Zubdat al-tawarikh 14: Famine.

14

During the year 1004 H. there was a scarcity of rain throughout the whole of Hindústán, and a fearful famine raged continuously for three or four years. The King ordered that alms should be distributed in all the cities, and Nawáb Shaikh Faríd Bokhárí, being ordered to superintend and control their distribution, did all in his power to relieve the general distress of the people. Public tables were spread, and the army was increased, in order to afford maintenance to the poor people. A kind of plague also added to the horrors of this period, and depopulated whole houses and cities, to say nothing of hamlets and villages. In consequence of the dearth of grain and the necessities of ravenous hunger, men ate their own kind. The streets and roads were blocked up with dead bodies, and no assistance could be rendered for their removal.