Chapter XLIII: Section III: Hindūstān (17)

The year 925 AH. opens with Bābur far from Kābul and east of
the Khahr (fort) he is about to attack. Afghān and other
sources allow surmise of his route to that position; he may
have come down into the Chandāwal-valley, first, from taking
Chaghān-sarāī (f. 124, f. 134 and n.), and, secondly, from
taking the Gibrī stronghold of Ḥaidar-i-`alī _Bajaurī_ which
stood at the head of the Bābā Qarā-valley. The latter surmise
is supported by the romantic tales of Afghān chroniclers which
at this date bring into history Bābur's Afghān wife, Bībī
Mubāraka (f. 220_b_ and note; Mems. p. 250 n.; and Appendix K,
_An Afghān legend_). (It must be observed here that R.'s
_Notes_ (pp. 117, 128) confuse the two sieges, _viz._ of the
Gibrī fort in 924 AH. and of the Khahr of Bajaur in 925 AH.)

[1354] Raverty lays stress on the circumstance that the fort
Bābur now attacks has never been known as Bajaur, but always
simply as Khahr, the fort (the Arabic name for the place
being, he says, plain _Shahr_); just as the main stream is
called simply Rūd (the torrent). The name Khahr is still used,
as modern maps shew. There are indeed two neighbouring places
known simply as Khahr (Fort), _i.e._ one at the mouth of the
"Mahmand-valley" of modern campaigns, the other near the
Malakand (Fincastle's map).

[1355] This word the Ḥai. MS. writes, _passim_, Dilah-zāk.

[1356] Either Ḥaidar-i-`alī himself or his nephew, the latter
more probably, since no name is mentioned.

[1357] Looking at the position assigned by maps to Khahr, in
the _dū-āb_ of the Charmanga-water and the Rūd of Bajaur, it
may be that Bābur's left moved along the east bank of the
first-named stream and crossed it into the _dū-āb_, while his
centre went direct to its post, along the west side of the
fort.

[1358] _sū-kīrīshī_; to interpret which needs local knowledge;
it might mean where water entered the fort, or where water
disembogued from narrows, or, perhaps, where water is entered
for a ford. (The verb _kīrmāk_ occurs on f. 154_b_ and f. 227
to describe water coming down in spate.)

[1359] _dīwānawār_, perhaps a jest on a sobriquet earned
before this exploit, perhaps the cause of the man's later
sobriquet _dīwāna_ (f. 245_b_).

[1360] Text, t:r:k, read by Erskine and de Courteille as Turk;
it might however be a Turkī component in Jān-i-`alī or
Muḥibb-i-`alī. (Cf. Zenker _s.n. tirik_.)

[1361] _aūshūl gūnī_, which contrasts with the frequent
_aūshbū gūnī_ (this same day, today) of manifestly diary
entries; it may indicate that the full account of the siege is
a later supplement.

[1362] This puzzling word might mean cow-horn (_kau-sarū_) and
stand for the common horn trumpet. Erskine and de Courteille
have read it as _gau-sar_, the first explaining it as
_cow-head_, surmised to be a protection for matchlockmen when
loading; the second, as _justaucorps de cuir_. That the word
is baffling is shewn by its omission in I.O. 215 (f. 178_b_),
in 217 (f. 149_b_) and in Muḥ. _Shīrāzī_'s lith. ed. (p. 137).

[1363] or _farangī._ Much has been written concerning the
early use of gun-powder in the East. There is, however, no
well-authenticated fact to prove the existence of anything
like artillery there, till it was introduced from Europe.
Bābur here, and in other places (f. 267) calls his larger
ordnance Firingī, a proof that they were then regarded as
owing their origin to Europe. The Turks, in consequence of
their constant intercourse with the nations of the West, have
always excelled all the other Orientals in the use of
artillery; and, when heavy cannon were first used in India,
Europeans or Turks were engaged to serve them (Erskine). It is
owing no doubt to the preceding gap in his writings that we
are deprived of Bābur's account of his own introduction to
fire-arms. _See_ E. & D.'s _History of India_, vi, Appendix
_On the early use of gunpowder in India_.

[1364] var. _quṯbī_, _qūchīnī_.

[1365] This sobriquet might mean "ever a fighter", or an
"argle-bargler", or a brass shilling (Zenker), or (if written
_jing-jing_) that the man was visaged like the bearded reeding
(Scully in Shaw's Vocabulary). The _T̤abaqāt-i-akbarī_
includes a Mīrak Khān _Jang-jang_ in its list of Akbar's
Commanders.

[1366] _ghūl-dīn (awwal) aūl qūrghān-gha chīqtī._ I suggest to
supply _awwal_, first, on the warrant of Bābur's later
statement (f. 234_b_) that Dost was first in.

[1367] He was a son of Maulānā Muḥ. _Ṣadr_, one of the chief
men of `Umar-shaikh M.'s Court; he had six brothers, all of
whom spent their lives in Bābur's service, to whom, if we may
believe Abū'l-faẓl, they were distantly related (Erskine).

[1368] Bābur now returns towards the east, down the Rūd. The
_chashma_ by which he encamped, would seem to be near the
mouth of the valley of Bābā Qarā, one 30 miles long; it may
have been, anglicé, a spring [not that of the main stream of
the long valley], but the word may be used as it seems to be
of the water supplying the Bāgh-i-ṣafā (f. 224), _i.e._ to
denote the first considerable gathering-place of small
head-waters. It will be observed a few lines further on that
this same valley seems to be meant by "Khwāja Khiẓr".

[1369] He will have joined Bābur previous to Muḥarram 925 AH.

[1370] This statement, the first we have, that Bābur has
broken Musalmān Law against stimulants (f. 49 and n.), is
followed by many others more explicit, jotting down where and
what and sometimes why he drank, in a way which arrests
attention and asks some other explanation than that it is an
unabashed record of conviviality such conceivably as a
non-Musalmān might write. Bābur is now 37 years old; he had
obeyed the Law till past early manhood; he wished to return to
obedience at 40; he frequently mentions his lapses by a word
which can be translated as "commitment of sin" (_irtqāb_); one
gathers that he did not at any time disobey with easy
conscience. Does it explain his singular record,—one made in
what amongst ourselves would be regarded as a private
diary,—that his sins were created by Law? Had he a balance of
reparation in his thoughts?

Detaching into their separate class as excesses, all his
instances of confessed drunkenness, there remains much in his
record which, seen from a non-Musalmān point of view, is
venial; _e.g._ his _ṣubūhī_ appears to be the "morning" of the
Scot, the _Morgen-trank_ of the Teuton; his afternoon cup, in
the open air usually, may have been no worse than the sober
glass of beer or local wine of modern Continental Europe. Many
of these legal sins of his record were interludes in the day's
long ride, stirrup-cups some of them, all in a period of
strenuous physical activity. Many of his records are
collective and are phrased impersonally; they mention that
there was drinking, drunkenness even, but they give details
sometimes such as only a sober observer could include.

