146 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA

mortality, but had wholly subsided in the year 1616; the
symptoms are not described, but the language used points
to plague! Either the statement that the disease had
subsided was premature, or fresh infection supervened, for
plague was prevalent in the city of Agra in 1618, in 1632,
and in 1644, and in Delhi in 1656; while it was virulent in
the Deccan and Gujarat for several years before 1689. It
is possible then that the rural population of the North
had been affected by a prolonged epidemic of plague at the
time when Aurangzeb’s orders issued, but I know of no
direct evidence in favour of this view, and on the other hand
there is definite and credible evidence that the scarcity
of peasants was due to flight, not death.
This evidence is contained in the survey of the Mogul
Empire? which Francois Bernier wrote for Colbert, the
eminent French statesman, about the year 1670. Bernier
was well qualified for the task he undertook. He came of
peasant stock, and was thus in a position to appreciate the
agrarian situation which he found in India; while, at the
same time, he was a highly educated man, having taken a
Doctor's degree at the University of Montpellier, and he
had travelled widely, in Asia as well as Europe, before he
reached India about the time of Aurangzeb’s accession.
He spent eight years at the Emperor’s Court in practice as
a physician, he was on familiar terms with some of the high
officers, and his opportunities for acquiring knowledge were
thus much greater than those of an ordinary traveller.
That they were well used is apparent from his observations
on various topics, such, for instance, as th~ supply of gold
and silver, which can be confirmed from the Dutch and
English commercial records of the period; and there are no
grounds for rejecting his evidence on the question which
concerns us—the scarcity of peasants, and their readiness
to abscond.
This scarcity of peasants had clearly impressed itself
1 This epidemic is mentioned in some Factory Records published in
Sir William Foster's Supplementary Calendar of Documents in the India
Office; see Nos. 377, 379, 384, 393. The information is, however, not at
first hand; one report declared it was ‘‘not the plague.” but this is by no
means conclusive.
2 Bernier. The Letter to Colbert begins on p. 200; the extract given is
on p. 205: the subiect of absconding recurs on pp. 226. 232.