The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
(_March 7th_?) Next day (_Monday 26th_?) we remained on the same ground.
(_March 8th_?) On Tuesday (_27th_?) we marched on.
Opposite the camp was what may be an island,[2523] large and verdant. I
went over by boat to visit it, returning to the boat during the 1st
watch (6-9 a.m.). While I rode carelessly along the ravine (_jar_) of
the river, my horse got to where it was fissured and had begun to give
way. I leapt off at once and flung myself on the bank; even the horse
did not go down; probably, however, if I had stayed on its back, it and
I would have gone down together.
On this same day, I swam the Gang-river (Ganges), counting every
stroke;[2524] I crossed with 33, then, without resting, swam back. I had
swum the other rivers, Gang had remained to do.[2525]
We reached the meeting of the waters of Gang and Jūn at the Evening
Prayer, had the boat drawn to the Pīāg side, and got to camp at 1 watch,
4 _garīs_ (10.30 p.m.).
(_March 9th_) On Wednesday (_Jumāda II. 28th_) from the 1st watch
onwards, the army began to cross the river Jūn; there were 420
boats.[2526]
(_March 11th_) On Friday, the 1st of the month of Rajab, I crossed the
river.
(_March 14th_) On Monday, the 4th of the month, the march for Bihār
began along the bank of Jūn. After 5 _kurohs_ (10m.) done, halt was made
at Lawāīn.[2527] I went by boat. The people of the army were crossing
the Jūn up to today. They were ordered to put the culverin-carts[2528]
which had been landed at Ādampūr, into boats again and to bring them on
by water from Pīāg.
On this ground we set wrestlers to wrestle. Dost-i-yāsīn-khair gripped
the boatman Champion of Lāhor; the contest was stubborn; it was with
great difficulty that Dost gave the throw. A head-to-foot was bestowed
on each.
(_March 15th and 16th_) People said that ahead of us was a swampy,
muddy, evil river called Tūs.[2529] In order to examine the ford*[2530]
and repair the road, we waited two days (_Tuesday Ramzān 5th and
Wednesday 6th_) on this ground. For the horses and camels a ford was
found higher up, but people said laden carts could not get through it
because of its uneven, stony bottom. [Sidenote: Fol. 364.] They were
just ordered to get them through.
(_March 17th_) On Thursday (_7th_) we marched on. I myself went by boat
down to where the Tūs meets the Gang (Ganges), there landed, thence rode
up the Tūs, and, at the Other Prayer, reached where the army had
encamped after crossing the ford. Today 6 _kurohs_ (12 m.) were done.
(_March 18th_) Next day (_Friday 8th_), we stayed on that ground.
(_March 19th_) On Saturday (_9th_), we marched 12 _kurohs_ and got to
the bank of Gang again at Nulibā.[2531]
(_March 20th_) Marching on (_Sunday 10th_), we did 6 _kurohs_ of road,
and dismounted at Kintit.[2532]
(_March 21st_) Marching on (_Monday 11th_), we dismounted at
Nānāpur.[2533] Tāj Khān _Sārang-khānī_ came from Chunār to this ground
with his two young sons, and waited on me.
In these days a dutiful letter came from Pay-master Sl. Muḥammad, saying
that my family and train were understood to be really on their way from
Kābul.[2534]
(_March 23rd_) On Wednesday (_13th_) we marched from that ground. I
visited the fort of Chunār, and dismounted about one _kuroh_ beyond it.
During the days we were marching from Pīāg, painful boils had come out
on my body. While we were on this ground, an Ottoman Turk (Rūmī) used a
remedy which had been recently discovered in Rūm. He boiled pepper in a
pipkin; I held the sores in the steam and, after steaming ceased, laved
them with the hot water. The treatment lasted 2 sidereal hours.
While we were on this ground, a person said he had seen tiger and
rhinoceros on an _ārāl_[2535] by the side of the camp.
(_March 24th_?) In the morning (_14th_?), we made the
hunting-circle[2536] [Sidenote: Fol. 364b.] on that _ārāl_, elephants
also being brought. Neither tiger nor rhino appeared; one wild buffalo
came out at the end of the line. A bitter wind rising and the whirling
dust being very troublesome, I went back to the boat and in it to the
camp which was 2 _kurohs_ (4m.) above Banāras.