Bābur names a few men as drunkards, a few as entirely
obedient; most of his men seem not to have obeyed the Law and
may have been "temperate drinkers"; they effected work, Bābur
amongst them, which habitual drunkards could not have
compassed. Spite of all he writes of his worst excesses, it
must be just to remember his Musalmān conscience, and also the
distorting power of a fictitious sin. Though he broke the law
binding all men against excess, and this on several confessed
occasions, his rule may have been no worse than that of the
ordinarily temperate Western. It cannot but lighten judgment
that his recorded lapses from Law were often prompted by the
bounty and splendour of Nature; were committed amidst the
falling petals of fruit-blossom, the flaming fire of autumn
leaves, where the eye rested on the _arghwān_ or the orange
grove, the coloured harvest of corn or vine.

[1371] As Mr. Erskine observes, there seems to be no valley
except that of Bābā Qarā, between the Khahr and the
Chandāwal-valley; "Khwāja Khiẓr" and "Bābā Qarā" may be one
and the same valley.

[1372] Time and ingenuity would be needed to bring over into
English all the quips of this verse. The most obvious pun is,
of course, that on Bajaur as the compelling cause (_ba jaur_)
of the parting; others may be meant on _guzīd_ and _gazīd_, on
_sazīd_ and _chāra_. The verse would provide the holiday
amusement of extracting from it two justifiable translations.

[1373] His possessions extended from the river of Sawād to
Bāramūla; he was expelled from them by the Yūsuf-zāī
(Erskine).

[1374] This will be the naze of the n.e. rampart of the Bābā
Qarā valley.

[1375] f. 4 and note; f. 276. Bābur seems to use the name for
several varieties of deer.

[1376] There is here, perhaps, a jesting allusion to the
darkening of complexion amongst the inhabitants of countries
from west to east, from Highlands to Indian plains.

[1377] In Dr. E. D. Ross' _Polyglot list of birds_ the
_sārigh(sārīq)-qūsh_ is said to frequent fields of ripening
grain; this suggests to translate its name as Thief-bird.

[1378] _Aquila chrysaetus_, the hunting eagle.

[1379] This _ārālīgh_ might be identified with the "Miankalai"
of maps (since Soghd, lying between two arms of the Zar-afshān
is known also as Mīānkal), but Raverty explains the Bajaur
Miankalai to mean Village of the holy men (_mīān_).

[1380] After 933 AH. presumably, when final work on the B.N.
was in progress.

[1381] Mr. Erskine notes that Pesh-grām lies north of Mahyar
(on the Chandāwal-water), and that he has not found Kahrāj (or
Kohrāj). Judging from Bābur's next movements, the two valleys
he names may be those in succession east of Chandāwal.

[1382] There is hardly any level ground in the cleft of the
Panj-kūra (R.'s _Notes_ p. 193); the villages are perched high
on the sides of the valley. The pass leading to them may be
Katgola (Fincastle's Map).

[1383] This account of Hind-āl's adoption is sufficiently
confused to explain why a note, made apparently by Humāyūn,
should have been appended to it (Appendix L, _On Hind-āl's
adoption_). The confusion reminds the reader that he has
before him a sort of memorandum only, diary jottings, apt to
be allusive and abbreviated. The expected child was Dil-dār's;
Māhīm, using her right as principal wife, asked for it to be
given to her. That the babe in question is here called Hind-āl
shews that at least part of this account of his adoption was
added after the birth and naming (f. 227).

[1384] One would be, no doubt, for Dil-dār's own information.
She then had no son but had two daughters, Gul-rang and
Gul-chihra. News of Hind-āl's birth reached Bābur in Bhīra,
some six weeks later (f. 227).

[1385] f. 218_b_.

[1386] Bībī Mubāraka, the Afghānī Aghācha of Gul-badan. An
attractive picture of her is drawn by the
_Tāwārikh-i-ḥāfi-i-raḥmat-khānī_. As this gives not only one
of Bābur's romantic adventures but historical matter, I append
it in my husband's translation [(A.Q.R. April 1901)] as
Appendix K, _An Afghān Legend_.

[1387] _Bī-sūt aīlī-nīng Bajaur-qūrghānī-dā manāsabatī-bār
jīhatī_; a characteristic phrase.

[1388] Perhaps the end of the early spring-harvest and the
spring harvesting-year. It is not the end of the campaigning
year, manifestly; and it is at the beginning of both the solar
and lunar years.

[1389] Perhaps, more than half-way between the Mid-day and
Afternoon Prayers. So too in the annals of Feb. 12th.

[1390] _tīl ālghālī_ (Pers. _zabān-gīrī_), a new phrase in the
B.N.

[1391] _chāsht_, which, being half-way between sunrise and the
meridian, is a variable hour.

[1392] See n. 2, f. 221.

[1393] Perhaps Maqām is the Mardān of maps.

[1394] Bhīra, on the Jehlam, is now in the Shāhpūr district of
the Panj-āb.

[1395] This will be the ford on the direct road from Mardān
for the eastward (Elphin-stone's _Caubul_ ii, 416).

[1396] The position of Sawātī is represented by the Suābī of
the G. of I. map (1909 AD.). Writing in about 1813 AD. Mr.
Erskine notes as worthy of record that the rhinoceros was at
that date no longer found west of the Indus.

[1397] Elph. MS. _ghura_, the 1st, but this is corrected to
16th by a marginal note. The Ḥai. MS. here, as in some other
places, has the context for a number, but omits the figures.
So does also the Elph. MS. in a good many places.

[1398] This is the Harru. Mr. Erskine observes that Bābur
appears to have turned sharp south after crossing it, since he
ascended a pass so soon after leaving the Indus and reached
the Sūhān so soon.

[1399] _i.e._ the Salt-range.

[1400] Mr. Erskine notes that (in his day) a _shāhrukhī_ may
be taken at a shilling or eleven pence sterling.

[1401] It is somewhat difficult not to forget that a man who,
like Bābur, records so many observations of geographical
position, had no guidance from Surveys, Gazetteers and Books
of Travel. Most of his records are those of personal
observation.

[1402] In this sentence Mr. Erskine read a reference to the
Musalmān Ararat, the Koh-i-jūd on the left bank of the Tigris.
What I have set down translates the Turkī words but, taking
account of Bābur's eye for the double use of a word, and
Erskine's careful work, done too in India, the Turkī may imply
reference to the Ararat-like summit of Sakeswar.

[1403] Here Dr. Leyden's version finally ends (Erskine).

[1404] Bhīra, as has been noted, is on the Jehlam; Khūsh-āb is
40 m. lower down the same river; Chīnīūt (Chīnī-wat?) is 50
miles south of Bhīra; Chīn-āb (China-water?) seems the name of
a tract only and not of a residential centre; it will be in
the Bar of Kipling's border-thief. Concerning Chīnīūt _see_ D.
G. Barkley's letter, JRAS 1899 p. 132.

[1405] _ṯaur yīrī waqī` būlūb tūr._ As on f. 160 of the valley
of Khwesh, I have taken _ṯaur_ to be Turkī, complete, shut in.

[1406] _chashma_ (f. 218_b_ and note).

