महाराणा सांगा: द हिन्दूपत (हरविलास सारदा - मेवाड़ साम्राज्य एवं खानवा महायुद्ध इतिहास)

Maharana Sāngā.
inherited the small kingdom of Ferghana,
and continued to rule it till 10 June A.D.
1494, when he was killed by the fall of a
house while amusing himself with his tame
pigeons in his palace, which stood on an
eminence in the castle of Akhsi. The
pigeon-house stood on the edge of a steep
cliff overhanging the river below. Its
foundations gave way, and he was precipitated
down the cliff along with the building and
killed on the spot.¹ Umar Shaikh left
three sons, the eldest Zahiruddin Muhammad
Bābur, and the second Jahangir Mirza.
The third, Nasir Mirza, was by a concubine.
Zahiruddin Muhammad Bābur was born
on 6 Muharrum, H. 888 (15th February,
A.D. 1483). His mother, Kutlak Nigār
Khānam, was the second daughter of Yunis
Khan, the grand Khan of the Moghuls, who
was a descendant of Changez Khan.² On
¹ Erskine's History of India, Vol. I, p. 78.
² Bābur's genealogy on the father's side was : Bābur,
son of Umar Shaikh Mirza, son of Abu Sayid Mirza,
the son of Muhammad Mirza, the son of Miran Shah,
the son of Amir Timur Korkān. On his mother's side,
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Maharana Sāngā.
11 June 1494, at the age of 11, Bābur
became ruler of Ferghana, on the death of
his father.
At his birth he was named Zahiruddin
Muhammad by Khwāja Nasiruddin Abdulla,
the celebrated spiritual guide in Transoxiana.
The Chaghtais finding it difficult to pro-
nounce the Arabic word Zahiruddin, called
him Bābur, which his parents adopted.
The kingdom of Ferghana, now Kokān,
is surrounded on all sides by mountains,
some of which are covered with perpetual
snow. The capital, Andejān, with its impor-
tant fortress, is situated to the south of the
river Sirr or Sehun. Umar Shaikh,
however, used to live in Akhsi, the second
important town of the kingdom, as its
fortress was the strongest in the kingdom.
Ferghana possesses a rich soil and lies in a
it was: Kutlak Nigār Khānam, daughter of Yunis
Khan, the son of Weis Khan, the son of Sher Ali Khan,
the son of Muhammad Khwaja, the son of Khizr
Khwaja, the son of Tughlak Timur, the son of Isan
Bugha, the son of Dawa Chichan, the son of Borak
Khan, the son of Sukar, the son of Kamgar, the son of
Chaghtai, the son of the famous Changez Khan.
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Maharana Sāngā.
temperate climate, though exposed to violent
heat in summer and severe cold in winter.
It abounds in corn and fruits, specially the
peach, the pomegranate, the almond and
melon. Its orchards and gardens were
celebrated in olden days.
Bābur describes his father as a brave,
good-humoured prince of a sweet temper,
elegant and refined in his manners and
conversation, fond of letters, and remarkable
for his justice. In his external policy he
was ambitious, restless and unsteady. At
the time of Umar Shaikh’s death, his elder
brother, Sultan Ahmad Mirza, King of Samar-
kand, and Sultan Mirza his brother-in-law,
having combined to deprive Umar Shaikh
of his little kingdom, were marching from
north and south, and it was with difficulty
and after some fighting that Bābur’s nobles
extricated the principality from this danger.
At 15 years of age, Bābur took Samarkand
in November A.D. 1497. Samarkand was one
of the most celebrated and populous cities at
the time. It had been the capital of
Tamerlane the Great. Bābur found the city
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Maharana Sāngā.
worn out from the long continuance of the
blockade; and the surrounding country had
been laid waste by hostile armies for two
successive summers. His followers began
to desert him and return home. A party
headed by Azan Hasan and Tambal,
demanded that Bābur having taken Samar-
kand, should give Andejan and Akhsi to his
younger brother, Jahangir Mirza. Bābur
refused the demand, upon which Jahangir
besieged Andejan. Bābur was seriously ill
at the time. On his recovery, he abandoned
Samarkand to relieve Andejan. On the
way he learnt that Andejan had been
surrendered the day he had left Samar-
kand. Bābur says in his memoirs : “To
save Andejan, I had given up Samarkand,
and now found that I had lost the one with-
out preserving the other.” He was left
without a country and without followers.
