A History of Agriculture in India v2.c67: Chapter 15. The Rule of the Mughals: Career of Zehir-ud-Din Muhammad Babur

A History of Agriculture in India v2.c67

Language: English

v2.c67.s1 Conquest of Kabul — 3 parts
v2.c67.s2 Three Expeditions into India — 6 parts
v2.c67.s3 The First Battle of Panipat — 3 parts
v2.c67.s4 The Battle of Khanua — 1 part
v2.c67.s5 Babur-Nama—An Autobiography and a Book on Natural History — 9 parts
v2.c67.s6 The Country and People — 3 parts
v2.c67.s7 Villages — 3 parts
v2.c67.s8 Peasants — 5 parts

Chapter 15. The Rule of the Mughals: Career of Zehir-ud-Din Muhammad Babur

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OBSERVATIONS ON THE COUNTRY, VILLAGES AND PEASANTS OF INDIA IN THE *BABUR-NAMA

TURMOIL in Central Asia resulted in the expulsion of an adventurer, Babur, who laid the foundation of ‘Mughal’ dynasty in India. Babur was a Barlas Turk and not a Mughal. He hated the Mughals, who were responsible for his exile from his homeland. Mughal is the same word as Mongol and it was applied by Indians to all Moslems from Central Asia in India. It was further popularized by the Europeans who gave the title of the Great Mughal to the Emperors of the House of Timur. Thus this name, though incorrect, has stuck.

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Zehir-ud-din Muhammad Babur was born on 14 February 1483 in Andijan in Farghānā. Farghānā is like Kashmir Valley, with flowing water, and orchards of apples, peaches and pomegranates. It also grows muskmelons and watermelons of high quality. The roads are lined with avenues of poplars and *chinars*. This valley is in Uzbekistan, a Central Asian republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Babur’s father, Umar Sheikh Mirza, a Turk and a descendent of Timur, was the ruler of Farghānā. His mother, Khutlugh Nigar Khanum, a Mongol, was descendant of Chingiz Khan. So both from the father’s and mother’s sides he could claim an ancestry of unique distinction.

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Babur spent the first eleven years and a quarter of his life at Farghānā while his father was busy extending the frontiers of his small principality. He learnt his mother-tongue, Turki, as well as Persian and also practised archery and horse riding. His father died in A.D. 1494 in the fort of Akshi due to the collapse of a pigeon house where he was feeding his pigeons.

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Babur succeeded his father as ruler of Farghānā at the age of twelve. His rule of Farghānā for twenty-one years was a period of turmoil. His chief ambition in this period was to conquer the prestigious city of Samarkand built by his ancestor Timur, which was a great cultural centre of the Islamic world. This brought him into conflict with his own uncles, Ahmad Miranshahi and Mahmud Chaghatai, and later on with Shaibani Khan, the leader of Mongolo-Turkish tribe called the Uzbegs. Samarkand was a city of gardens dotted with mausoleums, including Gur-Amir, the tomb of Timur, ornamented with magnificent blue tiles. It also had the observatory of Ulugh Beg, which contained a gigantic quadrant with which he compiled his famous astronomical tables.

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Babur undertook two campaigns to conquer Samarkand. In A.D. 1497 after a siege of seven months he captured Samarkand. During his stay in Samarkand the nobles in Farghānā taking advantage of his absence handed over a part of the state territory to his younger brother Jahangir. In February 1498 Babur left Samarkand to conquer Farghānā. He could not retrieve the lost territory and also lost Samarkand. He was forced to spend the winter in the fort of Khujand, and supported himself as well as his soldiers by raiding the neighbouring villages. This was a period of great misery for him, but he kept up his courage.

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In A.D. 1500 Babur again attacked Samarkand. Shaibani Khan, who was then the ruler of Samarkand, was camping in one of the gardens outside the city walls. Babur’s soldiers scaled the city walls and with the co-operation of the inhabitants, who were disgusted with the savage rule of Shaibani Khan, occupied the city. After some months Shaibani Khan returned with a large force and besieged the city. Supplies were cut off, the garrison was starved and Babur was forced to surrender. He was also compelled to give his elder sister Khanzada in marriage to Shaibani Khan. One night accompanied by his mother and a few loyal followers Babur escaped from Samarkand.