[1407] The promised description is not found; there follows a
mere mention only of the garden [f. 369]. This entry can be
taken therefore as shewing an intention to write what is still
wanting from Ṣafar 926 AH. to Ṣafar 932 AH.

[1408] Mīr Muḥ. may have been a kinsman or follower of Mahdī
Khwāja. The entry on the scene, unannounced by introduction as
to parentage, of the Khwāja who played a part later in Bābur's
family affairs is due, no doubt, to the last gap of annals. He
is mentioned in the Translator's Note, _s.a._ 923 AH. (_See_
Gul-badan's H.N. Biographical Appendix _s.n._)

[1409] or Sihrind, mod. Sirhind or Sar-i-hind (Head of Hind).
It may be noted here, for what it may be found worth, that
Kh(w)āfī Khān [i, 402] calls Sar-i-hind the old name, says
that the place was once held by the Ghaznī dynasty and was its
Indian frontier, and that Shāh-jahān changed it to Sahrind.
The W.-i-B. I.O. 217 f. 155 writes Shahrind.

[1410] Three krores or crores of dāms, at 40 to the rupee,
would make this 750,000 rupees, or about £75,000 sterling
(Erskine); a statement from the ancient history of the rupī!

[1411] This Hindustānī word in some districts signifies the
head man of a trade, in others a landholder (Erskine).

[1412] In Mr. Erskine's time this sum was reckoned to be
nearly £20,000.

[1413] Here originally neither the Elph. MS. nor the Ḥai. MS.
had a date; it has been added to the former.

[1414] This rain is too early for the s.w. monsoon; it was
probably a severe fall of spring rain, which prevails at this
season or rather earlier, and extends over all the west of
Asia (Erskine).

[1415] _az ghīna shor sū._ Streams rising in the Salt-range
become brackish on reaching its skirts (G. of I.).

[1416] Here this will be the fermented juice of rice or of the
date-palm.

[1417] _Rauḥ_ is sometimes the name of a musical note.

[1418] a platform, with or without a chamber above it, and
supported on four posts.

[1419] so-written in the MSS. Cf. Raverty's _Notes_ and G. of
I.

[1420] Anglicé, cousins on the father's side.

[1421] The G. of I. describes it.

[1422] Elph. MS. f. 183b, _manṣūb_; Ḥai. MS. and 2nd W.-i-B.
_bīsūt_. The holder might be Bābā-i-kābulī of f. 225.

[1423] The 1st Pers. trs. (I.O. 215 f. 188b) and Kehr's MS.
[Ilminsky p. 293] attribute Hātī's last-recorded acts to Bābur
himself. The two mistaken sources err together elsewhere. M.
de Courteille corrects the defect (ii, 67).

[1424] night-guard. He is the old servant to whom Bābur sent a
giant _ashrafī_ of the spoils of India (Gul-badan's H.N.
_s.n._).

[1425] The _kīping_ or _kīpik_ is a kind of mantle covered
with wool (Erskine); the root of the word is _kīp_, dry.

[1426] _aūlūgh chāsht_, a term suggesting that Bābur knew the
_chota ḥāẓirī_, little breakfast, of Anglo-India. It may be
inferred, from several passages, that the big breakfast was
taken after 9 a.m. and before 12 p.m. Just below men are said
to put on their mail at _chāsht_ in the same way as, _passim_,
things other than prayer are said to be done at this or that
Prayer; this, I think, always implies that they are done after
the Prayer mentioned; a thing done shortly before a Prayer is
done "close to" or "near" or when done over half-way to the
following Prayer, the act is said to be done "nearer" to the
second (as was noted on f. 221).

[1427] _Juldū Dost Beg-nīng ātī-gha būldī._

[1428] The disarray of these names in the MSS. reveals
confusion in their source. Similar verbal disarray occurs in
the latter part of f. 229.

[1429] Manifestly a pun is made on the guide's name and on the
_cap-à-pié_ robe of honour the offenders did not receive.

[1430] _aūrdū-nīng aldī-gha_, a novel phrase.

[1431] I understand that the servants had come to do their
equivalent for "kissing hands" on an appointment _viz._ to
kneel.

[1432] spikenard. Speede's _Indian Handbook on Gardening_
identifies _saṃbhal_ with _Valeriana jatmansi_ (Sir W. Jones &
Roxburgh); "it is the real spikenard of the ancients, highly
esteemed alike as a perfume and as a stimulant medicine;
native practitioners esteeming it valuable in hysteria and
epilepsy." Bābur's word _dirakht_ is somewhat large for the
plant.

[1433] It is not given, however.

[1434] _i.e._ through the Indus.

[1435] Perhaps this _aīkī-sū-ārāsī_ (_miyān-dū-āb_) was the
angle made by the Indus itself below Atak; perhaps one made by
the Indus and an affluent.

[1436] _ma'jūnī nāklīkī_, presumably under the tranquillity
induced by the drug.

[1437] _massadus_, the six sides of the world, _i.e._ all
sides.

[1438] This is the name of one of the five champions defeated
by Bābur in single combat in 914 AH. (Translator's Note _s.a._
914 AH.).

[1439] f. 145_b_.

[1440] Humāyūn was 12, Kāmrān younger; one surmises that Bābur
would have walked under the same circumstances.

[1441] _ṣabuḥī_, the morning-draught. In 1623 AD. Pietro della
Vallé took a _ṣabuḥī_ with Mr. Thomas Rastel, the head of the
merchants of Surat, which was of hot spiced wine and sipped in
the mornings to comfort the stomach (Hakluyt ed. p. 20).

[1442] f. 128 and note.

[1443] Anglicé, in the night preceding Tuesday.

[1444] f. 106b.

[1445] This would be the under-corselet to which the four
plates of mail were attached when mail was worn. Bābur in this
adventure wore no mail, not even his helm; on his head was the
under cap of the metal helm.

[1446] Index s.n. _gharīcha_.

[1447] The earlier account helps to make this one clearer (f.
106b).

[1448] f. 112 _et seq._

[1449] Catamite, mistakenly read as _khīz_ on f. 112b
(_Mémoires_ ii, 82).

[1450] He was acting for Bābur (Translator's Note _s.a._; Ḥ.S.
iii, 318; T.R. pp. 260, 270).

[1451] "Honoured," in this sentence, represents Bābur's
honorific plural.

[1452] in 921 AH. (Translator's Note _s.a._; T.R. p. 356).

[1453] _i.e._ Mīr Muḥammad son of Nāṣir.

[1454] _i.e._ after the dethronement of the Bāī-qarā family by
Shaibānī.

[1455] He had been one of rebels of 921 AH. (Translator's Note
_s.a._; T.R. p. 356).

[1456] f. 137.

[1457] This is the Adjutant-bird, Pīr-i-dang and Hargila
(Bone-swallower) of Hindūstān, a migrant through Kābul. The
fowlers who brought it would be the Multänīs of f. 142_b_.

[1458] f. 280.

[1459] _Memoirs_, p. 267, sycamore; _Mémoires_ ii, 84,
_saules_; f. 137.

