222 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A FURTHER COMMUNICATION ON THE CULTIVATION OF 

 GRAPES IN DAULATABAD* 



By Syed Siraj-ul-Hasan. 



History tells us that the culture of fruit trees, such as figs, grapes, 

 &c., began at Daulatabad as long a,go as the time of Mohammad 

 Tagluq'-(A.D. 1335). Such was the emperor's fondness for fruits that 

 when Daulatabad became his capital different kinds of frait trees were 

 brought to the place by his order on camels and elephants at an 

 enormous cost. After this, garden-making became the rage. Everyone, 

 rich and poor, wished to own a pleasure garden; and, in consequence, 

 gardens sprang up everywhere round Daulatabad. Naturally, gardeners, 

 as a class, flourished. They came from distant countries, filling a village 

 still known as Maliwada, with a present population of 1,303. On 

 the death of Tagluq the capital was retransferred to Delhi, and this 

 event had a disastrous effect on the gardeners, whose numbers and 

 prosperity gradually became less. For a long time afterwards Daulatabad 

 and its gardens remained in obscurity. Fortunately this was not always 

 to be. During the time of the Bahmani kings (a.d. 1436), Daulatabad 

 became a military station under Parwiz-bin-Karanful. Once, again, the 

 people began to pay attention to gardening, growing, however, only those 

 kinds of vines that had survived the neglect of previous years. 



This state of things continued till a.d. 1685, when Aurangabad 

 became the capital of Aurangzeb. The city grew rapidly, and with it the 

 demand for all sorts of luxuries. The Aurangzeb army was largely 

 made up of Persian emigrants, who were great fruit eaters. The con- 

 sequent demand for grapes was so great that Daulatabad alone was not 

 able to supply it. So, in the course of time, vineyards extended to 

 British Chikalthana and Kannad on one side and to Bir and Parbhani 

 on the other. In Daulatabad itself the passion for cultivating vines 

 knew no bounds. Places of recreation provided by noblemen in their 

 own gardens were entirely covered with vines. Even Fakirs looked upon 

 the \dne as a gift from Paradise, and had their mosques and monasteries 

 adorned with it. Janab Baba Shah Musafir Saheb procured the best 

 varieties from Kabul and Bukhara, and planted over seven acres of land 

 with them at Daulatabad. This plantation still exists under the name 

 of Pandhri, the property of Syed Shah Gulam Mohammad Saheb. It is 

 said that in those days a vine yielded 123 lb. of grapes, and a fig tree 

 as much as 63 lb. of fruit, and that the owners of plantations made 

 very large profits. The last statement may be easily believed, con- 

 sidering that the fame of Daulatabad fruits had spread, and there was 

 great demand for them in Khandesh, and even in far-away Ahmedabad 

 and Surat. Several foreign travellers vouch for the fact that from 

 Ajanta to Daulatabad there was one continuous line of gardens producing 



* For previous communication see Journ.R.H.S. vol. xxix. p. 071. 



