Ind.

ed. ii, 149).

[1727] _i.e._ the countries of Hindūstān.

[1728] so pointed, carefully, in the Ḥai. MS. Mr. Erskine

notes of these rivers that they are the Indus, Hydaspes,

Ascesines, Hydraotes, Hesudrus and Hyphasis.

[1729] _Āyīn-i-akbarī_, Jarrett 279.

[1730] _pārcha pārcha_, _kīchīkrāk kīchīkrāk_, _āndā mūndā_,

_tāshlīq tāqghīna_. The Gazetteer of India (1907 i, 1) puts

into scientific words, what Bābur here describes, the ruin of

a great former range.

[1731] Here _āqār-sūlār_ might safely be replaced by

"irrigation channels" (Index _s.n._).

[1732] The verb here is _tāshmāq_; it also expresses to carry

like ants (f. 220), presumably from each person's carrying a

pitcher or a stone at a time, and repeatedly.

[1733] "This" notes Erskine (p. 315) "is the _wulsa_ or

_walsa_, so well described by Colonel Wilks in his Historical

Sketches vol. i. p. 309, note 'On the approach of an hostile

army, the unfortunate inhabitants of India bury under ground

their most cumbrous effects, and each individual, man, woman,

and child above six years of age (the infant children being

carried by their mothers), with a load of grain proportioned

to their strength, issue from their beloved homes, and take

the direction of a country (if such can be found,) exempt from

the miseries of war; sometimes of a strong fortress, but more

generally of the most unfrequented hills and woods, where they

prolong a miserable existence until the departure of the

enemy, and if this should be protracted beyond the time for

which they have provided food, a large portion necessarily

dies of hunger.' See the note itself. The Historical Sketches

should be read by every-one who desires to have an accurate

idea of the South of India. It is to be regretted that we do

not possess the history of any other part of India, written

with the same knowledge or research."

"The word _wulsa_ or _walsa_ is Dravidian. Telugu has

_valasa_, 'emigration, flight, or removing from home for fear

of a hostile army.' Kanarese has _valasĕ_, _ŏlasĕ_, and

_ŏlisĕ_, 'flight, a removing from home for fear of a hostile

army.' Tamil has _valasei_, 'flying for fear, removing

hastily.' The word is an interesting one. I feel pretty sure

it is not Aryan, but Dravidian; and yet it stands alone in

Dravidian, with nothing that I can find in the way of a root

or affinities to explain its etymology. Possibly it may be a

borrowed word in Dravidian. Malayalam has no corresponding

word. Can it have been borrowed from Kolarian or other

primitive Indian speech?" (Letter to H. Beveridge from Mr. F.

E. Pargiter, 8th August, 1914.)

_Wulsa_ seems to be a derivative from Sanscrit _ūlvash_, and

to answer to Persian _wairānī_ and Turkī _būzūghlūghī_.

[1734] _lalmī_, which in Afghānī (Pushtū) signifies grown

without irrigation.

[1735] "The improvement of Hindūstān since Bābur's time must

be prodigious. The wild elephant is now confined to the

forests under Hemāla, and to the Ghats of Malabar. A wild

elephant near Karrah, Mānikpūr, or Kālpī, is a thing, at the

present day (1826 AD.), totally unknown. May not their

familiar existence in these countries down to Bābur's days, be

considered rather hostile to the accounts given of the

superabundant population of Hindūstān in remote times?"

(Erskine).

[1736] _dīwān._ I.O. 217 f. 190b, _dar dīwān fīl jawāb

mīgūīnd_; Mems. p. 316. They account to the government for the

elephants they take; _Méms._ ii, 188, _Les habitants payent

l'impôt avec le produit de leur chasse_. Though de

Courteille's reading probably states the fact, Erskine's

includes de C.'s and more, inasmuch as it covers all captures

and these might reach to a surplusage over the imposts.

[1737] Pers. trs. _gaz_=24 inches. _Il est bon de rappeler que

le mot turk qārī, que la version persane rend par gaz, désigne

proprement l'espace compris entre le haut de l'épaule jusqu'au

bout des doigts_ (de Courteille, ii, 189 note). The _qārī_

like one of its equivalents, the ell (Zenker), is a variable

measure; it seems to approach more nearly to a yard than to a

_gaz_ of 24 inches. See _Memoirs of Jahāngīr_ (R. & B. pp. 18,

141 and notes) for the heights of elephants, and for

discussion of some measures.

[1738] _khūd_, itself.

[1739] _i.e._ pelt; as Erskine notes, its skin is scattered

with small hairs. Details such as this one stir the question,

for whom was Bābur writing? Not for Hindūstān where what he

writes is patent; hardly for Kābul; perhaps for Transoxiana.

[1740] Shaikh Zain's wording shows this reference to be to a

special piece of artillery, perhaps that of f. 302.

[1741] A string of camels contains from five to seven, or, in

poetry, even more (Vullers, ii, 728, _sermone poetico series

decem camelorum_). The item of food compared is corn only

(_būghūz_) and takes no account therefore of the elephant's

green food.

[1742] The Ency. Br. states that the horn seldom exceeds a

foot in length; there is one in the B.M. measuring 18 inches.

[1743] āb-khẉura kishtī, water-drinker's boat, in which name

kishtī may be used with reference to shape as boat is in

_sauce-boat_. Erskine notes that rhinoceros-horn is supposed

to sweat on approach of poison.

[1744] _aīlīk_, Pers. trs. _angusht_, finger, each seemingly

representing about one inch, a hand's thickness, a finger's

breadth.

[1745] lit. hand (_qūl_) and leg (_būt_).

[1746] The anatomical details by which Bābur supports this

statement are difficult to translate, but his grouping of the

two animals is in agreement with the modern classification of

them as two of the three _Ungulata vera_, the third being the

tapir (Fauna of British India:—Mammals, Blanford 467 and,

illustration, 468).

[1747] De Courteille (ii, 190) reads _kūmūk_, osseuse; Erskine

reads _gūmūk_, marrow.

[1748] Index _s.n._ rhinoceros.

[1749] _Bos bubalus._

[1750] "so as to grow into the flesh" (Erskine, p. 317).

[1751] _sic_ in text. It may be noted that the name _nīl-gāī_,

common in general European writings, is that of the cow;

_nīl-gāū_, that of the bull (Blanford).

[1752] _b:ḥ:rī qūṯās_; _see_ Appendix M.

[1753] The doe is brown (Blanford, p. 518). The word _būghū_

(stag) is used alone just below and seems likely to represent

the bull of the Asiatic wapiti (f. 4 n. on _būghū-marāl_.)

[1754] _Axis porcinus_ (Jerdon, _Cervus porcinus_).

[1755] _Saiga tartarica_ (Shaw). Turkī _hūna_ is used, like

English deer, for male, female, and both. Here it seems

defined by _aīrkākī_ to mean stag or buck.

[1756] _Antelope cervicapra_, black-buck, so called from the

dark hue of its back (Yule's H.J. _s.n._ Black-buck).

[1757] _tūyūq_, underlined in the Elph. MS. by _kura_,

cannon-ball; Erskine, foot-ball, de Courteille, _pierre plus

grosse que la cheville_ (_tūyāq_).

[1758] This mode of catching antelopes is described in the

_Āyīn-i-akbarī_, and is noted by Erskine as common in his day.

[1759] _H. gainā._ It is 3 feet high (Yule's H.J. _s.n._

Gynee). Cf. A. A. Blochmann, p. 149. The ram with which it is

compared may be that of _Ovis ammon_ (Vigné's _Kashmīr etc._

ii, 278).

[1760] Here the Pers. trs. adds:—They call this kind of monkey

_langūr_ (baboon, I.O. 217 f. 192).

[1761] Here the Pers. trs. adds what Erskine mistakenly

attributes to Bābur:—People bring it from several

islands.—They bring yet another kind from several islands,

yellowish-grey in colour like a _pūstīn tīn_ (leather coat of

?; Erskine, skin of the fig, _tīn_). Its head is broader and

its body much larger than those of other monkeys. It is very

fierce and destructive. It is singular _quod penis ejus semper

sit erectus, et nunquam non ad coitum idoneus_ [Erskine].

[1762] This name is explained on the margin of the Elph. MS.

as "_rāsū_, which is the weasel of Tartary" (Erskine). _Rāsū_

is an Indian name for the squirrel _Sciurus indicus_. The

_kīsh_, with which Bābur's _nūl_ is compared, is explained by

de C. as _belette_, weasel, and by Steingass as a fur-bearing

animal; the fur-bearing weasel is (_Mustelidae_) _putorius

ermina_, the ermine-weasel (Blanford, p. 165), which thus

seems to be Bābur's _kīsh_. The alternative name Bābur gives

for his _nūl_, _i.e._ _mūsh-i-khūrma_, is, in India, that of

_Sciurus palmarum_, the palm-squirrel (G. of I. i, 227); this

then, it seems that Bābur's _nūl_ is. Erskine took _nūl_ here

to be the mongoose (_Herpestes mūngūs_) (p. 318); and

Blanford, perhaps partly on Erskine's warrant, gives

_mūsh-i-khūrma_ as a name of the lesser _mungūs_ of Bengal. I

gather that the name _nawal_ is not exclusively confined even

now to the (_mungūs_.)

[1763] If this be a tree-mouse and not a squirrel, it may be

_Vandeleuria oleracea_ (G. of I. i, 228).

[1764] The notes to this section are restricted to what serves

to identify the birds Bābur mentions, though temptation is

great to add something to this from the mass of interesting

circumstance scattered in the many writings of observers and

lovers of birds. I have thought it useful to indicate to what

language a bird's name belongs.

[1765] Persian, _gul_; English, eyes.

[1766] _qūlāch_ (Zenker, p. 720); Pers. trs. (217 f. 192_b_)

_yak qad-i-adm_; de Courteille, _brasse_ (fathom). These three

are expressions of the measure from finger-tip to finger-tip

of a man's extended arms, which should be his height, a fathom

(6 feet).

[1767] _qānāt_, of which here "primaries" appears to be the

correct rendering, since Jerdon says (ii, 506) of the bird

that its "wings are striated black and white, primaries and

tail deep chestnut".

[1768] The _qīrghāwal_, which is of the pheasant species, when

pursued, will take several flights immediately after each

other, though none long; peacocks, it seems, soon get tired

and take to running (Erskine).

[1769] Ar. _barrāq_, as on f. 278_b_ last line where the Elph.

MS. has _barrāq_, marked with the _tashdīd_.

[1770] This was, presumably, just when Bābur was writing the

passage.

[1771] This sentence is in Arabic.

[1772] A Persian note, partially expunged from the text of the

Elph. MS. is to the effect that 4 or 5 other kinds of parrot

are heard of which the revered author did not see.

[1773] Erskine suggests that this may be the _loory_

(_Loriculus vernalis_, Indian loriquet).

[1774] The birds Bābur classes under the name _shārak_ seem to

include what Oates and Blanford (whom I follow as they give

the results of earlier workers) class under _Sturnus_,

_Eulabes_ and _Calornis_, starling, grackle and mīna, and

tree-stare (_Fauna of British India_, Oates, vols. i and ii,

Blanford, vols. iii and iv).

[1775] Turkī, _qabā_; Ilminsky, p. 361, _tang_ (_tund_?).

[1776] E. D. Ross's _Polyglot List of Birds_, p. 314,

_Chighīr-chīq_, Northern swallow; Elph. MS. f. 230_b_

interlined _jil_ (Steingass lark). The description of the bird

allows it to be _Sturnus humii_, the Himālayan starling

(Oates, i, 520).

[1777] Elph. and Ḥai. MSS. (Sans. and Bengālī) _p:ndūī_; two

good MSS. of the Pers. trs. (I.O. 217 and 218) _p:ndāwalī_;

Ilminsky (p. 361) _mīnā_; Erskine (_Mems._ p. 319)

_pindāwelī_, but without his customary translation of an

Indian name. The three forms shewn above can all mean "having

protuberance or lump" (_pinḍā_) and refer to the bird's

wattle. But the word of the presumably well-informed scribes

of I.O. 217 and 218 can refer to the bird's sagacity in speech

and be _panḍāwalī_, possessed of wisdom. With the same

spelling, the word can translate into the epithet _religiosa_,

given to the wattled _mīnā_ by Linnæus. This epithet Mr.

