* MUGHAL 3 _ LHRONE. * o& THE SAGA OF INDIES Ee EMPERORS -)Abraham Eraly, who was bortin Kerala, has taught Inciat history in Madras and the United States, He is the author of Gert te the Lotus: The Sending of fridia Cioieation, He lives in Madras THE MUGHAL THRONE The Saga of Indta’s Great Emperors Abraham Eraly p PuotnixAPHOENIX PAPERBACK First published in Great Britain in 309 ty Weidenield ae Nicolson This paperback edition published in by Phoenix, animpnntof Orion Books Ltd, Orion Hone, 3 Upper St Martin's Lane, London WOIH SEA ath Originally published by Pengum Books Indian 1997 ond revised eclilisn in 200 under the tthe Enipemisaf thie Pencoek: Tirnome: The Sg fate Crem Mu(giials Japs sed Copyright 1997; 2000 Abraham Eraly ‘Thenightot Abraham Braly to be identified ay the euthor of this work hac been asserled by him in sccordance with the Copyright, Desipns and Patents Act 186: Allmyhtereserved. Nopartof this publcabonmay be reproduced, stored iva netneval system, or transtmitted, in any form orby any means,electoonic, mechanical photocopying, recurding or otherwise, without the price pentussion of the copyright owner ACU catalogue record for this book able from the Delish Library ISBN O753BL 758 6 Printed anc bound inGreat Britain by Butler é Tanner Lid, Frome and Lendon For SATISH who in the summer of a year of ¢risis asked, “What's it again? Can’t begin anything new at your age? Why not?” and got me gomp Akhbar: Tell mie, if you please; what is the greatest consolation Hat qian tas an itis world? Birhal: Ak, sire! il js wher a father finds himself embruced by is son.Te Hits history J knoe treld Arnily to it that the truth shovld be reached in every matter, and that every act should be recorded precisely as it occured... Pde set down of good ard bad whatener is knottin —Empetor Babur in Babur-nania J give the story as T recefved il; to contradict if 15: not an amp power. —Francois Bernier in his report on Mughal India Contents Acknowledgennits Preface Chapter One: The Mughal Advent }. Like a King on a Chessboard 2 MTF ame Be Mine...” 3, Black Pell the Day Chapter Two: The Struggle for Survival 1, The Dreamer Cometh 2. !The Feast Is Over . 3. “What Is to Be Done?” Chapter Three; The Afghan Interlude 1, Man of Destiny 2. Peaceable Kingdom 3, Fiery End Chapter Hour The Mughal Restoration 1. Humayun in Exile 2. The Reluclant Boy King 3. Behind the Veil Chapter Five: The Empire Takes Hold 4, Earth Hunger 2. Invincible Emperor 3. Person and Fersona 4. Mliterate Savant Chapter Six! An Experiment in Synthesis 1, “My Mind Is Not at Ease “Reason, Not Tradition . Allah Akbar! . Tyranny Is Unlawful | The Long Farewell Gn es po wi xii 104 103 14 124 A37 139 449 163 173: 181 183 191 202 215Chapter Seven: The Middle Empire 1, His Father's Son 2 Scientist Emperor 3, Sons and Rebels 4. Another Son, Another Rebel §, Light of the World 6. An English Aristocrat in the Mughal Court 7. The Coup Chapter Bight; The Paradise on Farth 1. The Man Behind the Mask 2. Pyrthie Victories 3. “Ya Takht Ya Tabutl” 4. “For the Sake of the True Faith” 5, Dara’s Last Stand ‘Chapter Nine! Over the Top 1, God's Elected Custodian 2. “Fear the Sighs of the Oppressed” 3. Born to Trouble Others: 4. "The More One Drinks...” 5. “Now That the Shadows Fall -.-" Chapter Ten: The Maratha Nemesis Maratha Beginnings . Enter Shivaji Lord of the Umbrella Kirti Rupen Maratha Collapse . Rafizi-kush Maratha Eruption . “OF the Future There Ie No Hope...” eo ie on Epilogue Tncidenda! Data Notes Bibliography Index 231 233 244 255 263 27] 279 288 257, 299) 316 Sal a4 473 a75 SB 307 413 ADA 431 433 440, Ad 466 a7 485 496 515 523 539 540 547 Acknowledgements The gods have been kind to this uobehever At every moment of pressing need, as T plodded on interminably with the work on: this book, T have received the needed support, often from unexpected sources and in unesxpeeted ways, even without my asking for it, a= wilt from the gods, Several frends read portions of the manuscript at different stages and gave help and encouragement. Of them | have to make a specral mention of two, Sita Sakanth and Nancy Gandhi, whose contribubons have been divect and crucial, and have mattered fo me far more than T have ever had the grace ta show Sita, a colleague of mine when | was living disguiced as the editor of a formightly magazine, was the first person with whom T discussed this project. She then scaured the libraries and pressed books on me- and did much to harden my tenuous idea into.a firm project Later. she rend through the entire first drafl of the book, making valuable suggestions and hectoring me to work harder, challenging mo to be botter than Lam, often Hingmg at me the very precepts on which [used to hold forth at-ecitonal nicetings. Her Support has been invaluable in sustaining this project Equally invaltiable has-been the contribubon of Nancy, who came in when I was completing the second draft and was desperately looking for someone ta read it before 1 went un for the final revision Nancy, palient and thorough, pumctilious in observing grammar uonventions and puritanical in ber eversion to ornamentation, has been the ideal editor for me, better than T could have dreamed of she gave me the second wind needed to complete this work. ] should also record my gratitude to 5 Krshnan, whe read the early chapters of the book and buoyed me up with his enthusiasm, to Dr CT, Kundan, whose critical comments enabled me to firm up the chapter on Mughal economy; to David Davider, Editor and Publisher of Penguin india, whose prompt and positive response to the book caved mae ull the soul-cnumbing publishing hassles; and to Ravi Singh. my editor at Penguin, who expertly put the book through its final pacesPreface [have in my study, on the old, worm-hole pitted teak desk at which [ work, an antique sone head of Buddha, less than a foot high, which [had picked up many years age tn Madras from a pavement junikwallah, iL is a fine piece, its chiseled features perfect, head slightly bent sideways, a if trying (a anchor a memory or a cream; eyes balf-closed meditatively, A thick patinn of game tinges the handsome, Serene face with a peculiar sadness, the anguish Of a compassionate outsider, concerned with the human predicament, but not involved with 1b Over the years; as [ laboured on this book, the dispassionate compassion of Buddha hac seemed to me the periect ideal for students ‘af history, though of course we would all fail disgracefully ta five up foal, as the passions of our lives and the furies of our age knead and rework us continually on the slow wheel of time AS lime rewarks us; we rework history. “All works of history are interim reports. says American histacian John Noble Wilford, “What people did in the (past ts not preserved in amber immutable thremph the ages Each generation looks hack and, drawing front its own expenence, presumes to find patterns that iurminate both past and present” Nothing ever quite dies: The past ts neatly as alive as the present, and it changes as the present changes, jhe histoncal past as much as our personal past, The bare facts of histary do act of course change, except for occasional emendations, but the way facts mterlock and change colour lo make pattems is unique te each peneration, indeed to cach historian, No particular representation of the. past has therefore any absolute validity, and the value of any historical work depends largely on the felicitous catalysis of the personal vision into a universal josiog, TE 15 essentially a trumph of ark The mutability of human percepbions apart, there are other obstacles toa definitive understanding of the Fistorical processes. Man cansiof, 25 ‘Albert Camus says in The Rebel, grasp the totality oF history “since he Jivoe in the madst of this totality: History, as -on entirety, could existPaUPACE only in the eyes of an observer outside it and outside the world.” Tt jg in fact impossible for man to know the final truth even about any particular event in history, however trivial it might be, for he, himself swirling in time, does not have the perspective to sec all its relevant connections and discern where it would ultimately lead, as its consequences, intersecting, with the consequences of myriad other events, proliferate endlessly into the future “Historical reason will never be fulfilled and will never have its full meaning or value until the end of history,” argues Carus. ‘The purely historical absolute is not even conceivable.” When we consider these all too evident limitations of writing history, it seems asmiazing that academic historians in moder times have generally laid claim to sclentific precision for their methodology, and objective vabdity for their theories. Historical investigation has of course become more sophisticated lately, especially m the evaluation of archaeological and philological data. But this has come about mainly because of advances in Science and technology, and not because of any radical change in the methodology of history, The character of history has not changed But the garb of historians has changed, for they have suited up for their new role as social scientists, Unfortunately, many historians, in their excitement at being recognized as social scientists, averlooked the fact that while scientific discoveries are sequential and mark a linear progress—with new discoveries displacing or modifying old theories— new interpretations of history seldom displace old interpretations, for they are only tenets; at best philosophies, not discoveries, The unpredictability of human affairs makes ‘historical analysis, for all its vaunted scientific methodology, éssentially an act of daith What we find depends a lot on what we are: There were other complications too, Observes Harvard professor Simon Schama’ “As historians institutionalized themselves into an academic profession,” they tumed awajy from “historical realities’ to “hustonographical obsessions” Their focus then shifted from persons and events, the flesh and blood of history, to abstract structires of their own construction, This pursuit trapped historians in a maze of sophistry, the sterile, self-abusive game of thought, involving oyer-elaborations and supersubtleties which made little sense. Now at last historians are beginning to grope their way out of the maze, And gradually, renouncing the conceits of the recent past, they are returning to their primary function, to resuscitate the past and xii IEFACE release it into the present. That is what history is all about. Herodotus, the fifth century BC Greek father of history, has said it all in the opening sentence of his book: “This isa publication of the researches of Herodotus Halicarnassus, in order that the actions of men may not be effaced by time ‘The historian's profession, as the nineteenth- century French scholar Jules Michelet stated, 16 to bring “things back to life” Says Schama’ “I have tried to bring a world to life rather than entoml it in: erudite discourse” In this role, the historian does not merely log and interpret data; he ortrays Life and tells a story, Meticulous research is essential, and so is vivid Writing, to enable readers to Vicariously experience life in other times, other places. When history Is yoked to theones and formulas, its sap dries up. Then it neither enlightens nor sensitizes, The sloughing off of the ill-fitting vestments of stience by historians does not make history worthless, but it does change the nature of its worth. Sensitizing the present to the past is not a value neutral process. Every retelling of history, if it is anything more than just a banal catalogue of events, involves ideation, if only because, even al the primary level, a process of selection and evaluation of data, a-pattern- making, 1s involved. The historian might not be overtly judgemental, but judgement is implicit in the very telling of the story. Facts speak for themselves, and when vividly presented, speak loud and ‘clear. The historian is not a-moral eunuch In fact, it is his moral yoice that gives his work its unique timbre—not to raise the moral voice is to treat history like paleobotany, with bland detachment So, even while the historian acknowledges the provisional nature of all historical perceptions, he, like the nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Kierkegaard, affirms his subjective certainty in the world of objective uncertainties. He might not have any cosmic conchisions to offer, but he does take positions that are appropriate and necessary to his time and place. ‘The essential corollaries’of this relativistic attitide are moderation and tolerance. The historian affine his views, but humbly, conscious that there are no absolutes. As the saying goes, the white heran in the snow has a different colour. All perceptions, all truth, are relative. fs Vedantists would say, all ar maya, mental constructs The eye looks, the mind sees. ‘To acknowledge the subjective and provisional nature of historical perceptions is not to abandon the process of fair'and unbiased collection and evaluation of data, To adapt Tom Wolfe's dictum, the historian sees with an impersonal eye, but speaks with a personal voice. The ideal of historical objectivity has been set down by several Mughal xiaPRETACE writers: “Itas-the duty of an historian to be faithful, to Inve no hope ‘of profit, no fear ‘of injury. to show ne partiality on one side, yr animosity on the other, to know no difference between friend and _ and to write nothing but with sincerity,’ says Khafi Khan, historian of Emperor Aurangzeb. "In this history T have heli courtier frnly to it that the truth should be reached in every) matter, and that every act should be recorded precisely as it occurred,” writes Emperor Babur in his memoirs. Uncompromising exploration, clear, unbiased perception, candid presentation—these Were Babur's ideals. There are no better precepts for historians. Candour ws a major charm of Babur’s autobiography, and so is its richness of detail, Fine detail—nuance—is the life-blood of history, as af literature. Says Prancois Bernier, a seventeenth-tentiry French traveller in his report on Mughal India “T agree with Plutarch that trifling incidents ought not be concealed, and that they often enable us te form mare accurate dpinions of the manners and genius of a people than events of great importance.” Major events thape the contours of history, but it is the particulars that breathe life into it To give completeness to history and to establish the total context of life, it is as essential ta examine the details of everyday life, as of political, economic and socio-cultural developments, Ly this, the historian of Mughal India is fortunate, for his sources are numerous and vaned, and are rich an detail about every facet of life. And I have quoted extensively from them, somewhat in the manner of a reporter quoting eyewitnesses, to give immediacy and authenticity to the narrative, and to let the Teader see Mughal life through the eyes of those who saw it directly _The basic concern of the historian is, 1 believe, similar to. that of any serous arkist or creakve wriler—to share experience and to elucidate the human condition. The histonan too uses imagination and insight, bo visualize what happened In history and present a coherent picture, though he unlike the creative writer, has to work Strictly within the boundaries of known facts, and is not free to invent even the minutest detail What Richard Feynman said of physicists applies to historians too: “Gur imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there.” Imagination, says American historian Barbara Tuchman, enables the historian “to understand the evidence he has accumulated. Imagination stretches the available facts .. , the artist's eye: I Jeads you to the right thing.” Methodical research builds the ship, imagination sails it- xiv This volume on jate meclieval Indian history, from 1526 to 1707, is part ofa four-volume study titled India Retold, that would, when completed, cover the history of India fram the beginning up te 1858; chronologically, this is the third volume in the proposed series, though the first to be ready. My focus in this volume is on the Mughal empire} have dealt with regional histories only in: their links with Mughal histery, Regional fustories—indeed, even studies of sub-regions and tawns—are valuable, but impractical far the general historian Thave therefore stayed close to the dominant theme of the period, and have tried ta deal with if exhaustively, bearing in mind Thomas Mann's dictum that “only the oxhauisive is truly interesting” But the exhaustiveniess I have attempted is in presenting Jife in its fullness, not in cataloguing events. [have not, for instance, listed many of the battles, but have, on the other hand, deseribed a couple of battles in great detail, to show haw the Mughals fought. [have also dealt with everyday life—of the people as well as of the rulers—at great length, as my objective 1s to portray life rather than merely to chronicle history If history is the mirror in which we recognize ourselves a5 a people, then modern Indians can hardly recognize themselves. in the mirror that is conventionally held up to them. Or, altemately, they miagine themselves to be something they are not, as listortions im the mirror distort their self-perceptions. This is a modem predicament, a consequence of the psychic morphing of India, induced initially by British umperial prejudice, then by European romanticism, and finally by Indian nationalism. ‘These clistortions prevail even today, though times have changed. During the British rule, Indians, asa subject people, needed the comfort and strength of 4 presumed golden past to mould the nationalist sentiment and energize the freedom struggle. But now, half a century after independence, India cannot still subsist on the minciset of adolescent nationalism, chewing the cud of romantic fancy, To move on, it is imperative today to lift the veils of bias, romance and myth that obscure India’s image, and look truth in the eye The alternative 15 to remain snared in self-delusions, Behting quixotic battles with the