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FAMINES IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, 1500 to 1767
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1575 plague: Gour / Gauda, Bengal1575 map
Documented causes: epidemic
Documented effects: permanent abandonment of city

John C. Marshman, "Outline of the History of Bengal" (9th ed., 1857)
pp27-8: "Monaim Khan returned with the Emperor's troops to Gour, and determined to make that city his residence. But a pestilence broke out in 1575, from a cause which was not discovered. Thousands died daily, the living, wearied with burying the dead, threw their bodies into the river, this created a stench which only increased disease. The Governor was carried off by the plague. The city was at once depopulated, and from that day to this, it has been abandoned. At the time of its destruction it had existed two thousand years. It was the most magnificent city in India, of immense extent, and filled with the noblest buildings. It was the capital of a hundred Kings, the seat of wealth and luxury. In one year it was humbled to the dust, and now it is the abode only of tigers and monkies. ..."
[It has been suggested, e.g. in Kamrun Nessa Khondker, "Mughal River Forts in Bangladesh (1575-1688)" (M.Phil. thesis, 2012) that the pestilence resulted from silting up of the Ganges channel which passed the city, as the river diverted further east to join the Padma river and favour the Chittagong mouth.]
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