The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
the father's death in conjunction with the boy's mother Dūdū
Bībī (_Tārīkh-i-sher-shāhī_, E. & D.'s _History of India_ iv,
325 _et seq._).
[2574] _gūz bāghī yūsūnlūq_; by which I understand they were
held fast from departure, as _e.g._ a mouse by the fascination
of a snake.
[2575] f. 365 mentions a letter which may have announced their
intention.
[2576] Ganges; they thus evaded the restriction made good on
other Afghāns.
[2577] Anglicé, Saturday 8th after 6 p.m.
[2578] The _D. G. of Shāhābād_ (pp. 20 and 127) mentions that
"it is said Bābur marched to Ārrah after his victory over
Maḥmūd _Lūdī_", and that "local tradition still points to a
place near the Judge's Court as that on which he pitched his
camp".
[2579] Kharīd which is now a _pargana_ of the Ballia district,
lay formerly on both sides of the Ghogrā. When the army of
Kharīd opposed Bābur's progress, it acted for Naṣrat Shāh, but
this Bābur diplomatically ignored in assuming that there was
peace between Bengal and himself.—At this time Naṣrat Shāh
held the riverain on the left bank of the Ghogrā but had lost
Kharīd of the right bank, which had been taken from him by
Jūnaid _Barlās_. A record of his occupation still survives in
Kharīd-town, an inscription dated by his deputy as for 1529
AD. (_District Gazetteer of Ballia_ H. R. Nevill), and _D. G.
of Sāran_ (L. L. S. O'Malley), Historical Chapters.
[2580] Bābur's opinion of Naṣrat Shāh's hostility is more
clearly shewn here than in the verbal message of f. 369.
[2581] This will be an unceremonious summary of a
word-of-mouth message.
[2582] Cf. f. 366_b_, p. 661 n. 2.
[2583] This shews that Bābur did not recognize the Sāran
riverain down to the Ganges as belonging to Kharīd. His
offered escort of Turks would safe-guard the Kharīdīs if they
returned to the right bank of the Ghogrā which was in Turk
possession.
[2584] The Ḥai. MS. has _wālī_, clearly written; which, as a
word representing Māhīm would suit the sentence best, may make
playful reference to her royal commands (f. 361_b_), by
styling her the Governor (_wālī_). Erskine read the word as a
place-name Dipālī, which I have not found; De Courteille omits
Ilminsky's _w:ras_ (p. 478). The MSS. vary and are uncertain.
[2585] This is the "Kadjar" of Réclus' _L'Asie antérieure_ and
is the name of the Turkmān tribe to which the present ruling
house of Persia belongs. "Turkmān" might be taken as applied
to Shāh T̤aḥmāsp by Dīv Sulṯān's servant on f. 354.
[2586] _Nelumbium speciosum_, a water-bean of great beauty.
[2587] Shaikh Yaḥyā had been the head of the Chishtī Order.
His son (d. 782 AH.-1380-1 AD.) was the author of works named
by Abū'l-faẓl as read aloud to Akbar, a discursive detail
which pleads in my excuse that those who know Bābur well
cannot but see in his grandson's character and success the
fruition of his mental characteristics and of his labours in
Hindūstān. (For Sharafu'd-dīn _Munīrī_, cf.
_Khazīnatu'l-asfiyā_ ii, 390-92; and _Āyīn-i-akbarī_ _s.n._)
[2588] Kostenko's _Turkistān Region_ describes a regimen for
horses which Bābur will have seen in practice in his native
land, one which prevented the defect that hindered his at
Munīr from accomplishing more than some 30 miles before
mid-day.
[2589] The distance from Munīr to the bank of the Ganges will
have been considerably longer in Bābur's day than now because
of the change of the river's course through its desertion of
the Burh-gangā channel (cf. next note).