spectres of the past—the unforgiven colonial rule, or (for some) the even more unforgiven Muslim invasion of India one thousand years ago. Tradition, however glorious, is what 4 people have to grow cut of ‘The future is not a replica of the past, but its fulfilment. In every other major civilization, the past has died so the future could be bom, but paPRETACE India seems to be killing the future so the past can live on. Indian's lofty , boaet is that its 1s the oldest living civilization, but is that anything to Bt 5 be proud of? That India has not evolved? There is something very Teal Mughal. ‘India wrong with a people who Consider that the greatest that would ever be hasalieady been, and that the best they can do is to dupheate the past There is of course much in the Indian heritage to be proud of, but there is also much to be ashamed of, and both have to be examined with candour. Not to do so would be irresponsible, Tt is possible that + Henn such candour would be conteoversial in a socio-political environment in sree which expedient myths tyrannize reality As @ Chinese saying has it, AVGILANISTAN 2 when the finger points to the maon, the idiot would look at the finger. That cannot be helped The historian is not concerned with political anal 7 correctness, ‘ oe ‘iain - ks My PALUCHINTAN 22" Fup | Abralain Eraliy maha Madras Res | imines December 1995 Ul tag eee 7 ATAST IOAN oa = if eae 7 ler { et ey = IWHAR Araling fee KYLFamily of Itimad-ud-daula Tes ines with thee Mughal lyri Ttimad-1d-daulit (Ghiryae a i —_ ss saat = Nurjahan © falwngir Asaf Khan Visthushund) — (Mihrusnies) (2nd bushrandl) | Lapy Leas = otlicr wives | in —! i | LadliBegum = Shahrar Stil ihn = Mumtaz Mahal Shayista Khan 15% G31 i Aurangzeb The Great Mughals (Years of rulenre given in brackets) —— Kamran — Askari Hits Akbar — Hakim 142-145 L155b- 1605) = Amber priaceis Jahangir (Salim) i Murad Danial ei = Joh | Parviz —— Shah Jahan {Kburmim) Khusray: ‘Shahryar Dari Shuje Aurangzeb ———— Mured (ele 707 (1658-1707) [The mathers of the eniperors athe given Bit except for Auramges, thir brothers ofthe ewiperaes had different matiers.)THE MUGHAL THRONE yChapter One THE MUGHAL ADVENTLike a King on a Chessboard “{N THE MONTH of Ramadan of the year 899, ancl uy the tWelfth year of my age, | betame miler in the country of Fergana.” So begin the memoirs of Babur, The day was Tuesday, 9th June 1494. Babur's father, Umar Sheikh Mirza, king and pigeon fancier; had died in a freak accident the previous day at Akhs), @ northern fort of Pergana. when his dovecot, built on the edpe of a ravine in a comer of the castle, tumbled into the river below in a jandslide, bearing him down with it ‘Umar Sheikh Mirza, flew, with his pigeons and their house, and became a falcon,” writes Babur Babue was born on Mth Pebruary 1483. He was named Zahiruddin Muhammad—Defender of the Faith, Muhammad—but that was a tongue-twister of an Arabic name for the rushes of Fergana, so they meknamed the child! Babur. ‘The name meant per, and: proved Abting: Babur's lineage was awesome, On the paternal side, he was the grandeon of Sultan Abu Said Mirza of Heral, a-preat-grandson of Timur, the legendary Tartar hero. On his mother's side, his grandfather was Yunus Khan of Tashkent, the Great Khan of the Mongols, the thirteenth in the direct line of descent from Chingi# Khan. Babur was thus a Turko-Mongol, a5 were most of the naling class in the racial cauldron of Central Asia; he was in fact more a Mongol than a Turk, for his paternal ancestor, Timur, though a Tork by language and cullure, was also Gf Mongol descent Babur, however, preferred to call himgelf a Turk—he considered Mongols to be uncouth barbarians and despised them, saying, “Were the Mongols a trace of angels, it would shill be a vile mation.” Nothing much is knows about Babur’s mother, except her name, Qutlug Nigar Khanum, and her Mongo! lineage Babur himself has little say about her But there is a lively, candid profile of fis father in his memoirs, Umar as Babur deseribes him, was a short, stout, powerfully built man—“not a man but fell to his blow," he wotes— slovenly in dress, gross in habits, but amorous, and addicted to alcohol opium and the game of draughts: He was also, Babur wryly notes, a vapid poetTine MUCIAL ADVENT WHEN THE NEWS of his father's death reached Babur, he was encamped, it being summer, ir a garden outside Andizhan, the capital or Fergana His immediate and characteristically Tirmurid concern, though he was buta child, was to secure his throne As the eldest prince, the throne was his by right, bul that right could be enforced, in the volatile political environment of Central Asia, only by the sword, He therefore hastily retumed to Andizhan, escorted by his amirs. And there, ito, same uncertainty about whether he would be received as king or taken captive he ascended the throne / Tt was ashaky throne. Al the time of Babur’s accession, Fergani was under attack by Ewo of fis uncles, neighbouring monarchs who had been provoked inte hostility by Umar, and who now, on Umar's death, considered the boy-king Jair-prey And within Fergana itself cabal of nobles were plotting by raise Babur’s younger brother Jahangir to the throne. Fer the moment, however, Babur’s stars were in the ascendant, and he trittmphed over all bis adversanes. partly by luck, but mainly beeause his affairs were taken an hand by his maternal grandmother, Atsan-daulat Begum, 4 nomadic Mongel of the wald steppes, she was a worldly-wise and formidable dowager, of whom Habur says, “Few amongst women will have been my. grandmother's equals for judgement and counsel; she was very wise and Firsighled and most affairs of mine were carried through under her advice” Babur loved Fergana, It was a beauliiul, ryerlaced Janc of hills and dales, celebrated for its orchards, gardens and abundant game. But Fergana was-too small to sate Babur's ambition or contain his energy The boy was a dreamer, awake with visions of empire and glory. Moreover, fratricidal wars were a Timurid rite of passage a royal obligation, Babur could fulfil himself—indeed, even survive—only by the sword, The entire mountainous country from the Aral Sea to the Hindu Kush, broken mito half-asdozen principalities, was ruled by the close relatives of Babur, turbulent descendants:of Timur or Chingiz Khan, who were forever grappling with each olher in ceaseless wars, There was scope enough there for Babur to fulfil himself Immediately to the west of Fergana-was the kingdom of Samarkand, ruled by Baisanghar, a paternal cousin of Babur Samarkand, Timur's fabled capital, wasno longer the grand imperial city it had been once, but for Babur the throne of Timur was still the ultimate symbol of temporal power, and its possession now became his magnificent obsession. It was a possible dream, dor Samarkand was in chaos at this hime, with rival princes clashing: ayer the theane. In mid-1496 Babur joined the fray, and though his initial campaign was a failure, and he 6 LIKE A KING ON 4 CHESSDOARLY was obliged at the onset of winter to retreat over the mountains to Fergana, he ‘wat able fo seize the city the following year after a tenacious siege of seven months Babur was then just fifteen years old. Bul his career, as he-uaw it, had already peaked, To sit on the throne of Timur was the highest of highs for him, nol eclipsed even by his later conquest of India, and till the end of his life he loved to: rel in his mind the bitter-sweet memory of winning and losing Samarkand His moment of taumph was all too brief For a hundred days he held Samarkand, despite desertion’ in his army. Then his can of luck ended—he fell seriously ill in Samarkand, meanwhile Jost Fergana to rebels favourimg, his brother Jahangir, and when he marched out to quell the rebellion, lost Samarkand also, to Sultan Ali Mirza of Bokhara, a cousin, The fledgeling that had dared to soar had crashed ignomuniously “It came very hard.on me," writes Babur. “Lcould nat help crying a good deal.” Babur did eventually recover Fergana, and Samarkand too, but emly to lose them both allover again, this time to the formidable Urbeg chief Shaibani Khan, a descendant of Chingiz Khan, who had made it the mission of his life to extirpate the Timurids from Central Asia THE TEN YEARS from the time he ascended the throne of Fergana as a boy-king, Hil, a8.a young adult, he established himself ts the ruler of Kabul, were years of unremitting adversity for Babur, punctuated by a few all too brief triumphs, For many years, says Mughal chronicler Ferishta, "Babur was like a king on a chess-board, moved from place to place, and buffeted about like pebbles on a seashore’ Time and again he was a king without a kingdom, sometimes even without a home. Lamented Babur: ts there one cruel turn of Fortune's wheel unseen by me? fs there a pang, i grief my tounded heart has missed? Homeless, for a while-he wandered about in the mountains of Central Asia with a small band of ragged comrades, aften sheltering with wild hill: tribes. Finally, wretched and destitute, he took refuge with his maternal unéle, the Mongol chieftain, in Tashkent: There was no solace for him there either. “During my stay in Tashkent” he writes, “T endured much poverty and humiliation. No country, or hope of one!” 7THE MUGHAL ADVENT ‘Atone time: in despait and shame, he even thought of slinking off j, China, Then suddenly, in a dramatic tum of events, fate plucked Baby: out-of his misery and set him on the thrane of Kabul. Kabul, like all thy other Kingdoms in the region, was riled by a relative of Babur, Uluph Beg Mirza, a paternal uncle When Ulugh Beg died, leaving only ay infant son’ as heir, the principality collapsed into turmoil as febele and invaders swept the land. This was opportunity for Babur. His eyes had heen on Kabul for some time, and now, desperate fora safe haven, he swooped down on the hapless city and claimect ot for himself, This was m 1504) Babur once again had a power base Anda future Babur was only twenty-two years old when he took Kabul 4 whole life lay ahead of hic. Never again would he have to be anxious for a throne to sit.on He had sulfered enough, But suffering had not calloused hum. Or dulled his verve for Life, ‘There were limes when he wept and bemoaned his fate, but never far long. As he put it, All ill, all good In tie count, 45 gain af tooked af aright Adversity made him wise, noteynical, it taught him what he needed to learn to ment what he had te achieve. There was a natural candour about Babur, a warmth and openness that endeared him to his men, with whom he shared all dangers and all hardships, always leading them: from. the font “This prince was adorned with various virtues,’ wrtes bas cousin Mirza Haidar, “above all of which bravery and humanity had the ascendant” Intelligence, compassion, energy, ambition, steadfastness, and, equally, the sheer joy of life=these are the traits we see in Babur in Kabul ‘We do not Know what Babur looked like, There are no descriptions In a portrait in Bebyr-hamg painted during the reign of Akbar, presumably wath the guidance of those who had known Babur, we see him as a man of medium build, with a light beard—he was so lightly bearded that it was only in his twenty-third year that he first needed to shave—heavy eyelids. a sharp nose and a broad forehead. The setting in the painting is pastoral. the mood serene But Babur, the fomadic blood of his ancestors surging in his veins, was a restless petson, Always on the move, he had néver since his eleventh year “kept the Ramadan feast for twa successive years in the same place,” he notes with pride im his journal. & LIKE A XING CSA CHIESSROA AD Babur loved to'call himself a dervish, His generosity was legendary. Possessions did not mean much to him, But self-fulfilment did And self-fulfilment meant fulfilment as a monarch and empire-builder For that, Kabul opened up unprecedented opportunities, IN KABUL, BABUR'S eyes turned eastward, lured ‘by the memary of qimur’s Indian invasion, and impelled by his own compelling need to foray, to supplement the meagre revenue of his mountain kingdont From the time Kabul was taken, “my desire for Hindustan had been constant,” writes Babur. In 1505, the very year after he took Kabul, Babur led his first expedition towards India. “Tt was in the month of Shaban, the Sun being im Aquariis, that We rode out of Kabul for Hindustan,” he records. That campaign however was little more than a border raid across the Khyber Pass, His first serious expedition into India would come only a full twenty years Jater, in 1524. For the time being, he was still preoccupied with Central Asian affairs, mainly with his indomitable adversary Shaiban: Khan, who was always there just beyond the hongon, a constant menace * Between Shaibari and the Timurids it was not just a power rivalry, but a blood feud, There could never be any peace between therm, and as long as Shatbani was around, no Mughal would be safe on his throne. So when Sultan Husain Mirza of Herat, the grand patriarch of the clan, summoned Timund princes to combme against Shaibani in a fight to the finish, Babur at once set out with his troops for Herat Unfortunately, the aged sultan cied betore the campaign could be launched, and His two tons, both exquisitely over-cultured. sybantes, who now beeaine the joint rulers of Herat, could not bear to soil their ands in war, They did march out of Herat fo encamp on the banks of the Murgab, and they talked incessantly about sething out to wage war, but that was about as far as they would go. “The Mirzas were good enough as company and in social matters, in conversation and partes, but were strangers to war, strategy, bold fght and encounter Dreamers, they moved through a dream! wnites Babur The Mirza entertained their up-country cousin royally, introducing him to the refinements of high culture. “The socal cups were filled,” wriles Babur of a party he altended, “the guests drank down the mere Wine as if it were the water of li hen it mounted to their heads, the party waxed warm." Babur himself would not yet violate the Islamic injunction against alcohol, though he was tempted, but he dic greatly enjoy the company of the Mirzas, and when they pressed him to go with them to Herat, he did not demurJHE MUGHAL ADVENT fabur's sojourn in Herat, which was then the cultural capital of the eastern Muslin world, bad a great effect on him He was both fascinated and repelled by the cloying decadence of the city, a honeyed world of Tusuev, culture, learning, and wanton sensuality. Enigmatists, men who made up tiddles, were the pride of Herat, Almost all the luminaries of Flerat wrote poetry, even wresllers: Or they composed music, took ta tallisraphy or painting, of some such refinement, Chess Wats an obsession in the city, and chess parties Were a5 common as Wine Parties Acc of dandies, Herat set the fashion for cultured Muslims everywhere, Naturally, Herat was also a merry den of vice; as Balur notes with gentle reprobation, in Sullan Husain Mirza, “in his sons, and in his tribes and hordes, yice and débauchery were extremely prevalent" Hert was hopelessly decadent. But it had flair, Though enjaving himself, Babur was uneasy in Merat. The Uzbeg hurricane, he knew, was gatherings across the Murgab, The Mirzas were living ina fool's paradise, Babur, though yourg in years, Was a battle toughened veteran, jus instincts warned him to flee. So, though it was the dead of winter, and the mountains impassable, after byventy days of merrymaking in Herat Babur tore himself away and trekbed hack ta Kabul Soon, a& he feared, Herat fell to Shaiban) The Mirzas flecl for thetr lives The fall of Herat left Babur asthe only reigning prince of the house of Timur Timurid princes and amizs [rom all aver Central Asia, the. debts of the Uztep flasb-flood, now drifted to Kabul, the only high ground left for their refuge. To signify his new status as the chief of the Timurids, Babur, who like all Timucid rulers Was fill then known as q Mirza, prince, now styled himself as Padshah; emperor This aupust file denoted Babyr's ambition, presaged his destiny, but his position Was as yet insignificant and precarious—not only was there no hope of his recovering his ancestral lands from Shaibara, but even his tiny principality of Kabul was ia peril, In this predicament, Babur desperately needed to distance himsell from fis relentless adversary, and st was thus that he seriously began tp Ipok on India as 4 possible refiige, Then unexpectedly the scene changed. Shaibani chan, overreaching himself, made the mistake of clashing with Shah Ismail, the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Persia, who, even wilier than Shaibam, outmanceuvred and decimated the Uzbegs in battle Shabani was Killed his body dismembered, and his skull) set in gold, made into a drinking cup dor the Shah, The news eélectrihed the Timurids, From their diverse places of refuge they nuw hastencd back to recover their last lands Babur himeelf sprang to action and, putting his brother Nasir Mirza in charge 1 Lich ASKING’ CNA CESS ARO ef Kabul, rede north towards Transoxiana, dreaming of Samarkand jgain, Bit pamarkand: Was Apt his destiny, Though he did, with the help of a Fersian expeditionary force, o¢cupy the city, now for the third time, he could hold it only briefly, that too virtually as a Persian vassal, before being driven oul by the Uzhegs again He lingered on in Badakshan for a whilé, unable to reconcile himselé to the loss of Samarkand, but in 1514, alter an absence of three years; he finally returned to Kabul and resumed the throne from ‘his brother, He would never again turn to the west, His destiny Iny in the wast, in inclia BACK IN KABUL, Babur's life settled into a routine, insofar as the life of 9 medieval prince could be routine He was still involved with frequent military campaigns—punitive expeditions against refractory Alghan tribes, pillaging forays actass the eastern mountains, coercive nachos against rebellious nobles and ambitious relatives: But the eleven years that Babur spent in Kabul after his return from Badakshan till his final Indian expedition were, relatively speaking, 4 