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935 AH. SEP. 15th 1528 to SEP. 5th 1529 AD. 655
{March yth ?) Next day {Monday 26th ?) we remained on the same ground.
{March 8th ?) On Tuesday {27th ?) we marched on.
Opposite the camp was what may be an island,1 large and verdant. I went over by boat to visit it, returning to the boat during the 1st watch (6-9a.m.). While I rode carelessly along the ravine {Jar) of the river, my horse got to where it was fissured and had begun to give way. I leapt off at once and flung myself on the bank; even the horse did not go down; probably, however, if I had stayed on its back, it and I would have gone down together.
On this same day, I swam the Gang-river (Ganges), counting every stroke;2 I crossed with 33, then, without resting, swam back. I had'swum the other rivers, Gang had remained to do.3
We reached the meeting of the waters of Gang and Jun at the Evening Prayer, had the boat drawn to the Flag side, and got to camp at I watch, 4 garis (10.30p.m.).
{March p(h) On Wednesday {Jumada II 28th) from the rst watch onwards, the army began to cross the river Jun ; there were 420 boats.4
{March nth) On Friday, the 1st of the month of Rajab, I crossed the river.
{March 14th)' On Monday, the 4th of the month, the march
1 aral bar aikandur, phrasing implying uncertainty ; there may have been an island, or such a peninsula as a narrow-mouthed bend of a river forms, or a spit or bluff projecting into the river. The word aral represents Aikl-su-arasl, Miyan-du-ab, Entre-eaux, Twixt-two-streams, Mesopotamia.
3 qui; Pers. trss. dast andakhtan and dast. Presumably the 33 strokes carried the swimmer across the deep channel, or the Ganges was crossed higher than Piag.
3 The above account of Babur's first swim across the Ganges which is entered under date Jumada II. 27th, 935 AH. (March 8th, 1529AD.), appears misplaced, since he mentions under date Rajab 25th, 935AH. (April 4th, 1529AD. f. 366*), that he had swum the Ganges at Baksara (Buxar) a year before, i.e. on or close to Rajab 25th, 93IAH. (April 15th, 1528AD.). Nothing in his writings shews that he was near Piag (Allahabad) in 934AH. ; nothing indisputably connects the swimming episode with the "Tuesday" below which it now stands ; there is no help given by dates. One supposes Babur would take his first chance to swim the Ganges ; this was offered at Qanauj (f. 336), but nothing in the short record of that time touches the topic. The next chance would be after he was in Aud, when, by an unascertained route, perhaps down the Ghogra, he made his way to Baksara where he says (f. 366^) he swam the river. Taking into consideration the various testimony noted, [Indexs.n. swimming] there seems warrant for supposing that this swimming passage is a survival of the missing record of934AH. (f. 339). Cf. f. 377^, p. 680 and n. 2 for another surmised survival of 934AH.
4 "Friday" here stands for Anglice, Thursday after 6p.m.; this, only, suiting Babur's next explicit date Sha'ban 1st, Saturday.
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