(_uu. News of the Afghāns._)
(_March 25th_ (?) _and 26th_) Having heard there were many elephants in
the Chunār jungles, I had left (Thursday's) ground thinking to hunt
them, but Tāj Khān bringing the news (_Friday 15th_(?)) that Maḥmūd Khān
(_Lūdi_) was near the Son-water, I summoned the begs and took counsel as
to whether to fall upon him suddenly. In the end it was settled to march
on continuously, fast[2537] and far.
(_March 27th_) Marching on (_Sunday 17th_), we did 9 _kurohs_ (18m.),
and dismounted at the Bilwah-ferry.[2538]
(_March 28th_) On Monday night[2539] the 18th of the month, T̤āhir was
started for Āgra from this camp (Bilwah-ferry), taking money-drafts for
the customary gifts of allowance and lodging[2540] to those on their way
from Kābul.
Before dawn next morning (Monday) I went on by boat. When we came to
where the Gūī-water (Gūmtī) which is the water of Jūnpūr, meets the
Gang-water (Ganges), I went a little [Sidenote: Fol. 365.] way up it and
back. Narrower[2541] though it is, it has no ford; the army-folk crossed
it (last year) by boat, by raft, or by swimming their horses.
To look at our ground of a year ago,[2542] from which we had started for
Jūnpūr,[2543] I went to about a _kuroh_ lower than the mouth of the
Jūnpūr-water (Gūmtī). A favourable wind getting up behind, our larger
boat was tied to a smaller Bengalī one which, spreading its sail, made
very quick going. Two _garīs_ of day remained (5.15 p.m.) when we had
reached that ground (Sayyidpur?), we went on without waiting there, and
by the Bed-time Prayer had got to camp, which was a _kuroh_ above
Madan-Benāres,[2544] long before the boats following us. Mughūl Beg had
been ordered to measure all marches from Chunār on the direct road,
Luṯfī Beg to measure the river's bank whenever I went by boat. The
direct road today was said to be 11 _kurohs_ (22m.), the distance along
the river, 18 (36m.).
(_March 29th_) Next day (_Tuesday 19th_), we stayed on that ground.
(_March 30th_) On Wednesday (_20th_), we dismounted a _kuroh_ (2m.)
below Ghāzīpūr, I going by boat.
(_March 31st_) On Thursday (_21st_) Maḥmūd Khān _Nuḥānī_[2545] waited
on me on that ground. On this same day dutiful letters[2546] came
from Bihār Khān _Bihārī's_ son Jalāl Khān (_Nuḥānī_),[2547] from
Naṣīr Khān (_Nūḥānī_)'s son Farīd Khān,[2548] from Sher Khān _Sūr_,
from `Alāūl Khān _Sūr_ also, and from other Afghān amīrs. Today
[Sidenote: Fol. 365b.] came also a dutiful letter from `Abdu'l-`azīz
_Master-of-the-horse_, which had been written in Lāhor on the 20th of
the latter Jumāda (_Feb. 29th_), the very day on which Qarācha's
Hindūstānī servant whom we had started off from near Kālpī,[2549]
reached Lāhor. `Abdu'l-`azīz wrote that he had gone with the others
assigned to meet my family at Nīl-āb, had met them there on the 9th of
the latter Jumāda (_Feb. 18th_), had accompanied them to Chīn-āb
(Chan-āb), left them there, and come ahead to Lāhor where he was writing
his letter.
(_April 1st_) We moved on, I going by boat, on Friday (_Rajab 22nd_). I
landed opposite Chausā to look at the ground of a year ago[2550] where
the Sun had been eclipsed and a fast kept.[2551] After I got back to the
boat, Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā, coming up behind by boat, overtook me; at
his suggestion _ma`jūn_ was eaten.
The army had dismounted on the bank of the Karmā-nā['s]ā-river, about
the water of which Hindūs are understood to be extremely scrupulous.
