The Institutes of Akbar 300: 75. Sayyid Mahmu’d of Ba’rha, [Kundliwal].

300

‘Sayyid Mahmúd was the first of the Bárha Sayyids that held office under the Timurides.’ He was with Sikandar Súr (Badáoní II, 17) in Mankot, but seeing that the cause of the Afgháns was hopeless, he left Sikandar and went over to Akbar. He was a friend of Bairám, and served in the first year under ’Ali Quli Khan Zaman (No. 13) against Hemú. In the second year, he took part in the expedition against Haji Khan in Ajmir (vide Nos. 40, 45). In the 3rd year, he conquered with Shah Quli Mahram (No. 45) Fort Jaitaran, and served in the same year under Adham Kokah against the Bhadauriyahs of Hatkant’h (vide p. 323, last line).
After Bairam’s fall, Sayyid Mahmúd got a jagir near Dihli. In the 7th year, he brought Mun’im Khan to Court (vide p. 318). In the 17th year, he served under the Khan i Kalán (No. 16) and the emperor in Gujrat, was present in the battle of Sarnal, and followed up Mirzá Ibrahim Husain. On every occasion he fought with much bravery. Towards the end of the 18th year, he was sent with other Sayyids of Bárha, and Sayyid Muhammad of Amrohah (No. 140) against Rajah Madhukar, who had invaded the territory between Sironj and Gwaliár. S. Mahmud drove him away, and died soon after, in the very end of 981.
Sayyid Mahmúd was a man of rustic habits, and great personal courage and generosity. Akbar’s court admired his valour and chuckled at his boorishness and unadorned language; but he stood in high favor with the emperor. Once on his return from the war with Madhukar, he gave in the State hall a verbal account of his expedition, in which his “I” occurred oftener than was deemed proper by the assembled Amírs. “You have gained the victory,” interrupted Áçaf Khán, in order to give him a gentle hint, “because His Majesty’s good fortune (iqbál i pádisháhí) accompanied you.” Mistaking the word ‘Iqbál’ for the name of a courtier, “Why do you tell an untruth?” replied Mahmúd, “Iqbál i Pádisháhí did not accompany me: I was there, and my brothers: we licked them with our sabres.” The emperor smiled, and bestowed upon him praise and more substantial favors.
But more malicious were the remarks of the Amírs regarding his claim to be a Sayyid of pure blood. Jahángír (Tuzuk, p. 366) also says that people doubt the claim of the Bárha family to be Sayyids. Once Mahmúd was asked how many generations backwards the Sayyids of Bárha traced their descent. Accidentally a fire was burning on the ground near the spot where Mahmúd stood. Jumping into it, he exclaimed, “If I am a Sayyid, the fire will not hurt me; if I am no Sayyid, I shall get burnt.” He stood for nearly an hour in the fire, and only left it at the earnest request of the bystanders. “His velvet-slippers shewed, indeed, no trace of being singed.”
For Sayyid Mahmúd’s brother and sons, vide Nos. 91, 105, and 143.