A History of the Mahrattas v1.c9: Chapter II
A History of the Mahrattas v1.c9
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Chapter II
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A.D. 1478.—By the distribution of the governments under the administration of Khajeh Jehan Gawan, Eusoof Adil Khan Sawee¹ was, as we have mentioned in the foregoing chapter, appointed to Doulutabad; but upon the death of that minister, who had been his patron and intimate friend, Adil Khan was removed to the government of Beejapoor, where several circumstances combined to strengthen his power; till, in the year 1489, he assumed the ensigns of royalty. Such was the origin of the kings of Beejapoor, well known by their Deccan appellation of the Edil Shahee dynasty.²
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¹ [Yūsuf Ādil Khān was supposed to have been a Georgian slave, purchased by Khwāja Mahmūd Gāwān, and according to another story was a son of Sultān Murād II of Turkey. The surname Sawee or Savahi, ‘belonging to Savah,’ alludes to his supposed connexion with Mahmūd Beg, governor of the Savah province. (A.S.I., vol. xxxviii, p. 2; O.H.I., p. 291.)]
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² The Moghuls never acknowledged their title to Shah (that is, king); and, therefore, in all Moghul writings, the sovereigns of Beejapoor are only mentioned by the name of Adil Khan.
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The first prince of Ahmednugur, the founder of the Nizam Shahee or Byheree³ dynasty, was Mullik Ahmed, the son of that Nizam Ool Moolk Byheree stigmatized as the principal instigator in the murder of Khajeh Jehan Gawan.
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³ One of the situations by which Nizam Ool Moolk ascended to power was that of having charge of the royal falconry; the Byheree being a species of hawk much used in the Deccan, he obtained the name of Byheree from that circumstance. [Ranade (Rise of the Maratha Power) states that the surname Bahrī (Byheree) was a corruption of the Hindu surname Bhāirav, borne by the Kulkarni of Pātri, and that the Ahmadnagar Sultāns, remembering their origin, gave that village in inām to the Brahman Kulkarnis after capturing it from the Imādshāhī rulers of Berar. This explanation accords with the account in Briggs’ Ferishta III, 189, 190, to the effect that Nizām-ul-Mulk’s original name was Timappa son of Bhairu. During a famine in the north Deccan he accompanied his father to the Carnatic, and while there was taken prisoner by Muhammadan troops in
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Nizam Ool Moolk having succeeded to the office of the deceased minister, and having, by the will of Mohummud Shah, become prime minister to his son, Sultan Mahmood, obtained Bheer and other districts, in addition to his former extensive Jagheer; and Mullik Ahmed, who had been his father's deputy in the lately acquired territory of Rajamundree and Oureah, being recalled thence, was sent to the northward, and appears to have held a general charge of the territory comprehended in the districts of Doulutabad and Joonere by the arrangements of 1478.
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When his father, Nizam Ool Moolk, was murdered, Mullik Ahmed rebelled; and, having assumed independence, defied all the efforts of Mahmood Shah Bahminee to reduce him.
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A.D. 1512.—Kootub Ool Moolk, Turufdar of Telingana, to which government he was appointed in the year 1495, styled himself Sultan, and mounted the throne of Golcondah in 1512, under the title of Kootub Shah.
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The founder of the Berar state was Futih Oolla Ummad Ool Moolk,¹ governor of that province. The Ummad Shahee dynasty lasted till 1574, when Berar was conquered and annexed to the territory of Ahmednugur, by Mortiza Nizam Shah the first.
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¹ [Fathullah Imād-ul-Mulk (Futih Oolla Ummad Ool Moolk) was a converted Hindu, and at the time of his revolt was governor of Gāwilgarh, the northern of the two districts composing the Berar province. The date of his revolt is 1484 or 1490, in the reign of Mahmūd Bahmanī. (O.H.I., pp. 286–7.) See note on Gāwilgarh, vol. ii., pp. 359–60 post.]
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The Bureed Shahee dynasty lasted a still shorter period than the Ummad Shahee. The sovereignty was founded by Umeer Bureed,² whose influence was obtained by his control over the
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² [The Barīd Shāhī (Bureed Shahee) line was founded by Kāsim Barīd. He and his son Amīr Barīd (Umeer Bureed) in succession controlled the Bīdar Government during the reign of Mahmūd Shāh (1482–1518) and his four successors. The Barīd Shāhī dynasty lasted till about 1609. (O.H.I., pp. 287–8.)]
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one of Ahmad Shāh Bahmanī's expeditions. He was brought as a slave to Ahmad Shāh, who named him Malik Hasan and handed him over as a personal attendant to his son, Prince Muhammad, by whom his surname Bhairu, which still clung to him, was changed to Bhairi, ‘the falcon’ or, according to some accounts, ‘the falconer’—an office which he is said to have held (B.G., Ahmadnagar). Bhyri (Bhairi) is the vernacular name of the Falco Peregrinus (Jerdon, Birds of India). Ferishta's derivation of the surname should be accepted with caution.]
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king’s person; the territory he possessed never extended beyond Beder, Kulburga, and a few of the adjoining districts; the greater part was afterwards annexed to Beejapoor.
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The three states, therefore, more immediately connected with our subject are those of Beejapoor, Ahmednugur, and Golcondah.¹
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¹ A list of the princes of each dynasty, with the dates of their reign up to the end of the sixteenth century, is as follows:
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But before proceeding further, it is fit to apprise the reader that the term Deccan,² as at present used by all classes, is different from the ancient Hindoo signification, which, we have seen, included the whole tract of the five grand divisions of the Indian peninsula. Europeans have adopted the Mahomedan definition; and the modern Deccan comprises most of Telingana, part of
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² [The word Deccan is a corruption of the Sanskrit Dakshina, or ‘right-hand’—the name given to Southern India by the Indo-Aryans.]
