The Book of Akbar 152.1

152.1

When the mind of his Majesty Jahanbani was at leisure from the affairs of his dominions, he, in 941 (1534), turned the rein of intent towards the eastern quarter and the conquest of Bengal. The standards of felicity had reached the town of Kinar, within the limits of Kalpi, when it came to the royal hearing that Sultan Bahadur, under the pretext of besieging Citor, had gathered a large body of men under Tatar Khan, son of Sultan ‘Ala’u-d-din, and that he was entertaining wild projects. His Majesty after an enlightened consultation, despatched, in Jumada’l-awwal 941 (November-December, 1534,) a force to quell the enemy, and himself beat high the drum of return. It is not unknown to the circumspect that Sultan Bahadur was ever engaged in high-flying imaginings, and was always holding in his palate the bruised thorn of evil wishes. But as, before he became the ruler of Gujrat and was but a private individual, he had seen with the eye of warning a specimen of his Majesty Giti-sitani Firdus-makani’s way of fighting in the campaign against Sultan Ibrahim; he could not bring himself for any consideration to resolve on encountering the soldiers of that illustrious family. And this view he repeatedly expressed to his confidants. When Tatar Khan came and waited upon him, he was continually filling his mind with vain propositions and was representing that it was easy for him to advance beyond the sacred ground of respect.