The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
[846] While here _dasht_ (plain) represents the eastern skirt
of the Mehtar Sulaimān range, _dūkī_ or _dūgī_ (desert) seems
to stand for the hill tracts on the west of it, and not, as on
f. 152, for the place there specified.
[847] Mems. p. 152, "A narrow place is large to the
narrow-minded"; _Méms._ i, 311, "Ce qui n'est pas trop large,
ne reste pas vide." Literally, "So long as heights are not
equal, there is no vis-a-vis," or, if _tāng_ be read for
_tīng_, "No dawn, no noon," _i.e._ no effect without a cause.
[848] I have not lighted on this name in botanical books or
explained by dictionaries. Perhaps it is a Cis-oxanian name
for the _sax-aol_ of Transoxania. As its uses are enumerated
by some travellers, it might be _Haloxylon ammodendron_,
_ta-ghas etc._ and _sax-aol_ (Aitchison, p. 102).
[849] f. 135b note to Ghūr-bund.
[850] I understand that wild-goats, wild-sheep and deer
(_āhū_) were not localized, but that the dun-sheep migrated
through. Antelope (_āhū_) was scarce in Elphinstone's time.
[851] _qīzīl kīyik_ which, taken with its alternative name,
_arqārghalcha_, allows it to be the dun-sheep of Wood's
_Journey_ p. 241. From its second name it may be _Ovis amnon_
(_Raos_), or _O. argalī_.
[852] _tusqāwal_, var. _tutqāwal_, _tus̱aqāwal_ and
_tūshqāwal_, a word which has given trouble to scribes and
translators. As a sporting-term it is equivalent to
_shikār-i-nihilam_; in one or other of its forms I find it
explained as _Weg-hüter_, _Fahnen-hüter_, _Zahl-meister_,
_Schlucht_, _Gefahrlicher-weg_ and _Schmaler-weg_. It recurs
in the B.N. on f. 197b l. 5 and l. 6 and there might mean
either a narrow road or a _Weg-hüter_. If its Turkī root be
_tūs_, the act of stopping, all the above meanings can follow,
but there may be two separate roots, the second, _tūsh_, the
act of descent (JRAS 1900 p. 137, H. Beveridge's art. _On the
word nihilam_).
[853] _qūshlīk_, _aītlīk_. Elphinstone writes (i, 191) of the
excellent greyhounds and hawking birds of the region; here the
bird may be the _charkh_, which works with the dogs, fastening
on the head of the game (Von Schwarz, p. 117, for the same use
of eagles).
[854] An antelope resembling the usual one of Hindūstān is
common south of Ghaznī (Vigne, p. 110); what is not found may
be some classes of wild-sheep, frequent further north, at
higher elevation, and in places more familiar to Bābur.
[855] The Parwān or Hindū-kush pass, concerning the winds of
which _see_ f. 128.
[856] _tūrnā u qarqara_; the second of which is the Hindī
_būglā_, heron, _egret ardea gazetta_, the furnisher of the
aigrette of commerce.
[857] The _aūqār_ is _ardea cinerea_, the grey heron; the
_qarqara_ is _ardea gazetta_, the egret. _Qūṯān_ is explained
in the Elph. Codex (f. 110) by _khawāsil_, goldfinch, but the
context concerns large birds; Scully (Shaw's Voc.) has
_qodan_, water-hen, which suits better.
[858] _giz_, the short-flight arrow.
[859] a small, round-headed nail with which a whip-handle is
decorated (Vambéry). Such a stud would keep the cord from
slipping through the fingers and would not check the
arrow-release.
[860] It has been understood (Mems. p. 158 and _Méms._ i, 313)
that the arrow was flung by hand but if this were so,
something heavier than the _giz_ would carry the cord better,
since it certainly would be difficult to direct a missile so
light as an arrow without the added energy of the bow. The
arrow itself will often have found its billet in the
closely-flying flock; the cord would retrieve the bird. The
verb used in the text is _aītmāq_, the one common to express
the discharge of arrows _etc._
[861] For Tīmūrids who may have immigrated the fowlers _see_
Raverty's _Notes_ p. 579 and his Appendix p. 22.