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| Beejapoor Edil Shahee. | Ahmednugur Nizam Shahee, or Byheree Dynasty. | Golcondah, or Kootub Shahee. |
| 1st. Sultan Eusoof Adil Shah, assumed independence in 1489. Died in 1510. | 1st. Mullik Ahmed, under the title of Ahmed Nizam Ool Moolk Byheree assumed independence about 1487, and died in 1508. | 1st. Sultan Kootub Ool Moolk, assumed independence in 1512; and was assassinated in 1551. |
| 2d. Sultan Ismael Adil Shah, succeeded his father and died in 1554. | 2d. Sultan Boorahan Nizam Shah, succeeded his father, and died in 1553. | 2d. Sultan Jumsheed, succeeded his father, and after a short reign of seven months was succeeded by his brother. |
| 3d. Sultan Mulloo Adil Shah, succeeded his father, and was deposed in 1555. | 3d. Sultan Hoossein Nizam Shah, succeeded his father, and died in 1565. | 3d. Sultan Ibrahim Kootub Shah, who died in the year 1581. |
| 4th. Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah, succeeded his brother, and died in 1557. | 4th. Sultan Mortiza Nizam Shah, succeeded his father, and was put to death in 1587 by his son and successor. | 4th. Sultan Mohummud Koolee Kootub Shah, succeeded his father, and was succeeded by his brother. |
| 5th. Sultan Ali Adil Shah, succeeded his father, and was murdered in 1580. | 5th. Sultan Meeran Hoossein Nizam Shah, who was, after a reign of two months, put to death 1587. | 5th. Sultan Abdoollah Kootub Shah. |
| 6th. Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah, succeeded his father. | 6th. Sultan Ismael Nizam Shah, the cousin of Meeran Hoossein, was raised to the throne but deposed by his father. | |
| | 7th. Sultan Boorahan Nizam Shah, (the second) who died in 1594. | |
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Gondwaneh, and that large portion of Maharashtra which is above the western range of Ghauts, and which extends from the Nerbuddah to the Kistna.
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We shall now take a brief review of events during the sixteenth century, and of the state of the country and its inhabitants during that period.
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A.D. 1485.—On the appointment of Mullik Ahmed to his government of Doulutabad and Joonere in the year 1485, he found the Mahrattas, who garrisoned the hill forts, in a state of revolt; and was obliged to besiege and take the whole of the forts about Poona, including Kondaneh¹ and Loghur, and also many in the Concan as far as Dhunda Rajepoor, which was about the southern extremity of the Ahmednugur territory.
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¹ Or Singurh, as already noticed.
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The pretence set up by the Mahrattas for refusing to surrender the forts was the minority of Mahmood Shah; but they were perhaps induced to hold out at the instigation of some of the factions which then agitated the court of Beder.
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Early in the sixteenth century a new power appeared, which took some share in the events which followed. The Portuguese, under the celebrated Vasco de Gama, had made their appearance in May, 1498, at the town of Calicut in Kerala, or Malabar. In 1507, in an engagement fought at Choule,² by Lorenzo, the son of Francisco de Almeyda, against the fleet of the Soldan of Egypt, the Portuguese cannon were first heard on the shores of Maharashtra. Choule then belonged to Ahmednugur, and the country of Mullik Nizam Ool Moolk Byheree seems to have been the only one to which the ravages of Portuguese piracy did not extend. They maintained a friendly intercourse for a good many years with the king of Ahmednugur.
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² De Faria.
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A.D. 1508.—On the 30th December, 1508, the Portuguese fleet entered the river of Dabul, and the viceroy, Francisco de Almeyda, who commanded in person, having landed his men, took, plundered, and burnt the town. But the first territory of which the Portuguese obtained possession in Maharashtra was the important island on which stands the city of Goa, and which belonged to the territory of Beejapoor.
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The attack on Goa was suggested to Alphonzo de Albuquerque, by the Hindoo pirate, Timmojee, a native of Toolava.³ Goa was surprised, and surrendered on the 27th February, 1510,¹ but was retaken, a few months afterwards, by Eusoof Adil Shah in person.² It was, however, again attacked in the fair season, and finally conquered by Albuquerque on the 25th November, 1510,³ since which time it has remained in possession of the Portuguese.
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³ Commonly termed by Europeans, Canara.
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¹ De Faria.
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² Ferishta.
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³ De Faria.
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A.D. 1529.—About the year 1529, it is particularly deserving of notice that Boorahan Nizam Shah bestowed the office of Peishwa, or prime minister, on a Bramin, whose name, according to Ferishta, was Kawerseen; and from that period Hindoos acquired great influence in the Nizam Shahee government. Ibrahim Adil Shah, upon his accession to the throne of Beejapoor in 1555, likewise shewed a great preference for the natives of Maharashtra, both as men of business and as soldiers. He discontinued keeping the accounts in Persian, for which he substituted Mahratta, though deeds of importance were written in both languages.⁴ This regulation, of course, tended to increase the power and consequence of Mahratta Bramins. Ibrahim Adil Shah likewise disbanded most of the foreign troops and displaced many of the foreign nobility. He entertained thirty thousand Deccan cavalry, and introduced the practice of enlisting Bargeers,⁵ men who are supplied with a horse by the state or by individuals, instead of Sillidars,⁶ who provide a horse at their own expense.⁷
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⁴ Old deeds.
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⁵ Ferishta. [This is the Persian word Bārgīr, ‘a load-taker,’ ‘a baggage-horse.’ Bārgīrs were frequently the relatives or dependents of a Mansabdār. who was rich enough to purchase extra horses and equipment. In practice, these mercenaries were often permitted to realize arrears of pay by looting the country, and the word bārgīr became in popular speech the designation of a Marāthā trooper. In Bengal the word appears in the form borgi in a nursery rhyme intended to frighten a restless child. (Yule’s Hobson-Jobson, ed. Crooke (1903), p. 69; Irvine’s Army of the Indian Moghuls, J.R.A.S., July 1896, p. 539; Census of India, 1901, vol. i, p. 94.)]
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⁶ [Silāh-dār (Sillidar) signifies ‘bearing arms,’ from Arabic silāh (‘arms’). Burton (Arabian Nights) states the word was applied to armour-bearers, who were chosen for their valour. The Anglo-Indian meaning denotes a soldier in a regiment of irregular cavalry, who provides his own arms and horse, and also regiments composed of such men. The system survives in the mounted branches of some of the Indian police forces, e.g. Bombay. See Yule, Hobson-Jobson, ed. Crooke, 1903, s.v. Silladar.]
