ces MUGHAL THRONEAbraham Fraly, who was born in Kerala, has taught Indian histary in Madras and the United States. He is the author of Gert tr the Lots: The Seeding of Indign Céorisation. He lives in Madras THE MUGHAL THRONE The Saga of India’s Great Emperors Abraham Eraly p PHoeNixA PHOENIS PAPERBACK First published i Geeat Britate in 204 ‘by Weidenteld & Nicolsan This paperback edition published! is 2004 by Phoenix, an imprint of Orion Books Lu, Grion House, 3 Upper St Martin's Lane, London WOR SEA Originally published by Penguim Books Indian 1997 and vevised eclilion in 2000 under the title Eniperesaf the Pencook Turoze: The Sng fae Grom Mughals V5 TOW Ga Copyright 1997, 2000 Abrakim Braly The rightof Abraham Praly to be identified as the author of his Work has boon asseelad by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents: Act 1966 “Allrights reserved. Mo part ofthis publicabon may be reproduced, stored ma rehnewul sysient, or transmitted,in any form ar by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, seconding or othecwise, without the priar peruission of the copyright uwner ACIP catalogue necord for thisbook isavailable from the Brtish Libracy: ISBN 075381 756 6 Printed andl bound jn Geeal Britain by Buder & Tanner Lod, Fromeand London For SATISE who in the summcr of a year of crisis asked, “What's it again? Can't begin anything new at your oge? Why not?” and got me going, Akbar: Tell mie, if yor plerse, whet is te grenfost cosalation Hiat grin fins dav ties world? Bichal: Ak, stre! il is when a father finds himself embraced by Ais son.Ire this fristory J have held frnily te it that te truth should be reached in every matter, and that every act should be recorded precisely ets it cccrrred .., [awe set dount of goed and bad whatever is biota... —Empetor Babur in Babur-nane I give the story as 1 recetved il; to comtredict if ts not aim imp power. —Francois Bernier in his report on Mughal India Contents Acknowledgeneits Preface Chapter One: The Mughal Advent 4, Like a King on a Chessboard 2 "TE Fame Be Mine...” 3. Black Pell the Day Chapter Two: The Struggle for Survival 1, The Dreamer Cometh 2. “The Feast Is Over...” 3. “What Is ta Be Done?” Chapter Three; The Afghan Interlude 1, Man of Destiny 2. Peaceable Kingdom 3. Fiery End Chapter Four: The Mughal Restoration 1. Humayun in Exile 2. The Reluctant Boy King 3. Bebind the Veil Chapter Five: The Empire Takes Hold 4, Earth Hunger 2. Invincible Emperor 3. Person and Fersona 4. Mliterate Savant Chapter Six: An Experiment in Synthesis 1. “My Mind Is Not at Ease...” 2. “Reason, Not Tradition . . 3, Allahu Akbar! 4 5. . Tyranny Is Unlawfal . The Long Farewell H att 10d 103 14 174 137 139 149 143 173 184 183 191 202 715Chapter Seven: The Middle Empire 1. 2 3. 4. 6. R ta Chi 1 His Father's Son ~ Scientist Emperor Sons and Rebels Another Son, Another Rebel Light of the World An English Aristocrat in the Mughal Court The Coup apter Eight: The Paradise on Earth The Man Behind the Mask 2. Pyrthic Victories 3. “Ya Takht, Ya Tabutl” 4. “For the Sake of the True Faith” 5, Dara’s Last Stand ‘Chapter Nine: Over the Top 1 2) =f . God's Elected Custodian “Fear the Sighs of the Oppressedi* Born to Trouble Others: 4. "The More One Drinks..." 5. “Now That the Shadows Pall. ." Chapter Ten: The Maratha Nemosis de 2: 3. 4. Kirti Rupen §, 6, 7. B. Maratha Beginnings Enter Shivaji Lord of the Umbrella . Maratha Collapse . Rafizi-kush . Maratha Eruption . “OF Ehe Future There Is'No Hope...” Epilogue Incidental! Data Notes Bibliography Index 231 233 add 255 263 271 279 288 297 299 316 3a1 aid 373 375 SB4 307 413 Az 515 523, 539 340 547 Acknowledgements The gods have been kind to this unbehever, At every mament of pressing need, as | plodded on interminably with the work on. this book, [ have received the needed supporl, often from unexpected eources and in unexpeeled ways, even wilhoul my asking for i, as a galt from the gods. Several friends read portions of the manuscript at different stages and gave help and encouragement. Of them | have to make a special mention of two, Sita Srikanth and Nancy Gandhi, whose contributions have been direct and crucial, and have mattered to me far more than T have ever had the grace ta show Sita, 2 colleague of mine when | was living disguised as the editor of a fortnightly magazine, was the first person with whom I discussed this project. She then scaured the libraries and pressed books om me, and did much to harden my tenuous idea unto a fiem project Later, she read through the entire first draft of the book, making valuable suggesiions and hectoring me to wark harder, challenging me to be botter than Lam, often flingmg at me the very precepts en which I used to hold forth at editorial meetings. Her support has been invaluable in sustaining this project. Equally invaltiable has been the contribuben of Nancy, wha came in when I was completing the second draft and was desperately logking for someone tn read it before J went in for the final revision. Nancy, palient and thorugh, punctilious in observing grammar vonventions and puritanical in her aversion ta ormamentatian, has been the ideal editor for me, better than I could have dreamed of. She gave me the second wind needed to complete this work, ] should also record my gratitude to 5. Krishnan, who read the early chapters of the book and buoyed me up with his enthusiasm, to br. C T. Kurian, whose critical comments enabled me to firm up the chapter on Mughal economy; to David Daveclac, Editor and Fublesher of Penguin india, whose prompt and positive response to the book ad mae all the soul-enumbing publishing hassles; and ta Ravi Singh, editor at Penguin, who expertly put the book through its final sal my paces,Preface {have in my study, on the old, worm-hole pitted teak desk at which l work, an antique stone head of Buddha, less than a foot high, which [had picked up many years age in Madras from a pavement junikwallah, fl is a fine piece, als chiselied features perfect, head slightly bent sideways, a5 if trying la anchor a memory or a dream, eyes half-closed medilatively, A thick patina of grime tinges the handsome, serene face with a peculiar sadness, the anguish of a compassionate outsider, concerned with the human predicament, but not invalved with 1b Qvyer the years, as [ Jabaured an this book, the dispassionate compassion of Buddha had seemed to me the perfect ideal for students of history, though of course we would all fail disgracefully ta live up to al, as the passions of our lives and the furies of our age knead and rework us continually on the slow wheel of time (As lime reworks us, we rework history. * Atl works of history are interim: reports," says American histocian John Noble Wilford, “What people did in the past is nat preserved uy amber unmutable through the ages. Each genecalon looks back and, drawing from: its qwn expenence, presumes to find patterns that iNuminate both past and present” Nothing ever quite dies. The past ts nearly as alive as the preseril, and it changes as the present changes, jhe historical past as much as our personal past. The bare facts of history do net of course change, except far occasional emundatians, but the way Facts mterlock ane change colour lo make pattems is umque to each generation, indeed ta cach historian, No particular representation of the past has therefore any absolute validity, and the value of any historical work depends largely on the felicitous catalysis of the personal vision into a universal vision. Ib 1s essentially a triumph of art The mutability of human perceptions apart, there are other obstacles loa definitive understanding of the historical processes. Man canst, as ‘Albert Camus says in The Rebel, grasp the totaly of history “since he jives in the mudst of this totality, Histery, as an entirety, could existFROEEACE only in the eyes of an observer outside it and outside the world.” Tt is in fact impossible for man fo know the final truth even about any particular event in history. however trivial dt might be, for he, himself swirling in Hme, does not have the perspective ta see all ils relevant connections and discern where it would ultimately lead, as its consequences, interseching with the consequences of myriad other events, proliferate endlessly into the future "Historical reason will never be fulfilled and will never have its full meaning or value until the end of history,” argues Camus. “The purely historical absolute is not even conceivable.” When we consider these all too evident limitations of writing history, it seems amazing that academic historians in modern times have generally Jaid claim to scientific precision for thetr methodology, and abjective validity for their theories. Historical investigation has of course become more sophisticated lately, especially m the evaluation of archaeological and philological data. But this has come about mainly because of advances in science and technology, and not becnuse of any radical change in the methodology of history. The character of history has not changed. But the garb of historians has changed, for they have suited up for their new role as Social scientists, Unfortunately, many historians, in their excitement at being recagnized as social scientists, overlooked the fact that while scientific discoveries are sequential and mack a linear progress—with new discoveries displacing or modifying old theories— new interpretations of history seldem displace old interpretations, for they are only tenets, at best philosophies, not discoveries, The unpredictability of human affairs makes historical analysis, for all its vaunted scientific methodology, essentially an act of faith What we find depends a lot an what we are. There were other complications too. Observes Harvard professor Simeon Schama: “As historians institutionalized themselves into an academic profession,” they tumed away fram “historical realities’ to “historiographical obsessions”. Their focus then shifted from persons and events, the flesh and blood of history, to abstract structures of their own construction, This pursuit tapped historians in a maze of sophistry, the stenle, self-abusive game of thought, involving over-elaborations and supersubtleties which made little sense. Now at last historians are beginning to grope their way out of the maze, And gradually, renouncing the conceits of the reeent past, they are returning to their primary function, to resuscitate the past and xl release it into the present. That is what history is all about. Herodatus, the fifth century BC Greek father of history, has said it all in the opening sentence of his book: “This isa publication of the researches of Heradotus Halicarnassus, in order that the actions of men may not be effaced by time The historian’s profession, as the nineteenth- century French scholar Jules Michelet stated, as to bring “things back to Ive". Says Schama; “I have toed to bring a world to life rather than entomb it in erudite discourse,” Ta this role, the historian does net merely log and interpret data; he portrays life and tells a story. Meticulous research is essential, and so is vivid writing, to enable readers to vicariously experience life in other times, other places, When history is yoked to theories and formulas, its sap dries up. Then it neither enlightens nor sensitizes, The sloughing off of the ill-fitting vestments of science by historians does not make history worthless, but it does change the nature of its worth, Sensitizing the present ta the past is nota value neutral process Every retelling of history, if it is anything more than just a banal catalogue of events, invelves ideation, if only because, even at the primary level, a process of selection and evaluation of data, a patiern- making, is involved. The historian might nat be overtly judgemental, but judgement is implicit in the very telling of the story, Facts speak for themselves, and when vividly presented, speak loud and clear. ‘The historian is not a moral eunuch. In fact, it is his moral voice that gives his work its unique timbre—not to raise the moral voice is to treat history like paleobotany, with bland detachment. So, even while the historian acknowledges the provisional nature af all historical perceptions, he, like the nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Kierkegaard, affirms his subjective certainty in the world of objechve uneertaintes, He might not have any cosmic conclusions ta offer, but he does take positions that are appropriate and necessary to his time and place. The essential corollaries of this relativistic attitude are moderation and tolerance. The historian affirms his views, but humbly, conscious that there are no absolutes. As the saying goes, the white heron in the snow has a different colour. All perceptions, all truth, are relative. As Vedantists would say, all are maya, mental constructs, The eye looks, the mind sees. To acknowledge the subjective and provisional nature of historical perceptions is not to abandon the process of fair and unbiased collection and evaluation of data, To adapt Tom Wolfe's dictum, the historian sees with an impersonal eye, but speaks with a personal voice. The ideal of historical objectivity has been set down by several Mughal xiiPREFACE eft as the duty of an historian to be faithful, to have no hope of profil, no fear of injury, to show ne partiality on one side, or animosity on the other, to know no difference between friend and stranger, and to write nothing but with simcerty,” says Khafi Khan, courtier historian of Emperor Aurangzeb, “In this history [ have held firmly to it that the truth should be reached in every matter, and that every act should be recorded precisely as it occurred,” writes Emperor Babur in his memoirs, Uncompromising exploration, clear, unbiased percephon, candid presentation—these were Babur's ideals, There ore no better precepts for historians. writers: Candour is a major charm of Babur’s autobiography, and so is its richness of detail, Fine detail—nuance—is the life-blood of history, as of literature. Says Francois Berner, a seventeenth-century French traveller in his report on Mughal India: “I agree with Plutarch that trifling incidents ought nat be concealed, and that they often enable us to form qmare accurate apintons of the manners and genius of a people than events of great importance.” Major events shape the contours of history, but it is the particulars that breathe Iife unto it. To give compleieness to history and to establish the total context of Life, it is as essential to examine the details ef everyday life, as of political, economic and socio-cultural developments. In this, the historian ‘of Mughal India is fortunate, for his sources are numerous and varied, and are rich at detail about every facet of life. And I have quoted extensively from them, samewhat in the manner of a reporter quohng eyewitnesses, to give immediacy and authenticity to the narrative, and to Jet the reader see Mughal life through the eyes of those who saw it directly The basic concern of the historian as, 1 belicve, similar to that of any serious artist or creative writer—to share expenence and to elucidate the human condition. The historian too uses imagination and insight, bo visualize what happened in history and present a coherent picture, though he, unlike the creahwe writer, has to work strictly within the boundaries of known facts, and is not free ta invent even the minutest detail What Richard Feynman said of physicists applies to historians too: “Gur imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those fhings which are there.” Imagination, says American historian Barbara Tuchman, enables the historian “to understand the evidence he has accumulated. Imagination stretches the available facts... the artist's eye: It Jeads you to the right thing’ Melhodical research builds the ship, imagination sails it xy PHEFACE This yelume on late meclieval Indian history, from 1526 ta L707, 1s part of a four-volume study titled India Retold, that would, when completed, caver the history of India from the beginning up to 1858; chronologically, this is the third volume in the prapased serves, though the first to be ready. My focus in this velume is on the Mughal empire; | have dealt with regional. histories only in their links with Mughal history, Regional histories—indecd, even studies of sub-regions and towns—are valuable, hut impractical for the general historian. 1 have therefore stayed clase to the dominant theme of the period, and have tried to deal with it exhaustively, bearing, in mind Thomas Mann's dictum that “only the uxhaustive is truly interesting" But the exhaustiveness [ have attempted is in presenting life in its fullness, not in cataloguing events. [ have not, for inslance, listed many of the battles, but have, on the other hand, described a couple of battles in great detail, to show how the Mughals fought. [ have also dealt with everyday Ide—of the people as well as of the rulers—at great length, as my obyeclive 1s to portray life rather than merely te chronicle history If history is the murror in which we recognize ourselves a3 a penple, then modern Indians can hardly recognize themselves in the mirror that is conventionally held up to them. Or, alternately, they imagine themselves to be something they are nof, as istortions in the mirror distoct their self-perceptions. This is a modem predicament, a consequence of the psychic morphing of India, induced instially by British imperial prejudice, then by European romanticism, and finally by Indian nationalism. ‘These distortions prevail even today, though times have changed. During the British rule, Indians, asa subject people, needed the comfort and strength of a presumed golden past to mould the nationalist senkment and energize the freedom struggle. But now, half a century after independence, India cannot still subsist on the mindset of adolescent nationalism, chewing the cud of romantic fancy, To move on, it is imperative today to lift the veils of bias, romance and myth that obscure India’s image, and look truth in the eye. The alternative 15 to remain snared in selfdelusions, Hehting quixotic battles with the spectres of the past—the unforgiven colonial cule, or (for some) the even more unforgiven Muslim invasion of India one thousand years ago. ‘Tradition, however glorious, is what a people have to grow out ob The future is not a replica of the past, but its fulfilment. In every other major civilization, the past has died so the future could be bom, but olPREPACE India seems to be Killing the future so the past can live on. India's lofty boast is that its is the eldest living: civilization, but is that anything to be proud of? That India has not evolved? There is something: very wrong with a peaple who consider that the grealest that would ever be has alieady been, and that the best they can-do is to dupheate the past ‘There is of course ovich in the Indian heritage to be proud of but there is also much to be ashamed of, and both have ta be examined with candour, Not ta do sa would be irresponsible. Tt is possible that such candour would be controversial in a socio-political environment In which expedient myths tyrannize reality, As a Chinese saying has it, when the finger points to the maon, the idiot would look at the finger. That cannot be helped. The historian is not concemed with political correctiess, Abratrane Eraly Madras December 1995 XVE paLUcHrsTan Arabine See : eee \ ———! SIND eaJaSTLLAW an Grea f se \ { ese , Mughal India Seg | Ke as abal 7 ‘ASHI ae Bins Re AFGIANISTAD / } | : * vrai of fe Heeroma ) ga } ee FE set has sone pat Ag Ma) LS Y secs Seth hers ey uf DengelFamily of Itimad-nd-daula {tug hicks with the blugal dynasty) Itimad-ud-doula (Ghiyas Bes) Sherafar = Nurjahan = — fahungic Asaf Khan (thi i} (Mithreniisa) (and husband) { 1577-1643 = uther wes | aa nears | Ladli Begum = Shahpar Sha ahan = Mumtaz Mahal — Shayista Khon 1503-1631 Aurangech The Great Mughals (Years of rule are given in brackets) Babur 1483-1339 (1526-1510) Humayun — —— Kamran —— Asleari Handal 150 Akbar — 1543-14815 (1555-1605) = Amber princess Jahangir (Sul) 15641-14: Murad: Dantyal (1605-15271 = Joh at Shah Jahan ——— stehryar {®hocam) 1592-1665 [\827-Lest = Mumize Khusrav Parviz Dara Shuye Aurangzeb ——— Mured Glib 307 (1658-1707) (The prarkers of the cmiperecs are given But excep far ciramgzely the brokers of the ewiperurs lad daffereit motlrers.)THE MUGHAL THRONE yChapter One THE MUGHAL ADVENTLike a King on a Chessboard “{N THE MONTH of Ramadan of the year 899, ancl m the twelfth year of my age. became ruler in the country of Fergana” So begin the memoirs of Babur. The day was Tuesday, 9h June 1494 Babur's father, Umar Sheikh Mirza, king and pigeon fancier, had died m a freak accident the previous day at Akhsi, a northern fort of Fergana, when his doyecot, built on the edge of a ravine in a comer of the castle, tumbled into the river below in a landslide, bearing him down with it “Umar Sheikh Mirea flew, with hus pigeons and their house, and became a falcon," writes Babur Babuc was born on 14th February 1483. He was named Zahiruddin }uhammad—Defender of the Fatth, Muhammad—but that was a tongue-twister of an Arabic name fer the rustics of Fergana, so they mcknamed the child Babur. The name meant tper, and proved fitting, Babur's lineage was awesome. On the paternal side, he was the grandson of Sullan Abu Said Mirza of Herat, a great-grandson of Timur, the legendary Tartar hero. On his mother's side, his grandfather was Yunus Khan of Tashkent, the Great Khan of the Mongols, the thicteenth im the direct line of descent from Chingi# Khan, Babur was thus a Turka-Mongol, a5 were most of the ruling class in the ractal cauldron of Central Asia; he was in fact more a Mongol than a Turk, for his paternal ancestor, Timur, though a Turk by language and cullure, was also of Mongol descent Babur, however, preferred to call himself a Turk—he considered Mongols to be uncouth barbarians and despised them, saying, “Were the Mongols a race of angels, it would shill be a vile nation.” Nathing much is known about Babur's mather, except her name, Qutluq Nigar Khanum, and her Mongol lineage Babur himself has little to say about her, But there is a lively, candid profile of fis father in his memoirs. Umar as Babur describes him, was a short, stout, powerfully built man—"not a man. but fell ta his blow," he wrtes— slovenly in dress, gross in habits, but amorous, and addicted to alcohol, opium and the game of draughts. He was also, Babur wryly notes, a vapid poet.THE MUGHAL ADVINT WHEN THE NEWS of his father's death reached Babur, he way encamped, it heing summer, in a garden outside Andizhan, the capita) cr ergana His immediate and charactensstically Tamurid concer, though he was but a child, was lo secure his throne As the eldest prince, the throne was his by right, but that right could be enforced, in the volatile politeal environment of Central Asta, only by the sword. He therefore hastily retamed to Andizhan, escorted by bis amiss. And there, after some uncertainty about whether be would be recewed as king or taken captive, he ascended the throne J , Tt was a shaky throne At the time of Babur’s accession, Pergona was under attack by two of his uncles, neighbourmy monarchs who had heen proveked into hostility by Umar, and who new, on Umar's death, considered the boy-king fair prey, And within Fergana itself 4 cabal of nobles were plotting to raise Babur's younger brother Jahangir to the throne, For the mement, however, Babur’s stars were in the ascendant, and he triumphed over all his adversaries, partly by luck, but mainly beeause his affairs were taken an hand by his matemal grandmother, Aisan-daulat Begum. A nomadic Mongol of the wald steppes, she was a worldly-wise and fornudable dowager, of whom Habur says, “Few amongst women will have been my grandmother's equals for judgement and counsel; she was very wise and farsishled and most affairs of mine wert carted through under her advice” Babur loved Fergana. It was a beautiful, myer-laced Janc of hills and dales, celebrated for its orchards, gardens and abundant game. Bul Fergana was too small to sate Babur’s ambition or contain his energy The boy was a dreamer, awake with visions of empire and glory Moreover, fratricidal wars were a Timurid rite of passage, a cayal obligation. Babur could fulfil himself—indeed, even survive—only by the sword. The entire mountainous country fram the Aral Sea to the Hindu Kush, broken into