Guru Nanak did not hes­i­tate to stand up to Babar and plead the case of in­no­cent vic­tims of Said­pur. Let us all take in­spi­ra­tion from it to stand up, rise against atroc­i­ties or dis­crim­i­na­tion based on pol­i­tics, caste, race or re­li­gion, says au­thor Bhupin­der Singh in this sig­nif­i­cant write-up dis­cov­er­ing the times of Babar through Guru Nanak’s Babar­vani in Guru Granth Sahib.  In the name of win­ning elec­tions, peo­ple are be­ing di­vided. If the voice of Guru Nanak can bring Babar to his kneels, surely the col­lec­tive voice of peo­ples can be ef­fec­tive. WSN hopes that this his­tor­i­cal per­spec­tive in­spires us to align our thoughts and ac­tion to de­liver mean­ing­ful re­sults for jus­tice and in­clu­sive­ness in In­dia and the rest of the world, for the Sikhs as well as the world com­mu­nity.

ZAHIR-UD-DIN MUHAM­MAD, OTH­ER­WISE KNOWN AS BABAR OR ‘TIGER’  was born in 1483 in Andi­jan, Fer­gana val­ley, con­tem­po­rary Uzbek­istan. Babar was of Mon­go­lian de­scent in the line of the great Genghis Khan (from his moth­er’s side) and fifth-gen­er­a­tion de­scen­dent of Timur (from his fa­ther’s side), the ruler in Kabul, Afghanistan.

At 11 he be­came ruler of Fer­gana. In 1497 he be­sieged Samarkand for 7 long months, even­tu­ally gain­ing con­trol over it. He lost Samarkand 3 times, so he de­cided to look be­yond and crossed the Hin­dukush Moun­tains to cap­ture Kabul in 1504. Next, he trained his eyes on Delhi and Agra en­thu­si­as­ti­cally with an ob­jec­tive of con­quer­ing it, for the wealth which were un­der the rule of Sikan­dar Lodi.

He started his se­ries of in­va­sions into Pun­jab in the year of the earth­quake in 1505 and con­tin­ued to do so for the next twenty years, fur­ther weak­en­ing the Lodis. Five in­cur­sions and twenty years later, he fi­nally took Delhi and Agra by de­feat­ing Ibrahim Lodi in the bat­tle of Pa­ni­pat in 1526.

Al­though most of the his­tory of that pe­riod is writ­ten draw­ing on Babar’s own au­to­bi­o­graph­i­cal ac­count Babar­nama, there is not much men­tion of this pe­riod, thus cre­at­ing a void. Even if he had recorded it in his au­to­bi­og­ra­phy, it would still purely be from his per­spec­tive, there­fore one-sided. The im­pact on the cit­i­zens from his in­tru­sions last­ing 20 years that cul­mi­nated in his even­tual an­nex­a­tion has not been doc­u­mented from the vic­tim’s per­spec­tive or recorded in his­tory. How­ever, we have some very in­sight­ful first-hand ac­counts to fill the gap. The ob­ser­va­tions of Guru Nanak Dev Ji pre­served in Sri Guru Granth Sahib pro­vide that vi­tal miss­ing in­sight.

Af­ter his first in­tru­sion in 1505, it took him an­other fif­teen years to try again in 1520. Next, dur­ing his third in­tru­sion in 1521, Sialkot sur­ren­dered with­out a fight. But Em­inabad, also known as Said­pur pre­sented a stark op­po­site by putting up a fight. Now let us ex­plore what tran­spired from Guru Ji’s eye­wit­ness ac­count:

ਖੁਰਾਸਾਨ ਖਸਮਾਨਾ ਕੀਆ ਹਿੰਦੁਸਤਾਨੁ ਡਰਾਇਆ ॥

Trans­la­tion and Mean­ing: Hav­ing at­tacked Khu­raasaan, Baabar ter­ri­fied Hin­dus­tan.  Babar took away an area now known as “Razavi Kho­rasan (most parts in mod­ern Iran)” and threat­ened to un­leash his force on In­dia.
-Guru Granth Sahib Page 360

The Pathan rulers of Said­pur sum­moned the Mul­lahs and Pirs, who of­fered their help with spells and in­can­ta­tions that will blind the ma­raud­ing forces. The re­al­ity un­folded quite dif­fer­ently as de­scribed by trans­la­tion of Guru Ji’s words:

