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Showing posts with label Babur Nama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Babur Nama. Show all posts

Zehir-ed-Din Muhammad Babur

Posted by Art Of Legend India [dot] Com On 2:27 AM 0 comments
Babur
Zehir-ed-Din Muhammad Babur was born on February 14, 1483 in Andijan in Farghana. This place is in Uzbekistan, a Central Asian Republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. His father Umar Sheikh Mirza, a Turk and a descendant of Timur was the ruler of Farghana. His mother Khutlugh Nigar KhAnum was a descendant of Chingiz Khan. So both from the father's and mother's side he could claim an ancestry of unique distinction.


FAR GHANA

Babur spent the first eleven years and a quarter of his life in Farghand 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 1494 in the fort of Akshi due to the collapse of a pigeon house where he was feeding pigeons.

Babur succeeded his father as ruler of Farghana at the age of twelve. His rule of Far-ghana 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 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.

Baur undertook two campaigns to conquer Samarkand. In 1497 after a siege of seven months he captured Samarkand. During his stay in Samarkand the nobles in Farghana 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 reconquer Farghand. 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 his soldiers by raiding the neighbouring villages. This was a period of great misery for him, but he kept up his courage.

Akbar in old Age Babur won back the lost territory from Jahangir who was supported by Ahmad Tambal when he defeated them at Khuban in 1499. During this year he was married to Ayisha-Sultan Begam. She did not attract him much and he mentions that out of modesty and bashfulness, he used to see her only occasionally. In fact, his indifference to his wife was due to the fact that he was infatuated with a youth named Baburi.

In 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 Baur 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 he escaped from Samarkand.

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 territory of Farghana. In 1504 Babur was in a desperate situation, and only a handful of loyal soldiers remained with him.

KABUL

Babur Enjoying Feast at Herat When in 1504 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 him-self 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 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 and the Indian frontier. It included within its boundaries Samarkand, Bokhara, Hissar, Kunduz and Farghana. But this glory was as shortlived 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. He lost everywhere and finally returned to Kabul early in 1513.

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 Baur extremely unpopular with his Sunni subjects and enabled the Uzbeg chiefs to stage a come back at Samarkand.

In Kabul, Baur found time and leisure to indulge in his favourite hobby of gardening. Apart from Beigh-i-wafa ten gardens are mentioned as made by him viz., the Shahr-ãrã (Town-adorning), which contained very fine plane-trees, the Char-bagh, the Bagh-i-jalau-khanei, the Aarta-biigh (Middle-garden), the Saurat-bagh, the Bligh-i-inahtab (Moonlight-garden), the Bilgh-i-ahu-khana (Garden-of-the-deer-house), and three smaller ones. In these gardens he held his feasts and drink parties.

HINDUSTAN

Babur meeting Khanzada Begam
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 effective artillery and sometimes between 1514 and 1519 secured the services of an Ottoman Turk. Named Ustad Ali, who became his master of ordnance.

Having, thus, strengthened his fighting machine a great deal, Babur started a probe into Hindustan. Early in 1519, he went in for what is called his first expedition in India. He stormed Bdjaur 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.

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.

Babur Supervising the Constructing Reservoir
After taking possession of Badakshan, Babur marched into India on his third expedition early in 1520. As in his first expedition, now also he first went to Bajaur and from there proceeded to Ehera. 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 had 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 Khdn was marching on Kabul, he hastily returned to Kabul.

Babur did not invade India for the next four years. Between 1520 and 1522 he was busy subduing Shdh 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.

Bdbur embarked on his fourth expedition to India in 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 atulat 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.

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 Lodi, 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.

Babur Crossing the River Son over a Bridge of boat 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.

Soon after the battle of Panipat, Babur proclaimed himself as 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.

Babur defeated Rana Sangha in the battle of Khanna 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.

Writer – M.S. Randhawa


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The Babur Nama

Posted by Art Of Legend India [dot] Com On 1:11 AM 0 comments
AkbarnamaThe Babur Nama reflects the character and interests of the author, Zehir-ed-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.

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 write 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. A painting shows him dictating his memoirs to a scribe. In less than three years, he succeeded in giving final form to his autobiography.

Ibrahim Adil Shah with a ladyAt times Babur was so engrossed in this work that he forgot his surroundings completely. According to his daughter, Gulbadan, once when he was busy on his autobiography a storm blew up and the tent in which he was dictating came down on his head with the result that "sections and book were drenched under water and gathered together with much difficulty." But he attached such a great importance to rescuing the papers that he with the help of his daughter "laid them in the folds of a woolen throne carpet, put this on the throne, and on it piled blankets and then kindled a fire inspite of the wet" and occupied himself "till shot of day drying folios and sections."