Conquest of Kabul

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This was another dark period for Babur and he sought refuge with his uncles in the area around Tashkent. Shaibani Khan not only had Samarkand, but had also captured a large slice of the territory of Farghānā. In A.D. 1504 Babur was in a desperate situation, and only a handful of loyal soldiers remained with him. When everything appeared to have been lost, Babur with his three hundred and odd followers crossed the Hindu Kush in a snow storm, stumbled into Kabul and made himself the master of a principality named after that city. Thus began the second phase of his career. For the next twenty-two years, he was the king of Kabul, which roughly corresponded to the modern Afghanistan and included Badakshan. From A.D. 1504 to 1513, with Kabul as his base, Babur again tried to conquer Samarkand. This ambition was fulfilled almost absolutely in October 1511, when he entered that city ‘in the midst of such pomp and splendour as no one has ever heard of before or ever since.’ Babur’s dominions now reached their widest extent: from Tashkent and Sairam on the borders of the deserts of Tartary, to Kabul and Ghazni near the Indian frontier. It included within its boundaries Samarkand, Bokhara, Hissar, Kunduz and Farghānā. But this glory was as short-lived as it was great. Uzbeg chiefs from whom Babur had snatched Samarkand in October 1511 returned to attack the city in June 1512 and inflicted a crushing defeat on Babur. Babur was forced to flee from one part of his dominions to another.

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He lost everywhere and finally returned to Kabul early in A.D. 1513.

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The reason for Babur’s discomfiture in the second half of 1512 lay in his understanding with Shah Ismael Safavi of Persia for the capture of Samarkand. For the Shah’s support Babur had agreed to hold the Samarkand kingdom as his vassal, become a convert to the Shia faith, adopt all its symbols, and to impose the Shia creed on the orthodox Sunni subjects of the conquered kingdoms. This unprincipled compromise made Babur extremely unpopular with his Sunni subjects and enabled the Uzbeg chiefs to stage a come back at Samarkand.

Three Expeditions into India

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Babur now diverted his restless ambition to India. To be sure of success he took one of the most important steps of his life. Profiting from the example of Shah Ismael, he began building up an effective artillery and some time between A.D. 1514 and 1519 secured the services of an Ottoman Turk, named Ustad Ali, who became his master of ordnance.

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Having, thus, strengthened his fighting machine a great deal, Babur started his probe into Hindustan. Early in A.D. 1519, he went in for what is called his first expedition in India. He stormed Bajaur, which offered a spirited resistance but was ultimately forced to accept defeat before Babur’s artillery. Babur massacred the population of the city to avenge the losses he had suffered as a result of the unexpected resistance of the people of Bajaur, but more so to warn the people of other cities of the fate awaiting them if they chose to resist his army. His purpose was well served. When he reached Bhera on the Jhelum, no resistance was offered. That encouraged him to claim for the first time entire north-western India on the plea that it once formed part of Timur’s empire. Perhaps he would have followed this claim with a deeper penetration in the interior of the Punjab if he was not told that back home a conspiracy was being hatched against him.

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In September 1519 Babur invaded Hindustan again. This was his second expedition to Hindustan. He marched through Khyber, subdued the turbulent Yusafzai tribe and provisioned the Peshawar fort for future operations. He was forced to give up his ambition of going further at this stage because of disturbing news from Badakshan.

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After taking possession of Badakshan, Babur marched into India on his third expedition early in A.D. 1520. As in his first expedition, now also he first went to Bajaur and from there proceeded to Bhera. But this time he did not stop at Bhera. Subduing the recalcitrant Afghan tribes, he proceeded to Sialkot, which submitted without striking a blow. When he moved on to Saiyidpur, he met a tough resistance but ultimately succeeded in subduing the place. Perhaps with the same object in view that has motivated his massacre of the people of Bajaur two years ago, he mercilessly massacred the people of Saiyidpur. That could have been a prelude to his moving into Lahore but on hearing that the ruler of Kandahar, Shah Beg Khan, was marching on Kabul, he hastily returned to Kabul.

