Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s5.5

c7.s5.5

If we are to be guided by the observations of Babur, it would be difficult to persuade ourselves to believe that Hindustan was in any sense a civilized country, much less a country in an advanced state of material and intellectual progress. Babur tells us frankly that the ‘masses of gold and silver’ and the ‘unnumbered and endless workers of every kind’ alone recommend Hindustan to him. ‘India is a country of few charms’ he proceeds to tell us. ‘Its people have no good looks; of social intercourse, paying and receiving visits there is none; of genius and capacity none; in handicraft and work there is no form or symmetry, method or quality; there are no good horses, no good dogs, no grapes, musk-melons or first-rate fruits, no ice or cold water, no good bread or cooked food in the bazaars, no hot baths, no colleges, no candles, torches or candle-sticks’. He even finds fault with the Indian climate, for according to him it was unfavourable to the use of Trans-oxianian bows.¹ Never was a condemnation more complete or unequivocal.