And when the rebellion and disobedience of the zamíndárs who live in the parts about the banks of the rivers Jumna and Chambal became known to Sher Sháh, he brought 12,000 horsemen from the Sirhind sarkár, and quartered them in the pargana of Hatkánt and that neighbourhood, and they repressed the zamíndárs and cultivators of those parts; nor did they pass over one person who exhibited any contumacy. And in the fort of Gwálior, Sher Sháh kept a force to which were attached 1000 matchlockmen. In Bayána, he left a division, besides a garrison of 500 matchlocks; in Rantambhor, another division, besides 1600 matchlockmen; in the fort of Chitor, 3000 matchlockmen;* in the fort of Shadmábád, or Mandú, was stationed Shujá'at Khán, with 10,000 horse and 7000 match­locks. He had his jágírs in Málwá and Hindia. In the fort of Ráísín a force was stationed, together with 1000 artillerymen; and in the fort of Chunár another force also, with 1,000 match-lockmen; and in the fort of Rohtás, near Bihár, he kept Ikhtiyár Khán Panní, with 10,000 matchlockmen; and Sher Sháh kept treasures without number or reckoning in that fort. And he kept a force in the country of Bhadauria,* and another under Khawás Khán and 'Ísá Khán in the country of Nágor Júdhpúr and Ajmír; another in Lucknow, and one in sarkár Kálpí. The kingdom of Bengal he divided into parts, and made Kází Fazílat amír of that whole kingdom. And in every place where it served his interests, he kept garrisons.

After a time he used to send for the forces which had enjoyed ease and comfort on their jágírs, and to send away in their stead the chiefs who had undergone labour and hardship with his victorious army. He appointed courts of justice in every place, and always employed himself in founding charities, not only for his lifetime, but even for after his death. May glory and blessings be upon his eminent dignity! For the convenience in travelling of poor travellers, on every road, at a distance of two kos, he made a saráí; and one road with saráís he made from the fort which he built in the Panjáb to the city of Sunárgáon, which is situated in the kingdom of Bengal, on the shore of the ocean. Another road he made from the city of Ágra to Bur­hánpúr, which is on the borders of the kingdom of the Dekhin, and he made one from the city of Ágra to Júdhpúr and Chitor; and one road with saráís from the city of Lahore to Multán. Altogether he built 1700 saráís* on various roads; and in every saráí he built separate lodgings, both for Hindús and Musulmáns, and at the gate of every saráí he had placed pots full of water, that any one might drink; and in every saráí he settled Bráhmans for the entertainment of Hindús, to provide hot and cold water, and beds and food, and grain for their horses; and it was a rule in these saráís, that whoever entered them received provision suitable to his rank, and food and litter for his cattle, from Government. Villages were established all round the saráís. In the middle of every saráí was a well and a masjid of burnt brick; and he placed an imám and a mua'zzin in every masjid, together with a custodian (shahna), and several watchmen; and all these were maintained from the land near the saráí. In every saráí two horses were kept, that they might quickly carry news.* I have heard that Husain Tashtdar* once, on an emergency, rode 300 kos in one day.* On both sides of the highway Sher Sháh planted fruit-bearing trees, such as also gave much shade, that in the hot wind travellers might go along under the trees; and if they should stop by the way, might rest and take repose.* If they put up at a saráí, they bound their horses under the trees.

Sher Sháh also built a fort, Rohtás, on the road to Khurásán, to hold in check Kashmír and the country of the Ghakkars, near the hill of Balnáth Jogí, four kos from the river Behat, and about sixty kos from Lahore, and fortified and strengthened it exceedingly. There was never seen a place so fortified, and immense sums were expended upon the work. I, 'Abbás Kalkapúr Sarwání, author of the Tuhfa-i Akbar Sháhí, have heard from the relators of the history of Sher Sháh, that, when build­ing this fort, stones were not procurable. The overseers wrote in their reports that stone was not procurable, or only procurable at an enormous outlay. Sher Sháh wrote back in reply, that his order should not be allowed to fail from avarice, and they should go on with the building though they paid for the stone its weight in copper. He called that fort “Little Rohtás.”*

The former capital city of Dehlí was at a distance from the Jumna, and Sher Sháh destroyed and rebuilt it by the bank of the Jumna, and ordered two forts to be built in that city, with the strength of a mountain, and loftier in height; the smaller fort for the governor's residence; the other, the wall round the entire city, to protect it;* and in the governor's fort he built a jamá' masjid of stone, in the ornamenting of which much gold, lapis lazuli, and other precious articles were expended. But the forti-cations round the city were not completed when Sher Sháh died. He destroyed also the old city of Kanauj, the former capital of the Kings of India, and built a fort of burnt brick there; and on the spot where he had gained his victory he built a city, and called it Sher Súr. I can find no satisfactory reason for the destruc­tion of the old city, and the act was very unpopular. Another fort, that of Bohnkundal, he also built, and ordered another fort to be built in these hills, and called it “Sher Koh.”* He said, “If my life lasts long enough, I will build a fort in every sarkár, on a suitable spot, which may in times of trouble become a refuge for the oppressed and a check to the contuma­cious; and I am making all the earthen-work saráís of brick, that they also may serve for the protection and safety of the highway.”

For the protection of the roads from thieves and highway rob­bers, he made regulations as follows: He strictly impressed on his 'ámils and governors, that if a theft or robbery occurred within their limits, and the perpetrators were not discovered, then they should arrest the mukaddams of the surrounding villages, and compel them to make it good; but if the mukaddams produced the offenders, or pointed out their haunts, the mukaddams of the village where the offenders were sheltered were compelled to give to those of the village where the crime occurred the amount of restitution they had paid; the thieves and highway robbers themselves were punished with the penalties laid down in the holy law. And if murders should occur, and the murderers were not discovered, the 'ámils were enjoined to seize the mukaddams, as detailed above, and imprison them, and give them a period within which to declare the murderers. If they produced the murderer, or pointed out where he lived, they were to let the mukaddam go, and to put the murderer to death; but if the mukaddams of a village where the murder had occurred could not do this, they were themselves put to death; for it has been generally ascertained that theft and highway robberies can only take place by the connivance of these head-men. And if in some rare case a theft or highway robbery does occur within the limits of a village without the cognizance of the mukaddam, he will shortly make inquiry that he may ascertain the circumstances of it; for mukaddams and cultivators are alike thieves, and they bear to each other the intimate relations of kinsmen: hence either the mukaddams are implicated in thefts and highway robberies, or can ascertain who perpetrated them. If a mukaddam harbours thieves and robbers unknown to the governor, it is fit he should be punished, or even be put to death, that it may be a warning to others to abstain from similar acts.*