--- title: Opening, part 3 — Indian tales of the great ones among men, women,… · full text with trees description: Opening, part 3, «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: And Raziya said: “My brother has killed his brother, and now he would slay me.” --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/3/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Indian tales of the great ones among m…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/) / Opening, part 3 # Opening, part 3 Opening, part 3 of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji: the whole text, 121 sentences and 2597 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/3/page/2/) And Raziya said: “My brother has killed his brother, and now he would slay me.”[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") And all the people, as one man, vowed to help her.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") And Raziya was put upon the throne of Delhi.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") And Raziya ruled as few men have ruled in Delhi.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") She loved justice and mercy, and she gave both to her people.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") She led them to battle, pitching her own tent in the place of greatest danger: she was generous and wise, and entirely forgetful of her woman’s self.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") All this her people knew of her; and all this historians have said of her.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") But one old man, who wrote the longest tale of her gifts and virtues, tells us the reason of her failure to rule India: “She was a great monarch; but she was a woman, and she ruled as a man.”[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") The Moslem people of those days could not forgive her that.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") They could not forgive her that, being a woman, she came before them with face unveiled; that, being a woman, she did successfully the work of a man, and asked no woman’s reward.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") And so, though they took her love and protection for so long that they forgot the cruelty of her brother who had reigned before, they turned against her in the end and dethroned her, and put her in prison.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") From prison later, she escaped, and led an army to regain her kingdom.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") And perhaps she might some day have won it back, but for a sad thing that befell her.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") In the battle which she waged she was defeated, and fled alone to the jungles.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") Passing through a field, she saw an old peasant at work, and begged for some food, for she was starving.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") The man gave her a piece of bread, which she ate gladly; and then being worn out, she tied her horse to a tree and lay down in the field to take a short rest.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") She wore the dress of a man; but the peasant saw her jewels gleaming, as she slept unprotected in that lonely spot.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") He knew that she was a woman; and no more afraid of her, he killed her and buried her there, in a corner of a field outside the walls of that Delhi which she had ruled.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") So Raziya lost her kingdom because she was not enough of a woman to make her people love a woman ruler; and she died, because she was a woman, and without protection.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") And her story is told here, for the reason that we know now that the old historian was wrong; and that a woman need not fail even in the great work of a sovereign, only because she is a woman.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") Raziya failed because she thought that for success she must put aside her womanhood.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") Our Queen Victoria succeeded.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") And one of the things which we know that she gave to her people was that same great heart of a woman and a mother, which poor Raziya believed that she must slay.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") Baber the Tiger[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") There was a Moghul boy-king, who fought his first battle when he was twelve years of age, and he won it, as he says himself, “thanks to the distinguished valour of my young soldiers”.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") But like the boys in fairy tales, he had wicked uncles, who made trouble for him; and before he was seventeen years old, he had won and lost two of his kingdoms.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") This is the boy whom all the world knows by his nickname of “Baber the Tiger”.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") And the most wonderful thing we know about him is his great spirit, which nothing could subdue.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") Success could not spoil him, and defeat could not make him hang his head.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") Always did he find something in which to take pleasure.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") Driven away from one of his early attempts to take Delhi, he has a race with two of his officers; and he writes of the first meal which he ate in hiding as of a royal banquet--“such peace and plenty, nice fat meat, bread of fine flour well baked, sweet melons, excellent grapes”.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") Again: “I could not, on account of one or two defeats, sit down and look idly around me”, he tells us; and we find him getting to work again immediately.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") Many years of wandering were before him.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") He had only two tents and less than three hundred followers.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") They had to bear thirst and hunger, pain and poverty; but the joyous spirit of the Tiger-boy carried them through all.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") And his tenderness and love and thoughtfulness were as his courage and good cheer.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") He gave his own tent to his mother, who shared his wanderings; and for her, as for his followers, he gathered brightness from every smallest thing--from tulips and grasses, from animals and birds and insects.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") Kabul fell to him when he was eighteen; and here for ten years he lived peacefully, caring for his mother and grandmother, his aunts and sisters, and all his people who had been faithful to him.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") Here also he married the lady whom he called “Maham”--“my Moon”--of whom we know only because of Baber’s great love for her.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") It was the “Moon-Lady” who was the mother of Humayun.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") But the land beyond the hills was calling Baber; and soon there came a chance to try once more for the throne of Delhi.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") The people of Hindustan were fighting among themselves, and asked Baber’s help.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") Of the great battle that Baber won on the field of Paniput near Delhi, there are many stories.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") “Battle was joined at the time of early morning prayers”; and by midday Baber the Tiger was lord of Delhi and Agra.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") There are wonderful tales of the presents which he sent after this victory, to his family and people in Kabul--forgetting no one.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") Ladies and nurses of the zenana, officers, clerks, traders, even “all who pray for me”, were remembered; and so great was the list, that it was three days before the presents were divided.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") To his daughters and aunts and the princesses of the zenana were given gold plates full of gems, trays of coins, and nine different kinds of stuff chosen for each lady by Baber himself--“uplifting us with pride”, says his daughter.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") His last great campaign was against the Rajputs; and that was a fight worthy of the warrior who was now about forty-four years of age, and who had begun fighting when he was twelve.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") It was before this fight that he made “the Great Repentance”.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") When Baber was in Kabul he had learnt to drink wine, and had grown to be fond of this indulgence.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") Walking round his outposts, however, before the Rajput battle, the thought came to Baber that it would be good to mend his life now in this matter, so that he might have something to give in penitence to God.[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") And he sent immediately for his great goblets of gold and silver studded with precious stones; and there on the battle-field he had them broken to pieces and given to the poor, vowing that he would never drink wine again.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") That night and the next, three hundred of his nobles did likewise, pouring upon the ground the wine which they had brought with them.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") So, “having knocked on the door of Penitence”, did they join battle.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") And once more victory was theirs.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") The last tale which the books tell of Baber is beautiful.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") He loved Humayun, the son of his Moon-Lady, as we know, with all his heart.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") And Humayun was ill.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/3/page/2/) - ← previous: [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/2/) - next →: [page 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/3/page/2/) - ↑ back to [Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg69647/)