ANOTHER hiatus here occurs in all the manuscripts, and extends for a space of nearly six years, from the beginning of Safer A. H. 926, to the beginning of Safer A. H. 932; from the end of what is generally called Bābur’s second expedition into India, to the beginning of his fifth and final invasion of that country. The materials for supplying this blank are not so copious as might have been expected. Abulfazl, who wrote in Hindustān, in the reign, and at the court of Bābur’s grandson, whose secretary he was, and from whom we might therefore have expected the most authentic and ample details of Bābur’s different invasions of A. D. 1505. India, treats the march of Bābur in 910, when he took Kohat, passed through Bannu, went down the Sind as far as the territory of Multān, and returned to Kābul by Chotiāli and Āb i istādeh, as the first;* the expedition on the Cheghānserāi, A. D. 1507. or Kashkār river,* in 913, in his account is the second, probably because Bābur had, at one period of this expedition, formed the intention of proceeding to Hindustān, an ntention which he did not accomplish; and the expedition A. D. 1519. to Behreh in 925, is the third: of the fourth, he acknowledges that he had not been able to get any account; an acknowledgement which, at the same time that it shows the uncertainty of tradition, seems also to prove that Abulfazl, who on other occasions follows the Memoirs of Bābur, had them in exactly the same imperfect state in which they have come down to our times; and the recapitulation of previous events which the Memoirs themselves contain, in the beginning of the account of the transactions of the year 932 of the Hijira, seems to confirm the same supposition; since, had an account of all the transactions of the six preceding years been given by way of journal, it would have rendered the recapitulation, by which the history of that year is prefaced, altogether unnecessary. It is plain, however, that Bābur regarded his expedition into Bhīra, or Behreh, in A. H. 925, not as his third, but as his first expedition into Hindustān; so that the ignorance of Abulfazl was greater than he himself supposed.
The expedition against the Yūsefzais and refractory Afghans, which is described by Bābur in the end of the year 925, and from which he was recalled by the events in Badakhshān, is regarded by Ferishta as his second* expedition into Hindustān; but Bābur himself does not intimate that he had any intention at that time of crossing the Indus. It appears, however, that Peshāwer, or Bekrām, as well as a great part of the country west of the Indus, were anciently regarded as belonging to India; whence the inaccuracy apparent on this subject among the writers of Hindustān may perhaps in part proceed. Indeed, Bābur himself informs us, that Kandahār was formerly regarded as the boundary between Hindustān and Khorasān. I am not, however, convinced that Bābur reckoned this as one of his invasions of Hindustān.
His thirdBābur’s third expedition against Hindustān appears to have been made A. H. 926. In his way through Bhīra he inflicted punishment on those who had formerly joined him, but who had afterwards been seduced to revolt and to expel his officers. He drove from the country some Afghans, while he put to death and made prisoners a number of others, to the great relief of the peasantry and labouring classes whom they had oppressed. He advanced to Siālkot, the inhabitants of which submitted and saved their possessions; but the inhabitants of Syedpūr, who resisted, were put to the sword, their wives and children carried into captivity, and all their property plundered. Bābur at this time received information that his territories had been invaded on the side of Kandahār by Shah Beg, which obliged him to interrupt his expedition, and to return to the defence of his dominions. He soon drove Shah Beg from the field, and shut him up in his capital, which he kept in a state of partial blockade for nearly three years. For the reduction of Kandahār, which was a place of great strength, he appears to have trusted more to the effects of his annual* invasions in wasting and ruining the surrounding country, than to the operations of an active siege.
He givesThe events which had occurred proved to him the necessity of leaving his own territories quiet and protected, before he ventured upon foreign conquests. In the course of the year 927 of the Hijira, having received information of the death of Khan Mirza* in Badakhshān, he bestowed that country on Humāiūn Mirza, his eldest son. The same year he again entered the territories of Shah Beg, and reduced him to great distress.*
A. D. 1522.The following year, 928, seems to have been marked by the final reduction of Kandahār.* Shah Beg had retired towards Shāl,* Dour,* and Siwistān, and in the end conquered the kingdom of Sind.* Bābur pursuing his successes, occupied the country of Garmsīr along the Helmend, which had been part of the dominions of Shah Beg. The year A. D. 1523. 929 he occupied in various expeditions within his own territories, in checking the refractory Afghans, and in introducing some degree of order and arrangement into the affairs of his government.
State of The invasion of Hindustān had long been the favourite
object of Bābur’s ambition. The Uzbeks had established
themselves in too great force in Māweralnaher to leave
him any hopes of expelling them. Khorasān had been
occupied by the Safavi dynasty of Persian kings, who were
now in the height of their power and glory; while the
provinces of Hindustān, which in all ages have been an
easy prey to the rapacity of every invader, afforded the
prospect of a rich and a splendid conquest. The moment
was every way favourable to such an attempt. The empire
of Delhi was not then what it afterwards became under
Akber or Aurengzeb, nor even what it had been under Muhammed
Ghori or Alā ud dīn Khilji.?? For some time past,
it had been in the hands of Afghan invaders. The reign
of Ibrahīm had been an unvaried scene of confusion and
revolts. His haughty and cruel temper, joined to the
impolitic arrogance with which he had treated the Afghan
nobles, who considered themselves as having raised his
family to the throne, and as being still placed not very far
below it, had completely alienated their affections. Many
of his discontented nobles had retired beyond the Ganges,
and the whole eastern provinces, from Badāun to Behār,
were in the hands of rebels, who occupied Behār itself.
So extensive had the defection become, that his dominions
did not extend much beyond Delhi, Agra, the Doāb, Biāna,
and Chanderi. Bengal had still its own sovereign, as well
as Malwa and Guzerāt. The Rājpūt Princes, from Mewāt
to Udaipūr, had joined in a confederacy, of which Rāna
Sanka, the Prince of Udaipūr, was at the head. The Panjāb
was held by Doulet Khan, and his sons Ghāzi Khan and
Dilāwer Khan, who, Afghans themselves, were alarmed at
the fate of the Afghan nobles in other parts of the empire,
and eager to deliver themselves from the power of the
emperor; persuaded that it was safer to rebel than to
continue in subjection to a prince whose violent and unrelenting
disposition, adding new terrors to the harsh
maxims of his government, had destroyed all confidence in
him. Guided by their fears, they sent envoys to offer their
allegiance to Bābur, and to beseech him to march to their
succour.*
No circumstance could have been more in unison
Bābur in-
vited into
Hindustān
A. H. 930.
A. D. 1524.
Fourth ex-
pedition.
with his wishes. He made instant preparations for the expedition,
and entered Hindustān for the fourth time.
He marched by the country of the Gakkers, whom he
reduced to obedience. Behār Khan Lodi, Mubārek Khan
Lodi, and some other Afghan Amīrs, who were still in the
interest of Ibrahīm, or who disliked the arrival of a foreign
enemy, collected a large body of Afghans, and gave him
battle as he approached Lahore, the capital of the province.*
The Afghans were defeated, and the conquerors, elated with
their success, and enraged at the obstinacy of the resistance,
Burns
Lahore.
plundered and burned the bazar and town of Lahore. He
next advanced to Debālpūr, the garrison of which holding
out, the place was stormed, and a general massacre ensued.