Leonard Wray informs me has been explained to him as due to

the frequenting of temples by the birds; and that in Malāya

they are found living in cotes near Chinese temples.—An

alternative name (one also connecting with _religiosa_)

allowed by the form of the word is _bīnḍā-walī_. H. _bīnḍā_ is

a mark on the forehead, made as a preparative to devotion by

Hindus, or in Sans. and _Bengālī_, is the spot of paint made

on an elephant's trunk; the meaning would thus be "having a

mark". Cf. Jerdon and Oates _s.n._ _Eulabes religiosa_.

[1778] _Eulabes intermedia_, the Indian grackle or hill-mīna.

Here the Pers. trs. adds that people call it _mīna_.

[1779] _Calornis chalybeius_, the glossy starling or

tree-stare, which never descends to the ground.

[1780] _Sturnopastor contra_, the pied mīna.

[1781] Part of the following passage about the _lūja_ (var.

_lūkha_, _lūcha_) is _verbatim_ with part of that on f. 135;

both were written about 934-5 AH. as is shewn by Shaikh Zain

(Index _s.n._) and by inference from references in the text

(Index _s.n._ B.N. date of composition). _See_ Appendix N.

[1782] Lit. mountain-partridge. There is ground for

understanding that one of the birds known in the region as

_monals_ is meant. _See_ Appendix N.

[1783] Sans. _chakora_; Ar. _durrāj_; P. _kabg_; T. _kīklīk_.

[1784] Here, probably, southern Afghānistān.

[1785] _Caccabis chukūr_ (Scully, Shaw's Vocabulary) or _C.

pallescens_ (Hume, quoted under No. 126 E. D. Ross' _Polyglot

List_).

[1786] "In some parts of the country (_i.e._ India before 1841

AD.), tippets used to be made of the beautiful black,

white-spotted feathers of the lower plumage (of the _durrāj_),

and were in much request, but they are rarely procurable now"

(_Bengal Sporting Magazine_ for 1841, quoted by Jerdon, ii,

561).

[1787] A broad collar of red passes round the whole neck

(Jerdon, ii, 558).

[1788] Ar. _durrāj_ means one who repeats what he hears, a

tell-tale.

[1789] Various translations have been made of this passage, "I

have milk and sugar" (Erskine), "_J'ai du lait, un peu de

sucre_" (de Courteille), but with short _sh:r_, it might be

read in more than one way ignoring milk and sugar. See Jerdon,

ii, 558 and Hobson Jobson _s.n._ Black-partridge.

[1790] Flower-faced, _Trapogon melanocephala_, the horned

(_sing_)-monal. It is described by Jahāngīr (_Memoirs_, R. and

B., ii, 220) under the names [H. and P.] _phūl-paikār_ and

Kashmīrī, _sonlū_.

[1791] _Gallus sonneratii_, the grey jungle-fowl.

[1792] Perhaps _Bambusicola fytchii_, the western

bambu-partridge. For _chīl_ see E. D. Ross, _l.c._ No. 127.

[1793] Jahāngīr (_l.c._) describes, under the Kashmīrī name

_pūṯ_, what may be this bird. It seems to be _Gallus

ferrugineus_, the red jungle-fowl (Blanford, iv, 75).

[1794] Jahāngīr helps to identify the bird by mentioning its

elongated tail-feathers,—seasonal only.

[1795] The migrant quail will be _Coturnix communis_, the grey

quail, 8 inches long; what it is compared with seems likely to

be the bush-quail, which is non-migrant and shorter.

[1796] Perhaps _Perdicula argunda_, the rock bush-quail, which

flies in small coveys.

[1797] Perhaps _Coturnix coromandelica_, the black-breasted or

rain quail, 7 inches long.

[1798] Perhaps _Motacilla citreola_, a yellow wag-tail which

summers in Central Asia (Oates, ii, 298). If so, its Kābul

name may refer to its flashing colour. Cf. E. D. Ross, _l.c._

No. 301; de Courteille's _Dictionary_ which gives _qārcha_,

wag-tail, and Zenker's which fixes the colour.

[1799] _Eupodotis edwardsii_; Turkī, _tūghdār_ or _tūghdīrī_.

[1800] Erskine noting (Mems. p. 321), that the bustard is

common in the Dakkan where it is bigger than a turkey, says it

is called _tūghdār_ and suggests that this is a corruption of

_tūghdāq_. The uses of both words are shewn by Bābur, here,

and in the next following, account of the _charz_. Cf. G. of

I. i, 260 and E. D. Ross _l.c._ Nos. 36, 40.

[1801] _Sypheotis bengalensis_ and _S. aurita_, which are both

smaller than _Otis houbara_ (_tūghdīrī_). In Hindustan _S.

aurita_ is known as _līkh_ which name is the nearest approach

I have found to Bābur's [_lūja_] _lūkha_.

[1802] Jerdon mentions (ii, 615) that this bird is common in

Afghānistān and there called _dugdaor_ (_tūghdār_,

_tūghdīrī_).

[1803] _Cf._ Appendix B, since I wrote which, further

information has made it fairly safe to say that the Hindūstān

_bāghrī-qarā_ is _Pterocles exustus_, the common sand-grouse

and that the one of f. 49b is _Pterocles arenarius_, the

larger or black-bellied sand-grouse. _P. exustus_ is said by

Yule (H. J. _s.n._ Rock-pigeon) to have been miscalled

rock-pigeon by Anglo-Indians, perhaps because its flight

resembles the pigeon's. This accounts for Erskine's rendering

(p. 321) _bāghrī-qarā_ here by rock-pigeon.

[1804] _Leptoptilus dubius_, Hind. _hargīlā_. Hindūstānīs call

it _pīr-i-dīng_ (Erskine) and _peda dhauk_ (Blanford), both

names referring, perhaps, to its pouch. It is the adjutant of

Anglo-India. Cf. f. 235.

[1805] only when young (Blanford, ii, 188).

[1806] Elph. MS. _mank:sā_ or _mankīā_; Ḥai. MS. _m:nk_.

Haughton's _Bengali Dictionary_ gives two forms of the name

_mānek-jur_ and _mānak-yoī_. It is _Dissura episcopus_, the

white-necked stork (Blanford iv, 370, who gives _manik-jor_

amongst its Indian names). Jerdon classes it (ii, 737) as

_Ciconia leucocephala_. It is the beefsteak bird of

Anglo-India.

[1807] _Ciconia nigra_ (Blanford, iv, 369).

[1808] Under the Hindūstānī form, _būza_, of Persian _buzak_

the birds Bābur mentions as _buzak_ can be identified. The

large one is _Inocotis papillosus_, _būza_, _kāla būza_, black

curlew, king-curlew. The bird it equals in size is a buzzard,

Turkī _sār_ (not Persian _sār_, starling). The king-curlew has

a large white patch on the inner lesser and marginal coverts

of its wings (Blanford, iv, 303). This agrees with Bābur's

statement about the wings of the large _buzak_. Its length is

27 inches, while the starling's is 9-1/2 inches.

[1809] _Ibis melanocephala_, the white ibis, Pers. _safed

buzak_, Bengali _sabut būza_. It is 30 inches long.

[1810] Perhaps, _Plegadis falcinellus_, the glossy ibis, which

in most parts of India is a winter visitor. Its length is 25

inches.

[1811] Erskine suggests that this is _Platalea leucorodia_,

the _chamach-būza_, spoon-bill. It is 33 inches long.

[1812] _Anas poecilorhyncha._ The Ḥai. MS. writes _gharm-pāī_,

and this is the Indian name given by Blanford (iv, 437).

[1813] _Anas boschas._ Dr. Ross notes (No. 147), from the

_Sanglākh_, that _sūna_ is the drake, _būrchīn_, the duck and

that it is common in China to call a certain variety of bird

by the combined sex-names. Something like this is shewn by the

uses of _būghā_ and _marāl_ _q.v._ Index.

[1814] _Centropus rufipennis_, the common coucal (Yule's H.J.

_s.n._ Crow-pheasant); H. _makokhā_, _Cuculus castaneus_

(Buchanan, quoted by Forbes).

[1815] _Pteropus edwardsii_, the flying-fox. The inclusion of

the bat here amongst birds, may be a clerical accident, since

on f. 136 a flying-fox is not written of as a bird.

[1816] Bābur here uses what is both the Kābul and Andijān name

for the magpie, Ar. _`aqqa_ (Oates, i, 31 and Scully's Voc),

instead of T. _sāghizghān_ or P. _dam-sīcha_ (tail-wagger).

[1817] The Pers. trs. writes _sāndūlāch mamūlā_, _mamūlā_

being Arabic for wag-tail. De Courteille's Dictionary

describes the _sāndūlāch_ as small and having a long tail, the

cock-bird green, the hen, yellow. The wag-tail suiting this in

colouring is _Motacilla borealis_ (Oates, ii, 294; syn.

_Budytes viridis_, the green wag-tail); this, as a migrant,

serves to compare with the Indian "little bird", which seems

likely to be a red-start.

[1818] This word may represent Scully's _kirich_ and be the

Turkī name for a swift, perhaps _Cypselus affinis_.

[1819] This name is taken from its cry during the breeding

season (Yule's H.J. _s.n._ Koel).

[1820] Bābur's distinction between the three crocodiles he

mentions seems to be that of names he heard, _shīr-ābī_,

_siyāh-sār_, and _ghaṛīāl_.

[1821] In this passage my husband finds the explanation of two

somewhat vague statements of later date, one made by

Abū'l-faẓl (A. A. Blochmann, p. 65) that Akbar called the

_kīlās_ (cherry) the _shāh-ālū_ (king-plum), the other by

Jahāngīr that this change was made because _kīlās_ means

lizard (_Jahāngīr's Memoirs_, R. & B. i, 116). What Akbar did

is shewn by Bābur; it was to reject the _Persian_ name

_kīlās_, cherry, because it closely resembled _Turkī gīlās_,

lizard. There is a lizard _Stellio Lehmanni_ of Transoxiana

with which Bābur may well have compared the crocodile's

appearance (Schuyler's _Turkistān_, i, 383). Akbar in

Hindūstān may have had _Varanus salvator_ (6 ft. long) in

mind, if indeed he had not the great lizard, _al lagarto_, the

alligator itself in his thought. The name _kīlās_ evidently

was banished only from the Court circle, since it is still

current in Kashmīr (Blochmann _l.c._ p. 616); and Speede (p.

201) gives _keeras_, cherry, as used in India.

[1822] This name as now used, is that of the purely

fish-eating crocodile. [In the Turkī text Bābur's account of

the _ghaṛīāl_ follows that of the porpoise; but it is grouped

here with those of the two other crocodiles.]

[1823] As the Ḥai. MS. and also I.O. 216 f. 137 (Pers. trs.)

write _kalah_ (_galah_)-fish, this may be a large cray-fish.

One called by a name approximating to _galah_-fish is found in

Malāyan waters, _viz._ the _galah_-prawn (_hūdang_) (cf.

Bengālī _gūla-chingrī_, _gūla_-prawn, Haughton). _Galah_ and

_gūla_ may express lament made when the fish is caught

(Haughton pp. 931, 933, 952); or if _kalah_ be read, this may

express scolding. Two good MSS. of the _Wāqi`āt-i-bāburī_

(Pers. trs.) write _kaka_; and their word cannot but have

weight. Erskine reproduces _kaka_ but offers no explanation of

it, a failure betokening difficulty in his obtaining one. My

husband suggests that _kaka_ may represent a stuttering sound,

doing so on the analogy of Vullers' explanation of the

word,—_Vir ridiculus et facetus qui simul balbutiat_; and also

he inclines to take the fish to be a crab (_kakra_). Possibly

_kaka_ is a popular or vulgar name for a cray-fish or a crab.

Whether the sound is lament, scolding, or stuttering the

fisherman knows! Shaikh Zain enlarges Bābur's notice of this

fish; he says the bones are prolonged (_bar āwarda_) from the

ears, that these it agitates at time of capture, making a

noise like the word _kaka_ by which it is known, that it is

two _wajab_ (18 in.) long, its flesh surprisingly tasty, and

that it is very active, leaping a _gaz_ (_cir._ a yard) out of

the water when the fisherman's net is set to take it. For

information about the Malāyan fish, I am indebted to Mr. Cecil

Wray.

