Nanak's Defiance of Tyranny - in his own words

Babar Bani hymns were composed by Guru Nanak after witnessing the carnage of Saidpur at the hands of Moghul invader Babur. For Guru Nanak, Babur was not  a Muslim invader bent upon destroying the Hindu culture and neither was an Islamic zealot who wanted to spread his religion over a the land. He was simply a power hungry king motivated by greed and glory, so much so that anyone, irrespective of religion, who came in his way, was destroyed.

An artists impression of Guru Nanak

Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad aka Babur (persian: tiger) had the perfect combinations of genetics to be a ferocious marauder, greedy plunderer, and ruthless ruler. Babur's father was Omar Sheikh Mirza, king of Ferghana, a region presently in Uzbekistan. He was a direct paternal descendant of Tamerlane, the 15th century Turkish conqueror who plundered western and eastern Asia. Tamerlane was known as  the biggest killers the planet has ever known.

Farghana the Moghul City

His mother was Kutlug Nigar Khanim, a descendant of Genghis Khan. As a result, Babur had an ancestry filled with tales of plunder, rape, and mass murders. His language was Chagatai, an orientated version of Turkish, which he will use to write his memoirs - Babur Namah.

Babur in Search of Home

Escaping the aggression of Uzbeks, Babur leaves Farghana in 1501 headed for Khurasan, a king in search of a kingdom, wealth, and safety. After ransacking and burning Khurasan, Babur conquered Kabul in 1504, which was under the rule of the infant Turk heir Ulugh Beg II. 

Babur crossing Chenab river

Next, he turned his eyes towards Punjab in the east. In 1519. North India was ruled by Ibrahim Lodhi from Delhi at that time. Babur was invited by Daulat Khan Lodhi, the Nawab of Lahore in his power struggle against his own nephew. Babur crossed the Indus and conquering Sialkot without resistance, and then marched on Saidpur (now Eminabad), 15 km southeast of Gujranwala in Pakistan).

Sack of Saidpur

Saidpur suffered the worst fury of the invading host. The town was taken by assault, the garrison put to the sword and the inhabitants slaughtered, raped and survivors carried into captivity. Guru Nanak was an eye witness to the havoc created during this invasion. Janam Sakhis mention that he himself was taken captive at Saidpur (Now known as Eminabad).

Ruins of Saidpur at the hand of Babur

When the guards saw the prisoners listening to Guru Nanak's hymns in the prison as they milled flour with hand, they informed Babur. The victorious king intoxicated in his power, summoned the guru to his court and asked for his blessings so he could be successful in his conquest of India.

Nanak refused to bless the Mughal king, questioning his audacity to seek his blessings after the slaughter of people of the land. A historical Gurdwara Chakki Sahib exists where Gurur Nanak sang shabads to console the prisoners and confront Babur at Saidpur (Now Eminabad).

Gurdwara Chakki Sahib, Eminabad

A line of his, outside of Babar Bani hymns, indicates that he may have been present in Lahore when the city was given up to plunder. In six pithy words this line conveys,

"For a pahar (nearly four hours) the city of Lahore remained subject to death and fury"
 (SGGS, 1412).

Essence of Babar Bani

Babar Bani hymns were composed by Guru Nanak are the outpourings of a compassionate soul touched by scenes of human misery and by the cruelty perpetrated by the invaders. The sufferings of the people are rendered here in accents of intense power and protest. The events are placed in the larger social and historical perspective. Decline in moral standards must lead to chaos. A corrupt political system must end in dissolution. Lure of power divides men and violence tends to flourish.

Guru Nanak reiterated his faith in the Almighty and in His Justice. Yet so acute was his realization of the distress of the people that he could not resist making the complaint:

"When there was so much suffering, so much killings, so much shrieking in pain, did not Thou, 0 God, feel pity? Creator, Thou art the same for all!"

Guru Nanak and Babur

The people for him were the people as a whole, the Hindus and the Muslims, the high caste and the low caste, soldiers and civilians, men and women, young and old. These hymns are remarkable for their moral structure and poetical eloquence. Nowhere else in contemporary literature are the issues in medieval Indian situation comprehended with such clarity or presented in tones of greater urgency.

In spite of his destructive role Babar is seen by Guru Nanak to have been an unwitting instrument of the divine Will. Guru Nanak's commentary on the events which he actually witnessed thus becomes a part of the same universal message.

Translation of Babar Bani by Guru Nanak

The First hymn rendered in free English verse reads:

Lord, Thou takest Khurasan under Thy wing, but yielded India to the invader's wrath.
Yet thou takest no blame;
And sendest the Mughal as the messenger of death.
When there was such suffering, killing, such shrieking in pain,
Didst not Thou, 0 God, feel pity ?

Creator, Thou art the same for all !
If one tyrant attacketh another, it troubleth not the heart;
But when a lion falleth upon a herd of cattle,
The master will be questioned for not protecting it.
The miserable dogs (the corrupt rulers of India) have lost their priceless jewel;

No one will remember them after they are gone. But mysterious are Thy ways,
Thou alone makest and Thou alone severest.
Whosoever arrogateth unto himself greatness tasting pleasure to satiety is in the eyes of the Lord but a puny worm for all the grains he eateth.
Saith Nanak: True achievement is his Who dieth unto his self
And uttereth the holy Name.