ਕੋਟੀ ਹੂ ਪੀਰ ਵਰਜਿ ਰਹਾਏ ਜਾ ਮੀਰੁ ਸੁਣਿਆ ਧਾਇਆ॥
ਥਾਨ ਮੁਕਾਮ ਜਲੇ ਬਿਜ ਮੰਦਰ ਮੁਛਿ ਮੁਛਿ ਕੁਇਰ ਰੁਲਾਇਆ ॥
ਕੋਈ ਮੁਗਲੁ ਨ ਹੋਆ ਅੰਧਾ ਕਿਨੈ ਨ ਪਰਚਾ ਲਾਇਆ ॥੪॥
ਮੁਗਲ ਪਠਾਣਾ ਭਈ ਲੜਾਈ ਰਣ ਮਹਿ ਤੇਗ ਵਗਾਈ॥
ਓਨ੍ਹੀ ਤੁਪਕ ਤਾਣਿ ਚਲਾਈ ਓਨ੍ਹੀ ਹਸਤਿ ਚਿੜਾਈ ॥
ਜਿਨ੍ਹ ਕੀ ਚੀਰੀ ਦਰਗਹ ਪਾਟੀ ਤਿਨ੍ਹਾ ਮਰਣਾ ਭਾਈ ॥੫॥
ਇਕ ਹਿੰਦਵਾਣੀ ਅਵਰ ਤੁਰਕਾਣੀ ਭਟਿਆਣੀ ਠਕੁਰਾਣੀ ॥
ਇਕਨ੍ਹਾ ਪੇਰਣ ਸਿਰ ਖੁਰ ਪਾਟੇ ਇਕਨ੍ਹਾ ਵਾਸੁ ਮਸਾਣੀ ॥
ਜਿਨ੍ਹ ਕੇ ਬੰਕੇ ਘਰੀ ਨ ਆਇਆ ਤਿਨ੍ਹ ਕਿਉ ਰੈਣਿ ਵਿਹਾਣੀ ॥੬॥
ਆਪੇ ਕਰੇ ਕਰਾਏ ਕਰਤਾ ਕਿਸ ਨੋ ਆਖਿ ਸੁਣਾਈਐ ॥
ਦੁਖੁ ਸੁਖੁ ਤੇਰੈ ਭਾਣੈ ਹੋਵੈ ਕਿਸ ਥੈ ਜਾਇ ਰੂਆਈਐ ॥
ਹੁਕਮੀ ਹੁਕਮਿ ਚਲਾਏ ਵਿਗਸੈ ਨਾਨਕ ਲਿਖਿਆ ਪਾਈਐ ॥੭॥੧੨॥

“Mil­lions of re­li­gious lead­ers failed to halt the in­vaders when they heard of the Mir’s (Babar’s) in­va­sion. Still, he burned the houses, man­sions and the an­cient rock-solid struc­tures; he cut the princes limb from limb and cast them into the dust. None of the Mughals went blind, and no one (pir/​mul­lahs) per­formed (any promised) mir­a­cle. The bat­tle raged be­tween the Mughals and the Pathans, and the swords clashed on the bat­tle­field. They (in­vaders) took aim and fired their guns, and de­fend­ers at­tacked back with their ele­phants. Those, whose hour of death had come, were des­tined to die, O Sib­lings of Des­tiny. Their wives – Hindu women, the Mus­lim women, the Bhat­tis and the Ra­jputs had their robes torn away, from head to foot. Their own dwelling places have been trans­formed into cre­ma­tion ground. Their (Women sur­vivors) hus­bands did not re­turn home – how did they pass their night? ”
Guru Granth Sahib 417 

The ar­rows, spears and un­wieldy ele­phants of Pathan rulers could hardly match the pre­ci­sion, ef­fec­tive­ness or the deadly fe­roc­ity of guns and can­nons of the in­vaders. In ad­di­tion, their easy lifestyle of plea­sures, cou­pled with tyranny on the pop­u­lace had al­ready weak­ened their fight­ing prowess. Thus even with a much larger army, they could not put strong vi­able de­fence. Guru Ji has painted the pic­ture of those Hindu wom­en’s well-en­dowed ear­lier life, in these words:

