Later Mughals v2.c14.s20.2

v2.c14.s20.2

In March 1708, after some feeble opposition by Tara Bai and her partisans, Sahu obtained possession of Satara and seated himself on the throne. It was at this time that a Brahman revenue collector first came to notice, one Balaji Bhat, son of Wishwanath, a man who afterwards became Peshwa or chief minister. In 1709 the contest with Tara Bai was continued ; but at the end of that year an agreement was come to with the Mughals, which obviated the necessity of deciding the rival claims. Daud Khan, the locum tenens of Zulfiqar Khan, governor of the Dakhin, agreed to allow the chauth, or one-fourth of the Dakhin revenues, to all leaders who acknowledged his protégé, Rajah Sahu; the money to be collected by and paid through the Mughal officials. In January 1712 Shivaji, son of Raja Ram and Tara Bai, died of smallpox; he was replaced as claimant to the throne by his half brother Sambhaji, son of Raja Ram by another wife, Rajis Bai.