[862] _milwāh_; this has been read by all earlier translators,
and also by the Persian annotator of the Elph. Codex, to mean
_shākh_, bough. For decoy-ducks _see_ Bellew's _Notes on
Afghānistān_ p. 404.
[863] _qūlān qūyirūghī._ Amongst the many plants used to drug
fish I have not found this one mentioned. _Khār-zāhra_ and
_khār-fāq_ approach it in verbal meaning; the first describes
colocynth, the second, wild rue. See Watts' _Economic Products
of India_ iii, 366 and Bellew's _Notes_ pp. 182, 471 and 478.
[864] Much trouble would have been spared to himself and his
translators, if Bābur had known a lobster-pot.
[865] The fish, it is to be inferred, came down the fall into
the pond.
[866] Burnes and Vigne describe a fall 20 miles from Kābul, at
"Tangī Gharoi", [below where the Tag-aū joins the
Bārān-water,] to which in their day, Kābulīs went out for the
amusement of catching fish as they try to leap up the fall.
Were these migrants seeking upper waters or were they captives
in a fish-pond?
[867] Elph. MS. f. 111; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 116b and 217 f.
97b; Mems. p. 155; _Méms._ i, 318.
[868] _mihmān-beglār_, an expression first used by Bābur here,
and due, presumably, to accessions from Khusrau Shāh's
following. A parallel case is given in Max Müller's _Science
of Language_ i, 348 ed. 1871, "Turkmān tribes ... call
themselves, not subjects, but guests of the Uzbeg Khāns."
[869] _tiyūl-dīk_ in all the Turkī MSS. Ilminsky, de
Courteille and Zenker, _yitūl-dīk_, Turkī, a fief.
[870] _Wilāyat khūd hech bīrīlmādī_; W.-i-B. 215 f. 116b,
_Wilāyat dāda na shuda_ and 217 f. 97b, _Wilāyat khūd hech
dāda na shud_. By this I understand that he kept the lands of
Kābul itself in his own hands. He mentions (f. 350) and
Gul-badan mentions (H.N. f. 40b) his resolve so to keep Kābul.
I think he kept not only the fort but all lands constituting
the Kābul _tūmān_ (f. 135b and note).
[871] _Saifī dūr, qalamī aīmās_, _i.e._ tax is taken by force,
not paid on a written assessment.
[872] _khar-wār_, about 700 lbs Averdupois (Erskine). Cf.
_Āyīn-i-akbarī_ (Jarrett, ii, 394).
[873] Niẕāmu'd-dīn Aḥmad and Badāyūnī both mention this script
and say that in it Bābur transcribed a copy of the Qorān for
presentation to Makka. Badāyūnī says it was unknown in his
day, the reign of Akbar (_T̤abaqāt-i-akbarī_, lith. ed. p.
193, and _Muntakhabu't-tawārīkh_ Bib. Ind. ed. iii, 273).
[874] Bābur's route, taken with one given by Raverty (_Notes_
p. 691), allows these Hazāras, about whose location Mr.
Erskine was uncertain, to be located between the Takht-pass
(Arghandī-Maidān-Unai road), on their east, and the Sang-lākh
mountains, on their west.
[875] The Takht-pass, one on which from times immemorial, toll
(_nirkh_) has been taken.
[876] _khāṯir-khwāh chāpīlmādī_, which perhaps implies mutual
discontent, Bābur's with his gains, the Hazāras' with their
losses. As the second Persian translation omits the negative,
the Memoirs does the same.
[877] Bhīra being in Shāhpūr, this Khān's _daryā_ will be the
Jehlam.
[878] Bābur uses Persian _dasht_ and Hindī _dūkī_, plain and
hill, for the tracts east and west of Mehtar Sulaimān. The
first, _dasht_, stands for Dāman (skirt) and Dara-i-jāt, the
second, _dūkī_, indefinitely for the broken lands west of the
main range, but also, in one instance for the Dūkī [Dūgī]
district of Qandahār, as will be noted.