halfa-dozen principalities, was ruled by the close relatives of Babur, turbulent descendants of Timur or Chingiz Khan, who were foreyer grappling with each other in ceaseless wars, There Was scope enough there for Babur to fulfil himself. Immediately to the west of Fergana was the kingdom of Samarkand, ruled by Baisanghar, a paternal cousin of Babur Samarkand, Timur's fabled capital, was na longer the grand imperial city it had been once, but for Babur the throne of Timur was still the ultimate symbol of temporal power, and its possession now became his magnificent obsession. Tt was a possible dream, for Samarkand was in chaos at this time, with rival princes clashing aver ihe throne, In mid-1496 Babur joined the fray, and though his initial campaign was a failure, and be & LIKE ACKING ON A CHESSBOARD was obliged at the onset of winter to retreat over the mountains ta Fergana, he was able to seize the city the following year after a tenacious siege of seven months. Babur was then just fifteen years old. But lis career, as he saw it, had already peaked. To sit on the throne of Tinwur was the highest of Tughs for him, nol eclipsed even by his later conquest of India, and till the end of his life he loved to roll in his mind the bilter-sweet memory of winning and losing Sarmarkand His moment of triumph was all too bref For a hundred days he held Samarkand, despite desertions in his army. Then his run ef luck ended—he fell seriously ill in Samarkand, meanwhile Jost Fergana to rebels favouring his brother Jahangir, and when he marched out to quell the rebellion, lost Samarkand also, to Sultan Alt Mirza of Bokhara, a cousin, The fledgeling that had dared to soar had crashed ignormniausly “It came very hard on me,” writes Babur. “could nat help crying a good deal.” Babur did eventually recover Fergana, and Samarkand tao, but only to Jase them both all over again, this time to the formidable Urbeg chief Shaibani Khan, a deseendant of Chingiz Khan, who had made it the mission of his life to extirpate the Timurids from Central Asia THE TEN YEARS from the time he ascended the throne of Fergana as a boy-king, HII, a8 a young adult, he established himself as the ruler of Kabul, were years of unremitting adversity for Babur, punctuated by a few all too bref triumphs. For many years, says Mughal chronicler Ferishta, “Babur was lke a king on a chess-board, moved from place to place, and buffeted about like pebbles on a seashore.” Time and again he was a king without a kingdom, somehmes even without a home. Lamented Babur: Is there ome creel turi of Forture's wheel waseen by me? [5 there a pang, a grief my wounded heart has missed? Homeless, for a while he wandered about in the mountains of Central Asia with a small band of ragged comrades, often sheltering with wild hill tribes. Finally, wretched and destitute, he took refuge with his maternal unele, the Mongol chieftain, im Tashkent: There was no solace for him there either, “During my stay in Tashkent," he writes, “I endured much poverty and humiliation. No country, or hope of one!” 7THE MUGHAL ATIYENT ‘At one time, in despair and shame, he even thought of slinking: off tp China. ‘Then suddenly, in a dramatic tum of events, fate plucked Bahu: out of his misery and set him on the throne of Kabul. Kabul, Itke all the other kingdoms in the region, Was ruled by a relative of Babur, Ulugh Beg Mirza, a paternal uncle When Ulugh Beg died, leaving only ay infant son as heir, the principality collapsed into turmoil as rebels and invaders swept the land. This was opportunity for Babur. His eyes had heen on Kabul for same lime, and now, desperate for a safe haven, he swooped down on the hapless city and claimed it for himself, This was m 1504, Babur once again had a power base And a future, Babur was only twenty-two years old when he took Kabul, 4 whole life lay ahead of him. Never again would he have to be ansaous for a throne to sit on, He had suffered enough. But suffering had nol calloused him, Or dulled his verve for Life, There were times when he wept and bemoaned his fate, but never far long, As he put it, All il, all good in te count, Is gain of fooked! at aright Adversity made him wise, not eynical, it taught him what he needed tp learn to meril what be had to achieve, There was a natural candour about Babur, a warmth and openness that endeared hum to fis men, with whom he shared all dangers and all hardships, always leading them from the front. “This prince was adorned with various virtues,” writes his cousin Mirza Haidar, “above all of which brayery and jwumanity had the ascendant.” Intelligence, compassion, energy, ambition, Steadfasiness, and, equally, the sheer joy of life—these are the traits we see in Babur in Kabul ‘We do not know what Babar looked like, There are no descriptions In a portrait in Brbwr-nama painted during the reign of Akbar, presumably with the guidance of thase whe had known Babur, we see him as a man of medium build, with a light beard—he was so lightly bearded! that it was only in his twenty-third year that he first needed to shave—heavy eyelids, a sharp nose and a broad forehead. The selling in the painting is pastoral, the mood serene. But Babur, the nomadic blood af his ancestors surging in his veins, was a restless person, Always on the move, he had never since his eleventh year “kept the Ramadan feast for two successive years im the same place,” he notes with pride in fis journal. a LIKE A KING ON A CRIESSIGAAD Babur loved to call himself a dervish, His generosity was legendary. Possessions did not mean much to him. But self-fulfilment did And self-fulfilment meant fulfilment as a monarch and empire-builder. For that, Kabul opened up unprecedented opportunities. IN KABUL, BABUR’S eyes turmed eastward, tured ‘by the memory of Timur’s Indian invasion, and impelled by his own compelling need to foray, to supplement the meagre revenue of his mountain kingdom. From the time Kabul was taken, “my desire for Hindustan had been constant," writes Babur. In 1505, the very year after he took Kabul, Rabur led his first expedition towards India. “It was in the month of Shaban, the Sun being in Aquarius, that we rode out of Kabul for Tindustan,” he records. That campaign however was liltle more than a border raid across the Khyber Pass, His first serious expedition into india would come only a full twenty years later, in 1524, For the time being, he was still preoccupied with Central Asian affairs, mainly with his indomitable adversary Shaihant Khan, who was always there just beyond the honzon, a constant menace. *petween Shaibani and the Timurids it was not just a power rivalry, but a bland feud. There could never be any peace between them, and as long as Shatbani was around, no Mughal would be safe on his throne. So when Sultan Husain Mirza of Herat, the grand patriarch of the clan, summoned Timwurid princes lo combine against Shaibani in a fight to the finish, Babur at once set out with his troops for Herat. Unfortunately, the aged sultan died before the campaign could be launched, and his twa sons, both exquisitely over- 1THT MUGIEAL ADVENT What followed was Iigh drama, as Babur turned the Peivnity renunciatory vow into a stirring sacramental nite. As his men Stood ip formation, glum and uncertain abou! what to expect, he faced (hp, and raising his arms to invoke the blessings uf Allah, ceremonially tag his pledge to renounce wine Then, with splendid theatricality, 4, called for his abundant stock of wine ta be brought, poured all the radiant miby-red liquor on the ground in front of his aghast troop. smashed his flagons, his gold and silver goblets, and gave away the fragments to dervishes and the poor. A well was ordered to be dup where the wine was poured, and an alms-house built beside |t, po, good measure, Babur also swore not to trim his beard thereafter, He then turned to address his men. “Noblemen and soldiers! Whoever sity down ta the feast of life must, before it 15 over, drink of the cup of death... How much beller, then, if os to che with honou,, than to ive with infamy,” he declaimed. “The most High God has been propitious tous He has now placed us in such a crisis that if we fall in the field, we die the death of martyrs; if we survive, we rise vnetorious, the avengers af his sacred cause. Let us, therefore, with anu accord swear on God's Haly Word that none of us will for a moment think of turning his face from this warfare; or shrink from the battle and slaughter that ensue, ull his soul is separated from fis body," The impact of these words on his men was electric. “All those present, officer and retainer, great and small, toak the Holy Bonk joyfully ato their hands and made yow and compact to this purpott,” Babur notes with gratification. “The plan was perfect: Tt worked admirably.” The mood of the Mughal army then swung dramatically from dread ta daredevilry, “From the effect of lhese soul-inflamung wards, a fire fell into each heart," says Mughal chronicler Nizamuddin Abmad AT DAWN ON loth March, Babur reached Khanua, a small village about forty kilometres west of Agra There, as his army was pitching ils camp ata carefully chosen and prepared site near a low hill, he was informed by scouts that the Rajputs wee approaching. Tt was, as at Panipat, a Saturday, and it would be as lucky for Babur. The battle of Khanua was a virtual replay of the balile of Panipat, except that it lasted nearly double the time and was far more fiercely contested, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides The battle commenced at about nine in the moming and raged en Hl late evening, The decisive factor at Khanua, as al Panipat, was the firepower of the Mughals, aimed at the enemy compacted into “one mace” by 26 “UP DAME We MIND Babur turning the Rajput flanks. Mustafa, the Ottoman Turk in charge of the Mughal artillery, “had the carts brought forward -and brake the ranks of pagans with matehlock and cannon,” reports Babur And (he Mughal soldiers, infiamed by Babur’s aration, “fought woth such delight and pleasure that it was more like a time of mirth than one of war, notes Nizamuddin Ahmad. In the end the Rajputs fled, leaving so many dead in the battle field that, according te Babur, the Mughal contingents chasing them “found no foot-space without the prostrate foc.” Rana Sanga himself fled, with Babur in het pursuit But after a chase of about three |cilometres beyond the enemy camp, Babur peeled away, leaving il to others to follow on, which enabled the Rana to escape: “There was a little slackness; ] ought fo have gone myself,” writes Babur, Apparently he did not want to force hig luck, Nor did he, as he would normally hayes ieleme; follaw up {he victaty with an invasion of Mewar, because of “lithe water and c| he road.” a ee 3 the battlefield, Babur ordered a pillar of severed enemy heads to be erected on the hill beside which the battle was fought, This was a Mughal military rite performed after almost every battle, ta strike terrpr in potential adversaries and thus to cripple their spirit and defeat them even before the battle was fought on the ground. By nightfall Babur returned to his camp, and there assumed the {itle of Ghazi, Holy Warrior, He then turned to Muhammad Shanf, the astrologer who had. predicted a Mughal rout, but was now wailing to congratulate Babur on his victory. Babur tore into him: "T poured forth upon him a torrent of abuse.” But eventually bus generosity prevailed. “Wen Thad rebeved my heart by it, although he was a selFconceited fellow... and am intolerable evil-speaker, yet, a= he was my old servant, T gave him a lakh ina present, and dismissed him, conumanding him to depart from my demunions,”Black Fell the Day THE BATTLE OF Khanua marked the end of the travails of Babur, There were still batiles to hght—there would always be battles to fight—bul Babut was now indisputably the Emperor of Hindustan, fp was content. The pace of bis life now eased, and he gradually reverteg ta the relaxed lifestyle of his balmy days in Kabul. Everything interested Babur and most things delighted him. Hig curiosity was boundless, and there was in him, even after all he had had to endure in life, a charmung, childlike faculty to find joy in the most humdrum things of everyday life It thrilled him, for