[1824] T. _qiyünlīghī_, presumably referring to spines or

difficult bones; T. _qīn_, however, means a scabbard [Shaw].

[1825] One of the common frogs is a small one which, when

alarmed, jumps along the surface of the water (G. of I. i,

273).

[1826] _Anb_ and _anbah_ (pronounced _aṃb_ and _aṃbah_) are

now less commonly used names than _ām_. It is an interesting

comment on Bābur's words that Abū'l-faẓl spells _anb_, letter

by letter, and says that the _b_ is quiescent (_Āyīn_ 28; for

the origin of the word mango, _vide_ Yule's H.J. _s.n._).

[1827] A corresponding diminutive would be fairling.

[1828] The variants, entered in parenthesis, are found in the

Bib. Ind. ed. of the _Āyīn-i-akbarī_ p. 75 and in a (bazar)

copy of the _Qurānu's-sā`dain_ in my husband's possession. As

Amīr Khusrau was a poet of Hindūstān, either _khẉash_

(_khẉesh_) [our own] or _mā_ [our] would suit his meaning. The

couplet is, literally:—

Our fairling, [_i.e._ mango] beauty-maker of the garden,

Fairest fruit of Hindūstān.

[1829] Daulat Khān _Yūsuf-khail Lūdī_ in 929 AH. sent Bābur a

gift of mangoes preserved in honey (_in loco_ p. 440).

[1830] I have learned nothing more definite about the word

_kārdī_ than that it is the name of a superior kind of peach

(_Ghiyās̤u'l-lughat_).

[1831] The preceding sentence is out of place in the Turkī

text; it may therefore be a marginal note, perhaps not made by

Bābur.

[1832] This sentence suggests that Bābur, writing in Āgra or

Fatḥpūr did not there see fine mango-trees.

[1833] See Yule's H.J. on the plantain, the banana of the

West.

[1834] This word is a descendant of Sanscrit _mocha_, and

parent of _musa_ the botanical name of the fruit (Yule).

[1835] Shaikh Effendī (Kunos), Zenker and de Courteille say of

this only that it is the name of a tree. Shaw gives a name

that approaches it, _ārman_, a grass, a weed; Scully explains

this as _Artemisia vulgaris_, wormwood, but Roxburgh gives no

_Artemisia_ having a leaf resembling the plantain's. Scully

has _arāmadān_, unexplained, which, like _amān-qarā_, may

refer to comfort in shade. Bābur's comparison will be with

something known in Transoxiana. Maize has general resemblance

with the plantain. So too have the names of the plants, since

_mocha_ and _mauz_ stand for the plantain and (Hindī) _mukā'ī_

for maize. These incidental resemblances bear, however

lightly, on the question considered in the Ency. Br. (art.

maize) whether maize was early in Asia or not; some writers

hold that it was; if Bābur's _amān-qarā_ were maize, maize

will have been familiar in Transoxiana in his day.

[1836] Abū'l-faẓl mentions that the plantain-tree bears no

second crop unless cut down to the stump.

[1837] Bābur was fortunate not to have met with a seed-bearing

plantain.

[1838] The ripe "dates" are called P. _tamar-i Hind_, whence

our tamarind, and _Tamarindus Indica_.

[1839] _Sophora alopecuroides_, a leguminous plant (Scully).

[1840] Abū'l-faẓl gives _galaundā_ as the name of the "fruit"

[_mewa_],—Forbes, as that of the fallen flower. Cf. Brandis p.

426 and Yule's H.J. _s.n._ Mohwa.

[1841] Bābur seems to say that spirit is extracted from both

the fresh and the dried flowers. The fresh ones are favourite

food with deer and jackals; they have a sweet spirituous

taste. Erskine notes that the spirit made from them was

well-known in Bombay by the name of Moura, or of Parsi-brandy,

and that the farm of it was a considerable article of revenue

(p. 325 n.). Roxburgh describes it as strong and intoxicating

(p. 411).

[1842] This is the name of a green, stoneless grape which when

dried, results in a raisin resembling the sultanas of Europe

(_Jahāngīr's Memoirs_ and Yule's H.J. _s.n._; Griffiths'

_Journal of Travel_ pp. 359, 388).

[1843] _Aūl_, lit. the _aūl_ of the flower. The Persian

translation renders _aūl_ by _bū_ which may allow both words

to be understood in their (root) sense of _being_, _i.e._

natural state. De Courteille translates by _quand la fleur est

fraîche_ (ii, 210); Erskine took _bū_ to mean smell (_Memoirs_

p. 325), but the _aūl_ it translates, does not seem to have

this meaning. For reading _aūl_ as "the natural state", there

is circumstantial support in the flower's being eaten raw

(Roxburgh). The annotator of the Elphinstone MS. [whose

defacement of that Codex has been often mentioned], has added

points and _tashdīd_ to the _aūl-ī_ (_i.e._ its _aūl_), so as

to produce _awwalī_ (first, f. 235). Against this there are

the obvious objections that the Persian translation does not

reproduce, and that its _bū_ does not render _awwalī_; also

that _aūl-ī_ is a noun with its enclitic genitive _yā_ (_i_).

[1844] This word seems to be meant to draw attention to the

various merits of the _mahuwā_ tree.

[1845] Erskine notes that this is not to be confounded with E.

_jāmbū_, the rose-apple (_Memoirs_ p. 325 n.). Cf. Yule's H.J.

_s.n. Jambu_.

[1846] var. _ghat-ālū_, _ghab-ālū_, _ghain-ālū_, _shafl-ālū_.

Scully enters _`ain-ālū_ (true-plum?) unexplained. The

_kamrak_ fruit is 3 in. long (Brandis) and of the size of a

lemon (Firminger); dimensions which make Bābur's 4 _aīlīk_

(hand's-thickness) a slight excess only, and which thus allow

_aīlīk_, with its Persion translation, _angusht_, to be

approximately an inch.

[1847] Speede, giving the fruit its Sanscrit name _kamarunga_,

says it is acid, rather pleasant, something like an insipid

apple; also that its pretty pink blossoms grow on the trunk

and main branches (i, 211).

[1848] Cf. Yule's H.J. _s.n._ jack-fruit. In a Calcutta

nurseryman's catalogue of 1914 AD. three kinds of jack-tree

are offered for sale, viz. "Crispy or Khaja, Soft or Neo,

Rose-scented" (Seth, Feronia Nursery).

[1849] The _gīpa_ is a sheep's stomach stuffed with rice,

minced meat, and spices, and boiled as a pudding. The

resemblance of the jack, as it hangs on the tree, to the

haggis, is wonderfully complete (Erskine).

[1850] These when roasted have the taste of chestnuts.

[1851] Firminger (p. 186) describes an ingenious method of

training.

[1852] For a note of Humāyūn's on the jack-fruit _see_

Appendix O.

[1853] _aīd-ī-yamān aīmās._ It is somewhat curious that Bābur

makes no comment on the odour of the jack itself.

[1854] _būsh_, English bosh (Shaw). The Persian translation

inserts no more about this fruit.

[1855] Steingass applies this name to the plantain.

[1856] Erskine notes that "this is the bullace-plum, small,

not more than twice as large as the sloe and not so

high-flavoured; it is generally yellow, sometimes red." Like

Bābur, Brandis enumerates several varieties and mentions the

seasonal changes of the tree (p. 170).

[1857] This will be Kābul, probably, because Transoxiana is

written of by Bābur usually, if not invariably, as "that

country", and because he mentions the _chīkda_ (_i.e.

chīka?_), under its Persian name _sinjid_, in his _Description

of Kābul_ (f. 129_b_).

[1858] P. _mar manjān_, which I take to refer to the

_rīwājlār_ of Kābul. (Cf. f. 129_b_, where, however, (note 5)

are _corrigenda_ of Masson's _rawash_ for _rīwāj_, and his

third to second volume.) Kehr's Codex contains an extra

passage about the _karaūn dā_, _viz._ that from it is made a

tasty fritter-like dish, resembling a rhubarb-fritter

(Ilminsky, p. 369).

[1859] People call it (P.) _pālasa_ also (Elph. MS. f. 236,

marginal note).

[1860] Perhaps the red-apple of Kābul, where two sorts are

common, both rosy, one very much so, but much inferior to the

other (Griffith's _Journal of Travel_ p. 388).

[1861] Its downy fruit grows in bundles from the trunk and

large branches (Roxburgh).

[1862] The reference by "also" (_ham_) will be to the _kamrak_

(f. 283_b_), but both Roxburgh and Brandis say the _amla_ is

six striated.

[1863] The Sanscrit and Bengālī name for the chirūnjī-tree is

_pīyala_ (Roxburgh p. 363).

[1864] Cf. f. 250_b_.

[1865] The leaflet is rigid enough to serve as a runlet, but

soon wears out; for this reason, the usual practice is to use

one of split bamboo.

[1866] This is a famous hunting-ground between Bīāna and

Dhūlpūr, Rājpūtāna, visited in 933 AH. (f. 33O_b_). Bābur's

great-great-grandson Shāh-jahān built a hunting-lodge there

(G. of I.).

[1867] Ḥai. MS. _mu`arrab_, but the Elph. MS. _maghrib_,

[occidentalizing]. The Ḥai. MS. when writing of the orange

(_infra_) also has _maghrib_. A distinction of locality may be

drawn by _maghrib_.

[1868] Bābur's "Hindūstān people" (_aīl_) are those neither

Turks nor Afghāns.

[1869] This name, with its usual form _tāḍī_ (toddy), is used

for the fermented sap of the date, coco, and _mhār_ palms also

(cf. Yule's H.J. _s.n._ toddy).

[1870] Bābur writes of the long leaf-stalk as a branch

(_shākh_); he also seems to have taken each spike of the

fan-leaf to represent a separate leaf. [For two omissions from

my trs. _see_ Appendix O.]

[1871] Most of the fruits Bābur describes as orange-like are

named in the following classified list, taken from Watts'

_Economic Products of India_:—"+Citrus aurantium+, _narangi_,

_sangtara_, _amrit-phal_; +C. decumana+, _pumelo_, shaddock,

forbidden-fruit, _sada-phal_; +C. medica+ proper, _turunj_,

_limu_; +C. medica limonum+, _jambhira_, _karna-nebu_." Under

_C. aurantium_ Brandis enters both the sweet and the Seville

oranges (_nārangī_); this Bābur appears to do also.

[1872] _kīndīklīk_, explained in the Elph. Codex by _nāfwār_

(f. 238). This detail is omitted by the Persian translation.

Firminger's description (p. 221) of Aurangābād oranges

suggests that they also are navel-oranges. At the present time

one of the best oranges had in England is the navel one of

California.

[1873] Useful addition is made to earlier notes on the

variability of the _yīghāch_, a variability depending on time

taken to cover the ground, by the following passage from

Henderson and Hume's _Lahor to Yarkand_ (p. 120), which shews

that even in the last century the _farsang_ (the P. word used

in the Persian translation of the _Bābur-nāma_ for T.

_yīghāch_) was computed by time. "All the way from Kargallik

(Qārghalīq) to Yarkand, there were tall wooden mile-posts

along the roads, at intervals of about 5 miles, or rather one

hour's journey, apart. On a board at the top of each post, or

_farsang_ as it is called, the distances were very legibly

written in Turki."

[1874] _ma`rib_, Elph. MS. _magharrib_; (cf. f. 285_b_ note).

[1875] _i.e. nārang_ (Sans. _nārangā_) has been changed to

_nāranj_ in the `Arab mouth. What is probably one of Humāyūn's

notes preserved by the Elph. Codex (f. 238), appears to say—it

is mutilated—that _nārang_ has been corrupted into _nāranj_.

[1876] The Elph. Codex has a note—mutilated in early

binding—which is attested by its scribe as copied from

Humāyūn's hand-writing, and is to the effect that once on his

way from the Hot-bath, he saw people who had taken poison and

restored them by giving lime-juice.

