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BÁBAR'S INVASIONS OF INDIA

Into the first period of Indian history, that extending from the earliest times to the invasion of Mahmúd of Ghazní, in the beginning of the eleventh century, I do not propose to enter. The world, indeed, possesses little detailed knowledge of that period. It is known that from the Indus to Cape Comorin the country was peopled by several distinct races, speaking a variety of languages; that the prevailing religions were those of the Bráhman, the Buddhist, and the Jain; and that the wars periodically occurring between the several kings of the several provinces or divisions were mostly religious wars.

The invasion of Mahmúd of Ghazní came first, in the year 1001, to disturb the existing system. But although Mahmúd, and his successors of the Ghazní dynasty, penetrated to Delhi, to Rájpútána, and to the furthest extremities of Gujarát, they did not practically extend their permanent rule beyond the Punjab. The territories to the south-east of the Sutlej still remained subject to Hindu sovereigns. But in 1186, the dynasty of the Ghaznívís was destroyed by the dynasty of Ghor or Ghur, founded by an Afghán of Ghur, a district in Western Afghánistán, a hundred and twenty miles to the south-east of the city of Herát, on the road to Kábul. The Ghuri dynasty was, in its turn, supplanted, in 1288, by that of the Khiljí or Ghiljí. The princes of this House, after reigning with great renown for thirty-three years over Delhi and a portion of the territories now known as the North-west Provinces, and, pushing their conquests beyond the Narbadá and the Deccan, made way, in 1321, for the Tughlak dynasty, descended from Túrkí slaves. The Tughlaks did not possess the art of consolidation. During the ninety-one years of their rule the provinces ruled by their predecessors gradually separated from the central authority at Delhi. The invasion of Taimur (1388-9) dealt a fatal blow to an authority already crumbling. The chief authority lingered indeed for twelve years in the hands of the then representative, Sultán Máhmud. It then passed for a time into the hands of a family which did not claim the royal title. This family, known in history as the Saiyid dynasty, ruled nominally in Northern India for about thirty-three years, but the rule had no coherence, and a powerful Afghán of the Lodí family took the opportunity to endeavour to concentrate power in his own hands.

The Muhammadan rule in India had indeed become by this time the rule of several disjointed chiefs over several disjointed provinces, subject in point of fact to no common head. Thus, in 1450, Delhi, with a small territory around it, was held by the representative of the Saiyid family. Within fourteen miles of the capital, Ahmad Khán ruled independently in Mewát. Sambhal, or the province now known as Rohilkhand, extending to the very walls of Delhi, was occupied by Daryá Khán Lodí. Jalesar, now the Itah district, by Isá Khán Turk: the district now known as Farukhábád by Rájá Partáb Singh: Biána by Dáúd Khán Lodí: and Lahore, Dipálpúr, and Sirhind, as far south as Pánípat, by Behlul Lodí. Múltán, Jaunpur, Bengal, Málwá, and Gujarát, each had its separate king.

Over most of these districts, and as far eastward as the country immediately to the north of Western Bihár, Behlul Lodí, known as Sultán Behlul, succeeded on the disappearance of the Saiyids in asserting his sole authority, 1450-88. His son and successor, Sultán Sikandar Lodí, subdued Behar, invaded Bengal, which, however, he subsequently agreed to yield to Allah-u-dín, its sovereign, and not to invade it again; and overran a great portion of Central India. On his death, in 1518, he had concentrated under his own rule the territories now known as the Punjab; the North-western Provinces, including Jaunpur; a great part of Central India; and Western Bihár. But, in point of fact, the concentration was little more than nominal. The Afghán nobles, to whom from necessity the Lodí Sultán committed the charge of the several districts, were indeed bound to their sovereign by a kind of feudal tenure, but within the circle of his own charge each of them made his own will absolute, and insisted on obedience to his decrees alone.

The result of this arrangement was that when Sultán Sikandar died the several important nobles, impatient even of nominal obedience, resolved, acting in concert, to assign to his son, Ibráhím, the kingdom of Delhi only, and to divide the rest of the deceased Sultán's dominions amongst themselves, Jaunpur alone excepted. This province was to be assigned to the younger brother of Ibráhím, as a separate kingdom, in subordination to Delhi. It would appear that when the proposal was first made to him, Ibráhím, probably seeing no remedy, assented. Upon the remonstrances of his kinsmen, Khán Jahán Lodí, however, he withdrew his assent and recalled his brother, who had already set out for Jaunpur. The brother refused to return. A civil war ensued in which Ibráhím was victorious. On the death of his brother, in 1518, Ibráhím endeavoured to assert his authority over his ambitious nobles. They rebelled. He quelled the rebellion. But the cruel use he made of his victory, far from quenching the discontent, caused fresh revolts. The nobles of Behar, of Oudh, of Jaunpur, flew to arms: the Punjab followed the example. The civil war was conducted with great fury and with varying fortunes on both sides. It was when the crisis was extreme that Allah-u-dín, uncle of Sultán Ibráhím, fled to the camp of Bábar, then engaged in the pacification of the Kandahár districts, and implored him to place him on the throne of Delhi. Almost simultaneously there came to the King of Kábul a still more tempting offer from Dáolát Khán, Governor of Lahore, and who was hard pressed by Ibráhím's general, begging for assistance, and offering in return to acknowledge him as his sovereign. Bábar agreed, and marched at once in the direction of Lahore.