He says : “I became a prey to vexation and
melancholy, for since I had been a sovereign
prince, I never before had been separated in
this manner from my country and followers;
and since the day I had known myself, I
had never experienced such care and suffer-
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Maharana Sāngā.
ing.” Bābur now resolved to instigate his
maternal uncle, Sultan Mahmud Khan, to
take Andejan. Sultan Mahmud, ever ready
to go where a country was to be plundered,
marched towards Andejan, but Jahangir
Mirza’s men persuaded him to return to his
country. Bābur’s situation became more
desperate than ever. “I was now reduced
to a very distressed situation,” says he,
“and wept a great deal.” A second attempt
on Samarkand with Sultan Mahmud’s
assistance having failed, Bābur repaired to
the court of his uncle, and persuaded him to
give him assistance. He took Nasukh, but
abandoned it and returned to Khojend. His
old servant Ali Dost, sent for Bābur and
gave up to him Marghinan. Azan Hasan
attempted to drive Bābur out of Marghi-
nan but failed. Bābur advanced and took
Andejan. The Moghuls, however, revolted
and defeated Bābur. Eventually a peace was
made, by which the kingdom was partitioned
between Bābur and Jahangir Mirza, in
February 1500 A.D., and it was stipulated
that both should attack Samarkand, and
should they succeed, Bābur should keep it
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Maharana Sāngā.
and give up Andejan to Jahangir Mirza.
The direction of Bābur’s affairs was in the
hands of Mir Ali Dost, a Moghul, who
removed Bābur’s favourites one after another
from the little Court. Ali Dost and his son
were the real rulers of the little State.
Bābur says : “ My situation was singularly
delicate, and I was forced to be silent. Many
were the indignities which I endured at that
time, both from father and son.” Bābur, at
the invitation of Muhammad Mazid Tarkhan,
marched to take Samarkand. No sooner
had Bābur started on this expedition than
Tambol’s brother Khalil, attacked the fortress
of Ush and took it from Bābur’s garrison.
And when Bābur reached Yuratkhan, five
miles from Samarkand, news reached him
that the powerful Shaibani Khan, the Uzbek
Chief of Turkistan, was in full march towards
that city. Bābur broke up the blockade
of Samarkand, and instead of falling back
on his hereditary dominions, now in the
hands of his hereditary enemies, he marched
towards Kesh. Here he learnt of the
surrender of Samarkand; and Muhammad
Mazid and other Begs separating from him,
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Maharana Sānga.
Bābur was left with few adherents, and
"once more felt himself in a most destitute
and wretched situation, without army or
country or home. He knew not which way
to turn." Bābur thought of migrating to
the remoter wilds of Tartary, but eventually
made up his mind to return towards Samar-
kand and meet whatever fortune awaited
him there. With the greatest difficulty he
traversed the pass of Sir-e-tāk and came to
Kān. At a little distance from Samarkand
Kamber Ali joined Bābur. Shaibani was
encamped with seven or eight thousand men
near Khwaja Didār and had a garrison of five
or six hundred men in Samarkand. Mehdi
Sultan and other adherents of Shaibani, with
two thousand men, were encamped near by.
Bābur with all his exertions could not muster
more than 240 followers. None but a man
of the most heroic ardour would have
ventured to think of extricating himself from
his difficulties except by retreat. Bābur saw
that if he had any chance of retrieving his
affairs it could only be by bold measures, and
he resolved to surprise Samarkand, which
daring enterprise offered the best prospect
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Maharana Sāngā.
of success. The first attempt failed, but the
second succeeded beyond his expectations.
The people, tired of the barbarous
Uzbeks, hailed Bābur with joy. Shaibani
galloped up to the town with a few followers
at daybreak, but finding it in Bābur's
possession and the whole population against
himself, retired towards Bokhara. Bābur was
at the time of this heroic enterprise in his
eighteenth year. Though Bābur obtained
Samarkand, Shaibani Khan's power was
unbroken. In a few months he advanced
from Bokhara and took the fort of Dabusi
by storm and put Bābur's garrison to the
sword. Bābur left Samarkand to take the
field against him (about May 1501 A.D.)
Shaibani planned a night attack which failed.
