The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)

Tod (_Rājastān; Annals of Marwār_ Cap. ix):—"Eighty thousand horse, 7 Rajas of the highest rank, 9 Raos, and 104 chieftains bearing the titles of Rawul and Rawut, with 500 war-elephants, followed him into the field." Bābur's army, all told, was 12,000 when he crossed the Indus from Kābul; it will have had accretions from his own officers in the Panj-āb and some also from other quarters, and will have had losses at Pānipat; his reliable kernel of fighting-strength cannot but have been numerically insignificant, compared with the Rājpūt host. Tod says that almost all the princes of Rājastān followed the Rānā at Kanwā. [2004] _dūrbātūr._ This is the first use of the word in the _Bābur-nāma_; the defacer of the Elph. Codex has altered it to _aūrātūr_. [2005] Shaikh Zain records [Abū'l-faẓl also, perhaps quoting from him] that Bābur, by varying diacritical points, changed the name Sīkrī to Shukrī in sign of gratitude for his victory over the Rānā. The place became the Fatḥpūr-sīkrī of Akbar. [2006] Erskine locates this as 10 to 12 miles n.w. of Bīāna. [2007] This phrase has not occurred in the B.N. before; presumably it expresses what has not yet been expressed; this Erskine's rendering, "each according to the speed of his horse," does also. The first Persian translation, which in this portion is by Muḥammad-qulī _Mughūl Ḥiṣārī_, translates by _az daṃbal yak dīgar_ (I.O. 215, f. 205_b_); the second, `Abdu'r-rāḥīm's, merely reproduces the phrase; De Courteille (ii, 272) appears to render it by (amirs) _que je ne nomme pas_. If my reading of T̤āhir-tibrī's failure be correct (_infra_), Erskine's translation suits the context. [2008] The passage cut off by my asterisks has this outside interest that it forms the introduction to the so-called "Fragments", that is, to certain Turkī matter not included in the standard _Bābur-nāma_, but preserved with the Kehr—Ilminsky—de Courteille text. As is well-known in Bāburiana, opinion has varied as to the genesis of this matter; there is now no doubt that it is a translation into Turkī from the (_Persian_) _Akbar-nāma_, prefaced by the above-asterisked passage of the _Bābur-nāma_ and continuous (with slight omissions) from Bib. Ind. ed. i, 106 to 120 (trs. H. Beveridge i, 260 to 282). It covers the time from before the battle of Kanwā to the end of Abū'l-faẓl's description of Bābur's death, attainments and Court; it has been made to seem Bābur's own, down to his death-bed, by changing the third person of A.F.'s narrative into the autobiographical first person. (Cf. Ilminsky, p. 403 l. 4 and p. 494; _Mémoires_ ii, 272 and 443 to 464; JRAS. 1908, p. 76.) A minute point in the history of the B.N. manuscripts may be placed on record here; _viz._ that the variants from the true _Bābur-nāma_ text which occur in the Kehr-Ilminsky one, occur also in the corrupt Turkī text of I.O. No. 214 (JRAS 1900, p. 455). [2009] _chāpār kūmak yītmās_, perhaps implying that the speed of his horses was not equal to that of Muḥibb-i-'alī's. Translators vary as to the meaning of the phrase. [2010] Erskine and de Courteille both give Musṯafa the commendation the Turkī and Persian texts give to the carts. [2011] According to Tod's _Rājastān_, negotiations went on during the interval, having for their object the fixing of a frontier between the Rānā and Bābur. They were conducted by a "traitor" Ṣalaḥ'd-dīn _Tūār_ the chief of Raisin, who moreover is said to have deserted to Bābur during the battle. [2012] Cf. f. 89 for Bābur's disastrous obedience to astrological warning. [2013] For the reading of this second line, given by the good MSS. _viz._ _Tauba ham bī maza nīst, bachash_, Ilminsky (p. 405) has _Tauba ham bī maza, mast bakhis_, which de Courteille [II, 276] renders by, "_O ivrogne insensé! que ne goûtes-tu aussi à la pénitence?_" The Persian couplet seems likely to be a quotation and may yet be found elsewhere. It is not in the Rāmpūr Dīwān which contains the Turkī verses following it (E. D. Ross p. 21). [2014] _kīchmāklīk_, to pass over (to exceed?), to ford or go through a river, whence to transgress. The same metaphor of crossing a stream occurs, in connection with drinking, on f. 189_b_. [2015] This line shews that Bābur's renouncement was of wine only; he continued to eat confections (_ma`jūn_). [2016] Cf. f. 186_b_. Bābur would announce his renunciation in Dīwān; there too the forbidden vessels of precious metals would be broken. His few words leave it to his readers to picture the memorable scene. [2017] This night-guard (_`asas_) cannot be the one concerning whom Gul-badan records that he was the victim of a little joke made at his expense by Bābur (H. N. Index _s.n._). He seems likely to be the Ḥājī Muḥ. _`asas_ whom Abū'l-faẓl mentions in connection with Kāmrān in 953 AH. (1547 AD.). He may be the _`asas_ who took charge of Bābur's tomb at Āgra (cf. Gul-badan's H. N. _s.n._ Muḥ. `Alī _`asas ṯaghāī_, and _Akbar-nāma_ trs. i, 502). [2018] _saqālī qīrqmāqta u qūīmāqta._ Erskine here notes that "a vow to leave the beard untrimmed was made sometimes by persons who set out against the infidels. They did not trim the beard till they returned victorious. Some vows of similar nature may be found in Scripture", _e.g._ II Samuel, cap. 19 v. 24. [2019] Index _s.n._ The _tamghā_ was not really abolished until Jahāngīr's time—if then (H. Beveridge). See Thomas' _Revenue Resources of the Mughal Empire_. [2020] There is this to notice here:—Bābur's narrative has made the remission of the _tamghā_ contingent on his success, but the _farmān_ which announced that remission is dated some three weeks before his victory over Rānā Sangā (Jumāda II, 13th-March 16th). Manifestly Bābur's remission was absolute and made at the date given by Shaikh Zain as that of the _farmān_. The _farmān_ seems to have been despatched as soon as it was ready, but may have been inserted in Bābur's narrative at a later date, together with the preceding paragraph which I have asterisked. [2021] "There is a lacuna in the Turkī copy" (_i.e._ the Elphinstone Codex) "from this place to the beginning of the year 935. Till then I therefore follow only Mr. Metcalfe's and my own Persian copies" (Erskine). [2022] I am indebted to my husband for this revised version of the _farmān_. He is indebted to M. de Courteille for help generally, and specially for the references to the Qorān (_q.v. infra_). [2023] The passages in italics are Arabic in the original, and where traced to the Qorān, are in Sale's words. [2024] _Qorān, Sūrah_ XII, v. 53. [2025] _Sūrah_ LVII, v. 21. [2026] _Sūrah_ LVII, v. 15. [2027] _Sūrah_ VII, v. 140. [2028] _Sūrah_ II, v. 185. [2029] These may be self-conquests as has been understood by Erskine (p. 356) and de Courteille (ii. 281) but as the Divine "acceptance" would seem to Bābur vouched for by his military success, "victories" may stand for his success at Kanwā. [2030] _Sūrah_ II, 177 where, in Sale's translation, the change referred to is the special one of altering a legacy. [2031] The words _dīgūchī_ and _yīgūchī_ are translated in the second _Wāqi`āt-i-bāburī_ by _sukhan-gūī_ and [_wīlāyat_]_-khwār_. This ignores in them the future element supplied by their component _gū_ which would allow them to apply to conditions dependent on Bābur's success. The Ḥai. MS. and Ilminsky read _tīgūchī_, supporter- or helper-to-be, in place of the _yīgūchī_, eater-to-be I have inferred from the _khwār_ of the Pers. translation; hence de Courteille writes "_amīrs auxquels incombait l'obligation de raffermir le gouvernement_". But Erskine, using the Pers. text alone, and thus having _khwār_ before him, translates by, "amīrs who enjoyed the wealth of kingdoms." The two Turkī words make a depreciatory "jingle", but the first one, _dīgūchī_, may imply serious reference to the duty, declared by Muḥammad to be incumbent upon a wazīr, of reminding his sovereign "when he forgetteth his duty". Both may be taken as alluding to dignities to be attained by success in the encounter from which wazīrs and amīrs were shrinking. [2032] Firdausī's _Shāh-nāma_ [Erskine]. [2033] Also Chand-wāl; it is 25 m. east of Āgra and on the Jamna [_T̤abaqāṭ-i-nāṣirī_, Raverty, p. 742 n.9] [2034] Probably, Overthrower of the rhinoceros, but if _Gurg-andāz_ be read, of the wolf. [2035] According to the Persian calendar this is the day the Sun enters Aries. [2036] The practical purpose of this order of march is shewn in the account of the battle of Pānīpat, and in the Letter of Victory, f. 319. [2037] _kurohcha_, perhaps a short _kuroh_, but I have not found Bābur using _cha_ as a diminutive in such a case as _kurohcha_. [2038] or Kānūa, in the Bīānā district and three marches from Bīāna-town. "It had been determined on by Rānā Sangrām Sīngh (_i.e._ Sangā) for the northern limit of his dominions, and he had here built a small palace." Tod thus describes Bābur's foe, "Sangā Rānā was of the middle stature, and of great muscular strength, fair in complexion, with unusually large eyes which appear to be peculiar to his descendants. He exhibited at his death but the fragments of a warrior: one eye was lost in the broil with his brother, an arm in action with the Lodī kings of Dehlī, and he was a cripple owing to a limb being broken by a cannon-ball in another; while he counted 80 wounds from the sword or the lance on various parts of his body" (Tod's _Rājastān_, cap. Annals of Mewār). [2039] Here M. de C. has the following note (ii, 273 n.); it supplements my own of f. 264 [n. 3]. "_Le mot arāba, que j'ai traduit par chariot est pris par M. Leyden_" (this should be Erskine) "_dans le sens de 'gun', ce que je ne crois pas exact; tout au plus signifierait-il affût_" (gun-carriage). "_Il me parait impossible d'admettre que Bāber eût à sa disposition une artillerie attelée aussi considérable. Ces arāba pouvaient servir en partie à transporter des pièces de campagne, mais ils avaient aussi une autre destination, comme on le voit par la suite du récit._" It does not appear to me that Erskine _translates_ the word _arāba_ by the word _gun_, but that the _arābas_ (all of which he took to be gun-carriages) being there, he supposed the guns. This was not correct as the various passages about carts as defences show (cf. Index _s.nn._ _arāba_ and carts). [2040] It is characteristic of Bābur that he reproduces Shaikh Zain's _Fatḥ-nāma_, not because of its eloquence but because of its useful details. Erskine and de Courteille have the following notes concerning Shaikh Zain's _farmān_:—"Nothing can form a more striking contrast to the simple, manly and intelligent style of Baber himself, than the pompous, laboured periods of his secretary. Yet I have never read this Firmān to any native of India who did not bestow unlimited admiration on the official bombast of Zeineddin, while I have met with none but Turks who paid due praise to the calm simplicity of Baber" [Mems. p. 359]. "_Comme la précédente (farmān), cette pièce est rédigée en langue persane et offre un modèle des plus accomplis du style en usage dans les chancelleries orientales.