Muntakhab al-lubab 174.2

174.2

When the faujdárs or zamíndárs of a place refused to pay the chauth, and made no propositions, the Mahrattas attacked the place and thoroughly ravaged it. If, after investing a place for some days, they found themselves unable to take it, they moved away. In this way the towns of Nandurbár, Sultánpur, Jámud, and many other well-known towns of Burhánpur, Birár, and other súbas of the Dakhin, were invested by twenty-eight thousand horsemen for two or three weeks, who were finally beaten off. The Mahrattas treated caravans just in the same way, and many were plundered. The commanders of their bands did their best to settle the amount of chauth to be paid, and were not willing to pillage. Their men, on the contrary, strove to prevent any arrangement of the chauth, so that they might be free to plunder. For, if an agreement was arrived at, and the chauth was settled without plundering, it belonged to the chiefs, and the men got nothing. But, if it came to plundering, each man kept what he could lay hands upon, and the chiefs did not gain so much. Towards the end of the reign of Aurangzeb, Rání Tára Bái, widow of Rám Rája, kept up a state of warfare with the Emperor for ten or twelve years after her husband's death. She then offered to make peace upon condition of receiving a grant of the sar-deshmukhí of the six súbas of the Dakhin, at the rate of nine per cent. For the honour of Islám, and for other reasons, Aurangzeb rejected this proposal.