[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) › 932.8.4 # The Memoirs of Bābur 932.8.4 The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 932.8.4 - **Language:** English ### [932.8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.8.4) In Hindūstān hamlets and villages, towns indeed, are depopulated and set up in a moment! If the people of a large town, one inhabited for years even, flee from it, they do it in such a way that not a sign or trace of them remains in a day or a day and a half.\[1733\] On the other hand, if they fix their eyes on a place in which to settle, they need not dig water-courses or construct dams because their crops are all rain-grown,\[1734\] and as the population of Hindūstān is unlimited, it swarms in. They make a tank or dig a well; they need not build houses or set up walls—\_khas\_-grass (\_Andropogon muricatum\_) abounds, wood is unlimited, huts are made, and straightway there is a village or a town! (\_i. Fauna of Hindūstān:—Mammals.\_) The elephant, which Hindūstānīs call \_hāt(h)ī\_, is one of the wild animals peculiar to Hindūstān. It inhabits the (western?) borders of the Kālpī country, and becomes more numerous in its wild state the further east one goes (in Kālpī?). From this tract it is that captured elephants are brought; in Karrah and \[Sidenote: Fol. 275.\] Mānikpūr elephant-catching is the work of 30 or 40 villages.\[1735\] People answer (\_jawāb bīrūrlār\_) for them direct to the exchequer.\[1736\] The elephant is an immense animal and very sagacious. If people speak to it, it understands; if they command anything from it, it does it. Its value is according to its size; it is sold by measure (\_qārīlāb\_); the larger it is, the higher its price. - [Previous: 932.8.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.8.3) - [Next: 932.8.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.8.5) - [Up: 932.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.8) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.932.8.4) · Pramāṇa