The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur). Emperor of Hindustan Babur
question of the roads. Some-one said that if we were to turn the bill904 of the Mehtar Sulaimān range, this lying between the Plain and the Hill-country (desht u dūkī),905 we should get a level road though it might make the difference of a few marches. For this they decided and moved off; before my ablutions were finished the whole army had taken the road and most of it was across the Gūmāl. Not a man of us had ever seen the road; no-one knew whether it was long or short; we started off just on a rumoured word!
The Prayer of the ‘Id was made on the bank of the Gūmāl. That year New-year’s Day906 fell close to the ‘Id-i-fitr, there being only a few days between; on their approximation I composed the following (Turkī) ode:—
Glad is the Bairām-moon for him who sees both the face of the Moon and the Moon-face of his friend;
Sad is the Bairām-moon for me, far away from thy face and from thee.907
O Bābur! dream of your luck when your Feast is the meeting, your New-year the face;
For better than that could not be with a hundred New-years and Bairāms.
After crossing the Gūmāl torrent, we took our way along the skirt of the hills, our faces set south. A mile or two further on, Fol. 150b.some death-devoted Afghāns shewed themselves on the lower edge of the hill-slope. Loose rein, off we went for them; most of them fled but some made foolish stand on rocky-piles908 of the foot-hills. One took post on a single rock seeming to have a precipice on the further side of it, so that he had not even a way of escape. Sl. Qulī Chūnāq (One-eared), all in his mail as he was, got up, slashed at, and took him. This was one of Sl. Qulī’s deeds done under my own eyes, which led to his favour and promotion.909 At another pile of rock, when Qūtlūq-qadam exchanged blows with an Afghān, they grappled and came down together, a straight fall of 10 to 12 yards; in the end Qūtlūq-qadam cut off and brought in his man’s head. Kūpūk Beg got hand-on-collar with an Afghān at another hill; both rolled down to the bottom; that head also was brought in. All Afghāns taken prisoner were set free.
Marching south through the Plain, and closely skirting Mehtar Sulaimān, we came, with three nights’ halt, to a small township, called Bīlah, on the Sind-water and dependent on Multān.910 The villagers crossed the water, mostly taking to their boats, but some flung themselves in to cross. Some were seen standing on an island in front of Bīlah. Most of our men, man and horse inFol. 151. mail, plunged in and crossed to the island; some were carried down, one being Qul-i-arūk (thin slave), one of my servants, another the head tent-pitcher, another Jahāngīr Mīrzā’s servant, Qāītmās Turkmān.911 Cloth and things of the baggage (partaldīk nīma) fell to our men. The villagers all crossed by boat to the further side of the river; once there, some of them, trusting to the broad water, began to make play with their swords. Qul-i-bāyazīd, the taster, one of our men who had crossed to the island, stripped himself and his horse and, right in front of them, plunged by himself into the river. The water on that side of the island may have been twice or thrice as wide as on ours. He swum his horse straight for them till, an arrow’s-flight away, he came to a shallow where his weight must have been up-borne, the water being as high as the saddle-flap. There he stayed for as long as milk takes to boil; no-one supported him from behind; he had not a chance of support. He made a dash at them; they shot a few arrows at him but, this not checking him, they took to flight. To swim such a river as the Sind, alone, bare on a bare-backed horse, no-one behind him, and to chase off a foe and occupy his ground, was a mightily bold deed! He having driven the enemy off, other soldiers went over whoFol. 151b. returned with cloth and droves of various sorts. Qul-i-bāyazīd had already his place in my favour and kindness on account of his good service, and of courage several times shewn; from the cook’s office I had raised him to the royal taster’s; this time, as will be told, I took up a position full of bounty, favour and promotion—in truth he was worthy of honour and advancement.