[1460] Perhaps with his long coat out-spread.

[1461] The fortnight's gap of record, here ended, will be due
to illness.

[1462] f. 203_b_ and n. to _Khams_, the Fifth. _Taṣadduq_
occurs also on f. 238 denoting money sent to Bābur. Was it
sent to him as Pādshāh, as the Qorān commands the _Khams_ to
be sent to the Imām, for the poor, the traveller and the
orphan?

[1463] Rose-water, sherbet, a purgative; English, jalap,
julep.

[1464] Mr. Erskine understood Bābur to say that he never had
sat sober while others drank; but this does not agree with the
account of Harāt entertainments [912 AH.], or with the tenses
of the passage here. My impression is that he said in effect
"Every-one here shall not be deprived of their wine".

[1465] This verse, a difficult one to translate, may refer to
the unease removed from his attendants by Bābur's permission
to drink; the pun in it might also refer to _well_ and _not
well_.

[1466] Presumably to aid his recovery.

[1467] _aūtkān yīl_, perhaps in the last and unchronicled
year; perhaps in earlier ones. There are several references in
the B.N. to the enforced migrations and emigrations of tribes
into Kābul.

[1468] Pūlād (Steel) was a son of Kūchūm, the then Khāqān of
the Aūzbegs, and Mihr-bānū who may be Bābur's half-sister.
[Index _s.n._]

[1469] This may be written for Mihr-bānū, Pūlād's mother and
Bābur's half-sister (?) and a jest made on her heart as
Pūlād's and as steel to her brother. She had not left husband
and son when Bābur got the upper hand, as his half-sister
Yādgār-sulṯān did and other wives of capture _e.g._ Ḥaidar's
sister _Ḥabība_. Bābur's rhymes in this verse are not of his
later standard, _āī ṣubāḥ, kūnkūīkā, kūnkūlī-kā_.

[1470] _Taṣadduq_ sent to Bābur would seem an acknowledgment
of his suzerainty in Balkh [Index _s.n._].

[1471] This is the Gīrdīz-pass [Raverty's _Notes_, Route 101].

[1472] Raverty (p. 677) suggests that Pātakh stands for
_bātqāq_, a quagmire (f. 16 and n.).

[1473] the dark, or cloudy spring.

[1474] _yāqīsh-līq qūl_, an unusual phrase.

[1475] var. Karmān, Kurmāh, Karmās. M. de C. read Kīr-mās, the
impenetrable. The forms would give Garm-ās, hot embers.

[1476] _balafré_; marked on the face; of a horse, starred.

[1477] Raverty's _Notes_ (p. 457) give a full account of this
valley; in it are the head-waters of the Tochī and the Zurmut
stream; and in it R. locates Rustam's ancient Zābul.

[1478] It is on the Kābul side of the Gīrdīz-pass and stands
on the Luhugūr-water (Logar).

[1479] f. 143.

[1480] At this point of the text there occurs in the Elph. MS.
(f. 195_b_) a note, manifestly copied from one marginal in an
archetype, which states that what follows is copied from
Bābur's own MS. The note (and others) can be seen in JRAS 1905
p. 754 _et seq._

[1481] Masson, iii, 145.

[1482] A _qūlāch_ is from finger-tip to finger-tip of the
outstretched arms (Zenker p. 720 and _Méms._ ii, 98).

[1483] Neither _interne_ is said to have died!

[1484] f. 143.

[1485] or Atūn's-village, one granted to Bābur's mother's old
governess (f. 96); Gul-badan's guest-list has also an Atūn
Māmā.

[1486] f. 235_b_ and note.

[1487] _miswāk_; _On les tire principalement de l'arbuste
épineux appelé capparis-sodata_ (de C. ii, 101 n.).

[1488] Gul-badan's H.N. Index s.n.

[1489] This being Ramẓān, Bābur did not break his fast till
sun-set. In like manner, during Ramẓān they eat in the morning
before sun-rise (Erskine).

[1490] A result, doubtless, of the order mentioned on f.
240_b_.

[1491] Bābur's wife Gul-rukh appears to have been his sister
or niece; he was a Begchīk. Cf. Gul-badan's H.N. trs. p. 233,
p. 234; T.R. p. 264-5.

[1492] This remark bears on the question of whether we now
have all Bābur wrote of Autobiography. It refers to a date
falling within the previous gap, because the man went to
Kāshghar while Bābur was ruling in Samarkand (T.R. p. 265).
The last time Bābur came from Khwāst to Kābul was probably in
920 AH.; if later, it was still in the gap. But an alternative
explanation is that looking over and annotating the diary
section, Bābur made this reference to what he fully meant to
write but died before being able to do so.

[1493] Anglicé, the right thumb, on which the archer's ring
(_zih-gīr_) is worn.

[1494] a daughter of Yūnas Khān, Ḥaidar's account of whom is
worth seeing.

[1495] _i.e._ the water of Luhugūr (Logar). Tradition says
that Būt-khāk (Idol-dust) was so named because there Sl.
Maḥmūd of Ghaznī had idols, brought by him out of Hindūstān,
pounded to dust. Raverty says the place is probably the site
of an ancient temple (_vahāra_).

[1496] Qāsim Beg's son, come, no doubt, in obedience to the
order of f. 240_b_.

[1497] The `Īd-i-fitr is the festival at the conclusion of the
feast of Ramẓān, celebrated on seeing the new moon of Shawwāl
(Erskine).

[1498] f. 133_b_ and Appendix G, _On the names of the wines of
Nūr-valley_.

[1499] _i.e._ of the new moon of Shawwāl. The new moon having
been seen the evening before, which to Musalmāns was Monday
evening, they had celebrated the `Īd-i-fitr on Monday eve
(Erskine).

[1500] Dīwān of Hāfiẕ lith. ed. p. 22. The couplet seems to be
another message to a woman (f. 238); here it might be to Bībī
Mubāraka, still under Khwāja Kalān's charge in Bajaur (f.
221).

[1501] Here and under date Sep. 30th the wording allows a
ford.

[1502] This may be what Masson writes of (i, 149) "We reached
a spot where the water supplying the rivulet (of `Alī-masjid)
gushes in a large volume from the rocks to the left. I slaked
my thirst in the living spring and drank to repletion of the
delightfully cool and transparent water."

[1503] Mr. Erskine here notes, "This appears to be a mistake
or oversight of Bābur. The eve of `Arafa" (9th of Ẕū'l-ḥijja)
"was not till the evening of Dec. 2nd 1519. He probably meant
to say the `Id-i-fitr which had occurred only five days
before, on Sep. 26th."

[1504] This was an affair of frontiers (T.R. p. 354).

[1505] Manucci gives an account of the place (Irvine iv, 439
and ii, 447).

[1506] Sep. 8th to Oct. 9th.

[1507] _khūsh rang-i khizān._ Sometimes Bābur's praise of
autumn allows the word _khizān_ to mean the harvest-crops
themselves, sometimes the autumnal colouring.