ਰਾਗੁ ਆਸਾ ਮਹਲਾ ੧ ਅਸਟਪਦੀਆ ਘਰੁ ੩  ੴ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥
Raag Aasaa, First Mehla, Asht­pad­heeyaa, Third House:
One Uni­ver­sal Cre­ator God. By The Grace Of The True Guru:

ਜਿਨ ਸਿਰਿ ਸੋਹਨਿ ਪਟੀਆ ਮਾਂਗੀ ਪਾਇ ਸੰਧੂਰੁ ॥
ਸੇ ਸਿਰ ਕਾਤੀ ਮੁੰਨੀਅਨ੍ਹਿ ਗਲ ਵਿਚਿ ਆਵੈ ਧੂੜਿ ॥
ਮਹਲਾ ਅੰਦਰਿ ਹੋਦੀਆ ਹੁਣਿ ਬਹਣਿ ਨ ਮਿਲਨ੍ਹਿ ਹਦੂਰਿ ॥੧॥
ਆਦੇਸੁ ਬਾਬਾ ਆਦੇਸੁ ॥
ਆਦਿ ਪੁਰਖ ਤੇਰਾ ਅੰਤੁ ਨ ਪਾਇਆ ਕਰਿ ਕਰਿ ਦੇਖਹਿ ਵੇਸ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥

“Those heads adorned with braided beau­ti­ful tresses, with their hair part­ings lined with ver­mil­lion, now those locks were shorn with scis­sors, and their heads, throats were choked with dust (as they were dragged along the dusty routes of Hin­dukush, be­ing taken for sale). They had lived in pala­tial man­sions (with pri­vate cham­bers), but now, they can­not even sit near in pub­lic. ”
Guru Granth Sahib Page  417

Guru Ji even de­scribed their lav­ish wed­ding sce­nario in these words:

ਜਦਹੁ ਸੀਆ ਵੀਆਹੀਆ ਲਾੜੇ ਸੋਹਨਿ ਪਾਸਿ ॥
ਹੀਡੋਲੀ ਚੜਿ ਆਈਆ ਦੰਦ ਖੰਡ ਕੀਤੇ ਰਾਸਿ ॥
ਉਪਰਹੁ ਪਾਣੀ ਵਾਰੀਐ ਝਲੇ ਝਿਮਕਨਿ ਪਾਸਿ ॥੨॥

ਇਕੁ ਲਖੁ ਲਹਨ੍ਹਿ ਬਹਿਠੀਆ ਲਖੁ ਲਹਨ੍ਹਿ ਖੜੀਆ ॥
ਗਰੀ ਛੁਹਾਰੇ ਖਾਂਦੀਆ ਮਾਣਨ੍ਹਿ ਸੇਜੜੀਆ ॥
ਤਿਨ੍ਹ ਗਲਿ ਸਿਲਕਾ ਪਾਈਆ ਤੁਟਨ੍ਹਿ ਮੋਤਸਰੀਆ ॥੩॥

ਧਨੁ ਜੋਬਨੁ ਦੁਇ ਵੈਰੀ ਹੋਏ ਜਿਨ੍ਹੀ ਰਖੇ ਰੰਗੁ ਲਾਇ ॥
ਦੂਤਾ ਨੋ ਫੁਰਮਾਇਆ ਲੈ ਚਲੇ ਪਤਿ ਗਵਾਇ ॥
ਜੇ ਤਿਸੁ ਭਾਵੈ ਦੇ ਵਡਿਆਈ ਜੇ ਭਾਵੈ ਦੇਇ ਸਜਾਇ ॥੪॥

“They came in palan­quins, dec­o­rated (hands) with ivory ban­gles; wa­ter was sprin­kled over their heads, and glit­ter­ing fans were waved above them. 2. They were given hun­dreds of thou­sands of ru­pees as wed­ding gifts when they sat, and hun­dreds of thou­sands Ru­pees when they stood up. They ate co­conuts and dates and rested com­fort­ably upon their cosy beds. But now ropes were put around their necks, and their strings of pearls were bro­ken (re­placed with a noose). 3. Their wealth and youth­ful beauty, which af­forded them a good life, have now be­come their en­e­mies. The or­der was given to the sol­diers, who dis­hon­oured them, and car­ried them away as cap­tives. If it is pleas­ing to God’s Will, He be­stows great­ness; if it pleases His Will, He be­stows pun­ish­ment. 4.”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 417

