A History of the Mahrattas v1.c30.51

v1.c30.51

One of Mahdoo Rao’s first acts was to abolish the system of forcing the villagers to carry baggage, a custom then so prevalent in India that, when first done away in the Mahratta country by Mahdoo Rao, it occasioned discontent among the men in power, and many secretly practised it. But the Peishwa having intelligence of a quantity of valuable articles conveyed in this manner by order of Visajee Punt, Soobehdar of Bassein, seized and confiscated the whole; remunerated the people for being unjustly taken from their agricultural labours, and at the same time issued fresh orders, which none who knew his system of intelligence ventured to disobey.¹