[Warren Hasting's] orders stemmed from a series of events beginning with the 1770 Bengal famine. In that year both the fall and summer rains had failed to materialize, precipitating one of the worst famines in colonial history, which left an estimated ten million people (approximately thirty per cent of the population) dead. This famine aroused major concern within the East India Company, both for its devastation of the population of northeastern India and for its potential impact on Company revenues, and thus the 1770 famine became a reference point for many future Company policies. Much less severe drought and famine in Bihar during the 1783 season rekindled the issue, and then-President of the Committee of Revenue, John Shore, was sent to the area to recommend appropri­ate actions. Shore took a variety of approaches to the problem, including removing transit duties on grain, lifting local bans on the movement of grain from other districts to the Patna district, and proposing that a granary be built in Patna. In January of 1784 Shore's recommendation to build a granary was approved.

Text citations from Brown, Rebecca M.. "Paṭnā's Golghar and the Transformations of Colonial Discourse." Archives of Asian Art 55 (2005): 53-63.