time of peace and tranquillity: for him The season now tumed-to spring for Babur. He now had the leisure to indtilge in his passion for literature and the arts, and to enjoy the pleasures of life He delighted in good companionsiup, held numerous wine and opiunt partes, which offen began at the crack of dawn and pleasured an late into the night These were new amusements for Babur. “I had had no inclination for wine in my childhood; Tknew nothing of tts cheer and pleasure” he writes "Ii, as sometimes, ovy father pressed wine en me, | excused myself Later on when, with the young man's lusts and the prompting of sensual passion, desire for wine arose, there was na ore to press it on me, no one indeed aware of my leaning towards it; 50 that, inclined for it though my heart was, it was difficult of myself to do such @ thing, one thitherto not dene” Tn Herat his cousins had offered him wine, but he had decorously declined it, hoping that they would “ask again. They had not. So it was only an his thirhes that Babur first tasted wine, but he briskly made up for lost time Somewhere along the way he also started taking confections ef opium, and possibly marijuana. But these habits did not debase Babur—in him intoxication Wasa refinement, a keenness of series, nota vice. Hi loathed raucous reveln’, and often broke yp partes when they tumed unruly: “There was much disgusting uproar” he writes about ont Such incident, “the party became intolerable and was broken up”THE MUGHAL ADVENT Babur loved the pleasures of the table too; fruits expecially were 4 passion with him, He does not however seem to haye been keen on the fourth component’ of Omar Khayyam’s paradise, women, He was 4 good provider and a cating householder, alechonate and deferenta) towards his women, especially towards his elder relatives, but he wa, not, unlike his: rely-poly father, a ladies’ man, Babur preferred the macho bonhomie of his friends to the pleasures of the harem, Babur's first wife was Aisha, a cousin, to whom he was betrothed at the age of five. Eleven years later, she joined him in Fergana she found him a bashful lover. As Babur tells it) "Though 1 was not jj disposed towards ber, yet, this being my first marriage, out of modesty ‘and bashfulness, 1 used to see her once in ten, fifteen, twenty days Later on, when even my first inclination did not last, my bashfulnees increased. Then my mother Khanum used to sete me, once a month cp every forty days, with driving and driving, dunnings and worryings” Babur had his first. child, a daughter, by Aisha three years after sho jeined him, but the baby died in infancy, and Aisha herself desorted him during his days of homeless wandering, By and by Babur acquired other wives and several concubines, as beboved a (prince, and he fathered a number of children, as duty required of him, to ensure the continuity oF his line. But there was no ardour in-him for women. There was only obe romantic infatuation in. Babur's life, bis unabashed love for a bazaar boy in Andizhan, Babur Was sixteen then, and Aisha had just joined him “In those leisurely clays," he confesses, "T discovered in mysell a strange inclination . .- for a boy in the camp- bazaar, his very name, Baburi, fitting im Up tll then t had had no inclination for anyone, indeed of love and desire, either by hearsay o7 experience, | had not heard, T had not talked... From time to time Babun used to come to my presence; but out of modesty and bashfulriess T could never look straight at him, how then could [make conversation, and recital? ... In that frothing-up of desire and passion, and under that stress of youthful folly, TP used to wander, bane-head, bare-fool, through:street and lane, orchard and vineyard I showed ctyility neither fo fiend nor stranger, took no care for myself or others . a Babur does not tell how the affarr ended. But he got over it soon enough. Baburi was just an adolescent fancy, not unusual in an environmentin which, among Central Asian anstocrats, bisexuality was commen, and pederasty high fashion In Babur’s case, however, the affair appears to have been virginally romantic and without carnal expression. Later, in Kabul, when he once again had hme to enjoy bomself, he preferred the gentler seducticns of literature, ari, music and gardening to camal pleasures. 12. LG A KING (NA CHPESRIOARD Babut gave all of himself to every one of his many cultural pursuits, and his achievements in some of them Were substantial, Still they were only avocations for him, and not for ene moment would he let himself forget that he was a king by profession, and that his ultimate ecstasy would bein the perilous thrill of the battlefeld IN KABUL, THOUGH he: ciel not yet know what fate had in store for him, Babur began to-organize himself for the battles ahwad, whipping iis men into a superb fighting force. “Thad been at great pains to tram and exercise them to the utmost point,” he writes. “Never, perhaps, were my troops tn such perfect discipline.” He also took care to modemize his army, intreducing muskets and cannons (till then usec mostly if Siege operations) inte field battle, a tactic he adopted fram the Qitoman Turks: That innovation weuld give him a-crucial advantage in Tnelas. Meanwhile, thé political jigsaw in India had rearranged itself, to Open a passage for Babur. And Babur needed that exit, to get away from the ever menacing Uzbegs. "The foe mightily strong, I very weak, with-no means: of making terms, no strength to oppose," he laments “In the presence of such power and potency, we had to think of some place for ourselves and, at this:crisis and in the crack of time there Was, pul a wider space between us and the strang foemian. That choice lay between Bodakshan and Hindustan and that decision must now be made.” The choice fell on India Babur states that from 1519 on he led five expeditions into India, but long before that, in fact from the time he took Kabul, he had been active along India’s north-western marches. Those early campalpns were however only pillaging raids, and he probably did not cross the Indus Hl 1519, when he advanced as far as the Jhelum. Even then, ull 1524 he had no ambition beyond Punjab, which he claimed as his Timurid legacy, by virtue of it having been a part of Timur’s empire a century earlier. Then, fortuitously, 0 greater opportunity came knocking. The messengers of destiny were Dilawar Khan (son.af Daulat Khan, the tebel Afghan governor of Punjab) and Alam Khan (an uncle of Tbrahiny Lodi, the Sultan of Delhi}, who arrived in Kabul to solicit Babur’s help In ousting Ibrahim Babur then took an omen, found it fayourable, and agreed to their proposal, intending not so much fo -help them as to help himself. ‘The campaign of 1524 was abortive, The “allies, after occupying Punjab, fell out over the division of the province Daulat Khar wanted 13,Tie MUCItAL ADVINT all of Punjab for himself, while Babur had othersdens, Babur therp fin. prudently withdrew to. Kabul, leaving a garrison in Lahore It would have been dangerous for him to advance farther into India, with a truculent Daulat Khan’ behind him in Punjab threatening: his ling. of retreat Babur set out from Kabul on tus: final invasion of India im mid. November 1525, before the snows closed the mountain passes, Hp moved leisurely, holding frequent Wine parties along the way. By myq. ‘December he crossed the Indus, never to recross it, Elis immediate adversary was Daulal Khan, whe had entered the feld against hin with hve swords girded to his waist to display his victory-or-death resolve. That, it turned out, was just bluster, fot a5 Soon as Babur approached, the Khan's army scattered and the old man himself tamely surrendered. He was brought before Babur with his two swords hanging from his neck Babur upbraded hiny "1 called thee Father. | showed thee more honour and respect than thou couldst have asked. . What ill sayest thou | have done thee, that thus thow shouldst bang a sword onthy either side, lead an army out, fall on lands of ours,and stir strife and trouble?” The Khan had no answer But Daulat Khan was irrelevant, The real challenge lay ahead, aj Panipat, where Ibrahim Lodi waited with his army “I put my foot in the shrrup of resolubon,” writes Babur, “sel my hand on the rein of trust in God, and moved forward against Sultan Ibrahim” +4 “If Fame Be Mine...” BABUR DID NOT tarry in Punjab Even then it teok hiny a while to seltle fis affairs there, so that by the time he crossed the Satlisj and advanced to the Yamuna, it was April, and the dreaded Indian summer was upon him. On reaching the Yamuna, at a point east of Kurukshetra, the epic bathleground of the Mahabharata, Babur encamped Meanwhile Ibrahim Lodi, haughtily disregarding the dire warnings of his astrologers, had advanced with his troops to Panipat, eighty kilometres north of Deli, to challenge the intruder. The opposing forces this lay two marches away from each other, the Afghans immediately to the south of Panipat and the Mughals same way to the north of it The going had been ¢asy for Babur im India fill then, as he had met only desultary resistance from the Afghan provincial forces i: Punjab Now he had to face the imperial Afghan army, His own army sas small by Indian standards Four months earlier, when he was crossing the Indus, his army, Babur reports, mumbered 12,000 men, “great and mall, good and bad, retainer and non-retalner.” He was later joined by the contingents he had feft behind in India during his previous campaign, ag well as by a few renegade Afghan officers and soldiers. With these accretions, by the 4me Babur reached Panipat his army had probebly swelled to about 20,000 men. The actual strength of the Afghan army is not known Babur estimated it to be roughly 100,000 strong, with some 1000 elephants Whatever the true count, the Afghan army was certainty much lurger: than the Mughal army. This Afghan advantage was somewhat offset by Babur’s superior weaponry, a train of artillery (estimates vary from just two to a few hundred pieces} and a contingent of musketeers (again of unknown number, but probably about 4000) which would be used in India in a field battle for the first time at Panipat Still, the balance of power fayoured Tbrakin. Babur could win only by clever tactics MOST OF BABUR'S battles Gl ther hac been close combats in the hill countcy, in constricted batileBelds where large forces could not beTih MUGHAL ADVENT deployed, and it was not the size of the army but its spirit; the tactic (ise of the terrain and the element of surpnse that decided the OUkeoy a ‘of battles. Babur was now in flat, open country, Mere numbers baugt matter. There was little scope for a surprise attack, no tactical advan. } in the terrain. And Valour, rapidity of response and manoeuvraby though they all could make a difference, would not be decisive To defeat Tbrahim Lodi, Babur had to peutralize the awesom, Afghan superiority in numbers and enable his own strengths in caval and gunnery to prevail. The critical requirement for him was to Create a narrow battlefront, to prevent the Afghans from sweeping around the flanks of his small army and encircling if, But that in itself was. i) enough, for however narrow the front, Babur would not have enoup, depth of array to withstand the Afghan onsimaght which could, by ji sheer mass and velocity, smash through the Mughal ranks fike a pian tdal-wave. Babur had to-devise 2 means to steel his frontline. to hinty the Afghans in check long enough for his slow-Hring puns to break the Afghan formation If he could do that, then the Mughal cavaley coutd charge into ther midst and scylhe them down What had Babur te do to gain that tictical advantage? In lis quandary, he summoned his yelerans fo a yar council Together teaching back to the lore of their turbulent land and the memory ish Babur's own thirly-two years of incessant wars, they conceived a revolutionary new strategy that dexterously modified the traditional Mughal battle formation to accommodate the Olloman wall-of-fire gunnery ticlics and the wheeling cavalry charge of the Uzbegs—to halt the Afghan juggemmaut in its backs and annihilate it, Having decided Gn the strategy, Babur sent out scouts to buryey the prospective battlefield at Panipat The stretch of open land on ihe eastern flank of Haryana along the Yamuna was the traditional passage into the Gangetic Plain, 4 corridor between the mountains on the north and the desert on the south, at the end of which Jay Delhi, This was the arena of India’s destiny where other dectsive battles had been fought in the past, as they would be in the future. The pround at Panipat was ieee for Sreeaal field battle. Tt suited Ibrahim Lodi lab it did mot suit Babu. There was nothing at all c that he could take advantage ol—it was just a ve SeaR LINEA monotony relieved only by a few trees and thorn bushes, Babur had somehow to modily the baitlepround to serve his particular strategic needs, aN . Tn two rapid marches Southward along the Yamuna, Babur reached Panipat and deployed his army to the east of the t bet town and the river, which im the si Dae NZ ie sixteenth century flowed close by. His lity, 16 IP FAME: BAL MINH right wing abutted the buildings of the (own, secure apainst being outflanked) to protect his feft wing, he dig ditches and Jaid an obstacle of felled trees between the river and his position, thus effectively narrowing the width of the field to ensure that the battle wold be fought precisely along the front on which he deployed his army. The enemy would have no chance lo-sweep around him, either on the left or on the sight To protect his frontline ancl to impede the Afghan cavairy onset, Babur set up along his entire front a barrier of gur-carriages and other carts, some 700 of them, placed about four metres apart and with ropes of rawhide stretched between them. In between the carts, Babur placed his: musketeers, Six or seven in each gap, protected by breastworks And to give an Offensive potential to this & sentially defensive deployment, he feft- several gaps, each about a bow-shot wide, between groups of carts through whieh @ couple of hundred horsemer could charge abrenst By 12th Apnl Dabur was ready for the enemy, his preparations. complete. His was a perfect defensive-offensive arrangement, which ould hold the enemy at bay until he was ready. ta attack The only disadvantage, and this wasa crucial factor, was that its success depended on the Afghans attacking his entrenched position: if they-did not attack, all his elaborate preparations would be worth nothing. Babur confidently expected the Afghans to attack, for after all the Mughals hac-intruded into the Lodi domain-and it was for Ibrahim Lodi to expel them jhrahiim Lodi viewed the situation differently. Hoe was close by, straddling the route to Delhi im a good blocking pesition. As Babur set about preparing his defences, the sultan made no move ¢o interfere, Clearly, he was not planning to attack He had no need fo, as his objective was only to deny Babur passage to: Delhi Tefence, in this case, wae the hest form of offence By staying fast in his position, the sultan, could force Babur to leave his entrenchments and attack him, Time was on Ibrahim Lodi’s side, He could afford to wait But Babur. could not. As an aggressor in an alien land, and facing a superior army, he needed quitk results to keep his men in the high heat of martial zeal. For seven days, with increasing restlessness, he waited for the Afghan attack, Meanwhile, the morale of his army began to crumble, “Many of the troops,” he notes. "Were ingreal tremor and alarm.” Babur tried te calm them by ridiculing [brahim Lodi as “an unproved brave’ from whom they had nothing to fear At the same tme he sought to incite the Afghans into action by sending provocative sallies into their camp, hurling insults and shooting arrows. Fhese were ITHE MUGHAL ADVENT ignored by the Afghans i he made no move; nor did his troops sally out,” grumbles Babur. The unproved! brave was proving to ave a firm and sound strategy of his own, Gi In the end, it was Babur who was obliged’ to change his battle pla and launch, on 19th Apell, a night attack on the Afghans, hoping. (4 take them by surprise. The man body of Dabur's left wing, a cOnlingen| of some four or five thousand men, nearly a fourth of his army, Waa senkmto the attack, while Babur himself stood abarms with the test of fus men, ready to press the advaritage should the atlackers maka headway, or to cover their retreat should they fail. The foray was a finsco, Instead of surprising the Afghans; {hy Mughals were in fora surprise therselviee—they found the Afshany alert and ready for them, so thal, in peril of being decimated, they retreated abruptly, without engaging, : But such Was Babur’s fuck thal it was this apparent rout that yo him what he wanted—an Afghan attack on his: position, APRIL 20TH, THE day alter the failed night attack, was a quiet day in the Mughal camp, as Babur walled for the Afghan counterinove: He Waited in Vain, though late that night (he Mughal camp was thrown into panic by a false ality about a surprise Afghan attack—"for Ewenty minutes there was uproar and call to arms,” says Babur The Mughals were edgy. Then, as dawn broke over the plain on Saturday, 21st Api Mughal pickets reported that the Afghans were on the move. Apparenily, the easy rout af the Mughal night-raiders had emboldened the Afghans. They scented an easy victory, and moved im for the kill This was a fatal error, The Afghans were walking into the trap cunningly laid by Babur. Babiir waited, his cayalry, his barricade of carts and breastwarks, fus\cannoneers and musketeers, allan position Behind the gun line. the Mughal army, with-soldiers as well as horses clad in mail, was drawn upin the classic Timurid fonriation—the advance guard up front at the centre, with the main contingent directly behind it, flanked by the right and lett wings, and flying squadrons at the far right and the far left. AL the rear of it all, Babur kept a large reserve farce ready for any contingency. : The Afghans came ona ASt ga fi eee a Wee ta fiat gallop, as if they meant simply to But they were in trouble even