[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) › 932.12 # The Memoirs of Bābur 932.12 The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 932.12 - **Language:** English ### [932.12.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.12.1) The coco-nut palm (P. \_nārgīl\_, \_Cocos nucifera\_) is another. An \`Arab gives it Arabic form\[1867\] and says \_nārjīl\_; Hindūstān people say \_nālīr\_, seemingly by popular error.\[1868\] Its fruit is the Hindī-nut from which black spoons (\_qarā qāshūq\_) are made and the larger ones of which serve for guitar-bodies. The coco-palm has general resemblance to the date-palm, but has more, and more glistening leaves. Like the walnut, the coco-nut has a green outer husk; but its husk is of fibre on fibre. All ropes for ships and boats and also cord for sewing boat-seams are heard of as made from these husks. The nut, when stripped of its husk, near one end shews a triangle of hollows, two of which are solid, the third a nothing (\_būsh\_), easily pierced. Before the kernel forms, there is fluid inside; people pierce the soft hollow and drink this; it tastes like date-palm cheese in solution, and is not bad. ### [932.12.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.12.2) The (Sans.) \_tāṛ\_ (\_Borassus flabelliformis\_, the Palmyra-palm) is another. Its branches (\_i.e.\_ leaves) also are quite at its top. Just as \[Sidenote: Fol. 286.\] with the date-palm, people hang a pot on it, take its juice and drink it. They call this liquor \_tāṛī\_;\[1869\] it is said to be more exhilarating than date liquor. For about a yard along its branches (\_i.e.\_ leaf-stems)\[1870\] there are no leaves; above this, at the tip of the branch (stem), 30 or 40 open out like the spread palm of the hand, all from one place. These leaves approach a yard in length. People often write Hindī characters on them after the fashion of account rolls (\_daftar yūsūnlūq\_). ### [932.12.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.12.3) The orange (Ar. \_nāranj\_, \_Citrus aurantium\_) and orange-like fruits are others of Hindūstān.\[1871\] Oranges grow well in the Lamghānāt, Bajaur and Sawād. The Lamghānāt one is smallish, has a navel,\[1872\] is very agreeable, fragile and juicy. It is not at all like the orange of Khurāsān and those parts, being so fragile that many spoil before reaching Kābul from the Lamghānāt which may be 13-14 \_yīghāch\_ (65-70 miles), while the Astarābād orange, by reason of its thick skin and scant juice, carries with \[Sidenote: Fol. 286b.\] less damage from there to Samarkand, some 270-280 \_yīghāch\_.\[1873\] The Bajaur orange is about as large as a quince, very juicy and more acid than other oranges. Khwāja Kalān once said to me, "We counted the oranges gathered from a single tree of this sort in Bajaur and it mounted up to 7,000." It had been always in my mind that the word \_nāranj\_ was an Arabic form;\[1874\] it would seem to be really so, since every-one in Bajaur and Sawād says (P.) \_nārang\_.\[1875\] The lime (B. \_līmū\_, \_C. acida\_) is another. It is very plentiful, about the size of a hen's egg, and of the same shape. If a person poisoned drink the water in which its fibres have been boiled, danger is averted.\[1876\] ### [932.12.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.12.4) The citron (P. \_turunj\_,\[1877\] \_C. medica\_) is another of the fruits resembling the orange. Bajaurīs and Sawādīs call it \_bālang\_ and hence give the name \_bālang-marabbā\_ to its marmalade (\_marabbā\_) confiture. In Hindūstān people call the \_turunj bajaurī\_.\[1878\] There are two kinds of \_turunj\_: one is sweet, flavourless and nauseating, of no use for eating but with peel that may be good for marmalade; it has the same sickening sweetness as the Lamghānāt \_turunj\_; the other, that of Hindūstān and Bajaur, is acid, quite deliciously acid, and makes excellent sherbet, well-flavoured, and wholesome drinking. Its size may be that of the Khusrawī melon; it has a thick skin, wrinkled and uneven, with one end thinner and beaked. It is of a deeper yellow than the orange (\_nāranj\_). Its tree has no trunk, is rather low, grows in bushes, and has a larger \[Sidenote: Fol. 287.\] leaf than the orange. The \_sangtāra\_\[1879\] is another fruit resembling the orange (\_nāranj\_). It is like the citron (\_turunj\_) in colour and form, but has both ends of its skin level;\[1880\] also it is not rough and is somewhat the smaller fruit. Its tree is large, as large as the apricot (\_aūrūq\_), with a leaf like the orange's. It is a deliciously acid fruit, making a very pleasant and wholesome sherbet. Like the lime it is a powerful stomachic, but not weakening like the orange (\_nāranj\_). ### [932.12.