A peerless emperor’s epistle to his crown prince

After consolidating, although as yet tentatively, his hold over much of central and eastern Hindustan, vanquishing the redoubtable Rajput Raja, Rana Sangha at Kanwa (March 1527) and other formidable foes, Babur, having defeated Ibrahim Lodhi at Panipat in April 1526, now looked towards his heir apparent, Humayun, whom he had deputed to Kabul to spread his empire over Khorasan and bring to fruition his lifetime desire to make his own Samarkand, Bukhara, Hissar and Herat.

After sometime Babur wrote, from Agra, on 27^th November, a letter to Humayun in Kabul which speaks volumes of the wide-ranging attributes and prodigious traits of perhaps the most versatile and greatest prince that the east has ever seen: a warrior of indomitable courage yet possessing graceful empathy for the fallen, disdainful of attacking non-combatants, the weak, women and children in battle, a genius at military tactics and planning, a poet who invented the Baburi khat (script), an adorer and builder of appealing edifices, layer of gardens and orchards, quick in grasp, given to intelligent company, music, art, literature, possessing a convivial wit shared with knowledgeable company, not averse to moderate imbibition in friendly company.

About his autobiography the famous historian Stanley Lane Pool writes: “His autobiography is one of those priceless records which are for all times, and is fit to rank with the Confessions of St. Augustine and Rousseau and the memoirs of Gibbon and Newton. In Asia it stands almost alone.”

Towards Humayun, Babur bore unreserved affection, kindness and the consideration that caring, tutoring paternity extends to one’s progeny, hoping to see a mirror reflection of one’s own qualities of head ,heart, courage, justice and learning in one’s descendants. The trust that Babur placed in Humayun was evincible when immediately after the victory at Panipat in 1526 it was the young Humayun, barely eighteen years old, with a few senior chieftains, who was sent bolting to Delhi and Agra to secure the state treasury and prevent anyone prominent from fleeing or decamping with wealth.

It was Humayun who intercepted the wife and son of Vikramjit, the Raja of Gwalior, vanquished at Panipat, fighting alongside Ibrahim Lodhi. She rendered unto Humayun the Kohinoor diamond and a horde of other riches in return for the life of her son and herself. Humayun, upon Babur reaching Agra, presented the Kohinoor to his father which he allowed Humayun to keep.

Despite his adoration, care and great trust in the military and political acumen of his heir apparent, Babur, the prince of princess, a king unparallelled in valour and civil graces, desperately wanted to pass on his attributes to his eldest male scion and in this letter one finds a plethora of instances of generous advise on statecraft and solicitation of wise counsel. But at the same time one cannot disregard or ignore the polite paternal admonitions and soft slaps on the wrist by a caring teacher of a budding student on the basics of how to write prose in plain, simple language!

Was Babur an overbearing, ambitious king who was filled with conceit and avarice to rule for as long as he was alive? After his conquests around Delhi and Agra, downing Rana Sangha and the Eastern Afghans, one day, sitting among his kith and kin in the garden of Zarafshan, he spoke his heart out:

“I am weary of ruling/To the Zarafshan garden/I wish to retire/With an attendant only one.” (Bibi Mubarika and Babur; 2019; Author)

In the letter, Babur congratulates Humayun on begetting his first son but makes a lighthearted comment upon his name: “Though sayest thou has called him Al Amman.. but ( thou) hast overlooked that common people say alaman or ailaman…Al Aman is rare in names.”

(Babur is jestingly alluding to the fact that ‘alaman’ is often a word of ‘ill-omen’! Alaman is the cry of the vanquished: “Quarter: Mercy!”)

Babur enjoins upon Humayun, in concert with his younger brother, Kamran, and begs to spare no effort at retaking the areas of Samarkand, Hisar, Herat: “Neglect not the work chance has brought; slothful life in retirement benefits not sovereign rule….as for retirement spoken of in thy letters…retirement is a fault for sovereignty; as the honoured (Saadi) says:

“If thy foot be fettered/Choose to be resigned;

If thy ride alone, take/Though thy own head.”

The letter goes on: “Again; Live well with thy younger brother. Elders must bear the burden

(Turkish: “Aulughlar Kutarimlik Kiran”. Persian: “Buzurgan bardasht mi bayid kardand”).

“Thou art now to go on a great business (taking back Timurid lands in Khorasan). Take counsel with prudent and experienced begs (chieftains). If thou seek to pleasure me, give up sitting alone and avoiding society. Summon thy younger brother and the begs twice to thy presence…not leaving their coming to choice;...take counsel, be the business what it may and settle every word and act in agreement with those well wishers.”

And finally follows, by the great Mughal Babur, to his crown prince, some plain, mundane lessons in epistolary showing the sheer breadth of Babur’s interests, passions and literary tastes, besides his exploits in the field of earthly glory of which the most lasting is establishment of a Mughal empire laying the foundations of never dying Indo-Iranian civilisation.

“Again, words from thee are somewhat few…”

“Though has written me a letter but why not have read it over? If though hadst thought of reading it, thou couldst not have done it, and unable to read it, wouldst certainly have made alterations in it. Though by taking trouble it can be read, it is very puzzling, and whoever saw an enigma in prose? Your spelling, though not bad, is not quite correct; thou writest ‘ iltifaat’ with ‘ta’( iltafat) and ‘qulinj’ with ‘ya’.”

And lastly, the chef d’oeuvre of the letter, berating longwindedness on part of Humayun:

“Although the letter can be read if every sort of pains be taken, yet it cannot be quite understood because of obscure wording of thine. The remissness in letter-writing seems to be due to the thing which makes thee obscure, that is, to say, to elaboration. In future write without labor and ornamentation; use plain, clear words. So will thy trouble and thy reader’s be less.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2024.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.