Bābur divided his army into four divisions,
consisting of right and left wings, centre and
advance, and marched forward. The enemy
was ready to receive Bābur. Bābur's left
was turned. The enemy then attacked his
centre in the rear and threw his army into
confusion. Bābur sustained a complete defeat.
Only 10 or 15 men remained round him.
Bābur fled, and after crossing the river
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Maharana Sāngā.
Kohik, reached Samarkand, which Shaibani
lost no time in investing. After several
months' blockade, Bābur capitulated, one of
the articles of the treaty being the marriage
of Bābur's sister, Khanzada Begum, with
Shaibani—"part of the price paid for his
unmolested escape." Thus Samarkand
was again lost in September 1501 A.D.
Bābur, now in his nineteenth year, driven
from Samarkand, made for Ilan-uti.
After great sufferings and privations and a
stunning fall from his horse, Bābur reached
Dizak, where he had meat and bread and
fruit to eat. He says in his memoirs: "In
my whole life, I never enjoyed myself so
much." "It has been my lot," he adds,
"four or five times in the course of my life,
to pass in a similar manner from distress and
suffering to enjoyment and ease, but this
was the first time I had ever been so
circumstanced, and most keenly did I feel the
transition from the injuries of my enemy
and the gnawings of absolute hunger, to the
charms of security and the delights of
the plenty." ¹
¹ Erskine's History of India, Vol. I, p. 159.
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Maharana Sāngā.
Bābur repaired to his uncle Sultan
Mahmud, who assigned the district of
Dehkāt to him. Here Bābur lived in the
house of one of the headmen of the place
and had often to go about bare-footed. The
aged mother of the chief told Bābur stories
of the wonderful land of India which she had
heard from one of her relations who had
accompanied Timur when he invaded Hindu-
stan. These stories concerning the wonders
of India, probably fired Bābur’s youthful
imagination and implanted in him an ardent
desire to visit that distant land.
From Dehkāt, Bābur sent a cap for his
brother, Jehangir Mirza, and a sword to
Tambal. Tired of “the unsettled way of liv-
ing and with having no house or home, life
became a burden to” Bābur, who preferred
“to live unknown and undistinguished into
some corner than continue to drag on exist-
ence in wretchedness and misery,” which
he then endured. Bābur’s uncle soon had
occasion to attack Tambal, and Bābur with
a part of his army took Ush and advanced
on Andejan. He was, however, surprised
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Maharana Sāṅgā.
by Tambal. Bābur was wounded by an
arrow, which pierced his right thigh; while
Tambal riding up discharged full on his
head a furious sabre blow which stunned him.
The sword was the one which Bābur had
presented him. The steel cap saved Bābur,
but his head was bruised. Another sabre
stroke fell on his quiver, and Bābur, to save
himself, fled. He went to Akhsi, but was
driven away from there. With 20 or 30 men
he fled, pursued by the enemy. All his follow-
ers were left behind one after another, and
at length Bābur was left alone. Two of his
enemy were gaining upon him. When
they came within bowshot, they called out
to him to stop, and swore that they meant
no harm to him. All three passed the night
in the hills. Bābur was eventually dis-
covered there. He was told that Tambal
wanted to make him king. Bābur disbelieved
the story and retired to spend the few
moments yet left him in religious medi-
tations and in preparation for the next
world. He, however, managed to escape,
and joined the Moghul khans, who were
marching against Ferghana. Shaibani, how-
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Maharana Sānga.
ever, surprised them and made the khans
his prisoners, Bābur escaping (June 1503)
to the southern hills of Ferghana. Bābur
was compelled to wander as a fugitive and
an outlaw in the hilly country, accompanied
by his mother and some followers. After
he had been subjected for a year to the
utmost extremes of hardship and suffering,
hunted from village to village, and from
forest to mountain, finding the toils of his
pursuers closing around him, and seeing
that his partisans were totally dispersed
and not a chance of success was left, he
held a consultation with his small but devot-
ed band. Their prospects were dreary and
dark, and opposition to Shaibani was hope-
less. He could not expect long to secure
even his life, if he continued to roam as an
adventurer in a territory which he had
once vainly called his own. Young as he
was, the world was before him. He there-
fore resolved to abandon for a time his
native country and to court success in
foreign lands. Accordingly, in the summer
of H. 910 (A.D. 1504), Bābur bade
a last adieu to his native land, and the whole
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Maharana Sāngā.
party set out to cross the lofty and snow-
covered range of mountains that separate
Andejan from Karatagin and Hissar.
