Babar's connection with Agra.

Babar's connection with Agra began immediately after the battleof Panipat. He sent forward Humayun, who occupied the town withoutopposition. The story of the great diamond referred to above is hererecorded in the Memoirs. The Raja of Gwalior, slain at Panipat, hadleft his family and the heads of his clan at Agra. In gratitude toHumayun, who treated them magnanimously, and protected them fromplunder, they presented to him a _peskesh_, or token of homage,consisting of a quantity of jewels and precious stones. Among these wasone famous diamond which had been acquired by Sultan Alaeddin. "It isso valuable that a judge of diamonds valued it at about half the dailyexpense of the whole world. It is about eight _mikkals_" (or about280 carats). This is generally supposed to be the celebrated Koh-i-nur.

Babar determined to establish the seat of his government at Agra, butwas almost dissuaded by the desolate appearance of the country. "Italways appears to me," he says, "that one of the chief defects ofHindustan is the want of artificial watercourses. I had intended,wherever I might fix my residence, to construct water-wheels, toproduce an artificial stream, and to lay out an elegant and regularlyplanned pleasure ground. Shortly after coming to Agra I passed theJumna with this object in view, and examined the country to pitch upona fit spot for a garden. The whole was so ugly and detestable thatI repassed the river quite repulsed and disgusted. In consequence ofthe want of beauty and of the disagreeable aspect of the country, Igave up my intention of making a _charbagh_ (garden house); but as nobetter situation presented itself near Agra, I was finally compelled tomake the best of this same spot.... In every corner I planted suitablegardens, in every garden I sowed roses and narcissus regularly, and inbeds corresponding to each other. We were annoyed by three things inHindustan; one was its heat, another the strong winds, and the thirdits dust. Baths were the means of removing all three inconveniences."

As I have mentioned above, there are very few vestiges remaining ofBabar's city, of his fruit and flower gardens, palaces, baths, tanks,wells and watercourses. The Ram Bagh (p. 92) is one of the gardenslaid out either by himself or by one of his nobles, and the Zohra,or Zuhara Bagh, near it, contains the remains of a garden-house, whichis said to have belonged to one of Babar's daughters. Opposite to theTaj there are traces of the foundations of the city he built. Babarplanned, and his successors completed, the great road leading from Agrato Kabul through Lahore, parts of which still remain. Some of the oldmilestones can be seen on the road to Sikandra. Babar's account of thecommencement of it is very characteristic: "On Thursday, the 4th ofthe latter Rebia, I directed Chikmak Bey, by a writing under the royalhand and seal, [3] to measure the distance from Agra to Kabul; that atevery nine _kos_ he should raise a _minar_, or turret, twelve _gez_in height, on the top of which he was to construct a pavilion; thatevery ten _kos_ he should erect a _yam_, or post-house, which they calla _dak-choki,_ for six horses; that he should fix a certain allowanceas a provision for the post-house keepers, couriers, and grooms,and for feeding the horses; and orders were given that whenever apost-house for horses was built near a _khalseh_, or imperial demesne,they should be furnished from thence with the stated allowances;that if it were situated in a _pergunna_, the nobleman in chargeshould attend to the supply. The same day Chikmak Padshahi left Agra."

The promptness of Babar's administrative methods is a striking contrastto the circumlocution of present-day departmentalism. There stillexist remains of many splendid _sarais_, or halting-places, builtalong this road by different Mogul Emperors for their convenience,from the time of Babar down to Aurangzib. One of the finest is theNurmahal Sarai, near Jalandhar, built by Jahangir and named afterhis favourite wife. Edward Terry, who accompanied Sir Thomas Roe,James the First's ambassador at Jahangir's Court, describes "the longwalk of four hundred miles, shaded by great trees on both sides,"and adds, "this is looked upon by the travellers who have found thecomfort of that cool shade as one of the rarest and most beneficialworks in the whole world."