The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā,[2075]—the personage approximating to royalty, the
descended of monarchs, `Ādil Sulṯān son of Mahdī Sulṯān,[2076]—the
trusted in the State, perfect in attachment, `Abdu'l-'azīz Master of the
Horse,—the trusted in the State, the pure in friendship, Shamsu'd-dīn
Muḥammad `Ali _Jang-jang_,[2077]—the pillar of royal retainers,
Jalālu'd-dīn Qūtlūq-qadam _qarāwal_ (scout),—the pillar of royal
retainers, the perfect in sincerity, Jalālu'd-dīn Shāh Ḥusain _yārāgī
Mughūl Ghānchī_(?),[2078]—and Niẕāmu'd-dīn Jān-i-muḥammad _Beg Ātāka_.
Of amīrs of Hind there were in this division, the scions of sulṯāns,
Kamāl Khān and Jamāl Khān sons of the Sl. `Alā'u'd-dīn [Sidenote: Fol.
321.] above-mentioned,—the most excellent officer `Alī Khān Shaikh-zāda
of Farmūl,—and the pillar of the nobility, Niẕām Khān of Bīāna.
(_g. The flanking parties._)
For the flank-movement (_tūlghāma_) of the right wing there were posted
two of the most trusted of the household retainers, Tardīka[2079] and
Malik Qāsim the brother of Bābā Qashqa, with a body of Mughūls; for the
flank-movement of the left wing were the two trusted chiefs Mūmin Ātāka
and Rustam _Turkmān_, leading a body of special troops.
(_h. The Chief of the Staff._)
The pillar of royal retainers, the perfect in loyalty, the cream of
privy-counsellors, Niẕāmu'd-dīn Sulṯān Muḥammad _Bakhshī_, after posting
the _ghāzīs_ of Islām, came to receive the royal commands. He despatched
adjutants (_tawāchī_) and messengers (_yasāwal_) in various directions
to convey imperative orders concerning the marshalling of the troops to
the great sulṯāns and amīrs. And when the Commanders had taken up their
positions, an imperative order was given that none should quit his post
or, uncommanded, stretch forth his arm to fight.
(_i. The battle._)
One watch[2080] of the afore-mentioned day had elapsed when the opposing
forces approached each other and the battle began. As Light opposes
Darkness, so did the centres of the two [Sidenote: Fol. 321b.] armies
oppose one another. Fighting began on the right and left wings, such
fighting as shook the Earth and filled highest Heaven with clangour.
The left wing of the ill-fated pagans advanced against the right wing of
the Faith-garbed troops of Islām and charged down on Khusrau Kūkūldāsh
and Bābā Qashqa's brother Malik Qāsim. The most glorious and most
upright brother Chīn-tīmūr Sulṯān, obeying orders, went to reinforce
them and, engaging in the conflict with bold attack, bore the pagans
back almost to the rear of their centre. Guerdon was made for the
brother's glorious fame.[2081] The marvel of the Age, Muṣṯafa of Rūm,
had his post in the centre (of the right wing) where was the exalted
son, upright and fortunate, the object of the favourable regard of
Creative Majesty (_i.e._ God), the one _distinguished by the particular
grace of the mighty Sovereign who commands to do and not to do_ (_i.e._
Bābur), Muḥammad Humāyūn Bahādur. This Muṣṯafa of Rūm had the carts
(_arābahā_)[2082] brought forward and broke the ranks of pagans with
matchlock and culverin dark like their hearts(?).[2083] In the thick of
the fight, the most glorious brother Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sulṯān and the
pillars of royal retainers, Niẕāmu'd-dīn Aḥmad-i-yūsuf and Qawām Beg,
obeying orders, hastened to their help. And since band after band of
pagan troops followed each other to help their men, so we, in our turn,
sent the trusted in the State, the glory of the Faith, Hindū Beg, and,
after him, the pillars of the nobility, Muhammadī Kūkūldāsh and Khwājagī
Asad _jān-dār_, and, after them, the trusted in [Sidenote: Fol. 322.]
