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532
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HINDUSTAN
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the tamarind-trees and the octagonal tank now are. After that came the large tank with its enclosure ; after that the tank and talar' in front of the outer (?) residence 2 ; after that the privatehouse [khilwat-khdnd) with its garden and various dwellings ; after that the Hot-bath. Then in that charmless and disorderly Hind, plots of garden3 were seen laid out with order and symmetry, with suitable borders and parterres in every corner, and in every border rose and narcissus in perfect arrangement.
(in. Construction of a chambered-well?)
Three things oppressed us in Hindustan, its heat, its violent winds, its dust. Against all three the Bath is a protection, for in it, what is known of dust and wind ? and in the heats it is so chilly that one is almost cold. The bath-room in which the heated tank is, is altogether of stone, the whole, except for the izara (dado?) of white stone, being, pavement and roofing, of red Biana stone.
Khalifa also and Shaikh Zain, Yunas-i-'al! and whoever got land on that other bank of the river laid out regular and orderly gardens with tanks, made running-waters also by setting up wheels like those in Dlpalpur and Lahor. The people of Hind who had never seen grounds planned so symmetrically and thus laid out, called the side of the Jun where (our) residences were, Kabul.
In an empty space inside the fort, which was between Ibrahim's residence and the ramparts, I ordered a large chambered-well (warn) to be made, measuring ioby io,4 a large
' Index s. n. The talar is raised on pillars and open in front; it serves often for an Audience-hall (Erskine).
= tash 'imarat, which may refer to the extra-mural location of the house, or contrast it with the inner khilwat-khana, the women's quarters, of the next sentence. The point is noted as one concerning the use of the word tash (Index s. n.). I have found no instance in which it is certain that Babur uses tash, a stone or rock, as an adjective. On f. 301 he writes tashdin 'imarat, house-of-stone, which the Persian text renders by k imarat-i-sangln. Wherever tash can be translated as meaning outer, this accords with Babur's usual diction.
3 baghcha (Index s.n.). That Babur was the admitted pioneer of orderly gardens in India is shewn by the 30th Ayin, On Perfumes: "After the foot-prints of Firdaus-makanI (Babur) had added to the glory of Hindustan, embellishment by avenues and landscape-gardening was seen, while heart-expanding buildings and the sound of falling-waters widened the eyes of beholders."
4 Perhaps gaz, each somewhat less than 36 inches.
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