Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s5.16

c7.s5.16

2. *Fauna and flora.*—Babur complains among other things of a certain lack of fruits, in which he is partly justified, for he claims to have been the introducer of the musk-melon into Hindustan. But he was hardly justified in saying all he did on the basis of this meagre contribution. Hindustan has always been rich in fruits and flowers and, as we have remarked, even Hindu social and religious ceremonies reveal their place in the scheme of Indian life. We have dwelt upon the subject elsewhere, but we shall add one observation of Amir Khusrau in this place. In his classification of contemporary flowers, Amir Khusrau speaks of those flowers which had been introduced from Persia long before, namely, *Banafsha*, *Yasaman*, and *Nasrin*, and others which were orginally Indian but were called by foreign names, namely, *Gul-kuza*, *Gul-i-sad-barg*. In proof of the fact that the latter category of flowers is indigenous, he challenges his opponents to prove their existence anywhere outside India. Among other Indian flowers he mentions a few, namely, *Baila*, *Kevra*, *Champa*, *Molsiri*, *Sevti*, *Dauna*, *Karna* and *Laung* (which was familiar to the people under its Arabic name *Qaranfal*). We agree with the observation of Khusrau that the reputation of Hindustan suffered from undue modesty in this respect; for if Syria or Greece were in possession of such a treasure, they would have trumpeted out their pride and glory all over the world.³ We have already spoken of fruits and gardens in a previous chapter.⁴