FAMINES IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, 1500 to 1767

1640 (a) [to 1641]: central to south-east India
Documented causes: drought
Documented effects: migration; collapse of industry

Asta Bredsdorff, "Willem Leyels liv og farefulde rejse til Indien" (1999)

p74: [Capt. Claus Rytter attempts to gather a cargo on the Coromandel coast for his ship "Den forgyldte Sol", c1640-41] "Forøvrigt havde der igen været hungersnød i området, hvorfor vævere og farvere i hundredvis var flygtet bort i et forsøg på at finde mad, så at det var blevet næsten umuligt at skaffe de sædvanlige forsyninger af tekstiler til mellemhandelen, og priserne var røget i vejret."

VOC, "Dagh-register Behouden Int Casteel Batavia ... Anno 1640-1641" (1887)

p218 (news received 31 Mar 1641): "Mr. Coggens was 2 a 3 dagen voorleden met een chaloup van Masulipatnam tot Madrespatnam gearriveert, ende waeren 4 a 5 vaerthuygen met mantimentos 't jonghste saysoen vande cust van Orixa aldaer verscheenen, van gelycken 7 off 8 voor Palliacatta met rys, oly, boter, etc., dat vermits den soberen regen, desen jaere daer ontrent gevallen, uyttermaten wel gecomen was." p380 (news received 31 Jul 1641): "Den oppercoopman, Cornelis Weylant, had in dato 18en Maert uyt Agra geadviseert, dat den eysch jegens aenstaenden saisoen uyt gemelte quartieren, hoe wel groot was, tegen den behoorlycken tyt verhoopte te voldoen, doch tot soo civielen pryse niet als het lopende jaer, vermits de cottoenen aldaer qualyck geslaecht ende wel 80 pr. cento in prys geresen waren, dat dan in Amdabath oock al dierte veroorsaeckt had, doch was te verhoopen, dat den slechten prys, die de Amadabatse cleeden in Gamron hadden gehaelt, d'selve Amadabat wel weeder soude doen afslaen."

VOC, "Dagh-register Behouden Int Casteel Batavia ... Anno 1641-1642" (1900)

pp185-6 (news received 26 Dec 1641): "De lijwaten voornamentlijck de grove sijn ontrent Agra in Jalaelpour en Geijrabath wel 25 percento meer als voorleden jaer in prijs door de groote dierte des cattoens gestijgert, even wel sal de marct gevolcht en d' incoop gedaen moeten werden. ... De geeijste baftas als andere doecken die costij niet connen geprocureert worden, sijn in Amadabath, Brodra ende Broodtcha eer tot minder als meerder prijs anbesteet. ... D'Engelsen … hadden een maeckelaer naer Jalaelpour om brede baftas als andre lijwaten (tot roode chelas) in te coopen gesonden, dat aldaer 2 ropijen (op d' corgie) dierte veroorsaeckt heeft. …"

1639 to c1640: the Stream of Paradise

'Abdu-l Hamid Lahori, "Badshah-nama" (translated selections in H.M. Elliot, "Shah Jahan", 1875)

p73: [events of the 13th year of Shah Jahan's reign, 1639 CE] " 'Ali Mardan Khan [recently confirmed as governor of Kandahar] represented to His Majesty that one of his followers was an adept in the forming of canals, and would undertake to construct a canal from the place where the river Ravi descends from the hills into the plains, and to conduct the waters to Lahore, benefiting the cultivation of the country through which it should pass. The Emperor . . gave to the Khan one lac of rupees, a sum at which experts estimated the expense, and the Khan then entrusted its formation to one of his trusted servants."

'Inayat Khan, "Shah Jahan-nama" (translated selections in H.M. Elliot, "Shah Jahan", 1875)

pp92-3: [development of the Salimgarh Fort at Delhi for Shah Jahan, 1639-48 CE] "The canal that Sultan Firoz Shah Khilji, during the time he reigned at Dehli [1290-96 CE], had made to branch off from the river Jumna, in the vicinity of pargana Khizrabad, whence he brought it in a channel 30 Imperial kos long to the confines of pargana Safidun, which was his hunting-seat, and had only a scanty supply of water, had, after the Sultan's death, become in the course of time ruinous. Whilst Shahabu-d din Ahmad Khan held the government of Dehli, during the reign of the Emperor Akbar, he put it in repair [probably in the 1560s] and set it flowing again, with a view to fertilize the places in his jagir, and hence it was called Nahr-i Shahab; but for want of repairs, however, it again stopped flowing. At the time when the sublime attention was turned to the building of this fort and palace, it was commanded that the aforesaid canal from Khizrabad to Safidun should be repaired, and a new channel excavated from the latter spot to the regal residence, which also is a distance of 30 Imperial kos. After it was thus prolonged, it was designated the Nahr-i Bihisht [Stream of Paradise]."