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⁷ A Sillidar is much more respectable than a Bargeer; he is considered in the Mahratta country a sort of gentleman cavalier.
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A.D. 1532.—In 1532 the Portuguese made a descent upon the coast, burnt the whole of the towns from Chicklee-Tarapoor to Bassein, destroyed some fortifications newly erected there, and levied contributions from Tannah and Bombay. Two years afterwards, they took Damaun, and obliged Sultan Buhadur of Guzerat, then hard pressed by the Emperor Humaioon, to cede Bassein in perpetuity; to grant permission to build a fort at Diu, and to invest them with the right of levying duties on the trade with the Red Sea, for which they promised to assist him against the Moghuls.¹
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¹ De Faria.
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A.D. 1548.—Their operations in Guzerat, and in other quarters, occupied the attention of the Portuguese for some years; but in 1548 they committed great havoc on the coast of the Beejapoor dominions, having destroyed with fire and sword the whole of the towns from the neighbourhood of Goa to Bancoote.² They were invited to become parties in a plan for deposing Ibrahim Adil Shah, and placing upon the throne his brother Abdoollah, who was then residing at Goa under their protection; but the attempt was abandoned.³
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² De Faria.
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³ Ferishta.
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The decisive battle at Telikotta,⁴ or, as it is termed in Mahratta manuscripts, Rakshitta Gundee, which subverted the Beejanugur state, was fought by the confederate Mahomedan powers of the Deccan against the Hindoo army of the Carnatic, in the year 1564. Jealousy among the allied Sultans prevented the kingdom of Canara from being totally annihilated. The brother of Ram Raja was allowed to retain a considerable sovereignty; but the government never recovered itself, and the Deshmookhs, or Zumeendars, took advantage of its weakness to establish their own independence.¹
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⁴ I follow the usual designation of that battle; but it was probably fought at some village opposite to Telikotta, across the Kistna, and consequently sixteen miles south of the modern Telikotta. [The battle of Tālikotā (Telikotta) was fought in an area between the Ingaligi ford and Mudgal, marked by a village named Bhayapur or Bhogapur, about thirty miles south of the modern Tālikotā. (O.H.I., 306, and I.G. Bom., 1909, ii. 52.) Rāma Rājā of Vijayanagar was beheaded on the field by Husain Nizām Shāh. A large stone head, now preserved in the Bijāpur museum, is believed to be the model of Rāma Rājā’s head, which stood for some years on the wall of the citadel, and was subsequently removed by the Rājā of Sātāra and thrown into the ditch below the walls. It was discovered at the bottom of the Tāj Baudi (reservoir). J.B.B.R.A.S., i. 376; A.S.I., vol. xxxviii, p. 9.)]
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¹ Ferishta, Wilks.
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A.D. 1571.—In 1571 there was a combined attack made upon the Portuguese by the Beejapoor and Ahmednugur kings. Ali Adil Shah besieged Goa and sustained a very mortifying repulse²; but the defence of Choule, which was besieged by Mortiza Nizam Shah and was defended by Luis Ferara de Andrada, reflected particular credit on the Portuguese, and, as is generally the case where a native army is defeated, the Mahomedans attributed their want of success to treachery.³
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² De Faria, Cæsar Frederick.
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³ De Faria.
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Ferishta says the officers of Nizam Shah were corrupted, principally by presents of wine. Both monarchs desisted from their attacks in August of the same year, when Ali Adil Shah’s arms were turned against some of the Rajas in the Carnatic, and in reducing them he was more successful.
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A.D. 1573.—In 1573 Maharashtra was subject to the kings of Beejapoor and Ahmednugur; with the exceptions of a part of Candeish, which was held as an independent principality by the Sultan of Burhanpoor; the northern Concan, belonging to Guzerat; and the possessions of the Portuguese. The power of Beejanugur had been for ever humbled; and Berar and Beder were annexed to the dominions of their more powerful neighbours.
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The three great Mahomedan states which divided the Deccan at this period may be here briefly and generally defined.
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Beejapoor extended from the Neera to the Toongbuddra. The district of Adonee, and probably⁴ Nundheal, south of that river, were in its possession. The coast from Bancoote to Cape Ramas, with the exception already adverted to, formed its western side; and on the east, the boundaries of its districts, Raichore, Eedgeer, Mulkair and Beder, divided it from the kingdom of Golcondah; Akulkote, Nuldroog, and Kallian became frontier provinces, and like Sholapoor, situated between Ahmednugur and Beejapoor, were sometimes overrun by the troops of the one, and sometimes of the other.
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⁴ I say probably, for the same reason that Colonel Wilks does, namely, that although included as one of the Moghul divisions of the Soobeh of Beejapoor, there is no positive evidence of its having been either taken or ceded to Beejapoor. Adonee was taken in 1567. [Nundheal is the modern Nandyal.]
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Ahmednugur extended over the greater part of Berar and the whole of what was afterwards comprehended in the Soobeh of Aurungabad. Galna, and some other districts in Candeish, and the district of Kaliannee in the Concan, or from Bancoote to Bassein, were likewise subject to this state.
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The kingdom of Golcondah extended from the territory of Beejapoor and Ahmednugur east as far as the opposite coast; but a part of the territory about Rajamundree, which had been originally conquered from the Raja of Orissa, continued to be governed by one of that Raja’s descendants, by whom tribute having been withheld, Ibrahim Kootub Shah was employed in establishing due authority in that quarter, and in settling his lately acquired districts in the Carnatic, whilst the Sultans of Ahmednugur and Beejapoor were acting against the Portuguese, or extending their respective possessions in Berar and the Carnatic.
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Under these governments, the country was divided into Sirkars, though not, perhaps, so regularly as by the subsequent arrangements of the Moghuls. The next division to a Sirkar was known by the various and synonymous names of Pergunna, Kuryat, Summut, Mahal, and Talooka,¹ and also by the Hindoo appellations, Praunt and Desh. Khora, Moora, and Mawul have been already described as lands comprehended in the Concan-Ghaut-Mahta, and such parts, from having been generally intrusted to Hindoo management, continued to be known by their ancient appellations.
