Later Mughals v2.c14.s17: Sec. 42.—The Mahrattas : The People and Their Country.
Later Mughals v2.c14.s17
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Sec. 42.—The Mahrattas : The People and Their Country.
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In the course of our narrative (Ch. iv. Sec. 38) we have already seen a Mahratta army appear at Dihli in the train of Sayyid Husain Ali Khan and take a somewhat inglorious part in the street riot following upon the deposition of Farrukh-siyar. From 1721 we shall find them year by year encroaching more upon Hindustan, that is India north of the Narmada, until at the end of the eighteenth century they became absolute masters in all but the name of the shrunken remnants of the once mighty Empire of the Mughals. During the early years of Muhammad Shah and onwards, these Dakhin marauders occupy a large space in this piteous drama of decay and downfall ; and thus it seems desirable to introduce at this point a brief sketch of their previous history. Fortunately, the history of the Mahrattas having once for all been written by Captain Grant Duff (1826) under such favourable circumstances as can never recur,[*] it is unnecessary for me to burthen myself with much research on the subject. What I have to say about it is derived mainly from Grant Duff, though I may occasionally be able to correct or give greater precision to his statements from Muhammadan sources not available to him.
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The country known as *Maha-rashtra* (Great Kingdom) lies in the Dakhin, that is in India south of the Narmada and forms roughly a triangle, of which the sides are from Surat to Goa 420 miles, from the sea coast to the neighbourhood of Nagpur 420 miles, and from Nagpur to Goa 490 miles. The area comprised within these boundaries is about 103,000 square miles, and the present population (in 1891) is about 12,383,411.
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∗ W. Irvine wrote this in December 1898. Since then the authority of Grant Duff (especially for the period before 1775) has been greatly weakened by the publication of a vast mass of Marathi records and the discovery of Persian sources unknown to him. For the resulting corrections, see my *Shivaji and His Times* and *History of Aurangzib* vol. iv, and the Marathi histories of G. S. Sardesai and essays of V. K. Rajwade. [J. Sarkar.]
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There are two main divisions in this country, which are very dissimilar in their natural aspects ; that to the west is known as the Konkan, that to the east as the Desh (literally “country”). The first is again sub-divided into (1) the Tal Konkan or low strip of land a few miles wide along the seashore, and (2) Konkan-Ghatmahta or ‘Konkan above the passes’. The Tal itself is rugged and broken, while the ghats are a mountain chain rising from 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the sea. The high tableland or Desh on the eastern side of these hills is as a rule about 1,000 feet below their summit. It the ghat country many of the hill summits are formed of large masses of basaltic rocks, which can by a little aid from art be shaped into fortresses very difficult of approach. This natural feature explains the number of fortresses in the Mahratta possession, and, added to the extreme difficulty of moving an army in such a country, accounts for the slow progress and ultimate defeat of all the Muhammadan efforts to subdue them. The hilly portion of the Konkan is divided in its length into three parts ; that to the north called Mawal, the middle Khora, and the south Mura. From the first is derived the name of the Mawali herdsmen, who were so numerous in early Mahratta warfare. The Desh has in it four parallel ranges of hills known as the Chandor range, the Ahmadnagar hills, a range south of Puna, and the Mahadeo hills north of Satara. This Maha-rashtra is the country of the Mahrattas.*
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∗ There are several suggested derivations for the word Mahratta. The most usually received is that accepted by Grant Duff. A region called Maha-rashtra is pre-supposed, from which word by the usual processes of linguistic decay the modern name of the people is directly obtained. But H. A. Acworth, Ballads of the Mahrattas, Introd. p. vi. inclines to find the derivation in a tribal name Rathi or Ratha, (chariot-fighter, from rath a chariot), making Maha Ratha equivalent to Great Warrior; it has then to be assumed that this tribal name was transferred to the country being finally Sanskritized into Maha-rashtra. But Mr. Baden Powell (J.R.A.S., 1897, p. 249) prefers to refer the word to Mhar or Mahar, a once numerous and dominant race, from which he gets Mahar-rashtra—“the kingdom of the Mahars”. I need only name to reject it, such a grotesque theory as that of H. D. Robertson (District Duties during the Revolt in India, 1859, p. 104, note) who believed that the word meant Mar "strike" and Hata "ran away", and was a nickname due to their Cossack-like mode of fighting. [For a fuller discussion, see Sardesai Marathi Riyasat, 2nd ed., i. 2-6. J. S.]
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The population of this extensive tract of country is at present, according to the Census of 1891, a little over 12 millions of souls, but probably in the 18th century it may not have amounted to half or even a third of that number. It is difficult to say exactly what portion of this total population is entitled to the specific name of Mahrattas. In one sense, all who live within the Mahratta country, or even all who speak the Mahratta language, are entitled to that designation. But in the political or military aspect, with which only we are concerned, it must be somewhat restricted. We therefore confine Mahratta, in our estimation of their number, to the persons who claim that name, coupled with those of the Kunbi caste.
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In religion the Mahrattas are almost entirely Hindu, and the greater proportion belong to the respectable, but far from high-ranking, caste of Kunbis, whose chief business here and elsewhere in India is that of cultivation of the soil. From these Kunbis was formed what was called the Mahratta nation and the first founder of the Mahratta State, Shivaji, was himself a Kunbi. After 1720 power passed into the hands of the Mayors of the Palace, the Brahman Peshwas or chief ministers, whose office became hereditary, entirely over-shadowing the Rajahs of Shivaji's house and line.
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It is not necessary for our purpose to go either deeply or far back into the internal history of the Dakhin. In briefly outlining the rise of the Mahratta State, it is sufficient to consider the condition of things there towards the end of the 16th century. The country seems to have been imperfectly subdued by the Muhammadan dynasties which from the twelfth century onwards had divided most of the Dakhin between them. In the sixteenth century Mahrattas had become numerous in the armies of Bijapur and Ahmadnagar, within whose territories their home country lay, and we are told of nine principal chiefs of the race, seven serving the ruler of Bijapur and two that of Ahmadnagar, north of that kingdom and nearer to their home country. One of the two families connected with the Ahmadnagar State was called Bhonsla.* They are said to have been the headmen (patel) of several villages and to have obtained their family name from the village of Bhosa or Bhonsa in which they first settled. Babaji, father of Maluji, was owner of the Hingni, Beradi, Dewalgaon and Tapatash villages in pargana Puna [M. U. ii. 342] ; but their principal residence was at Ilora near Daulatabad. Here in the year 1552 was born Maluji, eldest son of Babaji Bhonsla. He married the sister of a powerful man, the Naik or chief Nimbalkar of Phaltan, and in the year 1577 entered the Ahmadnagar service. In 1594 his eldest son was born and in honour of a Muhammadan pir or holy man, whose prayers were supposed to have been effective in procuring an heir, the child was named Shahji. Maluji died a little before 1620 and was succeeded by Shahji.