History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c85.s2.5

v5.c85.s2.5

The same was the condition of the imperial camp... Kos after kos the eye fell only on mounds of corpses. The incessant rain melted away the flesh and skin... After some months when the rains ceased, the white ridges of bones looked from a distance like hills of snow." [M.A. 292.] The same desolation overtook tracts which had hitherto enjoyed peace and prosperity. The acute observer Bhimsen writes about the Eastern Karnatak, "During the rule of the Bijapur Golkonda and Telinga [dynasties] the country was extensively cultivated. But now many places have been turned into wildernesses on account of the passage of the imperial armies, which has inflicted hardship and oppression on the people." [Dil. ii. 114a, also 136b about Berar.] The depopulation and impoverishment of the Madras Coast in the closing decade of the 17th century is repeatedly noticed in the Madras Factory Diary and M. Martin's memoirs.