The Memoirs of Bābur 932.16.3

932.16.3

The beginning was made with the large well from which water comes for the Hot-bath, and also with the piece of ground where the tamarind-trees and the octagonal tank now are. After that came the large tank with its enclosure; after that the tank and _tālār_[1949] in front of the outer(?) residence[1950]; after that the private-house (_khilwat-khāna_) with its garden and various dwellings; after that the Hot-bath. Then in that charmless and disorderly Hind, plots of garden[1951] were seen laid out with order and symmetry, with suitable borders and parterres in every corner, and in every border rose and narcissus in perfect arrangement. (_m. Construction of a chambered-well._) Three things oppressed us in Hindūstān, its heat, its violent winds, its dust. Against all three the Bath is a protection, for in it, what is known of dust and wind? and in the heats it is so chilly that one is almost cold. The bath-room in which the heated tank is, is altogether of stone, the whole, except for the _īzāra_ (dado?) of white stone, being, pavement and roofing, of red Bīāna stone. Khalīfa also and Shaikh Zain, Yūnas-i-`alī and whoever got [Sidenote: Fol. 300b.] land on that other bank of the river laid out regular and orderly gardens with tanks, made running-waters also by setting up wheels like those in Dīpālpūr and Lāhor. The people of Hind who had never seen grounds planned so symmetrically and thus laid out, called the side of the Jūn where (our) residences were, Kābul.