[2590] In trying to locate the site of Bābur's coming battle
with the forces of Naṣrat Shāh, it should be kept in mind that
previous to the 18th century, and therefore, presumably, in
his day, the Ganges flowed in the "Burh-ganga" (Old Ganges)
channel which now is closely followed by the western boundary
of the Ballia _pargana_ of Dū-āba; that the Ganges and Ghogrā
will have met where this old channel entered the bed of the
latter river; and also, as is seen from Bābur's narrative,
that above the confluence the Ghogrā will have been confined
to a narrowed channel. When the Ganges flowed in the
Burh-ganga channel, the now Ballia _pargana_ of Dū-āba was a
sub-division of Bihiya and continuous with Shāhābād. From it
in Bihiya Bābur crossed the Ganges into Kharīd, doing this at
a place his narrative locates as some 2 miles from the
confluence. Cf. _D. G. of Ballia_, pp. 9, 192-3, 206, 213. It
may be observed that the former northward extension of Bihiya
to the Burh-ganga channel explains Bābur's estimate (f. 370)
of the distance from Munīr to his camp on the Ganges; his
12_k._ (24m.) may then have been correct; it is now too high.
[2591] De Courteille, _pierrier_, which may be a balista.
Bābur's writings give no indication of other than
stone-ammunition for any projectile-engine or fire-arm. Cf. R.
W. F. Payne-Gallwey's _Projectile-throwing engines of the
ancients_.
[2592] Sir R. W. F. Payne-Gallwey writes in _The Cross-bow_
(p. 40 and p. 41) what may apply to Bābur's _ẓarb-zan_
(culverin?) and _tufang_ (matchlock), when he describes the
larger culverin as a heavy hand-gun of from 16-18lb., as used
by the foot-soldier and requiring the assistance of an
attendant to work it; also when he says that it became the
portable arquebus which was in extensive use in Europe by the
Swiss in 1476 AD.; and that between 1510 and 1520 the arquebus
described was superseded by what is still seen amongst remote
tribes in India, a matchlock arquebus.
[2593] The two positions Bābur selected for his guns would
seem to have been opposite two ferry-heads, those, presumably,
which were blocked against his pursuit of Bīban and Bāyazīd.
`Alī-qulī's emplacement will have been on the high bank of old
alluvium of south-eastern Kharīd, overlooking the narrowed
channel demanded by Bābur's narrative, one pent in presumably
by _kankar_ reefs such as there are in the region. As
illustrating what the channel might have been, the varying
breadth of the Ghogrā along the `Azamgarh District may be
quoted, _viz._ from 10 miles to 2/5m., the latter being where,
as in Kharīd, there is old alluvium with _kankar_ reefs
preserving the banks. Cf. Reid's _Report of Settlement
Operations in `Azamgarh, Sikandarpur, and Bhadaon_.—Firishta
gives Badrū as the name of one ferry (lith. ed. i. 210).
[2594] Muṣṯafa, like `Alī-qulī, was to take the offensive by
gun-fire directed on the opposite bank. Judging from maps and
also from the course taken by the Ganges through the
Burh-ganga channel and from Bābur's narrative, there seems to
have been a narrow reach of the Ghogrā just below the
confluence, as well as above.
[2595] This ferry, bearing the common name Haldī (turmeric),
is located by the course of events as at no great distance
above the enemy's encampment above the confluence. It cannot
be the one of Sikandarpūr West.
[2596] _guẕr_, which here may mean a casual ford through water
low just before the Rains. As it was not found, it will have
been temporary.
[2597] _i.e._ above Bābur's positions.
[2598] _sarwar_ (or _dar_) _waqt_.
[2599] The preceding sentence is imperfect and varies in the
MSS. The 1st Pers. trs., the wording of which is often
explanatory, says that there were _no_ passages, which, as
there were many ferries, will mean fords. The Haldī-guẕr where
`Askarī was to cross, will have been far below the lowest
Bābur mentions, _viz._ Chatur-mūk (Chaupāra).
