History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c12.195

c12.195

The cessation of agriculture and the fall in the revenue severely taxed the patience of the administration. Pressed by want and hunger, men took to robbery and pillage and the highways became unsafe. Migration from one place to another became difficult, for the roads were infested with brigands. The Sultan moved to Saragdwāri where ‘Ain-al-Mulk and his brothers brought abundant stores of grain from the districts of Oudh and Zafrabad and considerably relieved distress. Famine still stalked the land and on his return to Dihli the Sultan devoted himself with characteristic zeal to the development of agriculture. Firishta's statement⁸⁵ that the king again went to Saragdwāri does not seem to be correct, because the Sultan could not afford to be absent for a long period from the capital, and secondly because the work of agricultural organisation could have been more efficiently managed from Dihli than from Saragdwāri. Besides, neither Barani nor Ibn Batūtah mentions a second migration.⁸⁶ Barani in an obscure passage describes the