To-night I elected to take opium because of ear-ache ; another reason was the shining of the moon.1
(e. Visit to the Rajas' palaces.)
{Sep. 27th*) Opium sickness gave me much discomfort next day (Muh. 12th) ; I vomited a good deal. Sickness notwithstanding, I visited the buildings (^iviaratlar) of Man-sing and Bikramajit thoroughly. They are wonderful buildings, entirely of hewn stone, in heavy and unsymmetrical blocks however.2 Of all the Rajas' buildings Man-sing's is the best and loftiest.3 It is more elaborately worked on its eastern face than on the others. This face may be 40 to 50 qdri (yards) high,4 and is entirely of hewn stone, whitened with plaster.5 In parts it is four storeys high ; the lower two are very dark ; we went through them with
•When he first mentions a person of importance, by particulars of family, etc. Both men became disloyal in 935 AH. (1529 ad.) as will be found referred to by Babur. Jalal Hisari supplements Babur's brief account of their misconduct and Shaikh Muhammad Chans' mediation in 936 ah. For knowledge of his contribution I am indebted to my husband's perusal of the Tarikh-i-Gwaliaxuar.
1 Erskine notes that Indians and Persians regard moonshine as cold but this only faintly expresses the wide-spread fear of moon-stroke expressed in the Psalm (121 v. 6), "The Sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the Moon by night."
2 Agarcha luk baliik n bi siyaq. Ilminsky [p. 441] has baliik baliik but without textual warrant and perhaps following Erskine, as he says, speaking generally, that he has done in case of need (Ilminsky's Preface). Both Erskine and de Courteille, working, it must be remembered, without the help of detailed modern descriptions and pictures, took the above words to say that the buildings were scattered and without symmetry, but they are not scattered and certainly Man-sing's has symmetry. I surmise that the words quoted above do not refer to the buildings themselves but to the stones of which they are made. T. luk means heavy, and T. baliik [? block ] means a thing divided off, here a block of stone. Such blocks might be bi siyaq, I.e. irregular in size. To take the words in this way does not contradict known circumstances, and is verbally correct.
3 The Rajas' buildings Babur could compare were Raja Kama (or Kirtl)'s [who ruled from 1454 to 1479 ad.], Raja Man-sing's [i486 to 1516 AD.], and Raja Bikramajlt's [1516 to 1526 ad. when he was killed at Panipat].
4 The height of the eastern face is 100 ft. and of the western 60 ft. The total length from north to south of the outside wall is 300 ft. ; the breadth of the residence from east to west 160 ft. The 300 ft. of length appears to be that of the residence and service-courtyard (Cunningham p. 347 and Plate lxxxvii).
s kaj bila aqaritib. There can be little doubt that a white pediment would show up the coloured tiles of the upper part of the palace-walls more than would pale red sandstone. These tiles were so profuse as to name the building Chit Mandir (Painted Mandir). Guided by Babur's statement, Cunningham sought for and found plaster in crevices of carved work ; from which one surmises that the white coating approved itself to successors of Man-sing. [It may be noted that the word Mandir is in the same case for a translator as is Hmarat (f. 339^ n.) since it requires a grouping word to cover its uses for temple, palace, and less exalted buildings.]
