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 THE CAPITAL TRANSFERRED TO DEOGIR 157 famine in Delhi and its environs as well as throughout the Doab. Grain became dear. There was a deficiency of rain, so the famine became general. It continued for some years, and thousands upon thousands of people perished of want. Communities were reduced to misery, and families were broken up. From this time the glory of the state and the power of the gov- eminent of Sultan Moham- mad withered and decayed. A PBA8ANT MAN GRINDING COE *- The second project of Sultan Mohammad Taghlak, which was ruinous to the capital of the empire and distressing to the chief men of the country, was that of making Deogir his capital, under the name of Dau- latabad. This place held a central situation, being about equidistant from Delhi, Gujarat, Lakhnauti, Sat- ganw, Sunarganw, Telingana, Ma' bar, Dhur Samundar, and Kampila. Without any consultation and without carefully looking into the advantages and disadvan- tages on every side, he brought ruin upon Delhi, which had grown in prosperity for 170 or 180 years and now rivalled Baghdad and Cairo. The city, which, with its buildings and its suburbs and villages, spread over four or five leagues, was utterly destroyed. So com- plete was the ruin, that not a cat or a dog was left among the buildings of the city, in its palaces, or in its suburbs. Troops of the natives, with their families and dependents, wives and children, men-servants and