[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Mughals (1526–1857)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal) › [Bābur (1526–1530)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur) › [Bāburnāma](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama) › [The Babur-nama in English (A. S. Beveridge)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge) › 910.4 # The Memoirs of Bābur 910.4 The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 910.4 - **Language:** English ### [910.4.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.910.4.1) Fruits of hot and cold climates are to be had in the districts near the town. Amongst those of the cold climate, there are had in the town the grape, pomegranate, apricot, apple, quince, pear, peach, plum, \_sinjid\_, almond and walnut.\[738\] I had cuttings of the \_ālū-bālū\_\[739\] brought there and planted; they grew and have done well. Of fruits of the hot climate people bring into the town;—from the Lamghānāt, the orange, citron, \_amlūk\_ (\_diospyrus lotus\_), and sugar-cane; this last I had had brought and planted there;\[740\]—from Nijr-au (Nijr-water), they bring the \_jīl-ghūza,\[741\] and, from the hill-tracts, much honey. Bee-hives are in use; it\_ is only from towards Ghaznī, that no honey comes. The rhubarb\[742\] of the Kābul district is good, its quinces and plums very good, so too its \_badrang\_;\[743\] it grows an excellent grape, known as the water-grape.\[744\] Kābul wines are heady, those of the Khwāja Khāwand Sa\`īd hill-skirt being famous for their strength; at this time however I can only repeat the praise of others about them:—\[745\] The flavour of the wine a drinker knows; What chance have sober men to know it? Kābul is not fertile in grain, a four or five-fold return is reckoned good there; nor are its melons first-rate, but they are not altogether bad when grown from Khurāsān seed. ### [910.4.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.910.4.2) It has a very pleasant climate; if the world has another so pleasant, it is not known. Even in the heats, one cannot sleep at night without a fur-coat.\[746\] Although the snow in most places lies deep in winter, the cold is not excessive; whereas in \[Sidenote: Fol. 130.\] Samarkand and Tabrīz, both, like Kābul, noted for their pleasant climate, the cold is extreme. (\_d. Meadows of Kābul.\_) There are good meadows on the four sides of Kābul. An excellent one, Sūng-qūrghān, is some 4 miles (2 \_kuroh\_) to the north-east; it has grass fit for horses and few mosquitos. To the north-west is the Chālāk meadow, some 2 miles (1 \_shar\`ī\_) away, a large one but in it mosquitos greatly trouble the horses. On the west is the Dūrrīn, in fact there are two, Tīpa and Qūsh-nādir (var. nāwar),—if two are counted here, there would be five in all. Each of these is about 2 miles from the town; both are small, have grass good for horses, and no mosquitos; Kābul has no others so good. On the east is the Siyāh-sang meadow with Qūtlūq-qadam's tomb\[747\] between it and the Currier's-gate; it is not worth much because, in the heats, it swarms with mosquitos. Kamarī\[748\] meadow adjoins it; counting this in, the meadows of Kābul would be six, but they are always spoken of as four. (\_e. Mountain-passes into Kābul.\_) The country of Kābul is a fastness hard for a foreign foe to make his way into. ### [910.4.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.910.4.3) The Hindū-kush mountains, which separate Kābul from Balkh, Qūndūz and Badakhshān, are crossed by seven roads.\[749\] Three of these lead out of Panjhīr (Panj-sher), \_viz.\_ Khawāk, the uppermost, T̤ūl, the next lower, and Bāzārak.\[750\] Of the passes on them, the one on the T̤ūl road is the best, but the road itself is rather \[Sidenote: Fol. 130b.\] the longest whence, seemingly, it is called T̤ūl. Bāzārak is the most direct; like T̤ūl, it leads over into Sar-i-āb; as it passes through Pārandī, local people call its main pass, the Pārandī. Another road leads up through Parwān; it has seven minor passes, known as Haft-bacha (Seven-younglings), between Parwān and its main pass (Bāj-gāh). It is joined at its main pass by two roads from Andar-āb, which go on to Parwān by it. This is a road full of difficulties. Out of Ghūr-bund, again, three roads lead over. The one next to Parwān, known as the Yāngī-yūl pass (New-road), goes through Wālīān to Khinjan; next above this is the Qīpchāq road, crossing to where the water of Andar-āb meets the Sūrkh-āb (Qīzīl-sū); this also is an excellent road; and the third leads over the Shibr-tū pass;\[751\] those crossing by this in the heats take their way by Bāmīān and Saighān, but those crossing by it in winter, go on by Āb-dara (Water-valley).\[752\] Shibr-tū excepted, all the Hindū-kush roads are closed for three or four months in winter,\[753\] because no road through a valley-bottom is passable when the waters are high. ### [910.4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.910.4.4) If any-one thinks to cross the Hindū-kush at that time, over the mountains instead of through a valley-bottom, his journey is hard indeed. The time to cross is during the three or four autumn months when the snow is less and the waters are low. \[Sidenote: Fol. 131.