the State, the trustworthy in the resplendent Court, the most
confided-in of nobles, the elect of confidential servants, Yūnas-i-'alī,
together with the pillar of the nobility, the perfect in friendship,
Shāh Manṣūr _Barlās_ and the pillar of the grandees, the pure in
fidelity, `Abdu'l-lāh the librarian, and after these, the pillar of the
nobles, Dost the Lord-of-the-Gate, and Muḥammad Khalil the master-gelder
(_akhta-begī_).[2084]
The pagan right wing made repeated and desperate attack on the left wing
of the army of Islām, falling furiously on the holy warriors, possessors
of salvation, but each time was made to turn back or, smitten with the
arrows of victory, was _made to descend into Hell, the house of
perdition; they shall be thrown to burn therein, and an unhappy dwelling
shall it be_.[2085] Then the trusty amongst the nobles, Mūmin Ātāka and
Rustam _Turkmān_ betook themselves to the rear[2086] of the host of
darkened pagans; and to help them were sent the Commanders Khwāja Maḥmūd
and `Alī Ātāka, servants of him who amongst the royal retainers is near
the throne, the trusted of the Sulṯānate, Niẕāmu'd-din `Alī Khalīfa.
Our high-born brother[2087] Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, and the representative
of royal dignity, `Ādil Sulṯān, and the trusted in the State, the
strengthener of the Faith, `Abdu'l-`azīz, the Master of the Horse, and
the glory of the Faith, Qūtlūq-qadam _qarāwal_, and the meteor of the
Faith, Muḥammad `Alī _Jang-jang_, and the pillar of royal retainers,
Shāh Ḥusain _yāragī Mughūl Ghānchī_(?) stretched out the arm to fight
and stood firm. To support them we sent the _Dastūr_, the highest of
wazīrs, Khwāja [Sidenote: Fol. 322b.] Kamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain with a body of
_dīwānīs_.[2088] Every holy warrior was eager to show his zeal, entering
the fight with desperate joy as if approving the verse, _Say, Do you
expect any other should befall us than one of the two most excellent
things, victory or martyrdom?_[2089] and, with display of life-devotion,
uplifted the standard of life-sacrifice.
As the conflict and battle lasted long, an imperative order was issued
that the special royal corps (_tābīnān-i-khāṣa-i-pādshāhī_)[2090] who,
heroes of one hue,[2091] were standing, like tigers enchained, behind
the carts,[2092] should go out on the right and the left of the
centre,[2093] leaving the matchlockmen's post in-between, and join
battle on both sides. As the True Dawn emerges from its cleft in the
horizon, so they emerged from behind the carts; they poured a ruddy
crepuscule of the blood of those ill-fated pagans on the nadir of the
Heavens, that battle-field; they made fall from the firmament of
existence many heads of the headstrong, as stars fall from the firmament
of heaven. The marvel of the Age, Ustād `Alī-qulī, who with his own
appurtenances stood in front of the centre, did deeds of valour,
discharging against the iron-mantled forts of the infidels[2094] stones
of such size that were (one) put into a scale of the Balance in which
actions are weighed, that _scale shall be heavy with good works and he_
(_i.e._ its owner) _shall lead a pleasing life_[2095]; and were such
stones discharged against a hill, broad of base and high of summit, it
would _become like carded wool_.[2096] Such stones Ustād `Alī-qulī
discharged at the iron-clad fortress of the pagan ranks and by this
discharge of stones, and abundance of culverins and matchlocks(?)[2097]
destroyed many of the builded bodies of the [Sidenote: Fol. 323.]
