The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c13.57

v4.c13.57

The defects thus noted in his early life, carelessness, unreliability and self-indulgence, persisted in his maturity. They were accompanied by an excess of kindliness which often led to lack of decision, when promptness and even ruthlessness were needed. The tradition of his race was one of conquest rather than consolidation or administrative development. Transoxiana and Afghānistān were hard schools in which a rigorous climate and barren soil bred warriors who excelled in forays but developed no skill in peaceful administration. It was not till his final recovery of India that he really planned a scheme for ruling it, and his death occurred before it could be carried out. Though possessed of high personal courage and endurance in distress Humāyūn, like many of his descendants, found the softer climate of India corrupting. He could fight against odds and show skill in devising methods of taking a difficult fort. But when a battle was won or a city stormed he would sit down to consume the captured treasure, sharing it generously with his whole army, which thus became enervated and corrupted. At times indulgence in opium sapped his power of action still further, and he wasted months of his life in feasting or in a drugged stupor.