This delicate painting depicts Zahir ud-Din Muhammad, known
as Babur, founder of the Mughal dynasty which ruled India from the 16th
to the 19th centuries. While descended from great warriors like Timur
(or Tamerlane) and Genghis Khan, Babur was also rather refined and bookish, as
is clear from his autobiography, the Baburnama.
Historians are fond of quoting the passage from that work which
tells of Babur’s first impressions of India (or Hindustan). These were, to say
the least, unpromising:
Hindustan is a
country that has few pleasures to recommend it. The people are not handsome.
They have no idea of the charms of friendly society, of frankly mixing
together, or of familiar intercourse. They have no genius, no comprehension of
mind, no politeness of manner, no kindness of fellow-feeling, no ingenuity or
mechanical invention in planning or executing their handicraft works, no skill
or knowledge in design or architecture; they have no horses, no good flesh, no
grapes or musk melons, no good fruits, no ice or cold water, no good food or
bread in their bazaars, no baths or colleges, no candles, no torches, not a
candlestick.
While it’s amusing to hear the great Babur whingeing like a
boy, this passage also illuminates the fact that India wasn’t his first choice
as an empire. Being of Persian descent, he would have much preferred somewhere cultured
and civilised like Kabul or Samarkand (which is unbearably sad in the context
of recent history). There weren’t enough kingdoms for all the Timurid princes
though, so when it was suggested that Babur might go and push out the
collapsing Delhi Sultanate which ruled India at the time, off he went and the
rest is history.
It is nice to know that Babur eventually came to appreciate
the finer things that his new kingdom had to offer. Later in the Baburnama he writes detailed
descriptions of local flora and fauna. He is impressed by the magnificence of
elephants and rhinoceros; he thinks the local fish are delicious; he thinks
mangoes are good, if a tad over-rated; and he finds the local flowers
beautiful. But he absolutely loathes jackfruit, which smell bad and look “like
sheep intestines turned inside-out” (see below).
You wonder what he would have said if he had known that his
great-great-grandson would build the Taj Mahal. At any rate, he would have been
pleased that he hadn’t been put off by the lack of good fruit.
