Brothers at War

‘Finally, to another loud blaring of trumpets, one of the most important of your former vassals — the Raja of Golpur — came forward and joined by many of Sher Shah’s commanders fell to his knees before Sher Shah. Together they begged him to accept the title of emperor — padishah — obsequiously and traitorously assuring him he was much better suited to hold it than ever you were. Twice Sher Shah refused with self-deprecating statements that all he sought was to help those suffering your oppression. He sought neither power nor reward for himself. However on the third occasion, beseeched in ever more flattering and vainglorious terms — the hyperbole of their words knew no limits — he accepted, saying, “If it is your settled wish, I can but agree. I promise to rule wisely and give justice to all.” Then a crown of gold set with rubies — held ready all the time; the whole thing was stage-managed, his initial refusals merely for show — was placed on his head by the Raja of Golpur and three of Sher Shah’s officers. All present prostrated themselves before him, traitorous noses pressed to the earth.

‘Later that night, Sher Shah staged a grand pageant. By the flaring light of torches young warriors from each of the states and clans now allied to him performed martial exercises before Sher Shah as he sat beneath a canopy of gold cloth on a tall, straight-backed gilded throne. A snarling tiger was carved into it, just above where Sher Shah’s head came. It had two large rubies for eyes which — I am told — glowed fiercely in the dark.Then after the performance was completed each in turn bowed low before the so-called emperor and he sprinkled their perspiring shaved heads with saffron, ground pearls, musk and ambergris as betokening the riches and sweet success he would make adhere to them and to the factions they represented.

‘The following day being a Friday, in the city’s main mosque — crowded to bursting point with Sher Shah’s commanders — the mullah too proclaimed Sher Shah emperor by reading the sermon — the khutba — in his name and traitorously and blasphemingly assigning to Sher Shah all your lands whether already occupied by him, as in Bengal, or far beyond his reach in Afghanistan and the Punjab.The next day, Sher Shah marched out to renew his advance upon us. With his new allies, his armies now number near two hundred thousand.’

‘Where is he now?’

‘About a hundred miles away, advancing slowly towards Agra.’

‘And Baba Yasaval, what of our own armies? Has the re-equipment progressed well?’

‘Yes, the armourers have done good work. Our men have new weapons. The foundries have blazed red fire day and night to produce more cannon. The horse brokers have supplied us with sufficient animals to re-mount our cavalry — even if some are not as big and strong as those bred on the steppes of our ancestral homelands.’

‘And how about the promises of further detachments of troops by our allies and by my half-brothers too?’

‘Here the news is less good. Several of our allies have procrastinated, citing the monsoon or local rebellions as reasons for delay in despatching troops or for only sending small detachments. Your younger half-brothers Hindal and Askari have, however, fulfilled and in the case of Hindal exceeded their promises, but your eldest half-brother Kamran has sent from the Punjab only a small detachment of two hundred and fifty cavalry, albeit mounted on fine horses. In response to our promptings for further assistance he will give no clear timescale and hints he must hold some troops back in case you suffer further reverses.’

‘But that is the certain way to ensure that we do suffer further defeats,’ Humayun snapped but then stopped himself from saying more. It would do no good to criticise his half-brother publicly.Yet his commander’s words chimed with his own private correspondence with Kamran. His half-brother had delayed responding to messages and — when he did reply — although suitably bellicose in his hostility to Sher Shah, he was noncommittal about despatching troops to serve under Humayun’s command. Instead, Kamran had offered to lead all his men to join the fight himself. He must have known that Humayun had to refuse, since to accept would be to leave the Punjab without a governor and without troops to keep order. Kamran seemed to be playing a waiting game, more anxious to preserve his personal position than to recover the lost provinces of their father’s empire if it meant adding to Humayun’s glory rather than his own.

‘I will write to my half-brother. But how many men can our commanders deploy now?’

‘A hundred and seventy thousand, Majesty.’

‘So for the present Sher Shah’s forces outnumber us?’

‘Yes, Majesty. Until reinforcements arrive from your brother Kamran and others.’

