NOTES ON SOME MONUMENTS IN AFGHANISTAN. 345 



such a keen delight. On a terrace on the hill-side, at the upper end of the garden, 

 and overlooking the scene of many a joyous carouse, stands Babar's grave, and lower 

 down is a small mosque erected to his memory. 



Both mosque and tomb are of white marble from Maidan. The main portion of 

 the mosque (Plate xvi) is of great beauty, but it is enclosed by an untidy railing of 

 rusty iron rods, and is characteristically disfigured by a sloping roof made from old 

 kerosene-oil tins and painted a brilliant blue. 



The tomb (Plate xvii) also suffers from its immediate surroundings, planted as it 

 is in the middle of an untidy, flagged courtyard and with a common white- washed 

 chirdgh-ddn for background ; the site, however, with the garden immediately below it 

 and, in the distance, the snow-capped heights of Paghman, is no doubt just the one 

 that Babar would have chosen. 



The inscription on the tombstone has been read under the superintendence of 

 Dr. E. D. Ross, to whom I am indebted for the following note : — 



" The Emperor Babar, after a life of continuous excitement, vicissitude and 

 adventure such as has fallen to the lot of only a few of the great heroes of history, 

 died in Agra on the 6th of Jumada I, 937 (December 20th, 1530). l He was, accord- 

 ing to local tradition, temporarily buried in the Rambagh on the left side of the river, 

 about two miles above the present Railway bridge. 2 According to Ferishta he ex- 

 pressed in his will a desire to be buried in Kabul. His body was, however, left in Agra 

 till after the battle of Kanauj in 945 (1538) when Humayun and his family were 

 driven out of India, and Babar's widow, Bika Begum, performed the pious duty of 

 removing her late husband's body to Kabul. 



" Babar's tomb is still to be seen in Kabul ; Plate xvii shows his tombstone bearing 

 an inscription, and Plate xvi the mausoleum erected to his memory. It will be seen 

 that these monuments bear a very modern appearance, especially the latter. With 

 the aid of a glass the inscription on the tomb has been read, and is now printed, I 

 believe, for the first time. F*erishta says that Babar was buried near a place called 

 Qadam Rasul. 



" The inscription runs as follows : — 



iLijL; jAj jj — i a *»/« jjJI j i-yJ= \j] * <*■•!) jj~i .- i — iU ^i ^i^. -S aULjU 



Translation : — 



' A king from whose brow shone the light of God 



' Was Zahiruddin Muhammad Babar Padishah. 



1 With splendour, wealth, good fortune, justice, probity, and faith 



1 According to Ferishta, he died on the 5th of this month. 



* See Beveridge. Translation of AkbarNama, Vol. I, Errata, p. xi. 



(S^jj 