Babur's autobiography to which he had perhaps himself given the title of Babur Wind 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."

Babur Nama was preserved as a valuable treasure in the Royal Library by all the five successors of Babur, who, together with him, are known as the Great Mughals of Indian history. In fact each one of them showed his adoration for the Nama in one form or the other. Humayun on ascending the throne ordered All'u-l-Katib to copy his father's Turki book and see to it that the work was finished in less than a month and a half. Perhaps not fully satisfied with this hurriedly done copy, during the next ten years that he held the reins of the Empire, he had another copy of the Babur Nama prepared. 

Prince admiring the HorseHumayun carried Babur's original manuscript with him to exile from 1551 to 1555 and used his leisure moments to annotate it. Akbar showed his veneration for the book by ordering, Khan-i-Khana Abdur Rahim to translate it into Persian. Abdur Rahim is recorded to have finished the assignment in 1589 when he presented to Akbar, its Persian version under the title Waquit-i-Baburi. Jahangir retouched a copy of the Babur Nama which he tried to annotate and complete by supplying the missing links. ShahJahan adored the book. Among the select books that he would daily hear being recited to him before going to sleep was the Babur Nama. Aurangzeb got inscribed a number of Babur Nam& from the original preserved in the Royal Library and sent them to many places of importance in his rapidly expanding empire.

It appears that inspite of a brilliant translation in Persian available since 1589 it was the Turki Babur Nama that held the place of honour in the Royal Library of the Mughal Emperors. It seems something of an irony, therefore, that its original should have been lost and unlike the Persian Waquit-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 Nãmä was either destroyed in the sack of Delhi by Nadir Shah in 1739 or burnt during the Mutiny in that city in 1857. The Persian Waquit-i-Baburi, however, escaped either of those two fates and attracted the attention of the European indologists. 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, William Erskine, John Malcolm and Mountstuart Elphinstone.

BaburIn the early years of the nineteenth century when the British interest in the Mughals and their history was acquiring depth, a translation of the Waquit-i-Baburi, was started by Dr Leyden. He seems to have liked the work and did lot of jottings from Waquit-i-Baburi when Elphinstone arrived at Calcutta and sent him the Babur Nama which he had purchased at Peshawar in 1810. The Babur Nãmã in Turkish slackened Leyden's enthusiasm for the work that he had been doing and he left the translation of Waquit-i-Baburi only partially done before his death in 1811. What Leyden had left half done was completed by Erskine. Perhaps without knowing that Leyden was engaged in the translation of Waquit-i-Baburi, Erskine had also been busy translating it but just as he was thinking of giving final touches to his translation, he received all the jottings and papers of Leyden passed on to him after the latter's death in Java in 1811. The arrival of Leyden papers forced Erskine to revise the work that he had al-ready done and it kept him busy for another five years. It was only in 1816 now that he passed on the twice done translation to England to be published in the joint name of Leyden and him-self under the title Memoirs of Babur. A little time before he had done that like Leyden five years earlier, he too received the Babur Nama from Elphinstone but, possibly because he was not well-versed in Turki or felt too tired to begin the translation, already done twice by him, for the third time, made no use of the Turki manuscript. The Memoirs of Babur in Leyden and Erskine's name finally published in 1826 were consequently rightly looked upon by the indologists all over Europe as a translation of a translation of Babur's memoirs.

Women Bathing in a Lake - 18th Century Mughal PaintingThe Memoirs of Babur was looked upon as a valuable contribution to understanding Babur. Its extracts were translated and published in German by A. Kaiser in 1828 as Denkwurd-ingkeiton des Zahir-uddin Muhammad Babur. In 1844, R. M. Galdeff not only based his The Life of Babur on Leyden and Erskine's Memoirs of Babur but further showed the importance in which he held the latter work by publishing An Abridgement of the Memoirs, a work which was a summary of Leyden and Erskine's work published eighteen years earlier.