The foregoing sketch of the internal condition of India during the five centuries which had elapsed since the invasion of Mahmúd of Ghazní will explain, I hope sufficiently clearly, how it was that none of the successive dynasties had taken root in the soil. Whether that dynasty were Ghazníví, or Ghurí, or Tughlak, or Saiyid, or Lodí, the representative had fought merely for his own hand and his own advantage. The nobles of the ruling sovereign had in this respect followed the example of their master. Hindustán had thus been overrun and partly occupied by the feudal followers of chiefs, who in turn owed feudal allegiance which they would or would not render, according to the power and capacity of the supreme lord. There had been no welding of the interest of the conquerors and the conquered such as took place in England after the Conquest. The Muhammadans sat as despotic rulers of an alien people, who obeyed him because they could not resist. There was no thought of attaching those people to the ruling dynasty either by sympathy or by closer union. The conquerors had come as aliens, and as aliens they remained. Their hold on the country was thus superficial: it had no root in the affections of the people, and it could be maintained only by the sword. It was in this respect that it differed so widely from the Mughal dynasty, as represented by Akbar, that was to succeed it.

The first invasion of India by Bábar, not reckoning the hasty visit spoken of in Chapter III, occurred in 1519. Some historians assert that there was a second invasion the same year. But Ferishtá is probably correct when he says that this so-called invasion amounted simply to an expedition against the Yusufzais, in the course of which Bábar advanced as far as Pesháwar, but did not cross the Indus. There is no doubt, however, that he made an expedition, called the third, in 1520. On this occasion he crossed the Indus, marched into the part known now as the Ráwal Pindí division, crossed the Jehlam, reached Siálkót, which he spared, and then marched on Saiyidpur, which he plundered. He was called from this place to Kábul to meet a threatened attack upon that capital.

The abortive result of this third expedition more than ever convinced Bábar that no invasion of Hindustán could with certainty succeed unless he could secure his base at Kandahár. He spent, therefore, the next two or three years in securing that stronghold and the territory between Ghazní and Khorásán. He had just succeeded in settling these districts on an efficient basis when he received the messages from Allah-u-dín Lodí and Dáolát Khán of Lahore, the latter of which decided him to undertake his fourth expedition to India. Once more did he cross the Indus, the Jehlam, and the Chenáb, and advanced within ten miles of Lahore. There he was met by, and there he defeated, the army of the adherents of the House of Lodí. Lahore fell a prize to his troops. But he halted there but four days; then pushing on, reached and stormed Dipálpúr.¹ Here he was joined by Dáolát Khán and his sons. These, however, dissatisfied with the rewards meted out to them, began to intrigue against their new master. Bábar was approaching Sirhind, on his way to Delhi, when he discovered their machinations. He determined, then, to renounce for the moment his forward movement, and to return to Kábul. This he did after having parcelled out the Punjab among chiefs upon whom he hoped he could depend.

¹ Dipálpúr is a town in the Montgomery district to the south-west of Lahore and forty miles from it. In Bábar's time it was a place of great importance.

Scarcely had he crossed the Indus when the Punjab became the scene of a renewed struggle. Allah-u-dín Lodí, to whom the district of Dipálpúr had been consigned, fled in despair to Kábul, hoping that Bábar would himself undertake the invasion of India. At the moment Bábar could not comply, for the Uzbeks were laying siege to Balkh. However he supplied Allah-u-dín with troops and ordered his generals in the Punjab to support him. But again did the expedition of this prince fail, and he fled from Delhi in confusion to the Punjab. At the time that he entered it, a fugitive, Bábar was preparing for his fifth and last invasion of India.

Of that invasion I must be content to give the barest outline. Accompanied by his son, Humáyún, Bábar descended the Khaibar Pass to Pesháwar, halted there two days, crossed the Indus the 16th of December, and pushed on rapidly to Siálkót. On his arrival there, December 29th, he heard of the defeat and flight of Allah-u-dín.² Undismayed, he marched the following morning to Parsaror, midway between Siálkót and Kalánaur on the Ráví; thence to Kalánaur, where he crossed the Ráví; thence to the Bíás, which he crossed, and thence to the strong fortress of Milwat, in which his former adherent Dáolát Khán, had taken refuge. Milwat soon fell. Bábar then marched through the Jálandhar Duáb to the Sutlej, placing, as he writes, 'his foot in the stirrup of resolution, and his hand on the reins of confidence-in-God,' crossed it near Rupar, then by way of Ambála, to the Jumna, opposite Sirsáwá.³ Thence he held down the river for two marches. Two more brought him to Pánípat, fifty-three miles to the north-west of Delhi. There he halted and fortified his camp. The date was April 12, 1526.

² Of this march there is a detailed and most interesting account given by Bábar in his Memoirs, page 290, and the pages following.

³ Sirsáwá lies on the south bank of the Jumna, ten miles west-north-west of Saháranpur.

Nine days later Ibráhím Lodí, at the head of an army computed by Bábar to have been a hundred thousand strong, attacked the invader in his intrenched camp. 'The sun had mounted spear-high,' writes Bábar, 'when the onset of the battle began, and the combat lasted till midday, when the enemy were completely broken and routed.' The victory was in all respects decisive. Ibráhím Lodí was killed, bravely fighting, and Hindustán lay at the feet of the victor. That very day Bábar despatched troops to occupy Delhi and Agra. These results were accomplished on the 24th of April and 4th of May respectively.⁴

⁴ In his Memoirs, Bábar, after recounting how, from comparatively small beginnings, he had become conqueror 'of the noble country of Hindustán,' adds: 'This success I do not ascribe to my own strength, nor did this good fortune flow from my own efforts, but from the fountain of the favour and mercy of God.'