The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s10.3

c7.s10.3

The system of farming out offices to the highest bidder was in the later years of the Peshwa's government rendered still more odious by the insecurity of the possession of these farms: for so-called leases were often summarily annulled on a higher offer being made. At the same time the taxation was exceedingly oppressive: in the Northern Konkan a list of thirty-six different taxes is given, cesses being levied even on cattle, vegetables, and poultry. The poverty of the people in general and the number of deserted villages were sufficient evidence of the evils of this system. "The Kolis, Bhils, Kátkaris, Thákurs, and other almost savage tribes who inhabit the jungles" were in the habit of plundering the villages at every opportunity, and were said to be in the most degraded state of human nature.¹ In the neighbourhood of the forts (which it must be remembered were scattered all over the districts) "the country was for miles round with scarcely an inhabitant, almost without an implement of any kind, or an artificer of the humblest description."² Only one exception is mentioned to the generally wretched state of the country, the island and sub-division of Bassein, where sugarcane and plantains were as now produced in abundance. "From Bassein to Dántivra every inch of the ground is highly cultivated, and the comparative and well-known wealth of the inhabitants is ascribable to the fertility and highly cultivated state of the island."³ There was also an excellent road from Dántivra to the Damanganga, but here the coast villages seem to have been freely plundered by the Pendháris.²