[1508] This I have taken to mean the Kābul _tūmān_. The Ḥai.
MS. writes _wilāyatlār_ (plural) thus suggesting that _aūl_
(those) may be omitted, and those countries (Transoxiana) be
meant; but the second Pers. trs. (I.O. 217 f. 169) supports
_wilāyat_, Kābul.

[1509] joyous, happy.

[1510] _y:lk:rān._ This word has proved a difficulty to all
translators. I suggest that it stands for _aīlīkarān_, what
came to hand (_aīlīk see_ de C.'s Dict.); also that it
contains puns referring to the sheep taken from the road
(_yūlkarān_) and to the wine of the year's yield (_yīlkarān_).
The way-side meal was of what came to hand, mutton and wine,
probably local.

[1511] f. 141_b_.

[1512] f. 217 and n.

[1513] I think Bābur means that the customary announcement of
an envoy or guest must have reached Kābul in his absence.

[1514] He is in the T.R. list of the tribe (p. 307); to it
belonged Sl. Aḥmad _Taṃbal_ (_ib._ p. 316).

[1515] _Qābil-nīng kūrī-nīng qāshī-ka_, lit. to the presence
of the tomb of Qābil, _i.e._ Cain the eponymous hero of Kābul.
The Elph. MS. has been altered to "Qābil Beg"!

[1516] Mr. Erskine surmised that the line was from some
religious poem of mystical meaning and that its profane
application gave offence.

[1517] His sobriquet _khāksār_, one who sits in the dust,
suits the excavator of a _kārez_. Bābur's route can be
followed in Masson's (iii, 110), apparently to the very
_kārez_.

[1518] In Masson's time this place was celebrated for vinegar.
To reach it and return must have occupied several hours.

[1519] Kunos, _āq tūīgūn_, white falcon; _`Amal-i-ṣāliḥ_ (I.O.
MS. No. 857, f. 45_b_), _taus tūīghūn_.

[1520] f. 246.

[1521] Nawā'ī himself arranged them according to the periods
of his life (Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 294).

[1522] Elph. MS. f. 202_b_; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 175
(misplaced) and 217 f. 172; Mems. p. 281.

[1523] _pushta aūstīda_; the Jūī-khwūsh of f. 137.

[1524] The Ḥai. MS. omits a passage here; the Elph. MS. reads
_Qāsim Bulbulī nīng awī_, thus making "nightingale" a
sobriquet of Qāsim's own. Erskine (p. 281) has "Bulbulī-hall";
Ilminsky's words translate as, the house of Sayyid Qāsim's
nightingale (p. 321).

[1525] or Dūr-namā'ī, seen from afar.

[1526] _narm-dīk_, the opposite of a _qātīq yāī_, a stiff bow.
Some MSS. write _lāzim-dīk_ which might be read to mean such a
bow as his disablement allowed to be used.

[1527] Mr. Erskine, writing early in the 19th century, notes
that this seems an easy tribute, about 400 _rupīs_ _i.e._ £40.

[1528] This is one of the three routes into Lamghān of f. 133.

[1529] f. 251_b_ and Appendix F, _On the name Dara-i-nūr_.

[1530] This passage will be the basis of the account on f.
143_b_ of the winter-supply of fish in Lamghān.

[1531] This word or name is puzzling. Avoiding extreme detail
as to variants, I suggest that it is Dāūr-bīn for Dūr-namā'ī
if a place-name; or, if not, _dūr-bīn_, foresight (in either
case the preposition requires to be supplied), and it may
refer to foreseen need of and curiosity about Kāfir wines.

[1532] _chīūrtika_ or _chīūr-i-tika_, whether _sauterelle_ as
M. de Courteille understood, or _jānwār-i-ranga_ and _chīkūr_,
partridge as the 1st Persian trs. and as Mr. Erskine
(explaining _chūr-i-tīka_) thought, must be left open. Two
points arise however, (1) the time is January, the place the
deadly Bād-i-pīch pass; would these suit locusts? (2) If
Bābur's account of a splendid bird (f. 135) were based on this
experience, this would be one of several occurrences in which
what is entered in the Description of Kābul of 910 AH. is
found as an experience in the diary of 925-6 AH.

[1533] Ḥai. MS. _maḥali-da maẕkūr būlghūsīdūr_, but W.-i-B.
I.O. 215 f. 176 for _maḥali-da_, in its place, has _dar
majlis_ [in the collection], which may point to an intended
collection of Bābur's musical compositions. Either reading
indicates intention to write what we now have not.

[1534] Perhaps an equivalent for _farẓ-waqt_, the time of the
first obligatory prayer. Much seems to happen before the sun
got up high!

[1535] Koh-i-nūr, Rocky-mountains (?). _See_ Appendix F, _On
the name Dara-i-nūr_.

[1536] Steingass gives _būza_ as made of rice, millet, or
barley.

[1537] Is this connected with Arabic _kīmiyā'_, alchemy,
chemistry?

[1538] Turkī, a whirlpool; but perhaps the name of an office
from _aīgar_, a saddle.

[1539] The river on which the rafts were used was the Kūnār,
from Chītrāl.

[1540] An uncertain name. I have an impression that these
waters are medicinal, but I cannot trace where I found the
information. The visit paid to them, and the arrangement made
for bathing set them apart. The name of the place may convey
this speciality.

[1541] _panāhī_, the word used for the hiding-places of
bird-catchers on f. 140.

[1542] This will be the basis of the details about fishing
given on f. 143 and f. 143_b_. The statement that particulars
have been given allows the inference that the diary was
annotated after the _Description of Kābul_, in which the
particulars are, was written.

[1543] _qānlīqlār._ This right of private revenge which forms
part of the law of most rude nations, exists in a mitigated
form under the Muhammadan law. The criminal is condemned by
the judge, but is delivered up to the relations of the person
murdered, to be ransomed or put to death as they think fit
(Erskine).

[1544] Here the text breaks off and a _lacuna_ separates the
diary of 11 months length which ends the Kābul section of the
_Bābur-nāma_ writings, from the annals of 932 AH. which begin
the Hindūstān section. There seems no reason why the diary
should have been discontinued.

[1545] Jan. 2nd 1520 to Nov. 17th 1525 AD. (Ṣafar 926 to Ṣafar
1st 932 AH.).

[1546] Index _s.nn._ Bāgh-i-ṣafā and B.N. _lacunae_.

[1547] Nominally Balkh seems to have been a Ṣafawī possession;
but it is made to seem closely dependent on Bābur by his
receipt from Muḥammad-i-zamān in it of _taṣadduq_ (money for
alms), and by his action connected with it (_q.v._).

[1548] _Tārīkh-i-sind_, Malet's trs. p. 77 and _in loco_, p.
365.

[1549] A chronogram given by Badāyūnī decides the vexed
question of the date of Sikandar _Lūdī's_
death—_Jannātu'l-firdūs nazlā_ = 923 (Bib. Ind. ed. i, 322,
Ranking trs. p. 425 n. 6). Erskine supported 924 AH. (i, 407),
partly relying on an entry in Bābur's diary (f. 226_b_) _s.d._
Rabī`u'l-awwal 1st 925 AH. (March 3rd 1519 AD.) which states
that on that day Mullā Murshid was sent to Ibrāhīm whose
father _Sikandar had died five or six months before_.

