[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) › 912.2 # The Memoirs of Bābur 912.2 The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 912.2 - **Language:** English ### [912.2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.2.1) Although this was not a social gathering, cooked viands were brought in, drinkables\[1184\] were set with the food, and near them gold and silver cups. Our forefathers through a long space of time, had respected the Chīngīz-tūrā (ordinance), doing nothing opposed to it, whether in assembly or Court, in sittings-down or risings-up. Though it has not Divine authority so that a man obeys it of necessity, still good rules of conduct must be obeyed by whom-soever they are left; just in the same way that, if a forefather have done ill, his ill must be changed for good. After the meal I rode from the Mīrzā's camp some 2 miles to \[Sidenote: Fol. 187.\] our own dismounting-place. (\_f. Bābur claims due respect.\_) At my second visit Badī\`u'z-zamān Mīrzā shewed me less respect than at my first. I therefore had it said to Muḥ. Barandūq Beg and to Ẕū'n-nūn Beg that, small though my age was (\_aet.\_ 24), my place of honour was large; that I had seated myself twice on the throne of our forefathers in Samarkand by blow straight-dealt; and that to be laggard in shewing me respect was unreasonable, since it was for this (Tīmūrid) dynasty's sake I had thus fought and striven with that alien foe. This said, and as it was reasonable, they admitted their mistake at once and shewed the respect claimed. (\_g. Bābur's temperance.\_) ### [912.2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.2.2) There was a wine-party (\_chāghīr-majlisī\_) once when I went after the Mid-day Prayer to Badī\`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's presence. At that time I drank no wine. The party was altogether elegant; every sort of relish to wine (\_gazak\_) was set out on the napery, with brochettes of fowl and goose, and all sorts of viands. The Mīrzā's entertainments were much renowned; truly was this one free from the pang of thirst (\_bī ghall\_), reposeful and tranquil. I was at two or three of his wine-parties while we were on the bank of the Murgh-āb; once it was known I did not drink, no pressure to do so was put on me. I went to one wine-party of Muz̤affar Mīrzā's. Ḥusain of \`Alī \_Jalāīr\_ and Mīr Badr were both there, they being in his service. When Mīr Badr had had enough (\_kaifīyat\_), he danced, \[Sidenote: Fol. 187b.\] and danced well what seemed to be his own invention. (\_h. Comments on the Mīrzās.\_) Three months it took the Mīrzās to get out of Herī, agree amongst themselves, collect troops, and reach Murgh-āb. Meantime Sl. Qul-i-nachāq (?), reduced to extremity, had surrendered Balkh to the Aūzbeg but that Aūzbeg, hearing of our alliance against him, had hurried back to Samarkand. The Mīrzās were good enough as company and in social matters, in conversation and parties, but they were strangers to war, strategy, equipment, bold fight and encounter. (\_i. Winter plans.\_) ### [912.2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.2.3) While we were on the Murgh-āb, news came that Ḥaq-naẕīr \_Chapā\_ (var. Ḥiān) was over-running the neighbourhood of Chīchīk-tū with 4 or 500 men. All the Mīrzās there present, do what they would, could not manage to send a light troop against those raiders! It is 10 \_yīghāch\_ (50-55 m.) from Murgh-āb to Chīchīk-tū. I asked the work; they, with a thought for their own reputation, would not give it to me. The year being almost at an end when Shaibāq Khān retired, the Mīrzās decided to winter where it was convenient and to reassemble next summer in order to repel their foe. They pressed me to winter in Khurāsān, but this not one of my well-wishers saw it good for me to do because, while Kābul and Ghaznī were full of a turbulent and ill-conducted medley of \[Sidenote: Fol. 188.\] people and hordes, Turks, Mughūls, clans and nomads (\_aīmāq u aḥsham\_), Afghāns and Hazāra, the roads between us and that not yet desirably subjected country of Kābul were, one, the mountain-road, a month's journey even without delay through snow or other cause,—the other, the low-country road, a journey of 40 or 50 days. ### [912.2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.2.4) Consequently we excused ourselves to the Mīrzās, but they would accept no excuse and, for all our pleas, only urged the more. In the end Badī\`u'z-zamān Mīrzā, Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā and Muz̤affar Mīrzā themselves rode to my tent and urged me to stay the winter. It was impossible to refuse men of such ruling position, come in person to press us to stay on. Besides this, the whole habitable world has not such a town as Herī had become under Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, whose orders and efforts had increased its splendour and beauty as ten to one, rather, as twenty to one. As I greatly wished to stay, I consented to do so. Abū'l-muḥsin M. went to Marv, his own district; Ibn-i-ḥusain M. went to his, Tūn and Qāīn; Badī\`u'z-zamān M. and Muz̤affar M. set off for Herī; I followed them a few days later, taking the road by Chihil-dukhtarān and Tāsh-rabāṯ.