Humayun felt a soft, warm evening breeze on his cheek as, not far from the settlement of Kanauj on the Ganges, he looked from his command position on a sandstone ridge dotted with scrubby bushes and the occasional stunted tree towards the opposite ridge where, if his scouts’ reports were correct, Sher Shah’s army would emerge the next morning. Briefly, the breeze reminded Humayun of the gentle winds of summer in his birthplace, Afghanistan. At the recollection a half-smile crossed his face only to be driven away by the ever-present knowledge that the two months since his military council had brought nothing but bad news.

Sher Shah’s advance had continued, slow but relentless. That was perhaps only to be expected but what Humayun had not anticipated was the defection to Sher Shah of Hanif Khan, Raja of Moradabad, one of Humayun’s most senior cavalry commanders now Suleiman Mirza was dead, together with fifteen thousand of his men, all drawn from Hanif Khan’s feudal lands to the east of Delhi. Just after his desertion, Sher Shah — in an obviously prearranged move — had attacked a fortified town on the Ganges which had previously been under the command of Hanif Khan. Demoralised by Hanif Khan’s desertion, the few thousand of Humayun’s troops who had remained loyal had put up little resistance and the town had soon surrendered, clearing the way for Sher Shah’s advance. Humayun could scarcely blame these troops. Instead he reproached himself that he had devoted insufficient time to understanding the characters and ambitions of those around him — a mistake he would avoid in future.

Equally troubling to Humayun had been reports of what was happening to his rear. There had been a rising in favour of Sher Shah in Hindal’s province of Alwar which, Hindal wrote, he’d only been able to put down with difficulty. Other rebellions had broken out among Hanif Khan’s vassals in the mountains near Delhi and Humayun had had to detach troops to suppress them who should have been training in preparation for joining his army.

Worst of all had been the letter he had received from Kamran.While still pledging his loyalty to Humayun and the dynasty and his opposition to Sher Shah, he had questioned his brother’s military strategy in moving further east to confront Sher Shah two hundred miles and more beyond Agra. He had proposed instead preparing either Agra or Delhi for a siege and allowing Sher Shah to waste his strength in futile attempts to breach their great walls. Kamran had used his ‘disquiet’ as a pretext for refusing to send further troops, insisting that he had to hold them back under his own command to serve as a second line of defence if Humayun’s flawed strategy failed, as Kamran thought it had every chance of doing.

‘Majesty, Baba Yasaval is waiting to accompany you to review your troops.’ Jauhar broke into Humayun’s reverie. He was holding the reins of Humayun’s tall brown horse.

‘Very well.’ Humayun turned and mounted the horse to join Baba Yasaval a little further along the ridge. As the two men moved off, Humayun asked, ‘What are our scouts’ latest reports? Is there any change?’

‘No, Majesty. Sher Shah has encamped about two miles beyond the ridge opposite and from the sight and sound of the preparations being made in his camp tonight, it seems he will indeed attack tomorrow.’

‘Has the work been completed on the defensive earth ramparts I asked to be constructed halfway up this ridge?’

‘Yes, Majesty — you will see as we make our tour of inspection.’

‘Good. From the ramparts’ protection we should be able to blunt Sher Shah’s attack with cannon and musket fire as well as our archers’ arrows rather than charge headlong into a costly hand-to-hand engagement.’

‘But we’ll need to get in close, Majesty, if we are to vanquish rather than just avoid being vanquished.’

‘Of course. Once we’ve reduced Sher Shah’s numerical advantage and his men are nearing exhaustion we’ll sally out and destroy them. I want no half-measures either. It’s just the timing of our attack I want to control carefully.’

By now, they were riding along the red earth of the ramparts. His men had worked well in the heat with their picks and shovels in the four days they’d been encamped here, athwart the route to Kanauj and the Ganges. The piles of earth and stone were six feet high everywhere and in most places ten. They stretched all along the mid section of the ridge which ran roughly north to south.

‘Who am I to reward or promote during this review, Baba Yasaval?’

‘We have chosen three men, Majesty. A wounded Afghani from south of Kabul named Wazim Pathan who