THESE are the private Memoirs of the Emperor Humáyún written by his áftábchí, or ewer-bearer, Jauhar. They have been translated into English by Major Stewart, and published by the Oriental Translation Fund Lond. (1832). [The MS. used by Stewart bore the above title, under which the work has become generally known, but in Sir H. Elliot's copy of the MS. the author is made to name the work Humáyún Sháhí. It is also called Táríkh-i Humáyún.] These Memoirs afford much amusement from the naïve and simple style in which they are written. The author was a constant attendant upon the Emperor, both during his adversities and successes, and is so devoted an admirer of his patron, that he rarely sees anything to reproach in his conduct. He gives the most trivial details with the utmost candour and gravity, thinking nothing too insignificant to relate of so great an Emperor. “Let no one,” says Dion, after recording (lib. lxxii. 18, 18) some of the public exposures and debaucheries of Commodus—“Let no one reprove me for degrading the importance of history because I write such things. In another case I would not have written them; but since they were done by an Emperor, and I myself saw and heard them, I thought it right to conceal nothing, and to transmit these matters for the information of posterity, as if they had been of the utmost consequence.”
Of himself Jauhar says, “I was at all times, and in all
stations, in constant attendance on the royal person; it therefore
occurred to me as desirable that I should write a narrative
of all the events to which I had been an eye-witness, that it
may remain as a record of the past interesting occurrences. I
have endeavoured to explain them to the best of my humble
ability, although in a style very inferior to the dignity of the
subject. I commenced this work in the year 995 (A.D. 1587),
and have named it the Tazkiratu-l Wáki'át, ‘Relation of Occurrences.’
It is not my intention to narrate all the occurrences
which have taken place during the late reign, but I shall confine
myself to those operations in which His Majesty was personally
concerned. I shall therefore commence this work with Humá-
[The Memoirs bear all the appearance of truth and honesty, and are to a great degree exempt from that exaggeration and fulsome eulogy to which Oriental biographers are prone. But the fact of their having been commenced full thirty years after the death of Humáyún greatly diminishes their claim to be considered a faithful and exact account of the occurrences they record. They are not contemporary records of the events as they occurred, but reminiscences of more than thirty years' standing, so that, whatever the sincerity and candour of the writer, time must have toned down his impressions, and memory had doubtless given a favourable colour to the recollections he retained of a well-beloved master. The conversations and observations attributed to the various personages who figure in his Memoirs must therefore contain quite as much of what the author thought they might or ought to have said as of what really was uttered.
When Humáyún recovered Lahore, he immediately divided the appointments of the province among his adherents, and Jauhar was appointed collector of the village of Haibatpúr. Before he departed, the King told him a familiar story as a warning against extortion. Jauhar made a courtly reply, and proceeded to his charge. Upon arriving in the district, he found that it had been the custom of the Afghán farmers to give their wives or children in pledge to the Hindú bankers for money advanced on account of the collections. Therefore, the first thing he did was to collect all the grain that had been hidden in dry pits, and having sold it, he paid the bankers and liberated the families of the peasants. On hearing of this affair, His Majesty was much pleased, and promoted him to the collectorship of the villages belonging to the Afghán chief, Tátár Khán Lodí. Soon after he had an opportunity of displaying his energy and determination. The Panjáb having been left without troops, in consequence of Humáyún's onward march, a body of 400 Afgháns entered the province of Lahore, and began to plunder. The collectors met to consult, and by Jauhar's advice they collected all the men they could, and placing themselves under the command of a brave and active young man, they fell upon them by surprise, defeated them, and took five of their chiefs prisoners. Jauhar does not tell us what position he held when he wrote his Memoirs, but it is evident that he became a man of some mark. Abú-l Fazl mentions his appointment to the district of Haibatpúr, and subsequently speaks of him as “Mihtar Jauhar, treasurer of the Panjáb.”]