Erskine here notes that the same antidotal quality is ascribed

to the citron by Virgil:—

Media fert tristes succos. tardumque saporem

Felicis mali, quo non praesentius ullum,

Pocula si quando saevae infecere novercae,

Miscueruntque herbas et non innoxia verba,

Auxilium venit, ac membris agit atra venena.

Georgics II. v. 126.

_Vide_ Heyne's note i, 438.

[1877] P. _turunj_, wrinkled, puckered; Sans. _vījāpūra_ and

H. _bijaurā_ (_Āyīn_ 28), seed-filled.

[1878] Bābur may have confused this with H. _bijaurā_; so too

appears to have done the writer (Humāyūn?) of a [now

mutilated] note in the Elph. Codex (f. 238), which seems to

say that the fruit or its name went from Bajaur to Hindūstān.

Is the country of Bajaur so-named from its indigenous orange

(_vījāpūra_, whence _bijaurā_)? The name occurs also north of

Kangra.

[1879] Of this name variants are numerous, _santra_,

_santhara_, _samtara_, etc. Watts classes it as a _C.

aurantium_; Erskine makes it the common sweet orange;

Firminger, quoting Ross (p. 221) writes that, as grown in the

Nagpur gardens it is one of the finest Indian oranges, with

rind thin, smooth and close. The Emperor Muḥammad Shāh is said

to have altered its name to _rang-tāra_ because of its fine

colour (_rang_) (Forbes). Speede (ii, 109) gives both names.

As to the meaning and origin of the name _santara_ or

_santra_, so suggestive of Cintra, the Portuguese home of a

similar orange, it may be said that it looks like a hill-name

used in N. E. India, for there is a village in the Bhutan

Hills, (Western Duars) known from its orange groves as

Santra-bārī, Abode of the orange. To this (mentioned already

as my husband's suggestion in Mr. Crooke's ed. of Yule's H.J.)

support is given by the item "Suntura, famous Nipal variety",

entered in Seth's Nursery-list of 1914 (Feronia Nurseries,

Calcutta). Light on the question of origin could be thrown, no

doubt, by those acquainted with the dialects of the hill-tract

concerned.

[1880] This refers, presumably, to the absence of the beak

characteristic of all citrons.

[1881] melter, from the Sans. root _gal_, which provides the

names of several lemons by reason of their solvent quality,

specified by Bābur (_infra_) of the _amal-bīd_. Erskine notes

that in his day the _gal-gal_ was known as _kilmek_

(_galmak_?).

[1882] Sans. _jambīrā_, H. _jambīr_, classed by Abū'l-faẓl as

one of the somewhat sour fruits and by Watts as _Citrus medica

limonum_.

[1883] Watts, _C. decumana_, the shaddock or pumelo; Firminger

(p. 223) has _C. decumana pyriformis_ suiting Bābur's

"pear-shaped". What Bābur compared it with will be the

Transoxanian pear and quince (_P. amrūd_ and _bihī_) and not

the Indian guava and Bengal quince (_P. amrūd_ and _H. bael_).

[1884] The Turkī text writes _amrd_. Watts classes the

_amrit-phal_ as a _C. aurantium_. This supports Erskine's

suggestion that it is the mandarin-orange. Humāyūn describes

it in a note which is written pell-mell in the text of the

Elph. Codex and contains also descriptions of the _kāmila_ and

_santara_ oranges; it can be seen translated in Appendix O.

[1885] So spelled in the Turkī text and also in two good MSS.

of the Pers. trs. I.O. 217 and 218, but by Abū'l-faẓl

_amal-bīt_. Both P. _bīd_ and P. _bīt_ mean willow and cane

(ratan), so that _amal-bīd_ (_bīt_) can mean acid-willow and

acid-cane. But as Bābur is writing of a fruit like an orange,

the cane that bears an acid fruit, _Calamus rotang_, can be

left aside in favour of _Citrus medica acidissima_. Of this

fruit the solvent property Bābur mentions, as well as the

commonly-known service in cleansing metal, link it, by these

uses, with the willow and suggest a ground for understanding,

as Erskine did, that _amal-bīd_ meant acid-willow; for

willow-wood is used to rub rust off metal.

[1886] This statement shows that Bābur was writing the

_Description of Hindūstān_ in 935 AH. (1528-9 AD.), which is

the date given for it by Shaikh Zain.

[1887] This story of the needle is believed in India of all

the citron kind, which are hence called _sūī-gal_

(needle-melter) in the Dakhin (Erskine). Cf. Forbes, p. 489

_s.n. sūī-gal_.

[1888] Erskine here quotes information from Abū'l-faẓl (_Āyīn_

28) about Akbar's encouragement of the cultivation of fruits.

[1889] Hindustani (Urdu) _gaṛhal_. Many varieties of Hibiscus

(syn. Althea) grow in India; some thrive in Surrey gardens;

the _jāsūn_ by name and colour can be taken as what is known

in Malayan, Tamil, etc., as the shoe-flower, from its use in

darkening leather (Yule's H.J.).

[1890] I surmise that what I have placed between asterisks

here belongs to the next-following plant, the oleander. For

though the branches of the _jāsūn_ grow vertically, the bush

is a dense mass upon one stout trunk, or stout short stem. The

words placed in parenthesis above are not with the Ḥaidarabad

but are with the Elphinstone Codex. There would seem to have

been a scribe's skip from one "rose" to the other. As has been

shewn repeatedly, this part of the Bābur-nāma has been much

annotated; in the Elph. Codex, where only most of the notes

are preserved, some are entered by the scribe pell-mell into

Bābur's text. The present instance may be a case of a marginal

note, added to the text in a wrong place.

[1891] The peduncle supporting the plume of medial petals is

clearly seen only when the flower opens first. The plumed

Hibiscus is found in florists' catalogues described as

"double".

[1892] This Anglo-Indians call also rose-bay. A Persian name

appears to be _zahr-giyāh_, poison-grass, which makes it the

more probable that the doubtful passage in the previous

description of the _jāsūn_ belongs to the rod-like oleander,

known as the poison-grass. The oleander is common in

river-beds over much country known to Bābur, outside India.

[1893] Roxburgh gives a full and interesting account of this

tree.

[1894] Here the Elph. Codex, only, has the (seeming) note, "An

'Arab calls it _kāẕī_" (or _kāwī_). This fills out Steingass'

part-explanation of _kāwī_, "the blossom of the fragrant

palm-tree, _armāṯ_" (p. 1010), and of _armāṯ_, "a kind of

date-tree with a fragrant blossom" (p. 39), by making _armāṯ_

and _kāwī_ seem to be the _Pandanus_ and its flower.

[1895] _Calamus scriptorius_ (Vullers ii, 607. H. B.).

Abū'l-faẓl compares the leaves to _jawārī_, the great millet

(Forbes); Blochmann (A. A. p. 83) translates _jawārī_ by

_maize_ (_juwārā_, Forbes).

[1896] T. _aīrkāk-qūmūsh_, a name Scully enters unexplained.

Under _qūmūsh_ (reed) he enters _Arundo madagascarensis_;

Bābur's comparison will be with some Transoxanian _Arundo_ or

_Calamus_, presumably.

[1897] _Champa_ seems to have been Bābur's word (Elph. and

Ḥai. MSS.), but is the (B.) name for _Michelia champaka_; the

Pers. translation corrects it by (B.) _chambelī_, (_yāsman_,

jasmine).

[1898] Here, "outside India" will be meant, where Hindū rules

do not prevail.

[1899] _Hind aīlārī-nīng ibtidā-sī hilāl aīlār-nīng

istiqbāl-dīn dūr._ The use here of _istiqbāl_, welcome,

attracts attention; does it allude to the universal welcome of

lighter nights? or is it reminiscent of Muḥammadan welcome to

the Moon's crescent in Shawwāl?

[1900] For an exact statement of the intercalary months _vide_

Cunningham's _Indian Eras_, p. 91. In my next sentence

(_supra_) the parenthesis-marks indicate blanks left on the

page of the Ḥai. MS. as though waiting for information. These

and other similar blanks make for the opinion that the Ḥai.

Codex is a direct copy of Bābur's draft manuscript.

[1901] The sextuple division (_r̤itu_) of the year is referred

to on f. 284, where the Signs Crab and Lion are called the

season of the true Rains.

[1902] Bābur appears not to have entered either the Hindī or

the Persian names of the week:—the Ḥai. MS. has a blank space;

the Elph. MS. had the Persian names only, and Hindī ones have

been written in above these; Kehr has the Persian ones only;

Ilminsky has added the Hindī ones. (The spelling of the Hindī

names, in my translation, is copied from Forbes' Dictionary.)

[1903] The Ḥai. MS. writes _garī_ and _garīāl_. The word now

stands for the hour of 60 minutes.

[1904] _i.e._ gong-men. The name is applied also to an

alligator _Lacertus gangeticus_ (Forbes).

[1905] There is some confusion in the text here, the Ḥai. MS.

reading _birinj-dīn tīshī_(?) _nīma qūīūbtūrlār_—the Elph. MS.

(f. 240_b_) _biring-dīn bīr yāssī nīma qūīūbtūrlār_. The

Persian translation, being based on the text of the

Elphinstone Codex reads _az biring yak chīz pahnī rekhta and_.

The word _tīshī_ of the Ḥai. MS. may represent _tasht_ plate

or _yāssī_, broad; against the latter however there is the

sentence that follows and gives the size.

[1906] Here again the wording of the Ḥai. MS. is not clear;

the sense however is obvious. Concerning the clepsydra _vide_

A. A. Jarrett, ii, 15 and notes; Smith's _Dictionary of

Antiquities_; Yule's H.J. _s.n._ Ghurry.

[1907] The table is:—60 _bipals_ = 1 _pal_; 60 _pals_ = 1

_g'harī_ (24 m.); 60 _g'harī_ or 8 _pahr_ = one _dīn-rāt_

(nycthemeron).

[1908] Qorān, cap. CXII, which is a declaration of God's

unity.

[1909] The (S.) _ratī_ = 8 rice-grains (Eng. 8 barley-corns);

the (S.) _māsha_ is a kidney-bean; the (P.) _tānk_ is about 2

oz.; the (Ar.) _miṣqāl_ is equal to 40 _ratīs_; the (S.)

_tūla_ is about 145 oz.; the (S.) _ser_ is of various values

(Wilson's _Glossary_ and Yule's H. J.).

[1910] There being 40 Bengāl _sers_ to the _man_, Bābur's word

_mānbān_ seems to be another name for the _man_ or _maund_. I

have not found _mānbān_ or _mīnāsā_. At first sight _mānbān_

might be taken, in the Ḥai. MS. for (T.) _bātmān_, a weight of

13 or 15 lbs., but this does not suit. Cf. f. 167 note to

_bātmān_ and f. 173_b_ (where, however, in the note f. 157

requires correction to f. 167). For Bābur's table of measures

the Pers. trs. has 40 _sers_ = 1 _man_; 12 _mans_ = 1 _mānī_;

100 _mānī_ they call _mīnāsa_ (217, f. 201_b_, l. 8).

[1911] Presumably these are caste-names.

[1912] The words in parenthesis appear to be omitted from the

text; to add them brings Bābur's remark into agreement with

others on what he several times makes note of, _viz._ the

absence not only of irrigation-channels but of those which

convey "running-waters" to houses and gardens. Such he writes

of in Farghāna; such are a well-known charm _e.g._ in Madeira,

where the swift current of clear water flowing through the

streets, turns into private precincts by side-runlets.

[1913] The Ḥai. MS. writes _lungūtā-dīk_, like a lungūtā,

which better agrees with Bābur's usual phrasing. _Lung_ is

Persian for a cloth passed between the loins, is an equivalent

of S. _dhoti_. Bābur's use of it (_infra_) for the woman's

(P.) _chaddar_ or (S.) _sārī_ does not suit the Dictionary

definition of its meaning.

[1914] When Erskine published the Memoirs in 1826 AD. he

estimated this sum at 1-1/2 millions Sterling, but when he

published his _History of India_ in 1854, he had made further

research into the problem of Indian money values, and judged

then that Bābur's revenue was £4,212,000.

