Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c10.26

c10.26

The earliest reference to famine is in SB 1, where one of twelve years' duration is said to have been predicted by Bhadrabāhu. This was in the third century B.C., and in the north. The ill effects of the calamity on that occasion were avoided by wholesale migration to other parts of India, but this was a sectarian movement, and though Chandra Gupta took part in it, the action was not in his capacity as a sovereign. Of a famine equally prolonged there is mention in Grant Duff's *History of the Mahrattas* (i. 43). It began in 1396, and from its severity was specially distinguished by the name of Durgā Dēvī. But no steps taken by the State for the relief of famine are recorded in our inscriptions. On the other hand, Ch. 108 of 1540 says that at that time all grains sold at 7 *mana* (maunds) for 1 *hana* (fanam), and that men ate men (*manuśa manuśara tindaru*). Things were apparently left to take their own course.