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Babur Nama: Journal of
Emperor Akbar
Originally written in Turkish, Babur Nama was first translated into English by Annette Susannah Beveridge (1842-1929). The present edition is an abridged, edited and introduced version of her translation by Dilip Hiro, a full-time writer, journalist and broadcaster. The Babur Nama is outstanding in content. Its range of subjects is impressive, covering geography, astronomy, statecraft, descriptions of his domains and the administrative set-up, military strategies and weapons, battles and the territories he won and lost, the outbreak of rebellions and their suppression, the rise and fall of his adversaries and allies, flora and fauna, biographies and family chronicles, his marriages and children, his banishment to a hill tract and near death, pen-portraits of potentates, courtiers and artists, social mores, poetry, music, paintings, rowdy wine parties, tours of historical monuments, and reflections on the human condition. Acutely conscious of the value of his chronicle as well as the vital importance of being objective, he asserts: "I do not write this in order to make a complaint; I have written the plain truth, `85 I do not set these matters down in order to make known my own deserts; I have set down exactly what has happened." He seems aware of the presence of the readers and assures them of the authenticity of his diary: "In saying these things there is no desire to belittle the reputation of any man `85 the facts were as stated here. In writing these things, there is no desire to magnify myself; just the truth is set down". There is much in the memoirs that is very personal, including descriptions of getting his head shaved after four months and the loss of his loose half-tooth while eating. The author’s candour is often moving and sometimes embarrassing. Uninhibited he mentions how he "could not help crying a good deal" often over his defeats and his declaration of infatuation for a teenage boy, by happenstance named Baburi. The chronicle bares the multi-faceted personality of Babur. It is infused with his restless and vaulting ambition allied with uncommon daring, perseverance, resilience and astonishing vitality. Uniquely Babur was a combination of an exceptional military genius with a poet and a connoisseur of the arts. Women are shadowy figures in the Babur Nama —-they appear in the text as wives, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, concubines and slaves—barring one: Babur’s maternal grandmother Aisan Daulat Begum who he consulted on matters of state. He mentions another woman, Zohra Begum in passing, as a failed manipulator. Babur’s journal contains numerous examples of the victor in battle killing his foe and acquiring his wife as part of the legitimate booty. Like fellow rulers and generals, Babur did not lag behind in committing massacres. "Faced with our encircling attack, the Afghans could not fight," he writes. "One to two hundred of them were captured to be slaughtered. Some were produced alive before us, but in most cases only their heads were brought to us. Those Afghans who had been brought to us as prisoners were ordered to be beheaded. Later a pillar of their heads was erected in our camp." Among the Turkish conquerors, this custom dated back to Timur Beg. It is quite astonishing that personally Babur held Mughals in low esteem. He observes, "Mischief and devastation must always be expected from the Mughal Horde." Babur Nama is a living document that surely helps the modern reader see the contemporary India, Pakistan and Afganistan with a fresh eye. To a large extent, Indian subcontinent of today has been shaped by the events during the era that began with Babur’s conquest of the northern region of India in 1526 and ended in 1858. Hiro’s abridgement and editing of Babur’s voluminous document has breathed new life into it without harming its essence and spirit and makes an interesting reading on the whole.
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Zahir-ud-din