[1915] Erskine here notes that the promised details had not

been preserved, but in 1854 AD. he had found them in a

"paraphrase of part of Bābur", manifestly in Shaikh Zain's

work. He entered and discussed them and some matters of

money-values in Appendices D. and E. of his _History of

India_, vol. I. Ilminsky found them in Kehr's Codex (C. ii,

230). The scribe of the Elph. MS. has entered the revenues of

three _sarkārs_ only, with his usual quotation marks

indicating something extraneous or doubtful. The Ḥai. MS. has

them in contents precisely as I have entered them above, but

with a scattered mode of setting down. They are in Persian,

presumably as they were rendered to Bābur by some Indian

official. This official statement will have been with Bābur's

own papers; it will have been copied by Shaikh Zain into his

own paraphrase. It differs slightly in Erskine's and again, in

de Courteille's versions. I regret that I am incompetent to

throw any light upon the question of its values and that I

must leave some uncertain names to those more expert than

myself. Cf. Erskine's Appendices _l.c._ and Thomas' _Revenue

resources of the Mughal Empire_. For a few comments _see_ App.

P.

[1916] Here the Turkī text resumes in the Ḥai. MS.

[1917] Elph. MS. f. 243_b_; W. i. B. I.O. 215 has not the

events of this year (as to which omission _vide_ note at the

beginning of 932 AH. f. 251_b_) and 217 f. 203; Mems. p. 334;

Ilminsky's imprint p. 380; _Méms._ ii, 232.

[1918] This should be 30th if Saturday was the day of the week

(Gladwin, Cunningham and Bābur's narrative of f. 269).

Saturday appears likely to be right; Bābur entered Āgra on

Thursday 28th; Friday would be used for the Congregational

Prayer and preliminaries inevitable before the distribution of

the treasure. The last day of Bābur's narrative 932 AH. is

Thursday Rajab 28th; he would not be likely to mistake between

Friday, the day of his first Congregational prayer in Āgra,

and Saturday. It must be kept in mind that the _Description of

Hindūstān_ is an interpolation here, and that it was written

in 935 AH., three years later than the incidents here

recorded. The date Rajab 29th may not be Bābur's own entry; or

if it be, may have been made after the interpolation of the

dividing mass of the _Description_ and made wrongly.

[1919] Erskine estimated these sums as "probably £56,700 to

Humāyūn; and the smaller ones as £8,100, £6,480, £5,670 and

£4,860 respectively; very large sums for the age". (_History

of India_, i. 440 n. and App. E.)

[1920] These will be his daughters. Gul-badan gives precise

details of the gifts to the family circle (_Humāyūn-nāma_ f.

10).

[1921] Some of these slaves were Sl. Ibrāhīm's dancing-girls

(Gul-badan, _ib._).

[1922] Ar. _ṣada_. Perhaps it was a station of a hundred men.

Varsak is in Badakhshān, on the water flowing to T̤āliqān from

the Khwāja Muḥammad range. Erskine read (p. 335) _ṣada Varsak_

as _ṣadūr rashk_, incentive to emulation; de C. (ii, 233)

translates _ṣada_ conjecturally by _circonscription_. Shaikh

Zain has Varsak and to the recipients of the gifts adds the

"Khwāstīs, people noted for their piety" (A. N. trs. H. B. i,

248 n.). The gift to Varsak may well have been made in

gratitude for hospitality received by Bābur in the time of

adversity after his loss of Samarkand and before his return to

Kābul in 920 AH.

[1923] _circa_ 10d. or 11d. Bābur left himself stripped so

bare by his far-flung largess that he was nick-named Qalandar

(Firishta).

[1924] Badāyūnī says of him (Bib. Ind. ed. i, 340) that he was

_kāfir kalīma-gū_, a pagan making the Muḥammadan Confession of

Faith, and that he had heard of him, in Akbar's time from

Bairām Khān-i-khānan, as kingly in appearance and poetic in

temperament. He was killed fighting for Rānā Sangā at Kānwaha.

[1925] This is his family name.

[1926] _i.e._ not acting with Ḥasan _Mīwātī_.

[1927] Gul-badan says that the Khwāja several times asked

leave on the ground that his constitution was not fitted for

the climate of Hindūstān; that His Majesty was not at all, at

all, willing for him to go, but gave way at length to his

importunity.

[1928] in Patiāla, about 25 miles s.w. of Aṃbāla.

[1929] Shaikh Zain, Gul-badan and Erskine write Nau-kār. It

was now that Khwāja Kalān conveyed money for the repair of the

great dam at Ghaznī (f. 139).

[1930] The friends did not meet again; that their friendship

weathered this storm is shewn by Bābur's letter of f. 359. The

_Abūshqa_ says the couplet was inscribed on a marble tablet

near the _Ḥauẓ-i-khāṣ_ at the time the Khwāja was in Dihlī

after bidding Bābur farewell in Āgra.

[1931] This quatrain is in the Rāmpūr _Dīwān_ (_q.v._ index).

The _Abūshqa_ quotes the following as Khwāja Kalān's reply,

but without mentioning where the original was found. Cf. de

Courteille, Dict. _s.n._ _taskarī_. An English version is

given in my husband's article _Some verses by the Emperor

Bābur_ (A. Q. R. January, 1911).

You shew your gaiety and your wit,

In each word there lie acres of charm.

Were not all things of Hind upside-down,

How could you in the heat be so pleasant on cold?

It is an old remark of travellers that everything in India is

the opposite of what one sees elsewhere. Tīmūr is said to have

remarked it and to have told his soldiers not to be afraid of

the elephants of India, "For," said he, "their trunks are

empty sleeves, and they carry their tails in front; in

Hindustan everything is reversed" (H. Beveridge _ibid._). Cf.

App. Q.

[1932] Badāyūnī i, 337 speaks of him as unrivalled in music.

[1933] f. 267_b_.

[1934] _aūrūq_, which here no doubt represents the women of

the family.

[1935] _`ain parganalār._

[1936] Bābur's advance, presumably.

[1937] The full amounts here given are not in all MSS., some

scribes contenting themselves with the largest item of each

gift (_Memoirs_ p. 337).

[1938] The `Id of Shawwāl, it will be remembered, is

celebrated at the conclusion of the Ramẓān fast, on seeing the

first new moon of Shawwāl. In A.H. 932 it must have fallen

about July 11th 1526 (Erskine).

[1939] A square shawl, or napkin, of cloth of gold, bestowed

as a mark of rank and distinction (_Memoirs_ p. 338 n.); _une

tunique enrichie de broderies_ (_Mémoires_, ii, 240 n.).

[1940] _kamar-shamshīr._ This Steingass explains as

sword-belt, Erskine by "sword with a belt". The summary

following shews that many weapons were given and not belts

alone. There is a good deal of variation in the MSS. The Ḥai.

MS. has not a complete list. The most all the lists show is

that gifts were many.

[1941] f. 263_b_.

[1942] over the Ganges, a little above Anūp-shahr in the

Buland-shahr district.

[1943] A seeming omission in the text is made good in my

translation by Shaikh Zain's help, who says Qāsim was sent to

Court.

[1944] This quatrain is in the Rāmpūr _Dīwān_. It appears to

pun on Bīāna and _bī(y)ān_.

[1945] Kandār is in Rājpūtāna; Abū'l-faẓl writes Kuhan-dār,

old habitation.

[1946] This is the first time Bābur's begs are called amīrs in

his book; it may be by a scribe's slip.

[1947] Chandwār is on the Jumna, between Āgra and Etāwah.

[1948] Here _āqār-sūlār_ will stand for the waters which

flow—sometimes in marble channels—to nourish plants and charm

the eye, such for example as beautify the Tāj-maḥal

pleasaunce.

[1949] Index _s.n._ The _tālār_ is raised on pillars and open

in front; it serves often for an Audience-hall (Erskine).

[1950] _tāsh `imārat_, which may refer to the extra-mural

location of the house, or contrast it with the inner

_khilwat-khāna_, the women's quarters, of the next sentence.

The point is noted as one concerning the use of the word

_tāsh_ (Index _s.n._). I have found no instance in which it is

certain that Bābur uses _tāsh_, a stone or rock, as an

adjective. On f. 301 he writes _tāshdīn `imārat_,

house-of-stone, which the Persian text renders by

_`imārat-i-sangīn_. Wherever _tāsh_ can be translated as

meaning outer, this accords with Bābur's usual diction.

[1951] _bāghcha_ (Index _s.n._). That Bābur was the admitted

pioneer of orderly gardens in India is shewn by the 30th

_Āyīn_, On Perfumes:—"After the foot-prints of Firdaus-makānī

(Bābur) had added to the glory of Hindūstān, embellishment by

avenues and landscape-gardening was seen, while

heart-expanding buildings and the sound of falling-waters

widened the eyes of beholders."

[1952] Perhaps _gaz_, each somewhat less than 36 inches.

[1953] The more familiar Indian name is _baoli_. Such wells

attracted Peter Mundy's attention; Yule gives an account of

their names and plan (Mundy's _Travels in Asia_, Hakluyt

Society, ed. R. C. Temple, and Yule's _Hobson Jobson_ _s.n._

Bowly). Bābur's account of his great _wāīn_ is not easy to

translate; his interpreters vary from one another; probably no

one of them has felt assured of translating correctly.

[1954] _i.e._ the one across the river.

[1955] _tāsh masjid_; this, unless some adjectival affix

(_e.g._ _dīn_) has been omitted by the scribe, I incline to

read as meaning extra, supplementary, or outer, not as

"mosque-of-stone".

[1956] or Jājmāwa, the old name for the sub-district of

Kānhpūr (Cawnpur).

[1957] _i.e._ of the Corps of Braves.

[1958] Dilmāū is on the left bank of the Ganges, s.e. from

Bareilly (Erskine).

[1959] _Marv-nīng bundī-nī bāghlāb_, which Erskine renders by

"Having settled the revenue of Merv", and de Courteille by,

"_Aprés avoir occupé Merv_." Were the year's revenues

compressed into a 40 to 50 days collection?

[1960] _i.e._ those who had part in his brother's murder. Cf.

Niẕāmu'd-dīn Aḥmad's _T̤abaqāt-i-akbarī_ and the

_Mīrat-i-sikandarī_ (trs. _History of Gujrat_ E. C. Bayley).

[1961] Elph. MS. f. 252; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 199b and 217 f.

208_b_; Mems. p. 343.

[1962] _sīūnchī_ (Zenker). Fārūq was Māhīm's son; he died in

934 A.H. before his father had seen him.

[1963] _ṣalaḥ._ It is clear from the "_tāsh-awī"_ (Pers. trs.

_khāna-i-sang_) of this mortar (_qāzān_) that stones were its

missiles. Erskine notes that from Bābur's account cannon would

seem sometimes to have been made in parts and clamped

together, and that they were frequently formed of iron bars

strongly compacted into a circular shape. The accoutrement

(_ṣalaḥ_) presumably was the addition of fittings.

[1964] About £40,000 sterling (Erskine).

[1965] The MSS. write Ṣafar but it seems probable that

Muḥarram should be substituted for this; one ground for not

accepting Ṣafar being that it breaks the consecutive order of

dates, another that Ṣafar allows what seems a long time for

the journey from near Dilmāū to Āgra. All MSS. I have seen

give the 8th as the day of the month but Erskine has 20th. In

this part of Bābur's writings dates are sparse; it is a

narrative and not a diary.

[1966] This phrase, foreign to Bābur's diction, smacks of a

Court-Persian milieu.

[1967] Here the Elph. MS. has Ṣafar Muḥarram (f. 253), as has

also I.O. 215 f. 200b, but it seems unsafe to take this as an

_al Ṣafarānī_ extension of Muḥarram because Muḥ.-Ṣafar 24th

was not a Wednesday. As in the passage noted just above, it

seems likely that Muḥarram is right.

[1968] Cf. f. 15_b_ note to Qaṃbar-i-`alī. The title

_Akhta-begī_ is to be found translated by "Master of the

Horse", but this would not suit both uses of _akhta_ in the

above sentence. Cf. Shaw's Vocabulary.

[1969] _i.e._ Tahangaṛh in Karauli, Rājpūtāna.

[1970] Perhaps _sipāhī_ represents Hindūstānī foot-soldiers.

[1971] Rafī`u-d-dīn _Ṣafawī_, a native of Īj near the Persian

Gulf, teacher of Abū'l-faẓl's father and buried near Āgra

(_Āyīn-i-akbarī_).

