🧚 Opening, part 3

And Raziya said: “My brother has killed his brother, and now he would slay me.”1

And all the people, as one man, vowed to help her.2 And Raziya was put upon the throne of Delhi.3

And Raziya ruled as few men have ruled in Delhi.4 She loved justice and mercy, and she gave both to her people.5 She led them to battle, pitching her own tent in the place of greatest danger: she was generous and wise, and entirely forgetful of her woman’s self.6 All this her people knew of her; and all this historians have said of her.7

But one old man, who wrote the longest tale of her gifts and virtues, tells us the reason of her failure to rule India: “She was a great monarch; but she was a woman, and she ruled as a man.”8

The Moslem people of those days could not forgive her that.9 They could not forgive her that, being a woman, she came before them with face unveiled; that, being a woman, she did successfully the work of a man, and asked no woman’s reward.10 And so, though they took her love and protection for so long that they forgot the cruelty of her brother who had reigned before, they turned against her in the end and dethroned her, and put her in prison.11

From prison later, she escaped, and led an army to regain her kingdom.12 And perhaps she might some day have won it back, but for a sad thing that befell her.13

In the battle which she waged she was defeated, and fled alone to the jungles.14

Passing through a field, she saw an old peasant at work, and begged for some food, for she was starving.15

The man gave her a piece of bread, which she ate gladly; and then being worn out, she tied her horse to a tree and lay down in the field to take a short rest.16 She wore the dress of a man; but the peasant saw her jewels gleaming, as she slept unprotected in that lonely spot.17 He knew that she was a woman; and no more afraid of her, he killed her and buried her there, in a corner of a field outside the walls of that Delhi which she had ruled.18

So Raziya lost her kingdom because she was not enough of a woman to make her people love a woman ruler; and she died, because she was a woman, and without protection.19

And her story is told here, for the reason that we know now that the old historian was wrong; and that a woman need not fail even in the great work of a sovereign, only because she is a woman.20 Raziya failed because she thought that for success she must put aside her womanhood.21 Our Queen Victoria succeeded.22 And one of the things which we know that she gave to her people was that same great heart of a woman and a mother, which poor Raziya believed that she must slay.23

Baber the Tiger24

There was a Moghul boy-king, who fought his first battle when he was twelve years of age, and he won it, as he says himself, “thanks to the distinguished valour of my young soldiers”.25

But like the boys in fairy tales, he had wicked uncles, who made trouble for him; and before he was seventeen years old, he had won and lost two of his kingdoms.26

This is the boy whom all the world knows by his nickname of “Baber the Tiger”.27 And the most wonderful thing we know about him is his great spirit, which nothing could subdue.28 Success could not spoil him, and defeat could not make him hang his head.29

Always did he find something in which to take pleasure.30

Driven away from one of his early attempts to take Delhi, he has a race with two of his officers; and he writes of the first meal which he ate in hiding as of a royal banquet--“such peace and plenty, nice fat meat, bread of fine flour well baked, sweet melons, excellent grapes”.31

Again: “I could not, on account of one or two defeats, sit down and look idly around me”, he tells us; and we find him getting to work again immediately.32

Many years of wandering were before him.33 He had only two tents and less than three hundred followers.34 They had to bear thirst and hunger, pain and poverty; but the joyous spirit of the Tiger-boy carried them through all.35 And his tenderness and love and thoughtfulness were as his courage and good cheer.36

He gave his own tent to his mother, who shared his wanderings; and for her, as for his followers, he gathered brightness from every smallest thing--from tulips and grasses, from animals and birds and insects.37

Kabul fell to him when he was eighteen; and here for ten years he lived peacefully, caring for his mother and grandmother, his aunts and sisters, and all his people who had been faithful to him.38 Here also he married the lady whom he called “Maham”--“my Moon”--of whom we know only because of Baber’s great love for her.39 It was the “Moon-Lady” who was the mother of Humayun.40

But the land beyond the hills was calling Baber; and soon there came a chance to try once more for the throne of Delhi.41

The people of Hindustan were fighting among themselves, and asked Baber’s help.42 Of the great battle that Baber won on the field of Paniput near Delhi, there are many stories.43

“Battle was joined at the time of early morning prayers”; and by midday Baber the Tiger was lord of Delhi and Agra.44 There are wonderful tales of the presents which he sent after this victory, to his family and people in Kabul--forgetting no one.45 Ladies and nurses of the zenana, officers, clerks, traders, even “all who pray for me”, were remembered; and so great was the list, that it was three days before the presents were divided.46 To his daughters and aunts and the princesses of the zenana were given gold plates full of gems, trays of coins, and nine different kinds of stuff chosen for each lady by Baber himself--“uplifting us with pride”, says his daughter.47

His last great campaign was against the Rajputs; and that was a fight worthy of the warrior who was now about forty-four years of age, and who had begun fighting when he was twelve.48 It was before this fight that he made “the Great Repentance”.49

When Baber was in Kabul he had learnt to drink wine, and had grown to be fond of this indulgence.50 Walking round his outposts, however, before the Rajput battle, the thought came to Baber that it would be good to mend his life now in this matter, so that he might have something to give in penitence to God.51

And he sent immediately for his great goblets of gold and silver studded with precious stones; and there on the battle-field he had them broken to pieces and given to the poor, vowing that he would never drink wine again.52

That night and the next, three hundred of his nobles did likewise, pouring upon the ground the wine which they had brought with them.53 So, “having knocked on the door of Penitence”, did they join battle.54 And once more victory was theirs.55

The last tale which the books tell of Baber is beautiful.56

He loved Humayun, the son of his Moon-Lady, as we know, with all his heart.57 And Humayun was ill.58