Against this is the circumstance that the entry about Mullā
Murshid is, perhaps entirely, certainly partly, of later entry
than what precedes and what follows it in the diary. This can
be seen on examination; it is a passage such as the diary
section shews in other places, added to the daily record and
giving this the character of a draft waiting for revision and
rewriting (fol. 216_b_ n.).

(To save difficulty to those who may refer to the L. & E.
_Memoirs_ on the point, I mention that the whole passage about
Mullā Murshid is displaced in that book and that the date
March 3rd is omitted.)

[1550] Shāl (the local name of English Quetta) was taken by
Ẕū'l-nūn in 884 AH. (1479 AD.); Sīwīstān Shāh Beg took, in
second capture, about 917 AH. (1511 AD.), from a colony of
Barlās Turks under Pīr Walī _Barlās_.

[1551] Was the attack made in reprisal for Shāh Beg's further
aggression on the Barlās lands and Bābur's hereditary
subjects? Had these appealed to the head of their tribe?

[1552] Le Messurier writes (_l.c._ p. 224) that at Old
Qandahār "many stone balls lay about, some with a diameter of
18 inches, others of 4 or 5, chiselled out of limestone. These
were said to have been used in sieges in the times of the
Arabs and propelled from a machine called _manjanic_ a sort of
balista or catapult." Meantime perhaps they served Bābur!

[1553] "Just then came a letter from Badakhshān saying, 'Mīrzā
Khān is dead; Mīrzā Sulaimān (his son) is young; the Aūzbegs
are near; take thought for this kingdom lest (which God
forbid) Badakhshān should be lost.' Mīrzā Sulaimān's mother
(Sulṯān-nigār Khānīm) had brought him to Kābul" (Gul-badan's
H. N. f. 8).

[1554] _infra_ and Appendix J.

[1555] E. & D.'s _History of India_, i. 312.

[1556] For accounts of the _Mubīn_, _Akbar-nāma_ Bib. Ind. ed.
i. 118, trs. H. Beveridge i. 278 note, Badāyūnī _ib._ i, 343,
trs. Ranking p. 450, Sprenger ZDMG. 1862, Teufel _ib._ 1883.
The _Akbar-nāma_ account appears in Turkī in the "Fragments"
associated with Kehr's transcript of the B.N. (JRAS. 1908, p.
76, A. S. B.'s art. _Bābur-nāma_). Bābur mentions the _Mubīn_
(f. 252_b_, f. 351_b_).

[1557] JRAS. 1901, _Persian MSS. in Indian Libraries_
(description of the Rāmpūr _Dīwān_); AQR. 1911, _Bābur's
Dīwān_ (_i.e._ the Rāmpūr _Dīwān_); and _Some verses of the
Emperor Bābur_ (the _Abūshqa_ quotations).

For Dr. E. D. Ross' Reproduction and account of the Rāmpūr
_Dīwān_, JASB. 1910.

[1558] "After him (Ibrāhīm) was Bābur King of Dihlī, who owed
his place to the Pathāns," writes the Afghān poet Khūsh-ḥāl
_Khattak_ (Afghān Poets of the XVII century, C. E. Biddulph,
p. 58).

[1559] The translation only has been available (E. & D.'s H.
of I., vol. 1).

[1560] The marriage is said to have been Kāmrān's (E. & D.'s
trs.).

[1561] Erskine calculated that `Ālam Khān was now well over 70
years of age (H. of I. i, 421 n.).

[1562] A. N. trs. H. Beveridge, i, 239.

[1563] The following old English reference to Isma`il's
appearance may be quoted as found in a corner somewhat
out-of-the-way from Oriental matters. In his essay on beauty
Lord Bacon writes when arguing against the theory that beauty
is usually not associated with highmindedness, "But this holds
not always; for Augustus Cæsar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le
Bel of France, Edward the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of
Athens, Isma`il the Sophy (Ṣafawī) of Persia, were all high
and great spirits, and yet the most beautiful men of their
times."

[1564] Cf. _s.a._ 928 AH. for discussion of the year of death.

[1565] Elph. MS. f. 205_b_; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 199_b_ omits
the year's events on the ground that Shaikh Zain has
translated them; I.O. 217 f. 174; Mems. p. 290; Kehr's Codex
p. 1084.

A considerable amount of reliable textual material for
revising the Hindūstān section of the English translation of
the _Bābur-nāma_ is wanting through loss of pages from the
Elphinstone Codex; in one instance no less than an equivalent
of 36 folios of the Ḥaidarābād Codex are missing (f. 356 _et
seq._), but to set against this loss there is the valuable
_per contra_ that Kehr's manuscript throughout the section
becomes of substantial value, losing its Persified character
and approximating closely to the true text of the Elphinstone
and Ḥaidarābād Codices. Collateral help in revision is given
by the works specified (_in loco_ p. 428) as serving to fill
the gap existing in Bābur's narrative previous to 932 AH. and
this notably by those described by Elliot and Dowson. Of these
last, special help in supplementary details is given for 932
AH. and part of 933 AH. by Shaikh Zain [_Khawāfi_]'s
_T̤abaqāt-i-bāburī_, which is a highly rhetorical paraphrase
of Bābur's narrative, requiring familiarity with ornate
Persian to understand. For all my references to it, I am
indebted to my husband. It may be mentioned as an interesting
circumstance that the B.M. possesses in Or. 1999 a copy of
this work which was transcribed in 998 AH. by one of
Khwānd-amīr's grandsons and, judging from its date, presumably
for Abū'l-faẓl's use in the _Akbar-nāma_.

Like part of the Kābul section, the Hindūstān one is in
diary-form, but it is still more heavily surcharged with
matter entered at a date later than the diary. It departs from
the style of the preceding diary by an occasional lapse into
courtly phrase and by exchange of some Turkī words for Arabic
and Persian ones, doubtless found current in Hind, _e.g._
_fauj_, _dīra_, _manzil_, _khail-khāna_.

[1566] This is the Logar affluent of the Bārān-water
(Kābul-river). Masson describes this haltingplace (iii, 174).

[1567] _muḥaqqar saughāt u bīlāk or tīlāk._ A small verbal
point arises about _bīlāk_ (or _tīlāk_). _Bīlāk_ is said by
Quatremère to mean a gift (N. et E. xiv, 119 n.) but here
_muḥaqqar saughāt_ expresses gift. Another meaning can be
assigned to _bīlāk_ here, [one had also by _tīlāk_,] _viz._
that of word-of-mouth news or communication, sometimes
supplementing written communication, possibly secret
instructions, possibly small domestic details. In _bīlāk_, a
gift, the root may be _bīl_, the act of knowing, in _tīlāk_ it
is _tīl_, the act of speaking [whence _tīl_, the tongue, and
_tīl tūtmāk_, to get news]. In the sentence noted, either word
would suit for a verbal communication. Returning to _bīlāk_ as
a gift, it may express the _nuance_ of English _token_, the
maker-known of friendship, affection and so-on. This
differentiates _bīlāk_ from _saughāt_, used in its frequent
sense of ceremonial and diplomatic presents of value and
importance.

