(l. Of gardens and pleasaunces.)
One of the great defects of Hindūstān being its lack of running-waters,[1948] it kept coming to my mind that waters should be made to flow by means of wheels erected wherever I might settle down, also that grounds should be laid out in an orderly and symmetrical way. With this object in view, we crossed the Jūn-water to look at garden-grounds a few days after entering Āgra. Those grounds were so bad and unattractive that we traversed them with a hundred disgusts and repulsions. So ugly and displeasing were they, that the idea of making aFol. 300. Chār-bāgh in them passed from my mind, but needs must! as there was no other land near Āgra, that same ground was taken in hand a few days later.
The beginning was made with the large well from which water comes for the Hot-bath, and also with the piece of ground where the tamarind-trees and the octagonal tank now are. After that came the large tank with its enclosure; after that the tank and tālār[1949] in front of the outer(?) residence[1950]; after that the private-house (khilwat-khāna) with its garden and various dwellings; after that the Hot-bath. Then in that charmless and disorderly Hind, plots of garden[1951] were seen laid out with order and symmetry, with suitable borders and parterres in every corner, and in every border rose and narcissus in perfect arrangement.
(m. Construction of a chambered-well.)
Three things oppressed us in Hindūstān, its heat, its violent winds, its dust. Against all three the Bath is a protection, for in it, what is known of dust and wind? and in the heats it is so chilly that one is almost cold. The bath-room in which the heated tank is, is altogether of stone, the whole, except for the īzāra (dado?) of white stone, being, pavement and roofing, of red Bīāna stone.
Khalīfa also and Shaikh Zain, Yūnas-i-‘alī and whoever got Fol. 300b.land on that other bank of the river laid out regular and orderly gardens with tanks, made running-waters also by setting up wheels like those in Dīpālpūr and Lāhor. The people of Hind who had never seen grounds planned so symmetrically and thus laid out, called the side of the Jūn where (our) residences were, Kābul.
In an empty space inside the fort, which was between Ibrāhīm’s residence and the ramparts, I ordered a large chambered-well (wāīn) to be made, measuring 10 by 10,[1952] a large well with a flight of steps, which in Hindūstān is called a wāīn.[1953] This well was begun before the Chār-bāgh[1954]; they were busy digging it in the true Rains (‘aīn bīshkāl, Sāwan and Bhadon); it fell in several times and buried the hired workmen; it was finished after the Holy Battle with Rānā Sangā, as is stated in the inscription on the stone that bears the chronogram of its completion. It is a complete wāīn, having a three-storeyed house in it. The lowest storey consists of three rooms, each of which opens on the descending steps, at intervals of three steps from one another. When the water is at its lowest, it is one step below the bottom chamber; when it rises in the Rains, it sometimes goes into the top storey. In the middle storey an inner chamber has been excavated which connects with the domed building in which the bullock turns the well-wheel. TheFol. 301. top storey is a single room, reached from two sides by 5 or 6 steps which lead down to it from the enclosure overlooked from the well-head. Facing the right-hand way down, is the stone inscribed with the date of completion. At the side of this well is another the bottom of which may be at half the depth of the first, and into which water comes from that first one when the bullock turns the wheel in the domed building afore-mentioned. This second well also is fitted with a wheel, by means of which water is carried along the ramparts to the high-garden. A stone building (tāshdīn ‘imārat) stands at the mouth of the well and there is an outer(?) mosque[1955] outside (tāshqārī) the enclosure in which the well is. The mosque is not well done; it is in the Hindūstānī fashion.
(n. Humāyūn’s campaign.)
At the time Humāyūn got to horse, the rebel amīrs under Naṣīr Khān Nuḥānī and Ma‘rūf Farmūlī were assembled at Jājmāū.[1956] Arrived within 20 to 30 miles of them, he sent out Mūmin Ātāka for news; it became a raid for loot; Mūmin Ātāka was not able to bring even the least useful information. The rebels heard about him however, made no stay but fled and got away. After Mūmin Ātāka, Qusm-nāī(?) was sent for news, with Bābā Chuhra[1957] and Būjka; they brought it of the breaking-up and flight of the rebels. Humāyūn advancing, took Jājmāū Fol. 301b.and passed on. Near Dilmāū[1958] Fatḥ Khān Sarwānī came and saw him, and was sent to me with Mahdī Khwāja and Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā.
(o. News of the Aūzbegs.)