[4]. [Sukhada, ‘giving pleasure,’ an epithet of Vishnu.]
[5]. [Vīra, ‘a hero’; Skt. jhampa, Hindi, jhapat, ‘a spring, leap.’ In Rājasthāni, as Sir G. Grierson writes, the m may easily have been preserved, or more probably the a would be long, and the m converted into a pure nasal, Jhāp being written Jhamp. Another common form is Bhairava Jhamp, ‘the leap in honour of Bhairava,’ a form of Siva. (For[(For] human “scape-goats” of this kind see Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore, 2nd ed. i. 256; Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3rd ed., The Scapegoat, 196 ff.).]
[6]. [Ino Leucothea, when Athamas, in a fit of madness, killed Learchus, their son, fled with her other son, Melicertes, across the plain of Megaris and threw herself with the boy (or, according to Euripides (Medea, 1289) with her two sons) into the sea. A. B. Cook, Zeus, i. 674.]
[7]. [For a good summary of the history of opium cultivation see Watt, Comm. Prod. 845 ff.]
[8]. In all the branches of knowledge which have reference to the comforts, the elegancies, and the luxuries of life, they necessarily bore away the palm from the Rajput, who was cooped up within the barriers of superstition. The court of Samarkand, with which the kings of Farghana were allied, must have been one of the most brilliant in the world for talents as well as splendour; and to all the hereditary instruction there imbibed, Babur, the conqueror of India, added that more useful and varied knowledge only to be acquired by travel, and constant intercourse with the world. When, therefore, his genius led him from ‘the frosty Caucasus’ into the plains of Hindustan, the habit of observation and noting in a book, as set before him by Hazrat Timur, all that appeared novel, never escaped him; and in so marked a transition from the highlands of Central India to the region of the sun, his pen had abundant occupation. No production, whether in the animal or vegetable kingdom, which appeared different from his own, escaped notice in his book, which must be looked upon as one of the most remarkable contributions to literature ever made by royalty; for in no age or country will a work be found at once so comprehensive and so simple as the Commentaries of Babur; and this in a region where everything is exaggerated. Whether he depicts a personal encounter on which his life and prospects hinged, or a battle which gave him the empire of India, all is in keeping; and when he relates the rewards he bestowed on Mir Muhammad Jaliban, his architect, for successfully executing his noble design of throwing a bridge over the Ganges, “before he had been three years sovereign of Hindustan,” and with the same simplicity records his own “introduction of melons and grapes into India,” we are tempted to humiliating reflections on the magniloquence with which we paint our own few works of public good, and contrast them unfavourably with those of the Transoxianic monarch, not then twenty-five years of age! Nor let the reader who may be induced to take up the volume fail to give homage to the translator,[[A]] whose own simple, yet varied and vigorous mind has transferred the very soul of Babur into his translation.
[A]. William Erskine, Esq., of Blackburne, who honours me with his friendship, and has stimulated my exertions to the task in which I am engaged, and another in which I trust to be engaged, some of the Books of the Poet Chand, so often alluded to in this work. [The Memoirs of Bābur or Bābar, translated by J. Leyden and W. Erskine, were published in 1826, and a reprint, edited by Sir Lucas King, is about to be issued by the Oxford University Press. An abridged version by Lieut.-Col. F. G. Talbot appeared in 1909. A new translation from an improved text, by Mrs. H. Beveridge, is now in course of publication.]
[9]. [For a statement of the evidence see Watt, op. cit. 845 ff.]
[10]. [Munawwar means ‘illuminated, bright, splendid.’]
[11]. [In S.E. Mewār, near Mālwa, opium used to be almost as common as wheat and barley, but the area has greatly decreased since 1899, with the fall in the price of the drug (Erskine ii. A. 44). Sir G. Watt, writing in 1908, says it was then restricted to Mālwa, Bihār, and the United Provinces (Comm. Prod. 851 ff.). Since then, under arrangements with the Chinese, the cultivation has been still further restricted.]
[12]. [Mandasor in Gwalior State, about 95 miles S.E. of Udaipur city (IGI, xvii. 150); Unel, 20 miles N. of Ujjain; Khāchrod, 45 miles S.S.E. of Mandasor.]