FAMINES IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, 1500 to 1767

1650 (a) [to 1651]: north-central India
Documented causes: drought (+ locusts in Multan)
Documented effects: livestock deaths; industry and transport impaired

"The English Factories in India: 1646 - 1650" (1914)

p322: [Editor's summary of information from Delhi, in report from the President, at Swally Marine, to the Company in London, 24 Oct 1650] "… the indigo crop is spoiled this year for want of rain, with the result that there is not likely to be the twentieth part of what was gathered last year, and this will be both bad and dear. … 'This yeare there hath very little rayne fallen in all parts of India, and since the middle of July little or none: soe that corne is risen in many places already to double the price, and a dearth is extreamly and generally feared.' "

"The English Factories in India: 1651 - 1654" (1915)

p10: [Editor's summary of report from Delhi to the President and Council at Surat, 4 Jan 1651] "Burnell writes from Nygome [=possibly Nowagon, between Kanauj and Lucknow] that 'mercolls' are now at 28 and 29 rupees per corge (eight rupees higher than last year), 'by reason of the dearth of corne, dearnesse of cotton, and scarcitye of pice'." p29: [Editor's summary of report from the President, at Swally Marine, to the Company in London, 31 Jan 1651] "Sugar was so scarce last year that the little now forwarded was procured with difficulty, while this year's crop is so short, 'by reason of the great want of raines, allmost all India over', that it will be still more difficult to get any considerable quantity for the next shipping. …"

"The English Factories in India: 1651 - 1654" (1915)

p82: [Editor's summary of report from the President, at Surat, to the Company in London, 10 Jan 1652] "Regret they could not procure as much saltpetre as they expected. This was due, as regards the refined sort, to the failure of the 'peetermen' at Ahmadabad to fulfil their contract, owing to the want of transport from Malpur, 'by reason of the exceeding mortality and poverty of cattell in those parts for want of foode'."

Irfan Habib, "The Agrarian System of Mughal India (1556-1707)" (rev. 1999)

"In the Multan province the rabi crop of 1650 had been spoilt by locusts and the kharif, as elsewhere, by drought, while the rabi of 1651 also suffered from inundations."