A History of the Mahrattas v1.c19.62

v1.c19.62

Kishen Rao Kuttaokur, a Bramin raised by the Moghuls,⁵ took post in the country about the Mahdeo hills, and without joining either party plundered the districts on his own account. Dummajee Thorat, an officer long under Ramchundur Punt, strengthened a Gurhee in the village of Hinghee or Hingungaom, near Patus about forty miles east of Poona, and levied contributions for thirty miles round. He was of the Kolapoor party, and acknowledged no chief except his old patron Ramchundur Punt, under whom he had first established himself, and from whom he received Sopa and Patus as a Jagheer during the siege of Ginjee. Even in Mahratta estimation he was a lawless ruffian.¹ Oodajee Chowan, another of Ramchundur’s officers and a native of Hutnee, took the Gurhee of Buttees Serala, and in a short time became so formidable that Shao was glad to enter into a compromise, by conceding the Chouth of Serala and Kurar, which Chowan long continued to receive as a personal allowance. There were several other petty depredators who declared themselves Sumbhajee’s adherents, but the most formidable of all was Kanhojee Angria, then in possession of the coast from Sawuntwaree to Bombay, who was extending his sway over the province of Kalliannee in the Concan.