mstance, to burn the leafy branches of holm-oak which crackled as they buried; “ is good fun to bum it!" he wntes, For him, the shining meon, the flowering bush, the rushing stream, were all celebratory miracles, “Tonight I elected ta take opium,” he writes, “because of ath shining of the moon” Agam! “On Thursday al sunrise .. . confection was eaten. While under if influence wonderful fields of flowers were enjoyed... There were flowers on all sides of the mound, yellow here, red there, as if arranged regularly to form a sextuple.” [t was with the same joyous wonder that he had first seen India, in 1508; “In Ningrahar another world came to view—other grasses, other trees, other animals, other birds, and other manners and customs of clan and horde. We were amazed, and truly there was ground for amazement.” In India, after Khanwa, there was only one thing that sullied Babur's happiness—his vow to abstain from wine. “In truth the longing and craving for wine-party has been infinite and endless for two years past, so much so thal sometimes the craving for wine brought me to the verge of tears," he wrote to Khwaja Kalan in Kabul, and lamented: While others repent and ake ow to abstain, T have voted to abstain, and repentayl am I. He would break bis yow and reverl to wine towards the end of his hfe, but in the meantime he consoled himself with the pleasures of good companionship. “In the company of friends, death is a feast,” he used te say, quoting a Persian proverb. He enjayed people and delighted in BLACK FELL TUE DAY convivial partes. "There was much joking and laughter,” he says, recalling with pleasure a party al the house of an amir, He revelled in clever repartee, but despised “vapid and empty” small-talk, ONE OF THE enduring passions of Babur, in good times and bad, was his love of literature, He now had the leisure to Iuxuriate in it, His library was one of his most valued possvssions, which be always carried around with him, and books were one of the treasures he hunted for in a conquered land, In his memoirs, when he listed the sovereigns and high nebles of a land, he also listed poets, musicians and intellectuals, They too maltered to him. He was a fastidious connoisseur of literature, and he considered it a terrible depravity to write bad poetry. “His verse is flat and insipid," says he about his paternal uncle Sultan Mahmud Mirza of Badakshan, and adds: “Not to compose is better than to compose verse such as lus" It greatly distressed him that his son Humayun was a negligent writer “Though taking bouble . , . [your letter] can be read, it is very puzzling, and whoever saw an enigma in prose?” he once upbraided Humayun, and advised: “Thy cemissness in writing seems to be duc to the thing which makes thee obscure, that ts to say, to elaboration. In future write unaffectedly, clearly, with plain words, which saves trouble to bolh writer and reader.” Babur himself was an acclaimed writer. He wrote in Turki as well as in Persian, but with greater felicity in Turki, in which he was a poet “second only to Acur Ali Shir", according to Miraa Haidar. Babur had several books to his ¢redil, prose and poetry, even a treatise on jurisprudence and another on Turki prosody, But his best known work is his autobiography, a classic im its genre, Bahur wrote a good deal after Khanua. Me found it a fair consolaban. for the floss of the pleasures of wine. Further, he had a curious notan that literature had healing powers—writing irreverent poetry, he believed, caused illness, while wotmg ennobling poetry cured it! He was, he says, once @ careless versifier, stringing into verse whatever came to his head, "good or bad, grave or jest. . . however empty and harsh the verse might be," but became more discriminating while writing Mubayyin, his poetic magnum opus, At that ime, says Babur, “this thought pierced through my dull wits and mace way into sy teoubled heart, “A pity it wall be if the tongue which has the treasure ‘of ulterances so lofty as these, is wasted again on low words . . .° Since that time I have refrained from satirical and jesting verse.” Not quite. Babur did still occasionally relapse imto frivolous 25THE MUGHAL ADVENT limericks—and suffered for it! A few days after one cuck trivia, composition, nates Babur, "I had fever and discharge, followed by cough, and I began to spit bleed each time T coughed, [ knew When, my reproof came; T knew what act of mine had brought this affiic, on me.” Unfortunately, yery Bittle of Babur's poetry has survived, sq his literary reputation today rests solely on his autobiography, and wyon from this large portions are missing. Babur used to carry his journg] with him all the time, even on military campaigns, working on whenever he had a litte time, This habit of his once led to a ea, disaster. He was at that time encamped al a riverside, sittins up late in the night, writing. Suddenly, a great storm burst over the camp. "Sych storm burst, in the inside of a moment, from the up-puled clouds of the rainy season, and such a stiff gale rose, that few tents were Jef standing,” Balror records. “I was in the audience tent, about ta write: before | could collect papers and sections, the tent came down, with its porch, right on my head... Sections and book were drenched under water and were gathered together with much difficulty. We laid them in folds of the woollen throne-carpet, put this-on the throne and on it piled blankets... We, without sleep, were busy till shoot of day drying folios and sections" Jt was probably in some such mishap that the mussing sections of his memoirs were Inst The great charm of Babur's memours is its directness and simplicity, its total lack of affectation. Babur was a candid chronicler. “In this fustory [ have held firmly to it that the truth should be reached in every maller, and that every act should be recorded precisely as jt eccurred," he writes. “From this it follows of necessity that I have set down of good and bad whatever is known, concerning father and elder brother, Kinsman and stranger; of them all ] haye set down carefully the known virtues and defects.” This was his precept, His practice did not always quite match the high ideal, Babur was writing about himseli, with his cyes on posterily, and he would not have been human if he did not intensify the drama of hus life Babur's descriptions of events do sometimes vary im detail from other contemporary sources, and it cannot be assuimud that his version was always right, The discrepancies are, however, mimor, and could be due to differences in perception or quirks of memory. Apart from the books he wrote, Babur had fo his credit several other cultural accomplishments, such as musical compositions, and, the creation of a new and distinctive style of calligraphy, called Baburi. But his greatest passion outside literature was gerdening, He would even pause in the midst of critical military campaigns to lay out gardens, as lon, 30 HLACK FELL Til DAY he did on the river-bank near Sirhind in Punjab on the way to Panipat in Agra, one of his first projects was to build a garden complex. Later, he laid out another garden at the lake in Daulpur, where he hada six by six metre tank hewed out of a single mass of rock, saying, “When it is fished, I will fall it with wine” At Sikn, on his way back from Jhanua, he ordered an octagonal platform ta be built in the middle of the lake there, for him lo repose and enjoy opium, he also loved hoaling in the lake, says Gulbadan, Babur was a keen horticultunst, “Thad plantains brought and planted. there fin Kabul); they did well" he writes. “The year before | hac sugar-cane planted there, it also clid well.” In India, he was ecstatic wher the grapes and melons which he had introduced into the Garden of Eight Paradises in Agra began to bear fruit, “To have grapes and melons grown in this way in Hindustan filled my measure of content,” he writes, THIS CAPACITY OF Babur to find joy in so many different things was what sustained him during his years of adversity, for some facet or other of the many facets of his personality always caught the light of the sun, whichever way the wheel of fate fumed, Babur was a blessed dilettante, not a driven, obsessed genius, Whatever he did was a vigorous and cheerful expression of his own vigerous and cheerful self, apen and spontaneous, Babur delighted in being Babur. All things fresh and new gladdened him, and he travelled around his Indian empire with the feisty enthusiasm of a tourist, “They are wonderful buildings,” he wriles about the Gwalior fort complex, though he found the reoms dark and airless, and the palace itself “heavy and unsymmetrical”, In the valley beneath the fort, he visited the Jain shrines alongside the lake, where, he notes, “the idols are shewn quite naked without covering the privities,.. Nota bad place... the idols are its defect, 1, for my part, ardered them destroyed.” He alsa visited the nearby Hindu temples, bul says nothing about destroying the idols there—it seems that it was his aesthetic sensibilities that were offended by the Jain idols, nat his religious sentiments. ‘The tours af Babur had a political purpose too: he was familiarizing himself with his empire, its land, its people. Whatever else his interests: and activities, Habur always had one eye cocked vigilantly on state security, On that he would never relax. "No bondage equals that of sovereignty,” he would write sternly to Humayun when that easygoing prince wanted to “retire” fram Sovernment. “Retirement matches not with rule.” 31THE MUCHAL ADVENT Curlously, despite all the attention he gave le matters of the saaiy and despite his scholarship in jurisprudence, Babur dist not sot up een a rudimentary administrative system in India, This failure cannot be explained away by the fact that he ruled India only for less than five years or that during that time he was continually engaged in wars, for under virtually the same ¢ircumstances, Sher Shah (the Afghan chieg who later expelled Babur's successor [rom Tndia) set up a comple, efficient and enduring administrative system, : But then, Sher Shah was of the land; he knew its ways, and hag only to overhaul and energize the prevailing system. Babur was aq. alien in India, and he did not have the time to familiarize himself wep, local traditions, Besides, his administrative athtucles were conditioned by his experience in turbulent ‘Afghanistan, which could be ruled only by sayi (sword), not nate {pen}, as Babur puts it All that Babuor cid in India by way of administrative action was tp parcel out his demain among his amirs, for them to govern their fiefs, as they pleased, He did not even have a regular system of revenue collection, Once, in October 1528, when he necded funds—he was shor ‘of funds in India, as be had given away virtually all the plunder he had gathered—he even had to requisition contributions from his amirs, ordering “that each stipendiary should drop into the royal treasury thirty in every hundred of his allowance, to be used for war mili) and appliances, for equipment, for powder, and for the pay of gunners and matchlockmen,” This was an unusual procedure, presumably adapted ta meet some emergency, The primary seurce of revenue for Babur in India was Pillage. As he candidly states in his memoirs, raids were often made specifically to seize plunder—ior instance, he nates that he once deciced, choosing from different alternatives, to march westward from Agra because that was where there was “treasure helpful for the army”, The Mughals lived by war. Not ta wage war was not to hive, or al least not to have the means of livelihoucl. Tt certainly was a failure of Babur that he did not make the transiting from the ways of nomadic monarchy to those of a settled empicc, As Sher Shah observed, the Mughals “have no order or discipline, and... their kings ,, . do not personally superintend the government, but leave al] the alfairs of the Stale to their nobles and ministers... These grandees act on corrupt motive in every case,” BACK IN AGRA after the battle of Khanua, Babur rewarded his men suitably, distibuted els among his nobles, and, as he had promised Ee) HLACK FELL TIE DAY he would, granted leave to those who wanted to return te Kabul Humayun was dispatched to