The Babur invasions and the Babarvani hymns
The meeting with Babur
The Puratan says Babur saw Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji's load float and his horse follow unled, kissed his feet and released the captives.
According to the Puratan Janamsakhi, after Saidpur fell Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji and Bhai Mardana were taken among the prisoners. Guru Ji was given a load for his head, and Mardana a horse to lead. An officer named Mir Khan looked and saw the bundle riding a cubit above Guru Ji's head, and the horse following Mardana without a rein.
He told Babur, who said that with such faqirs about, the town should never have been struck, and went to see for himself. He kissed Guru Ji's feet and offered him anything he might ask. Guru Ji said he wanted nothing for himself but asked that the prisoners of Saidpur be freed and their goods given back. The order went out, and they were released.
The Puratan adds a hand-mill that turned by itself, and a tradition at Gurdwara Chakki Sahib preserves a millstone. Mardana later wanted to know why a whole town should pay for the wrongs of a few. Guru Ji told him to sleep under a tree. A drop of grease on his chest drew ants, one bit him, and in his sleep he brushed them all away and killed them. That, Guru Ji said, was the answer.
How do we know?
The sources conflict on this story, or scholars doubt it.
McLeod relies on Annette Beveridge's description of the 1520 expedition. Babur's silence about any such meeting is noted by the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, which still will not rule it out.
- Later traditionRetells the Puratan scene of Mir Khan's report and the freeing of prisoners, and notes that Babur's memoirs do not mention it, while saying that the meeting cannot be ruled out.[EoS]
- Later traditionGives the same detail of a bundle floating above the head and an unled horse.[EoS]
- ScholarshipAccepts captivity and release in its narrative.[EoS]
- ScholarshipCalls it most unlikely, because Miharban omits it, the Puratan versions differ, and hagiography likes meetings with the great. (p. 138)[McLeod]