befare they ena amy, Squeezed between the walls of Panipat a Ree ne ee 1A “Uf DAME 1h MINE ditches and hurdles on thetrright) the Afghans found themselves in a bottleneck’ when they: closed’ in on the Mughals As they sidled to squeeze: though the constriction, their le wing angled ahead of the frontline, 50 i! was (nan odd, lopsided formation that ihe Afghans alammed, like a brittle wedge, into the night wing of the Mughal army. Pabur, who had positioned himself near the centre of (he Mughal deployment in an overseeing position, noticed the Alphans bearing down en-his right, ancl rushed a part of his reserve troops te remforce that wing, But there was no need for anstety When the Afghans came up against the Mughal defences, and the Mughal guns opened up (an unexpected {étror) their forward divisions faltered, anc a5 they Ered to rein in, the tanks behind, unable to break their momentum, slammed into them, throwing the entire Afghan army, already under a lateral squeeze because of the constriction tn the wings, into disarray, It was precisely as Babur had planned. An army no more but @ dense, seething horde, the Afghans were anable ti Gght effectively, or even to retreat Babur seized the moment and swung his flying squadrons inte action, ta Wheel around the enemy and attack them fron the rear Simultancously. he ordered his left and right wings to advance His strategy Was clear. He-meant to roll up the Afghan wings and slam them into the Afghan centre, turmrig the Afghan army into compacted fodder for his. cannons and muskels The Afghans fought on valiantly, repeatedly charging the Mrighal position, bul their plight was hopeless Tt was not a battle any mure, but camage- “The sun had mounted a Spearhigh wher the onset of pattle-bepan, and the combat lasted tll mid-day, when the enemy was completely broken and routed, and my fiends victorious and exulting,” iwrites Babur. “By the grace and mercy of Almighty God. this arducus undertaking was rendered easy for me, and this mighty army, in the space of half a day, laid in the dust” The slaughter was dreadful. The Afghan deact were set down by Babur as 15,000 or 16,000 men, a likely gure. [brahim Lodi himself lay dead amidst a. pile of corpses, the only Muslim ruler of Delhi: (Turk, Afghan or Mughal) ¢ver to fall m battle. When the Mughals found ihe slain sulian’s body, they, 64 was customary among them, severed his head and took it asa memento to Babur: Babur treated the grisly trophy with prave respect “Honour to your bravery!” he exclaimed. lifting up the head solemnly, Before the battle he had spoken scomfully ‘of Terahim Lodi, but mow’ that the day was wor, he would salute the rave dead. He called fora bolt of brocade to shroud the body, and iTHE MUGITAL ADVENT commanded two of his top anirs, Dilawar Khan and Amir Khalifa, | bathe Ibrahim Lodi and to bury hin with full honours at the ise Where he had fallen. AN EMPIRE HAD been won in a mere five-hour battle "That Very day,!* writes Babur, ‘T directed Humayun Mirza to set out without baggage or encumbrances, and proceed with all possible expedition |, pecuipy Agra (the Lodi capital), and fake possession of the treastiries Another contingent was rushed to occupy Delht. i Babur himself rode on to seize the Afghan camp, then. pitched fyjy tents on the banks-of a nearby stream for the night. The next day, 5 Sunday, he set out for Agra. On the way he stopped oyer in Delhi jor a few ways, securing treasuries ancl visiting palaces, gardens and shrines. He also ‘arranged for the khutbah [a formal sormon, incorporating a prayer for the reigning monarch) to be read in his name at the main mosque in the city during the Friday noon congregational prayers, to legalize his rule He reached Agra on 4th May, having covered -the 280 kilometres from Parupat in two weeks at the height of summer. For a week he camped in an pen) field on the outskirts of {he city, On Thursday, 10th May, he ceremonially entered Agra, and rode into the citadel of Ibrahim Lodi ty take-up residence there as the Emperor of Hindustan. Babur was now forty-three years old. Three decades earlier, as a boy-king on ihe mekety throne of an obscure, war-torn principality, he had dared to dream grand dreams, and now at last, after endless struggles and many misfortunes, he had won a domain to mateh his vision. Pergana, his ancestral kingdom lost to the Uzbegs, was now a distant memory; Samarkand, the legendary Timurid capital which he had once ardently coveted, a forsaken passion; and Kabul, his capital for lWwenty-five years, just a provincial outpost. India was now home for Babur. Babur's decision to settle in India was an unpleasant surprise to his men. They had expected him to return home to Kabul, lacon with ‘booty, as he had done on previous occasions, Wher Babur first launched his Indian campaigns, the annexation of Punjab as a province of his Kabul sngdom was the lienit of iis ambition, That still had seemed to be fis goal as he set out om his last Indian invasion, for he had just before that entered into an agreement with Alam Khan, the Lodi pretender, by which, in return for help in ousting Ibrahim Lodi, Babur Was te get Lahore and all the Lodi lands west of it Babur's ees had therefore assumed that the expedition into the Indo-Gangetic Plain was 20 ‘Tr TAMT 1 MINE just another pillaging sweep India Was opulent, but inhospitable A good hunting ground, but no place to live in, Such were the views of the Mughal amin, and they resented Babur's decision to remain in India His yery generosity compounded his problems “The treasures of five kings fall into his hands,” writes Gulbadan Begum, his daughter, “he gave everything away." /All his men—riobles-and soldiers, even traders and sceibes—received generous jyounties from Babur, and so did his relations and friends back home, ag well-as holy men in Samarkand and Khurasan. “Every soul in the country of Kabul and the valley-side of Varsak, man and woman, bond and free, of age and non-age.” was given a silver-coin, records Babur, He kept nothing for himself, His men were sated, Now all they wanted was to get back to the cool mountains of Afghanistan and enjoy their good fortune As Khwaja Kalan, ane of Babur's intimates, would write while leaving India for Kabul, if safe and sound [cross the Sind, Bicker sry face ere wwtsle for Hind Babur knew how His men felt. He himself found India a dreary fand: “Hindustan 1s a country of few charms," he frets, “Its people haye ne good looks; of soctal intercourse, paying and teceiving visits, there ts none; of genius and capacity none, ‘of manners none} in handicraft and work there is no‘form oc symmetry, method or quality: there are no good horses; nc good dogs, no gripes, musiemelons or first-rate fruits, noice or cold water, no good bread or cooked food in bazaars, no hot- baths, no colleges, no candies, torches or candlesticks.” More than anything else, the climate of India oppressed the Mughals The summer of 1526 was savage in Agra, one of the worst in living memory. “Violent, peshlential winds struck people down im heaps together," writes Babur. And this was not all Powerful adversanes— Afgtans in the east, Rajputs in the south—were marshalling Heir forces: and advancing against Babur The Mughals, it was clear, would: have to fight and win many more battles before they could claim Hindustan as their own. There was no support for the Mughals anywhere in India, The people of the land were siullenly hostile, harassing the Mughals at every tum. “On our first coming te Agra, there was remarkable clislike and hosblity between its people and mine,” writes Babur. “All the inhabitants had ruin away in-terror, Neither grain for ourselves nor com for pur horses was to be had. The villagers, out of hostility and hatred ZTILE MUGHAL ADVENT to us, had taken to thieving and highway robbery; roads boca impassable.” Towns and villages fortified themselves and would Re submit without a fight, India, itseemed, would have to be congue meh by inch, red WAS THE CONQUEST of India worth such a formidable effort? Baby, thought so. India, he says; wre “8 Jarge country [that had] masse OF gold and silver,” and “workmen of every profession and trade [were] innuherable; and without end.” These were major attractions There was, in additon—and perhaps, for Babur, ever so much mare seductive than any material reward—the prospect of glory that would be bis, bis place in history as the founder-of a great empire. As one of Babur's favourite sayings had ik Ghee me but fare, and if T die Dame conte If fierrie be prttie, Tet Daath claim my body: In deciding to remain In India, Babur was looking ala time beyond hig own time. The ambitions of his men, however, were yoked to their immediate appetites, and they clamoured to be sent back to Kabul. But Babur remained acamant “By the labours of several years, by encountering Hardship, by leng travel, by flinging myself and the army into battle, and by deadly Slaughter, we, through. God's grace, beat these masees of enemies in order that we might take their broad lands," he seminded his men “Now what force compels us, what necessity has arisen that we should, without cause, abandon countries taken:at such a risk nf life? Was it for us to remain in Kabul, the sport of harsh poverty? Flencefarth, let no well-wisher of mine speak of such things!" ‘This exhortation chastened mast, but not all. Some, including a couple of his most trusted old comrades in arms, such as Khwaja Kalan, pleaded with Babur tolet them retam to Kabul, Reluctantly, he fet them go, But he misced them He misseii Kabul too. "Boundless and Infinite is my desire to go to those parts, he wrote ma letter to Khwaja Kalan in Kabul. Broiling an the summer heat of India, he longed foc the mountains. Once. when a Kabul melon was brought to him and its aroma filled the air, he was awash with mostalma—'l felt myself affectect with a strong feeling of loneliness, and a sense of my exile from my native country, and J could not help shedding tears while eating it He dreamed of returming to Kabul some day. But not yet, He had a mission’ to acconiplich in India red “UP KAMR ME MEME Panipat hacl given Babur his place-in history, but it was only @ provisional place: If he abandoned India after Panipat, or if his successory failed to preserve his conquest (as nearly happened), Dabur would be relogated to the nether répions of history crowded with petty potentates, Babur could not afford to rest en his laurels, He hadl, as he enigmatically noted in his memoirs, “seen His tabk whole There was, however, a lull in action after Panipat, as Babur's adversaries, the Rajputs and the Afghans, waited to see what his moves would-be: Meanwhile, Babur's decision to make India his home brought him several Incian allies, including @ few Afghan nobles, who sought to hitoh Hheir fortunes to the rising Mughal star Alse, the hestilé public mood an India, which had troubled Gabur initally, now began to dissipate; becuse, as Ahmad: Yadger puts. it) “during the fret two months of His Majesty's reign, he behaved ta every one with such kindness and genernsity that dread and tector Were banished from the hearts of all men.” Babur's position further improved around this time withthe araval of a number of Mughals from Central Asia to jain Aim on his invitation, “The Most High has given us sovereignty in Hindustan," he had written to them, “let them come that we may see prosperity together.” Babur needed all the strength he could marshal, for fis position in India was slill perilous. By Central Asian reckoning, the domain that Babur acquired by his vietory over Thrahim Lodi was immense, bitt it wes nevertheless only a strip of land staked out along the Eahore= Delhi-Agra belt The Mughals were by no.means the dominant power in India. The Afghans, defeated hut not crushed, remained in power ™m Bihar and Bengali Immediately to the south of the Mughal lands lay a powerful Rajput confederacy under Rana Sata of Mewar, who dreamed of raising a Hindu empire from the ashes of the Delhy Sultanate Further south was the prospercus Afghan kingdom of Gujarat, a rallying ground for ambitious Afghans, Still further south, beyond the Vindhys Mountains, were other powerful kingdoms, the Deccan sultanates: and the Vijayanagar empire Babur's immediate concern was wiih the Afghan chieftains who fad regrouped in eastern India and had menacingly advanced to Kanauj, some 200 kilometres east of Agra But the Afghan challenge fumed out to be a weak bluff As the Mughals advanced, they scattered ‘The Rajputs were quite another matter Babur however temamed curiously complacent about them, underestimating their power. “Rana Sanga,” he notes in his memoirs, “is thought not te be the equal of the [Afghan] rebels.” This was a serous miscalculanon, Fortunately for Babur, (he Rajputs were still a long way off And the monsoon, during 4TILE MUGHAL ATEN which no major military’ operation was: possible in India, had bral over the land. Babur would havea few months rest, mi THe used this interlude of peace to Jay out gardensand palaces Agra, to make the city congenial to his lifestyle. Soon after artiving a Agra he had scouted: around on the left bank of the Yamuna, jy, et crook of the river opposite the fort, for a place to build a Bea complex, but had, he says, found “those grounds so bad ang unattractive that we traversed them with a hundred disgusts ang repulsions.” Sill, he ingeniously transformed that cheérless landsea, into # pleasint retreat, constructing tanks, water courses, bath-houses and other buildings, and laying out gardens with "order and syminetry with suitable borders and flower-beds in every commer, and in every border rose and narcissus in periect arrangement,” as he puts jt. The Mughal amirs followed Babur across the river, and soon the jrordey complex’ grew anto a flourishing and lovely suburb, The local people says Babur, “had never seen grounds planned so symmetrically ang thus laid out,” and they in their prosaic simplicity called the settiemen, Kabul THEN THE RAINS censed, and if was lime again for Babur to retum to the battlefield, Rana Sange of Mewar, heading a formidable Rajput confederacy, and joined by several Afghan chieftains, including Mahmud: Lodi, the brother of Ibrahim Lodi, was rapidly advancing on Agra Babur and the Rana had been in friendly contact with each other before the battle of Panipat, but now they had bitter grievances apainst each other—Babur accused the Rana of not keeping his word to make a diversionary attack on Ibrahim Lodi on the eve of Panipat, and the Rina resented Babur occupying lands to which he had a claim. These vecniminations were, however, mere pretexts, The real issue was who should: have'sway over Hindustan Rana Sanga was.a dangerous adversary. According to James. Tod, an early-nineteenth-century chronicler of Rajput history, the Rana was 80 intrepid and ferocious a warrior that at the close of his life “he exhibited but the fragments of a warnor. One eye was lost in a broil with his brother, an arm in an action with the Lodi king of Delhi, while he was cripple owing toa limb having been broken by a cannon ball eee or lance he counted eighty wounds on various parts of As the Rana approached, Babur, who hac been’ earlier sanguine about the Rajputs, recognized the gravity of the threat. “Rana Sanga the pagan. Satar-like he threw back his head and collected an army of 24 “HPASCE Wt) MINT Babur “Ten powerful chiefs, in rebellion, a smoke 4 aceursed heretics,” wr acy the: Jeiscler af a pe host, pro: see, and linked thempelves, 85 though enchained, to that perverse one." Babur calculated the potential strength of the Rajputs os 200,000) an army much larger than that which Thrahiny Lodi had deployed at Panipat This alarmed the Mughals. The problem, however, was not just of numbers. There was also the Rajput valour to -be reckoned with, ‘As the advancing Rajputs decimated every! probing contingent that Babur sent against them, “the fierconess and valour of the pagan army" made the Mughal troops “anxious and afraid,” admits Babur: Some of Batir's Indian allies, especially the Afghans who had joined him after Panipat, now began to desert him. Bven his own men were sullen, reluctant to fight a dangerous and uncertain battle, risking all their gairs in India, their rich booty, merely to defend a land they hated and did not want to hold. ‘They again pleaded with Babur to rebum ta Kabul, “No manly word or brave counsel was heatd from any one soever,” lanients Babur There were problems elsewhere too. "Trotible and disturbance rose on every side Every day some unpleasant news reached ts from one place or another,” writes Babur His stars, it seemed, were once again turning malevolent To make matters worse, Muhammad Sharif, a reputed astrologer who had just then arrived from Kabul, predicted that, because of the adverse aspect of Mars, Babur would be defeated by Rana Sange: This. prophecy shattered the fragile morale of the Mughal army, though Babur himself, no stranger to adversity, was not perturbed? "We gave no earto hus wild words, made no change in our pperations, but got reacly in earnest for the fight” On 11th February 1527, having marshailéd his forces by calling i his outlying garrisons, Babur marched out of Agra to confront the Rajputs. He adyanced with great caution, taking care at every halt ta protect his camp with ditches, wooden tripods on wheels (which served as portable breastworks, a new innovation) and carts joined together with chains and ropes of rawhide These precautions helped to ease the anxiety of his men, But this was not enough Battles are not won by troops cowering behind defences, To win, Babur would have to ignite the blood of his warriors: Mulling over the problem one day while out riding, Babur came up vith a perfect solution. For over fourteen years he had been a heavy, drinker, a grave theugh common infraction among the Mughals Now, In his hour of enisis, he decided to “retum to obedience’ —to wan chvine favour, and, more importantly, to gain the moral authority to declare the war against Rana Sange (his first war against a Findu monarch) as a jihad. holy war, and thus to