govern Badakshan, which had fallen to Babur in 1520. Then, as the monsoon was imminent, he sent the remaining olficers to their fiefs, to get some welleamed rest and to re equip their contingents. Babur himself remained in Agra, in the Garden of Eight Paradises, till Ramadan, and then moved to Sikri, because, he says, he did mot want to break his custom of not halding the Ramadan feast in the same place for tio successive years, When the monsoon ended Babur set out on his campaigns again, this lime against Medini Rat of Chanderi in north-eastern Malwa. Here for the first time he came across the macabre Rajput rite of jauhar, in which, faced with certain defeat, women and children immolated themselves or were slaughlered by their men, who then slew each other or rushed out naked to fight and die—to preserve their honour. The Rajputs kept their honour; Babur took the fort, Meanwhile the Afghans were on the move again east of Agra, and though they initially scattered without fighting when Babur tumed on them menacingly, they regrouped again soon after, this ime under the command of Sultan Mahmud Ladi, the brother of Ibrahim Lodi, who had set himself up as the king of Bikar. Babur then launched a second eastern campaign, and in a battle fought at the confluence of the Ganga and the Ghaghara, near Patna. on 6th May 1529, he decisively routed the Afghans. The battle of Patna was Babur’s last major military campaign: By then, his attenbon had once again tured to developments beyond the Hindu Kush; in fact, even while he was marching against the Afghans, his eyes were on Central Asia, as he had received reports of Uzbeg- Persian clashes in Khurasan. An old gleam now retumed to Babur's eyes—maybe the Timurid lands could yet be recovered, he thought, and ordered Humayun in Badakshan to join the fray, "Thank God! now is your lime fo risk hfe and slash swords," he weote. "Neglect mat the work chance has brought... He grips the world who hastens.” Babur then made plans for himself to retum to Kabul, to be close to the scene of action. “Matters are coming to some settlement in Hindustan; there is hope... that the work here will soon be arranged,” he wrote to Khwaja Kalan, “This work brought to order, God willing, my start will be made at once.” Nothing came of {hose plans, In Central Asia, the Uzhegs recovered their initiative, the Persians retreated, and Humayun aborted his campaign. Babur was not destined to see Kabul again. However, towards the close of 1529, he did proceed as far as Lahore, and spent a couple of manths there. Surprisingly, he did not make the short hop 33THE MUGHAL ADVENT from there to Kabul, which he so passionately yearned to yisit a Inslwad, he returned to Agra. His memoirs do not tell why— the, ain. abruptly in mid-sentence on 7th September 1529. Even the Y end i entries fgp the previous several months are sketchy, Something was amiss, BABUR HAD NOT been in good health for quite some time, Desp) his phenomenal physical vitality, he had always been prone to illnes: and at least once, in 1498, when he was fifteen, was so critically (i that his fe was despaired of. His memoirs are dotted with accounts pf his numerous ailments. “It was a strange sort of illness,” writes Baty, about a bout of fever, “for whenever with much trouble | had epg, awakened, my eyes closed again in sleep, In four or five days | got quite well." On. his final Indian expedition, as soon he crossed the mountains he fell ill, “That evening I had fever and discharge which led on to cough, and every time I coughed, I spat blaod,”" he notes, tq India, because of the oppressive climate and the rigours of Ucessanp wars, he was ill quite often, especially in the last couple of years of hig life—he suffered from recurrent fever, boils, diarrhoea, sciatica discharges of the ears and spitting of blood. z Amazingly, despite his il health, even late in his life Babur could perform physical feats from which a much younger man would have flinched. At forty-six we find him exuberantly swimming across the Ganga. “I swam the Ganga river, counting every stroke,” he writes, *[ crossed with thirty-three, then, without resting, swam back. 1 had swum the other rivers, Ganga had remained to do.” Still, age had begun to tell on him. He suffered from ennui as much as from jl) health. For all his vigorous enjoyment of life, Babur had a renunciatory streak in him, a predilection for mysticism, “I am a king but yet the slave of dervishes,” he used to say, He had Jed a full life, had seen everything, done everything, and now he was tired. Sometimes he went into a deep depression and talked nf becoming a hermit, “My heart ws bowed down by ruling and reigning,” he said. “I will make over the kingdom to Humayun,” ‘His iron will began to falter. He retumed to wine. And, though he had not tell then shown any great fondness for the company of women, he now became attached to tvo Caucasian slave girls, Gul-nar and Nar- gul, wham he had received asa gift from Shah Talumasp of Persia a couple of years earlier. The death of an infant son, Alwar, at (his time upset him greatly, He missed his children, and kept asking ta see Hindal, his youngest san, who was away in Kabul. There were signs of senility. His mind often wandered. He took little interest in government, 34 BEACK PELL THE DAY “He passed his time in company with Mughal companions and friends, in pleasure and enjoyment and carousing, in the presence of enchanting dancing girls with rosy cheeks, who sang tunes and displayed their accomplishments,” ‘Yacgar reports. “Mir Khalifa. . . possessing the chief authority, managed the government, and his decrees were like those of Ehe Sultan himself.” In that perplexing situation, Humayun abruptly retired to India fram Badakshan without royal permission, a serious breach of propriety. It is likely that he had come ta know of his father’s conditen. It could also be that he had heard the rumour that Mir Khalifa was plotting a succession coup—though none of Humayun’s contemporaries mentions such a conspimey, the writers of the next generation do; but if indeed there was such a plot, it fizzled out on the arrival of Humayun in Agra Babur upbraided Humayun for leaving Badakshan without permission, but sean forgave him, Humayun, though somewhat eccentric, and not as ambitious or energetic as Babur would have liked him to be, was nevertheless a lovable and highly cultivated prince, whose company Babur enjoyed hugely. Says Abul Fazl, “The Emperor many times declared that Humayun was an incomparable companion.” After spending a few days with his father in Agra, Humayun left far Sambhal, his fief near Delhi, and Babur himself with his wives moved to his gardens at Daulpur, There he presently received an urgent message from Humayun’s camp. “Humayun Mirza is ill and in an extraordinary state. Her highness the Begum should come at once ta Delhi, for the Mirza is much prostrated,” Babu, says Gulbadan, was desalated by the news. When Humayun's mother, Maham Begum, consoled him, saying, "Do not be troubled about my son. You are a king: what griefs have you? You have other sons. [ sorrow because 1 have only this one,’ Babur said, “Maham, although | have other sons, J Jove none as I love your Humayun. I erave that this cherished child may have his heart's desire and live long, and 1 desire the kingdom for him and not for others, because he has not his equal in distinction.” Babur immediately retumed to Agra ond ordered Humayun to be brought by boat from Delhi to Agra for treatment, but by the time the prince reached Agra, he was delirious and critically all Only god could save Humayun, it seemed. And god, an amir suggested, could be induced to save the prince if one of Humayun’s valued possessions was offered as a prapitiatory oblation. Babur seized fhe thought, but rejected the suggestion to offer a great diamond belonging to Humayun, Instead, he decided to offer his own life, characteriscally placing sentiment above treasure and contending that it was the father's life that a son valued most. As Mughal chroniclers 35BILAL ADYENT tell the story, Babur then circumambulated the sick-bed and praye fervently that his own life be taken in exchange for his son's life, W, Tite Abul Faz}: “When the prayer had been heard by God... he (Bahug fell a strange effect an himself and cried out, ‘We have bore it awe We have bome it away!’ Immediately a strange heat of fever Stirgod upon his Majesty and there was a sudden diminution of ip in the person of his Highness.” “That very day he (Babur) fell ill, and Humayun poured wate his head, and came out and gave audience,” says Gulbadan, telescoping time in remembered pain. "Because af his illness, they carried my royal father within, and he kept to his bed for twe or three months," Says Abul Fazl: “In a short hme he (Humayun) entirely recovered, while Babur gradually grew worse and marks of dissolution and death, became apparent.” As Babur’s condition worsened, Humayun, who had returned jg his fief, was called back to Agra. He was shocked at the sight of tis father. “LJeft him well, what has happened to him all at once?” he asked the amirs. “They said this and that in reply,” wrles Gulbaday Babur was suffering from an acute disorder of the bowels, and was in great pain. “Day by day he lost strength and became more and more emaciated,” recalls Gulbadan. “Every day the disorder increased and his blessed countenance changed.” Probably delirious, he kept asking for Hindal, and wanted to know how tall he had grown, even though he hac seen the boy just a few months earlier. “Alas! a thousand times alas! that I do not see Hindal!" he lamented over and over. Babur was losing bis mind, But he still had lucid intervals when he could make clear decistons, The day after Humayun arrived, Babur, lying on a couch at the foot of the throne, called his amurs to him to give them his dying instructions. Then, taking Humayun's hand in his, he asked the prince to sit on the throne, and asked his nobles ta acknowledge him as king. “For years it has been in my heart to make over the throne to Humayun and to retire to the Zer Afshan (Gold Scattering) Garden," said Babur, “By divine grace I have obtained im health of body everything but the fulfilment of this wish... Now when illness has laid mo low, T charge you all ta acknowledge Humayun in my stead.” Babur then tumed ta Humayun. "Do nothing against your brothers even though they may deserve if," he counselled. "At these words,” nates Gulbadan, “hearers and onlookers wept and lamented. His own blessed eyes also Glled with tears.” On Monday, 26th December 1530, Babur passed away, “Black fell the day for children and tansfolk and all,” prieves Gulbadan. F bp 36 ULACK FELL THE DAY Babur was laid to rest in the Garden of Eight Paradises in Agra, renamed Aram Bagh, Garden of Rest. opposite which the Taj aa rise four generations later, Some years afterwards, probably ee d 1843, during the reign of Sher Shah, the mortal remains of ate were fransferced to Kabul and buried, as Babur had desired, in inv wourite garden on the Shah-i-Kabul hill overlooking a stream and ue a vamatlenes with the snows of the Paghman in the far horizon, in sale grave open Lo ihe sky. The man of the mountains was back home. 37Sepa Tote STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVALThe Dreamer Cometh FOUR DAYS AFTER Babur’s death, on 3th December 1530, a day chosen by astrologers, Humayun, twenty-three, ascended the throne in Agra. For Humayun, whose name meant fortunate, life as a prince had been a lark, As king, he would never again know any real repose “Dreamers, they moved through a dream,” Babur had once said pf his hedonistic cousins in Herat. He could have said the same about Humayun, whe was more awake in lus dreams than. when awake ‘though personable, culbired and amiable, Humayun was, says Ferishta, “(oc the most part... disposed to spend his time im social intercourse and pleasure.” He Jacked the grit to match the turbulence of the world he lived in, Predictably, his reign, which began as a dream, darkened info an awful nightmare, "L have seen few persons posscased of so much natural talent and excellence as he "writes Mirza Haidar, “In battle he was steady and brave, in conversation, ingenious and lively; and