The dread thus engendered by the arrival of a new invader, whose character and whose dispositions were alike unknown, was increased by the machinations of the Muhammadan adherents of the old families. These men argued that the success of the Mughal invader meant ruin to them. They spared no pains, then, to impress upon the Hindu population that neither their temples nor their wives and daughters would be safe from the rapine and lust of the barbarians of Central Asia. Under the influence of a terror produced by these warnings the Hindus fled from before the merciful and generous invader as he approached Agra, preferring the misery of the jungle to the apparent certainty of outrage.
To add to Bábar's troubles, there arose at this period discontent in his army. The men composing it were to a great extent mountaineers from the lofty ranges in Eastern Afghánistán. These men had followed their King with delight so long as there was a prospect of fighting. But Pánípat had given them Northern India. The march from Delhi to Agra was a march through a deserted country, at a season always hot, but the intense heat of which, in 1526, exceeded the heat of normal years. Like the Highlanders of our own Prince Charlie in '45, these highlanders murmured. They, too, longed to return to their mountain homes. The disaffection was not confined to the men. Even the chiefs complained; and their complaints became so loud that they at last reached the ears of Bábar.
Bábar had been greatly pleased with his conquest. Neither the heat nor the disaffection of the inhabitants had been able to conceal from him the fact that he had conquered the finest, the most fertile, the most valuable part of Asia. In his wonderful memoirs1 he devotes more than twenty large printed pages to describe it. 'It is a remarkably fine country,' he begins. 'It is quite a different world compared with our countries.' He saw almost at a glance that all his work was cut out to complete the conquest in the sense he attributed to that word. Henceforth the title of King of Kábul was to be subjected to the higher title of Emperor of Hindustán. For him there was no turning back.
1 Bábar's Memoirs, pp. 312 to 335.
He had noted all the difficulties, and he had resolved how to meet them. A thoroughly practical man, he proceeded first to take up that which he rightly regarded as the greatest—the discontent in the army. Assembling a council of his nobles, he laid before them the actual position: told them how, after many toilsome marches and bloody fights, they had won numerous rich and extensive provinces. To abandon these and to return to Kábul would be shame indeed. 'Let not anyone who calls himself my friend,' he concluded, 'henceforward make such a proposal. But if there is any among you who cannot bring himself to stay, or to give up his purpose of returning back, let him depart.' The address produced the desired effect, and when the words were followed by action, by new encounters and by new successes, enthusiasm succeeded discontent.2
2 To one of his friends, who found the heat unsupportable, and whom he therefore made Governor of Ghazní, Bábar, when he was firm in the saddle, sent the distich, of which the following is the translation:
| 'Return a hundred thanks, O Bábar, for the bounty of the merciful God Has given you Sind, Hind, and numerous kingdoms; If, unable to stand the heat, you long for cold, You have only to recollect the frost and cold of Ghazní.' |
The firmness of the conqueror was soon rewarded in a different manner. No sooner did the inhabitants, Muhammadan settlers and Hindu landowners and traders, recognise that Bábar intended his occupancy to be permanent, than their fears subsided. Many proofs, meanwhile, of his generous and noble nature had affected public opinion regarding him. Every day then brought accessions to his standard. Villagers and shopkeepers returned to their homes, and abundance soon reigned in camp. A little later, and the army which had been employed by Ibráhím Lodí to put down rebellion in Jaunpur and Oudh, acknowledged Bábar as their sovereign. In the interval, judiciously employing his troops, he conquered a great part of Rohilkhand; occupied the important post of Ráberí, on the Jumna; and laid siege to Itáwa and Dholpur. But troubles were preparing for him in Central India, from a quarter which it would not do for him to neglect.
These troubles were caused by Ráná Sanga, Ráná of Chitor. I have related already how this great prince—for great in every sense of the term he was—had won back from the earlier Muhammadan invaders a great portion of his hereditary dominions. He had even done more. He had defeated Ibráhím Lodí in two pitched battles, those of Bakrául and Chatáulí, and had gained from other generals sixteen in addition. Before the arrival in India of Bábar he had taken the then famous fort of Ranthambor. But he had continued, and was continuing, his career of conquest, and the news which troubled Bábar was to the effect that the great Rájpút chief had just taken the strong hill-fort of Kandar, a few miles to the eastward of Ranthambor.
Towards the end of the rainy season Bábar held a council to meet these and other difficulties. At this council it was arranged that, whilst his eldest son, Humáyún,3 then eighteen years old, should march eastward, to complete the subjection of the Duáb, Oudh, and Jaunpur, Bábar should remain at Agra to superintend there the general direction of affairs. As for Ráná Sanga, it was resolved to march against him only when the enemy nearer home should have been subdued.