In a touching 8 stanza poem of the Second Hymn, Guru Nanak portrays the tragic plight of women, both Hindu and Muslim, who lost their husbands and suffered ignominy at the hands of the invaders:

They whose hair made them look fairer by far and who touched it lovingly with sacred vermilion, Have had their heads shorn with scissors, and their throats choked with dust.
They who stirred not out of their private chambers are now denied shelter even on the roadside.

Praise, praise be unto Thee, 0 Lord! We understand not Thy ways;
Everything is in Thy power and Thou seest Thyself in diverse forms at Thy Will.

When they were married, their handsome bridegrooms added to their splendor;
They came seated in palanquins with ivory bangles asport on their arms;
They awaited with ceremonial pitchers full of water and with fans arabesqued in glass.
Gifts of money were showered on them as they sat,
They were given coconut and dates to eat, and they joyed on the bridal bed.

Halters are now around their necks, and broken are their strings of pearls.
Riches, youth and beauty they formerly relished have turned into their enemies;
Minions at the conqueror's behest drag them to dishonor.
The Lord, if it pleaseth Him, bestoweth greatness, and sendeth chastisement if He so desireth. 

Had they contemplated in advance, they might have escaped punishment, But the rulers had lost their sense in their fondness for levity and frivolity;

[now that ] Babar's sway hath spread; even the princes go without bread.
Some, the Muslims, miss the timings of namaz, others, the Hindus, of their puja;
Hindu ladies, without their ritually cleansed cooking squares,
go about without a vermilion mark their foreheads;
They never remembered 'Rama', and are allowed to utter even 'Allah' no more.
Some, after the carnage, have returned home and are inquiring about the well being of their kin;
Others, in whose destiny it was so recorded, sit wailing over their sufferings.
Saith Nanak: what He desireth shall happen; who is man Him to question? 

In the Third Hymn in the series, Guru Nanak describes the desolation which followed Babar's invasion of Saidpur:

Where is that sport now, where those stables and steeds,
and where are the drums and where are the flutes?

Where are the sword belts and where the chariots; and where are those scarlet uniforms?
Where are those finger rings studded with mirrors; and where are those handsome faces?
This world is Thine, Thou art its Master, 0 Lord ! 

In one moment Thou settleth and in another unsettleth.
The lure of gold sunders brother from brother.
Where are those houses, those mansions and palaces;

and where are those elegant looking serais?
Where are those snug couches and where those beautiful brides a sight of whom made one lose one's sleep?
Where is the chewing leaf, where the leaf sellers and where those who patronized them?
All have vanished like a shadow.
For this gold many were led astray; many suffered ignominy for it.
Without sinning one doth not gather it, and it doth not go with one in the end.

Whomsoever the Creator would confound, He first forfeiteth his virtue.
Countless pirs tried their miraculous powers to halt the invasion of Mir (Babar).
He burned ancient seats and houses strongly built
and cast into dust princes after severing their heads.
Yet no Mughal became blind and no magic of the pirs worked. 

The Mughals and Pathans were locked in battle,
and they wielded their swords relentlessly,
They fired their guns; they attacked with their elephants.
They whose writ is torn in the Lord's court must perish, my brethren.
Of the wives of Hindus, of Turks, of Bhattis and of Thakur Rajputs,
Some had their veils torn from head to foot, others lay heaped up in cemeteries;
How did they pass their nights whose husbands returned not home?

The fourth Babar Bani hymn is probably addressed to Bhai Lalo, one of Guru Nanak's devotees from Saidpur. It ends on a prophetic note, alluding perhaps to the rise of the people of India will who finally drive the Mughal king out of India.

The hymn in Tilang measure is, like the other three, an expression of Guru Nanak's feeling of distress at the moral degradation of the people at the imposition by the mighty. It is a statement also of his belief in God's justice and in the ultimate victory of good over evil. In an English rendering:

As descendeth the Lord's word to me, so do I deliver it unto you, 0 Lalo:
[Babar] leading a wedding array of sin hath descended from Kabul and demandeth the bride, 0 Lalo. 

Decency and righteousness have vanished, and falsehood struts abroad, 0 Lalo.
Gone are the days of Qazis and Brahmans, Satan now conducts the nuptials, 0 Lalo.
The Muslim women recite the Qur'an and in distress remember their God, 0 Lalo.
Similar is the fate of Hindu women of castes high and low, 0 Lalo.
They sing paeans of blood, 0 Nanak,
and by blood, not saffron, ointment is made, 0 Lalo. 

In this city of corpses, Nanak proclaimeth
God's praises, and uttereth this true saying:
Lord who created men and put them to their tasks watcheth them from His seclusion.
True is that Lord, true His verdict, and true is the justice He dealeth. 

As her body's vesture is torn to shreds, India shall remember my words.
In seventy eight they come, in ninety seven shall depart;
Another man of destiny shall arise. Nanak pronounceth words of truth,
Truth he uttereth; truth the time calls for.

The words "seventy eight" and "ninety seven" in the penultimate line are interpreted as 1578 and 1597 of the Indian Bikrami calendar, corresponding respectively with 1521 and 1540 which are the dates of Babar's invasion and Humayun's dethronement by Sher Shah Suri.

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babur
https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Babar%27s_Invasion
https://www.dawn.com/news/1306164
https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Gurdwara_Chakki_Sahib