A History of Agriculture in India v2.c83.s3.1

v2.c83.s3.1

Of the European travellers who came to India during the Mughal rule, the most intelligent and learned was Francois Bernier, a frenchman. He was born at Joue, near Gonnord, in Anjou on 25 September 1620. His parents, cultivators of the soil, were leaseholders, in the Barony of Etiau, of land belonging to the Canonry of St Maurice at Angers. His peasant origin explains his interest in farmers and agriculture. In 1652 he took his degree as Doctor of Medicine at the University of Montpellier. His guide was the philosopher Gassendi, and he owed his great powers of accurate observation to his training under him. Bernier reached Surat early in 1659. At Ahmedabad, he met Prince Dara Shikoh and accompanied him as his physician. After the defeat of Dara Shikoh by Aurangzeb, he proceeded to Delhi, where he attached himself to a Mughal noble, Danishmand Khan, and remained there till July 1663. In a contemporary Mughal portrait he is shown bare-headed, seated under a tree in a contemplative mood (Fig. 61). In 1665 he travelled in Kashmir and Bengal. In 1666 he travelled from Masulipatam to Golkonda and returned to France, and died in Paris on 22 September 1688.