The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c12.s3.1

v4.c12.s3.1

There has been some disagreement among the Muslim historians regarding the various invasions of Hindūstān by Bābur. Bābur himself, writing in 1526 after the battle of Pānīpat, says that from the time of his conquest of Kābul in 1505 his desire for Hindūstān had been constant, but that until 1519 it had not, for a variety of reasons, been possible to make a move on that country, and so its territories had remained unsubdued. At the beginning of this year, however, Bābur made a sudden descent on Bājaur which he captured after a short siege. At the same time with a view to winning over the people he concluded an alliance with the Yūsufzāis by marrying the daughter of one of their chiefs; and when shortly after the fort of Bhera on the Jhelum submitted without offering resistance Bābur gave orders that no violence should be done to the inhabitants or to their flocks and crops. Bābur himself evidently regarded his occupation of Bājaur and Bhera as his first Indian expedition. "From then till now we laboriously held tight to Hindūstān, five times leading an army into it. The fifth time...made Hindūstān our conquest and possession."¹ Abu-'l-Fazl also reckons that Bābur made five expeditions, but he regards the abortive expeditions of January, 1505, and of September, 1507, as the first and second, and the successful invasion in January, 1519, as the third. Abu-'l-Fazl confesses he could get no information about his fourth expedition; the fifth is, of course, that which led to the battle of Pānīpat. Unfortunately there is a gap in the *Memoirs* between 2 January, 1520, and 16 November, 1525, so that we cannot know precisely which expeditions Bābur regarded as the second, third and fourth.