[1568] With Sa`īd at this time were two Khānīms Sulṯān-nigār
and Daulat-sulṯān who were Bābur's maternal-aunts. Erskine
suggested Khūb-nigār, but she had died in 907 AH. (f. 96).

[1569] Humāyūn's non-arrival would be the main cause of delay.
Apparently he should have joined before the Kābul force left
that town.

[1570] The halt would be at Būt-khāk, the last station before
the Adīnapūr road takes to the hills.

[1571] Discussing the value of coins mentioned by Bābur,
Erskine says in his _History of India_ (vol. i, Appendix E.)
which was published in 1854 AD. that he had come to think his
estimates of the value of the coins was set too low in the
_Memoirs_ (published in 1826 AD.). This sum of 20,000
_shāhrukhīs_ he put at £1000. Cf. E. Thomas' _Pathan Kings of
Dihli and Resources of the Mughal Empire_.

[1572] One of Masson's interesting details seems to fit the
next stage of Bābur's march (iii, 179). It is that after
leaving Būt-khāk, the road passes what in the thirties of the
19th Century, was locally known as Bābur Pādshāh's Stone-heap
(cairn) and believed piled in obedience to Bābur's order that
each man in his army should drop a stone on it in passing. No
time for raising such a monument could be fitter than that of
the fifth expedition into Hindūstān when a climax of
opportunity allowed hope of success.

[1573] _rezāndalīk._ This Erskine translates, both here and on
ff. 253, 254, by _defluxion_, but de Courteille by _rhume de
cerveau_. Shaikh Zain supports de Courteille by writing, not
_rezāndalīk_, but _nuzla_, catarrh. De Courteille, in
illustration of his reading of the word, quotes Burnes'
account of an affection common in the Panj-āb and there called
_nuzla_, which is a running at the nostrils, that wastes the
brain and stamina of the body and ends fatally (_Travels in
Bukhara_ ed. 1839, ii, 41).

[1574] Tramontana, north of Hindū-kush.

[1575] Shaikh Zain says that the drinking days were Saturday,
Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

[1576] The Elph. Codex (f. 208_b_) contains the following note
of Humāyūn's about his delay; it has been expunged from the
text but is still fairly legible:—"The time fixed was after
`Āshūrā (10th Muḥarram, a voluntary fast); although we arrived
after the next-following 10th (_`āshūr_, _i.e._ of Ṣafar), the
delay had been necessary. The purpose of the letters (Bābur's)
was to get information; (in reply) it was represented that the
equipment of the army of Badakhshān caused delay. If this
slave (Humāyūn), trusting to his [father's] kindness, caused
further delay, he has been sorry."

Bābur's march from the Bāgh-i-wafā was delayed about a month;
Humāyūn started late from Badakhshān; his force may have
needed some stay in Kābul for completion of equipment; his
personal share of blame for which he counted on his father's
forgiveness, is likely to have been connected with his
mother's presence in Kābul.

Humāyūn's note is quoted in Turkī by one MS. of the Persian
text (B.M. W.-i-B. 16,623 f. 128); and from certain
indications in Muḥammad _Shīrāzī_'s lithograph (p. 163),
appears to be in his archetype the Udaipūr Codex; but it is
not with all MSS. of the Persian text _e.g._ not with I.O. 217
and 218. A portion of it is in Kehr's MS. (p. 1086).

[1577] Bird's-dome [f. 145_b_, n.] or The pair (_qūsh_) of
domes.

[1578] _gūn khūd kīch būlūb aīdī_; a little joke perhaps at
the lateness both of the day and the army.

[1579] Shaikh Zain's maternal-uncle.

[1580] Shaikh Zain's useful detail that this man's pen-name
was Sharaf distinguishes him from Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ the author of
the _Shaibānī-nāma_.

[1581] _gosha_, angle (_cf._ _gosha-i-kār_, limits of work).
Parodies were to be made, having the same metre, rhyme, and
refrain as the model couplet.

[1582] I am unable to attach sense to Bābur's second line;
what is wanted is an illustration of two incompatible things.
Bābur's reflections [_infra_] condemned his verse. Shaikh Zain
describes the whole episode of the verse-making on the raft,
and goes on with, "He (Bābur) excised this choice couplet from
the pages of his Acts (_Wāqi`āt_) with the knife of censure,
and scratched it out from the tablets of his noble heart with
the finger-nails of repentance. I shall now give an account of
this spiritual matter" (_i.e._ the repentance), "by presenting
the recantations of his Solomon-like Majesty in his very own
words, which are weightier than any from the lips of Aesop."
Shaikh Zain next quotes the Turkī passage here translated in
_b. Mention of the Mubīn_.

[1583] The _Mubīn_ (_q.v._ Index) is mentioned again and
quoted on f. 351_b_. In both places its name escaped the
notice of Erskine and de Courteille, who here took it for
_mīn_, I, and on f. 351_b_ omitted it, matters of which the
obvious cause is that both translators were less familiar with
the poem than it is now easy to be. There is amplest textual
warrant for reading _Mubīn_ in both the places indicated
above; its reinstatement gives to the English and French
translations what they have needed, namely, the clinch of a
definite stimulus and date of repentance, which was the
influence of the Mubīn in 928 AH. (1521-2 AD.). The whole
passage about the peccant verse and its fruit of contrition
should be read with others that express the same regret for
broken law and may all have been added to the diary at the
same time, probably in 935 AH. (1529 AD.). They will be found
grouped in the Index _s.n._ Bābur.

[1584] _mūndīn būrūn_, by which I understand, as the
grammatical construction will warrant, _before writing the
Mubīn_. To read the words as referring to the peccant verse,
is to take the clinch off the whole passage.

[1585] _i.e._ of the _Qorān_ on which the _Mubīn_ is based.

[1586] Dropping down-stream, with wine and good company, he
entirely forgot his good resolutions.

[1587] This appears to refer to the good thoughts embodied in
the _Mubīn_.

[1588] This appears to contrast with the "sublime realities"
of the _Qorān_.

[1589] In view of the interest of the passage, and because
this verse is not in the Rāmpūr _Dīwān_, as are many contained
in the Hindūstān section, the Turkī original is quoted. My
translation differs from those of Mr. Erskine and M. de
Courteille; all three are tentative of a somewhat difficult
verse.

_Nī qīlā mīn sīnīng bīla āī tīl?
Jihatīng dīn mīnīng aīchīm qān dūr.
Nīcha yakhshī dīsāng bū hazl aīla shi`r
Bīrī-sī faḥash ū bīrī yālghān dūr.
Gar dīsāng kūīmā mīn, bū jazm bīla
Jalāu'īngnī bū `arṣa dīn yān dūr._

[1590] The Qorān puts these sayings into the mouths of Adam
and Eve.

[1591] Ḥai. MS. _tīndūrūb_; Ilminsky, p. 327, _yāndūrūb_;
W.-i-B. I.O. 217, f. 175, _sard sākhta_.

