The Memoirs of Jahāngīr (Jahāngīrnāma) 6.2.3

6.2.3

The annual crop is 500 maunds by Hindustan weight, equal to 5,000 wilayat (Persian) maunds. In attendance on my revered father, I went to this place at the season when the saffron was in flower. On other plants of the world, first the branches (stems) shoot out and then the leaves and flowers. On the contrary, when the saffron stem is four fingers breadth from the dry ground, its flowers shoot out, of the colour of the iris, with four petals, and in the middle are four threads (risha) of an orange colour like that of the flower, and of the length of a finger-joint. This is the saffron. The land is not ploughed or irrigated, the plant springs up amongst the clods. In some places its cultivation extends for a kos, and in others for half a kos. It looks better from a distance. At the time of plucking, all my attendants got headache from its sharp scent. Though I drank wine and took a cup, I too got headache. I asked the animal-like Kashmiris, who were employed in picking the flowers, how they felt. I ascertained that they had never experienced headache in their lives.