FAMINES IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, 1500 to 1767

1671 (a) [to 1673]: inland Karnataka
Documented causes: drought; Maratha raids
Documented effects: heavy mortality; depopulation; migration; voluntary slavery

Abbé Carré (trans. Lady Fawcett) "The Travels Of The Abbé Carré In India And The Near East (1672-1674)" (1947)

p233 (diary for 6 Jan 1673): "I left the town of Hukeri three hours before dawn, and we crossed a large dry and arid plain about ten leagues across. It is infertile, except for some low-lying villages, watered by some streams and ponds. These had, however, been abandoned this year by all the inhabitants on account of the extreme drought, as there had been no rain for over two years. The country people had thus been reduced to such dire necessity that they were obliged to sell their children to travelling merchants, as they could no longer support them in this terrible time. Finding no water or other refreshment in this burnt-up country, we were obliged to march the whole day with immense discomfort and fatigue. We hardly knew what to do, when about five o’clock we saw in the distance the town of Raybag, and we finally arrived there at nightfall."

Sir Charles Fawcett, "The English Factories In India: Vol.1 (New Series) (The Western Presidency) 1670-1677" (1923)

pp257-8 footnotes (letter from John Child, newly arrived at Raibag, to the Company in Surat, 3 Aug 1675): "Our journey very troublesome and uncomfortable; in the highway wee passed by many dead bodyes of men and women that died for want of food; the wayes in many places very deep [i.e. muddy], soe that our horses in some places ready to stick fast; such townes as we passed much broken and decayed, few or no people in them; where one house had a dweller ten were empty, the people being runne away for want and fear of Sevajee and oppression of their government." [This is the same area described by the Abbé Carré in 1673]