A History of Agriculture in India v2.c84.4

v2.c84.4

AGRA, the capital of the Empire, and Ahmadabad, the capital of Gujarat, were great centres of trade in the seventeenth century. Mandelslo, a native of Mecklenburg, who came to India in 1638, describes Agra in his day as the noblest city of Hindustan, and the one in which the Mughal most delighted. He says it was as much as a horseman could do to ride round the city in a day. ‘Its streets are fair and spacious, and there are some of them vaulted, which are above a quarter of a league in length, where the merchants and tradesmen have their shops, distinguished by their trades and the merchandises which are there sold, every trade and every merchant having a particular street and quarter assigned him.’ There were eighty caravanserais for foreign merchants, ‘most of them three stories high, with very noble lodgings, store-houses, vaults, and stables belonging to them.’ He counted seventy great mosques, and estimates the number of public baths ‘or hot-houses’ at above 800, the tax on which brought in a considerable revenue to the State. In and outside the city he saw numerous palaces of the rajas and lords, and, chiefest of all, the imperial palace, fortified with a moat and drawbridge.’¹