FAMINES IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, 1500 to 1767

1707 price rises (to 1708): parts of Mughal Empire
Documented causes: death of Emperor Aurangzeb
Documented effects: may be connected to fever among imperial troops

H.M. Elliot (comp.) "The history of India, as told by its own historians. The Muhammadan period." (vol 7, 1877)

p566 (from "Tarikh-i Bahadur Shah"): "On acount of the death of Aurangzeb, and in consequence of the confusion in Hindustan, the price of grain in all the provinces remained unsettled. In some places it was more, in others less. Thus in the first year after the death of His Majesty, in 1119 of the Hijra, [=1707-8 CE] the price of grain in Dehli became known to Asafu-d daula, viz. the rate at which it was sold for ready money. Wheat was twenty sirs per rupee; barley twenty-seven sirs; gram twenty-five sirs; sukhdas rice ten sirs; dal mung (a kind of vetch) fifteen sirs; mash (pulse) eighteen sirs; moth twenty sirs; 'adas eighteen sirs; ghi two sirs; pungent oil (raughan-i talkh) seven sirs; red sugar twelve sirs. When Bahadur Shah [the new Emperor] arrived at Burhanpur (on his march against Kam Bakhsh), a severe pestilence (waba) broke out amongst the royal troops. Those attacked suffered from such unnatural heat that they generally died in the course of a week, and those who lived longer than a week, after undergoing great pain and torment, recovered. The army continued its march towards Haidarabad. Twenty rupees was the hire paid to the porters for carrying a sick man for a march of three kos. Pioneers were sent on ahead of the camp to dig graves, and when the army reached its new camping ground, the tents were filled on one side, and graves upon the other." [The pestilence may have resulted from the 1705-7 scarcity]