unleash the martial fury of his men. btTHE MUGIIAL ADVENT What followed was high drama, as Babur turned the Ptivnty yenuneciatory vow into a stirring sacramental rite As his men. Stood jy formation, glum and uncertain about whal to expect, he fneed then and raising his arms to invoke the blessings of Allah, ceremonially too, his pledge to renounce wine Then, with splendid theatricality, h called for his abundant stock of wine to be brought, poured all jy radiant ruby-red liquor on the ground in front of his aghast tro smashed his fagons, his gold and silver goblets, and gave away 4, fragments to dervishes ant the poor A Well was ordered to be dup where the wine was poured, and an nimshouse built beside jt pop good measure, Bubur also swore not te tom his heard thereafter, He then tured to address his men, "Noblemen and) soldiersi Whoever sits down to the feast of life must, before it is over, trink of the cup of death... How much belter, then, it 18 fo die with honous, than to hve with infamy,” he declaimed “The mast High God has been, propitious tous. He has now placed us in such a crisis that if we fall in the field, we die the death of martyrs; if we Survive, we rise Victorious, the avengers of his sacred cause. Let us, therefore, with one accord sweat on God's Holy Word that none of us will for a moment think of turning his face from this warfare; or shrink from the battle and Slaughter that ensue, tll his soul is separated from his body," The impact of thete words on his men was electric. “All those present, officer and retainer, great and small; took the Holy Book joyfully into their hands and made vow and compact tp this purport," Babur notes with gratification, “The plan was perfect It worked admirably.” The mood of the Mughal army then swung dramatically from dread to daredevilry, “From the effect of these soul-inflaming words, a fire fell into each heart,” says Mughal chronicler Nizamuddin Ahmad, AT DAWN ON loth March, Babur reached Khanua, a small yillage about forty kilometres west of Agra There, as his army was pitching ils cAMp at a carefully chosen and prepared site near a low hill, he was informed by Scouts that the Rajputs were approaching. TE was, as at Panipat, @ Saturday, and it would be as lucky for Babur, The battle of Khantn was a virtual replay of the battle of Faripat, except that it fasted nearly double the time and was far more fiercely contested, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides The battle commenced af about pine in the moming and raged on Hl late evening. The decisive factor at Khanua, as at Parapat, was the firepower of the Mughals, aimed at the enemy compacted inlo “one mass” by 26 “On ENA ME MINE Babur turning the Rajput flanks. Mustafa, the Ottoman Turk in charge of the Mughal artillery, “had the carts brought forward and brake the ranks of pagans with matehlock and cannon, i reports Babur And the Mughal soldiers, inflamed by Dalsur's aratier, fought with suck delight and pldasure that il was tore like @ time of mirth thin one of war; notes Mizamuddin Alumna In the end the Rajputs fled, leaving so many dead in the battlifield that; according te Babur, the Muphal contingents chasing them “found no foot-apace without the prostrate fne: * Rana Sanga himself Flee, with: fabur in hot pursuit Bul after a chase of about three kilometres beyond the enemy camp, Babur peeled away, leaving, it to others to follow on, which enabled the Rana to escape, “There was a little slackness; T ought to have gone myself,” writes Babur. Apparently he did not want to foree hit luck, Nordid he; as he would narmally have done, follow up the vietory with an) invasion of Mewar, because of “hittle water-and eh he he road.” Te 5 the battlefield, Babur ordered a pillar of severed enemy heads to be erected on the fll beside which the battle was fought. This was a Mughal military rite performed after almost every battle, to strike terror in polential adversaries and thus to cripple their spirit and défeat them ever before the battle was fought on the ground. Dy nightfall Babur returned to his camp, and there asswoed the title of Ghazi, Holy Warrior, He then turned to Muhammad Sharif, the astrologer Who had, predicted a Mughal rout, but was now wailing to congratulate Babur on his victory. Babur tore into hint “T poured forth upon him a torrent of abuse.” But eventually fus generosity prevailed, “When Chad relieved my heart by it, although he was a selF-conceited fellow’... and an intolerable evil-speaker, yet) as he was: my old servant | gave biny a lakh ina present, and dismissed him, commanding him to depart fram my dominions”Black Fell the Day THE BATTLE OF Khanua marked the end of tho travails of Baby There were still battles to fight—there would always be battles 5, fight—but Babur was now indispulably the Emperor of Hindustan, ty) was content. The pace of his life now eased, and he gradually reverteg tn (he telaxed lifestyle of his balmy days tn Kabul. Everything mierested Babe and most things delighted him Hig curiosity was boundless, and there was in him, even after all he hag had to endure in life, a charming, childlike faculty to find joy in th. tost humdrum things of everyday life Te thrilled him, for mstanece, to bor the leafy branches of holm-oak which crackled ‘as they buried, is good fun to burn it!” he whites, For him, the shining mori, the flowermg bush, the rushing steam, were all celebratory miracles “Tonight T elected to take opium,” he writes, “because of the shinimg-of the moon” Againt “On Thursday al sunrise . . . confection wae eaten. While under tts influence wonderful fields of flowers Were enjoyed ... There were flowers on all-sides of the mound, yellow here, red there, as if arranged regularly to form a sextuple” It was with the same joyoils wonder that he had first seen India, in 1505; “In Ningnahar another world came to view—other grasses, other trees, other animals, ‘Other birds; and other manners and custome of clan and! horde. We were amazed, and truly there was ground for amazement” In India, after Khanua, there was only one thing that sullied Babur's happiness—his vow te abstain trom wine. “In truth the longing and craving for wine-party has been infinite and endless for two years past, so much sa thal sometimes the craying for wine brought me to the verge of tears,” he wrote to Khwaja Kalan in Kabul, and lamented: While others repent nul make pow fo abstain, Phvoe- vowed to abstain, cha tepentand am I, He would break his yow and revert {o wine towards the end of his life, but in the meantime he consoled himself with the pleasures of good companionship. “In the company of friends, death is a feast," he used fosay, quoling @ Persian provert: He enjayed people and delighted in BLACK TELL Tih DAY convivial parties. “There was much joking and laughter,” he says. recalling with pleasure a party at the house of a ir He revelled in clever repariee, but despised “vapid and empty” small-talk ONE OF THE enduring passions of Babur, in geod times and bad, was his Jove of literature. He now had the leisure to exudate in it His library was one of his most valued possessions, which he always carried around With him, and books were one of the treasures he hunted for in a conquered land, In his memoirs, when he listed the sovereigns and high nobles of a land, he also listed poets, musicians and intellectuals. They too mattered to him. He was a fastidious connoisseur of literature, and he considered it a jertible depravity to write bad poetry. "His verse is flat and insipid)’ saye he about his patermal uncle Sultan Mahmud Mirza of Badakshan, and adds: “Not to compose is better Hhan {6 compose yerse such as his’ It greatly distressed: him that bis son Humayun was a negligent writer “Though taking trouble... [your letter] can be read, it is very puzzling. and whoever saw an enigma in prose?” he once upbraided Humayan, and advised) “Thy remissniess in writing seems to be due te the thing which makes thee obscure, that ts to say, to elaboration. In future write unallectedly, clearly, with plain wards, which saves trouble to both writer and reader” Babur himself was an acclaimed writer. He wrote in Turki as well asin Persian, but with greater felicity in Turki, in which he was-a poet “second only to Acur Alt Shir’, actarding to Mirza Haidar Babur had several books to his eredil, prose and poetry, even a tease on jurisprudence and another on Turki prosody, But his best known work is his autobiography; a classic m its genre. Babur wrote a good deal after Khanue. He found it a fair consolahon for the loss of the pleasures of wine Further, he had a curieus notion that literature had healing powers—wriling irreverent poetry, he believed, caused illness, while wrting enmobling poetry cured it! He was, he says, once @ careless versificr, stringing into verse whatever came to his head, “good or bad, grave or jest. - however empty and harsh the verse might be," but became more discriminating while writing Mubayyin, his poetic magnum opus, At that time, says Babur, ‘this thought pierced through my dull wits and mace way into my troubled beart, “A pity it wall be if the tongue which has the treasure ‘af utterances so lofty as these. is wasted again on low words.” Smce that time | have refrained from satincal and jesting versi."” Not quite. Babur did still occasionally relapse mto frivolous 2THE MUGHAL ADVENT limeri¢ks—and suffered for if! A lew daya after one sich try composition, notes Babur, “I had fever and discharge, followed re cough, and | began to spit blood each time T coughed: t knew hence my reproot came; | knew what act of mine had brought this afflies lh on me,” ul Unfortunately, very little of Babur's poetry has sutvived, a hin literary reputation today rests solely on his autobiography, and ves from this large portions are inissing. Babuir used to carry his journg, with him all the time, even on military campaigns, working on whenever he had a Little time, This habit of his once Jed to a. pes, disaster, He was at that time encamped ala riverside, sitting tp late jn the night, writing. Suddenly, a great storm burst over the camp. "Such, a storm burst, in the inside of a moment, from the up-puled clouds gp the rainy season, and such a shff gale rose, that few tents were jsf standing,” Babar records. “1 was in the audience tent, about ta write before Lcould collect papers and sections, the tent came down, with its poreh, right on my head... Sections and book were drenched under water and were gathered together with much difficulty, We laid them in folds of the woollen throne-carpet, pat this on the throne and on yt piled blankets . We, without sleep, were busy tll shoot of day drying folios and sections” It was probably in some such mishap that the missing sections of his memoirs were lost, The greal charm of Babur's memorrs is its. directness and simplicity, its total lack of affectation. Babur was-a candid chronicler “En this history I have held firmly to it that the truth shoule be reached jn every matter, and that every act should be recorded precisely as jt secured,” he writes, “From this it follows of necessity that J have set Gown of good and bacl whatever is known, concéming father and elder brother, Kinsman and stranger; of them all 1 haye set down carefully the known virtues and defects.” This was his precept His practice did not always quite match the high ideal, Babur was writing about himself, with his eyes on posterity, and he would not have been human if he did not intensify the drama of his life Babur's descriptions of events do samebmes vary m detail from other contemporary sources, and it cannot be assumed! Hhat his version was always right The discrepancies are, however, minor, and could be due to differences in perception or quirks of memory Apart from the books he wrote, Babur had to his credit several other ctiltural accomplishments, such as muscal coimpasihens, and the ereation of a new and distinctive style of calligraphy, called Baburk But his greatest passion outside literatuce was gardening, He would even pause in the midst of critical military campaigns to lay out gardens, as 30 NLACK FELL THE DAY he did on the river-bank near Sirkind in Munjab on the way to Panipat In Agra, one of his first projects was to-build # garden complex. Later, he laid out another garden at the lake in Daulpur, where he had a si hy six-metre tank hewed out of a single mass of rock, saying, “When it is finished, | will fill it with wine” At Sikri, on his way back from Khanua, he ordered an octagonal platform to be built in the muddle of the lake there. for him lo repose and enjoy opium, he also loved hoating in the lake, says Gulbadan Babur was a keen horticultunst “T had plantains brought and planted there fin Kabullj they did very well" he writes “The year tefore I had sugar-cane planted there; it also did well," In India, he was ecstatic When the grapes and melons which he had introduced into the Garden of Bight Paradises in Agra-began to bear fruit “To have grapes and melons grown in this. way in Hindustan filled my measure. of content,” he writes: THI6 CAPACTEY OF Babur to ind joy in so many different things was what sustained him during his years of adversity, for) some facet or other of the many facets of his personality always caught the light of the sun, whichever way the wheel of fate tured, Babur was a blessed dilettante; not a driven, obsessed genius, Whatever he did was a vigorous and cheerful expression of his own vigorous and cheerful self, open and spontaneous, Babur clelighted in being Babur- All things fresh ane new gladdened him, and he travelled around fie Indian empire with the feisty enthusiasm of a tourist, “They are wonderful buildings,” he writes about the Gwahor fort complex, though he found the reoms dark and airless, and the palace itself “heavy and umaymmetrical” In the valley beneath the fort, he visited the Jain shrines alongside the lake, where, he notes, "the idols are shewn quite naked without covering the privities. . Not a bad place the idols are its defect, 1, for my pact, occered them destroyed" He alec visited the nearby Hindu temples, bul'seys nothing about destroying the idols there—it seems that it yas his aesthetic sensibilities that were offended by the Jain idols, not his religious sentiments, ‘The tours of Babut had a politieal purpose too: he was familiarizing himself with his empire, ats land. its people, Whatever else his interests and activities, Babor always had one eye cocked yigilantly on state security, On that he would never relax. "Wo bondage-equals that of sovereignty,” he would write sternly to Humayun when that easygome prince wanted (6 “tetre” from sovernment. “Retirement matches not wath rule.” a4THE MUCHAL ADVENT, Cutiously, despite all the attention he gave to matters of the state and despite his scholarship in jurisprudence; Babur did not set up even, a rudimentary administrative System in India, This failure cannot ha explained away by the fact that he riled India only for less than five years or that during that time he was continually engaged in wars, fee tmder virtually the same cireumstances, Sher Shah (the Afghan chin who later expelled Babur's successor from Thdia) Set up a comple, efficient and enduring administrative system 5 But then, Sher Shah was of the land; he knew its ways, and hag only to overhaul and energize the prevailing system Babur wag aq alien in India, and he did not have the time to familiarize himself wh local traditions, Besides, his administrative athtudes were fondiboned, by his experience in turbulent Afghanistan, which could be ruled only by saif (sword), not alam! (pen), as Babur puts it. ‘All that Babor did in Indin by way of administrative action was tp parcel out his domain among, his amirs, for them to povern their Gels as they pleased. He did not even have a togular system of revenyp collection, Once, in October 1528, when he necded funcds—he was short of funds in India, as he had given away virtually all the plunder he hed gathered—he even had: to requisition contributions from his amir, ordering “that each stipenciary should drop into the royal treasury thirty in every Hundred of ‘his allowance, to be used for war malirie! and appliances, for equipment, for powder, and for the pay of gunners and matchlockmen,” This was an unusual procedure, presumably adopted to meet some emergency, The primary source of revenue for Babar in India was pillage. As he candidly states in his memoirs, raids were often made specifically tp seize plunder—ior instance, he notes that he ence decided, choosing from different altematives, to march westward from Agra because that was where thtre was “treasure helpful for the army” The Mughals lived by war. Not to wage War was not to live, or al least not to have the means of livelihouel, it certainly was a failure of Babur that he did not make the transition from the ways of nomadic monarchy te these of a setted empire; As Sher Shoah observed, the Mughals “have no order or discipline, and. ., their kings, do not personally superintend the government, but leave all the affairs of the Stale to their nobles and ministers... These grandee: act on corrupt motive in every case.” BACK IN AGRA alter the battle of Khanus, Babur rewarded his men suitably, distnibuted fiels among his nobles, and, as he had promised 32 BLACK PELE FE TAY fie would, granted leave to those who wanted to return to Kabul Humayun was dispatched to govern Badakshan, which had fallen to Babur in 1520. Then, as the monsoon was imminent, he sent the remaining officers to their fiefs, to get some well-eamed rest and to te- quip their contingents, Babur himself remained in Agra, in the Canter of Eight Paradises,: till Ramadan, and then moved to Sikri, because, he gays, he did not want to break his custom of not holding the Ramadan feast in the same place for Woe successive years. When the monsoon ended Babur set out on his campaigns again, this lime against Medini Rat of Chanderi in north-eastern Malwa. Here for the first time he came across the macabre Rajput rite of jauhar, in which, faced with certain defeal, women and children: immolated themselves’ or were