pagans. The matchlockmen of the royal centre, in obedience to orders,
going from behind the carts into the midst of the battle, each one of
them made many a pagan taste of the poison of death. The foot-soldiers,
going into a most dangerous place, made their names to be blazoned
amongst those of the forest-tigers (_i.e._ heroes) of valour and the
champions in the field of manly deeds. Just at this time came an order
from his Majesty the Khāqān that the carts of the centre should be
advanced; and the gracious royal soul (_i.e._ Bābur) moved towards the
pagan soldiers, Victory and Fortune on his right, Prestige and Conquest
on his left. On witnessing this event, the victorious troops followed
from all sides; the whole surging ocean of the army rose in mighty
waves; the courage of all the crocodiles[2098] of that ocean was
manifested by the strength of their deeds; an obscuring cloud of dust
o'erspread the sky(?). The dust that gathered over the battle-field was
traversed by the lightning-flashes of the sword; the Sun's face was
shorn of light as is a mirror's back; the striker and the struck, the
victor and the vanquished were commingled, all distinction between them
lost. The Wizard of Time produced such a night that its only planets
were arrows,[2099] its only constellations of fixed stars were the
steadfast squadrons.
Upon that day of battle sank and rose
Blood to the Fish and dust-clouds to the Moon,
While through the horse-hoofs on that spacious plain,
[Sidenote: Fol. 323b.]
One Earth flew up to make another Heaven.[2100]
At the moment when the holy warriors were heedlessly flinging away
their lives, they heard a secret voice say, _Be not dismayed, neither be
grieved, for, if ye believe, ye shall be exalted above the
unbelievers_,[2101] and from the infallible Informer heard the joyful
words, _Assistance is from God, and a speedy victory! And do thou bear
glad tidings to true believers._[2102] Then they fought with such
delight that the plaudits of the saints of the Holy Assembly reached
them and the angels from near the Throne, fluttered round their heads
like moths. Between the first and second Prayers, there was such blaze
of combat that the flames thereof raised standards above the heavens,
and the right and left of the army of Islām rolled back the left and
right of the doomed infidels in one mass upon their centre.
When signs were manifest of the victory of the Strivers and of the
up-rearing of the standards of Islām, those accursed infidels and wicked
unbelievers remained for one hour confounded. At length, their hearts
abandoning life, they fell upon the right and left of our centre. Their
attack on the left was the more vigorous and there they approached
furthest, but the holy warriors, their minds set on the reward, planted
shoots (_nihāl_) of arrows in the field of the breast of each one of
them, and, such being their gloomy fate, overthrew them. In this state
of affairs, the breezes of victory and fortune blew over the meadow of
our [Sidenote: Fol. 324.] happy Nawāb, and brought the good news,
_Verily we have granted thee a manifest victory_.[2103] And Victory the
beautiful woman (_shāhid_) whose world-adornment of waving tresses was
embellished by _God will aid you with a mighty aid_,[2104] bestowed on
us the good fortune that had been hidden behind a veil, and made it a
reality. The absurd (_bāṯil_) Hindūs, knowing their position perilous,
_dispersed like carded wool before the wind_, and _like moths scattered
abroad_.[2105] Many fell dead on the field of battle; others, desisting
from fighting, fled to the desert of exile and became the food of crows
and kites. Mounds were made of the bodies of the slain, pillars of their
heads.
(_j. Hindū chiefs killed in the battle._)
Ḥasan Khān of Mīwāt was enrolled in the list of the dead by the force of
a matchlock (_ẓarb-i-tufak_); most of those headstrong chiefs of tribes
were slain likewise, and ended their days by arrow and matchlock (_tīr u
tufak_). Of their number was Rāwal Ūdī Sīngh of Bāgar,[2106] ruler
(_wālī_) of the Dungarpūr country, who had 12,000 horse, Rāī Chandrabān
_Chūhān_ who had 4,000 horse, Bhūpat Rāo son of that Ṣalāḥu'd-dīn
already mentioned, who was lord of Chandīrī and had 6,000 horse,
Mānik-chand _Chūhān_ and Dilpat Rāo who had each 4,000 horse, Kankū (or
Gangū) and Karm Sīngh and Dankūsī(?)[2107] who had each 3,000 horse, and
a number of others, each one of whom was leader of a great [Sidenote:
Fol. 324b.] command, a splendid and magnificent chieftain. All these
trod the road to Hell, removing from this house of clay to the pit of
perdition. The enemy's country (_dāru'l-ḥarb_) was full, as Hell is