A History of the Mahrattas v1.c25.74

v1.c25.74

The precise period when Dummajee Gaekwar obtained a share of the revenue and customs of the town and port of Baroach has not been ascertained¹; but in 1747 Kedarjee, the cousin of Dummajee, was invited to take a share in disputes among several competitors for authority in Surat, and was by one party promised three lacks of rupees as the reward of his assistance. He accepted this offer, but the object having been effected without his interference and the stipulated payment refused, he began to plunder the country in the vicinity. Syud Acheen, the person who had entered on the agreement, having no other means of satisfying him, offered one-third of the revenue of Surat until the amount should be liquidated, a proposal which Kedarjee, at Dummajee’s desire, accepted. Great disturbances continued to prevail in Surat when Dummajee was a prisoner at Poona, and this was one of many reasons which made Dummajee so anxious to procure his liberty. The Peishwa was desirous of effecting a general arrangement in Guzerat; but before he would listen to Dummajee’s overtures he bound him down by the strongest securities. He fixed a sum of fifteen lacks of rupees as an acquittance for the amount then due, which was far from immoderate; but the lenity of the Poona government is accounted for by a bribe of one lack of rupees, which was paid by Dummajee to Ramchundur Baba Shenwee for himself and his master, Sewdasheo Rao Bhow. The Peishwa also exacted a bond for an equal partition, both of the districts then held by the Gaekwar family in Guzerat and of all future conquests. Dummajee agreed to give up half the territory, and, after deducting his expenses, to render a fair account of half the surplus in all situations where tribute, shares of revenue, contributions, or prize property were realized. Dummajee also engaged to maintain ten thousand horse and to assist the Peishwa when necessary; to pay, as the Mootaliq of Dhabaray Senaputtee, an annual tribute of rupees five lacks and twenty-five thousand for his share of the Guzerat province; to contribute annually a certain sum for the support of the Raja’s establishment; to aid the Peishwa in establishing garrisons in the districts ceded by this agreement; and finally, to join in enforcing their mutual claims to tribute over the whole peninsula of Guzerat. But, until a convenient period of fulfilling these conditions, Dummajee, though no longer closely confined, was kept a prisoner at large, attended by a guard of Ballajee’s confidential troops.¹