BABER THE TIGER

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4046, 26 April 1932, Page 7

BABER THE TIGER

♦ THE FIRST MOGUL EMPEROR GETTING DRUNK FOUR TIMES A DAY To-day the future of India lies in the melting pot, with the eyes of .ho world focused upon the labours of statesmen to evolve for her such a constitution as shall ultimately weld all her peoples into one great federation (says ‘John o’ London’s Weekly’). Thus may the pen once more prove mightier than the sword, and co-oper-ation achieve a wider and more lasting dominion than that set up by conquest four hundred years ago when Baber the Tiger swept down from beyond the Hindu Kush and over the Khybcr Paste found the Mogul Empire. Between these two Indian Empires —Mogul and British—there remains a tangible and romantic link in the famous Koh-i-noor diamond—now among the Crown Jewels —which was presented to Baber by way of homage on his triumphant entry into Agra in JS2H. In those days, however, it weighed 790 carats; its weight had been reduced to 180 carats when given to Queen Victoria in 1850; and since then it has been further reduced by remitting to 100 carats. HIS OWN MEMOIRS. Baber’s life story is a kaleidoscope of adventure and romance, of daring, defeat, and conquest, from the day when the twelve-year-old ruler of Farghana stormed Samarkand, through years of exile among the crags of the Hindu Kush, to the crowning victories in middle-age at Kabul, Delhi, and Agra, Happily the whole epic has been preserved for posterity in Baber’s own memoirs, upon which M Fernand Grenard has drawn largely for his ‘Baber: First of the Moguls.’ As a biography, M. Grenard's book suffers from the author’s apparent assumption of the reader’s previous knowledge of Buber’s life story; as a character study it is a striking and delightful piece of work. Indeed, the man transcends the conqueror in interest :—■ “He was temperate in nothing. He flung himself headlong into his pleasures. From his twenty-eighth year until his forty-fourth year he drank wine without interruption; he found a way to get drunk without discomfort four times in twenty-four hours. That habit he finally gave up, but he continued to take hashish, even Ids intemperance was only a pretext for gathering arOund him bis dearest friends so that they might talk and recite verses, sing, and make music together.” HIS VERSATILITY, For Baber was himself a musician—both performer and composer—poet, essayist, and theologian; his memoirs he wrote in his battle tent, his verses in the field or at the council table. A skilled horseman, fencer, and archer, he swam across rivers as easily as he spoke the Persian and Turkish tongues. This fierce warrori, the greatest military genius of his age, was surprisingly merciful—foolishly so towards his favourite wife’s son, if legend be correct. This son, Humayun, who had been exiled for treachery, lay sick. To the sick bod went Baber and offered himself to God as ransom for his son, saying: “I take upon myself all that you are suffering.” From that r. oment, tradition says, Humayun’s health improved and Baber’s deathillness set in. It is a fact that he died of poisoning and that Humayun succeeded to his wealth and throne.