Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c8.5

c8.5

Among the historians and chroniclers, the *Jami‘-ut-Tawarikh* is about the only one that has given any tentative figures. Its information, again, appears to have been borrowed from some other source.² The author estimates that ‘Sawalak’ territory contained 125,000 ‘cities’, Gujarat 80,000 ‘villages’ and Malwa 8,93,000 villages.³ The author has not cared to discuss the average size of the population of what he classifies as cities, towns, and villages. This estimate of *Jami‘-ut-Tawarikh* would put the number of villages in the west of Hindustan at about a million. If we take the combined territory of Sawalak, Gujarat and Malwa to represent about a fourth of the area of Hindustan and by no means the most populated, the number of villages for the whole of Hindustan would come to about four millions—a figure which exceeds the present total number of villages for the whole of the Indian sub-continent.¹ No comment is required in rejecting such an absurdly high estimate.