They do not cross it, but go past its mouth by boat along the Gang
(Ganges). They firmly believe that, if its water touch a person, the
merit of his works is destroyed; with this belief its name
accords.[2552] I went some way up it by [Sidenote: Fol. 366.] boat,
turned back, went over to the north bank of Gang, and tied up. There the
braves made a little fun, some wrestling. Muḥsin the cup-bearer
challenged, saying, "I will grapple with four or five." The first he
gripped, he threw; the second, who was Shādmān (Joyous), threw him, to
Muḥsin's shame and vexation. The (professional) wrestlers came also and
set to.
(_April 2nd_) Next morning, Saturday (_23rd_) we moved, close to the 1st
watch (6 a.m.), in order to get people off to look at the ford through
the Karmā-nā['s]ā-water. I rode up it for not less than a _kuroh_ (2
m.), but the ford being still far on,[2553] took boat and went to the
camp below Chausā.
Today I used the pepper remedy again; it must have been somewhat hotter
than before, for it blistered (_qāpārdī_) my body, giving me much pain.
(_April 3rd_) We waited a day for a road to be managed across a
smallish, swampy rivulet heard to be ahead.[2554]
(_April 4th_) On the eve of Monday (_25th_),[2555] letters were written
and sent off in answer to those brought by the Hindūstānī footman of
`Abdu'l-`azīz.
The boat I got into at Monday's dawn, had to be towed because of the
wind. On reaching the ground opposite Baksara (Buxar) [Sidenote: Fol.
366b.] where the army had been seated many days last year,[2556] we went
over to look at it. Between 40 and 50 landing-steps had been then made
on the bank; of them the upper two only were left, the river having
destroyed the rest. _Ma`jūn_ was eaten after return to the boat. We tied
up at an _ārāl_[2557] above the camp, set the champions to wrestle, and
went on at the Bed-time Prayer. A year ago (_yīl-tūr_), an excursion had
been made to look at the ground on which the camp now was, I passing
through Gang swimming (? _dastak bīla_),[2558] some coming mounted on
horses, some on camels. That day I had eaten opium.
(_vv. Incidents of the military operations._)
(_April 5th_) At Tuesday's dawn (_26th_), we sent out for news not under
200 effective braves led by Karīm-bīrdī and Ḥaidar the stirrup-holder's
son Muḥammad `Alī and Bābā Shaikh.
While we were on this ground, the Bengal envoy was commanded to set
forth these three articles:—[2559]
(_April 6th_) On Wednesday (_27th_) Yūnas-i-`alī who had been sent to
gather Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā's objections to Bihār, brought back rather
a weak answer.
Dutiful letters from the (Farmūlī) Shaikh-zādas of Bihār gave news that
the enemy had abandoned the place and gone off.
(_April 7th_) On Thursday (_28th_) as many as 2000 men of the Turk and
Hind amīrs and quiver-wearers were joined to Muḥammad `Alī _Jang-jang's_
son Tardī-muḥammad, and he was [Sidenote: Fol. 367.] given leave to go,
taking letters of royal encouragement to people in Bihār. He was joined
also by Khwāja Murshid _`Irāqī_ who had been made Dīwān of Bihār.
(_April 8th_ (?)) Muḥammad-i-zamān M. who had consented to go to Bihār,
made representation of several matters through Shaikh Zain and
Yūnas-i-`alī. He asked for reinforcement; for this several braves were
inscribed and several others were made his own retainers.
(_April 9th_)[2560] On Saturday the 1st of the month of Sha`bān, we left
that ground where we had been for 3 or 4 days. I rode to visit Bhūjpūr
and Bihiya,[2561] thence went to camp.
Muḥammad `Alī and the others, who had been sent out for news, after
beating a body of pagans as they went along, reached the place where Sl.
Maḥmūd (_Lūdī_) had been with perhaps 2000 men. He had heard of our
reconnaissance, had broken up, killed two elephants of his, and marched
off. He seemed to have left braves and an elephant[2562] scout-fashion;
they made no stand when our men came up but took to flight. Ours
unhorsed a few of his, cut one head off, brought in a few good men
alive.
(_ww. Incidents of the eastward march resumed._)
(_April 10th_) We moved on next day (_Sunday 2nd_), I going by boat.
From our today's ground Muḥammad-i-zamān M. crossed (his army) over the