The Bābur-nāma. Babur. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

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(910 AH. – Jan. 1505 AD.), the Sun being in Aquarius, that we rode out of Kābul for Hindūstān. We took the road by Bādām-chashma and Jagdālīk and reached Adīnapūr in six marches. Till that time I had never seen a hot country or the Hindūstān border-land. In Nīngnahār872 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 amaze.

      Nāṣir Mīrzā, who had gone earlier to his district, waited on me in Adīnapūr. We made some delay in Adīnapūr in order to let the men from behind join us, also a contingent from the clans which had come with us into Kābul and were wintering in the Lamghānāt.873 All having joined us, we marched to below Jūī-shāhī and dismounted at Qūsh-guṃbaz.874 There Nāṣir Mīrzā asked for leave to stay behind, saying he would follow in a few days after making some sort of provision for his dependants and followers. Marching on from Qūsh-guṃbaz, when we dismounted at Hot-spring (Garm-chashma), a head-man of the Gāgīānī was brought in, a Fajjī875 presumably with his caravan. We took him with us to point out the roads. Crossing Khaibar in a march or two, we dismounted at Jām.876

      Tales had been told us about Gūr-khattrī;877 it was said to be a holy place of the Jogīs and Hindūs who come from long distances to shave their heads and beards there. I rode out at once from Jām to visit Bīgrām,878 saw its great tree,879 and all the country round, but, much as we enquired about Gūr-khattrī, our guide, one Malik Bū-sa‘īd Kamarī,880 would say nothing about it. When we were almost back in camp, however, he told Khwāja Muḥammad-amīn that it was in Bīgrām and that he had said nothing about it because of its confined cells and narrow passages. The Khwāja, having there and then abused him, repeated to us what he had said, but we could not go back because the road was long and the day far spent.

      (e. Move against Kohāt.)

      Whether to cross the water of Sind, or where else to go, was discussed in that camp.881 Bāqī Chaghānīānī represented that it seemed we might go, without crossing the river and with one night’s halt, to a place called Kohāt where were many rich tribesmen; moreover he brought Kābulīs forward who represented the matter just as he had done. We had never heard of the place, but, as he, my man in great authority, saw it good to go to Kohāt and had brought forward support of his recommendation, – this being so! we broke up our plan of crossing the Sind-water into Hindūstān, marched from Jām, forded the Bāra-water, and dismounted not far from the pass (dābān) through the Muḥammad-mountain (fajj). At the time the Gāgīānī Afghāns were located in Parashawār but, in dread of our army, had drawn off to the skirt-hills. One of their headmen, coming into this camp, did me obeisance; we took him, as well as the Fajjī, with us, so that, between them, they might point out the roads. We left that camp at midnight, crossed Muḥammad-fajj at day-rise882 and by breakfast-time descended on Kohāt. Much cattle and buffalo fell to our men; many Afghāns were taken but I had them all collected and set them free. In the Kohāt houses corn was found without limit. Our foragers raided as far as the Sind-river (daryā), rejoining us after one night’s halt. As what Bāqī Chaghānīānī had led us to expect did not come to hand, he grew rather ashamed of his scheme.

      When our foragers were back and after two nights in Kohāt, we took counsel together as to what would be our next good move, and we decided to over-run the Afghāns of Bangash and the Bannū neighbourhood, then to go back to Kābul, either through Naghr (Bāghzān?), or by the Farmūl-road (Tochī-valley?).

      In Kohāt, Daryā Khān’s son, Yār-i-ḥusain, who had waited on me in Kābul made petition, saying, “If royal orders were given me for the Dilazāk,883 the Yūsuf-zāī, and the Gāgīānī, these would not go far from my orders if I called up the Pādshāh’s swords on the other side of the water of Sind.”884 The farmān he petitioned for being given, he was allowed to go from Kohāt.

      (f. March to Thāl.)

      Marching out of Kohāt, we took the Hangū-road for Bangash. Between Kohāt and Hangū that road runs through a valley shut in on either hand by the mountains. When we entered this valley, the Afghāns of Kohāt and thereabouts who were gathered on both hill-skirts, raised their war-cry with great clamour. Our then guide, Malik Bū-sa‘īd Kamarī was well-acquainted with the Afghān locations; he represented that further on there was a detached hill on our right, where, if the Afghāns came down to it from the hill-skirt, we might surround and take them. God brought it right! The Afghāns, on reaching the place, did come down. We ordered one party of braves to seize the neck of land between that hill and the mountains, others to move along its sides, so that under attack made from all sides at once, the Afghāns might be made to reach their doom. Against the allround assault, they could not even fight; a hundred or two were taken, some were brought in alive but of most, the heads only were brought. We had been told that when Afghāns are powerless to resist, they go before their foe with grass between their teeth, this being as much as to say, “I am your cow.”885 Here we saw this custom; Afghāns unable to make resistance, came before us with grass between their teeth. Those our men had brought in as prisoners were ordered to be beheaded and a pillar of their heads was set up in our camp.886

      Next day we marched forward and dismounted at Hangū, where local Afghāns had made a sangur on a hill. I first heard the word sangur after coming to Kābul where people describe fortifying themselves on a hill as making a sangur. Our men went straight up, broke into it and cut off a hundred or two of insolent Afghān heads. There also a pillar of heads was set up.

