1 ZAHIR-UD-DIN BABER, 125
2 fact is that immense personal exertions in various wars, a life of luxury,
3 and the climate of India, had much to do with the weakness of frame and
4 the disorders which at length ended in the dissolution of this extraordinary
5 prince. According to his will his body was carried to Kabul and interred in
6 the sepulchre by a sparkling stream which he had himself selected as the
7 place of his final rest. The tomb is surrounded with beautiful gardens and
8 is a favourite resort of the people of the town and of travellers. The date
9 of his death is given in the words—
10 dle A 16 52) erty?
11 ‘* May heaven be his lot.”
12 “The date of the year of his birth is comprised in the words =e 44
13 “6th of Moharram,” and by a strange coincidence he died on the same date
14 as the poet says :—
15 = q « nae
16 6 &F wt dS ye UAH y
17 eo pd wef e pels gue
18 On the 6th of Moharram died that illustrious king ;
19 The date of his birth was also the 6th of Moharram.”
20 Baber was one of the most accomplished princes that ever adorned the
21 throne of an Asiatic empire. A born soldier, nature had gifted him with
22 a genius which combined in itself the qualities of a consummate general,
23 a vigorous administrator, a talented poet, and a true lover of all that was
24 rand and sublime in the universe. He wrote his own Memoirs in the
25 Turki language with a beauty and elegance seldom surpassed by the best
26 Oriental writers, It is a most delightful record of the king’s unassuming
27 habits, good taste, wit, humour, cheerful boon-companionship and sense of
28 enjoyment of the gifts of nature. The work was translated into Persian
29 by Mirza Abdu] Rahim Khan-i-Khdndn during the reign of Akbar, Baber’s
30 illustrious grandson. With indomitable bravery, he possessed a persevering
31 energy and a resolution which never failed him in his greatest misfortunes.
32 Hardly an Asiatic prince, known to history, experienced more vicissitudes of
33 fortune than did Baber. At one moment he was seen installed on the
34 throne of a great kingdom ; at another he could hardly find a hut to afford
35 him shelter. Now he was the general of a large army; now a private in-
36 dividual with scarcely an attendant to follow him. He was the knight-
37 errant of Asia, and the romances of the heroes of the Middle Ages truly
38 . applied to him. In person he was handsome; in address engaging and
39 unaffected ; in disposition light-hearted, open, and generous, and in counte-
40 nance pleasing. In his commentaries he compares his own conquest of
41 Hindostdn with that of Mahmud of Ghazniand SultanMuhammad Ghori, and
42 points out how differently situated he was from those conquerors, and what
43 difficulties, at home and abroad, he had to contend with before he founded the
44 Moghal,empire of Hindostdu, Notwithstanding his vast schemes of conquest
45 and self-aggrandizement, he indulged in nocturnal revels and festive enter-
46 tainments with jovial comrades, in which great excesses were committed.
47 Ferishta relates that, on occasions of such orgies, he used to fill a reservoir
48 with wine in his own beautiful flower garden, and on it was inscribed the
49 following ode :—
50 “ Give me but wine and blooming maids,
51 All other joys 1 freely spurn;
52 ~ Enjoy then, Baber, while you may,
53 For youth once past will ne’er regurn.”
54 His character,
55 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com