at the social board, full of wal. He was kind-hearted and generous. He was a dignified and magnificent prince, and observed much state But in consequence of his having dissolute and sensual men in his service, and of his intercourse with them he contracted some bad habits, as for instance the excessive: usc of opium. All the evil that has been set down to the Emperor, and has become the common talk of the people, is altributable to this yice.” Humayun was a skilled mathematician, and was “unequalled in the sciences of astronomy and astrology and all abstruse sciences," says Akbar's courtier Badauri. But these talents hac little to do with the ster business of government, Even in his esoteric pursuits, Humayun had no particular achievement to his credit—he was compulsively invenbve, but in a bemused, eccentric way, and he Jacked the tenacity of purpose to forge his airy whimsies into solid achievements. He loved playing at being an intellectual and an aesthete, just as he loved playing at being a king. Even virtues turned into vices-in Humayun, “The mildness and benevolence of Humayun's character were excessive,” says Ferishta. "His conversation,” writes Mushtaqui, “was so nice Ehat he neverTHE STUUGELE DOR SURVIVAL addressed any person as fu, but as stim” The harshest pejoratiyy i is ever said to have used was, “You stupid!” Says Badauni: “Fe “ee opened his fips in a smile, nor dict he ever cast an angry glance, a anyone.” Humayun was.a misfit mm his time and place, an ease-loving prea among 4 warlike people, in charge of a nascent kingdom in a Perilous setting. Though Babur had in three major encounters routed hose who opposed his entry into Hindustan, the adversaries were still around lurking in the shadows, Their challenges had to be met, Humayiy, could not even be cectain of the loyalty of bis own men, a motley crowd drawn from different Central Asian martial races. The prospec of plunder was ther only unilying motive, and heroic leadership the only means of harnessing their energy. Humayun also had to contend with the ambitions of his own kin, brothers and cousins, all song o; grandsens of kings, all eager to be kings themselves. These hazards could be overcome only with a wellsharpened sword, for as Kamran, Humayun's younger brother, put it, Wito'd to is bosom clasp dovnteion’s bride Must Riss the glémmuing saltre’s tip Humayun, though personally courageous, had no particular enthusiasm for kissing the sabre’s lip, NASIRUDDIN MUHAMMAD Humayun was bor in Kabul on 6th March 1508, “the sun bemg in Pisces", notes Babur. At twelve, he wag sent off to Badakshan as governor: It is not known how he fared there—probably nat too well, for Babur's very first comment on Humayun in his memoirs complains about his tardiness. Babur, then setting out from Kabul on his final Indian campaign, had ordered the prince to join him on the way, but Humayun was long in coming. "I wrote harsh letbers to Huntayon,” says Babur, “lecture him severely Iecause of his lang delay beyond the time fixed for him to join me.” Hurnayun did well in India, though, He was blooded in battle nenr Ambala in Punjab, where he routed an Afghan auxiliary force and returned with a clutch of severed enemy heads, Babur considered that auspicious, "At this same station and this same day the razor or scissors were first applied to Humayun’s beard,” records Babur, The boy had become a man. Later, at Panipat as well as at Khanua, Humayun commanded the right wing of the Mughal army. After Khanua, Babur sent Humayun back to Badakshan a5 governor. az THE DEEAMIER ComeETi He was then nineteen years old, an age at which Muphal princes were normally battle-hardened yeterans in the thick of the strugele fer survival and domination, But there Was in Humayun a disturbing lack af camesiness, an unbecoming capriciousness, This troubled Babur And it infuriated him when Humayun raided, perhaps as a prank, the jreasury of Delhi on his way to Badakshan from Agra. "I never locked for such a thing from him," wriles Babur. “Tt gneved me very much. J wrote and sent off to him very severe reproaches:" Humayun was not serious about governing Badakehan either, but kept pestering Babur te allaw him to “eotire” from there, o that Babur hac te chide him again As for the relirement—retizement’ spoken of in thy /etters—retirement as a fault for sovercignty. . - Retirement makes not rule,” * still, Humayun was Babur's chosen heir There was no dispute about his succession, But troubles began immediately thereafter. The first to challenge Humayun was his brother Kamran, On Babur’s death, his throne and the overlordship of the empire, along with the Mughal lands in Hindustan, went to Humayun, Kamran got Kabul and Kandahar; Aska and Hindal, the other two surviving sons af Babur, received subordinate fiefs; Badakshan was: given to Sulaiman Mirza, a second cousin of Humayun. The division of the empire between Humayun and Kamran was more or less according to the 6:5 ratio that Babur had specified But Kamran, an inordinately spirited youth, was nel content with his share, and seeking to measure out his domain with a drawn sword in the Timuricl tradition, he crossed the Indus and laid claim to the ontire territory west of the Satluj This could have meant war, But Kamzan had taken care to cloak his aggression behind a pretence of subservience by sending emissanes to Humayun to profess fealty and seek indulgence. Humayun on his part, out of his natural softness of heart as well as out of regard for the advice of his dying father to be indulgent towards his brothers, treated. Kamran with forbearance and acceded ta: his demands. In fact, he gave Kamran more land than he asked for. Kamran in tum, matching sentiment with sentiment, wrote to Humayun: May cuery mist which rises on thy way, Be fhe dimming of the light of yey own eyes. The sons ef Babur were a curious lot, They were violent adversaries in their fight for land and power, but otherwise enhrely loving and brotherly. They showed genuine mutual affection even in the midst of their most savage clashes, and often wept over each other's fates—fates which they inflicted on each other! 43THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL AROUND? THE TIME that Kamran invaded Punjab, Humayun alls to face a rebellion by his cousins (who held important fiefs Heal as well as resurgent Afghan belligerence in Bihar under Mahmud ea Humayun dealt with these threats with an uncharacteristic show spirit, first subduing the Afghans, then turning to chase off his coy His cousins would continue to be a nuisance for a while longer, 1, they would never again directly threaten his power, and as for Malin > Lodi, he new finally gave up his struggle to regain the imperial sco ee The field of action then shifted to Gujarat: A small kingdom ss an nich on the trade of its port empormms, Gujaral was at this lime role by Bahadur Shah, an ambitious and energetic monarch who stead forth as the standard-bearer of the Afghans after the defeat of Mahmud 1g) To Gujarat flocked defiant Afghans from all over Hindustan, as weil a a few Mughal rebels, Even Alam Khan, the Breless Lodi pretender, cig had initially brought Babur into India, was there. The presence of thes volatile clements in Gujarat ignited Bahadur Shah's own ambitions, ang presently he began to move aggressively in several directions, He seg, his armies South to threaten the Deccan sultanates, north towands Rajasthan and Punjab, and cast lowards Malwa and beyonc, as if he meant ta gobble up the Mughal lands in one gargantuan bite There was, however, a fatal flaw in Bahadur Shah's strategy. He mistook territory for power, and in ranging eut in too many directions, spread his power thi, mstead of concentrating tt against the one man—Humayun—whom he had te defeat to realize his ambitions: For all his apparent aggressiveness there was a certain limidity in Bahadur Shah's bearing towards the Mughals—he was reluctant to confront Humayun directly, and in battle he seemed more anxious not to [nse than to winl Inevitably, he lost. Though initially Bahadur Shah and his allies did make some gains against the Mughals, and one army under Tartar Khan, Alam Khan's able son, even penetrated the environs of Agra, saon they were in full retreat everywhere, and Bahadur Shah himeelf fled without engaging when Homayun confronted him in Mewar Darting from place to place, pursued by Humayun, Bahadur Shah finally escaped into the island of Dig, a safe refuge from the land: bound Mughals Humayun chased Bahadur Shah as far as Cambay, where he paused briefly to have a look at the sea (which no Timurid had ever seen before) and then doubled back to besiege Champanir, a strong for in deep forest where the fabled royal treasures of Gujarat were reputed to be hidden. The siege dragged on for four months, but in the end Humayun—whose spint had not yet been liquefied by opium and a of Using 44 THE DREABIER COMPETI stormed the fortin a daring night action, personally leading Mughal braves to scale the fort on spikes driven into rack “Oe stonework ina remote and unguarded part of the citadel built over are ecipitous hillside. It was Humayun’s finest hour, Prrreasuecs beyond imagination fell to the Mughals at Champanue, even thougt Bahadur Shah had removed the crown jewels and part of the hoard to Diu. “Flumayun gave his officers and soldiers as much wold, silver, and jewels as could be heaped on their respective shields, proparboning, the value. to their rank and merit," says Fershta. The emperor and his men then fell to revelry. Humayun diverted himself, says Abul Fazl, by “holding magnificent banquets and constantly arranging rayal entertainments on the banks of the Du Ruya tank.” He had no thought of consolidating his conquest. dissipation same 200 DISCIPLINE IN THE Mughal army was so lax-at this time and such was the general quixotry that one day, records Abul Fazi, a band of inebriated subordinate staff, “book-bearers, armour-bearers, ink-horn- bearers and the like”, while listening to the exploits of Timur being read gut at the camp fire, took it into their heads to desert the army and set out—to conquer the Deccan, no Jess! ‘The revellers were overtaken and brought back To their misfortune the day was a Tuesday, when Humayun, according to bis astrologically determined fancy, “wore the red yesture of Mars and sat on the throne of wrath and vengeance.” The culprits were therefore handed out, ina weird application af poetic justice, punishments “fitting them destiny”— those whe had acted in a headstrong manner had their heads chopped off, those withoul discretion ("not distinguishing between their feet and their hands,” as Abul Fazl puts it) had their feet and hands severed, and so on. Not only that, an imam, whose prayers that day were thought to have implied a criticism of Humayun's eccentne punishments, qwas ordered to be trampled ta death under the foot of an elephant— though when Humayun realized that the poor imam did not mean any criticism all, he “spent the whole night in sorrow and weepmg,” says Abul Fazl, Inflicting such savage and arbitrary punishments was a medieval royal privilege, a demonstration of the king's absolute power. Humayun's peculiar fault was not arbitrariness but capriciousness There was in him a certain quirkiness of character that often made hum look silly. Especially so were his astrology-linked pranks, such as the “carpet of mirth” that he invented Ht had circles marked out on it in different colours to represent the planets, on which the courtiers a5THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL positioned themselves according to the planet that w, them, and played a cunous game, in which they either stood, « reclined according to the fall of the dice—this, according to a), is 4 “was a means of increasing mirth” The courtiers, we should S Fry dared nat but enjoy. ms Not all of Humayun’s immevabons were frivolous, The prefabep portable bridge he designed was an excellent device, and his fone palace, with its bazaar and garden, an elegant creation, Unfonunaint Humayun often tumed eyen good ideas ludicrous by overselabarane! them. For instance, the drum of justice which he set Up near the aie hall in Agra, to enable people to appeal to him directly, was in ice