[1972] This phrase, again, departs from Bābur's simplicity of

statement.

[1973] About £5,000 (Erskine).

[1974] About £17,500 (Erskine).

[1975] Ḥai. MS. and 215 f. 201b, Hastī; Elph. MS. f. 254, and

Ilminsky, p. 394, Aīmīshchī; _Memoirs_, p. 346, Imshiji, so

too _Mémoires_, ii, 257.

[1976] About £5000 (Erskine). Bīānwān lies in the _sūbah_ of

Āgra.

[1977] Cf. f. 175 for Bābur's estimate of his service.

[1978] Cf. f. 268_b_ for Bābur's clemency to him.

[1979] Firishta. (Briggs ii, 53) mentions that Asad had gone

to T̤ahmāsp from Kābul to congratulate him on his accession.

Shāh Ismā`īl had died in 930 AH. (1524 AD.); the title

Shāh-zāda is a misnomer therefore in 933 AH.—one possibly

prompted by T̤ahmāsp's youth.

[1980] The letter is likely to have been written to Māhīm and

to have been brought back to India by her in 935 AH. (f.

380_b_). Some MSS. of the Pers. trs. reproduce it in Turkī and

follow this by a Persian version; others omit the Turkī.

[1981] Turkī, _būā_. Hindī _bawā_ means sister or

paternal-aunt but this would not suit from Bābur's mouth, the

more clearly not that his epithet for the offender is

_bad-bakht_. Gul-badan (H.N. f. 19) calls her "ill-omened

demon".

[1982] She may have been still in the place assigned to her

near Āgra when Bābur occupied it (f. 269).

[1983] f. 290. Erskine notes that the _tūla_ is about equal in

weight to the silver _rūpī_.

[1984] It appears from the kitchen-arrangements detailed by

Abū'l-faẓl, that before food was dished up, it was tasted from

the pot by a cook and a subordinate taster, and next by the

Head-taster.

[1985] The Turkī sentences which here follow the well-known

Persian proverb, _Rasīda būd balāī walī ba khair guẕasht_, are

entered as verse in some MSS.; they may be a prose quotation.

[1986] She, after being put under contribution by two of

Bābur's officers (f. 307_b_) was started off for Kābul, but,

perhaps dreading her reception there, threw herself into the

Indus in crossing and was drowned. (Cf. A.N. trs. H. Beveridge

_Errata_ and _addenda_ p. xi for the authorities.)

[1987] _gil makhtūm_, Lemnian earth, _terra sigillata_, each

piece of which was impressed, when taken from the quarry, with

a guarantee-stamp (Cf. Ency. Br. _s.n._ Lemnos).

[1988] _tirīāq-i-fārūq_, an antidote.

[1989] Index _s.n._

[1990] Kāmrān was in Qandahār (Index _s.n._). Erskine observes

here that Bābur's omission to give the name of Ibrāhīm's son,

is noteworthy; the son may however have been a child and his

name not known to or recalled by Bābur when writing some years

later.

[1991] f. 299_b_.

[1992] The _Āyīn-i-akbarī_ locates this in the _sarkār_ of

Jūn-pūr, a location suiting the context. The second Persian

translation (`Abdu'r-raḥīm's) has here a scribe's skip from

one "news" to another (both asterisked in my text); hence

Erskine has an omission.

[1993] This is the Chār-bāgh of f. 300, known later as the Rām

(Arām)-bāgh (Garden-of-rest).

[1994] Presumably he was coming up from Marwār.

[1995] This name varies; the Ḥai. MS. in most cases writes

Qismatī, but on f. 267_b_, Qismatāī; the Elph. MS. on f. 220

has Q:s:mnāī; De Courteille writes Qismī.

[1996] _artkāb qīldī_, perhaps drank wine, perhaps ate

opium-confections to the use of which he became addicted later

on (Gulbadan's _Humāyūn-nāma_ f. 30_b_ and 73_b_).

[1997] _furṣatlār_, _i.e._ between the occupation of Āgra and

the campaign against Rānā Sangā.

[1998] Apparently the siege Bābur broke up in 931 AH. had been

renewed by the Aūzbegs (f. 255_b_ and Trs. Note _s.a._ 931 AH.

section _c_).

[1999] These places are on the Khulm-river between Khulm and

Kāhmard. The present tense of this and the following sentences

is Babur's.

[2000] f. 261.

[2001] Erskine here notes that if the _ser_ Bābur mentions be

one of 14 _tūlas_, the value is about £27; if of 24 _tūlas_,

about £45.

[2002] T. _chāpdūq_. Cf. the two Persian translations 215 f.

205_b_ and 217 f. 215; also Ilminsky, p. 401.

[2003] _būlghān chīrīkī._ The Rānā's forces are thus stated by

Tod (_Rājastān; Annals of Marwār_ Cap. ix):—"Eighty thousand

horse, 7 Rajas of the highest rank, 9 Raos, and 104 chieftains

bearing the titles of Rawul and Rawut, with 500 war-elephants,

followed him into the field." Bābur's army, all told, was

12,000 when he crossed the Indus from Kābul; it will have had

accretions from his own officers in the Panj-āb and some also

from other quarters, and will have had losses at Pānipat; his

reliable kernel of fighting-strength cannot but have been

numerically insignificant, compared with the Rājpūt host. Tod

says that almost all the princes of Rājastān followed the Rānā

at Kanwā.

[2004] _dūrbātūr._ This is the first use of the word in the

_Bābur-nāma_; the defacer of the Elph. Codex has altered it to

_aūrātūr_.

[2005] Shaikh Zain records [Abū'l-faẓl also, perhaps quoting

from him] that Bābur, by varying diacritical points, changed

the name Sīkrī to Shukrī in sign of gratitude for his victory

over the Rānā. The place became the Fatḥpūr-sīkrī of Akbar.

[2006] Erskine locates this as 10 to 12 miles n.w. of Bīāna.

[2007] This phrase has not occurred in the B.N. before;

presumably it expresses what has not yet been expressed; this

Erskine's rendering, "each according to the speed of his

horse," does also. The first Persian translation, which in

this portion is by Muḥammad-qulī _Mughūl Ḥiṣārī_, translates

by _az daṃbal yak dīgar_ (I.O. 215, f. 205_b_); the second,

`Abdu'r-rāḥīm's, merely reproduces the phrase; De Courteille

(ii, 272) appears to render it by (amirs) _que je ne nomme

pas_. If my reading of T̤āhir-tibrī's failure be correct

(_infra_), Erskine's translation suits the context.

[2008] The passage cut off by my asterisks has this outside

interest that it forms the introduction to the so-called

"Fragments", that is, to certain Turkī matter not included in

the standard _Bābur-nāma_, but preserved with the

Kehr—Ilminsky—de Courteille text. As is well-known in

Bāburiana, opinion has varied as to the genesis of this

matter; there is now no doubt that it is a translation into

Turkī from the (_Persian_) _Akbar-nāma_, prefaced by the

above-asterisked passage of the _Bābur-nāma_ and continuous

(with slight omissions) from Bib. Ind. ed. i, 106 to 120 (trs.

H. Beveridge i, 260 to 282). It covers the time from before

the battle of Kanwā to the end of Abū'l-faẓl's description of

Bābur's death, attainments and Court; it has been made to seem

Bābur's own, down to his death-bed, by changing the third

person of A.F.'s narrative into the autobiographical first

person. (Cf. Ilminsky, p. 403 l. 4 and p. 494; _Mémoires_ ii,

272 and 443 to 464; JRAS. 1908, p. 76.)

A minute point in the history of the B.N. manuscripts may be

placed on record here; _viz._ that the variants from the true

_Bābur-nāma_ text which occur in the Kehr-Ilminsky one, occur

also in the corrupt Turkī text of I.O. No. 214 (JRAS 1900, p.

455).

[2009] _chāpār kūmak yītmās_, perhaps implying that the speed

of his horses was not equal to that of Muḥibb-i-'alī's.

Translators vary as to the meaning of the phrase.

[2010] Erskine and de Courteille both give Musṯafa the

commendation the Turkī and Persian texts give to the carts.

[2011] According to Tod's _Rājastān_, negotiations went on

during the interval, having for their object the fixing of a

frontier between the Rānā and Bābur. They were conducted by a

"traitor" Ṣalaḥ'd-dīn _Tūār_ the chief of Raisin, who moreover

is said to have deserted to Bābur during the battle.

[2012] Cf. f. 89 for Bābur's disastrous obedience to

astrological warning.

[2013] For the reading of this second line, given by the good

MSS. _viz._ _Tauba ham bī maza nīst, bachash_, Ilminsky (p.

405) has _Tauba ham bī maza, mast bakhis_, which de Courteille

[II, 276] renders by, "_O ivrogne insensé! que ne goûtes-tu

aussi à la pénitence?_" The Persian couplet seems likely to

be a quotation and may yet be found elsewhere. It is not in

the Rāmpūr Dīwān which contains the Turkī verses following it

(E. D. Ross p. 21).

[2014] _kīchmāklīk_, to pass over (to exceed?), to ford or go

through a river, whence to transgress. The same metaphor of

crossing a stream occurs, in connection with drinking, on f.

189_b_.

[2015] This line shews that Bābur's renouncement was of wine

only; he continued to eat confections (_ma`jūn_).

[2016] Cf. f. 186_b_. Bābur would announce his renunciation in

Dīwān; there too the forbidden vessels of precious metals

would be broken. His few words leave it to his readers to

picture the memorable scene.

[2017] This night-guard (_`asas_) cannot be the one concerning

whom Gul-badan records that he was the victim of a little joke

made at his expense by Bābur (H. N. Index _s.n._). He seems

likely to be the Ḥājī Muḥ. _`asas_ whom Abū'l-faẓl mentions in

connection with Kāmrān in 953 AH. (1547 AD.). He may be the

_`asas_ who took charge of Bābur's tomb at Āgra (cf.

Gul-badan's H. N. _s.n._ Muḥ. `Alī _`asas ṯaghāī_, and

_Akbar-nāma_ trs. i, 502).

[2018] _saqālī qīrqmāqta u qūīmāqta._ Erskine here notes that

"a vow to leave the beard untrimmed was made sometimes by

persons who set out against the infidels. They did not trim

the beard till they returned victorious. Some vows of similar

nature may be found in Scripture", _e.g._ II Samuel, cap. 19

v. 24.

[2019] Index _s.n._ The _tamghā_ was not really abolished

until Jahāngīr's time—if then (H. Beveridge). See Thomas'

_Revenue Resources of the Mughal Empire_.

[2020] There is this to notice here:—Bābur's narrative has

made the remission of the _tamghā_ contingent on his success,

but the _farmān_ which announced that remission is dated some

three weeks before his victory over Rānā Sangā (Jumāda II,

13th-March 16th). Manifestly Bābur's remission was absolute

and made at the date given by Shaikh Zain as that of the

_farmān_. The _farmān_ seems to have been despatched as soon

as it was ready, but may have been inserted in Bābur's

narrative at a later date, together with the preceding

paragraph which I have asterisked.

[2021] "There is a lacuna in the Turkī copy" (_i.e._ the

Elphinstone Codex) "from this place to the beginning of the

year 935. Till then I therefore follow only Mr. Metcalfe's and

my own Persian copies" (Erskine).

[2022] I am indebted to my husband for this revised version of

the _farmān_. He is indebted to M. de Courteille for help

generally, and specially for the references to the Qorān

(_q.v. infra_).

[2023] The passages in italics are Arabic in the original, and

where traced to the Qorān, are in Sale's words.

[2024] _Qorān, Sūrah_ XII, v. 53.

[2025] _Sūrah_ LVII, v. 21.

[2026] _Sūrah_ LVII, v. 15.

[2027] _Sūrah_ VII, v. 140.

[2028] _Sūrah_ II, v. 185.

[2029] These may be self-conquests as has been understood by

Erskine (p. 356) and de Courteille (ii. 281) but as the Divine

"acceptance" would seem to Bābur vouched for by his military

success, "victories" may stand for his success at Kanwā.

[2030] _Sūrah_ II, 177 where, in Sale's translation, the

change referred to is the special one of altering a legacy.

