Chahar gulzar-i Shujaʿi 12: Destruction of Pilgrims at Hardwar.

12

Every year, in the month of Baisakh (April), the people of India, particularly Hindus, resort to Hardwar, a place of great sanctity, for the purpose of bathing, and a fair lasts for several days. It is said that in Jumada-l awwal, 1198 a.h. (April, 1784 A.D.), in the (Hindi) month of Baisakh, when the people had collected as usual, such a deadly blast arose that fifteen hundred persons, men and women, died from it in less than two hours. In the same month and year thousands of persons lost their lives from starvation in Dehli in a space of five or six days, on account of the dearth of corn. The famine raged from Multan down to Bengal and Maksudabad, with such violence that people were reduced to a very deplorable state. They laboured under double difficulties, one the scarcity of grain, and the other the want of employment, which equally affected both the soldier and the tradesman.