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at this time possessed of a very great number of 
stores and granaries, in the districts round about 
Aseer, so that all persons were calculating the 
enormous gains which would, in consequence of 
this public calamity, be rolled into the treasury of 
a single individual. His friends congratulated him 
upon his prospect of becoming the greatest and 
wealthiest subject in the Dekkan; but Asa Aheer, 
quietly rebuking them for their evil opinion of him, 
made them the bearers of orders to all his agents to 
supply the wants of the poor without price ; to sell 
grain to the middle classes, who could afford to pay, 
at the usual rate ; and, from the wealthy, to demand 
fourfold of what was paid by others, and to dis- 
tribute the three-fourths overcharged in alms. In 
order to find employment for those who were strong 
enough to labour, he caused all the buildings and 
defences upon the hill of Aseer to be thrown down, 
and rebuilt in a much more costly and substantial 
manner. It is even said that, in person, he attended 
the dying; and, with his own hand, distributed food 
and clothing to the aged and infirm : yet not, as 
some, from ostentation or the love of adulation, but 
from pure compassion for his suffering fellow-coun- 
trymen. 
Notwithstanding the acquisition of his great 
wealth and authority, Asa Aheer was a peaceful 
and unambitious subject ; and, upon the accession of 
Moolluk Raja, had been among the foremost to 