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¹ [In the Bombay Presidency the Deccan districts are usually divided into two or more subdivisions, still termed Prānt (Praunt) in vernacular correspondence, and these subdivisions are composed of tālukas (talookas) or groups of 100 to 200 villages, supervised by a revenue and magisterial official styled Māmlatdār. The Mahāl survives in the term Mahālkari, the revenue official in charge of a petha or petty subdivision of a tāluka, and in the name of the Pānch Mahāls district of Gujarāt. In northern India the words pargana and mahāl are in general use, and are part of the indispensable terminology of district and revenue work. The pargana in many cases represents the area of a tribal or clan settlement cleared from the jungle. See Elliott, Supplement to the Glossary of Indian Terms, ed. Beames, 1869; also V. A. Smith’s Akbar, pp. 139, 400. See Yule’s Hobson-Jobson, ed. Crooke (1903), p. 698, for the ‘Twenty-four Parganas’ (Pergunnahs), the official name of the district immediately adjoining and enclosing, though not administratively including, Calcutta.]
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The revenues under all the Mahomedan states seem generally to have been farmed out in small portions; in some parts of the country, by single villages. Where they were not farmed, the management appears to have been generally entrusted to Hindoo agency.¹ To collect the revenues so farmed, there were *Aumils* or agents on the part of government, who regulated the police and settled civil suits; these last, in disputes relating to hereditary office or landed property, were decided by *Punchayet*.² In matters which regarded mere money transactions, it is probable that the Aumils frequently gave decisions themselves. Under the Beejapoor state there was an Aumildar who superintended the affairs of a considerable division, and to whom all other Aumildars were subordinate. This officer was termed *Mokassadar*³; and it is conjectured that he had some percentage upon the revenues but the amount is unknown. There are instances of Mokassadars having held their situations for upwards of twenty years, and been succeeded by their sons,⁴ but this was entirely optional with the Sultan. Some were removed in one year, and the Mokassadar was not always a Mahomedan. There was frequently, but not always, an authority superior to the Mokassadar, called a Soobeh: he did not reside constantly in the districts, and took no share in the revenue management, although deeds and formal writings of importance were made out in his name.
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¹ This is stated on the authority of many papers in possession of Deshpandyas, local inquiry amongst intelligent natives, and numerous circumstances throughout the country, as well as written documents in support of what the Deshpandyas adduce.
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² Under the Beejapoor state, in cases of hereditary property where the government was a party, there were about fifteen persons assembled on the Punchayet. By some old writings I have seen, two thirds of these appear to have been Mahomedans, and one third Hindoos. With regard to the Ahmednugur state, I have not had the same opportunities of gaining information; but, that claims to hereditary property were settled by Punchayet, the old papers in every district will prove.
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³ The origin of this name, as here used, is probably to be found in the Arabic word *Moqaita*, signifying the place of collecting the customs or revenue. The subsequent application of the word Mokassa by the Mahrattas, though perhaps taken from this source, is, like several of their revenue terms, more arbitrary than derivative.
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⁴ There is one instance where the situation remained in the same family for three generations. Mokrib Khan, Mokassadar of Kuttao, Kurar, &c. was succeeded by his son and grandson.—(Old written documents preserved by the Deshpandya’s family, who managed his affairs.)
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The condition of the Mahrattas, in the early part of those dynasties, continued much the same as it had been under the Bahminee kings. The hill forts seem generally to have been garrisoned by Mahrattas¹: they were sometimes in the immediate pay of government, and sometimes in charge of the Jagheerdars and district Deshmookhs: a few places of great strength were always reserved by the king, by whom the Killidars or governors were appointed; but to this we shall again more particularly revert. A certain rank depending on the number of a body of horse under an individual’s command, and which rank is termed by Mahomedans munsub, was frequently conferred on Mahratta chiefs,² and military jagheers, or lands given for the purpose of maintaining a body of troops, were granted for their support. The quota of troops so furnished was very small in proportion to the size of the jagheer. Phultun Desh, for which in the time of the Mahratta Peishwas three hundred and fifty horse were required, only furnished fifty to the Beejapoor government, at a very late period of that dynasty; but the Mahratta chiefs could procure horse at a short notice, and they were entertained or discharged at pleasure: a great convenience to a wasteful court and an improvident government. Titles were conferred upon many of the Mahrattas, but under the Deccan dynasties, such titles were generally ancient Hindoo appellations. Raja, Naik, and Rao were the most common, and though bestowed by their Mahomedan conquerors, the distinction was always exceedingly gratifying to the Mahrattas, especially as they invariably obtained with the title the means of supporting their new rank.
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¹ This may be gleaned from various parts of Ferishta; and by old papers in the possession of some of the Deshmookhs, it appears they were frequently intrusted with the care of the king’s forts.
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² The munsubs of the Deccan states exactly corresponded with the number of horse, from which they took their rank. In the Moghul service, munsubdars of 10,000 might only hold command of half that number of horse. The munsubs of Mahomedans rarely, if ever, exceeded 10,000, even under the Moghul government, but Mahrattas in the service of the emperor had much higher munsubs; in one instance, a Mahratta chief, as will be hereafter observed, had a munsub of 24,000 conferred on him. [Under the Mughals the mansabdārs (‘office-holders’) were administrative officials, exercising general powers. The greater part of the Mughal imperial army consisted of contingents furnished by the Rājās and mansabdārs, the latter being divided into thirty-three classes, each member of which was expected to furnish a cavalry contingent. (O.H.I., pp. 370-1.) These graded officials were known as ‘commanders of ten thousand,’ ‘commanders of five thousand,’ and so on. Only princes of the blood royal were granted the commands of seven thousand and of ten thousand. The number of troopers actually provided by each officer did not correspond with the number indicated by his title; and no clear distinction was drawn between the civil and military duties required of these officials (mansabdārs). (The Emperor Akbar, by Count von Noer; translated by Annette S. Beveridge, Calcutta, 1890, vol. i, p. 267 See Sleeman’s Rambles, &c., ed. V. A. Smith, 1915, p. 283 n.)]