\] Whether on the mountains or in the valley-bottoms, Kāfir highwaymen are not few. The road from Kābul into Khurāsān passes through Qandahār; it is quite level, without a pass. Four roads lead into Kābul from the Hindūstān side; one by rather a low pass through the Khaibar mountains, another by way of Bangash, another by way of Naghr (var. Naghz),\[754\] and another through Farmūl;\[755\] the passes being low also in the three last-named. These roads are all reached from three ferries over the Sind. Those who take the Nīl-āb\[756\] ferry, come on through the Lamghānāt.\[757\] In winter, however, people ford the Sind-water (at Hāru) above its junction with the Kābul-water,\[758\] and ford this also. In most of my expeditions into Hindūstān, I crossed those fords, but this last time (932 AH.-1525 AD.), when I came, defeated Sl. Ibrāhīm and conquered the country, I crossed by boat at Nīl-āb. Except at the one place mentioned above, the Sind-water can be crossed only by boat. Those again, who cross at Dīn-kot\[759\] go on through Bangash. Those crossing at Chaupāra, if they take the Farmūl road, go on to Ghaznī, or, if they go by the Dasht, go on to Qandahār.\[760\] (\_f. Inhabitants of Kābul.\_) ### [910.4.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.910.4.5) There are many differing tribes in the Kābul country; in its dales and plains are Turks and clansmen\[761\] and \`Arabs; in its town and in many villages, Sārts; out in the districts and also \[Sidenote: Fol. 131b.\] in villages are the Pashāī, Parājī, Tājīk, Bīrkī and Afghān tribes. In the western mountains are the Hazāra and Nikdīrī tribes, some of whom speak the Mughūlī tongue. In the north-eastern mountains are the places of the Kāfirs, such as Kitūr (Gawār?) and Gibrik. To the south are the places of the Afghān tribes. Eleven or twelve tongues are spoken in Kābul,—\`Arabī, Persian, Turkī, Mughūlī, Hindī, Afghānī, Pashāī, Parājī, Gibrī, Bīrkī and Lamghānī. If there be another country with so many differing tribes and such a diversity of tongues, it is not known. (\_e. Sub-divisions of the Kābul country.\_) The \[Kābul\] country has fourteen \_tūmāns\_.\[762\] Bajaur, Sawād and Hash-nagar may at one time have been dependencies of Kābul, but they now have no resemblance to cultivated countries (\_wilāyāt\_), some lying desolate because of the Afghāns, others being now subject to them. In the east of the country of Kābul is the Lamghānāt, 5 \_tūmāns\_ and 2 \_bulūks\_ of cultivated lands.\[763\] The largest of these is Nīngnahār, sometimes written Nagarahār in the histories.\[764\] Its \_dārogha's\_ residence is in Adīnapūr,\[765\] some 13 \_yīghāch\_ east of Kābul by a very bad and tiresome road, going in three or four places over small hill-passes, and in three or four others, through \[Sidenote: Fol. ### [910.4.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.910.4.6) 132.\] narrows.\[766\] So long as there was no cultivation along it, the Khirilchī and other Afghān thieves used to make it their beat, but it has become safe\[767\] since I had it peopled at Qarā-tū,\[768\] below Qūrūq-sāī. The hot and cold climates are separated on this road by the pass of Bādām-chashma (Almond-spring); on its Kābul side snow falls, none at Qūrūq-sāī, towards the Lamghānāt.\[769\] After descending this pass, another world comes into view, other trees, other plants (or grasses), other animals, and other manners and customs of men. Nīngnahār is nine torrents (\_tūqūz-rūd\_).\[770\] It grows good crops of rice and corn, excellent and abundant oranges, citrons and pomegranates. In 914 AH. (1508-9 AD.) I laid out the Four-gardens, known as the Bāgh-i-wafā (Garden-of-fidelity), on a rising-ground, facing south and having the Sūrkh-rūd between it and Fort Adīnapūr.\[771\] There oranges, citrons and pomegranates grow in abundance. The year I defeated Pahār Khān and took Lāhor and Dipālpūr,\[772\] I had plantains (bananas) brought and planted there; they did very well. The year before I had had sugar-cane planted there; it also did well; some of it was sent to Bukhārā and Badakhshān.\[773\] The garden lies high, has running-water close at hand, and a mild winter \[Sidenote: Fol. 132b.\] climate. In the middle of it, a one-mill stream flows constantly past the little hill on which are the four garden-plots. ### [910.4.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.910.4.7) In the south-west part of it there is a reservoir, 10 by 10,\[774\] round which are orange-trees and a few pomegranates, the whole encircled by a trefoil-meadow. This is the best part of the garden, a most beautiful sight when the oranges take colour. Truly that garden is admirably situated! The Safed-koh runs along the south of Nīngnahār, dividing it from Bangash; no riding-road crosses it; nine torrents (\_tūqūz-rūd\_) issue from it.\[775\] It is called Safed-koh\[776\] because its snow never lessens; none falls in the lower parts of its valleys, a half-day's journey from the snow-line. Many places along it have an excellent climate; its waters are cold and need no ice. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.910.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.910.4) · Pramāṇa