[2031] The words _dīgūchī_ and _yīgūchī_ are translated in the

second _Wāqi`āt-i-bāburī_ by _sukhan-gūī_ and

[_wīlāyat_]_-khwār_. This ignores in them the future element

supplied by their component _gū_ which would allow them to

apply to conditions dependent on Bābur's success. The Ḥai. MS.

and Ilminsky read _tīgūchī_, supporter- or helper-to-be, in

place of the _yīgūchī_, eater-to-be I have inferred from the

_khwār_ of the Pers. translation; hence de Courteille writes

"_amīrs auxquels incombait l'obligation de raffermir le

gouvernement_". But Erskine, using the Pers. text alone, and

thus having _khwār_ before him, translates by, "amīrs who

enjoyed the wealth of kingdoms." The two Turkī words make a

depreciatory "jingle", but the first one, _dīgūchī_, may imply

serious reference to the duty, declared by Muḥammad to be

incumbent upon a wazīr, of reminding his sovereign "when he

forgetteth his duty". Both may be taken as alluding to

dignities to be attained by success in the encounter from

which wazīrs and amīrs were shrinking.

[2032] Firdausī's _Shāh-nāma_ [Erskine].

[2033] Also Chand-wāl; it is 25 m. east of Āgra and on the

Jamna [_T̤abaqāṭ-i-nāṣirī_, Raverty, p. 742 n.9]

[2034] Probably, Overthrower of the rhinoceros, but if

_Gurg-andāz_ be read, of the wolf.

[2035] According to the Persian calendar this is the day the

Sun enters Aries.

[2036] The practical purpose of this order of march is shewn

in the account of the battle of Pānīpat, and in the Letter of

Victory, f. 319.

[2037] _kurohcha_, perhaps a short _kuroh_, but I have not

found Bābur using _cha_ as a diminutive in such a case as

_kurohcha_.

[2038] or Kānūa, in the Bīānā district and three marches from

Bīāna-town. "It had been determined on by Rānā Sangrām Sīngh

(_i.e._ Sangā) for the northern limit of his dominions, and he

had here built a small palace." Tod thus describes Bābur's

foe, "Sangā Rānā was of the middle stature, and of great

muscular strength, fair in complexion, with unusually large

eyes which appear to be peculiar to his descendants. He

exhibited at his death but the fragments of a warrior: one eye

was lost in the broil with his brother, an arm in action with

the Lodī kings of Dehlī, and he was a cripple owing to a limb

being broken by a cannon-ball in another; while he counted 80

wounds from the sword or the lance on various parts of his

body" (Tod's _Rājastān_, cap. Annals of Mewār).

[2039] Here M. de C. has the following note (ii, 273 n.); it

supplements my own of f. 264 [n. 3]. "_Le mot arāba, que j'ai

traduit par chariot est pris par M. Leyden_" (this should be

Erskine) "_dans le sens de 'gun', ce que je ne crois pas

exact; tout au plus signifierait-il affût_" (gun-carriage).

"_Il me parait impossible d'admettre que Bāber eût à sa

disposition une artillerie attelée aussi considérable. Ces

arāba pouvaient servir en partie à transporter des pièces de

campagne, mais ils avaient aussi une autre destination, comme

on le voit par la suite du récit._" It does not appear to me

that Erskine _translates_ the word _arāba_ by the word _gun_,

but that the _arābas_ (all of which he took to be

gun-carriages) being there, he supposed the guns. This was not

correct as the various passages about carts as defences show

(cf. Index _s.nn._ _arāba_ and carts).

[2040] It is characteristic of Bābur that he reproduces Shaikh

Zain's _Fatḥ-nāma_, not because of its eloquence but because

of its useful details. Erskine and de Courteille have the

following notes concerning Shaikh Zain's _farmān_:—"Nothing

can form a more striking contrast to the simple, manly and

intelligent style of Baber himself, than the pompous, laboured

periods of his secretary. Yet I have never read this Firmān to

any native of India who did not bestow unlimited admiration on

the official bombast of Zeineddin, while I have met with none

but Turks who paid due praise to the calm simplicity of Baber"

[Mems. p. 359]. "_Comme la précédente (farmān), cette pièce

est rédigée en langue persane et offre un modèle des plus

accomplis du style en usage dans les chancelleries orientales.

La traduction d'un semblable morceau d'éloquence est de la

plus grande difficulté, si on veut être clair, tout en restant

fidèle à l'original._"

Like the Renunciation _farmān_, the Letter-of-victory with its

preceding sentence which I have asterisked, was probably

inserted into Bābur's narrative somewhat later than the battle

of Kānwa. Hence Bābur's pluperfect-tense "had indited". I am

indebted to my husband for help in revising the difficult

_Fatḥ-nāma_; he has done it with consideration of the variants

between the earlier English and the French translations. No

doubt it could be dealt with more searchingly still by one

well-versed in the Qorān and the Traditions, and thus able to

explain others of its allusions. The italics denote Arabic

passages in the original; many of these are from the Qorān,

and in tracing them M. de Courteille's notes have been most

useful to us.

[2041] Qorān, cap. 80, last sentence.

[2042] Shaikh Zain, in his version of the _Bābur-nāma_, styles

Bābur Nawāb where there can be no doubt of the application of

the title, _viz._ in describing Shāh T̤ahmāsp's gifts to him

(mentioned by Bābur on f. 305). He uses the title also in the

_farmān_ of renunciation (f. 313_b_), but it does not appear

in my text, "royal" (fortune) standing for it (_in loco_ p.

555, l. 10).

[2043] The possessive pronoun occurs several times in the

Letter-of-victory. As there is no semblance of putting forward

that letter as being Bābur's, the pronoun seems to imply "on

our side".

[2044] The _Bābur-nāma_ includes no other than Shaikh Zain's

about Kanwā. Those here alluded to will be the announcements

of success at Milwat, Pānīpat, Dībālpūr and perhaps elsewhere

in Hindūstān.

[2045] In Jūn-pūr (_Āyīn-i-akbarī_); Elliot & Dowson note (iv,

283-4) that it appears to have included, near Sikandarpūr, the

country on both sides of the Gogra, and thence on that river's

left bank down to the Ganges.

[2046] That the word Nawāb here refers to Bābur and not to his

lieutenants, is shewn by his mention (f. 278) of Sangā's

messages to himself.

[2047] Qorān, cap. 2, v. 32. The passage quoted is part of a

description of Satan, hence mention of Satan in Shaikh Zain's

next sentence.

[2048] The brahminical thread.

[2049] _khār-i-miḥnat-i-irtidād dar dāman._ This Erskine

renders by "who fixed thorns from the pangs of apostacy in the

hem of their garments" (p. 360). Several good MSS. have

_khār_, thorn, but Ilminsky has Ar. _khimār_, cymar, instead

(p. 411). De Courteille renders the passage by "_portent au

pan de leurs habits la marque douloureuse de l'apostasie_"

(ii, 290). To read _khimār_, cymar (scarf), would serve, as a

scarf is part of some Hindū costumes.

[2050] Qorān, cap. 69, v. 35.

[2051] M. Defrémery, when reviewing the French translation of

the B.N. (_Journal des Savans_ 1873), points out (p. 18) that

it makes no mention of the "blessed ten". Erskine mentions

them but without explanation. They are the _'asharah

mubash-sharah_, the decade of followers of Muḥammad who

"received good tidings", and whose certain entry into Paradise

he foretold.

[2052] Qorān, cap. 3, v. 20. M. Defrémery reads Shaikh Zain to

mean that these words of the Qorān were on the infidel

standards, but it would be simpler to read Shaikh Zain as

meaning that the infidel insignia on the standards "denounce

punishment" on their users.

[2053] He seems to have been a Rājpūt convert to Muḥammadanism

who changed his Hindī name Silhādī for what Bābur writes. His

son married Sangā's daughter; his fiefs were Raisin and

Sārangpūr; he deserted to Bābur in the battle of Kānwa. (Cf.

Erskine's _History of India_ i, 471 note; _Mirāt-i-sikandarī_,

Bayley's trs. _s.n._; _Akbar-nāma_, H.B.'s trs. i, 261; Tod's

_Rājastān_ cap. Mewār.)

[2054] "Dejāl or al Masih al Dajjal, the false or lying

Messiah, is the Muhammadan Anti-christ. He is to be one-eyed,

and marked on the forehead with the letters K.F.R. signifying

Kafer, or Infidel. He is to appear in the latter days riding

on an ass, and will be followed by 70,000 Jews of Ispahān, and

will continue on the Earth 40 days, of which one will be equal

to a year, another to a month, another to a week, and the rest

will be common days. He is to lay waste all places, but will

not enter Mekka or Medina, which are to be guarded by angels.

He is finally to be slain at the gate of Lud by Jesus, for

whom the Musalmans profess great veneration, calling him the

breath or spirit of God.—See Sale's _Introductory Discourse to

the Koran_" [Erskine].

[2055] Qorān, cap. 29, v. 5.

[2056] "This alludes to the defeat of [an Abyssinian

Christian] Abraha the prince of Yemen who [in the year of

Muḥammad's birth] marched his army and some elephants to

destroy the _ka`ba_ of Makka. 'The Meccans,' says Sale, 'at

the appearance of so considerable a host, retired to the

neighbouring mountains, being unable to defend their city or

temple. But God himself undertook the defence of both. For

when Abraha drew near to Mecca, and would have entered it, the

elephant on which he rode, which was a very large one and

named Maḥmūd, refused to advance any nigher to the town, but

knelt down whenever they endeavoured to force him that way,

though he would rise and march briskly enough if they turned

him towards any other quarter; and while matters were in this

posture, on a sudden a large flock of birds, like swallows,

came flying from the sea-coast, every-one of which carried

three stones, one in each foot and one in its bill; and these

stones they threw down upon the heads of Abraha's men,

certainly killing every one they struck.' The rest were swept

away by a flood or perished by a plague, Abraha alone reaching

Senaa, where he also died" [Erskine]. The above is taken from

Sale's note to the 105 chapter of the Qorān, entitled "the

Elephant".

[2057] Presumably black by reason of their dark large mass.

[2058] Presumably, devouring as fire.

[2059] This is 50 m. long and blocked the narrow pass of the

Caspian Iron-gates. It ends south of the Russian town of

Dar-band, on the west shore of the Caspian. Erskine states

that it was erected to repress the invasions of Yajuj and

Mujuj (Gog and Magog).

[2060] Qorān, cap. lxi, v. 4.

[2061] Qorān, cap. ii, v. 4. Erskine appears to quote another

verse.

[2062] Qorān, cap. xlviii, v. 1.

[2063] Index _s.n._

[2064] _Khirad_, Intelligence or the first Intelligence, was

supposed to be the guardian of the empyreal heaven (Erskine).

[2065] Chīn-tīmūr _Chīngīz-khānid Chaghatāī_ is called Bābur's

brother because a (maternal-) cousin of Bābur's own

generation, their last common ancestor being Yūnas Khān.

[2066] Sulaimān _Tīmūrid Mīrān-shāhī_ is called Bābur's son

because his father was of Bābur's generation, their last

common ancestor being Sl. Abū-sa`id Mīrzā. He was 13 years old

and, through Shāh Begīm, hereditary shāh of Badakhshān.

[2067] The Shaikh was able, it would appear, to see himself as

others saw him, since the above description of him is his own.

It is confirmed by Abū'l-faẓl and Badāyūnī's accounts of his

attainments.

[2068] The honourable post given to this amīr of Hind is

likely to be due to his loyalty to Bābur.

[2069] Aḥmad may be a nephew of Yūsuf of the same agnomen

(Index _s.nn._).

[2070] I have not discovered the name of this old servant or

the meaning of his seeming-sobriquet, Hindū. As a _qūchīn_ he

will have been a Mughūl or Turk. The circumstance of his

service with a son of Maḥmūd _Mīrān-shāhī_ (down to 905 AH.)

makes it possible that he drew his name in his youth from the

tract s.e. of Maḥmūd's Ḥiṣār territory which has been known as

Little Hind (Index _s.n._ Hind). This is however conjecture

merely. Another suggestion is that as _hindū_ can mean

_black_, it may stand for the common _qarā_ of the Turks,

_e.g._ Qarā Barlās, Black Barlās.

