III

Mift %e TOg Xmpmal

T was a descendant of G-enghis Khan, the Lame

Timur, u one of the most formidable conquerors and
roost terrible scourges the world has ever seen ", who
crossed the Indus with a force of 90,000, proclaimed
himself King of Delhi, only to stay a fortnight in his
capital. Through Hardwar and the Punjab he left India
loaded with wealth, leaving in his wake anarchy,
famine, and pestilence.

It is a far cry to Delhi! Dilli dur ast, sighed,
perhaps, Babur the Lion as he crossed the Khyber into
India and sensed the great tremor and alarm in his
troops. None the less, he descended to the plains,
fought the Battle of Paniput, won the Battle of Bayana,
and established himself in Delhi. u By the grace and
mercy of Almighty God n, wrote Babur in his Memoirs,
"this difficult affair was made easy to me,...." Unlike
Timur, Babur had come to stay, and he breathed his
last in Agra; his body was taken to Kabul and laid in a
garden that he loved. What Timur did not leave
behind him, Babur left: a dynasty of brilliant emperors,
the Mughals, that ruled India from imperial Delhi.

Why did Babur come to Delhi? As a youthful
exile staying with the headman of a village in Turkestan,
he listened to his host's aged mother recounting tales
of India related to her by her brother who had served in
the army of Timur during his invasion of India. Babnr
heard these "glowing accounts of the wonders of
Hindustan, its fertile plains, magnificent cities, and