      From Hangū we marched, with one night’s halt, to Tīl (Thāl),887 below Bangash; there also our men went out and raided the Afghāns near-by; some of them however turned back rather lightly from a sangur.888

      (g. Across country into Bannū.)

      On leaving Tīl (Thāl) we went, without a road, right down a steep descent, on through out-of-the-way narrows, halted one night, and next day came down into Bannū,889 man, horse and camel all worn out with fatigue and with most of the booty in cattle left on the way. The frequented road must have been a few miles to our right; the one we came by did not seem a riding-road at all; it was understood to be called the Gosfandliyār (Sheep-road), —liyār being Afghānī for a road, – because sometimes shepherds and herdsmen take their flocks and herds by it through those narrows. Most of our men regarded our being brought down by that left-hand road as an ill-design of Malik Bū-sa‘īd Kamarī.890

      (h. Bannū and the ‘Īsa-khail country.)

      The Bannū lands lie, a dead level, immediately outside the Bangash and Naghr hills, these being to their north. The Bangash torrent (the Kūrām) comes down into Bannū and fertilizes its lands. South(-east) of them are Chaupāra and the water of Sind; to their east is Dīn-kot; (south-)west is the Plain (Dasht), known also as Bāzār and Tāq.891 The Bannū lands are cultivated by the Kurānī, Kīwī, Sūr, ‘Īsa-khail and Nīā-zāī of the Afghān tribesmen.

      After dismounting in Bannū, we heard that the tribesmen in the Plain (Dasht) were for resisting and were entrenching themselves on a hill to the north. A force headed by Jahāngīr Mīrzā, went


<p>872</p>

f. 132. The Jagdālīk-pass for centuries has separated the districts of Kābul and Nīngnahār. Forster (Travels ii, 68), making the journey the reverse way, was sensible of the climatic change some 3m. east of Gandamak. Cf. Wood’s Report I. p. 6.

<p>873</p>

These are they whose families Nāṣir Mīrzā shepherded out of Kābul later (f. 154, f. 155).

<p>874</p>

Bird’s-dome, opposite the mouth of the Kūnār-water (S.A. War, Map p. 64).

<p>875</p>

This word is variously pointed and is uncertain. Mr. Erskine adopted “Pekhi”, but, on the whole, it may be best to read, here and on f. 146, Ar. fajj or pers. paj, mountain or pass. To do so shews the guide to be one located in the Khaibar-pass, a Fajjī or Pajī.

<p>876</p>

mod. Jām-rūd (Jām-torrent), presumably.

<p>877</p>

G. of I. xx, 125 and Cunningham’s Ancient History i, 80. Bābur saw the place in 925 AH. (f. 232b).

<p>878</p>

Cunningham, p. 29. Four ancient sites, not far removed from one another, bear this name, Bīgrām, viz. those near Hūpīān, Kābul, Jalālābād and Pashāwar.

<p>879</p>

Cunningham, i, 79.

<p>880</p>

Perhaps a native of Kamarī on the Indus, but kamarī is a word of diverse application (index s. n.).

<p>881</p>

The annals of this campaign to the eastward shew that Bābur was little of a free agent; that many acts of his own were merciful; that he sets down the barbarity of others as it was, according to his plan of writing (f. 86); and that he had with him undisciplined robbers of Khusrau Shāh’s former following. He cannot be taken as having power to command or control the acts of those, his guest-begs and their following, who dictated his movements in this disastrous journey, one worse than a defeat, says Ḥaidar Mīrzā.

<p>882</p>

For the route here see Masson, i, 117 and Colquhoun’s With the Kuram Field-force p. 48.

<p>883</p>

The Ḥai. MS. writes this Dilah-zāk.

<p>884</p>

i. e. raised a force in Bābur’s name. He took advantage of this farmān in 911 AH. to kill Bāqī Chagkānīānī (f. 159b-160).

<p>885</p>

Of the Yūsuf-zāī and Ranjīt-sīngh, Masson says, (i, 141) “The miserable, hunted wretches threw themselves on the ground, and placing a blade or tuft of grass in their mouths, cried out, “I am your cow.” This act and explanation, which would have saved them from an orthodox Hindū, had no effect with the infuriated Sikhs.” This form of supplication is at least as old as the days of Firdausī (Erskine, p. 159 n.). The Bahār-i-‘ajam is quoted by Vullers as saying that in India, suppliants take straw in the mouth to indicate that they are blanched and yellow from fear.

<p>886</p>

This barbarous custom has always prevailed amongst the Tartar conquerors of Asia (Erskine). For examples under ‘ see Raverty’s Notes p. 137.

<p>887</p>

For a good description of the road from Kohāt to Thāl see Bellew’s Mission p. 104.

<p>888</p>

F. 88b has the same phrase about the doubtful courage of one Sayyidī Qarā.

<p>889</p>

Not to the mod. town of Bannū, [that having been begun only in 1848 AD.] but wherever their wrong road brought them out into the Bannū amphitheatre. The Survey Map of 1868, No. 15, shews the physical features of the wrong route.

<p>890</p>

Perhaps he connived at recovery of cattle by those raided already.

<p>891</p>

Tāq is the Tank of Maps; Bāzār was s.w. of it. Tank for Tāq looks to be a variant due to nasal utterance (Vigne, p. 77, p. 203 and Map; and, as bearing on the nasal, in loco, Appendix E).