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Babur did not invade India for the next four years. Between A.D. 1520 and 1522 he was busy subduing Shah Beg. In the following two years he strengthened his position in Kandahar. But he had by no means given up the Indian project. He further improved his artillery by securing the services of Mustafa, another Turkish expert.

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Babur embarked on his fourth expedition to India in A.D. 1524 on the invitation of Daulat Khan Lodi, the powerful Wazir of the Punjab. He marched into the valleys of the Jhelum and the Chenab, and became the master of both Lahore and Dipalpur. Much to the disappointment of Daulat Khan, who had invited Babur to serve his political ends, Babur now proclaimed the major part of what subsequently became the Lahore and Multan subas of the Mughal Empire as part of his Kabul kingdom. He appointed his own governors over these areas and offered Daulat Khan the petty governorship of the Jullundur doab. Little wonder that no sooner Babur went back, Daulat Khan raised a big army to fight him.

The First Battle of Panipat

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Babur invaded India again in November 1525. This was his fifth invasion of India. Because he anticipated a tough resistance from Daulat Khan and also a sharp conflict with Sultan Ibrahim Lodhi, he now went to India with ‘the largest army he had ever led into Hindustan.’ Daulat Khan’s army melted away at his approach but with Ibrahim, Babur had to fight the most crucial battle of his life on 21 April 1526, the first battle of Panipat.

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The first battle of Panipat began the last phase of Babur’s life. It is well known in all its details to the students of Indian history and may be briefly told. Babur states, ‘I placed my foot in the stirrup of resolution, and my hand on the reins of confidence in God, and marched against Sultan Ibrahim, the son of Sultan Sikandar, the son of Sultan Bahlol Lodi Afghan, in whose possession the throne of Delhi and the dominions of Hindustan at that time were; whose army in the field was said to amount to a hundred thousand men, and who, including those of his Amirs, had nearly a thousand elephants. For the first time in the history of India artillery was used in warfare. Ustad Kuli Khan was the master gunner of Babur. Indian elephants fled in terror on hearing the sound of artillery, trampling Ibrahim’s soldiers. By mid-day the battle was over. Ibrahim Lodi lay dead with 30,000 of his soldiers.

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Soon after the battle of Panipat, Babur proclaimed himself the Padshah of Hindustan with his headquarters at Agra. At Agra he laid a garden near the Jumna. During the heat of summer he sought refuge in this garden.

The Battle of Khanua

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Babur defeated Rana Sangha in the battle of Khanua on 16 March 1527, captured the fort of Chanderi on 29 January 1528, and humbled the Afghans in the battle of Gogra on 6 May 1529. Now he was master of northern India. He died on 26 December 1530 at the age of forty-seven years, ten months and eleven days after an illness of more than six months. Thus ended a stormy career which culminated in the founding of Mughal dynasty which enormously enriched the cultural life of India. The Mughals gave India new architecture, terraced gardens with flowing water, and a new style of painting.

Babur-Nama—An Autobiography and a Book on Natural History

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Babur-nama reflects the character and interests of the author, Zehir-ud-din Muhammad Babur. Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India, is regarded as one of the most romantic and interesting personalities of Asian history. He was a man of indomitable will, a great soldier, and an inspiring leader. But unlike most men of action he was also a man of letters with fine literary taste and fastidious critical perception. In Persian, he was an accomplished poet, and in his mother-tongue, the Turki, he was master of a simple forceful style.

