Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c15.s1: I. Bābar

Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c15.s1

Language: English

I. Bābar

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BĀBAR had some of the sturdier qualities that characterized his ancestor Tīmūr; but he was more refined and accomplished than that monarch. The high encomiums showered by Mr. Erskine on this Sulṭān have not been misplaced:—

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“Upon the whole, if we review with impartiality the history of Asia, we shall find few princes who are entitled to rank higher than Bābar in genius and accomplishments. His grandson Akbar may perhaps be placed above him for profound and benevolent policy. The crooked artifice of Aurangzib is not entitled to the same distinction. The merit of Changīz Khān and Tamerlaine (Tīmūr-i-Lang) terminated in their splendid conquests, which far excelled the achievements of Bābar, but in activity of mind, in his gay equanimity and in the possession of manly and social virtues, we shall probably find no other Asiatic prince who can justly be placed beside him.”¹

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¹ Erskine’s *Memoirs of Bābar*, p. 432.

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To these qualities should, however, be added his literary accomplishments. He was a great scholar in Arabic, Persian and Turkī, and a fastidious critic.² He cultivated the art of poetry from his early years and is mentioned as the author

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² *Tūzaki-Bābarī*, Elliot iv, p. 219.

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of a collection of Turkī poems, many of which are quoted in his *Memoirs*. Abul Faẓl speaks of a Persian *Maṣnawī* of his composition, which had a large circulation. He was also the author of a work on prosody and a few other smaller books. But the greatest of all his works is his *Memoirs*,¹ written in the Turkish language.² He also transposed into poetry the work of Khwājah Aḥrār. He was an adept both in prose and verse, and his skill in music on which he wrote a treatise was also of a high order.³ Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥaidar, the author of the *Tārīkhi-Rashīdī*, says—

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¹ *Bābar’s Memoirs* was translated into Persian by Khān Khānān at the instance of Akbar ; *vide* Mir’ātul-’Ālam MS. in the Boh. Coll., leaf 179.

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² Erskine’s *Memoirs of Bābar*, p. 431; also Ferishta vol. ii, pp. 61 and 65.

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³ *Ibid.*

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“In the composition of Turkī poetry he was second only to Amīr ’Alī Shīr. . . . He invented a style of verse called Mubaiyan, and was the author of a most useful treatise on Jurisprudence, which has been adopted generally. He also wrote a tract on Turkish prosody, superior in elegance to any other, and put into verse the Risālah-i-Walidīyah of his Holiness.”⁴

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⁴ Translation by E. D. Ross and N. Elias, pp. 173, 174. See also *Muntakhabul-Tawārīkh*, vol. i, (Ranking), p. 449.

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We also learn from the *Tārīkhi-Muẓaffarī* that he versified a small religious tract written in honour of ’Ubaidullāh’s parents. He also composed a book on prosody, entitled *Mufaṣṣal*.⁵

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⁵ *Tārīkhi-Muẓaffarī*, by Muḥammad ’Alī Khān Anṣārī, MS. in ASB, pp. 14, 15.

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In 1504 A.D., he initiated a kind of handwriting called the Bābarī hand.¹ He indited a copy of the *Qur'ān* in that script and sent it to Mecca.²

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¹ Talbot's *Memoirs of Bābar*, p. 97.

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² *Muntakhabul-Tawārīkh*, vol. i, (Ranking), p. 449.

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Regarding Bābar's education, Mr. Lanepoole says—

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“At the age of five the child (Bābar) was taken on a visit to Samarqand. . . . The next six years must have been spent in education and well spent, for he had little leisure (later on) to improve himself, and his remarkable attainments in the two languages he wrote imply steady application. Of his early training we hear nothing, but it is reasonable to suppose that an important part of it was due to the women of his family.”³

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³ Lanepoole's *Bābar*, p. 22; p. 30 mentions “Sk. Mazīd” as Bābar's tutor.

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A jovial man as he was, he used to hold frequent parties, in which extempore verses and recitations in Turkish and Persian often came as a ballast to the coarseness that at times tainted them. However, many literary men were his companions, and his *Memoirs* describes a party of literary men on a boat in which they and Bābar amused themselves by making verses.⁴

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⁴ Erskine's *Memoirs of Bābar*, p. 291.