[2071] I am uncertain whether Qarā-qūzī is the name of a

place, or the jesting sobriquet of more than one meaning it

can be.

[2072] Soul-full, animated; var. Ḥai. MS. _khān-dār_. No

agnomen is used for Asad by Bābur. The _Akbar-nāma_ varies to

_jāmadār_, wardrobe-keeper, cup-holder (_Bib. Ind._ ed. i,

107), and Firishta to _sar-jāmadar_, head wardrobe-keeper

(lith. ed. p. 209 top). It would be surprising to find such an

official sent as envoy to `Irāq, as Asad was both before and

after he fought at Kānwa.

[2073] son of Daulat Khān _Yūsuf-khail Lūdī_.

[2074] These are the titles of the 20th and 36th chapters of

the Qorān; Sale offers conjectural explanations of them. The

"family" is Muḥammad's.

[2075] a Bāī-qarā Tīmūrid of Bābur's generation, their last

common ancestor being Tīmūr himself.

[2076] an Aūzbeg who married a daughter of Sl. Ḥusain M.

_Bāī-qarā_.

[2077] It has been pointed out to me that there is a Chinese

title of nobility _Yūn-wāng_, and that it may be behind the

words _jang-jang_. Though the suggestion appears to me

improbable, looking to the record of Bābur's officer, to the

prevalence of sobriquets amongst his people, and to what would

be the sporadic appearance of a Chinese title or even

class-name borne by a single man amongst them. I add this

suggestion to those of my note on the meaning of the words

(Index _s.n._ Muḥ. `Alī). The title _Jūn-wāng_ occurs in Dr.

Denison Ross' _Three MSS. from Kāshghar_, p. 5, v. 5 and

translator's preface, p. 14.

[2078] Cf. f. 266 and f. 299. _Yārāgī_ may be the name of his

office, (from _yārāq_) and mean provisioner of arms or food or

other military requirements.

[2079] or, Tardī _yakka_, the champion, Gr. _monomachus_ (A.

N. trs. i, 107 n.).

[2080] var. 1 watch and 2 _g'harīs_; the time will have been

between 9 and 10 a.m.

[2081] _jūldū ba nām al `azīz-i-barādar shud_, a phrase not

easy to translate.

[2082] _viz._ those chained together as a defence and probably

also those conveying the culverins.

[2083] The comparison may be between the darkening smoke of

the fire-arms and the heresy darkening pagan hearts.

[2084] There appears to be a distinction of title between the

_akhta-begī_ and the _mīr-akhẉūr_ (master of the horse).

[2085] Qorān, cap. 14, v. 33.

[2086] These two men were in one of the flanking-parties.

[2087] This phrase "our brother" would support the view that

Shaikh Zain wrote as for Bābur, if there were not, on the

other hand, mention of Bābur as His Majesty, and the precious

royal soul.

[2088] _dīwānīān_ here may mean those associated with the

wazīr in his duties: and not those attending at Court.

[2089] Qorān, cap. 14, v. 52.

[2090] Index _s.n. chuhra_ (a brave).

[2091] _hizabrān-i-besha yakrangī_, literally, forest-tigers

(or, lions) of one hue.

[2092] There may be reference here to the chains used to

connect the carts into a defence.

[2093] The braves of the _khāṣa tābīn_ were part of Bābur's

own centre.

[2094] perhaps the cataphract elephants; perhaps the men in

mail.

[2095] Qorān, cap. 101, v. 54.

[2096] Qorān, cap. 101, v. 4.

[2097] _bā andākhtan-i-sang u ẓarb-zan tufak bisyārī._ As

Bābur does not in any place mention metal missiles, it seems

safest to translate _sang_ by its plain meaning of _stone_.

[2098] Also, metaphorically, swords.

[2099] _tīr._ My husband thinks there is a play upon the two

meanings of this word, arrow and the planet Mercury; so too in

the next sentence, that there may be allusion in the _kuākib

s̤awābit_ to the constellation Pegasus, opposed to Bābur's

squadrons of horse.

[2100] The Fish mentioned in this verse is the one pictured by

Muḥammadan cosmogony as supporting the Earth. The violence of

the fray is illustrated by supposing that of Earth's seven

climes one rose to Heaven in dust, thus giving Heaven eight.

The verse is from Firdausī's _Shāh-nāma_, [Turner-Macan's ed.

i, 222]. The translation of it is Warner's, [ii, 15 and n.]. I

am indebted for the information given in this note to my

husband's long search in the _Shāh-nāmā_.

[2101] Qorān, cap. 3, v. 133.

[2102] Qorān, cap. 61, v. 13.

[2103] Qorān, cap. 48, v. 1.

[2104] Qorān, cap. 48, v. 3.

[2105] [see p. 572] _farāsh_. De Courteille, reading _firāsh_,

translates this metaphor by _comme un lit lorsqu'il est

défait_. He refers to Qorān, cap. 101, v. 3. A better metaphor

for the breaking up of an army than that of moths scattering,

one allowed by the word _farāsh_, but possibly not by

Muḥammad, is _vanished like bubbles on wine_.

[2106] Bāgar is an old name for Dungarpūr and Bānswāra [_G. of

I._ vi, 408 _s.n._ Bānṣwāra].

[2107] _sic_, Ḥai. MS. and may be so read in I.O. 217 f.

220_b___; Erskine writes Bikersi (p. 367) and notes the

variant Nagersi; Ilminsky (p. 421) N:krsī; de Courteille (ii.

307) Niguersi.

[2108] Cf. f. 318_b_, and note, where it is seen that the

stones which killed the lords of the Elephants were so small

as to be carried in the bill of a bird like a swallow. Were

such stones used in matchlocks in Bābur's day?

[2109] _guzāran_, var. _gurazān_, caused to flee and hogs

(Erskine notes the double-meaning).

[2110] This passage, entered in some MSS. as if verse, is made

up of Qorān, cap. 17, v. 49, cap. 33, v. 38, and cap. 3, v.

122.

[2111] As the day of battle was Jumāda II. 13th (March 16th),

the _Fatḥ-nāma_ was ready and dated twelve days after that

battle. It was started for Kābul on Rajab 9th (April 11th).

Something may be said here appropriately about the surmise

contained in Dr. Ilminsky's Preface and M. de Courteille's

note to _Mémoires_ ii, 443 and 450, to the effect that Bābur

wrote a plain account of the battle of Kanwā and for this in

his narrative substituted Shaikh Zain's _Fatḥ-nāma_, and that

the plain account has been preserved in Kehr's _Bābur-nāma_

volume [whence Ilminsky reproduced it, it was translated by M.

de Courteille and became known as a "Fragment" of Bāburiana].

Almost certainly both scholars would have judged adversely of

their suggestion by the light of to-day's easier research. The

following considerations making against its value, may be set

down:—

(1) There is no sign that Bābur ever wrote a plain account of

the battle or any account of it. There is against his doing so

his statement that he inserts Shaikh Zain's _Fatḥ-nāma_

because it gives particulars. If he had written any account,

it would be found preceding the _Fatḥ-nāma_, as his account of

his renunciation of wine precedes Shaikh Zain's _Farmān_

announcing the act.

(2) Moreover, the "Fragment" cannot be described as a plain

account such as would harmonize with Bābur's style; it is in

truth highly rhetorical, though less so as Shaikh Zain's.

(3) The "Fragment" begins with a quotation from the

_Bābur-nāma_ (f.310_b_ and n.), skips a good deal of Bābur's

matter preliminary to the battle, and passes on with what

there can be no doubt is a translation in inferior Turkī of

the _Akbar-nāma_ account.

(4) The whole of the extra matter is seen to be continuous and

not fragmentary, if it is collated with the chapter in which

Abū'l-faẓl describes the battle, its sequel of events, the

death, character, attainments, and Court of Bābur. Down to the

death, it is changed to the first person so as to make Bābur

seem to write it. The probable concocter of it is Jahāngīr.

(5) If the Fragment were Bābur's composition, where was it

when `Abdu-r-raḥīm translated the _Bābur-nāma_ in 998 AH.-1590

AD.; where too did Abū'l-faẓl find it to reproduce in the

_Akbar-nāma_?

(6) The source of Abū'l-faẓl's information seems without doubt

to be Bābur's own narrative and Shaikh Zain's _Fatḥ-nāma_.

There are many significant resemblances between the two

rhetoricians' metaphors and details selected.

(7) A good deal might be said of the dissimilarities between

Bābur's diction and that of the "Fragment". But this is

needless in face of the larger and more circumstantial

objections already mentioned.

(For a fuller account of the "Fragment" see JRAS. Jan. 1906

pp. 81, 85 and 1908 p. 75 ff.)

[2112] _T̤ughrā_ means an imperial signature also, but would

Bābur sign Shaikh Zain's _Fatḥ-i-nāma_? His autograph verse at

the end of the _Rāmpūr Dīwān_ has his signature following it.

He is likely to have signed this verse. Cf. App. Q. [Erskine

notes that titles were written on the back of despatches, an

unlikely place for the quatrain, one surmises.]

[2113] This is in the _Rāmpūr dīwān_ (E.D.R. Plate 17). Dr. E.

Denison Ross points out (p. 17 n.) that in the 2nd line the

Ḥai. Codex varies from the _Dīwān_. The MS. is wrong; it

contains many inaccuracies in the latter part of the Hindūstān

section, perhaps due to a change of scribe.

[2114] These words by _abjad_ yield 933. From Bābur's use of

the pluperfect tense, I think it may be inferred that (my)

Sections _a_ and _b_ are an attachment to the _Fatḥ-nāma_,

entered with it at a somewhat later date.

[2115] My translation of this puzzling sentence is tentative

only.

[2116] This statement shews that the Dībālpūr affair occurred

in one of the B.N. gaps, and in 930 AH. The words make 330 by

_abjad_. It may be noted here that on f. 312_b_ and notes

there are remarks concerning whether Bābur's remission of the

_tamghā_ was contingent on his winning at Kānwa. If the

remission had been delayed until his victory was won, it would

have found fitting mention with the other sequels of victory

chronicled above; as it is not with these sequels, it may be

accepted as an absolute remission, proclaimed before the

fight. The point was a little uncertain owing to the seemingly

somewhat deferred insertion in Bābur's narrative of Shaikh

Zain's _Farmān_.

[2117] _dā'ira_, presumably a defended circle. As the word

_aūrdū_ [bracketed in the text] shows, Bābur used it both for

his own and for Sangā's camps.

[2118] Hence the Rānā escaped. He died in this year, not

without suspicion of poison.

[2119] _aīchīmnī khālī qīldīm_, a seeming equivalent for

English, "I poured out my spleen."

[2120] var. _malūk_ as _e.g._ in I.O. 217 f.225_b_, and also

elsewhere in the _Bābur-nāma_.

[2121] On f. 315 the acts attributed to Ilīās Khān are said to

have been done by a "mannikin called Rustam Khān". Neither

name appears elsewhere in the B.N.; the hero's name seems a

sarcasm on the small man.

[2122] Bābur so-calls both Ḥasan and his followers, presumably

because they followed their race sympathies, as of Rājpūt

origin, and fought against co-religionists. Though Ḥasan's

subjects, Meos, were nominally Muḥammadans, it appears that

they practised some Hindu customs. For an account of Mīwāt,

see _Gazetteer of Ulwur_ (Alwar, Alūr) by Major P. W. Powlett.

[2123] Alwar being in Mīwāt, Bābur may mean that bodies were

found beyond that town in the main portion of the Mīwāt

country which lies north of Alwar towards Dihlī.

[2124] Major Powlett speaking (p. 9) of the revenue Mīwāt paid

to Bābur, quotes Thomas as saying that the coins stated in

Bābur's Revenue Accounts, _viz._ 169,810,00 _tankas_ were

probably Sikandarī _tankas_, or Rs. 8,490,50.

[2125] This word appears to have been restricted in its use to

the Khān-zādas of the ruling house in Mīwāt, and was not used

for their subjects, the Meos (Powlett _l.c._ Cap. I.). The

uses of "Mīwātī" and "Meo" suggest something analogous with

those of "Chaghatāī" and "Mughūl" in Bābur's time. The

resemblance includes mutual dislike and distrust (Powlett

_l.c._).