The citadel of Chanderi* is situated on a hill. The outer fort and town lie in the middle of the slope of the hill. The straight road, by which cannon can be conveyed, passes right below the fort.* After marching from Burhānpūr, we passed a kos lower down than Chanderi, on account of our guns, and, at the end of the march,* on Tuesday Jan. 21. the 28th, encamped on the banks of Bahjet Khan’s tank, on the top of the mound.*
PreparesNext morning I rode out and distributed the different posts around the fort, to the different divisions of my army, to the centre, and to the right and left wings. In placing his battery, Ustād Ali Kuli chose a piece of ground that had no slope. Overseers and pioneers were appointed to construct works on which the guns were to be planted. All the men of the army were directed to prepare tūras and scaling-ladders, and to serve the tūras* which are used in attacking forts. Chanderi had formerly belonged to the Sultans of Māndu. After the death of Sultan Nāsir-ed-dīn,* one of his sons, Sultan Mahmūd, who is now in Māndu, got possession of Māndu and the neighbouring countries; another of his sons, Muhammed Shah, seized on Chanderi, and applied to Sultan Sikander for protection. Sultan Sikander sent several large armies, and supported him in his dominions. After Sultan Sikander’s demise,* in Sultan Ibrahīm’s reign, Muhammed Shah died, leaving a young son of the name of Ahmed Shah. Sultan Ibrahīm carried off* Ahmed Shah, and established one of his own people in his stead. When Sanka advanced with an army against Ibrahīm as far as Dhūlpūr, that prince’s Amīrs rose against him, and on that occasion Chanderi fell into Sanka’s hands. He bestowed it on one Medini Rao,* a pagan of great consequence, who was now in the place with four or five thousand pagans. As Arāish Khan had long been on terms of friendship with him, I sent Arāish Khan to him, along with Sheikh Gūren, to assure him of my favour and clemency, and offering him Shamsābād* in exchange for Chanderi. Two or three* considerable people about him were averse to conciliation.* I know not whether he did not place perfect reliance in my promises, or whether it was from confidence in the strength of his fort, but the treaty broke off without success. On the Jan. 28. morning of Tuesday, the 6th of the first Jumāda, I marched from Bahjet Khan’s tank, for the purpose of attempting Chanderi by force, and encamped on the banks of the middle tank, which is near the fort.
Bābur’sThe same morning, just as we reached our ground, Khalīfeh brought me a letter or two. The tenor of them was, that the army which had been sent to the eastward (to Pūrab), while marching in disorder, had been attacked and defeated; that it had abandoned Lakhnau, and fallen back to Kanauj. I saw that Khalīfeh was in great perturbation and alarm, in consequence of this news. I told him, that alarm or discomposure was of no use; that nothing could happen but by the decrees of God; that as the enterprise in which we were engaged was still unfinished, we had better not speak a word of his intelligence, but attack the fort vigorously next morning, and see what ensued. The enemy had garrisoned every part of the citadel strongly,* but had placed only a few men, by ones and twos, in the outer fort, to defend it.* This very night my troops entered* the outer fort on every side. There being but few people in the place, the resistance was not obstinate. They fled, and took shelter in the citadel.
Chanderi Next morning, being Wednesday, the 7th of the first
Jumāda, I commanded the troops to arm themselves, to
repair to their posts, and to prepare for an assault, directing
that, as soon as I raised my standard and beat my kettle-drum,
every man should push on to the assault. I did not
intend to display my standard, nor beat the kettle-drum, till
we were ready to storm, but went to see*
Ustād Ali Kuli’s
battering-cannon play. He discharged three or four shot;
but his ground having no slope, and the works being very
strong, and entirely of rock, the effect produced was trifling.
It has been mentioned, that the citadel of Chanderi is situated
on a hill; on one side of it they have made a covered way
that runs down to the water.*
The walls of this covered
way reach down below*
the hill, and this is one of the
places in which the fort is assailable, with most hopes of
success. This spot had been assigned to the right and left of
the centre, and to my own household troops, as the object
of their attack. The citadel was attacked on all sides, but
here with particular vigour. Though the pagans exerted
themselves to the utmost, hurling down stones from above,
and throwing over flaming substances on their heads, the
troops nevertheless persevered, and at length Shāhem
Nūr Beg*
mounted, where the wall of the outer fort joined
the wall of the projecting bastion.*
The troops likewise,
about the same time, scaled the walls in two or three other
places. The pagans who were stationed in the covered
way took to flight, and that part of the works was taken.
They did not defend the upper fort with so much obstinacy,
and were quickly put to flight; the assailants climbed up,
and entered the upper fort by storm. In a short time the
Despera-
tion of the
garrison.
pagans, in a state of complete nudity, rushed out to attack
us, put numbers of my people to flight, and leaped over*
the ramparts. Some of our troops were attacked furiously
and put to the sword. The reason of this desperate sally
from their works was, that, on giving up the place for lost,
Massacre of
the women
they had put to death the whole of their wives and women,
and, having resolved to perish, had stripped themselves
naked, in which condition they had rushed out to the fight;
and, engaging with ungovernable desperation, drove our
people along the ramparts.* *
Two or three hundred pagans
had entered Medini Rao’s house, where numbers of them
slew each other, in the following manner: One person took
his stand with a sword in his hand, while the others, one
by one, crowded in and stretched out their necks, eager to
die. In this way many went to hell; and, by the favour of
God, in the space of two or three garis,*
I gained this
celebrated fort, without raising my standards, or beating
A. D. 1528.
my kettle-drum, and without using the whole strength of
my arms.*
On the top of a hill, to the north-west of Chanderi,
I erected a tower of the heads of the pagans. The
words Fateh dār-ul-harb*
(the conquest of the city hostile to
the faith) were found to contain the date of its conquest.
I composed the following verses:*
Descrip-Long was the fort of Chanderi
Full of pagans, and styled the town of hostility and strife;
I stormed and conquered its castle,
And the date is the Conquest of the castle hostile to the faith.*
Chanderi is an excellent country, abounding on every side with running water. Its citadel stands on a hill. In the midst of it they have excavated a large tank out of the rock. Another large tank was in the covered way, that has been mentioned, as the point by which the place was attacked and taken by storm. The houses of all the inhabitants are of stone, and are beautiful and capacious.* The houses of the men of consequence are of hewn stone, wrought with great skill and labour. The houses of the lower ranks are wholly of stone, generally not hewn. Instead of tiles, the houses are covered with flag-stones. In front of the fort there are three large tanks. Former governors have thrown up mounds on different sides of it, and formed these tanks. In an elevated situation in this district, called Betwi, there is a lake. It is three kos from Chanderi. In Hindustān the water of Betwi is famous for its excellence and its agreeable taste. It is a small pretty lake. Little spots of rising ground are scattered about it, affording beautiful sites for houses.* Chanderi lies south from Agra ninety kos by the road. It is situated in the 25th degree of north latitude.*
Jan. 30