The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c12.s3.22

v4.c12.s3.22

Meanwhile, some of the Afghān chiefs set up Ibrāhīm’s brother, Mahmūd, but most of them, seeing that Bābur, who had made Āgra his headquarters, had come to stay and did not, like Tamerlane, intend to withdraw, laid down their arms. While Bābur was in Kābul, Rānā Sanga of Chitor (the modern Udaipur), who was at this time recognised as head of all the Rājputs, had exchanged friendly embassies with him, and had even offered to help him against Ibrāhīm. His life had been one of constant wars, in the course of which he had defeated Sultān Mahmūd Khalji, and captured the provinces of Bhilsa, Sārangpur, Chanderī and Ranthambhor. He is said to have been so often wounded in battle that in addition to having eighty scars he had but one eye and one arm and was a cripple. He is said to have had at his disposal when necessary seven rajas and one hundred and four chiefs. But Bābur as emperor of Delhi and Bābur as a leader of raids from Kābul were two different people, and Rānā Sanga now declared war against him, and for the first time Bābur found himself engaged in a *jihād* or Holy War against the idolator. Humāyūn meanwhile was sent on a punitive expedition against the various amīrs in the east, who under Nāsir Khān Nūhānī and Ma‘rūf Farmūlī had taken Kanauj. During this expedition Humāyūn took Jaunpur and Ghāzīpur. Gwalior was also taken by a stratagem, of which Bābur gives a vivid account. It may be mentioned that after the capture of Gwalior, Bābur had a narrow escape from death by poisoning, for which Sultān Ibrāhīm’s mother was responsible. Rānā Sanga now marched on Bayāna, where Mahdī Khvāja was governor, but the troops who came out to oppose the Rānā, being unable to withstand him, turned back. The Rānā, who had now been joined by a number of powerful chiefs including Silahdi (Silāh-ud-Dīn) of Rāisen (30,000 horse) and Hasan Khān, the renegade raja of Mewāt (12,000 horse), advanced with 100,000 horse to a hill near Khānua, a village in the Bharatpur state thirty-seven miles west of Āgra. Bābur was at this moment in a highly precarious position, being practically surrounded in his camp on all sides by an enemy in possession of the open country. As he himself confesses, he was at this crisis overwhelmed by religious compunction.