Two other marches were made down the Sind-water. Our men, by perpetually gallopping off on raids, had knocked up their horses; usually what they took, cattle mostly, was not worth the gallop; sometimes indeed in the Plain there had been sheep, sometimes one sort of cloth or other, but, the Plain left behind, nothing was had but cattle. A mere servant would bring in 3 or 400 head during our marches along the Sind-water, but every march many more would be left on the road than they brought in.
(j. The westward march.)
Having made three more marches912 close along the Sind, we left it when we came opposite Pīr Kānū’s tomb.913 Going to the tomb, we there dismounted. Some of our soldiers having injured Fol. 152.several of those in attendance on it, I had them cut to pieces. It is a tomb on the skirt of one of the Mehtar Sulaimān mountains and held in much honour in Hindūstān.
Marching on from Pīr Kānū, we dismounted in the (Pawat) pass; next again in the bed of a torrent in Dūkī.914 After we left this camp there were brought in as many as 20 to 30 followers of a retainer of Shāh Beg, Fāẓil Kūkūldāsh, the dārogha of Sīwī. They had been sent to reconnoitre us but, as at that time, we were not on bad terms with Shāh Beg, we let them go, with horse and arms. After one night’s halt, we reached Chūtīālī, a village of Dūkī.
Although our men had constantly gallopped off to raid, both before we reached the Sind-water and all along its bank, they had not left horses behind, because there had been plenty of green food and corn. When, however, we left the river and set our faces for Pīr Kānū, not even green food was to be had; a little land under green crop might be found every two or three marches, but of horse-corn, none. So, beyond the camps mentioned, there began the leaving of horses behind. After passing Chūtīālī, my own felt-tent915 had to be left from want of baggage-beasts. One night at that time, it rained so much, that water stood knee-deep in my tent (chādār); I watched the night out till dawn, uncomfortably sitting on a pile of blankets.
(k. Bāqī Chaghānīānī’s treachery.)
A few marches further on came Jahāngīr Mīrzā, saying, “IFol. 152b. have a private word for you.” When we were in private, he said, “Bāqī Chaghānīānī came and said to me, ‘You make the Pādshāh cross the water of Sind with 7, 8, 10 persons, then make yourself Pādshāh.’ ” Said I, “What others are heard of as consulting with him?” Said he, “It was but a moment ago Bāqī Beg spoke to me; I know no more.” Said I, “Find out who the others are; likely enough Sayyid Ḥusain Akbar and Sl. ‘Alī the page are in it, as well as Khusrau Shāh’s begs and braves.” Here the Mīrzā really behaved very well and like a blood-relation; what he now did was the counterpart of what I had done in Kāhmard,916 in this same ill-fated mannikin’s other scheme of treachery.917
On dismounting after the next march, I made Jahāngīr Mīrzā lead a body of well-mounted men to raid the Aūghāns (Afghāns) of that neighbourhood.
Many men’s horses were now left behind in each camping-ground, the day coming when as many as 2 or 300 were left. Braves of the first rank went on foot; Sayyid Maḥmūd Aūghlāqchī, one of the best of the household-braves, left his horses behind and walked. In this state as to horses we went all the rest of the way to Ghaznī.
Three or four marches further on, Jahāngīr Mīrzā plunderedFol. 153. some Afghāns and brought in a few sheep.
(l. The Āb-i-istāda.)
When, with a few more marches, we reached the Standing-water (Āb-i-istāda) a wonderfully large sheet of water presented itself to view; the level lands on its further side could not be seen at all; its water seemed to join the sky; the higher land and the mountains of that further side looked to hang between Heaven and Earth, as in a mirage. The waters there gathered are said to be those of the spring-rain floods of the Kattawāz-plain, the Zurmut-valley, and the Qarā-bāgh meadow of the Ghaznī-torrent—floods of the spring-rains, and the over-plus918 of the summer-rise of streams.
When within two miles of the Āb-i-istāda, we saw a wonderful thing—something as red as the rose of the dawn kept shewing and vanishing between the sky and the water. It kept coming and going. When we got quite close we learned that what seemed the cause were flocks of geese,919 not 10,000,