thoughtful arrangement. but when he went on to specify differ 4 number of beats for different complaints—one beat for a mat a dispute; two for the non-receipt of wages and dues; oppression—it trivialized the idea The stars ruled Humayun’s life in a manner which even professiona| astralogers would have found bizarre. He allowed astrology to cq him so far qut that it virtually took him out of this world altopether, What he did on each day was determined not by the exigences ‘of government, not by any rabenal made of time management, but by the attribute of the planet of the day—Sunday and Tuesday, for example, were given to government affairs because, as Abul Fazl (himself. an astrologer) explains, “Sunday pertains to the sun whose rays regulate . , sovercienty, while Tuesday is Mars's day and Mars is the patron of soldiers,” For similar reasons, Saturday and Thursday were assigned to matters of religion and learming, while Monday and Wednesday wer “days of joy", and Friday was a day open to all matters and all classe; of men. On ench day Humayun ware clothes of the evlour appropriste to the planet of the day—on Sundays he wore yellow, on Mondays green, and s0 on, To match the three functional divisions of the week, Homayan grouped his courtiers into three functional classes, administrators, men of religion and culture, and a third group called “people of pleasure” which, according to Khwand Amit, was made up of “those who possessed beauly and elegance, those who were young ancl most lovely, also clever musicians and sweet singers’. Within each of these three classes, Humayun created twelve Btodes, and then divided each of the grades into three ranks! This did not exhaust the fancy of Humayun. He went on to organize government departments on the basis of the four elemenis fire (armed forces), air (wardrobe, kitchen and stable), water feanals and wine cellar} and earth (agriculture, kind and buildings), each under 46 48 AppTOpriaty lo Het of Hires in case pp THE DREAMER COMDTIT inistec Who had to wear clothes of the colour suited ta his e aoeee The minister in charge of the army, for instance, had to Ea Humayun thus constructed a marvellausly intricate yet neat wid elegant bureaucratic structure. Hs only flaw was that it served no ee Hon anc systematization were a mania with Humayun, aaahe busied himself with arranging and rearranging his couriers and Mee not looking at the functional value of the arrangements, but ly at thelr abstract harmony and perfection, There was certainly a vay a in his madness, an intemal consistency in all that he did. But a he did was nol consistent with the ways of the world, Nor with the grim business af government. WHILE THE MUGHALS were revelling in Champanir, Bahadur Shaly emerged from Div and tried to recover his kingdom, but was again driven off by Humayun, who then went on to occupy Abmadabad, the capital of Gujarat, thereby completing the canquest of the kingdom. At that point, Humayun’s counsellors, according to Humayun’'s personal attendant Jauhar, suggested that since he had “obtained the objects for which he had commenced this war"—to defeat Bahadur Shah and to obtain treasure—“it would now be advisable to advance one or two years’ pay to the army, to keep the remaining treasure in deposit for future emergencies, and then appoint Bahadur Shah as his deputy to mule the province of Gujarat” Such graciousness, they maintained, ‘would redound much to His fame, and would afford him [cisure to Jook alter his other dominions.” Humayun rejected the advice; he would not negotiate away what he had won by the sword. This decision was a blunder. Had he accepted the plan, he could have qetained suzerainty over Gujarat and secured an annual tribute from there, instead of losing the state altogether, and losing Malwa too, as it happened After capturing Ahmadabad, Humayun left his brother Askari in charge of Gujarat and moved to Mandu in Malwa, a town for which he had taken a fancy. There he once again sank into a life of soothing dissipation, As soon as Humayun left Gujarat, Sahadur Shah re-ernerged from his sanctuary. in Diu and, gathering the support of local chiefs, advanced on Ahmadabad. Askar offered him little resistance. Instead, prodded on by some disgruntled amurs, he abandoned Gujarat and marched to Agra, his intention ambiguous, but probably to usurp the throne. By then Humayun himself was at jast on the way to Agra, to deal a7VILE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL with renewed rebel activity in the north. The two a oi TiaWac Titre vrsae Gee af acclisti the GCE Pumepun Ce eat overlooked Askari’s incipient disaffection, and together ihe nla marched to Agra as one army, there to receive the happ broth Hindal, their younger brother, wha had been left in ae NEWS tha capital, had already subdued the rebels SOAEEE OF Meanwhile Malwa was lost to the Afshans, and in Gui; Askari retreated, Bahadur Shah reoccupied the entire state. ells had spent twenty months, from November 1534 to August matin Malwa-Gujaral campaigns, but had no territorial gains to : 36, in hig The action now shifted to Mindustan Sabor I 8 49 “The Feast Is Over. . .” FoR A YEAR after his return ta Agra, Humayun remained inert, diverting himself with opium and the pleasures of the harem, and busy wilh his absteuse studies and fanciful invenbons There was some talk of launching a fresh campaign against Bahadur Shah, but nothing came it « Meanwhile there was an unexpected and alarming resurgence of Afghan power in Bihar, under the wily leadership of Sher Khan, a local chieftain. During his 1531 campaign against Mahmud Lodi, Humayun had clashed briefly with Sher Khan, and had reduced him to submission Sher Khan had thereafter temained, outwardly at any rate, a Mughal yassal. But that was only a pretence. The Khan was biding his time. Tt was not Sher Khan's nature to act rashly, He had begun his eareor as a lowly officer in the Afghan kingdom of Bihar, then built up his power brick by brick and tier by ber, hastening slowly, fo establish himself, after many years of patient and circamspect endeavour, as the virtual ruler of Bihar, a lang in all but name. That was a very substantial achievernent, But Bihar was anly a halfway house for Sher Khan, the middle rung on his ladder af ambition. His eyes were on the Mughal throne He had in his early youth spoken of his ambition to pverthrow the Mughals, but no one had taken him seriously. Since then he had taken care not to reveal, by word or deed, what his inner eye was focused on, Sher Khan was so discreet in action that Humayun had no inkling of what he was up to till it was too late. After consolidating his power in Bihar, the Khan began to push into Bengal. This move, though in a direction away from Mughal territory and carefully timed to coinade with Humayun’s absence in Malwa and Gujarat, brought Sher Khan into conflict with Humayun for the second time. Humayun was initially inchned to regard Sher Khan merely as a troublesame vassal who did not merit his personal aitention, but when the Khan extended his rule inte Bengal he became virtually a rival monarch and a threat to Mughal suzerainty. Sher Khan, at seemed, was tuming east against Bengal only to pather strength ta tum west later against the Mughals. This realization at last roused Humayun from hisTH STRUGGLE POR SURVIVAL torpor, In-mid-July 1557, haying marshalled his forces fr and placing his lands in the secure charge of trusted ok the Prov pe from Agra with a grand army agamst Sher Khan, Ss Hes, he T temgranil mba ol He hea shequipmenbdgumniee yarn nee OU of barges Twas a postentous bepineung aE Flot, But it ended, predictably, in disasler, Humayun wag and lethargic campaigner, and in Sher Khan he w. ne 8 Deg igen relentless and exceptionally crafty adversary, a Machiay fe “Bains, whe had no compunction in resorting te deceit and isthe a Tictiguy goals, Compared to Sher Khan, Humayun was a babe eae Hain hy Woods THE FIRST TACTICAL error of Humayun was that, instead of hunting down Sher Khan in Bengal, he paused on the Vas aoe Chunar, an Afghan fort on the Ganga near Varanasi Wee eter hime and energy on a peripheral targel. The delay enabled a, te ty complete his conquest of Bengal j See Humayun arrived at Chunar alter a five- ‘i Agra, and spent: the next three menths fe ne ee ea cee ty felang it, Chunar was important to Sher Khan, but Peis ee a while, during hus Bengal campaign, left his hacer ie am Chonar, but hac since then moved them to salut ive a newly captured full fort on the upper reaches of the Son Ri a tugged hill country impenetrable to he cumbersome Muy idle Be i Be Rohtas action was typical of Sher Khan. He eee aes © fort as a sanctuary from the advancing Mughal forces, but hi ‘i not have the time, nor probably the means, to take 1b by Be oe fe ee cere “i Bere use of force where stratagem ai Mead wi isl Roba 0 alow hth fo lave his hatenr-and hs teasune-cec ge ee a tather see his treasure go to the raja than. eal oe Mug als. For good measure, he also bribed a minister of the e ane ae the sees by the prospect of seizing i, Te i sources, but denied by Abbas Kian, an Afghan Gove) om ae into the fort a band of his soldiers ota 5 in covered litte carrying the begums, and they seized the fort in a ae ore ie fled for his lie through a back gate, is family and treasure safe in Ro ' htas, Sher Khan ret Se ee continued his futile siege of cae eae Se Tesumed hus eastward imarch, joined on the way by , the fugitive king of Bengal, Sher Khan was on his way 30 “TIE PEASY 15 OVER back to Biba, having virtually completed the subjugation of Bengal vAround this time Humayun made an effort to cajale Sher Khan into He offered to retutn Chunar to Sher Khan and, in addition, to give him Jaunpur or any other place of his choice, if he would give an ‘Bengal, hand over lo Humayun the treasure he had taken there, including the chhatiar (royal umbrella) and throne, and agree to rule under Mughal overlordship. Sher Khan was not tempted. He recetved the Mughal envoy courteously, but told him (accerding to Jauhar) that since it had “cost him five or six years’ tol to subdue Bengal, with the loss of a great number of his soldiers, it was impossible he could resign that conquest.” Instead, he made a counter-proposal—he offered to relinquish the regalia of Bengal, surrender Bihar, and pay an annual frbule of one million rupecs to Humayun, provided he was allowed to qetam Bengal. Humayun was mitially inclined to accept Sher Khan's proposal, but decided against it when he learned that Sher Khan's hold on Bengal was tenuous and that he could easily be dislodgeet from there. Moreover, Sher Khan himself had returned ta Bihar by that time, leaving only a part of his army in Bengal under the command of hus son Jalal Khan Humayun believed that these circumstances favoured him, so he rejected Sher Khan's offer and continued to advance on Bengal, cerlain of victory. This decision was the turing point in Humayun's career, Tt was also a turning point an Sher Khan's career, for he too now decided on a fight to the fimish. He had gone to the limit of what he could concede to Humayun to avoid a clash. He would yield no more. So he hurned back to Bengal, where, at Gaur, the capital af Bengal, he assumed the title Sher Shah, He was no longer a mere khan (chieftain), but a shah (king), though he did not yet presume to ascend. the throne, From that oint on it would be all or nothing for Sher Shah. To survive, he had to eliminate Humayun. The two could not coexist in the same land submission: HUMAYUN TOO HASTENED towards Gaur, though by then the monsoon had broken, making the campaign arduous. Sher Shah made no move to stop him. If suited him to have Humayun advance, for his plan was to bottle up the Mughals in Bengal. Sher Shah's only problem wag that he had taken so much treasure in Gaur that he had difficulty in finding enough porters to carry it to Rohtas. To gain time, he sent Jalal Khan to block the narrow Telayagathi pass north-west of Rajmahal, through which the Mughal army had to pass te enter Bengal, and hold them olf for a while. Jalal did more than just hold off the Mughals 51THE STRUGGLE TOR SURVIVAL Though Sher Shah, ever cautious, had ordered him defensive position, Jalal found the Mughal-acwance