\[1185\] (\_j. Bābur visits the Begīms in Herī.\_) ### [912.2.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.2.5) All the Begīms, \_i.e.\_ my paternal-aunt Pāyanda-sulṯān Begīm, Khadīja Begīm, Apāq Begīm, and my other paternal-aunt Begīms, daughters of Sl. Abū-sa\`īd Mīrzā,\[1186\] were gathered together, at the time I went to see them, in Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's College at his \[Sidenote: Fol. 188b.\] Mausoleum. Having bent the knee with (\_yūkūnūb bīla\_) Pāyanda-sulṯān Begīm first of all, I had an interview with her; next, not bending the knee,\[1187\] I had an interview with Apāq Begīm; next, having bent the knee with Khadīja Begīm, I had an interview with her. After sitting there for some time during recitation of the Qorān,\[1188\] we went to the South College where Khadīja Begīm's tents had been set up and where food was placed before us. After partaking of this, we went to Pāyanda-sulṯān Begīm's tents and there spent the night. The New-year's Garden was given us first for a camping-ground; there our camp was arranged; and there I spent the night of the day following my visit to the Begīms, but as I did not find it a convenient place, \`Alī-sher Beg's residence was assigned to me, where I was as long as I stayed in Herī, every few days shewing myself in Badī\`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's presence in the World-adorning Garden. (\_k. The Mīrzās entertain Bābur in Herī.\_) ### [912.2.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.2.6) A few days after Muz̤affar Mīrzā had settled down in the White-garden, he invited me to his quarters; Khadīja Begīm was also there, and with me went Jahāngīr Mīrzā. When we had eaten a meal in the Begīm's presence,\[1189\] Muz̤affar Mīrzā took me to where there was a wine-party, in the T̤arab-khāna (Joy-house) built by Bābur Mīrzā, a sweet little abode, a smallish, two-storeyed house in the middle of a smallish garden. Great pains have been taken with its upper storey; this has a retreat (\_ḥujra\_) in each of its four corners, the space between each two retreats being like a \_shāh-nīshīn\_\[1190\]; in between these retreats and \[Sidenote: Fol. 189.\] \_shāh-nīshīns\_ is one large room on all sides of which are pictures which, although Bābur Mīrzā built the house, were commanded by Abū-sa\`īd Mīrzā and depict his own wars and encounters. Two divans had been set in the north \_shāh-nīshīn\_, facing each other, and with their sides turned to the north. On one Muz̤affar Mīrzā and I sat, on the other Sl. Mas\`ūd Mīrzā\[1191\] and Jahāngīr Mīrzā. We being guests, Muz̤affar Mīrzā gave me place above himself. The social cups were filled, the cup-bearers ordered to carry them to the guests; the guests drank down the mere wine as if it were water-of-life; when it mounted to their heads, the party waxed warm. They thought to make me also drink and to draw me into their own circle. ### [912.2.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.2.7) Though up till then I had not committed the sin of wine-drinking\[1192\] and known the cheering sensation of comfortable drunkenness, I was inclined to drink wine and my heart was drawn to cross that stream (\_wāda\_). I had had no inclination for wine in my childhood; I knew nothing of its cheer and pleasure. If, as sometimes, my father pressed wine on me, I excused myself; I did not commit the sin. After he \[Sidenote: Fol. 189b.\] died, Khwāja Qāẓī's right guidance kept me guiltless; as at that time I abstained from forbidden viands, what room was there for the sin of wine? Later on when, with the young man's lusts and at the prompting of sensual passion, desire for wine arose, there was no-one to press it on me, no-one indeed aware of my leaning towards it; so that, inclined for it though my heart was, it was difficult of myself to do such a thing, one thitherto undone. It crossed my mind now, when the Mīrzās were so pressing and when too we were in a town so refined as Herī, "Where should I drink if not here? here where all the chattels and utensils of luxury and comfort are gathered and in use." So saying to myself, I resolved to drink wine; I determined to cross that stream; but it occurred to me that as I had not taken wine in Badī\`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's house or from his hand, who was to me as an elder brother, things might find way into his mind if I took wine in his younger brother's house and from his hand. Having so said to myself, I mentioned my doubt and difficulty. ### [912.2.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.2.8) Said they, "Both the excuse and the obstacle are reasonable," pressed me no more to drink then but settled that when I was in company with both Mīrzās, I should drink under the insistance of both. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.2) · Pramāṇa