India Through the Ages: A Popular and Picturesque History of HindustanSteel, Flora Annie Webster
History
India Through the Ages: A Popular and Picturesque History of Hindustan
Steel, Flora Annie Webster
India -- History
The way was now clear before him. He seized on Delhi and Agra without,
apparently, much bloodshed, and immediately distributed the treasures
gained amongst his followers, only reserving sufficient for the State
to send a silver coin to every living soul in Kâbul, bond or free, and
to pay the army and the Government.
He kept nothing for himself; he was not of those to whom gold brings
pleasure. Yet in Hindustan he found few things for which he cared.
There can be no question that it was a disappointment to him.
"It is a country," he writes, "that has few pleasures to recommend it.
It is extremely ugly. All its towers and its lands have a uniform
look. Its gardens have no walls; the greater part of it is level
plain. And the people are not handsome. They have no idea of the
charms of friendly society. They have no good horses, no good
flesh, no good grapes, or musk-melons, no ice or cold water, no good
food or bread in their bazaars, no baths or colleges, no candles or
torches--_never even a candlestick!_"
Poor Babar! It was now the hottest of the hot weather, and the heat in
the summer of 1526 "chanced to be unusually oppressive." Hitherto
these northern invaders had sought relief from discomfort in return to
their cooler climes; but Babar had other aims. He wished to establish
himself Emperor of India, and all around him in Mêwar, in Mârwar, in
Gwalîor, everywhere save in the line of his victorious march, lay
enemies.
He determined to remain, but had to meet as determined an opposition
on the part of his troops.
It irritated even his placid good-temper.
"Where is the sense of decency," he writes, "of eternally dinning the
same tale into the ears of one who had seen the facts with his own
eyes, and formed a calm and fixed resolve in regard to the business in
hand? What use was there in the whole army, down to the very dregs,
giving me their stupid, uninformed opinions?"
What indeed!
He gave them his in return at a full review.
"Are we to turn back from all we have accomplished and fly to Kâbul
like men who have been discomfited! Let no man who calls himself my
friend ever again moot such a thing, but if there be any of you who
cannot bring himself to stay, let him go!"
Needless to say, this appeal to personal friendship was effectual,
though apparently pleasantry passed between the comrades-in-arms.
One wrote on the walls of the fort:--
"Could I but cross the river Sind,
Damned if I would return to Hind."
To which Babar sent the following reply:--
"Babar thanks God who gave him Sind and Ind,
Heat of the plains, chill of the mountain cold.
Does not the scorch of Delhi bring to his mind
Bitter bite of frost in Ghuzni of old?"
He was always writing verses; always, as he puts it, "wandering into
these follies. For God's sake, do not think amiss of me for them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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