This page needs to be proofread.

Delhi in Moghal Times


with the delights of the cup, and his ideas were well stated in his own words,"Enjoy freely, O Babar, for life is not twice to be enjoyed."

Babar never returned to Delhi alive, but his remains were borne through on their journey to Cabul, after they had been interred for a time at Agra. Humayun, his son, had previously returned to Cabul; on his way he had broken open the treasury at Delhi, and had helped himself, to the great indignation of his father, who wrote him a severe lecture.

NASR-UD-DIN MAHOMED HUMAYUN succeeded his father in A.D. 1530, but at once resigned, to his brother Kamran, the provinces beyond the Indus, the Punjab, and Hissar-Firoza. Although he thus saved himself a certain amount of trouble, he lost a recruiting-ground, and for this he paid, since the Afghan nobles were not by any means tamed. The visits of Humayun to Delhi were few and far between, for his presence was constantly required elsewhere, to repress revolts in the provinces, especially in Behar, where the Afghan Farid-ud-din Sher Khan had practically made himself independent. Eventually Huma- yun was twice defeated by him, once by treachery at Chonsa, once in fair fight at Kanauj in 1540,escaping from his pursuers with difficulty. But we have omitted to notice one or two important213