slaughtered by their men, who ther slew each other or rushed cut naked to fight and die—to preserve their honour, The Rajputs kept their honour; Babur topk the fort Meanwhile the Afghans were on the move again east of Agra. and though they initially scnttered without fighting when Babur tumed on ther menacingly, they regrouped again seon after, this time under the command of Sultan Mahmud Lodi, the brother of Ibrahim Lodi, whe acl set himself up as the king of Bikar Babur then launched a second eastern campaign, and in a battle fought at the confluence of the Ganga and the Ghaghara, near Patna, on 6fh May 1529, he decisively routed the Afghans. The battle of Patna was Babur's last majar military campaign: By then, his altenhon had once-again tumed to developments beyond the Hindu Kush; in fact, even while he was marching against the Afghans, his eyes were on Central Asia, as he had received reports of Uzbeg- Persian clashes in Khurasan An old gleam now returned to Babur’s eyes—maybe the Timurid lands could yet be recovered, he thought, and ordered Humayun in Badakshan fo join the fray, "Thank God! now is your lime to misk Hie and slash swords,” he wrote, “Neglect not the work chance has brought, .. He grips the world who hastens.” Babur then made plans for himself to refirm to Kabul, ta be clase to the scene of action. “Matters are coming to some settlement in Hindustan: there is hope that the work here will soon be arranged,” he wrote to Khwaja Kalan, “This work brought to order, God willing, my start will be made at once.” Nothing came of those plans, In Central Asia, the Uzbegs recovered theit initiative, the Persians retreated, and Humayun aborted his campaign Babur was not destined to see Kabul again However, towards the close of 1529, he did proceed as far as Lahore, and spent a couple of months there: Surprisingly, he did not make the short hop oeTHE MUGHAL AD from there to Kabul, which he so passionately yearned to vie; Ungar Instead, he returned to Agra. His memoirs do not tell whythe abruptly in mid-sentence on 7th September 1529. Even the eniiea te the previous several months are sketchy. Something was amisg, BABUR HAD NOT been in good health for quite some time. Des te hit phenomenal physical vitality, he had always been prone to flint and at least once, in 1498, when he was fifteen, wasso. critically iii-that his life was despaired of. His memoirs are dotted with accounts DE me numerous ailments. “It was a strange Sort of illness,” writes Babuy about a bout of fever, “for whenever with much trouble 1 had been awakened, my eyes closed again in sleep. Tn four oF five days 1 gop quite well.” On his final Indian expedition, as soon he crossed the mountains he fell ill “That evening 1 had fever and discharge which led on to cough, and every time Pcoughed, I spat blood,” he notes jp India, because of the oppressive climate and the rigours of incessant wars, he was ill quite often, especially in the last couple of years of his life—he suffered from recurrent fever, boils, diarrhoea, setaticg discharges of the ears and spitting of blood. : Amazingly, despite his ill health, even late in his life Babur could perform physical feats from which a much younger man would haye flinched. At forty-six we find him exuberantly switiming across the Ganga. “Il swam the Ganga river, counting every stroke,” he writes: “ crossed with thirty-three, then, without resting, swam back. 1 had swum the other rivers, Ganga had remained to do.” Still, ape had begun to tell on him. He suffered from ennui as much as from jl} health. For all his vigorous enjoyment of life, Babur had a renuinciatory streak in him, a predilection for mysticism. “I am a king but yet the slave of dervishes," he used to say, He had led a full lite, had seen everything. done everything, and now he was tired. Sometimes he went into a deep depression and talked of becoming a hermit "My heart ws-bowed down by ruling and reigning,” he said. “1 will make over the Kingdom to Humayun,” ‘His tron will began to falter, He retummed to wine. And, though he had not till then shown any great fondness for the company’ af women, he now became attached to two Caucasian slave girls, Gul-nar and Nar- gul, whom he had received as a gift from Shah Tahmasp of Persia a couple of years-earlier. The death of an infant:son, Alwar, at this time upset him (greatly, He missed his children, and kept asking ta see Hindal, his youngest son, who was away in Kabul. There were signs of senility, His mind offen wandered. He tack litle mterest in government MM BLACK PELL THE-DAY “He passes his time in company with Mughal companions and frends; in pleasure and. enjoyment and carousing, in the presence of enchanting dancing girls with rosy: cheeks, who sang tunes and displayed helt accomplishments,” Yadgar reports. "Mir Khalifa... possessing the chief authority, managed the government, and his decrees were like those of the Sultan. himself.” In that perplexing situation, Humayun abruptly retired to India from Badakshan without royal permission, a serious breach of propriety It is likely that he had come to know of his father’s condition. It could also be that he had heard the rumour that Mir Khalifa was plotting a succession coup—though none of Humayin’s contemporaries mentions such.a conspiracy, the writers of the next generation do; but if indeed there was such a plot, it fizzled out on the arrival of Humayun in Agra Babur upbraided Humayun for leaving Badakshan without ermigsion, but soon forgave him, Humayun, though somewhat eccentnc, and not as ambitious or energetic as Babur would have liked him to be, was nevertheless a lovable and highly cultivated prince, whose company Babur enjoyed hugely. Says Abul Fazl, "The Emp: many times declared that Humayun was an incomparable companion,” After spending a few days wilh his father in Agra, Humayun leit fer Sambhal, his fief near Delhi, and Babur himself with his wives moved ta his gardens at Daulpur, There he presently received an urgent message from Humayun’ camp: “Humayun Mirza is ill and in an extraordinary state Her highness the Begum should come at once to Delhi, for the Mirza‘is much: prostrated.” Babur, says Gulbadan, was desolated by the news. When Humayun's mother, Maham Begum. consoled him, saying, “Do not be troubled about my son. You are a King: what griefs haye you? You have other sons. [ sorrow because 1 have only this one,” Babue said, “Maham, although I have other sons, J iove none-as 1 love your Humayun 1 crave that this cherished child may have his heart's desire and live long, and I desire the kingdom for him and net for others, because he has net his equal in distinction,” Babur immediately retimed to Agra ond ordered Humayun to be brought by boat from Delhi to Agra for treatment, but by the time the prince reached Agra, he was delirious and critically ill. Only god could save Humayun, it seemed. And god, an amir suggested, could be induced to save the prince if one of Humayun's valued possessions Was offered as a propitiatory oblation. Babur seized the thought, but rejected the suggestion to offer a great diamond belonging to Humayun, Instead, he decided to offer his own life, characteristically placing sentiment above treasure and contending that at was the father’s life thata son valued most As’ Mughal chroniclers 35THE MUGHAL ADVENT tell the-story, Babur then cireumambulated the sick-bed ang pra fervently that his own life be taken in exchange for his son's life, Write Abul Faz!) “When the prayer had been heard by God... he (Babu felt a strange effect an himself and cried Gut, “We have borne {¢ awh] We have bore it away!’ Tmimedintely a strange heat of fever SUrpod upon his Majesty and there was a sudden diminution of (p in the person of his Highness.” ‘That very day he (Babur) fell ill, and Humayun potired wate his head, and came out and gave audience,” says Gulbadan, telescoping time in remembered pain. “Because of his illness, they carried my ie father within, and he kept to his bed for two or three months," Says Abul Fazl: “in a short hme hé (Humayun) entirely recovered, While Babur gradually grew worse and marks of dissolution and doa, became apparent.” As Babur's condition worsened, Humayun, who had retumed jy his fief, was called back to Agra He was shocked at the sight of his father. “I Jeft himy well, what has happened to him all at once?’ hp asked the amirs. “They said this and! that in reply,” writes Gulbadan Babur was salfering from an acute disorder of the bowels, and was in great pain. “Day by day he lost strength and became more and more emaciated,” recalls Gulbadan. “Every day the disorder increased and his blessed countenance changed." Probably delirious, he kept askiny for Hindal, and wanted to know how tall he had grown, even though, he had seen the boy just a few months earlier “Alas! a thousand tinjes alas! that Ido not see Hindall” he lamented over and over. Babur was losing bis mand. But he still had lucid intervals when he could make clear decisions, The day after Humayun arrived, Babur, lying ona couch at the foot of the throne, called his amiss to him to give them his dying instructions, Then, taking Humayun’s hand in his, he asked the prince to sit on the throne, ane asked his nobles to acknowledge him as king, "For years it has been in my! heart to make over the throne to Humayun and |p tetire to the Zer Afshan (Gold Scattering) Garden,” said Babur. “By divine grace I have obtained in health of body everything but the fulfilment of this wish. Naw when iliness has laid me low, | charge You all'to acknowledge Humayun in my stead.” Babur then tumed to Humayun. “Do nothing against your brothers even though they may deserve it," he counselled. “At these words,” notes Gulbadan, “hearers and onlookers wept and lamented. His own blessed eyes also filled with tears.” On Monday, 26th December 1530, Babur passed away. “Black fell the day for children and tansfolk-and all,” prieves Gulbadan. Yd F Of 36 UEACK FELL THE DAY, Babur was laid te pest in the Garden of Eight Paradises in Agra, renamed Aram Bagh, Gatden of Rest, opposite which the Taj ata rise four generations later, Same years afterwards, probably Nese d- 1643, during the reign of Sher Shah, the mortal remains of Set were trantferred to Kabul and burned, as Babur had desired, in } i favourite garden on the Shoh--Kabul hill overlooking a stream and Le ae vmadow, with the snows of the Paghman in the far horizon, in imple grave open to the sky. The man of the mountains was back home:Chapter Two THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVALThe Dreamer Cometh FOUR DAYS AFTER Babur's death, on 3th December 1530, a day chosen by astrologers, Humayun, twenty-three, ascended the throne in Agra For Humayun, whose name meant fortunate, life asa prince had been a lark, As king, he would never again know any real repose “Dreamers, Hey moved through a dream,” Bakr had once said oF his hedonistic cousins m Herat He could have said the same about Humayun, who was more awake in his dreams than when awake Though personable, cultured and amiable, Humayun was, says Ferishta, “(or the most part. disposed to spend his time im social intercourse and pleasure." He lacked the grit to match the turbulence of the world he lived in, Predictably, his reign, which began as a dream, darkened into an pwhal mehtmare “| have seen few persons possessed of so much natural. talent and excellence as: he 9” writes Mirza Haidar, "In battle he was steady and brave, in conversation, ingenious and lively; and -at the social board, full Gf wil He was kind-hearted and generous. He was a dignified and magmicent-prince, and observed much state. But in consiquence of his having dissolute and sensual men in his service, and of his intercourse with them he contracted s6me bad habits; as for instance the excessive use of opium: All the evil that has been set down ta the Emperor, and has become the cammon talk of the people, is altributable to this vice.” Humayun was 7 skilled mathematician, and was “unequalled in the sctences of astronomy anc astrology and all abstruse sciences,” says Akbar's courtier Badauni. But these talents had little to do with the stem Business of government. Even in his esoteric pursuits, Humayun had no particular achievement to his credit—he was compulsively invenHve, but in a bemused, eccentric way, and he lacked the tenacity of purpose fo forge hisairy whimsies into solid achievements. He loved playing at being an intellectual and an atsthete, just as he loved playing at being a! king. Even virtues turned into vices in Humayun, “The mildness and benevolence of Humayun's character were excessive,” says Ferishta. “His conversation,” writes Mushtaqui, “was so mice that he neverTHE STRUGELE DO SURVIVAL addressed any person as fi, but as stim.” The harshest peroraiyy is ever sad to have used was, “You stupid!” Says Badauni: “HY. opened his ips in a smile, nor dict he ever cast an angry p| anyone.” Humayun was a-misfit in his time and place, an. ease-loving peng among a warlike people, in charge of a nascent Kingdom in a Periloiy setting. Though Babur had in three major encounters routed (hose yh, opposed his entry into Hindustan, the adversanes: were-stil] around lurking in the shadows. Their challenges had to be met, Bumaytin could noteven be certain of the loyalty of his own men, a 2itley crowd drawn from different Central Abian martial races. The procee of pluncer was ther only unifying motive, and heroic leadership thy only means of harnessing their energy Humayun also had te contend with the ambitions of his awn kin, brothers and cousins, all sons re grandsons ‘of kings, all eager to be kings themselves. These hazards could be overcome only with a well-sharpened sword, for as Kamran, Humayun's younger brother, put it, he Never ANCE yy Wito'd to his tovom clas) dominion’s bride Must kiss the gleaming salre’s lip Humayun, though personally courageous, hid no particulas enthusiasm for kissing the sabre’s lip, NASIRUDDIN MUHAMMAD Humayut was bom in Kabul on 6th March 1508, “the sun being in Pisces", notes Babur At twelve, he wag ‘sent off to Badakshan as governor It is not known how he fared there—probably not too well, for Babur's yeny first comment on Humayun in his memoirs complams about his tardiness. Babur, then setting out from Kabul on his final Indian campaign, had ordered the prince to join him on the way, but Humayun was long in coming, "I wrote harsh letters to Humayun,” says Babur, “lecturing Him severely Inecause of his long delay beyond the time fixed for him to: join me” Humayun dic well in India, though He was blooded in battle near Ambala in Punjab; where he routed an Afghan auxiliary force and returned with a clutch of severed enemy heads, Babur considered that auspicious: “At this same station and this same day the razor or scissors Were first applied to Humayun'’s beard,” records. Babur, The boy had become a man Later, at Paripal as well as at Khanua, Humayun commanded the right wing of the Mughal amiy. After Khania, Babur'sent Humayun back to Badakshan as governor. a2 THE DEFAMER CoMmieTur owas then ningteen years old; an age at which Mughal princes were normally battle-harcdened veterans in the thick of the struggle for gurvival and domination, But there Was in Humayun a disturbing lack of camestness, an unbecoming capriciousness, This troubled Babur And il infuriated him when Efumayun raided, perhaps as a prank, the treasury OF Delhi on bis way to Badakshan from Agra. “I-neyer leaked jor such a thing fram: him," writes Babur. "Tt grieved me very much. [wrote and sent off te hum very severe reproaches.” Humayun was not corious about governing Badakshan either, but kept pestering Babur to allaw him to “retire” from there, so that Babur had to chide him again: As for the retirement— retirement’ spoken of in thy Jetfers—retirement js a fault for Sovereignty... Retirement makes not rule.” Still, Humayun was Babur's chosen heir, There was no. dispute about his succession, But troubles began immediately thereafter, The first ta challenge Humayun was his brother Kamran, On Babur's death, fis throne and the overlordship of the empire, along with the Mughal jands in Hindustan, went to Humayun; Kamran got Kabul and Kandahar; Askar and Hindal, the other two surviving sons of Babur, received subordinate fiels; Badakshan was given to Sulaiman Mirza, # second eousin of Humayun The division of the empire between Humayun and Kamran was more or less according to the 6.5 ratio that Babur had specified, But Kamran, an inordinately spinted youth, was not content with his share, and seeking, to measure out his domain with adrawn sword in the Timur tradition, he crossed the Indus and laid claim to the entire territory west of the Satiyj This could have meant war But Kamran had’ taken care to cloak his aggression behind a pretence of subservience by sending emissaries to Humayun to profess fealty and seek indulgence: “Humayun on his part, out of his natural sofiness of heart as well as out of regard for the advice of his dying father to be indulgent towards his brothors, treated Kamran with forbearance-and acceded to his ‘demands. In fact, he gave Kamran more land than he asked for, Kamran in tum, matching. sentiment wilh sentiment, wrote to Humayun: May every mist which rises on thy tay, Be the dimming of the light-of yy cum eyes: ‘The sons of Babur were a curious lot. They were violent adversaries in their fight for land and power, but otherwise entirely laying. and brotherly. They shawed genuine mutual affection even in the midst of their most savage clashes, and offen wept over each other's fates—fates which they inflicted on ech other! 