f, e deployed at the pass that he attacked and salted Sher Shah's frst victory over Humayun, and a port : Jalal Khan's tnumph enabled Sher Shah ta oe Rehtas with the Benga) treasure, It was not owen te hole up 2 Rohtas, but to use it as a base from whe oa arms ancl garrotle Humayun in Bengal, by sque 4 lines of communication and sappke gesaseczing Tight the Might ee innocently walked into the trap hen Jalal Khan withdrew from the pa Humayun proceeded triumphantly to Gaur He Fone Boardin tavaged by a long drawn oul war, ils strects choked aie desolate city, living barely alwe Humayun, perhaps ironically, pa ae Gea, the Jannatabadd (Paradise), but his men found it a hell SNe the city Bengal itself a hell, and loathed it 0 intensely that Wh / Mey foung offered the governorship of the province to one of oe Human deserted, protesting that the posting amounted to a death «nn Me But Humayun himself took to Bengal. "When His hes aan oat he found everywhere a paradise full of fine ae andsome maids, along with exhilarating gardens and sonthi ae at says Mushiagat He liked the climate of Bengal, and iis alee orenver, Sher Shah, according to Niamatullah, had Rene palace at Gaur “with an exquisite variety of orn: ees embellishments” in the hope “that Humayun, charmed Fai aud be mer to prolong his-stay there," Se e charm worked, Besides, Humayun had, as See ie task he had set out to “chieve, to ange cee ae oe eee Parcelled out the province among his amir a Beene 5 ys Jauhar, “very unaccountably shut himself up for senor ae in his harem, and abandoned himself to every kind aber ae honey For three months he admitted no cas at Brea oe ue ee “His Majesty... found the climate labe Huma aie 1 Bee oe pune i fis not clear how about nine months in the provi eee eee Gaur iteelf. Province, including at least three months in While Humay in Bihar. vine) Geanc ee aad ipols tie Silene im 5 e on { pa eee Jaunpur and Chunar were Haine esa anulies of the principal zemandars of the a and held Hike a Shei 28 80 cana hiss hem, ‘7h, ‘t) 8 Wag 52. “MIR TTAST 18 OvET. .” hostages, (o eliminate any residual local support for When Humayun heard of these activities, he was incredulous, cays Jaubar, and he asked in wonder, “How could Sher yghan. dare s° much? But Sher Shah had more surprises in store; He now blocked the asses between Bihar and Bengal, se that supplies, and even a tion, na longer reached Humayun, At that critical juncture, brothers, fearing that he would perish in Bengal, began ta desert him, and Hindal, who was holding a back-up pesibon to secure ihe lines: of communication and supply, abandoned his station and roceeded to Agra to claim the throne for himself The necse was lightening around Humayun He had (6 pet out of Bengal. Gut by the time he got moving, the monsoon had once again burst over Bengal, turning the land inte a quagmire. The impenal troops, especially’ the cavalry, suffered great hardship and losses trudging through the deep, viscous slush—it was as if the very soil of Bengal were clutching at Humayun’s feet and dragging him down to bury him. The Mughals were utterly dispirited and exhausted by the time they lueched back inte Bihar to challenge Sher Shah, When Sher Shah heard of Humayun's retreat from Bengal, he lifted the siege of Jaunpur, in which he was then engaged, crosced to the right bank of the Ganga and withdrew to south Bihar, mtending. to play hide-and-seek with Humayun, to exhaust and frustrate him. Sher Shah was shll reluctant to fight an open battle against Humayun—he had from his humble beginnings built up a great earcer, acquired immense wealth ancl power through breless effort, and he did not want to chance if all on the luck of a battle, His plan was therefore lo retreat to Bengal in case Humayun attacked him, or to hang around the Mughal army and inarass it an case Humayun proceeded to Agra Sher Shah's retreat from Jaunpur forced Humayun, who wes then marching on that city, alsa ta cross to the Tight bank of the Ganga—it woul! have seemed unmanly for him to remain on the left bank when the rebel (as Humayun still thought of Sher Shah) was on the right bank. Humayun however made no effort to seek out Sher Shah, but proceeded towards Agra. Moving along the right bank of the Ganga now, passing Patna, crossing the Son, the Mughal army reached Chausa, where the river Karmanasa (Destroyer of Karma) joined the Ganga. All along the way, the Mughals were trailed by Afghan scouts, watching their every move and engaging in aceasional skirmishes, bub aveiding any major battle. Then, suddenty, the scene shifted When Sher Shah came to know of the disarray and law morale of the Mughal army, and sensed the them in Rohtas the Mughals communical Humayan’s 53THE STRUGGLE TOR SURVIVAL zeal of his own men to fight the Mughals, he changed his strate, decided to seek battle with Humayun. “Now that T have pvr Bi his armies which were in Bihar and Jaunpur, and taken thase a the way to peace is closed,” he told a conclave of hig commanders you agree with me, | will try my fortune.” They were even More for battle than he was The die was thus cast Sher Shah then emerged from south and advanced to confront Humayun. Closing in, he skirted the anny, crossed the Karmanasa, and presently, to the utter sy Mughals, appeared in front of them when they thought he them The two armies reached Chausa at about the same timo, banks of the Karmanasa, with Sher Shah blocking the passage to Apr Humayun's councillors were divided in their advice on how to deal with the sitaation, says Jauhar, One group recommended immediate attack, arguing that Sher Shah had come by forced marches ang his army was tired and vulnerable; the other group advised Humayun ja adopt the time-tested Mughal tactic of fighting from an entrenched position, saying that “there was no necessity for hurry or perturbation" Humayun chose the latter option, crossed the Karmanasa and encamped. For two months the foes lay facing each other accose a narrow but steep-banked rivulet called Toram Nathi, Small Stream, engaging in occasional skirmishes but aveiding general action, The mulitary advantage at that point seemed to be with Humayun. Skirmishes invariably favoured the Mughals, Moreover, with each passing day the Mughal army swelled in size, as stragglers from Bengal caught up with the main body of the army. But the morale of the Mughal army was low, and it was battle weary after the exhausting Bengal campaign And Humayun hunself was yacillating, vexed as much about what his brothers were up to as about Sher Shah's threat. The wild card im this game was lhe possible line of action of Kamran and Hindal, Both were susceptible to the temptations that Humayun's vulnerability offered them, Hindal, nineteen years old and impressionable, one moment eager for the throne, and the next shamed inte fraternal duty by his mother, Dildar Begum, was finally prodded by a few perfidious amirs into declaring himself king. Dildar Begum Was so upset by Hindal's imprudent act that she put on mourning clothes when he ascended the throne, Whon he asked her why she was so dressed on such a joyous occasion, she answered, "] am mourning for you. You have girded your loins for your own destruction.” But such admonitions had no effecton Hindal, whose attitude was, as Abul Fazal says, Bihar * Mughal 'Prise of thy Was behing On apposity 4 “THE FEAST 1S OVER...” g genial inp mniteae en, duice af man 1s a al ‘is aq wonnned Ht fans my fire: Hindal advanced north to take possession of Delhi, but was prom na +» by Humayun's loyal officers, who called in Kamran rebuifed Le Laie the rebel. When Kamran arrived in Delhi at the ine ee cavalry force, Hindal retreated to Agra, and when herd of & Tare ham, he submitted, The erstwhile rebel and hus chastiser aa epee crossed the Yamuna, and advanced to celieve: then jor Fe gk fh was now in danger of being trapped between two an ie Fortunately for him, Kamran and Hindal, after advancing Mh aie “inexplicably turned back and returned to Agra. Kamran’s eS tire might have had something to do with it—when he ah chew hopeless Humayun’s plight was, “there arose i him, ee bs clan, B; desire for sovereignty.” Clearly, there was a crisis of 2 oa ee the Mughals, Humayun had litle confidence in era Teer could imspire none in others His brothers could ‘na in tema wilh him. cs i ieee was almost over, and the rams broke over th land with great fury, creating an unforeseen problem for Sher pian a had not chosen his ground carefully, so his camp was inundate aie ain water, and he was forced to move his army to a posifoan sae kilometres away, leaving only his arbllery and a covering ie ae al entrenchments. That unplanned manoeuvre put oe ee ecLaeaes) But Humayun failed to seize the moment— aes his Posie failing, his lack of energy in responding to shifting strategic situations. 50 THE AWFUL waiting continued. Humayun soon ae eae i 7 trary, he feare act no aid from his brothers, on the con! ieee scheming to usurp the throne estes a“ had ne v i moment, 2 reater threat to his power than Sher Shah. For eee to Agta became for him more important than suppres Sher Shah's rebellion. It was essential for him to secure an uncanteste: but honourable passage to Agra. A Jn this predicament Humayun sent an emissary, Mullah Mulan Barehiz, to Sher Shah to negotiate peace. When the mallah reaches ‘Afghan camp, he found—as Erskine, Humayun's ninetcenth-century te rapher, describes the scene—Sher Shah “busy with bis ae in hen of the day, among lus soldiers who were employed in digging: 55THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL a trench. On seeing the ambassador, the king washed: | temporary awning was spread, and he sat down cae ground, without ceremony, and received the envoy,” § to the mullah when he broached the subject of peace was ag sad: “Go, tell your Emperor this from me: he is cuales Eroaps are not T do nok wish for war, my iroops do.” Negoliations, however, continued. Sher Shah, eve: crafty, and, according bo Abbas, “wavering in his decision or war’, then wrote a conciliatory letter to Humayun sate a Peace the Emperor would give him the kingdom of Bengal aa ie eel that the khutbah be read and money struck in the Empera, - eet would be the Emperor's vassal” Humayun, anxious for rae ee he agreed to these terms, but with the face-saving abet ale Shah should first—before Humayun formally condemned hy Eee and granted him Bengal—retreat for a couple of eRe tee lla Humayun chase him im a mock pursuit Faia) Tr as not clear what was finally agreed, but some sort armistice seems to have been reached. Perhaps even a fortnal a was concluded. But while Humayun was trusting, Sher sha a to deceive, “1 [have] lost all hope in his goodness, .. He as SUE Gace: and wil mvanivally nacaride by Wie paves aig ee conveniently shiting the onus of perfidy to ieee sees Whelher a treaty was formalized or not, both armies behavert abawere a5 pood as signed, and they got busy wath ee t ba ‘ camp. There were convivial visits behyeen the Mughals and the i oe Sher Shah even acted out a charade for a couple of days by es his army and sending it out some bwelve kilometres, as if ae {peal chieftain, and Hen bringing it back, 50 that (he later exy iained) | ‘ abight put the Emperor off his guard”. The Mughals SEI Ne busy constructing @ bridge of boats over the Ganga for their fi aa Agra by the traditional route through the Doab, ae & ae along, ele Humayun relaxed in the assurance of peace, Sher z i ne awake and alert, scheming, prowling. When he was satisfied tee s ete entirely imp and unwary, be pounced. On 25th Jue ane i ace enamel he summoned has chiefs, told them of his ae e ne Mughals, and ordered his army to be arrayed oe a : peat three in the morning they set out, but in a ee ne rom the Mughals, Sher Shah still keeping up the ce wit his target was the rebel chieftain, so as mol to rouse i Spiele On the army had gone some distance, he wheeled Poa New the time to regain the Empire of Hindustan,” he nen—and swooped dawn on the barely awake Mughal army 36 Is hands “SIAL. Hy ot Wat, hig T cautions any “TIE FRAST 18 GYER siyy the twinkling of an eye they rouled the Mughal forces," says AbD pughals were thrown antp uter chaos, with

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