[1592] Of `Alī-masjid the _Second Afghān War_ (official
account) has a picture which might be taken from Bābur's camp.

[1593] Shaikh Zain's list of the drinking-days (f. 252 note)
explains why sometimes Bābur says he preferred _ma`jūn_. In
the instances I have noticed, he does this on a drinking-day;
the preference will be therefore for a confection over wine.
December 9th was a Saturday and drinking-day; on it he
mentions the preference; Tuesday Nov. 21st was a drinking day,
and he states that he ate _ma`jūn_.

[1594] presumably the _karg-khāna_ of f. 222_b_,
rhinoceros-home in both places. A similar name applies to a
tract in the Rawalpindi District,—Bābur-khāna, Tiger-home,
which is linked to the tradition of Buddha's self-sacrifice to
appease the hunger of seven tiger-cubs. [In this Bābur-khāna
is the town Kacha-kot from which Bābur always names the river
Hārū.]

[1595] This is the first time on an outward march that Bābur
has crossed the Indus by boat; hitherto he has used the ford
above Attock, once however specifying that men on foot were
put over on rafts.

[1596] f. 253.

[1597] In my Translator's Note (p. 428), attention was drawn
to the circumstance that Bābur always writes Daulat Khān
_Yūsuf-khail_, and not Daulat Khān _Lūdī_. In doing this, he
uses the family- or clan-name instead of the tribal one,
_Lūdī_.

[1598] _i.e._ day by day.

[1599] _daryā_, which Bābur's precise use of words _e.g._ of
_daryā_, _rūd_, and _sū_, allows to apply here to the Indus
only.

[1600] Presumably this was near Parhāla, which stands, where
the Sūhān river quits the hills, at the eastern entrance of a
wild and rocky gorge a mile in length. It will have been up
this gorge that Bābur approached Parhāla in 925 AH.
(Rawalpindi Gazetteer p. 11).

[1601] _i.e._ here, bed of a mountain-stream.

[1602] The Elphinstone Codex here preserves the following
note, the authorship of which is attested by the scribe's
remark that it is copied from the handwriting of Humāyūn
Pādshāh:—As my honoured father writes, we did not know until
we occupied Hindūstān (932 AH.), but afterwards did know, that
ice does form here and there if there come a colder year. This
was markedly so in the year I conquered Gujrāt (942 AH.-1535
AD.) when it was so cold for two or three days between Bhūlpūr
and Guālīār that the waters were frozen over a hand's
thickness.

[1603] This is a Kakar (Gakkhar) clan, known also as
Baragowah, of which the location in Jahāngīr Pādshāh's time
was from Rohtās to Hātya, _i.e._ about where Bābur encamped
(_Memoirs of Jahāngīr_, Rogers and Beveridge, p. 97; E. and D.
vi, 309; Provincial Gazetteers of Rawalpindi and Jihlam, p. 64
and p. 97 respectively).

[1604] _āndīn aūtūb_, a reference perhaps to going out beyond
the corn-lands, perhaps to attempt for more than provisions.

[1605] _qūsh-āt_, a led horse to ride in change.

[1606] According to Shaikh Zain it was in this year that Bābur
made Buhlūlpūr a royal domain (B.M. Add. 26,202 f. 16), but
this does not agree with Bābur's explanation that he visited
the place because it was _khalṣa_. Its name suggests that it
had belonged to Buhlūl _Lūdī_; Bābur may have taken it in 930
AH. when he captured Sīālkot. It never received the population
of Sīālkot, as Bābur had planned it should do because
pond-water was drunk in the latter town and was a source of
disease. The words in which Bābur describes its situation are
those he uses of Akhsī (f. 4_b_); not improbably a resemblance
inclined his liking towards Buhlūlpūr. (It may be noted that
this Buhlūlpūr is mentioned in the _Āyīn-i-akbarī_ and marked
on large maps, but is not found in the G. of I. 1907.)

[1607] Both names are thus spelled in the _Bābur-nāma_. In
view of the inclination of Turkī to long vowels, Bābur's short
one in Jat may be worth consideration since modern usage of
Jat and Jāt varies. Mr. Crooke writes the full vowel, and
mentions that Jāts are Hindūs, Sikhs, and Muḥammadans (_Tribes
and Castes of the North-western Provinces and Oude_, iii, 38).
On this point and on the orthography of the name, Erskine's
note (_Memoirs_ p. 294) is as follows: "The Jets or Jats are
the Muḥammadan peasantry of the Panj-āb, the bank of the
Indus, Sīwīstān _etc._ and must not be confounded with the
Jāts, a powerful Hindū tribe to the west of the Jamna, about
Agra _etc._ and which occupies a subordinate position in the
country of the Rājpūts."

[1608] The following section contains a later addition to the
diary summarizing the action of `Ālam Khān before and after
Bābur heard of the defeat from the trader he mentions. It
refutes an opinion found here and there in European writings
that Bābur used and threw over `Ālam Khān. It and Bābur's
further narrative shew that `Ālam Khān had little valid
backing in Hindūstān, that he contributed nothing to Bābur's
success, and that no abstention by Bābur from attack on
Ibrāhīm would have set `Ālam Khān on the throne of Dihlī. It
and other records, Bābur's and those of Afghān chroniclers,
allow it to be said that if `Ālam Khān had been strong enough
to accomplish his share of the compact that he should take and
should rule Dihlī, Bābur would have kept to his share, namely,
would have maintained supremacy in the Panj-āb. He advanced
against Ibrāhīm only when `Ālam Khān had totally failed in
arms and in securing adherence.

[1609] This objurgation on over-rapid marching looks like the
echo of complaint made to Bābur by men of his own whom he had
given to `Ālam Khān in Kābul.

[1610] Maḥmūd himself may have inherited his father's title
Khān-i-jahān but a little further on he is specifically
mentioned as the son of Khān-i-jahān, presumably because his
father had been a more notable man than he was. Of his tribe
it may be noted that the Ḥaidarābād MS. uniformly writes
Nuḥānī and not Luḥānī as is usual in European writings, and
that it does so even when, as on f. 149_b_, the word is
applied to a trader. Concerning the tribe, family, or caste
_vide_ G. of I. _s.n._ Lohānas and Crooke _l.c._ _s.n._
Pathān, para. 21.

[1611] _i.e._ west of Dihlī territory, the Panj-āb.

[1612] He was of the Farmul family of which Bābur says (f.
139_b_) that it was in high favour in Hindūstān under the
Afghāns and of which the author of the _Wāqi`āt-i-mushtāqī_
says that it held half the lands of Dihlī in _jāgīr_ (E. and
D. iv, 547).

[1613] Presumably he could not cut off supplies.

[1614] The only word similar to this that I have found is one
"Jaghat" said to mean serpent and to be the name of a Hindū
sub-caste of Nats (Crooke, iv, 72 & 73). The word here might
be a nick-name. Bābur writes it as two words.

[1615] _khaṣa-khail_, presumably members of the Sāhū-khail
(family) of the Lūdī tribe of the Afghān race.