[2166] The two varieties mentioned by Bābur seem to be Diospyrus melanoxylon, the wood of which is called tindu abnūs in Hindūstānī, and D. tomentosa, Hindi, tindu (Brandis s.nn.). Bārī is 19 m. west of Dūlpūr.
[2167] mī‘ād, perhaps the time at which the Shaikh was to appear before Bābur.
[2168] The Pers. trs. makes the more definite statement that what had to be read was a Section of the Qoran (wird). This was done with remedial aim for the illness.
[2169] As this statement needs comment, and as it is linked to matters mentioned in the Rāmpūr Dīwān, it seems better to remit remarks upon it to Appendix Q, Some matters concerning the Rāmpūr Dīwān.
[2170] risāla. See Appendix Q.
[2171] Elph. MS. lacuna; I.O. 215 lacuna and 217 f. 229; Mems. p. 373. This year’s narrative resumes the diary form.
[2172] There is some uncertainty about these names and also as to which adversary crossed the river. The sentence which, I think, shews, by its plural verb, that Humāyūn left two men and, by its co-ordinate participles, that it was they crossed the river, is as follows:—(Darwīsh and Yūsuf, understood) Qut̤b Sīrwānī-nī u bīr pāra rājalār-nī bīr daryā aūtūb aūrūshūb yakshī bāsīb tūrlār. Aūtūb, aūrūshūb and bāsīb are grammatically referable to the same subject, [whatever was the fact about the crossing].
[2173] bīr daryā; W.-i-B. 217 f. 229, yak daryā, one river, but many MSS. har daryā, every river. If it did not seem pretty certain that the rebels were not in the Miyān-dū-āb one would surmise the river to be “one river” of the two enclosing the tract “between the waters”, and that one to be the Ganges. It may be one near Saṃbhal, east of the Ganges.
[2174] var. Shīrwānī. The place giving the cognomen may be Sarwān, a thakurāt of the Mālwā Agency (G. of I.). Qut̤b of Sīrwān may be the Qut̤b Khān of earlier mention without the cognomen.
[2175] n.w. of Aligarh (Kūl). It may be noted here, where instances begin to be frequent, that my translation “we marched” is an evasion of the Turkī impersonal “it was marched”. Most rarely does Bābur write “we marched”, never, “I marched.”