Delhi in Moghal Times
but from now onwards, with a short interregnum, Babar and his descendants were Kings of Delhi until the last of the House of Timur died a deported prisoner in Rangoon, and an English Empress was proclaimed.
ZAHIR-UD-DIN MOHOMED BABAR was descended from Changiz Khan, and belonged to the Chagitai branch of the Moghal tribe. He was at this time King of Cabul, and had already undertaken four expeditions into India, but had always been recalled by trouble in his own kingdom, and had not penetrated further than Lahore. He now gladly seized the opportunity of carrying out a cherished project, and crossed the Indus, for the fifth time, in 1526, with a comparatively small force, numbering scarcely twelve thousand men. He had, however, one auxiliary arm, as yet unknown in India, which was his artillery, superintended by a Turk. He advanced rapidly,against little opposition, until Ibrahim advanced to Panipat to stop him, with an enormous army. Babar remarks that it might have been much larger had Ibrahim not been so parsimonious, for the wealth left to him by his father, Sikandar, was very great. However this may be, the large army he had collected must have seemed to him sufficient to overwhelm Babar's little force; but the result proved otherwise. Ibrahim was not211