43THE STI FOR SURVIVAL AROUND THE TIME that Kamran invaded Punjab, Humayun to face 4 rebellion by his cousins (who held important fiefs near, as well as resurgent Afghan belligerence in Bihar under Mahmud os Humayun dealt with these threats with an tincharacteristie shoy spirit, first subduing the Afghans, then turning to chase off his esi His cousins would continue to be a nuisance for a while longer a they would never again directly threaten his power, and as for Malm “ Lodi, he now finally gave up hrs. struggle to regain the tmperial:scp ie The field of action then shifted to Gujarat. A small kingdom = x mich on the trade of its port emporiums, Gujaral was at this lime mane by Bahadur Shah, an ambitious and energetic monarch who stoad forth as the standard-bearer of the Afghans after the defeat of Mahmud Log) To Gujarat flocked defiant Afghans from all over Hindustan, as yyol| i a few Mughal rebels, Even Alam Khan, the breless Lodi protender, he had initially brought Babur into India, was there: The presence of these volable elements in Gujarat ignited Bahadur Shah's own ambitions, ang presently he began to. move aggressively in several chrections. He sun, ‘his armies south to threaten the Deccan sultanates, north towards Rajasthan and Punjab, and east towards Malwa and beyond, as if he meant to gobble tip the Mughal lands in one gargantuan bite There was, however, a fatal flaw in Baliadur Shah's strategy He mistook tertitory for power, and in ranging out in too many clirectinns, spread his power thin, instead of concentrating tt against the one man—Humayun—whom he had to defeat to: realize his ambitions for all his apparent aggressiveness there was a certain Goudity i Bahadur Shah's bearing towards the Mughals—he was reluctant to confront Humayun directly, and in battle he Seemed more anxious not to lose than to win! Inevitably, he lost. Though initially Bahadur Shah and his allies did make some gains: against the Mughals, and one army under Tartar Khan, Alam Khan's able son, even penetrated the environs of Agra, soon they were in full retreat everywhere, and Bahadur Shah himeelf fled without engaging when Humayun confronted him in Mewar Barting from place to place, pursued by Hunmyun, Bahadur Shah finally escaped into the island of Din, a safe refuge from the Jand- bound: Mughals. Humayun chased Bahadur Shah as: far as “Cambay, where he paused briefly to haye 9 look at the sea (which na Timund had ever ‘seen betore) and then doubled back to besiege Champanir, a strong fort in deep forest where the fabled royal treastires of Gujarat were reputed to be hidden. The siege dragged on for four months, but in the end Humayun—whose spirit had not yet been liquefied by opium and at alsa had al THY) DREAREN COMTI dissipation—stormed the fortin a. daring night acton, personally leading, some 300 Mughal braves to scale the fort an spikes driven into rock and xlonework 1 a. remote and unguarded part of the citadel built over a precipitous hillside, It was Humayun's finest hour, Treasures beyond imagination fell to the Mughals at Champanit, even though: Bahadur Shah had removed the crown jewels and part of ihe board to Din “Humayun gave his officers and soldiers as much sold, silver, and jewels as could be heaped on their respective shields, proportioning the value to their rank and merit,” says Fershta, The emperor and his men then fell (o revelry. Humayun diverted himself, says ‘Abul Fazl, by “holding magnificent banquets and constantly arranging rayal entertainments on the banks of the Du Ruya tank” He had no thought of consolidating his conquest: DISCIPLINE IN THE Mughal army was’ so fax at this time and such was the genefal quixotry that one day, records Abul Fazl, a band of inebriated subordinate staff, “book-bearers, anmout-bearers, ink-horn- bearers and the like", while listening te the exploils of Timur being read out at the camp fire, took it into Hheir heads: to desert the army and set cut—to conquer the Deccan, no less! ‘The revellers were overtaken and brought back, To their mistortune the day was a Tuesday, when Humayun, according: to his astrolegically determined fancy, “wore the red yesture of Mars and sat on the throne of wrath and vengeance.” The culprits were therefore handed out, in a weird application of poche justice, punishments “fitting ther destiny’— those whe had acted in a headstrong manner had their heads chopped off, those without discretion (“not distinguishing between their feet and their hands," as Abul Fazl puts it) had their feet and hands severed, and so on. Not only that; an imam, whose prayers that day were thought to have implied a crihelsm of Humayun's eccentric punishments, was ordered ta be trampled to death under the foot of an elephant— though when Humayun tealized that the poor imam did net-mean any criticism all, he “spent the whole night in sorrow and Weeping,” says Abul Faz. Inflicting such savage and arbitrary punishments was a medieval royal privilege, a demonstration of the king's absolute power. Humayun's peculiar full was not arbitrariness but capriciousness There was in him/a certain quirkiness of character that often made hun look: silly, Especially so were his astrologyslinked pranks, such as the "carpet of mirth” that he invented: tb had circles marked out on it 1m different colours to represent the planets, an which the courtiers codTHE STRUGGLE FORSONVIVAL positioned themselyes according to the planet thal was a rope them, and played a curious game, in) which they either seer ‘ reclined according to the fall of the dice—this, according ts Mt se "was a means of increasing mirth” The courtiers, we shoul a Fay dared not but enjoy. “SUR, Not all of Humayun's imevations were frivalous, The prefab; portable bridge he designed was an excellent device, and | =a palace, with its bazaar and garden, an-elegant creation, Un Humayun often turned even good ideas ludicrous by OVerelaboratie, them, For instance, the drum of justice which he set up near the ane hall in Agra, to enable people to appeal to him directly, was in ae thoughtiul arrangement; but when he went on to Specify et number of beats for different complaints—one beat for a mhatles 4 dispute; two for the non-receipt of wages and dues; three in cae ‘Oppression—it trivialized the idea oe The stars ruled Humayun's lite ina manner which eve: Astrologers would have found bizarre. He allowed Bees) ‘him so far gut that it virtually took him out of this world alto; ie What he did on each day was determimed nol by the ane a government, nor by any rational mode-of time management, but ie attribute of the planet of the day—Sunday and Tuesday, for oe i Were given to government affairs because, as Abul Fazl thimselt, S astrologer) explams, “Sunday pertains to the sun whose Tays regulate 2 sovercignty, while Tuesday is Mars's day and Mars is the patron of Soldiers." For-similar reasons, Saturday and Thursday. were assipmodg matters of religion and learning, while Monday and Wednesday circ days of joy", and Friday was a day open to all matters and all ties of Oneach day Humayun wore clothes of the colour Appropriate ae Bie rie day—on Sundays he wore yellow, on Mondays To match the three functional divisions of the wi Stoliped his courtiers into three functional classes, eee of religion and culture, and a third group called “people of pleasure? which, according to Khvand Amit was mace up of “those who poses beauty and clegance, those who were young and most feedeaes clever musicians and sweet singers". Within each of these ae ce coe ae twelve grades, and then divided each oo ee fine (armed forces), air (wardrobe, ‘i Des Ce ae ate i bh robe, itchen and stable), water (eanals ane cellar) and earth (agrictlture, land and buildings), each under 46 TCAtor|: hus: fleiatin, Hortuinately THE DREAMEM CoMnTaT er wha had to wear clothes of the colour suited to his department ‘The minister in charge of the army, for instance, had to wear red) Humayun thus constructed a marvellously intrivate yet neat and elegant bureaucratic structure Hts only flaw was that it served no useful purpose Categorization, and systematizaton were a mania with Humayun, and he busied himself wath arranging and rearranging his courtiers and officers, not looking at the functional yalue af the arrangements, but only at their abstract harmony and perfection There was certainly a method in his madness, an internal consistency in-all that he did But what he did- was not consistent with the ways of the world, Nor with grim business of government. a mints the WHILE THE MUGHALS were revelling In Champanir, Bahadur Shah emerged from Diu and tried to recover his kingdom) but was again driven off by Humayun, who then went on to occupy Ahmadabad, the: capitalof Gujarat, thereby completing: the conquest of the kingdom, At that point, Humayun’s counsellors, according to Humayun's personal attendant Jauhar, suggested that since he had “obtained the objects for which he had commenced this war"—to defeat Bahadur Shah and te obtain treasure—“it would now be advisable to advance one or two. years! pay (o the army, to keep the remaining treasure im deposit for future emergencics, and then appoint Bahadur Shah as his deputy to mule the: province of Gujarat.” Such: graciousness, they maimtained, “would redound much to his fame, and would afford him Teisure to jook alter his other dominions.” Humayun rejected the advice; he would not negotiale away what he had won by the sword. This decision was a blunder, Had he accepted the plan, he could have retaimed suzerainty over Gujarat and secured an annual tribute from there, instead of losing the state altogether, ancl losing Malwa too, as it happened After capturing Ahinadabad, Humayun left his: brother Askari in charge of Gujarat and moved to Mandu in Malwa, town for which he had taken a fancy, There he once again sank into a hfe of soothing dissipation. As soon as Humayun left Gujarat, Bahadur Shah reemerged from his sanctuary, in Dix and, gatherng the support of local chiefs, advanced on Ahmadabad. Askari oifered him little resistance Instead, prodded on by some disgruntled amits, he abandoned Gujarat and parched to Agra, his intention ambiguous, but probably to usurp the throne. By then Humayun himself was at last on the way to Agra; ta deal a7THE STRUGGLE FOR WRVIVAL with renewed rebel activity in the north: The two armies Mewar, There was a risk of a clash then, but Humayun ch epaeer overlooked Askari's meipient disaffection, and topethion tia tcl marched to Agm as one army, there to receive the hay a brothin, Hindal, their younger brother, who had been tefl in ae AW thy) capital, had already subdued the rebels. SSIIEE Of the Meanwhile Malwa was. lost te the Afphins, a Askart retreated, Bahadur Shah reoccupied Te ee Solara had spent twenty months, from November 1534 ta AUaatTEe Malwa-Gujaral campaigns, but had no territorial gaine Nae The action now shifted to Hindustan ay WAV 4 IN hig AIMS teh) show feet 48 “The Feast Is Over...” FoR * YEAR after his retum to Agra, Humayiin remained inert, diverting himself with opium ard the pleasures of the harem, and busy wilh his abstruse studies and fanciful invenhons There was some talk af launching a fresh campaign against Bahadur Shah, but nothing came af it. ¢ Meanwhile there was an-unexpected and alarming resurgence of Alghan power in Bihar, under the wily leadership of Sher Khan, a local chieftain, During, his 1931 camipaige against Mahmud Lodi, dumayun shad clashed briefly with Sher Khan, and had teduced him to submission, Sher Khan had thereafter remained, outwardly at any rate, a Mughal vassal. Buk that was only a-pretence. The Khan was biding his time. Te was not Sher Khan's nature to ect rashly. He had begun his career as a lowly officer in the Afghan kingdom. of Bihar, then built up his power brick by brick and ter by tier, hastening: slowly, to establish himself, after many years of patient and circumspect endeavour, as the virtual ruler of Bihar, a king: in all but name, That was a: very substantial achievernent: But Bihar was only a halfway house for Sher Khan, the middle rung on his ladderof ambinien, His eyes were on the Mughal throne. He had. in his early youth spoken of his ambrhon to overthrow the Mughals, but 10 one had taken him seriously, Since then he had taken care not to reveal, by word or deed, whal his imer eye was focused om, Sher Khan was $6 discreet in action that Homayun had no inkling of what he was up to Hilit was too late. After consolidating his power in Bihar, the Khan began to push into Bengal, This move, though tna direction away from Mughal territory and carefully fmed to coincide with Humayun’s absence in Malwa and Gujarat, brought Sher Khan into conflict with Humayun for the second time: Humayun was initially inchned to regard Sher Khan merely a5 troublesome vassal who clid nol merit his personal attention, but when the Khan extended his rule into Bengal he became’ virtually a rival monarch and a threat to Mughal stzerainty Sher Khan, it seemed, was turing east against Bengal only to gather strength to tum west later against the Mughals: ‘This realization at last roused Humayun from hisTHE STRUGGLE pow SURVIVAL torpar, Inamid-fuly 1537, haying marshalled his forces: from and placing his lands in the secure charge of trusted ny ie PIOVinig, from Agra with a grand army against Sher Khan, sia eee ainigiardllinesPOe bieihesey ecaipmien downline vree of barges It was a portentous bepinning aoe But it ended, predictably, in disaster Humayun. wa, and Jethargie campaigner, and in Sher Khan he w. a 1 Neg ligen| felentless and exceptionally crafty adversary, a Machisnvetit Baling whe had no compunction in pesorting te deceit and ce TAN thetitigy, goals. Compared to Sher Khan, Humayun was a babe me Fel hi e Woody ain a Flot, THE FIRST TACTICAL error of Humayun was that, 2) hunting down Sher Khan in Berygal, he paused, an oe bi Chunar, an Afghan fort onthe Ganga near Varanasi (Benare: eee time and energy on peripheral taryel, The delay enabled Gee a's to eee his conquest of Bengal ee flumayiin arrived at Chunar after a five-1 Agra, and Spent the next three months envi ee ee litte by taking it Chunar was important to Sher Khan, but not i ae a for a while, during his Bengal campaign, left hic hee a pee in Chunar, but had since then moved them.to safety in Ri a newly captured till fort on the upper reaches of the Son Riv ae rugged hill country: impenetrable to the cumbersome Mughal anne 7 aa Rohtas action was lypical of Sher Khan. He Pesoieln eee © fort @s a sanctuary from the advancing Mughal farces, but hi i" not have the time, nor probably the means, to fake it by feed oe ae ne is policy to avoid the use of force where stratagem a kee a ee wih oe Hari Kishen, the clueftain of ; awe arein—and his treasure—in ete a ee tather-see his treasure go to the faja ane aa beta For good measure, he also bribed a minister ‘Of the rie pee ee When the raja, lured by the prospect of seizing ee: — ie the request, Sher Khan (according to Mughal ae ne ree ey ae Boge an Afghan See amupeled TS In covered litters 5 i rae the begums, and they seized the fort in a flash. oe ‘ Pe ae for his life through a back gate = s damily and treasure safe in Rohtas, Sher Khan re ae aE SENG continued his futile siege of Sau. Se ne ee resumed his eastivard march, joined on the way by ‘Mahim the fugitive king of Bengal, Sher Khan was on his way of Promptly 5h E Patt of Soe WAST 18 OVEH pack to Bihar, having virtually completed the subjugation of Bengal Aravind this time Humayun made an effort to cajale Sher Khan, inte submission He offered to return Chunar to Sher Khan and, in addition, ie give him Jaunpur or any other place of his choice, if he would give up Bengal, hand over to. Humayun the treasure he had takeri there, including the chhatiar (royal umbrella) anc) throne, and agree to rele under Mughal averlordship, Sher Khan was not tempted. Hereceived the Mughal envoy courteously, but told him: (according, to Jauhar) that ance had “cost him five or six years’ toil to subdiie Bengal, with the loss of a great number of his soldiers, it was impossible he could resign that conquest.” Instead, he made a counter-proposal—he offered to relinquish: the regalia of Bengal, surrender Bihar, and pay) an annual tribute of one million rupees to Humayun, provided he was allowed to retain. Bengal. Humayun Was initially inclined to accept Sher Khan's proposal, but decided against it when he learned that Sher Khan's hold on Bengal was tenuous ane that he could easily be distod ged from there. Moreover, Sher Khan himself had returned to Bihar by that time, leaving only 2 part of his army in Bengal under the command of tus gon Jalal Khan Humayun believed that dese circumstances favoured him, so he ejected Sher Khan's offer and ‘continued to advance on Bengal, certain of wictory. ‘This decision was the tuming point 1 Humayun's career. [t was also o turning point in Sher Khan’s career, for he too now decided on a fight to the finish. He had gone to ihe limit of what he could concede to Humayun to avoid 2 clash He woult yield no mote. So he hurried back to Bengal, where, at Gaur, the capttal af Bengal, he assumed the litle Sher Shah, He was no longer a mere kdian (chieftain], but a shah (king), though he did not yet presume to ascend the throne, From that point on it would be all or nothing for Sher Shah To survive, he had to eliminate Humayun, The two could not coexist im the same fand. HUMAYUN TOO HASTENED towards Gaur, though by then the monsoon had broken, making the campaign arduous. Sher Shah made no move to stop him, It suited him to have Humayun advance, fortis plan was to bottle up the Mughals in Bengal. Sher Shah’s only problem was that he had taken so much treasure in Gaur that he had difficulty in finding enough porlers to carry it to Rohtas, To gain time; he sent Jalal Khan to block the narrow Teliyagarhi pass north-west of Rajmahal, through which the Mughal army had to pass to enter Bengal, and hold them off for a while. Jalal did more than just hold off the Mughals: StTHEE STRUGGLT YOR SURVIVAL Though Sher Shah, ever cautious, had-ordered him: defensive position, Jalal found the Mughal advance i lake Striey deployed at the pass that he attacked and sealer es mu Cita ! Sher Shah's first victory’ over Humayun, and a porte then This i. Jalal Khan's: friumph enabled Sher Shah to aa Rohias with the Bengal treasure, It was not however ee “fely., hole up in Rohitas, but ta use it a8 a-base from whore to intention {i ams ancl garrotte Humayun in Bengal, by squeezing: f lines of communication and supply a Humayun innocently walked into the trap. When Jalal Khan withdrew from