The Memoirs of Bābur 932.13
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 932.13
- Language
- English
932.13.1
The people of Hind, having thus divided the year into three seasons of four months each, divide each of those seasons by taking from each, the two months of the force of the heat, rain,[1901] and cold. Of the hot months the last two, _i.e. Jeṭh_ and _Asāṛh_ are the force of the heat; of the rainy months, the first two, _i.e. Sāwan_ and _Bhādoṅ_ are the force of the rains; of the cold season, the middle two, _i.e. Pūs_ and _Māgh_ are the force of the cold. By this classification there are six seasons in Hindūstān. (_o. Days of the week._) To the days also they have given names:—[1902] (_Sanīchar_ is Saturday; _Rabī-bār_ is Sunday; _Som-wār_ is Monday; _Mangal-wār_ is Tuesday; _Budh-bār_ is Wednesday; _Brihaspat-bār_ is Thursday; _Shukr-bār_ is Friday). (_p. Divisions of time._) [Sidenote: Fol. 289.] (_Author's note on the daqīqa._) The _daqīqa_ is about as long as six repetitions of the _Fātiḥa_ with the _Bismillāh_, so that a day-and-night is as long as 8640 repetitions of the _Fātiḥa_ with the _Bismillāh._ As in our countries what is known by the (Turkī) term _kīcha-gūndūz_ (a day-and-night, nycthemeron) is divided into 24 parts, each called an hour (Ar. _sā`at_), and the hour is divided into 60 parts, each called a minute (Ar.
932.13.2
_daqīqa_), so that a day-and-night consists of 1440 minutes,—so the people of Hind divide the night-and-day into 60 parts, each called a (S.) _g'harī_.[1903] They also divide the night into four and the day into four, calling each part a (S.) _pahr_ (watch) which in Persian is a _pās_. A watch and watchman (_pās u pāsbān_) had been heard about (by us) in those countries (Transoxania), but without these particulars. Agreeing with the division into watches, a body of _g'harīālīs_[1904] is chosen and appointed in all considerable towns of Hindūstān. They cast a broad brass (plate-) thing,[1905] perhaps as large as a tray (_ṯabaq_) and about two hands'-thickness; this they call a _g'harīāl_ and hang up in a high place (_bīr buland yīr-dā_). Also they have a vessel perforated at the bottom like an hour-cup[1906] and filling in one _g'harī_ (_i.e._ 24 minutes). The _g'harīālīs_ put this into water and wait till it fills. For example, they will put the perforated [Sidenote: Fol. 289b.] cup into water at day-birth; when it fills the first time, they strike the gong once with their mallets; when a second time, twice, and so on till the end of the watch. They announce the end of a watch by several rapid blows of their mallets. After these they pause; then strike once more, if the first day-watch has ended, twice if the second, three times if the third, and four times if the fourth. After the fourth day-watch, when the night-watches begin, these are gone through in the same way.
932.13.3
It used to be the rule to beat the sign of a watch only when the watch ended; so that sleepers chancing to wake in the night and hear the sound of a third or fourth _g'harī_, would not know whether it was of the second or third night-watch. I therefore ordered that at night or on a cloudy day the sign of the watch should be struck after that of the _g'harī_, for example, that after striking the third _g'harī_ of the first night-watch, the _g'harīālīs_ were to pause and then strike the sign of the watch, in order to make it known that this third _g'harī_ was of the first night-watch,—and that after striking four _g'harīs_ of the third night-watch, they should pause and then strike the sign of the third watch, in order to make it known that this fourth _g'harī_ was of the third night-watch. It did very well; anyone happening to wake in the night and hear the gong, would know what _g'harī_ of what watch of night it was. Again, they divide the _g'harī_ into 60 parts, each part being called a _pal_;[1907] by this each night-and-day will consist of 3,500 _pals_. [Sidenote: Fol. 290.] (_Author's note on the pal._) They say the length of a _pal_ is the shutting and opening of the eyelids 60 times, which in a night-and-day would be 216,000 shuttings and openings of the eyes. Experiment shews that a _pal_ is about equal to 8 repetitions of the _Qul-huwa-allāh_[1908] and _Bismillāh_; this would be 28,000 repetitions in a night-and-day. (_q. Measures._)
932.13.4
