Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c11.79

c11.79

The region from Delhi to Banaras and from Banaras to Patna had a very large number of towns and was very thickly populated. Further east, Bengal was a great kingdom as Orissa paid it tribute. Gaur was a large city and with suburbs spread in an area of 20 to 30 square miles. The city proper ran about 7.5 in length and 1 to 2 miles in width. Pires says that it had 40,000 hearths, and Barros rightly estimates its population at 200,000.⁵⁸ Fedrici visited Chittagong, "the great port of Bengal", in 1569. To Castanheda it was like Venice,⁵⁹ "with its numerous waterways and bridges". It was a city of great commerical activity. In 1563 Venice had a population of 168,627. Chittagong should have had about 150,000 inhabitants. Satgaon, according to Pires, was a city with 10,000 hearths (population 50,000), where many merchants concentrated.⁶⁰