The Rashīdī History 1.3

1.3

Muhammad Sultan Mirza, of the house of Timur, and grandson by a daughter of Sultan Husain (of Khurasan), had come to India to wait upon the Emperor Babar, and had been received with every mark of kindness and kingly favour. After Babar's death he had several times revolted against Humayun; but being unsuccessful, he had sought forgiveness, and had been pardoned. Now having colluded with Sher Khan, he deserted. A new way was thus opened. Everybody began to desert, and the most surprising part of it was, that many of those who deserted did not go over to Sher Khan, and so could expect no favour from him. A heated feeling ran through the army, and the cry was, "Let us go and rest in our own homes." A number also of Kamran's auxiliary forces deserted and fled to Lahore. Among the equipments which were in the train of the Emperor were 700 carriages (gardun), each drawn by four pairs of bullocks, and carrying a swivel (zarb-zan), which discharged a ball (kalola), of 500 miskals weight. I myself several times saw that from the top of an eminence they unfailingly (be-khata) struck horsemen who slightly and unsuspectingly exposed themselves. And there were twenty-one carriages, each drawn by eight pairs of bullocks. Stone balls were of no use in these, but the shots were of molten brass, and weighed 5000 miskdls, and the cost of each was 200 miskdls of silver. They would strike anything that was visible at the distance of a parasang.