Chapter XLV: Section III: Hindūstān (19)

[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_.