Twilight of the Sultanate c17.s7.48

c17.s7.48

Bābur must have relished spicy Indian food, although he does not say so pointedly perhaps because of his unfortunate experience with Indian cooks who were bribed by Ibrāhīm Lodī's mother to poison him. To the various items of Indian food, he added a few common in his native country. Ice and iced-water were introduced in India by Bābur. Abul Fazl mentions that while the commoners used ice in summer, the great nobles used it all the year round. Bābur writes of Indian fruits as a connoisseur. From Bābur’s times melons and other fruits as well as wine began to be imported in larger quantities.¹²⁵ The standard of dinners improved, so that by Akbar’s time “the number of dishes served was very great, and the elaboration of the service even more remarkable”.¹²⁶ Bābur did not merely complain of the things he found lacking in Hindustan; he introduced them here. From the time that he began to rule over Hindustan the standard of living of the people, at least of the rich people, began to show an upward trend.