Baburnama

Also called: Tuzuk-i-Baburi, Babur Nama · Topic: The Mughal Empire: Babur to Aurangzeb · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Peasants, Zamindars and the State"

Meaning

The Baburnama ('Babur's Memoirs'), also called Tuzuk-i-Baburi, is the honest autobiography of Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire, written in Chagatai Turkic and composed c. 1493–1529 [6].

It matters because it is a rare first-person record by a ruler. It shows Central Asia, Afghanistan and early Mughal India through his own eyes: his battles, his opinion of India, and its rivers, trees, animals and villages.

Explanation

Background: who wrote it and why it is unusual

• Author: Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur, a Turkic-Mongol ruler. He descended from Timur on his father's side and from Chingiz (Genghis) Khan on his mother's side [2].
• He was born in Fergana, in modern Uzbekistan [3]. He was later thrown out of Samarkand and turned to India, where the Delhi Sultanate was growing weak.
• Language: Chagatai Turkic, a Central Asian literary language that is now extinct (no longer spoken) [6]. Older books often just call it "Turki".
• Style: it reads like a private diary [6]. Babur writes candidly (openly and honestly), including about his own faults.
• Time span: he wrote it over a long period, roughly 1493 to 1529 [6]. So it follows him from a young prince in Central Asia to the conqueror of north India.

Main contents

• Military life: army reviews and the defeat of Rana Sanga at Khanwa (1527) [6]. It also covers his rise to power, which ran from Panipat (1526), where he beat Ibrahim Lodi with artillery and the tulughma tactic, to Khanwa.
• Natural history of India: a famous section on India's rivers, trees, animals and seasons [6].
• Close observation: he lists birds in careful detail and writes closely about flora (plants), especially fruit trees. He also comments on architecture.
• Rural life (used in NCERT Class 12):
• He describes how north Indian villages and hamlets could be abandoned and set up again very quickly.
• He also describes irrigation: water was lifted from wells or rivers with a wheel (the Persian wheel, a wheel with pots on a chain) or with a bucket.
• Historians use these passages to study agriculture and peasant life in the 16th century.

The double portrait: two sides of one man

UPSC likes this contrast. The same book shows two very different people.

• The cultured observer:
• a poet with a strong love of poetry
• a keen eye for architecture

• careful notes on birds and fruit trees

• The brutal conqueror:

• he slaughtered whole city populations
• he enslaved women and children
• he took pride in building 'towers of skulls' from the heads of the dead

Babur's view of India, and what it tells us

• He was homesick for Central Asia. He called India a 'country of few charms'.
• But he also wrote: "Hindustan is a large country and has masses of gold and silver… There are countless artisans and workmen of every sort."
• Why this matters:
• India's wealth and skilled workers are the likely reason he stayed and built an empire here.

• He did not go back to Central Asia.

• He died in 1530, only four years after Panipat. The memoir ends just before his death (c. 1529) [6].

Time, place and evidence

• Period: c. 1493–1529 [6]. This is the early Mughal period, just before Babur's death in 1530.
• Ruler and dynasty: Babur, the first Mughal emperor. He founded the Mughal Empire after the First Battle of Panipat (1526) [4].
• Regions covered: Fergana and Samarkand (Central Asia), Afghanistan, and north India (Hindustan) [3][6].
• Key people in the text: Babur himself and Rana Sanga of Mewar, whom Babur defeated at Khanwa (1527) [6][5]. Ibrahim Lodi appears as the Sultan he defeated at Panipat [4].
• How we know it today:
• The original text is in Chagatai Turkic [6].
• It was translated into Persian during Akbar's reign by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan. Persian was the court language, so this version was read more widely.
• An English translation, Babur-nama (English): Memoirs of Babur, is kept as a rare book on the Government of India's Indian Culture Portal [7].
• A copy of the Memoirs of Babur is also in the Library of Congress [3].

Don't confuse with

• Akbarnama: written in Persian by Abul Fazl, Akbar's court historian, about Akbar's reign. The Baburnama is an autobiography written by the emperor himself in Chagatai Turkic.
• Humayun-nama: written by Gulbadan Begum, Babur's daughter, about her brother Humayun. It is not Babur's own work.
• Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri: the memoir of Jahangir, written in Persian. Both texts are called "Tuzuk", so check the emperor and the language.
• Language trap: the Baburnama was not first written in Persian or Arabic. It was written in Chagatai Turkic [6]. The Persian version came later, under Akbar.

Prelims Hooks

• Baburnama / Tuzuk-i-Baburi: author Babur. Language: Chagatai Turkic, an extinct literary language [6].
• It was composed roughly between 1493 and 1529 [6]. Babur died in 1530.
• It records the Battle of Khanwa (1527), where Babur defeated Rana Sanga of Mewar [6][5].
• Babur called India a 'country of few charms' but praised its gold, silver and countless artisans.
• It describes north Indian villages set up and abandoned quickly and irrigation by wheel and bucket. This is an NCERT Class 12 source for agrarian history.
• Trap: the Persian translation was made under Akbar by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan. It was not the original language.

Mains Points

• Strength and limits as a historical source:
• It is a first-person diary by the ruler himself. It is rich on nature, cities, villages and armies [6].
• But it is self-written. His pride in massacres and slave-taking sits beside his poetry and botany.

• So historians use it as strong evidence, but read it as one man's version of events.

• Why the Mughals stayed in India:

• Babur disliked India's climate and way of life.
• But he recorded its gold, silver and skilled artisans.

• The pull of a rich, hard-working economy, not love of the land, turned a Central Asian exile's raid into a lasting empire.

• Value for social and economic history:

• Its notes on villages, irrigation, plants and animals make it a source on how people actually lived in 16th-century north India, not only a war record.
• NCERT Class 12 uses it this way to study peasants and agriculture.

Related concepts

• Babur
• First Battle of Panipat
• Tulughma
• Battle of Chanderi
• Battle of Ghaghra
• Charbagh

Read more

• Babur and the foundation (1526–1530)