It was inevitable that the more the Leyden and Erskine's work was read, the greater should be the demand for the original Turki Babur Nama and some translation in a European language done directly from it. This demand was mistakenly believed to have been satisfied by De Courteille who published in 1871 Les Memoirs de Biz-bur in French. De Courteille had done his translation from Illminski's edited version of one Kehr's Turki transcript of the Babur Nama lying at Petersberg but without knowing that Kehr's copy was not made from any Babur Nama but an original work in Turki by one Timur-pulad, presented to one of the members of the Russian Government in pursuance of the policy of Peter the Great to improve Russian relations with the numerous Khanates in Central Asia. When the mission returned to Petersberg, the member of the mission who had received Timur-pulad's manuscript passed it on to Petersberg Library in the Foreign Office. There it was noticed by one Kehr, a teacher in the School of Oriental Studies at Petersberg. Kehr transcribed it as also translated it into Latin. Because he had put the two side by side, Kehr's transcript begun to attract more scholars than Timur-pulad's. In 1857 Illminski made Kehr's transcript as the basis for preparing an indexed volume of what he believed was the Turkish Babur Nama. What had been brought out by De Courteille was a French translation of Illminski work minus the latter's edited remarks. And, since, as subsequently discovered, Timur-pulad's work was not Babur Nama in Turki but at the best a retranslation in Turki of the Persian translation of that done by Erskine four decades earlier.

Second Battle of Panipat painting of AkbarIt was left to Mrs. A. S. Beveridge to do the translation into English from a genuine copy 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 Babur Nama. She wrote a series of articles in the Journal of Royal Asiatic Society between 1900 and 1908 and finally came out with its English translation in 1926. It is this translation which I have utilized in explaining the contents of paintings.

"Babur's Memoirs form one of the best and most faithful pieces of autobiography extant" wrote Dowson. "They are entirely superior to the hypocritical revelations of Timur, and the pompous declarations of Jahangir not inferior in any respect to the Expeditions of Xenophon, and rank but little below the commentaries of Caesar." He further wrote "These Memoirs are the best Memorial of the life and reign of the frank and jovial conqueror; they are ever fresh and will long continue to be read with interest and pleasure."

MiniaturesAs 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 Nama 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."

"His Memoirs are no rough soldier's diary, full of marches and counter-marches;... 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, a discerning judge of persons, and a devoted lover of nature.. .The utter frankness of self-revelation, the unconscious portraiture of all his virtues and follies; his obvious truthfulness and fine sense of humour give the Memoirs an authority which is equal to their charm."

CharbaghIt is in truthful narration of events of his personal life that the value of the Babur Nama lies. Like most adolescents Babur also passed through a homosexual phase. He thus describes his love for a boy. "At this time there happened to be a lad belonging to the camp-bazaar, named Baburi. There was an odd sort of coincidence in our names. Sometimes it happened that Baburi came to visit me; when, from shame and modesty, I found myself unable to look him direct in the face. How then is it to be supposed that I could amuse him with conversation or a disclosure of my passion? From intoxication and confusion of mind I was unable to thank him for his visit; it is not therefore to be imagined that I had power to reproach him with his departure. I had not even self-command enough to receive him with the common forms of politeness. One day while this affection and attachment lasted, I was by chance passing through a narrow lane with only a few attendants, when, of a sudden, I met Baburi face to face. Such was the impression produced on me by this encounter that I almost fell to pieces. I had not the power to meet his eyes, or to articulate a single word. With great confusion and shame I passed on and left him, remembering the verses of Muhammad Salih:

"I am abashed whenever T see my love;
My companions look to me, and I look another way."

Mugal Miniatuer painting"The verses were wonderfully suited to my situation. From the violence of my passion and the effervescence of youth and madness, I used to stroll bare-headed and barefoot through lane and street, garden and orchard, neglecting the attentions due to friend and stranger; and the respect due to myself and others."

"Babur's Memoirs reveal the founder of the Mughal rule in India as a constant and jovial toper who had many a drinking party which were as important to him as his bottles or negotiations. When we see him move with perfect ease and familiarity among his company in these drinking parties we forget the prince in the man; and start sharing the temptations that generally led Babur to those excesses a shady wood, a hill with a fine prospect, or of a boat floating down a river; and enjoy the amusements with which they are accompanied, extemporary verses, recitations in Turki and Persian, with sometimes a song, and often a contest of repartee.

Babur hunting Rhinoceros near Peshawar, Baburnama"On closing the Memoirs, we have in our possession a Babur who is more real than political record would make him. We have a Babur who, after many many trials of a long life, retains the same kind and affectionate heart, and the same easy and sociable temper with which he had set out on his career and in whom the possession of power and grandeur had neither blunted the delicacy of his taste, nor diminished the sensibility to the enjoyment of nature and imagination."

To Lane-Poole "Babur's Memoirs are no rough soldier'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 preception, discerning judge of men who was well able to express his thoughts and observations in clear and vigorous language."

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 people, animals, birds, and vegetation with precision and brevity. The value of some of the illustrations of the Babur Nama lies in the fact that these are the first natural history paintings in India.

Writer – M.S. Randhawa
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