[879] f. 132. The Jagdālīk-pass for centuries has separated
the districts of Kābul and Nīngnahār. Forster (_Travels_ ii,
68), making the journey the reverse way, was sensible of the
climatic change some 3m. east of Gandamak. Cf. Wood's _Report_
I. p. 6.
[880] These are they whose families Nāṣir Mīrzā shepherded out
of Kābul later (f. 154, f. 155).
[881] Bird's-dome, opposite the mouth of the Kūnār-water
(_S.A. War_, Map p. 64).
[882] This word is variously pointed and is uncertain. Mr.
Erskine adopted "Pekhi", but, on the whole, it may be best to
read, here and on f. 146, Ar. _fajj_ or pers. _paj_, mountain
or pass. To do so shews the guide to be one located in the
Khaibar-pass, a _Fajjī_ or _Pajī_.
[883] mod. Jām-rūd (Jām-torrent), presumably.
[884] G. of I. xx, 125 and Cunningham's _Ancient History_ i,
80. Bābur saw the place in 925 AH. (f. 232b).
[885] Cunningham, p. 29. Four ancient sites, not far removed
from one another, bear this name, Bīgrām, _viz._ those near
Hūpīān, Kābul, Jalālābād and Pashāwar.
[886] Cunningham, i, 79.
[887] Perhaps a native of Kamarī on the Indus, but _kamarī_ is
a word of diverse application (index _s.n._).
[888] The annals of this campaign to the eastward shew that
Bābur was little of a free agent; that many acts of his own
were merciful; that he sets down the barbarity of others as it
was, according to his plan of writing (f. 86); and that he had
with him undisciplined robbers of Khusrau Shāh's former
following. He cannot be taken as having power to command or
control the acts of those, his guest-begs and their following,
who dictated his movements in this disastrous journey, one
worse than a defeat, says Ḥaidar Mīrzā.
[889] For the route here _see_ Masson, i, 117 and Colquhoun's
_With the Kuram Field-force_ p. 48.
[890] The Ḥai. MS. writes this Dilah-zāk.
[891] _i.e._ raised a force in Bābur's name. He took advantage
of this _farmān_ in 911 AH. to kill Bāqī _Chagkānīānī_ (f.
159b-160).
[892] Of the Yūsuf-zāī and Ranjīt-sīngh, Masson says, (i, 141)
"The miserable, hunted wretches threw themselves on the
ground, and placing a blade or tuft of grass in their mouths,
cried out, "I am your cow." This act and explanation, which
would have saved them from an orthodox Hindū, had no effect
with the infuriated Sikhs." This form of supplication is at
least as old as the days of Firdausī (Erskine, p. 159 n.). The
_Bahār-i-`ajam_ is quoted by Vullers as saying that in India,
suppliants take straw in the mouth to indicate that they are
blanched and yellow from fear.
[893] This barbarous custom has always prevailed amongst the
Tartar conquerors of Asia (Erskine). For examples under Timūr
_see_ Raverty's _Notes_ p. 137.
[894] For a good description of the road from Kohāt to Thāl
_see_ Bellew's _Mission_ p. 104.
[895] F. 88b has the same phrase about the doubtful courage of
one Sayyidī Qarā.
[896] Not to the mod. town of Bannū, [that having been begun
only in 1848 AD.] but wherever their wrong road brought them
out into the Bannū amphitheatre. The Survey Map of 1868, No.
15, shews the physical features of the wrong route.
[897] Perhaps he connived at recovery of cattle by those
raided already.
[898] Tāq is the Tank of Maps; Bāzār was s.w. of it. Tank for
Tāq looks to be a variant due to nasal utterance (Vigne, p.
77, p. 203 and Map; and, as bearing on the nasal, _in loco_,
Appendix E).
[899] If return had been made after over-running Bannū, it
would have been made by the Tochī-valley and so through
Farmūl; if after over-running the Plain, Bābur's details shew
that the westward turn was meant to be by the Gūmāl-valley and
one of two routes out of it, still to Farmūl; but the extended
march southward to near Dara-i-Ghazī Khān made the westward
turn be taken through the valley opening at Sakhī-sawār.
[900] This will mean, none of the artificial runlets familiar
where Bābur had lived before getting to know Hindūstān.
[901] _sauda-āt_, perhaps, pack-ponies, perhaps, bred for sale