The people of Hind have also well-arranged measures:—[1909] 8 _ratīs_ = 1 _māsha_; 4 _māsha_ = 1 _tānk_ = 32 _ratīs_; 5 _māsha_ = 1 _miṣqāl_ = 40 _ratīs_; 12 _māsha_ = 1 _tūla_ = 96 _ratīs_; 14 _tūla_ = 1 _ser_. This is everywhere fixed:—40 _ser_ = 1 _mānbān_; 12 _mānbān_ = 1 _mānī_; 100 _mānī_ they call a _mīnāsa_.[1910] Pearls and jewels they weigh by the _tānk_. (_r. Modes of reckoning._) The people of Hind have also an excellent mode of reckoning: 100,000 they call a _lak_; 100 _laks_, a _krūr_; 100 _krūrs_, an _arb_; 100 _arbs_, 1 _karb_; 100 _karb's_, 1 _nīl_; 100 _nīls_, 1 _padam_; 100 _padams_, 1 _sāng_. The fixing of such high reckonings as these is proof of the great amount of wealth in Hindūstān. (_s. Hindū inhabitants of Hindūstān._) Most of the inhabitants of Hindūstān are pagans; they call a pagan a Hindū. Most Hindūs believe in the transmigration of souls. All artisans, wage-earners, and officials are Hindūs. In our countries dwellers in the wilds (_i.e._ nomads) get tribal names; [Sidenote: Fol. 290b.] here the settled people of the cultivated lands and villages get tribal names.[1911] Again:—every artisan there is follows the trade that has come down to him from forefather to forefather. (_t. Defects of Hindūstān._)
932.13.5
Hindūstān is a country of few charms. Its people have no good looks; of social intercourse, paying and receiving visits there is none; of genius and capacity none; of manners none; in handicraft and work there is no form or symmetry, method or quality; there are no good horses, no good dogs, no grapes, musk-melons or first-rate fruits, no ice or cold water, no good bread or cooked food in the _bāzārs_, no Hot-baths, no Colleges, no candles, torches or candlesticks. In place of candle and torch they have a great dirty gang they call lamp-men (_diwatī_), who in the left hand hold a smallish wooden tripod to one corner of which a thing like the top of a candlestick is fixed, having a wick in it about as thick as the thumb. In the right hand they hold a gourd, through a narrow slit made in which, oil is let trickle in a thin thread when the wick needs it. Great people keep a hundred or two of these lamp-men. This is the Hindūstān substitute for lamps and candlesticks! If their rulers and begs have work at night needing candles, these dirty lamp-men bring these lamps, go close up and [Sidenote: Fol. 291.] there stand. Except their large rivers and their standing-waters which flow in ravines or hollows (there are no waters). There are no running-waters in their gardens or residences (_`imāratlār_).[1912] These residences have no charm, air (_hawā_), regularity or symmetry.
932.13.6
Peasants and people of low standing go about naked. They tie on a thing called _lungūtā_,[1913] a decency-clout which hangs two spans below the navel. From the tie of this pendant decency-clout, another clout is passed between the thighs and made fast behind. Women also tie on a cloth (_lung_), one-half of which goes round the waist, the other is thrown over the head. (_u. Advantages of Hindūstān._)
932.13.7
Pleasant things of Hindūstān are that it is a large country and has masses of gold and silver. Its air in the Rains is very fine. Sometimes it rains 10, 15 or 20 times a day; torrents pour down all at once and rivers flow where no water had been. While it rains and through the Rains, the air is remarkably fine, not to be surpassed for healthiness and charm. The fault is that the air becomes very soft and damp. A bow of those (Transoxanian) countries after going through the Rains in Hindūstān, may not be drawn even; it is ruined; not only the bow, everything is [Sidenote: Fol. 291b.] affected, armour, book, cloth, and utensils all; a house even does not last long. Not only in the Rains but also in the cold and the hot seasons, the airs are excellent; at these times, however, the north-west wind constantly gets up laden with dust and earth. It gets up in great strength every year in the heats, under the Bull and Twins when the Rains are near; so strong and carrying so much dust and earth that there is no seeing one another. People call this wind Darkener of the Sky (H. _āndhī_). The weather is hot under the Bull and Twins, but not intolerably so, not so hot as in Balkh and Qandahār and not for half so long.
932.13.8
Another good thing in Hindūstān is that it has unnumbered and endless workmen of every kind. There is a fixed caste (_jam`ī_) for every sort of work and for every thing, which has done that work or that thing from father to son till now. Mullā Sharaf, writing in the _Z̤afar-nāma_ about the building of Tīmūr Beg's Stone Mosque, lays stress on the fact that on it 200 stone-cutters worked, from Āẕarbāījān, Fars, Hindūstān and other countries. But 680 men worked daily on my buildings in Āgra and of Āgra stone-cutters only; while 1491 stone-cutters worked daily on my buildings in Āgra, Sīkrī, Bīāna, Dūlpūr, Gūālīār and Kūīl. In [Sidenote: Fol. 292.] the same way there are numberless artisans and workmen of every sort in Hindūstān.