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The Mahrattas are occasionally mentioned in Ferishta’s history of the Edil Shahee kings under the name of Bergee, by which they are scarcely known to Europeans. Bergee, or Burgay, was more frequently applied by the Mahomedans to the Naiks of the Carnatic; many natives of which, who cannot speak their own language, call themselves Mahrattas; but all the troops of the Mahratta Munsubdars were called Bergee; and in many parts of India they are still known by that name: it was used like the term Baruh Bhaee ¹ of later date, as a contemptuous appellation, and perhaps originated with the foreign cavalry, when disbanded to make room for Deccanes in the army of Beejapoor. They were always found particularly serviceable in stopping roads and intercepting supplies, in hanging on the rear of a flying enemy, and in plundering and devastating a country.
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¹ Where anything is disorganized, in the hands of many, or in a state of confusion, the Mahrattas use this phrase. Europeans, in designating any one body of horse by this appellation, misunderstand both its point and its meaning. The Bramins invariably apply it to Mahratta affairs, of which they have not the sole management. [Bāra Bhāi (Baruh Bhaee), literally ‘twelve brothers,’ is explained in Molesworth’s Marāthi dictionary to mean ‘a pack of fellows of discordant dispositions and different designs united in any undertaking.’ The word was applied to the Pēshwā’s government under Nānā Farnavis by the courts of Hyderābād and Seringapatam. (Ranade’s Rise of the Maratha Power, p. 13.) The word Bergee or Burgay, mentioned by Grant Duff, is clearly a corruption of Bārgīr, and appears to be identical with the form Borgi used in a Bengal nursery-rhyme. See the note on bārgīr on p. 61, ante.]
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A.D. 1578.—In the year 1578, Ferishta mentions that excesses were committed by some of the Bergee chiefs in their jagheers in the Carnatic; and a considerable force was detached for the purpose of suppressing them; but, after a year of constant skirmishing, the officer sent against them stated the impossibility of making any impression on the Bergee horse; and the Sultan, Ali Adil Shah, with that treachery for which the Deccan has always been notorious, formed a scheme for drawing them into his power and putting their chiefs to death. His instrument for this detestable purpose was a Bramin, named Vasoojee Punt, who succeeded in betraying most of them.
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The Bergees, however, afterwards attended the standard of the Sultan’s successor; and in the reign of Ibrahim Adil Shah we find them actively engaged in their usual mode of warfare against the army of Nizam Shah.
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The Mahrattas were naturally much more numerous in the armies of Beejapoor and Ahmednugur, as these kingdoms extended over almost the whole of Maharashtra, but some of them served in the army of Golcondah. Neither national sentiment nor unity of language and religion prevented their fighting against each other. Not only did Mahratta subjects of these governments stand in array opposed to each other, but the most active enmity was frequently evinced between members of the same family. They fought with rancour wherever individual dispute or hereditary feuds existed, and that spirit of rivalry in families, which was fomented by the kings of the Bahminee dynasty,¹ was one means of keeping the Mahrattas poised against each other in the dynasties which succeeded them.
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¹ Papers respecting hereditary disputes in Mahratta families, Ghatgay’s Buker, &c.
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Some of the principal Mahratta chiefs, under the Beejapoor state, were, 1st. Chunder Rao Moray; 2d. Rao Naik Nimbalkur, called also Phultun Rao; 3rd. Joojhar Rao Ghatgay; 4th. Rao Manay; 5th. Ghorepuray; 6th. Duflay; 7th. Sawunt Buhadur, Deshmookh of Waree, &c.
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Those under Ahmednugur were, 1st. Rao Jadow; 2d. Raja Bhonslay, and many others of less note.
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In regard to the chiefs under Beejapoor, a person named Moray, originally a Naik in the Carnatic, was appointed in the reign of Eusoof Adil Shah to the command of a body of 12,000 Hindoo infantry, sent for the purpose of reducing that strong tract which is situated between the Neera and the Warna rivers. In this enterprise Moray was successful; he dispossessed the descendants of the Raja Sirkay, and completely suppressed the depredations of their abettors; the principal of whom were families named Goozur, Mamoolkur, Mohitey, and Mahareek. Moray, for this service, was dignified with the title of Chunder Rao; and his son Yeswunt Rao, having distinguished himself in a battle fought near Purinda with the troops of Boorahan Nizam Shah, in which he captured a green flag, was confirmed in succession to his father as Raja of Jowlee, and had permission to use the standard he had won. Their posterity ruled in the same tract of country for seven generations; and by their mild and useful administration that inhospitable region became extremely populous. All the successors of the first Moray assumed the title of Chunder Rao. The invariable submission manifested by this Raja probably induced the government to exact little more than a nominal tribute from districts producing so little, and which had always been in disorder under Mahomedan management.
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Another principal chief under the Beejapoor government was the Naik of Phultun, whose title was Rao Naik Nimbalkur, or Phultun Rao. The original name of this family is said to have been Powar; the name Nimbalkur is derived from the village of Nimbalik, now called Nimluk, where his ancestor resided. The origin of his Deshmookhee claims on Phultun Desh is unknown: the family is considered one of the most ancient in Maharashtra. Nimbalkur was made Sur-deshmookh of Phultun, before the middle of the seventeenth century, by the King of Beejapoor, as appears by original sunnuds of that date. The Deshmookh of Phultun is said to have become a Polygar and to have withheld the revenues of the district repeatedly; but the exact periods are not ascertained. Wungojee Naik, however, better known by the name of Jugpal, who lived in the early part of the seventeenth century, was notorious for his restless and predatory habits. The sister of Jugpal was the grandmother of the famous Sivajee. Nimbalkur never exchanged his ancient title of Naik¹ for that of Raja.
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¹ Naikwaree, which is now used to denominate a particular officer, a sort of hereditary land measurer on the village establishment, was formerly a title of respect, like the present jee, or as we would say Mr. Mahratta officers in charge of forts under the Beejapoor government are frequently termed Naikwaree in Persian MSS. and deeds.