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He was conscious of his own importance and kept a record of his daily activities in the form of brief notes. He made use of these notes when, soon after the capture of Chanderi on 29 January 1528, he decided to dictate his memoirs. He chose one of the many gardens around Agra that he had been creating ever since he had proclaimed himself the Padshah of Hindustan and dictated his memoirs, almost continuously till his death on 26 December 1530. In less than three years, he succeeded in giving final form to his autobiography.

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Babur’s autobiography, to which he had perhaps himself given the title of Babur-nama, was written ‘in the purest dialect of the Turki language.’ It is reckoned among the most enthralling and romantic works in the literature of all times. It makes a delightful reading and ‘deservedly holds a high place in the history of human literature.’

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It appears that in spite of a brilliant translation in Persian available since A.D. 1589 it was the Turki Babur-nama that held the place of honour in the Royal Library of the Mughal Emperor. It seems something of an irony, therefore, that its original should have been lost and unlike the Persian Waqiat-i-Baburi should have been unavailable even in copy to the European scholars when they started taking interest in Babur’s autobiography. It is surmised that the original of the Babur-nama was either destroyed in the sack of Delhi by Nadir Shah in A.D. 1739 or burnt during the Mutiny in that city in A.D. 1857. The Persian Waqiat-i-Baburi, however, escaped either of those two fates and attracted the attention of the European Indologists.

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As was only natural, the first European Indologists to be interested in Babur, as in other personalities of Mughal period of Indian history, were almost all Scots, e.g. Dr Leyden, Willian Erskine, John Malcolm and Mountstuart Elphinstone.

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It was left to Mrs A. S. Beveridge to do the translation into English from a genuine copy of Turki Babur-nama. What made it possible for her to do that was firstly the discovery of a genuine Turki copy of the Babur-nama in Hyderabad and secondly her success in not only procuring it for herself for some time but also have a number of fascimiles made of it by the E. J. Wilkinson Gibb Trust. These fascimiles enabled Mrs Beveridge to prove to scholars that the Hyderabad Babur-nama surpassed, both in volume and quality, all other Banur-namas.

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As a picture of the life of an Eastern sovereign in court and camp, the book stands unrivalled among Oriental autobiographies. ‘It is almost the only specimen of real history in Asia. . . In Babur, the figures, dresses, habits, and tastes, of each individual introduced are described with such minuteness and reality that we seem to live among them, and to know their persons as well as we do their characters. His descriptions of the countries visited, their scenery, climate, productions, and works of art are more full and accurate than will, perhaps, be found in equal space in any modern traveller.’

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To Lane-Poole ‘Babur’s Memoirs are no rough solider’s chronicles of marches, saps, wines, blinds, zabions, palisades, revelings, half-moons and such trumpery; they contain the personal impressions and acute reflections of a cultivated man of the world, well read in Eastern literature, a close and curious observer, quick in perception, discerning judge of men who was well able to express his thoughts and observations—in clear and vigorous language.’

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Apart from its value as a source book of history, the importance of the Babur-nama lies in the fact that it is the first book on Natural History of India. Babur had keen sense of observation and he describes the physical features of the country, its animals, birds, and vegetation with precision and brevity. The Babur-nama was illustrated during the reign of Akbar. Two illustrated copies of the Babur-nama are complete. One of these is in the British Museum, London. The other, in the National Museum, New Delhi, was illutstrated in A.D. 1605. The value of the illustrations of the Babur-nama lies in the fact that these are the first natural history paintings in India.

The Country and People

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Commenting on the country, its climate and people, Babur observed, ‘Hindustan is situated in the first, second, and third climates. No part of it is in the fourth. It is a remarkably fine country. It is quite a different world, compared with our countries. Its hills and rivers, its forests and plains, its animals and plants, its inhabitants and their languages, its winds and rains, are all of a different nature. Although the garmsils (or hot districts) in the territory of Kabul bear, in many respects, some resemblance to Hindustan, while in other particulars they differ, yet you have no sooner passed the river Sind than the country, the trees, the stones, the wandering tribes, the manners and customs of the people, are all entirely those of Hindustan.

