[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) › 933.7 # The Memoirs of Bābur 933.7 The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 933.7 - **Language:** English ### [933.7.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.933.7.1) The pagan right wing made repeated and desperate attack on the left wing of the army of Islām, falling furiously on the holy warriors, possessors of salvation, but each time was made to turn back or, smitten with the arrows of victory, was \_made to descend into Hell, the house of perdition; they shall be thrown to burn therein, and an unhappy dwelling shall it be\_.\[2085\] Then the trusty amongst the nobles, Mūmin Ātāka and Rustam \_Turkmān\_ betook themselves to the rear\[2086\] of the host of darkened pagans; and to help them were sent the Commanders Khwāja Maḥmūd and \`Alī Ātāka, servants of him who amongst the royal retainers is near the throne, the trusted of the Sulṯānate, Niẕāmu'd-din \`Alī Khalīfa. ### [933.7.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.933.7.2) Our high-born brother\[2087\] Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, and the representative of royal dignity, \`Ādil Sulṯān, and the trusted in the State, the strengthener of the Faith, \`Abdu'l-\`azīz, the Master of the Horse, and the glory of the Faith, Qūtlūq-qadam \_qarāwal\_, and the meteor of the Faith, Muḥammad \`Alī \_Jang-jang\_, and the pillar of royal retainers, Shāh Ḥusain \_yāragī Mughūl Ghānchī\_(?) stretched out the arm to fight and stood firm. To support them we sent the \_Dastūr\_, the highest of wazīrs, Khwāja \[Sidenote: Fol. 322b.\] Kamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain with a body of \_dīwānīs\_.\[2088\] Every holy warrior was eager to show his zeal, entering the fight with desperate joy as if approving the verse, \_Say, Do you expect any other should befall us than one of the two most excellent things, victory or martyrdom?\_\[2089\] and, with display of life-devotion, uplifted the standard of life-sacrifice. As the conflict and battle lasted long, an imperative order was issued that the special royal corps (\_tābīnān-i-khāṣa-i-pādshāhī\_)\[2090\] who, heroes of one hue,\[2091\] were standing, like tigers enchained, behind the carts,\[2092\] should go out on the right and the left of the centre,\[2093\] leaving the matchlockmen's post in-between, and join battle on both sides. As the True Dawn emerges from its cleft in the horizon, so they emerged from behind the carts; they poured a ruddy crepuscule of the blood of those ill-fated pagans on the nadir of the Heavens, that battle-field; ### [933.7.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.933.7.3) they made fall from the firmament of existence many heads of the headstrong, as stars fall from the firmament of heaven. The marvel of the Age, Ustād \`Alī-qulī, who with his own appurtenances stood in front of the centre, did deeds of valour, discharging against the iron-mantled forts of the infidels\[2094\] stones of such size that were (one) put into a scale of the Balance in which actions are weighed, that \_scale shall be heavy with good works and he\_ (\_i.e.\_ its owner) \_shall lead a pleasing life\_\[2095\]; and were such stones discharged against a hill, broad of base and high of summit, it would \_become like carded wool\_.\[2096\] Such stones Ustād \`Alī-qulī discharged at the iron-clad fortress of the pagan ranks and by this discharge of stones, and abundance of culverins and matchlocks(?)\[2097\] destroyed many of the builded bodies of the \[Sidenote: Fol. 323.\] pagans. The matchlockmen of the royal centre, in obedience to orders, going from behind the carts into the midst of the battle, each one of them made many a pagan taste of the poison of death. The foot-soldiers, going into a most dangerous place, made their names to be blazoned amongst those of the forest-tigers (\_i.e.\_ heroes) of valour and the champions in the field of manly deeds. Just at this time came an order from his Majesty the Khāqān that the carts of the centre should be advanced; ### [933.7.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.933.7.4) and the gracious royal soul (\_i.e.\_ Bābur) moved towards the pagan soldiers, Victory and Fortune on his right, Prestige and Conquest on his left. On witnessing this event, the victorious troops followed from all sides; the whole surging ocean of the army rose in mighty waves; the courage of all the crocodiles\[2098\] of that ocean was manifested by the strength of their deeds; an obscuring cloud of dust o'erspread the sky(?). The dust that gathered over the battle-field was traversed by the lightning-flashes of the sword; the Sun's face was shorn of light as is a mirror's back; the striker and the struck, the victor and the vanquished were commingled, all distinction between them lost. The Wizard of Time produced such a night that its only planets were arrows,\[2099\] its only constellations of fixed stars were the steadfast squadrons. Upon that day of battle sank and rose Blood to the Fish and dust-clouds to the Moon, While through the horse-hoofs on that spacious plain, \[Sidenote: Fol. 323b.