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Joojhar Rao Deshmookh of Mullaoree was chief of a powerful family of Ghatgays; their native country is Kuttao Desh,² and is separated from that of the Nimbalkurs by the Mahdeo range of hills. The Ghatgays were Deshmookhs and Surdeshmookhs of the Pergunna of Maun, and their chief had a munsub under the Bahminee dynasty: they did not obtain the title of Surdeshmookh till the year 1626, when it was given to Nagojee Ghatgay, as an unconditional favour by Ibrahim Adil Shah, together with the title of Joojhar Rao. The amount of revenue payable to a Surdeshmookh¹ is not mentioned in any of the deeds of the Edil Shahee kings. The great ancestor of the family, Kam Raje Ghatgay, had a small munsub under the Bahminee dynasty. From that period till the present day, the Ghatgays have been notorious for their family feuds. They held Enam and Jagheer lands under the Beejapoor state, and served that government with a body of horse. Their Jagheer was immediately subject to the control of the Mokassadar.
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² [This area is represented now by the Khatao tāluka, Sātāra District, while ‘Maun Pergunna’ survives in the Mān tāluka of the same District. (I.G. Bom., 1909, i. 548–9, 551.)]
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¹ Aurungzebe allowed the old Surdeshmookhs 2 per cent., as appears by sunnuds of his time.
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The head of the Manay family was Deshmookh of Muswar,² adjoining the district of the Ghatgays. The Manays were distinguished Sillidars under the Beejapoor government, but nearly as notorious for their revengeful character as the Sirkays.
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² [The town of Mhasvād (Muswar) is in the Mān tāluka, fifty-one miles east of Sātāra. (I.G. Bom., 1909, i. 557.)]
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The Ghorepurays were originally named Bhonslay; and their ancestor acquired the present surname, according to their family legend, during the Bahminee dynasty, from having been the first to scale a fort in the Concan, which was deemed impregnable, by fastening a cord round the body of a ghorepur, or guana.³ They were Deshmookhs under the Beejapoor government, and divided into two distinct families, the one of Kapsee near the Warna river, the other of Moodhole near the Gutpurba.⁴ The Ghorepurays appear to have signalized themselves at a very early period. The title of Umeer Ool Oomrah¹ was conferred on one of the members of the Kapsee family by the Beejapoor kings.
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³ [Ghodpadē (Ghorepuray) is also the family name of the Marāthā Rājās of Sandūr (Madras). The iguana (ghodpad) figures in Indian folklore, its flesh, when cooked and eaten, being held to be very invigorating. Regarding the story quoted by the author, Acworth (Ballads of the Mahrattas, 123) writes: ‘There is nothing in it which is in the least discordant with popular belief in the powers of the iguana. Every district officer must have had proof of this.’ It is probable that popular opinion seized upon the supposed prehensile power of the iguana to account for a feat of which no more prosaic explanation was at the time forthcoming. Note Fryer’s remark about ‘the Guiana, a creature like a Crocodile, which Robbers use to lay hold on by their Tails when they clamber Houses’ (Fryer’s Travels (Hakluyt), ed. Crooke, 1909, i. 291). See Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 397 f.)]
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⁴ The Kapseekur and Moodholekur were known under the Beejapoor government, the former by the nowkus, the latter by the sathkus
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¹ [Umrā (Oomrah) is the plural of Amīr. The title of Amīr-ul-Umrā, or ‘Premier Noble,’ for a high official was first used at the court of the Khalifas. See Yule, Hobson-Jobson, ed. Crooke (1903), s.v. Améer.]
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The Duflays were Deshmookhs of the Pergunna of Jhutt, not far from Beejapoor; their original name was Chowan, and they acquired the surname of Duflay from their village of Duflapoor, of which they were hereditary Patells. They held a munsub, but no title from the Beejapoor kings.
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The Sawunts were hereditary Deshmookhs of Waree, near Goa, and acquired the title of Buhadur from the kings of Beejapoor, during some of the wars against the Portuguese. Their original name was Bhonslay, and their chief is frequently, to this day, styled the Bhonslay.² It is remarkable of their territory, Ghorepurays; a distinction which both families keep up, but for which they can give no satisfactory reason: the first Ghorepuray that joined Sivajee was one of the former. The head of the latter is the Patell of a village near Satara. [Both Kāpsi and Mudhōl are now states under the Bombay Government, the former being a feudatory of the Kolhāpur State, and the latter a British feudatory. The meaning of the terms sathkas and navkas is still obscure. Kas in Marāthi signifies ‘strength, substance, essence, pith, &c.,’ and a suggestion has been made that the terms may therefore bear analogy to the names Visa and Dasa, ‘the 20s and 10s,’ applied to certain well-known caste-subdivisions. My friend Mr. N. V. Mandlik of Bombay tells me, however, that he consulted the present Rājā of Mudhōl, who explained that the words refer to the fact that in old days the Kāpsi family provided nine fighting-men, and Mudhōl seven, for service under Kolhāpur. The main objection to this theory is that no word ‘kas’ signifying ‘warrior’ or fighting-man can be traced. The Bombay Gazetteer, unlike Grant Duff, treats the a in kas as long. This suggests the possibility of the word being identical with Kās, a Dravidian or un-Sanskrit word, signifying ‘an unmeasured plot or parcel of land,’ ‘an estate,’ which seems to carry the division of lands back to pre-Aryan ages. (See B.G., vol. xviii, pt. ii, p. 550, note 2; p. 617, note 1; and vol. xvi, p. 208, note 3.
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² [Kincaid and Parasnis (History of the Maratha People, vol. i), presumably on the authority of the Shivdigvijaya Bakhar, derive the name
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Mr. Mandlik further writes that the real surname of the Kāpsi and Mudhōl families was not Ghodpadē but Bhōslē. This is corroborated by the account of the Mudhōl family on p. 666 of Forrest’s Selections (Marāthā Series). Waring (A History of the Mahrattas, 1810, App., p. 219) mentions Kāpsi and Mudhol, and a third branch of the family at Gajendragarh, now a village in Dhārwār District, and states that Morār Rāo Ghodpadē of Gūtī (Gootee) belonged to this branch which in his time (1810) had become impoverished.]
