History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c85.s3.3

v5.c85.s3.3

In addition to disease, great natural calamities like flood, drought and excessive and unseasonable rainfall were frequent in the Deccan at the beginning of the 18th century, which aggravated the sufferings of invaders and natives alike and still further reduced the population. The state of war, spread over nearly a generation of time, had left no savings, no power of resistance in the common people; everything they produced or had stored up was swept away by the hordes on both sides, so that when famine or drought came, the peasants and landless labourers perished helplessly like flies. Scarcity was chronic in the imperial camp and often deepened into famine. The former remarkable cheapness of grain in many parts of Khandesh, Berar and Konkan now became a forgotten myth; and even in the best years, in no place south of the Narmada did grain sell cheaper than six seers a Rupee [Dil. ii. 146a], while in Multan and Bengal a bumper crop still brought prices down to two or even eight maunds a Rupee. The Mughal army at last found life intolerable.