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'The chief excellency of Hindustan is that it is a large country, and has abundance of gold and silver. The climate during the rains is very pleasant. On some days it rains ten, fifteen, and even twenty times. During the rainy season inundations come pouring down all at once, and form rivers, even in places where, at other times, there is no water. While the rains continue on the ground, the air is singularly delightful, insomuch that nothing can surpass its soft and agreeable temperature.'¹

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¹ *Memoirs of Zehir-ud-din Muhammad Babur*, translated by John Leyden and William Erskine, pp. 201, 243

Villages

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Huts in villages were constructed with the use of bamboos and thatch. As such they could be rapidly constructed and easily dismantled. 'In Hindustan hamlets and villages are depopulated and set up in a moment,' states Babur. 'If the people of a large town, one inhabited for years even, flee from it, they do it in such a way that not a sign or trace of them remains in a day or a day and a half. On the other hand, if they fix their eyes on a place in which to settle, they need not dig water-courses or construct dams because their crops are all rain-grown, and as the population of Hindustan is unlimited, it swarms in. They make a tank or dig a well; they need not build houses or set up walls—khas-grass (*Vetiveria zizanioides*) abounds, wood is unlimited, huts are made, and straightaway there is a village or a town.

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'In many parts of the plains thorny jungle grows, behind the good defence of which the people of the pargana become stubbornly rebellious and pay no taxes.'²

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² Beveridge, A.S. *Babur-nama (Memoirs of Babur)*, pp. 487, 488

Peasants

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Describing the appearance and dress of the peasants, Babur noted that they were not over-burdened with clothes. 'Their peasants and the lower classes all go about naked,' states Babur. 'They tie on a thing which they call a langoti, which is a piece of clout that hangs down two spans from the navel, as a cover to their nakedness. Below this pendent modesty-clout is another slip of cloth, one end of which they fasten before to a string that ties on the langoti, and then passing the slip of cloth between the two legs, bring it up and fix it to the string of the langoti behind. The women too, have a lang—one end of it they tie about their waist, and the other they throw over their head.’³

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³ Beveridge, A.S. Babur-nama, pp. 446, 487, 488

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Babur also made observations on the modes of irrigation prevalent in India. Two methods of irrigation from wells were with the aid of a wooden Persian wheel and a leather bucket drawn over a pulley, the charsa. Babur stated, ‘The greater part of the Hindustan country is situated on level land. Many though its towns and cultivated lands are, it nowhere has running waters. Rivers and, in some places, standing-waters are its ‘runn-ing-waters’.’ Even where, as for some towns, it is practicable to convey water by digging channels, this is not done. For not doing it there may be several reasons, one being that water is not at all a necessity in cultivating crops and orchards. Autumn crops grow by the downpour of the rains themselves; and strange it is that spring crops grow even when no rain falls.’

Persian Wheel

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‘To young trees water is made to flow by means of buckets or a wheel. They are given water constantly during two or three years; after which they need no more. Some vegetables are watered constantly.

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‘In Lahor, Dibālpur and those parts, people water by means of a wheel. They make two circles of ropes long enough to suit the depth of the well, fix strips of wood between them and on these fasten pitchers. The ropes with the wood and attached pitchers are put over the well-wheel. At one end of the wheel-axle a second wheel is fixed, and close to it another on an upright axle. This last wheel the bullock turns; its teeth catch in the teeth of the second, and thus the wheel with the pitchers is turned. A trough is set where the water empties from the pitchers and from this the water is conveyed everywhere.

Charsa

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‘In Agra, Chandwar, Biana and those parts, again, people water with a bucket; this is a laborious and filthy way. At the well-edge they set up a fork of wood, having a roller adjusted between the forks, tie a rope to a large bucket, put the rope over the roller, and tie its other end to the bullock. One person must drive the bullock, another empty the bucket. Every time the bullock turns after having drawn the bucket out of the well, that rope lies on the bullock-track, in pollution of urine and dung, before it descends again into the well. To some crops needing water, men and women carry it by repeated efforts in pitchers.’⁴