\] One Earth flew up to make another Heaven.\[2100\] ### [933.7.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.933.7.5) At the moment when the holy warriors were heedlessly flinging away their lives, they heard a secret voice say, \_Be not dismayed, neither be grieved, for, if ye believe, ye shall be exalted above the unbelievers\_,\[2101\] and from the infallible Informer heard the joyful words, \_Assistance is from God, and a speedy victory! And do thou bear glad tidings to true believers.\_\[2102\] Then they fought with such delight that the plaudits of the saints of the Holy Assembly reached them and the angels from near the Throne, fluttered round their heads like moths. Between the first and second Prayers, there was such blaze of combat that the flames thereof raised standards above the heavens, and the right and left of the army of Islām rolled back the left and right of the doomed infidels in one mass upon their centre. ### [933.7.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.933.7.6) When signs were manifest of the victory of the Strivers and of the up-rearing of the standards of Islām, those accursed infidels and wicked unbelievers remained for one hour confounded. At length, their hearts abandoning life, they fell upon the right and left of our centre. Their attack on the left was the more vigorous and there they approached furthest, but the holy warriors, their minds set on the reward, planted shoots (\_nihāl\_) of arrows in the field of the breast of each one of them, and, such being their gloomy fate, overthrew them. In this state of affairs, the breezes of victory and fortune blew over the meadow of our \[Sidenote: Fol. 324.\] happy Nawāb, and brought the good news, \_Verily we have granted thee a manifest victory\_.\[2103\] And Victory the beautiful woman (\_shāhid\_) whose world-adornment of waving tresses was embellished by \_God will aid you with a mighty aid\_,\[2104\] bestowed on us the good fortune that had been hidden behind a veil, and made it a reality. The absurd (\_bāṯil\_) Hindūs, knowing their position perilous, \_dispersed like carded wool before the wind\_, and \_like moths scattered abroad\_.\[2105\] Many fell dead on the field of battle; others, desisting from fighting, fled to the desert of exile and became the food of crows and kites. Mounds were made of the bodies of the slain, pillars of their heads. (\_j. Hindū chiefs killed in the battle.\_) ### [933.7.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.933.7.7) Ḥasan Khān of Mīwāt was enrolled in the list of the dead by the force of a matchlock (\_ẓarb-i-tufak\_); most of those headstrong chiefs of tribes were slain likewise, and ended their days by arrow and matchlock (\_tīr u tufak\_). Of their number was Rāwal Ūdī Sīngh of Bāgar,\[2106\] ruler (\_wālī\_) of the Dungarpūr country, who had 12,000 horse, Rāī Chandrabān \_Chūhān\_ who had 4,000 horse, Bhūpat Rāo son of that Ṣalāḥu'd-dīn already mentioned, who was lord of Chandīrī and had 6,000 horse, Mānik-chand \_Chūhān\_ and Dilpat Rāo who had each 4,000 horse, Kankū (or Gangū) and Karm Sīngh and Dankūsī(?)\[2107\] who had each 3,000 horse, and a number of others, each one of whom was leader of a great \[Sidenote: Fol. 324b.\] command, a splendid and magnificent chieftain. All these trod the road to Hell, removing from this house of clay to the pit of perdition. The enemy's country (\_dāru'l-ḥarb\_) was full, as Hell is full, of wounded who had died on the road. The lowest pit was gorged with miscreants who had surrendered their souls to the lord of Hell. In whatever direction one from the army of Islām hastened, he found everywhere a self-willed one dead; whatever march the illustrious camp made in the wake of the fugitives, it found no foot-space without its prostrate foe. ### [933.7.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.933.7.8) All the Hindūs slain, abject (\_khwār\_, var. \_zār\_) and mean, By matchlock-stones, like the Elephants' lords,\[2108\] Many hills of their bodies were seen, And from each hill a fount of running blood. Dreading the arrows of (our) splendid ranks, Passed\[2109\] they in flight to each waste and hill. They turn their backs. The command of God is to be performed. Now praise be to God, All-hearing and All-wise, for victory is from God alone, the Mighty, the Wise.\[2110\] Written Jumāda II. 25th 933 (AH.-March 29th 1527 A.D.).\[2111\] MINOR SEQUELS OF VICTORY. (\_a. Bābur assumes the title of Ghāzī.\_) After this success \_Ghāzī\_ (Victor in a Holy-war) was written amongst the royal titles. Below the titles (\_ṯughrā\_)\[2112\] entered on the \_Fatḥ-nāma\_, I wrote the following quatrain:—\[2113\] For Islām's sake, I wandered in the wilds, Prepared for war with pagans and Hindūs, Resolved myself to meet the martyr's death. \[Sidenote: Fol. 325.\] Thanks be to God! a \_ghāzī\_ I became. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.933.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.933.7) · Pramāṇa