935 AH. SEP. 15th 1528 to SEP. 5th 1529 AD. 609
candles.1 On one (or, every) side of this building are five cupolas 2 having between each two of them a smaller one, square after the -fashion of Hindustan. On the larger ones are fastened sheets of gilded copper. On the outside of the walls is painted-tile work, the semblance of plantain-trees being shewn all round with "reen tiles. In a bastion of the eastern front is the Hati-pul,3 hati being what these people call an elephant, pill, a gate. A sculptured image of an elephant with two drivers (fil-bdn)* stands at the out-going {chtqlsJi) of this Gate ; it is exactly like an elephant ; from it the gate is called Hati-pul. A window in the lowest storey where the building has four, looks towards this elephant and gives a near view of it.5 The cupolas which have been mentioned above are themselves the topmost stage (murtaba) of the building;6 the sitting-rooms are on the second storey {tabaqat), in a hollow even ;7 they are rather airless places although Hindustani pains have been taken with them.8 The buildings of Man-sing's son Bikramajlt are in a central position (aiirtada) on the north side of the fort.9 The son's buildings do not match the father's. He has made a great dome, very dark but growing lighter if one stays awhile in it.10 Under it is a smaller building
1 The lower two storeys are not only backed by solid ground but, except near the Hati-pul, have the rise of ground in front of them which led Babur to say they were "even in a pit" {chuqitr).
■ MSS. vary between har and bir, every and one, in this sentence. It may be right to read bir, and apply it only to the eastern facade as that on which there were most cupolas. There are fewer on the south side, which still stands (Luard's photo. No. 37).
3 The ground rises steeply from this Gate to an inner one, called Hawa-pul from the rush of air (hawa) through it.
4 Cunningham says the riders were the Raja and a driver. Perhaps they were a mahout and his mate. The statue stood to the left on exit (chiqish).
5 This window will have been close to the Gate where no mound interferes with outlook.
6 Rooms opening on inner and open courts appear to torm the third story of the residence.
7 T. chiiqur, hollow, pit. This storey is dark and 'unventilated, a condition due to small windows, absence of through draught, and the adjacent mound. Cunningham comments on its disadvantages.
8 Agarcha Hindustani takallujlar qilib turlar ivali bi hawalik-raq yirlar dur. Perhaps amongst the pains taken were those demanded for funkhas. I regret that Erskine's translation of this passage, so superior to my own in literary merit, does not suit the Turki original. He worked from the Persian translation, and not only so, but with a less rigid rule of translation than binds me when working on Babur's ipsissima verba {Mems. p. 384 ; Cunningham p. 349 ; Luard p. 226).
9 The words aurla da make apt contrast between the outside position of Man-sing's buildings which helped to form the fort-wall, and Bikramajlt's which were further in except perhaps one wall of his courtyard (see Cunningham's Plate lxxxiii).
IO Cunningham (p.!35o) says this was originally a bara-duri, a twelve-doored open hall, and must have been light. His " originally" points to the view that the hall
