History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c85.s3.1

v5.c85.s3.1

In 1688, Bijapur was visited by a desolating epidemic of bubonic plague, which is estimated to have carried off a hundred thousand lives in three months. [M.A. 318.] So, too, we read of a plague in Prince Azam's camp in Aug. 1694. [Akh. 29 Aug.] The English factors at Surat report similar devastating epidemics throughout Western India in 1694 and 1696 (95,000 men perished.)* To take one example only, the drought and plague of 1702—04 killed two millions of men. [*Storia*, iv. 96.] Thus, war and its constant attendant pestilence broke the placid repose of rural life in the Deccan and disturbed the old distribution of economic resources and activities.