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Some of the literary men who came into contact with Bābar and received reward and encouragement were Khundamīr, grandson of the illustrious Mīrkhund and the author of the *Ḥabībul-Siyar*, Maulānā Shahābuddīn the enigmatist, and Mīrzā Ibrāhīm of Hirāt. They were directed by the

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Sultān to live at his court. Khundamīr had to leave Hirāt owing to troubles raging there, and came to Hindustan, where he was introduced to Emperor Bābar at Agra. He accompanied the Emperor to Bengal in his expedition, and upon his death was favoured by Humāyūn, in whose name he wrote the *Qānūni-Humāyūn*, quoted by Abul Fazl in the *Akbar-Nāmah*. He accompanied Humāyūn to Gujrāt, where he died (1534-35 A.D.), and his body was buried in Delhi by the side of Nizāmuddīn Auliyā and Amīr Khusrau.¹

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¹ Elliot iv, pp. 141, 143. ² Ibid. ³ *Bābar's Memoirs*, p. 333 (or Talbot's *Memoirs of Bābar*, p. 190).

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In his early career as an author, he had been much helped by the learned minister of Sultān Ḥusain of Hirāt, who collected a valuable library of the most esteemed works of the time, and placed him in charge of it.²

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However great might be the reputation of Bābar's *Memoirs* for accuracy of statement, it certainly fails in this respect, when it says that *Hindustan had no college in it*. The passage runs thus: "The people of Hindustan have no good horses, no good flesh, no grapes or musk-melons, no good fruits, no ice or cold water, no good food or bread in their bāzārs, no baths or colleges, no candles, no torches, not a candle-stick." The statement will, of course, be taken for what it is worth.³

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Regarding the Hindu astronomical science as cultivated in India, and the calculations made under it, Bābar makes the following remarks in his *Memoirs* in connection with the observatory which existed at that time in Samarqand, the calculations of which were followed by the Muhammadans in India.

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“By means of this observatory, Ulugh Beg Mīrzā composed the Kūrkānī Astronomical Tables, which are followed at the present time, scarcely any other being used. Before they were published, the Īlkhānī Astronomical Tables were in general use, constructed by Khwājah Naṣr in the time of Halākū, in an observatory built at Marāgha. Halākū Khān was also denominated Īlkhānī. Not more than seven or eight observatories have been constructed in the world. Among these, one was erected by Khalīf Māmūn, in which the Astronomical Tables entitled ‘Zīch Māmūnī’ were drawn up. Another was built by Baṭlmīūs (Ptolemy). Another was the observatory erected in Hindustan in the time of Rājah Vikramājit, a Hindu, in Ujjain and Dhar in the kingdom of Mālwa, now known as the kingdom of Mandu. The Hindus still follow the Tables that were then constructed. These Tables are, however, more imperfect than any of the others. Since the building of that observatory till the present time is 1584 years.” ¹

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¹ Erskine’s *Memoirs of Bābar*, pp. 50, 51. The task of framing the Tables was given by Ulugh Beg Mīrzā first to Qāẓīzādah Rūmī, and on his death to Maulānā Ghiyāṣuddīn Jamshīd, and then to Ibn ’Alī Muḥammad Koshjī.

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Ghāzī Khān, the Afghān noble of the Punjāb, who invited Bābar to deliver the Afghāns from the Emperor Ibrāhīm, had a good library, containing a number of valuable books. Bābar imprisoned him for treachery, and after his escape, examined the library in 1525 A.D., and sent some of its books to

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Humāyūn and Kāmrān for their use. The library had in it a few theological books which also attracted the notice of the Sulṭān. However, Bābar was not satisfied with the collection, for says he: "I did not on the whole find so many books of value as, from their appearance, I had expected."¹

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¹ Talbot's *Memoirs of Bābar*, p. 176; also *Tazkiratul-Salāṭīn*, MS. in Boh. Coll., leaf 104.

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The practice of making a book more lucid and interesting by the insertion of illustrations in it, is at least as old in Muhammadan India as the time of Bābar. His *Memoirs* was embellished with coloured representations of animals described therein, which formed an attractive feature of the book. Jahāngīr, however, finds fault with them, for most probably the painters did not draw them from life. This defect he avoided in his own *Jahāngīr-Nāmah*.²

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² *Wāqi'āti-Jahāngīrī*, Elliot vi, p. 331.

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Bābar was interested in painting and took with him to India all the specimens he could collect from the library of his ancestors (the Timurides), some of which were taken back to Persia by Nādir Shāh after the conquest of Delhi. These manuscripts exercised the greatest influence on the art of India.³

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³ Martin's *Miniature Painting and Painters of India, Persia and Turkey*, vol. i, p. 79.

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We learn from the *Tawārīkh* of Sayyid Maqbar 'Alī, a minister of Bābar, that the Public Works

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Department (Shuhrati 'Ām) of the time, which continued through the reigns of the succeeding Mughal emperors, was entrusted, among other duties, with that of conducting postal service, *the publication of a Gazette*, and the building of *schools and colleges*. That the educational works received attention of Government, appears from their being made into an item of duty of a state department.¹