1878.] 
Famines in India . 
435 
were constructed, by the hard lesson of experience through 
drought and famine. Although it is certain that India has 
been subjected to famines from the very earliest ages, very 
little information now exists regarding those that occurred 
more than 108 years ago, but from that date there are to be 
found tolerably accurate particulars of all that have since 
taken place. Ferishta, the Persian historian, mentions a 
famine in India during the reign of one Jei-chund, who was 
Emperor of India between the years 503 and 443 B.C. 
This is probably the earliest of which any record exists, and 
after it there occurs a lapse of nearly 1500 years before the 
next famine mentioned, which, it is stated, took place in 
1022 A.D., a year remarkable for a great drought and famine 
in Hindustan, as well as in many other parts of the world. 
This was followed, after an interval of about thirty years, 
by a seven years’ drought in “ Ghor,” which was accom- 
panied by a considerable loss of life, both amongst men and 
animals. The next famine mentioned occurred in 1291, in 
the neighbourhood of Delhi, where no rain fell for a whole 
year, and the same part appears to have been again visited 
with a similar calamity in the year 1342. Two years later 
there was a famine in the Deccan. In 1413 Delhi was once 
more subjected to scarcity through drought, which appears 
to have been principally felt in the country between the 
Ganges and Jumna Rivers. The next famine recorded is 
said to have occurred in Hindustan about the year 1495, but 
neither its extent nor the particular localities affeCted are 
more specially described. After this a considerable in- 
terval occurs, no subsequent dearth being mentioned until 
the year 1661. This famine is said to have prevailed in 
different parts of India, and the Emperor Aurungzebe took 
such measures as were within his power to alleviate the 
distress of his subjects. He remitted the taxes that were 
due ; he employed those already collected in the purchase 
of corn, which was distributed among the poorer classes ; 
and he expended immense sums out of the treasury in con- 
veying grain by land, as well as by water, into the interior 
provinces, from Bengal, and from the countries which lie 
on the five branches of the Indus, which suffered less on 
account of the great rivers by which they are watered. 
The grain so conveyed was purchased, at any price, with 
the public money, and it was re-sold at a very moderate 
rate, whilst the poorer people were supplied, at fixed places, 
with a certain quantity without any consideration whatever. 
By these measures, it is stated, whole provinces were 
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