The fate of the spouses of these women was de­scribed in these words:

ਬਾਬਰਵਾਣੀ ਫਿਰਿ ਗਈ ਕੁਇਰੁ ਨ ਰੋਟੀ ਖਾਇ ॥੫॥
“Since Babar’s rule has been pro­claimed, even the princes have no food to eat. 5.” Guru Granth Sahib Page 417

In one line Guru Ji shares the fe­roc­ity of rap­ine rule that was un­leashed and asks Almighty if He felt the pain and if com­pas­sion flowed out of Him in these words:

ਏਤੀ ਮਾਰ ਪਈ ਕਰਲਾਣੇ ਤੈਂ ਕੀ ਦਰਦੁ ਨ ਆਇਆ ॥੧॥
“There was so much slaugh­ter that the peo­ple screamed. Did­n’t You feel com­pas­sion, Lord? ”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 360

Guru Ji chose to come to Said­pur, in har­m’s way. Guru Ji was re­turn­ing back from his long jour­ney of the west, where he had vis­ited Mecca and Bagh­dad among other places. Only to be with the pop­u­lace, shows his con­cern for them and a de­sire to help. He did not have an army to op­pose the in­vaders, but where his sym­pa­thies lay is clear from his writ­ings. They are the out­pour­ings of a com­pas­sion­ate soul touched by scenes of hu­man mis­ery at the cru­elty per­pe­trated by the in­vaders. The out­pour­ing of com­pas­sion in Guru Ji’s heart at the suf­fer­ing of his com­pa­tri­ots was flow­ing out, to­gether with a scathing at­tack on Lodis in these words:

ਸਕਤਾ ਸੀਹੁ ਮਾਰੇ ਪੈ ਵਗੈ ਖਸਮੈ ਸਾ ਪੁਰਸਾਈ ॥
ਰਤਨ ਵਿਗਾੜਿ ਵਿਗੋਏ ਕੁਤੀ ਮੁਇਆ ਸਾਰ ਨ ਕਾਈ ॥

“But if a pow­er­ful tiger at­tacks a flock of sheep and kills them, then its mas­ter must an­swer for it. This price­less coun­try has been laid waste and de­filed by dogs (of Lodis), and no one re­mem­bers them with re­gards when they are dead.”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 360 

The pop­u­la­tion, both Hin­dus and Pathans suf­fered at the hands of in­vaders. Guru Ji felt as if the elite rul­ing class were in­tox­i­cated in their op­u­lent lifestyle and had never re­mem­bered God. He paints the pic­ture of plight by tak­ing an ex­am­ple of Hin­dus will­ing to con­vert to save them­selves in these words:

ਰਾਮੁ ਨ ਕਬਹੂ ਚੇਤਿਓ ਹੁਣਿ ਕਹਣਿ ਨ ਮਿਲੈ ਖੁਦਾਇ ॥੬॥

“They never re­mem­bered their Lord as Raam, and now they can­not even chant Khu­daa-i.”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 417

This is a por­trayal of a pretty grim sce­nario, as Guru Ji is shar­ing with us the fact that even if they were will­ing to em­brace the faith of the in­vaders, it still did not of­fer any respite from the atroc­i­ties. Not only did he plead to Almighty, but by be­com­ing a pris­oner of Babar, he pleaded with Babar to re­lease all the pris­on­ers. The net re­sult was all the pris­on­ers taken from Said­pur (Am­inabad) were re­leased and their prop­er­ties re­turned to them at Guru Ji’s bid­ding. Babar was called back from this place to Kabul to meet a threat­ened at­tack upon that cap­i­tal.

Fi­nally, in 1526 Babar suc­ceeded in top­pling the weak regime in Delhi. With a small but very mo­bile force he had crossed the River In­dus, and helped by new gun­pow­der tech­nol­ogy, was able to over­power the much larger Lodi army. The fi­nal nail in the cof­fin of Lodi king­dom was the bat­tle of Pa­ni­pat. It is es­ti­mated that Babar’s forces num­bered around 15,000 men and had be­tween 20 to 24 pieces of field ar­tillery. Babar es­ti­mated Lodi had around 100,000 men, though that num­ber in­cluded camp fol­low­ers, while the fight­ing force was around 30,000 to 40,000 men in to­tal, along with at least 1000 war ele­phants. The bat­tle only lasted till mid­day; it speaks about its quick end with­out a stiff fight from the Lodis.  The bat­tle finds men­tion in the his­tory books, but the de­tails of ear­lier in­tru­sions pre­ced­ing this event are ob­scured.