His Majesty then inquired from his ministers and nobles what intelligence there was of Sher Khán Afghán, where he was, what he was doing, and what he was intent upon? He was informed that Sher Khán had taken the fort of Rohtás and Bahrkunda, that he had been for some time besieging the capital of Bengal, and was upon the point of taking it. Upon hearing this untoward news, His Majesty exclaimed to his nobles, “To what a pitch the daring of these Afgháns has reached; please God, we will to-morrow march to the fort of Chunár.” His Majesty then questioned Rúmí Khán as to the powers of resistance of the fortress, and he replied that by the Emperor's good fortune, and the favour of the Almighty, they would take the fortress by force. Thereupon the Imperial forces marched towards Chunár, and on the Shab-i barát they came to five kos distance from the fort. The engineer (Rúmí Khán) then debated with himself how he could find out the exact condition of the fortress, what bastion he ought to attack, and on which side he should mine. He had a slave named Khaláfát, whom in furtherance of his plan he so flogged that the weals were visible upon his body. He then directed him to go into the fortress, and say that he was the slave of Rúmí Khán, and that his master had so beaten him without any cause that he had fled and sought protection with them. So he was to find out the particulars of the fortress and return. He acted in accordance with these instructions. When the Afgháns saw his condition, and the marks of the chastisement plainly visible on his body, they believed him, and strove to heal his wounds. One day the slave proposed to the Afgháns, that if they saw no objection they should show him the defences of the fortress, and he would advise as to the best means of resisting the guns which Rúmí Khán had planted, so that the garrison might be safe. The Afgháns complied with this proposition. After staying a few days in the fortress, and making his observations, the slave made his escape, and returned to his master, whom he acquainted with the exact condition of the fortress. He advised him to attack the bastion on the river-side, and to construct a mine on that same side. Rúmí Khán brought up his guns, and battered that bastion, and he placed other batteries under his various officers. * * *
Rúmí Khán then sought His Majesty's permission to construct a floating battery, by means of which he proposed to cut the garrison off from the water, and prevent them from being able to maintain life. The royal order was given for him to do what he deemed expedient. Under this authority he employed himself for six months in constructing a battery upon three boats, so high that on the top of it all the soldiers of the garrison were plainly discernible. When it was completed, he sought the royal authority to move his battery, make it fast to the fortress, and carry the place by storm. Permission being given, the attack was kept up till mid-day, and the royal army lost nearly 700 men. For all their efforts they could not take the place, and the garrison by their fire smashed one portion of the battery.* Next morning Rúmí Khán again prepared his battery. The Afgháns saw that the assailants were resolute and vigorous, and that the place must soon fall, so they proposed to capitulate. Under His Majesty's command the garrison marched out, and the royal forces took possession of the fortress. Rúmí Khán, being very irate and furious, cut off both hands of 300 gunners and others who had formed part of the garrison. When His Majesty was informed of this, he was very angry with Rúmí Khán, and declared that no injury ought to be inflicted on men who had surrendered. After the capture of the fort a grand banquet was given and great rejoicings were made; rewards were distributed and great honours were bestowed. His Majesty then asked Rúmí Khán as to the fortress and to the way he would deal with it. The Khán replied, that if the place were in his hands he would not allow a Bengálí to approach within a kos of it. And upon His Majesty asking who ought to be placed in command of it, he replied, that he knew of no one fit for the position but Beg Mírak. Upon this advice His Majesty placed Beg Mírak in command of the fortress. This counsel so incensed all the nobles against Rúmí Khán, that they conspired against him, and caused poison to be placed in his cup, so that he died.
The King moved forward with the whole army, and in four days with little difficulty took possession of Gaur, the capital of Bengal, and drove away all the Afgháns. After cleansing and repairing the city, the first act of His Majesty was to divide the province into jágírs among his officers; after which he very unaccountably shut himself up in his harem, and abandoned himself to every kind of indulgence and luxury. While the King had thus for several months given himself up to pleasure and indolence, information was at length conveyed to him that Sher Khán had killed 700 Mughals, had laid siege to the fortress of Chunár, and taken the city of Benares; and had also sent forward an army along the bank of the Ganges to take Kanauj; that he had further seized the families of several of the officers, and sent them prisoners to Rohtás.