Bābur was joined by many people on
the way, and as he marched through the
territories of Khusrau Shah, who ruled from
Karatagin to Hindukush and Balkh to
Badakhshan, Khusrau's brother Baki Cha-
ghaniani, joined Bābur. In a few days all his
followers came to Bābur, who now resolved
to conquer Kabul. The city surrendered
after a siege of only a few days in October
1504 A.D. Thus Bābur little more than three
months after leaving, as a houseless exile,
his little kingdom of Ferghana, saw himself
sovereign of the far more extensive and
powerful kingdoms of Kabul and Ghazni.
Bābur had been in Kabul but a short
time when Yar Muhammad, a son of Daria
Khan of Bhera, a district lying beyond the
Indus on the south of Jhelum, invited him
to that country. Bābur thereupon resolved
on an incursion into India. He set out from
Kabul in Shaban H. 910 (January 1505), and
reached Jalalabad in six days, and traversing
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Maharana Sāṅga.
the Khaibar Pass proceeded to Bekram, now
Peshawar. After a consultation, the plan
of crossing the Indus was abandoned, and the
army was led on a marauding expedition to
Kohat, Bannu, Bangash and Dasht Damān.
Passing by a small dependency of Multan,
Bābur went on to Ghazni and returned to
Kabul in four months.
In the meantime, Shaibani laid siege to
Balkh, and its ruler, Sultan Husain Mirza,
invited Bābur to assist him to repel the
invasion. Bābur consented and left Kabul.
But Balkh fell before Bābur reached there.
Bābur, therefore, after visiting Herat, set
out in December 1506 A.D., on the return
journey to Kabul, where an insurrection
had taken place in his absence. He had
taken Kandahar and bestowed it on his
brother Nasir Mirza, when Shaibani Khan
advanced rapidly in the hope of surprising
him there. Finding Bābur gone towards
Kabul, he invested Kandahar. This so
alarmed Bābur, and such was the wholesome
fear inspired by the prowess and talents of
Shaibani, that at a council held to decide
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Maharana Sāngā.
what course to adopt in this difficult emer-
gency, it was considered hopeless even to
attempt the defence of the country of Kabul,
and it was decided to make an inroad into
India to escape the tempest. Leaving Kabul
under the charge of Abdul Razzak, the late
king, Bābur marched down the Kabul river
for the Indus. The intervening passes were
in the possession of Afghan tribes, who are
robbers even in peace times. Bābur thus
speaks of their attitude: “When they under-
stood that I had abandoned Kabul and was
marching for Hindustan, their usual insolence
was increased tenfold.” Bābur showed fight
and the Afghans dispersed. He arrived at
Adinapur, now Jalalabad. From here he
sent four divisions to plunder the country
around and waited for news from Kabul.
He soon heard that Kandahar had fallen,
that it was given back to the Arghuns and
that Nasir Mirza was allowed to depart to
Ghazni. Hearing also that Shaibani had re-
turned to Turkistan to quell trouble at home,
Bābur returned to Kabul and assumed the title
of Padshah. Even here he got no rest.
His Moghul army, to which he owed the
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Maharana Sāngā.
throne of Kabul, revolted, and it was with
the greatest difficulty that he defeated the
rebel Moghul chiefs (A.D. 1508) and gained
success over them—a success to achieve
which his bodily strength and personal
gallantry contributed not a little. "His
heroism and desperation appalled his enemies
and reanimated his followers."
Bābur now enjoyed repose for two years.
He then heard of the victory gained by the
King of Persia, Shah Ismail Safvi, over
Shaibani Khan at Merv.¹ Khan Mirza
sent the welcome news by a messenger,
who travelled post haste to inform Bābur
of the momentous happenings in the
north and invited him to recover his
patrimony. Bābur started, and meeting with
¹ Shaibani's end was very inglorious. Defeated in
battle at Mahmudabad of Merv he took shelter with 500
men in an inclosure, and when pressed hard they all
jumped over the wall to escape towards the river, but
in doing so fell in heaps on each other. Shaibani was
overlaid and smothered by the crowd after him. His
body was unearthed and his head was cut off and pre-
sented to Shah Ismail. The skin of his head was stuffed
with hay and sent to Sultan Bayazid, the Turkish
Emperor of Constantinople. The skull, set in gold, was
made into a drinking cup, which the Shah was proud of
displaying at his great entertainments.