the Pass he w Humayun proceeded triumphantly to Gaur, He found: ea Suardiny Tavaged by along drawn out war, its streets choked sia Ssolate apy. living barely alive. Humayun, perhaps ironically, ees ead, thy Jannatabad (Paradise), bul his men found ita hell. Indeed ed the gy Bengal itself a hell, and loathed it so intensely that wh 1 Mtey found offered: the governorship of the province to one of te Humayun deserted, protesting that the posting am@unted to a adstit mene Bul Humayun himself took to Bengal “When His Majcte en an he found everywhete a paradise full of fal face 2 Teche andsome maids, dong with exhilarating gardens and sonthi ae Says Mushtaqui He liked the climate of Bengal, and its lush ie Bast Moreover, Sher Shah, according to Niamatullah, had fu Seely palace at Gaur “with an exquisite variety ‘of See a embellishments” in the hope “that Humayun, charmed ee and be angles to prolong his stay there.” eae seh @ charm worked. Besides, Humayun had, a: va ie task he had set out to satin to Shue eae i eee fe Mone Parcelled out the province among bis amine ai eee Dare rem, as no further interest in the affairs of the mete it sa eth, very unaccountably shut himself up for indole sn ise fees ent ene « months he admitted no one eee Abul Fazl, “His Majesty . . fend tis cls je Humettn Wen down to enjoy himself.” [tis mot clear bow about nine onthe te eee 2 See conlecture is thal tn all he: spent Catir tell, Province, including at least three months in While Huma: in Bihar. Virtua; city of he de Ae Sher Shah got busy and took the offensive ae Ly: entire province soon fell to him, including the anas|, Jaunpur and Chunar were invested. AS a Seized the fantilies of the principal zemindars of the-re ees =: gion and held: 52 “TIE TPAST 18 OVER Rohtes as hostages; to eliminate any residtal local support for When Humayun heard of these activities, he was ays Jauhar, and he asked in wonder, “How could Sher then the Maghals. ineredulousy xhan dare #0 oi a? But Sher Shah had more surprises in-store. He now blocked the passes between Bihar and Bengal, so. that supplies, and even communication, no longer reached Humayun, At that critical juncture, F[umayenn’s brothers, fearing that-he would perish in Bengal, began to desert him, and Hindal, who was holding a back-up position to secure the lines of communication and supply, abandoned his station and proceeded io Agra to claim the throne for himself The noose was lightening around Humayun, He had (6 get out of Bengal. But by the time he got moving, the monsoon had cree again burst over Bengal, turning the land into a quagmire. The imperial troops, especially the cavalry, suffered great hardship and losses trudging through the deep, viscous slush—it was as if the very soi of Bengal were Glutching at Humayun’s feet and dragging him down to bury him. The Mughals were utterly dispirited and exhausted by the time they lurched back inte Bihar to challenge Sher Shah When Sher Shah heard of Humayun’s retreat from Bengal, he lifted the siege of Jaunpur, in which he was then engaged, croseed to the right bank of the Ganga and withdrew to south Bihar, intencing to play hide-and-seek with Humayun, {6 exhaus! and frustrate him. Sher Shah was suil reluctant to fight an open battle against Humayun—he had from his humble beginnings built ap a great carter, acquired immense wealth and power through breless effort, and he dic not'want to chance it all_on the luck of a battle. His plan was therefore to retreat to Bengal in case Humayun attacked him, or to hang around the Mughal army and harass il an case Humayun proceeded to Agra. Shor Shah's retreat from Jaunpur forced Humayun, who was then marching on that city, also te cross to the right bank of the Ganga—it would have seemed unmanly for hin\ to remain on the left bank when the rebel (as Humayun still thought of Sher Shah) was on the right bank. Humayun however made no effort te seek out Sher Shah, but proceeded towards Agra. Moving along the night bank of the Ganga now, passing Patna, crossing the Son, the Mughal army renched Chaiisa, where the river Karmanasa (Destroyer of Karma) joined the Ganga, All along the way, the Mughals were trailed by Afghan scouts, watching their every move and engaging in neensional skirmishes, but avoiding any major battle. Then, suddenly, the scene shifted When Sher Shah came to: know of the disarray and low morale of the Mughal army, and sensed the a8TUL) SVRUEGL i TOM SURVIVAL zeal of his own men (o fight the Mughals, he changed hi decided to seek battle with Humayun. “Now that [ ih nt ani His armies which were in Bihar and Jaunpur, and Yaken bia Verte, the way to peace Is closed,” he tald:a conclave of his commen Utes you agree with me, Iwill try my fortune.’ They were even eel for battle than he was ante “Ager The die was thus cast Sher Shah then emerged from and advanced to confront Humayun. Closing in, he skirtect army, crossed the Karmanasa, and presently, to the ities ay Mughals, appeared in front of them when they thought ies them 7 The two armies réached Chausa at about the si a hanks of the Karmanasa, with Sher Shah lacking ae aad Humayun's councillors were divided in their advice SG on with the situation, says Jauhar, Qne group recommended j 10 ial attack, arguing that Sher Shah had come by forced marek qe army Was tired and vulnerable; the other group advised ete * adopt the time-tested Mughal tactic of fighting from an aa 7 position, saying that "there was tio necessity for hurry or pertur ee Humayun chose the latter option, crossed the arana cd encamped. For two months the foes lay facing each other te on narrow but steep-banked miyulet callec: Toram Nathi, Small Stren i engaging in occasional skirmishes but avoiding general actior tte military advantage at that pomt seemed to be with Humayun Sion iS invariably favoured the Mughals, Moreover, with each passing da el Mughal army swelled in size, as stragglers from Bengal me ui ; i ac main body of the army, But the morale of the Mughal aH ie low, and it was baitle weary after the exhausting Bengal ane And Bimayun hunself was: vacillating, vexed as much about ste ti Bee wee ae as about Sher Shah's threat. o wild card in this game was the possible line of action of Fearon Valenti, Sst Gen igi nice ean Ai af eI, dal, runeteen years: ol eee ‘he moment eager for the throne, and enon oa ee BEDI ri Sie fom was finally prodded leclaring himself king, Dildar ae 50 upset by Fhndal’s mprudent act that she ah on sous lothes when he ascended the thrane When he-asked her why she was a dressed on such a Joyous occasion, she answered, “I am Laake for you. You have girded your loins for your own: destruction,” But such admonitions had ‘ eaafieeee no effect on Hindal, whose attitude was, as Abul SOuth Bil, the Mughal TPHSe of thy Was behing 4 STHt RA q-mind ir rite: car, Advice of nan i wine Bat He 2 wien Had finns yng fire, Hindal advancect north to fake possession of Delhi, but was From Agr, . ore iad by Humayun's loyal officers, whe called im Kanan Feit Kabul to subdue the rebel: When Kamran arrived in Dethi at the hoad of a Jarge cavalry farce; Hindal retreated to Agra, and when Kamran purstied him, he submitted, The erstwhile rebel and hin chashser then jomned together, crossed the: Yamuna, and advanced to relieve: Humayun. gher Shah was now in danger of being trapped between two Mupltal armies. Fortunately for him, Kamran and Hindal, afer advancing for a few days; inexplicably tured back and returned to Agra. Kamran’s owt ambitions might shave had something to do with 1t—when he realized how! hopeless Humayun’s: plight was; “there arose, in him,” says Gulbadan, iy dosire {or saveresgnty.” Clearly, there was 4 crisis af jeadership among the Mughals. Humayun had littl cenfidence in himself, and therefore ciuld inspire none in others His brothers could gee no future in remaining with him. Meanwhile the summer was almost over, and the rains broke over the land with great fury, creating ar unforeseen problem for Sher Shalt. We had pot chosen his ground carefully, so-his camp was immdated with rain water, and he was forced to move his army to @ position same eight kilometres away, leaving. only his artillery and a covering force in the original entrenchments, That unplanned manoeuvre put Sher Shah in greatjeopardy, But Humayun failed to seize the moment— this was his greatest failing, his Jack of energy in responding to shifting strategic situations. SO THE AWFUL waiting continued, Humayun sean realized that he could expect no aid from his brothers; on the contrary, he feared that they could be scheming to usurp the throne themselves, and had thus become a greater threat to his power than Sher Shah. For the moment, then, getting to Age became for him more important than suppressing Sher Shah's rebellion. It was essential for him te-secure an uncantestéd ‘but honourable passage to Agra. in this predicament Humayun sent an emissary, Mullah Muhammad Barghiz, to Sher Shalt to negotiate peace. When the mullah reached the Afghan camp, he found—as Erskine, Humayun’s minetcenth-century biographer, describes the scene—Sher Shah “busy with fis spade, in the heat of the day, among his soldiers wha were employed in digging 55THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL a trench. On Seeing the ambassador, the king washed }yjg hi temporary awning was spread, and he sab down undor it ne ground, without ceremony, and received the envoy.” Sher gina the to the mullah when he broached the subject of peace was as ‘i td said: “Go, tell your Emperor this from me: he is desirous. of wal Be troaps ace nol, 1 do nok wish for wat, my. troops do," Mo hy Negotiations, however, continued: Sher Shah, ever Caution crafty, and, according to Abbas, “wavering in his decision as se isl er way", then wrote @ conciliatory letter to Humayun, Stating ee the Emperor would give him the kingdom of Bengal and he sh i thal the khutbah be read and money struck in the Emperor's nam a would be the Emperor's vassal” Humayun, anxious for peacu, min agreed to these terms, but with the facesaving, provision tha ai Shah should first—before- Humayun formally condoned his rebilly a and granted him Bengal—retreat for a couple of marches and rk Humayun chase him in a mock pursuit. ‘ Tr is not clear what was finally agreed, but some sort of a armistice seems to haye been reached Perhaps even a formal let was concluded. But while Humayun was trusting, Sher Shah intenco to deceive, “l (have] lost all hope ip his goodness... He is bur playin, with me, and will eventually nobabide by this peace,” said Sher Shahi, conveniently shifting the onuis-of perfidy to Humayun. Whether a treaty was formalized or nat, both armies behaved ay jf ibwere a5. good assigned, and they got busy with preparations to break samp. There Were convivial visits bebyeen the Mughals and the Afshans Sher Shah ever acted outa chamade fora couple of days by array ing his army and sending it out:some twelve kilomielres, os if to cere local chieftain, ane then bringing it back, so that (he tater explained) he “mught put the Emperor off his guard” The Mighals meanwhile wore busy constricting a bridge of boats over the Ganga for their return (9 Agra by the traditional route through the Doab, Allalong, while Humayun relaxed in the asstirance of peace, Sher Shahowas awake and alert, scheming, prowling. When He was sitisfied that the prey was entirely limp and unwary, he pounced On 25th June 1539, just before midnight, he sammaned his chiefs, told them of his decision to attack the Mughals, and ordered his army to be arrayed immediately, At about three in the moming they set out, but in a direction away from the Mughals, Sher Shah still keeping up. the pretence that his target was the rebel chitftain, so as mot 10 rouse Muehal suepicions, After the army had gone some distance, he wheeled it around —"Now is the time to regain the Empire of Hindustan,” he told his men—and swooped dawn on the barely awake Mughal ariny, 26. “TICE FEAST 18 CFR “jn the peinkling of an eye they rouled the Mughal forces,’ says ‘ee Mughals were throws into utter chaos, with camp-followers ie Ca eecaaeni a and fleeing helterbkelter, Muniayin, roused ea em by the startling hobbub, immediately mounted and; iron Sine tried! te rally his forces. But the battle had already ae i in smiminert danger of being cut down—Flis Majrsty’s ee a and wis wounded," says Gulbadan—he was saved by one of ee iii who seized the reins of his horse and timed him away, ae BE Pris {snot the time for dallyitiy. The feast is over, why linger ta 2 food?! ‘They galloped towards the Ganga and: plunged in; est their horses across the river. In mid-stream Humayun fell yea and nearly drowned, but-was-rescued by a water carrier oa Nizam, who gave hinmvan inflatec, water bag and helped him te im. ACESS: 5 ee oe On reaching the oppasite bank, Humayun, with charactertste impulsiveness. promised Nizar: “Thou shall -sit}on my throne." 50 when Humayun gel to Agra, and Nizam, perhaps not hoping for much, presented himeelf at the public durbar, Hhsmayun} fue to his wordy gravely invited the Wwater-corer to sit on the throne of te world”, says Jauher. Near played emperor for 3 couple of hours; but noarm was done; for He prudently confined! himself to issuing orders to enrich his family, The farce, however, further damaged Humayun's reputation, and Kamnn, says Abul Fadl, “displayed the winkle of ay. a ea ticism,” aa maine ae was an awful disaster. Thousands were slagghtered by the Afghans; many more drowned in the Ganga, attempting tole: There wasy however, 10 random violence or raping by the Afehans, 110 severed heads am spikes, no tower of heads. Sher Shah, unlike the Mughals, was a magnanimous victor, Seeking oi yevenge beyond iyactary itsell. Trumphant, he rods inte the a royal enclosure, dismounted at the durbar tent and prastrated himself in thanksgiving prayer He then ordervd tne protection af this farmilices of the Mughal officers and men, esperially of Hamayun’s harem; they: were showr-every courtesy, lakernte the safety of Rolitas and later sent to Humayun with a special escort, @HER SHAH DID not pursue Humayun to Agra, sot wanting te force his luck. Instead, he returned to Bengal, expelled Jehangir Kuli, the Mughal goyernon ant spent saveral menths there organiziog hus governunent He qwould consolidate his gains before fuming on Humayun oFTHE STRUGGLE TOR SURVIVAL again And it Would be as an equal that Sher § Humayun next)-a king against a ing) nob a ata ee Ea After his victory at Chausa, when he was at the Mina His sg Shah, seeking to validate-his expedient action as a dive ae ¥ had speken of a strange dream he had the TeV, Teese faking the erawn from Hirmayun ‘and placing at on by ae a head, and advising him: to. rule justly, This pide Shah, fulfilled soon after at Gaur, when Sher Shah, then in Ke on via was formally enthroned as king ih a grind ceremony ie on fit, royal title he had assumed the previous year, a ers Me The suggestion that he should ascend the throne was oy a hint from Sher Shah, by a distinguished Afar assembly of officers, and was recerved with general eae aces Shah, as courtesy required, démurred before agreein, The | al ae isa pe exalted thing, and is not devoid af ets hy raey : hb me foe noble minds of my fmends have decided to aaa ‘On a chosen day, at an auspicious hotir desi Sher Shah ascended the ae and the Trees eas Gude Gisshese Gemini then accumieri-a ceur lla) iee then of Fis ceiet “SalneT Hal, The St RWIS) “Rone ee drums awere beaten m token of rejoicing,” Abbas eae te ee on in seers from every tube, and danced according a ee Lied 8 a Gifts Were made to these musicians; and th fs Gf Sher Shah sprinkled saffron and musk, mixed with i Water and ambergris of various colours, upon the hende if deen youth.” All 4vere treated fo grand feasts ete Une ite ey eee ae a the Afehans afler the battle of on the estiviti Shur Shah tumed westward again, eae oe Babieee Himself as the undisputed : ee ee nial qtmaster of Bihar and Bengal. Tt would soon ST, Shep Pethaps “What Is to Be Done? Where Am I to Go?” ON REACHING AGRA fram Chausa, Humayun went straight ter the ger Alshan Garden, where Kamean lay encamped: The brothers embraced tearfully, anc were seen silting together for a long time on the porch of the pavilion ehere, talking, Kamran appealed to Humayun to pardon Hindal’s sebellion, so when: Hindal pleaded: that, being young and inexperienced, he was misied by others, Humayun said, fyfoll, at Kamran Mirza’s entreaty, 1 do forgive thee.” It was not the ime for tecriminations “What is past is\past We must now all jow manfully to repel he common enemy,” Humayiin urged. Jon maniully! That seldom was the way, of royal siblings; “Sever qmonths were wasted in weary indecision,” writes Mirza Haidar, who was then in Agra wilh Kamran, “until the opportunity was lost and Sher Khan wes on the Ganga ready for war” Kamran offered to take on his brother's burden and lead his Kabul cavalry against Sher Shah That probably was the most viable line of action, but Humayen wattle nat agreé (ott He could! nol “No, he said to Kamran, “Sher Khar dufeated me, and T will have my revenge of him," Humayun could not afford to let the credit of humbling Sher Shah go to Kamran—given bis pwn feeble repulation and the growing rivalry between himself ang Kaman, that would have heen nearly as damaging to him as another defeat at Sher Shaly’s hands. Humayun tried lo get Kamran fo play a subordinate role, but Kamran was averse to that Instead, he desired to return to Kabul, on the ground that the elimale of Agra did hot suit him. “However much he [Humayun] Secured Ene rust ‘of contrariety with the burusher of advice, the bighiness of concord could aot by any means be developed in the mirror oF his [Keiniran’s}) fortune," says Abul Fazl Humayun was reluctant to Jet Kamran go) but when he fell senously ilafound that fime—there was @ suspicion, probably unfounded, Uiat he was posoned —Humayrin could hold him no more, and Kamran returned to Lahore with most of his men. “The eetreat of Kamran,” says Haidar, “was ihe efficient catise of the rise of Sher Khnn, and of the fall of the Chagharr dynasty” Ths