935 AH. Sep. 15th 1528 to Sep. 5th 1529 AD. 667
kurohs (23 m.).1 It is about half a kuroh from Munlr to the Son ; the return journey from Munlr to the camp was therefore 12kurohs (24 m.). In addition to this were some 15-16 kurohs done in visiting this and that place ; so that the whole excursion was one of some 30 kurohs (60 m.). Six garis of the 1st night-watch had passed [8.15 p.m.] when we reached the camp
{April 28th) At the dawn of Thursday (Sha'bdn iQtli) SI. junaid Bar/as came in with the Junpur braves from Junpur. I let him know my blame and displeasure on account of his delay ; I did not see him. QazI Jla I sent for and saw.
(aaa. Plan of the approaching battle with the Bengal army?)
On the same day the Turk and Hind amirs were summoned for a consultation about crossing Gang (Ganges), and matters found settlement at this 2 : that Ustad 'All-qull should collect mortar, firing!,3 and culverin 4 to the point of rising ground between the rivers Saru and Gang, and, having many matchlockmen with him, should incite to battle from that place ; 5 that
1 The distance from Munir to the bank of the Ganges will have been considerably longer in Babur's day than now because of the change of the river's course through its desertion of the Burh-ganga channel (cf. next note).
2 In trying to locate the site of Babur's coming battle with the forces of Nasrat Shah, it should be kept in mind that previous to the 18th century, and therefore, presumably, in his day, the Ganges flowed in the "Burh-ganga" (Old Ganges) channel which now is closely followed by the western boundary of theBallia/ar^a«aofDu-aba; that the Ganges and Ghogra will have met where this old channel entered the bed of the latter river ; and also, as is seen from Babur's narrative, that above the confluence the Ghogra will have been confined to a narrowed channel. When the Ganges flowed in the Burh-ganga channel, the now Balliapargana of Du-aba was a sub-division of Bihiya and continuous with Shahabad. From it in Bihiya Babur crossed the Ganges into Kharid, doing this at a place his narrative locates as some 2 miles from the confluence. Cf. D.G. of Ballia, pp. 9, 192-3, 206, 213. It may be observed that the former northward extension of Bihiya to the Burh-ganga channel explains Babur's estimate (f. 370) of the distance from Munir to his camp on the Ganges ; his \Zk. (24m.) may then have been correct; it is now too high.
3 De Courteille, pierrier, which may be a balista. Babur's writings give no indication of other than stone-ammunition for any projectile-engine or fire-arm. Cf. R. W. F. Payne-Gallwey's Projectile-throwing engines of the ancients.
* Sir R. W. F. Payne-Gallwey writes in The Cross-bow (p. 40 and p. 41) what may apply to Babur's zarbsan (culverin ?) and tufang (matchlock), when he describes the larger culverin as aheavy hand-gun of from l6-i81b., as used by the foot-soldier and requiring the assistance of an attendant to work it; a'so when he says that it became the portable arquebus which was in extensive use in Europe by the Swiss in 1476 ad. ; and that between 1510 and 1520 the arquebus described was superseded by what is still seen amongst remote tribes in India, a matchlock arquebus.
s The two positions Babur selected for his guns would seem to have been opposite two ferry-heads, those, presumably, which were blocked against his pursuit of Biban and Bayazid. 'Ali-quli's emplacement will have been on the high bank of old alluvium of south-eastern Kharid, overlooking the narrowed channel demanded by Babur's
