Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s2.t1.49

c7.s2.t1.49

It has been suggested by the author of the *Tarikh-i-Firishta* that the people of Hindustan as a whole did not know how to enjoy their beautiful rivers and wide expanses of water. According to him, the people of the Deccan were fond of building their houses near running streams; while in the North, ‘if a person pitched his tent on the bank of a river, he screened it from the stream’. They displayed the same want of good taste in the construction of their houses. As a result, observes Firishta, their mansions look like prison houses and their towns and cities are flat.³ We are not in a position to judge of the correctness of these remarks, but in any case they do not apply to the royal buildings or even to the houses and cities of the Hindus, most of which are situated on the rivers.