On Thursday, the 13th of Zilkaadeh, Humāiūn marched to the village of Jilīsir,* sixteen kos* from Agra, where he encamped. Having halted there one day he proceeded Aug. 28. march after march towards the enemy. On Thursday, the 20th of the same month, Khwajeh Kalān took leave on setting out for Kābul.
Bābur It always appears to me that one of the chief defects of
Hindustān is the want of artificial water-courses. I had
intended, wherever I might fix my residence, to construct
water-wheels, to produce an artificial stream, and to lay out
an elegant and regularly planned pleasure-ground.*
Shortly
after coming to Agra, I passed the Jumna with this object
in view, and examined the country, to pitch upon a fit spot
for a garden. The whole was so ugly and detestable, that
I repassed the river quite repulsed and disgusted. In
consequence of the want of beauty, and of the disagreeable
aspect of the country, I gave up my intention of making
a chārbāgh; but as no better situation presented itself near
Agra, I was finally compelled to make the best of this same
spot. I first of all began to sink the large well which supplies
the baths with water; I next fell to work on that piece of
ground on which are the ambli (or Indian tamarind) trees,
and the octangular tank; I then proceeded to form the
large tank and its enclosure; and afterwards the tank and
and a
palace.
tālār*
(or grand hall of audience) that are in front of the
stone palace. I next finished the garden of the private
apartments, and the apartments themselves, after which
I completed the baths. In this way, going on, without
neatness and without order, in the Hindu fashion, I, however,
produced edifices and gardens which possessed considerable
regularity.* *
In every corner I planted suitable gardens;
in every garden I sowed roses and narcissuses regularly,
and in beds corresponding to each other.*
We were annoyed
with three things in Hindustān: one was its heat, another
its strong winds, the third its dust. Baths were the means
of removing all three inconveniences. In the bath we could
not be affected by the winds.*
During the hot winds,*
the
cold can there be rendered so intense, that a person often
feels as if quite powerless*
from it. The room of the bath,
in which is the tub or cistern, is finished wholly of stone.
The water-run is of white stone; all the rest of it, its floor
and roof, is of a red stone, which is the stone of Biāna.
Khalīfeh, Sheikh Zein, Yunis Ali, and several others, who
procured situations on the banks of the river, made regular
and elegant gardens and tanks, and constructed wheels after
the fashion of Lahore and Debālpūr, by means of which they
procured a supply of water. The men of Hind, who had
never before seen places formed on such a plan, or laid out
with so much elegance, gave the name of Kābul to the side
of the Jumna on which these palaces were built.
There was an empty space within the fort (of Agra), between Ibrahīm’s palace* and the ramparts. I directed a large waīn to be constructed on it, ten gaz by ten.* In the language of Hindustān they denominate a large well, having a staircase down it, waīn. This waīn was begun before the chārbāgh was laid out; they were busy digging it during the rains, but it fell in several times, and smothered the workmen. After my holy war against Rāna Sanka, as is mentioned in the Memoirs,* I gave orders for finishing it, and a very excellent waīn was completed. In the inside of the waīn there was constructed an edifice of three different stories. The lowest story has three open halls, and you descend to it by the well; the descent is by means of a flight of steps, and there is a passage leading to each of the three different halls.* Each hall is higher than the other by three steps. In the lowest hall of all, at the season when the waters subside, there is a flight of steps that descends into the well.* In the rainy season, when the water is high, the water comes up into the uppermost of these halls. In the middle story there is a hall of carved stone, and close by it a dome, in which the oxen that turn the water-wheel move round. The uppermost story consists of a single hall. From the extremity of the area that is at the top of the well, at the bottom of a flight of five or six steps, a staircase goes off from each side to this hall, and proceeds down to its right side.* Straight opposite to the entrance is a stone, containing the date of the building. By the side of this well a shaft or pit has been dug, in such a way that the bottom of it is a little higher than the middle of the well.* The cattle, moving in the dome that has been mentioned, turn a water-wheel, by which the water is raised from the one well into the other well or shaft. On this last-mentioned shaft they have erected another wheel, by which the water is raised to a level with the ramparts,* and flows into the upper gardens. At the place where the staircase issues from the well they have built a house of stone; and beyond the enclosure that surrounds the well, a stone mosque has been built; but it is ill built, and after the style of Hindustān.
The By the time that Humāiūn had made some progress in his
march,*
Nāsir Khan Lohāni, Maarūf Fermūli, and the rebel
lords,*
had assembled and encamped at Jājmāu.*
Humāiūn,
when about fifteen*
kos off, sent Mūmin Atkeh, in order
to gain intelligence, and to push on, to plunder and beat up
their quarters. He could not get any accurate information
of their motions, but the rebels, having notice of his approach,
took to flight, without waiting for his appearance.
Humāiūn sent out Kasimnāi with Bāba Chihreh and
Bujkeh, after Mūmin Atkeh, in order to get intelligence.
They brought news of the panic and flight of the enemy;
whereupon Humāiūn advanced and occupied Jājmāu, from
whence he proceeded onward. When he arrived near Dilmāu,*
Fateh
Khan
Sarwāni
submits.
Trans-
actions in
Khorasān.
Fateh Khan Sarwāni came and made his submission.
He sent that nobleman to me, accompanied by Mahdi
Khwājeh and Muhammed Sultan Mirza.
This same year, Obeidullah Khan raised an army, and advanced from Bokhāra against Merv. Ten or fifteen peasants, who were in the citadel of Merv,* were taken and put to the sword. Having settled the revenue of Merv, he, in the course of forty or fifty days,* proceeded against Sarakhs. In Sarakhs he found about thirty or forty Kizilbāshes, who shut the gates, and refused to give up the fort. The inhabitants being divided in their affections, some of them opened a gate,* by which the Uzbeks entered, and put all the Kizilbāshes to the sword. Having taken Sarakhs, he moved upon Tūs and Meshhad.* The inhabitants of Meshhad, having no means of defence, submitted. Tūs was blockaded for eight months, and finally surrendered on capitulation, the terms of which were not observed; all the men in the place being put to the sword, and the women reduced to slavery.*
Behāder This same year Behāder Khan, the son of Sultan Muzaffer
of Gujerāt, succeeded his father on the throne of Gujerāt,
of which country he is now king. Upon some difference with
his father, he had fled to Sultan Ibrahīm, by whom he was
treated with great slight; during the time that I was in the
vicinity of Pānipat, I received from him letters asking
for assistance. I returned him a gracious and encouraging
answer, inviting him to join me. He at first intended to
wait upon me, but afterwards changed his plan, and,
separating from Ibrahīm’s army, took the road of Gujerāt.
His father, Sultan Muzaffer, having died at this very crisis,
Short reign
of Sikander
Shah.
his elder brother Sikander Shah, the eldest son of Sultan
Muzaffer, succeeded his father on the throne of Gujerāt.
In consequence of his bad conduct, one of his slaves, Imād-al-mulk,
conspired with some others, and put him to death
by strangling him. They then sent for Behāder Khan,
who was still on the road, and on his arrival, placed him on
his father’s throne, under the name of Behāder Shah.*
This prince acted rightly in enforcing the law of retaliation
by putting to death Imād-al-mulk, who had behaved so
treacherously; but unfortunately, besides this,*
he put to
death a number of his father’s Amīrs, and gave proofs of his
being a blood-thirsty and ungovernable young man.