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.12.5) The large lime which they call (H.) \_gal-gal\_\[1881\] in Hindūstān is another fruit resembling the orange. It has the shape of a goose's egg, but unlike that egg, does not taper to the ends. Its skin is smooth like the \_sangtāra's\_; it is remarkably juicy. The (H.) \_jānbīrī\_ lime\[1882\] is another orange-like fruit. It is orange-shaped and, though yellow, not orange-yellow. It smells like the citron (\_turunj\_); it too is deliciously acid. The (Sans.) \_sadā-fal\_ (\_phal\_)\[1883\] is another orange-like fruit. This is pear-shaped, colours like the quince, ripens sweet, but not to the sickly-sweetness of the orange (\_nāranj\_). The \_amrd-fal\_ (sic. Ḥai. MS.—Sans. \_amrit-phal\_)\[1884\] is another orange-like fruit. The lemon (H. \_karnā\_, \_C. limonum\_) is another fruit resembling the orange (\_nāranj\_); it may be as large as the \_gal-gal\_ and is also acid. The (Sans.) \_amal-bīd\_\[1885\] is another fruit resembling the orange. After three years (in Hindūstān), it was first seen to-day.\[1886\] They say a needle melts away if put inside it,\[1887\] either from its acidity \[Sidenote: Fol. 287b.\] or some other property. It is as acid, perhaps, as the citron and lemon (\_turunj\_ and \_līmū\_).\[1888\] (\_m. Vegetable products of Hindūstān:—Flowers.\_) ### [932.12.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.12.6) In Hindūstān there is great variety of flowers. One is the (D.) \_jāsūn\_ (\_Hibiscus rosa sinensis\_), which some Hindūstānīs call (Hindī) \_gaẕhal\_.\[1889\] \*It is not a grass (\_giyāh\_); its tree (is in stems like the bush of the red-rose; it) is rather taller than the bush of the red-rose.\[1890\]\* The flower of the \_jāsūn\_ is fuller in colour than that of the pomegranate, and may be of the size of the red-rose, but, the red-rose, when its bud has grown, opens simply, whereas, when the \_jāsūn\_-bud opens, a stem on which other petals grow, is seen like a heart amongst its expanded petals. Though the two are parts of the one flower, yet the outcome of the lengthening and thinning of that stem-like heart of the first-opened petals gives the semblance of two flowers.\[1891\] It is not a common matter. The beautifully coloured flowers look very well on the tree, but they do not last long; they fade in just one day. The \_jāsūn\_ blossoms very well through the four months of the rains; it seems indeed to flower all through the year; with this profusion, however, it gives no perfume. ### [932.12.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.12.7) The (H.) \_kanīr\_ (\_Nerium odorum\_, the oleander)\[1892\] is another. It grows both red and white. Like the peach-flower, it is five petalled. It is like the peach-bloom (in colour?), but opens 14 or 15 flowers from one place, so that seen from a distance, they look like one great flower. The oleander-bush is taller than the rose-bush. The red oleander has a sort of scent, faint and agreeable. (Like the \_jāsūn\_,) it also blooms well and profusely in the \[Sidenote: Fol. 288.\] rains, and it also is had through most of the year. The (H.) (\_kīūrā\_) (\_Pandanus odoratissimus\_, the screw-pine) is another.\[1893\] It has a very agreeable perfume.\[1894\] Musk has the defect of being dry; this may be called moist musk—a very agreeable perfume. The tree's singular appearance notwithstanding, it has flowers perhaps 1-1/2 to 2 \_qārīsh\_ (13-1/2 to 18 inches) long. It has long leaves having the character of the reed (P.) \_gharau\_\[1895\] and having spines. Of these leaves, while pressed together bud-like, the outer ones are the greener and more spiny; the inner ones are soft and white. In amongst these inner leaves grow things like what belongs to the middle of a flower, and from these things comes the excellent perfume. When the tree first comes up not yet shewing any trunk, it is like the bush (\_būta\_) of the male-reed,\[1896\] but with wider and more spiny leaves. What serves it for a trunk is very shapeless, its roots remaining shewn. ### [932.12.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.12.8) The (P.) \_yāsman\_ (jasmine) is another; the white they call (B.) \_champa\_.\[1897\] It is larger and more strongly scented than our \_yāsman\_-flower. (\_n. Seasons of the year.\_) Again:—whereas there are four seasons in those countries,\[1898\] there are three in Hindūstān, namely, four months are summer; four are the rains; four are winter. The beginning of their months is from the welcome of the crescent-moons.\[1899\] Every three years they add a month to the year; if one had been added to the rainy season, the next is added, three years later, to the winter months, the next, in the same way, to the hot months. This is their mode of intercalation.\[1900\] (\_Chait\_, \_Baisākh\_, \_Jeṭh\_ and \[Sidenote: Fol. 288b.\] \_Asāṛh\_) are the hot months, corresponding with the Fish, (Ram, Bull and Twins; \_Sāwan\_, \_Bhādoṅ\_, \_Kū,ār\_ and \_Kātik\_) are the rainy months, corresponding with the Crab, (Lion, Virgin and Balance; \_Aghan\_, \_Pūs\_, \_Māgh\_ and \_Phālgun\_) are the cold months, corresponding with the Scorpion, (Archer, Capricorn, and Bucket or Aquarius). --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.12) · Pramāṇa