[2600] This passage presupposes that guns in Kharīd could hit
the hostile camp in Sāran. If the river narrowed here as it
does further north, the Ghāzī mortar, which seems to have been
the only one Bābur had with him, would have carried across,
since it threw a stone 1,600 paces (_qadam_, f. 309). Cf.
Reid's _Report_ quoted above.
[2601] Anglicé, Saturday after 6p.m.
[2602] _yaqīn būlghān fauj_, var. _ta`īn būlghān fauj_, the
army appointed (to cross). The boats will be those collected
at the Haldī-ferry, and the army `Askarī's.
[2603] _i.e._ near `Alī-qulī's emplacement.
[2604] Cf. f. 303, f. 309, f. 337 and n. 4.
[2605] "The _yasāwal_ is an officer who carries the commands
of the prince, and sees them enforced" (Erskine). Here he will
have been the superintendent of coolies moving earth.
[2606] _ma`jūn-nāk_ which, in these days of Bābur's return to
obedience, it may be right to translate in harmony with his
psychical outlook of self-reproach, by _ma`jūn_-polluted.
Though he had long ceased to drink wine, he still sought cheer
and comfort, in his laborious days, from inspiriting and
forbidden confections.
[2607] Probably owing to the less precise phrasing of his
Persian archetype, Erskine here has reversed the statement,
made in the Turkī, that Bābur slept in the Asāīsh (not the
Farmāīsh).
[2608] _aūstīdā tāshlār._ An earlier reading of this, _viz._
that stones were thrown on the intruder is negatived by
Bābur's mention of wood as the weapon used.
[2609] _sū sārī_ which, as the boats were between an island
and the river's bank, seems likely to mean that the man went
off towards the main stream. _Mems._ p. 415, "made his escape
in the river"; _Méms._ ii, 418, _dans la direction du large_.
[2610] This couplet is quoted by Jahāngīr also (_Tūzūk_, trs.
Rogers & Beveridge, i, 348).
[2611] This, taken with the positions of other
crossing-parties, serves to locate `Askarī's "Haldī-passage"
at no great distance above `Alī-qulī's emplacement at the
confluence, and above the main Bengal force.
[2612] perhaps, towed from the land. I have not found Bābur
using any word which clearly means to row, unless indeed a
later _rawān_ does so. The force meant to cross in the boats
taken up under cover of night was part of Bābur's own, no
doubt.
[2613] _ātīsh-bāzī_ lit. fire-playing, if a purely Persian
compound; if _ātīsh_ be Turkī, it means discharge, shooting.
The word "fire-working" is used above under the nearest to
contemporary guidance known to me, _viz._ that of the list of
persons who suffered in the Patna massacre "during the
troubles of October 1763 AD.", in which list are the names of
four Lieutenants fire-workers (_Calcutta Review_, Oct. 1884,
and Jan. 1885, art. _The Patna Massacre_, H. Beveridge).
[2614] _bī tahāshī_, without protest or demur.
[2615] Anglicé, Wednesday after 6 p.m.
[2616] Perhaps those which had failed to pass in the darkness;
perhaps those from Haldī-guẕr, which had been used by
`Askarī's troops. There appear to be obvious reasons for their
keeping abreast on the river with the troops in Sāran, in
order to convey reinforcements or to provide retreat.
[2617] _kīmalār aūstīdā_, which may mean that he came, on the
high bank, to where the boats lay below.
[2618] as in the previous note, _kīmalār aūstīdā_. These will
have been the few drawn up-stream along the enemy's front.
[2619] The reproach conveyed by Bābur's statement is borne out
by the strictures of Ḥaidar Mīrzā _Dūghlāt_ on Bābā Sulṯān's
neglect of duty (_Tārīkh-ī-rashīdī_ trs. cap. lxxvii).
[2620] _yūsūnlūq tūshī_, Pers. trss. _ṯarf khūd_, i.e. their
place in the array, a frequent phrase.
[2621] _dastak bīla dosta-i-qāmīsh bīla._ Cf. f. 363_b_ and f.
366_b_, for passages and notes connected with swimming and