Guru Nanak had fore­told about this even­tu­al­ity. If the rulers had woken up right af­ter the first on­slaught and used the time to pre­pare for the fi­nal on­slaught on how to counter the guns and can­nons, his­tory could have been dif­fer­ent. In the words of Stan­ley Lane-Poole the bi­og­ra­pher of Babar, “The bat­tle of Pa­ni­pat be­came a tomb for the Afghans of Delhi. Their state was de­stroyed and their strength was ab­solutely crip­pled.”

Guru Ji’s fore­cast to Said­pur res­i­dent named Lalo is in these words:

ਕਾਇਆ ਕਪੜੁ ਟੁਕੁ ਟੁਕੁ ਹੋਸੀ ਹਿਦੁਸਤਾਨੁ ਸਮਾਲਸੀ ਬੋਲਾ ॥

“The body-fab­ric will be torn apart into shreds, and then In­dia will for­ever re­mem­ber this event.”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 722 

Fur­ther, Guru likened the in­vaders to a bridal party look­ing to take In­dia as a bride. In the same Shabad, Guru Ji also said these words:

ਖੂਨ ਕੇ ਸੋਹਿਲੇ ਗਾਵੀਅਹਿ ਨਾਨਕ ਰਤੁ ਕਾ ਕੁੰਗੂ ਪਾਇ ਵੇ ਲਾਲੋ ॥੧॥

“The wed­ding songs of mur­der are sung, O Nanak, and blood is sprin­kled in­stead of saf­fron, O Lalo. 1.”
Guru Granth Sahib Page 722 

Where can we find these facts in the his­tory books? Why are these not part of the books? We have failed to share these facts with our chil­dren by not in­clud­ing them in the his­tory books. This is a se­ri­ous fail­ing and a lapse on our part. Even have not been able to rewrite his­tory from our own per­spec­tive. It is time his­to­ri­ans took cor­rec­tive ini­tia­tives and ad­dressed these vi­tal miss­ing de­tails.

If we have to learn from our his­tory, first we should record it, then share it and then im­ple­ment it like Guru Nanak.

Ref­er­ence and Links: 

Map of In­dia at the time of Babur’s in­va­sion:
https://​www.thema­parchive.com/​in­dia-on-the-eve-of-baburs-in­va­sion-1525.html 

Ref­er­ences:

1. www.Sikhi­tothe­max.com
2. www.Sikhi­wiki.org/​in­dex.php/​Babar_­Vani
3. www.Al­labout­sikhs.com/​scrip­tures/​babar-vani
4. Singh, Kar­tar, Guru Nanak Dev: Life and Teach­ings. La­hore Book Shop, Lud­hi­ana
5. Heb­ber, Dr. Ne­ria H, A Tire­less Tiger from Kabul – Babur (1484–1530). www.Boloji.com

An en­gi­neer by pro­fes­sion, hail­ing from Myan­mar, ed­u­cated in In­dia, Bhupin­der Singh is a Hous­ton-based busi­ness­man, with a keen in­ter­est in writ­ing books and ar­ti­cles on Sikh his­tory, mo­ti­va­tion and spir­i­tu­al­ity. The books he has writ­ten in­clude, Con­nect­ing with the Mas­ter – A col­lec­tion of es­says on top­ics re­lated to Sikhism, Gur­mat Quo­tient (GQ) – Book on de­vel­op­ment of Spir­i­tu­al­ity, Rehraas – With mean­ing and com­men­tary in Eng­lish, Why are We Here? – Be­come ex­plor­ing the pur­pose of hu­man life, Fish Eat Fish World – An Il­lus­trated Chil­dren’s book, Hu­mil­ity – A Spir­i­tual Jour­ney, In Bul­ly’s Eyes – An Il­lus­trated Chil­dren’s book on Bul­ly­ing.