The warriors of the Faith, who were in the temper of self-devotion, and prepared to submit to martyrdom,* heard from a secret voice the glad tidings And be not dejected nor sorry, for ye are exalted;* and from the infallible informer heard the joyful words, Assistance is from God, and victory is at hand; spread the glad tidings among the Faithful.* They fought with such delight, that praises were showered down on them from the pure above,* and the angels who are near to God, hovered like butterflies around their heads. And between the first and second prayers, the fire of battle blazed so, that its flames raised the standards above the firmament. And the right and left of the army of the Faithful, having driven the right, left, and centre, of the infidels into one place,* the indications of the superiority of the illustrious holy warriors, and the exaltation of the standards of Islām, began to be evident; and in the course of one hour, those damnable heathen and those atheistical wretches, being desperate and astonished at their condition, finally resigning their lives to despair,* made an attack on the right and left of our centre, and having advanced their greatest force on the left, had nearly reached it; but the holy warriors distinguished by valour, exhibiting the fruits of excellence,* planted the tree of their arrows on the ground of the breast of every one, and cast them all out* like their black fortune. In this situation of things, the breezes of success and victory blew on the garden of the Good Fortune of us the fortunate Nawāb, and the glad tidings came, Of a truth we have displayed on thy account a splendid victory.* The mistress Victory, whose world-adorning countenance decked with waving ringlets, and with God will aid you with mighty aid,* had been hid behind a veil, as the ornamented Bride of Futurity, now gave her aid and came to greet the Present*; the vain Hindus discovering their dangerous state, were scattered abroad like teazed wool, and broken like bubbles on wine.* Many were slain, and fell in the battle, and some giving up their lives for lost, turned to the desert of ruin, and became the food of crows and kites; and hillocks were formed of the slain, and towers raised of their heads. Hassan Khan Mewāti was enrolled in the band of the dead by a matchlock shot, and in like manner many of these bewildered and misled rebels, the leaders of that army, were struck by arrows or musket-shot, and closed their lives; of the number, Rāwal Udai Sing, before named,* who was Prince (Wali) of the country of Udaipūr, and had twelve thousand horse; and Rai Chanderbhān Chuhān, who had four thousand horse,* and Mānikchand Chuhān, and Dilpat Rai, who were masters of four thousand horse, and Gangū, and Karm Sing, and Rao Bikersi,* who had three thousand horse, and a number of others, who each were leaders of great clans, men of high rank and pride, measured the road to Hell, and, from this house of clay, were transferred to the Pit of Perdition. The road from the field of battle was filled like hell, with the wounded who died by the way; and the lowest hell was rendered populous, in consequence of the numbers of infidels who had delivered up their lives to the angels* of hell. On whatever side of the armies of Islām a person went, on every hand he found men of distinction lying slain; and the illustrious camp, wherever it has moved after the fugitives, could nowhere find a spot in which to plant a foot, in consequence of the number of distinguished men lying mangled.*
All the Hindus were scattered and confounded,*
With stones,* like the warriors of the elephant.
Many hills of their bodies were seen,
And from each hill flowed a rivulet of running blood.
From the dread of the arrows of the ranks full of grandeur,
They were flying and running*
to every field and hill.
Arabic.—They go backwards in flight. And the event
happened as it had been ordained of Fate. And now the
praise be to God, who is All-hearing and All-wise; and
except from whom there is no help, for he is great and
March
1527.
powerful.* *
Written in the month of the latter Jumāda, in
the year 933.*
After this victory I used the epithet Ghāzi,* in the imperial titles. On the Fatehnāmeh (or official account of the victory), below the imperial titles (inscribed on the back of the despatches), I wrote the following verses:
| (Tūrki)— | For love of the Faith I became a wanderer in the desert, I became the antagonist of Pagans and Hindus, I strove* to make myself a martyr;— Thanks be to the Almighty who has made me a Ghāzi (victorious over the enemies of the Faith). |
Sheikh Zein discovered the date of this victory in the words Fateh-i-bādshāh-i-Islām* (the victory of the Emperor of the Faith). Mīr Gīsū also, one of the men who had come from Kābul, discovered the date in the very same words, and sent them with four verses inscribed below.* There was a perfect coincidence between Sheikh Zein and Mīr Gīsū, in their best emblems.* The very same words were contained in their quatrains.* On another occasion, on my conquest of Debālpūr, Sheikh Zein discovered the date in Wasat-i-shahr-i-Rabīa ul awwal* (the middle of the month of the first Rabīa); and Mīr Gīsū hit upon the very same words.
Improves Having defeated the enemy, we pursued them with
great slaughter. Their camp might be two kos distant from
ours. On reaching it, I sent on Muhammedi, Abdal-azīz,
Ali Khan, and some other officers, with orders to follow them
in close pursuit, slaying and cutting them off, so that they
should not have time to re-assemble.*
In this instance
I was guilty of neglect; I should myself have gone on and
urged the pursuit, and ought not to have entrusted that
business to another. I had got about a kos beyond the
enemy’s camp when I turned back, the day being spent,
Banishes
Muhammed
Sherīf, the
astrologer.
and reached my own about bed-time prayers. Muhammed
Sherīf, the astrologer, whose perverse and seditious practices
I have mentioned,*
came to congratulate me on my victory.
I poured forth a torrent of abuse upon him; and when I
had relieved my heart by it, although he was heathenishly
inclined, perverse, extremely self-conceited, and an insufferable
evil-speaker,*
yet, as he had been my old servant,
I gave him a lak*
as a present, and dismissed him, commanding
him not to remain within my dominions.
Next day we continued on the same ground. I despatched Muhammed Ali Jeng-Jeng, Sheikh Gūren, and Abdal Malūk Korchi, with a large force against Iliās Khan, who had made an insurrection in the Doāb, surprised Koel, and taken Kīchek Ali prisoner. On the arrival of my detachment, the enemy, finding that they could not cope with them, fled in all directions, in confusion and dismay. Some days after my return to Agra, Iliās Khan was taken and brought in. I ordered him to be flayed alive.
Bābur con-The battle was fought within view of a small hill near our camp. On this hillock, I directed a tower of the skulls of the infidels to be constructed.
ReachesFrom this encampment, the third march brought us to Biāna. Immense numbers of the dead bodies of the pagans and apostates had fallen in their flight,* all the way to Biāna, and even as far as Alwar* and Mewāt. I went and surveyed Biāna, and then returned to the camp; and, having sent for the Tūrki and Hindi Amīrs, consulted about proceeding against the country of these pagans. That plan was, however, abandoned, in consequence of the want of water on the road, and of the excessive heat of the season.
Reduces