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Maharana Sāngā.
little opposition, recovered Samarkand and
Bokhara. His dominions now extended
from the deserts of Tartary to the limits of
Ghazni, and comprehended Kabul, Ghazni,
Kunduz, Hissar, Samarkand, Bokhara
Ferghana, Tashkand and Seiram. Kabul and
Ghazni he gave to Nasir Mirza, himself
taking up his residence at Samarkand.
Bābur was now in his 29th year (1511-12
A.D.).
Like his two previous conquests of
Samarkand, this third one was also of short
duration. Bābur had relied chiefly on
the assistance of the Shah of Persia for his
success in Transoxiana, and he now adopted
the Persian dress and issued an order to his
troops to do the same, particularly the
Persian cap. This alienated the sym-
pathies of the people, who were orthodox
Sunnies, and a storm of the Uzbeks
gathering beyond the Sirr soon poured down
in all its fury on the plains of Bokhara. Bābur
was driven from Samarkand. He defended
himself at Hissar and sent for assistance to
Shah Ismail, who sent an army under Amir
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Maharana Sāngā.
Nijm Sani to assist Bābur. Though Amir
Nijm gained a few successes, he was defeated
with great slaughter at Ghazhdewan, and
Bābur lost all hope of again ascending
the throne of Samarkand and Bokhara.
Hissar, too, was taken by the Uzbeks and
Bābur again crossed the Hindukush and
returned to Kabul towards the end of 1513
or early in 1514 A.D. Nasir Mirza at once
yielded Kabul to him, himself retiring to
his old government of Ghazni. Bābur now
enjoyed some years of peace, which he
employed in settling the government of his
kingdom and reducing to submission the
various mountain tribes on every side.
In 1519 A.D., Bābur invaded a part of
the Panjab, and in 1520 he again entered
the Panjab and advanced as far as Sialkot,
when he was recalled by an invasion of
Kabul. He now resolved to take and
incorporate Kandahar with his dominions,
preliminary to his invasion of India. He
besieged Kandahar, which was ably defended
by its ruler, Shah Beg. In A.D. 1522, —
however, it was finally surrendered to him.
117

CHAPTER XII.
SĀNGĀ AND BĀBUR.
THE accession of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi to
the throne of Delhi in A.D. 1517, showed
the weak points of the Afghan Sultanate of
Hindustan, which was a congeries of several
virtually independent Pathan principalities
and jagirs.
The cruelty of Ibrahim filled his reign
with rebellions by the nobles of the kingdom.
The Sultan possessed neither the tact to
control them, nor the ability to crush them.
At length, Daulat Khan Lodi, the governor
of Lahore, invited Bābur, the king of Kabul,
to take possession of Hindustan. Bābur had
ere this made unsuccessful attempts to take
the Panjab. He says in his autobiogra-
phy that Maharana Sāngā had also sent
him a message to the effect that should he
(Bābur) advance and take Delhi, he (Sāngā)
would take Agra from the Lodi king.
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Maharana Sāngā.
Finding the circumstances favourable, Bābur
left Kabul, took a part of the Panjab and
advanced towards Delhi. Circumstances,
however, soon afterwards obliged him to
return to Kabul.
In the meantime the dissensions in the
Afghan kingdom of Delhi increased and
prince Alauddin, known as Alam Khan, the
uncle of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, repaired to
Kabul and induced Bābur to help him to
the throne of Delhi, promising him in lieu of
his assistance, the whole of the Panjab.
Alam Khan returned to India and, aided by
Bābur’s generals in the Panjab, advanced
towards Delhi, but was defeated and put to
flight by Sultan Ibrahim. Bābur, however,
perceiving the time favourable for his designs,
as Hindustan was torn asunder by hopeless
dissensions and rivalries, crossed the Indus
with only 12,000 men, which swelled to
about seventy thousand when he came face
to face with the Sultan of Delhi on the
celebrated field of Panipat, where the sove-
reignty of Hindustan has been so often lost
and won. After waiting for a few days, during
119