A History of Agriculture in India v2.c67.s7: Villages
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c67.s7
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Villages
v2.c67.s7.1
Huts in villages were constructed with the use of bamboos and thatch. As such they could be rapidly constructed and easily dismantled. 'In Hindustan hamlets and villages are depopulated and set up in a moment,' states Babur. 'If the people of a large town, one inhabited for years even, flee from it, they do it in such a way that not a sign or trace of them remains in a day or a day and a half. On the other hand, if they fix their eyes on a place in which to settle, they need not dig water-courses or construct dams because their crops are all rain-grown, and as the population of Hindustan is unlimited, it swarms in. They make a tank or dig a well; they need not build houses or set up walls—khas-grass (*Vetiveria zizanioides*) abounds, wood is unlimited, huts are made, and straightaway there is a village or a town.
v2.c67.s7.2
'In many parts of the plains thorny jungle grows, behind the good defence of which the people of the pargana become stubbornly rebellious and pay no taxes.'²
v2.c67.s7.3
² Beveridge, A.S. *Babur-nama (Memoirs of Babur)*, pp. 487, 488