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that the ancient appellation of the family is preserved in our modern maps.¹ They were distinguished as commanders of infantry, a service best adapted to the country which they inhabited.
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¹ The ancient name of their country is Koodhal Desh, a subdivision of Gohurasht.
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The principal Mahratta chief in the service of the Ahmednugur state was Jadow Rao, Deshmookh of Sindkheir, supposed with much probability to have been a descendant of the Raja of Deogurh. No Mahratta family was so powerful as the Jadows. Lookhjee Jadow Rao, in the end of the sixteenth century held a Jagheer, under the Nizam Shahee government, for the support of ten thousand horse.
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There was, likewise, a respectable Mahratta family, surnamed Bhonslay, particularly connected with the history contained in the following pages, which first rose into notice under the Ahmednugur government. They are said to have held several Patellships; but their principal residence was at the village of Verole,² near Doulutabad. Babjee Bhonslay had two sons, the elder named Mallojee; and the younger Wittoojee. Mallojee was early married to Deepa Bye, the sister of Wungojee, or Jugpal Rao Naik Nimbalkur, Deshmookh of Phultun. At the age of twenty-five, in the year 1577, by the interest of Lookhjee Jadow Rao, he was entertained in the service of Mortiza Nizam Shah, with a small party of horse, of which he was the proprietor. He had no children for many years, which is considered a great misfortune amongst Hindoos. He was a rigid votary of the deity Mahdeo, and the goddess Dewee Bhowanee of Tooljapoor was the Koolswamy of his family³; but both
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² It is the village close to the celebrated caves of Ellora, and from which they take their name.
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³ [Bhavānī (Dewee Bhowanee) is a form of Mahādēvī, the consort or Sakti (personified energy) of Mahādev (Siva), and ranks with Kālī, Dūrga, Chāndika and other ancient goddesses of the non-Aryan population of India, who were gradually adopted into the neo-Brah-
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Bhōslē, Bhonsle or Bhonsla (Bhonslay) from ‘the family fief of Bhosavat in Udaipur.’ The Nāgpur family of Bhōslē is stated in the Central Provinces Gazetteer to derive its name from Bhōse, a village in Sātāra District, nine miles south-east of Tāsgaon. The latter derivation is the more plausible. Bhōse appears in a statement of revenues, printed in Waring’s History of the Mahrattas, p. 240, as a pargana of the Peranda Sarkar, yielding a revenue of Rs. 35,618. It must have been a tract of country, comprising several villages. The derivation from Bhosavat is untrustworthy.]
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deities had been invoked in vain to grant an heir. A celebrated Mahomedan saint or peer, named Shah Shureef,¹ residing at Ahmednugur, was engaged to offer up prayers to this desirable end; and Mallojee’s wife having shortly after given birth to a son, in gratitude to the peer’s supposed benediction, the child was named after him, Shah, with the Mahratta adjunct of respect, jee; and in the ensuing year, a second son was in like manner named Shureefjee. Shahjee was born in 1594.
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¹ [Kincaid, following the Shivdigvijaya and Shedgāvkar Bakhars, states that Maloji and his wife prayed at the tomb of Shāh Sharīf, who had long been dead. Hindu devotion to Muhammadan saints is not uncommon. In and near Gujarāt are the tombs of seventeen Muhammadan Pīrs, or saints, which are regularly visited by Hindus. Similarly prayers and vows are offered by both Hindus and Muham-madans at the tomb of Sheikh Alī Paru at Māhīm (Bombay). (See Folklore Notes of Gujarāt, by R. E. Enthoven, 1914, pp. 96, 97). Grant Duff’s statement, however, is supported by Mankar in his introduction to the Sabhāsad Bakhar (of Krishnāji Anant) in the words: ‘At last a renowned Musalmān saint, named Shāh Sharīf from Ahmad-nagar, was engaged to offer his devotions for the birth of an heir.’]
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Mallojee Bhonslay was an active Sillidar, and had acquitted himself so well in various duties intrusted to him, that he began to attain distinction. He had by some means made an addition to his small body of horse, and was always much noticed by his first patron Jadow Rao. His elder son Shahjee was a remarkably fine boy; and on the occasion of the celebration of the Hoolee festival² in the year 1599, when Shahjee was five years old, he accompanied his father to the house
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² [The Holī (also styled Hutāshani, Phālguni and Shimga) is in origin a celebration of the vernal equinox, and commencing on the first day of the Hindu month Phalgun, whence its name Phālguni, or ‘fructifier,’ lasts for twenty days. The name Hutāshani, or ‘fiery,’ is an allusion to the practice of kindling the bonfire in a hole dug in
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manic pantheon. Tuljāpur is now the headquarters of the tāluka of the same name in the Osmānābād District, Hyderābād State, and is twenty-eight miles from Sholāpur. The temple of Bhavānī stands in a ravine at the base of the Bālaghāt, which divides the Deccan from the plain country. It is the reputed scene of the death of the buffalo-demon, Mahēshāsūra, who was slain by the goddess. An important jatra, or fair, takes place annually at the temple on the full-moor. of the Dasahra festival. A tradition exists that no Musalman or Hindu at Tuljāpur dare sleep on a bed, this honour being reserved for the goddess alone, who is put to bed every night by the officiating priests of the temple. (I.G. (1908), xxiv. 53; Historic and Descriptive Sketch of the Nizam's Dominions, by Syed Hossain Bilgrami and C. Willmott, (1884), ii. 735.)
