INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

HISTORI(JAL FAMINES. 15
"In 330 A.B. (941-42 A.D.) a comet made its
appearance, the tail of which reached from the
eastern to the western horizon. It remained in
the heavens eighteen days, and its blighting
influence caused so severe a famine that wheat
the produce of one jarib* of land was sold for
220 miskals of gold. When the value of a
spike of corn was esteemed as high as the
Pleiades, conceive what must have been the
value of wheat!"
"The famine in the land was so severe that
man was driven to feed on his own species, and
a pestilence prevailed with such virulence that
it was impossible to bury the dead who fell
victims to it." t
We now revert to the reign of Muhammad
Tughlik. It appears that, primarily, the famines
which occurred during his life were artificial,
being the result of maladministration. He
issued several edicts, by which he hoped "to
bring the whole of the habitable world .
* A m~asure now applied to our" chain."
t Elliot's History of India. To this is attached a
note on the probability of this comet being an early visit
of Halley's comet, bnt it is admitted to be a weak hypothesis.