6 



1659 th« Muhammadans of Golconda invaded the southern 

 countries. " The cruel devastation of the country round 

 Trichinopoly and in the direction of Vallam led to a local 

 famine, which within a short time compelled the population to 

 emigrate in a body, some to the Marava country and some to ' 

 the Madura country, and some to Satyamangalam ; and then 

 the Muhammadans themselves were reduced to great extremities. 

 Their horses died from want of forage, their camp-followers 

 ran away and thousands of them died of actual starvation. So 

 numerous were their deaths that it was impossible to bury 

 their corpses, which were accordingly left in great heaps in the 

 open fields. The effluvium arising from their decomposition, 

 combined with the ill-health resulting from want of proper 

 food, rapidly engendered a pestilence, which carried off large 

 numbers." The sufferings of the people during the years 

 1659 to 1662 appear to have been terrible. The privations 

 undergone by the Christians are described by the Jesuit 

 missionaries as heart-rending; upwards of 10,000 of them died 

 of want and starvation. Tanjore appears to have suffered even 

 more than Madura, and almost the entire Christian population 

 of that kingdom was driven out of it either by the fear of 

 Muhammadans or by the pangs of hunger. The Hindus also 

 persecuted the Christians for having offended the local deities 

 and brought drought and famine on the land by their impiety, 

 in the same manner as Christians in 'European countries appear 

 to have persecuted the Jews in the middle ages, whenever 

 famines and plagues occurred. 



In 1677 the Madura country was invaded by the Mysoreans. 

 An extraordinary fall of rain on the Western Ghauts inundated 

 the country and swept away the low-lying villages with their 

 entire population. This was followed by famine and pestilence, 

 and it is stated that many of the half-starved wretches, who 

 survived these calamities, took to brigandage and overran the 

 kingdom unchecked. From 1709, for nearly 12 years, the 

 Marava country, Ramnad and Sivaganga, suffered from terrible 

 droughts alternating with floods, and large numbers of the 

 inhabitants emigrated to Tanjore and Madura. The droughts 

 appear to have been entirely due to the capriciousness of the 

 seasons, as irrigation works in the Marava country were in 

 those days in an excellent condition. Father Martin wrote in 

 1713: ^ " Nowhere have more precautions been taken than in 

 Marava not to let a drop of water escape and to collect all the 



' These and other quotations from the records of the Madura Jesuit Mission are 

 translations of extracts in French given in Mr. Nelson's Madura Mannal. They o.3ntain 

 the most authentic information as to the condition of the Madura district in the 17th 

 ceotury and I have therefore given them at length in this memorandum. ' 