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of Jadow Rao. It is usual for all casts of Hindoos to meet on that occasion at the residence of some principal person, on the fifth day of the festival; and when there is any footing of intimacy, the children often accompany their fathers to the place of assembly. Shahjee on this occasion was noticed by Jadow Rao, who good naturedly called the boy towards him, and seated him beside his daughter named Jeejee, a pretty child of three or four years old. The children began to play together, when Jadow Rao, in the joy of his heart, thoughtlessly asked his daughter, ‘ Well, girl, wilt thou take this boy as thy husband ?’ and turning round to the company, observed in the same strain, ‘ they are a fine pair.’ The children at this time happening to throw some of the red colour at each other, which is a common amusement on this festival, the circumstance occasioned a great deal of laughter in the assembly. This mirth, however, was disturbed by Mallojee Bhonslay’s rising up and saying, ‘ take notice, friends, Jadow has this day become a contracting party with me in marriage’; to which some of those present assented; but Jadow seemed astonished, and was mute. Affecting to treat what had passed as a mere joke, Jadow Rao next day asked Mallojee to a dinner, but he declined the invitation, unless Jadow would formally recognize Shahjee as his son-in-law. This Jadow Rao peremptorily refused; and his wife being a proud woman of high spirit, was very indignant at his having, even in jest, matched her daughter with such a person as the son of Mallojee Bhonslay. Mallojee appears, however, to have been crafty and persevering, little scrupulous about the means employed, so that his end could be attained. He retired to his village, where it is pretended that the goddess Bhowanee, having appeared to him,
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front of every house. Much lewdness and licentious speech still characterize the celebration by the lower classes. Among the Marāthās the Vīr, or deified warriors, are ‘danced’ by their descendants, who walk round the Holī fire until they believe themselves possessed by the spirits of the dead. Upper-class Hindus throw coco-nuts and specially prepared cakes into the fire. In Native States, after the conclusion of the fire-ceremonies, a Darbar is held, at which red powder and coloured water are sprinkled over the Sardārs and chief officials. This ceremony, called Rangpanchami, marks the end of the festival. W. Crooke states that ‘there seems to be some reason to believe that the intention to promote the fertility of men, animals and crops, supplies the basis of the rites’ (‘The Holi: a Vernal Festival of the Hindus,’ by Crooke in Folklore, vol. xxv, March 1914, pp. 55–83.)]
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discovered a large treasure; at all events he and his brother Wittoojee became possessed of money in some secret manner, which, in that troubled period of the Nizam Shahee government during the first years of the seventeenth century, was probably by robbery. Their confidant as to the fact of possessing the money was a soucar or banker of Chumargoondee,¹ named Seshao Naik Poonday, in whose hands the cash was deposited. But, according to Mahratta legend, the discovery of this treasure was merely a means which the goddess afforded to effect what she had, on first appearing, declared to Mallojee; namely, that ‘there shall be one of thy family who shall become a king: he shall be endowed with the qualities and attributes of Sambh²: he shall re-establish and preserve justice in Maharashtra, and remove all that molest Bramins, and violate the temples of the gods; his reign shall form an epoch, and his posterity shall mount the throne for twenty-seven generations.’
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¹ [This is the modern Shrīgonda, thirty-two miles south of Ahmadnagar, also called Chamārgonda, after a pious Chamār, or ‘tanner,’ named Govind. (I.G. Bom., 1909, i. 414.)]
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² A name of Mahdeo.
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Mallojee employed his fortune in the purchase of horses, and in the popular works of digging tanks, building wells, and endowing various temples; but he was not diverted from his favourite scheme of being connected with the family of Jadow Rao. Jugpal Naik Nimbalkur of Phultun, the brother of Deepa Bye, Mallojee’s wife, warmly interested himself to promote the proposed marriage of his nephew. Wealth too, at a falling court like that of Ahmednugur, could procure any thing; and as Jadow Rao’s objection was now confined merely to Mallojee’s rank, this was soon obviated by his being raised to the command of five thousand horse, with the title of Mallojee Raja Bhonslay. The forts of Sewneree³ and Chakun, with their dependent districts, were likewise placed in his charge; and the Pergunnas of Poona and Sopa made over to him in Jagheer. Thus, every obstacle being removed, Jadow Rao had no longer an excuse for not performing what he was urged to by his sovereign. The marriage of Shahjee to Jeejee Bye was celebrated with great pomp, and was honoured by the presence of the Sultan.¹
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³ [Shivner (Sewneree), the birth-place of Sivājī, is the hill-fort of Junnar, about fifty-six miles north of Poona, rising over 1,000 feet above the plain and commanding the road leading to the Nānā and Mālsej ghāts, which was formerly the chief line of communication between this part of the Deccan and the Konkan. (See B.G., vol. xviii, pt. iii, pp. 153–63, 184–201, and Edwardes, Byways of Bombay, p. 29.)]
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¹ The above account of the ancient Mahratta families is from MSS., old deeds, and records in the possession of their descendants.
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The Moghul invasions, for the purpose of reducing the kingdoms of Ahmednugur, Beejapoor, and Golcondah, had a great influence on the rise of the Mahrattas. The revolutions which took place in Hindoostan, and which placed the descendants of Timour on the imperial throne, gave the princes of the Bahminee dynasty an opportunity of firmly establishing their power; and had the Moghul Emperors been in a condition to attempt the conquest of the Deccan, whilst the united kingdom existed, it probably would have been the means of preserving two rival Mahomedan empires in India for a much longer period than either of them endured. When the great but ambitious Akber projected the subversion of the Deccan monarchies, they were not only in a state of warfare with each other, but internal dissensions paralyzed their individual efforts. The kingdom of Ahmednugur, in particular, was a prey to disorder, occasioned by the contests of two parties; the one headed by a Hindoo,² the other by Abyssinian nobles.³ The Hindoo faction, though they soon repented of the measure, were the first to invite the interference of the Moghuls; and the Emperor Akber, at his death in 1605, was not only in possession of Candeish, which he had wrested from the independent Mahomedan princes who had long governed it, but of a portion of the territory belonging to Nizam Shah, comprehending a great part of Berar and the fort of Ahmednugur.⁴ with some districts in its immediate vicinity. Ahmednugur fell to the Moghuls during the minority of Buhadur Nizam Shah, whom they sent into perpetual confinement in Gwalior. But the Nizam Shahee state, though its capital was reduced and its lawful prince imprisoned, was still far from being subdued. The Abyssinian faction, headed by a man of uncommon genius named Mullik Umber, attained the chief control; set up a new king, by the title of Mortiza Nizam Shah II, hoisted the Byheree standard on the impregnable rock of Doulutabad, and soon became equally formidable and respectable.
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