A History of the Mahrattas v1.c30.121

v1.c30.121

The private assessment was supposed to be favourable to the cultivator, as well as pleasing to the Mamlitdar and district officers. Mahdoo Rao prevented the excess of the abuse by vigilant supervision, and by readily listening to the complaints of the common cultivators; as to the village officers, they all participated, and from them information could only be obtained through some of the discontented hereditary claimants, whose statements were often fabricated and so difficult to substantiate, that the government, much occupied by its great political transactions, generally made it a rule only to prosecute the chief authorities on great occasions, to take security from interested informants before examining the proofs, and to leave minor delinquency to the investigation of Mamlitdars. It might be supposed that a system so defective, with the door of corruption left open by the connivance of government, would be followed by every act of injustice, oppression, and violence; but the evils fell more on the state than on individuals; and at that time the Mahratta country, in proportion to its fertility, was probably more thriving than any other part of India.¹