Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/144

 10

IIISTOlty OF INDIA.

[Book I.

A.D. 1824. and Dell)i exhibited merely a sliadow of its former grasiUieHH. It was impos- sible not to pereeive that a country thus ruled, and acknowledged at the same time to be one of the grandest, fairest, and richest regioiLs of the globe, pre- sented facilities and attractioius to the con(jueror far greater than the west could furnish ; and the only wonder is, that a }>rince so talented and w) ambitious as Baber should have remained so Ion;; on its fiontiers without makiiiir an actual inroad into it. Baber-s first Baber's first Indian cami)aign took place in 1519. On that occasion, after overrunning the territory between Cabool and the Indas, he crossed over into the Punjab, and advanced as far as Bhira. From this place he sent a mes.sage to Ibrahim Lody, the King of Delhi, reminding him that the Punjab had been frequently possessed by the house of Tamerlane, and demanding that to him, as a branch of that house, it should be voluntarily resigned, miless he was pre- pared to see the war carried farther into India. In this cainj>aign he reached the Chenaub, and then returned to Cabool. His second Indian campaign Avas made in the course of the same year. His main object was to reduce Lahore, but after reaching Peshawer, and advancing to the Indus, intelhgence of an invasion of Budukshan by the King of Cashgar compelled him to retmii. He marched a third time against India in 1520, and had reached Sealkote when he learned that his presence was immediately required to defend hLs capital against an invasion from Kandahar. He had not only repulsed the invader, but pur-

^ sued him to Kandahar,

-—^^^ ^^^=^^ ^^d captured it, when,

in 1524, Dowlut Khan sent the tempting in- vitation formerly men- tioned. In compHance with it, Baber advanced to the neighbourhood of Lahore, which he en- tered in triumph, after gaining a signal victory. Dowlut Khan having afterwards turned acrainst him, he found his prospects of success so seriously affected, that he rested satisfied with app(jinting governors over the districts hich he had conquered, and again retvu*ned home.

Ala-u-din Lody, the brother of Ibrahim Lody, King of Delhi, had been left in command of the Cabool forces, and for a time was so successful, that he pushed forward to the vicinity of Dellii. Here he seemed to have gained a

.,..-,.,r--«<5.

Kandahar. — From Sale's Defence of Jelalabad.

Defeat i>f Ala-u-iliii