History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c36.s5: § 9. Palamau : its early history.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c36.s5
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§ 9. Palamau : its early history.
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We shall next pass on to the punishment of Rajah Pratap Rai Chero and the annexation of his kingdom, PALAMAU, which took place only two months after the fall of Champat Rai. Beyond the southern limits of Bihar lies the district of Palamau, as a sort of rugged step leading to the plateau of Chota Nagpur on the south-east and the Central Provinces on the south-west. It is a wild country, broken up by spurs and peaks, with many rainy-weather rivers unfit for navigation and yielding no assured supply of water for irrigation. The southern part of the district is extremely rocky barren and jungly; in the northern part the valleys are a little wider and more fertile; but "nowhere in the district is it possible to get more than six or seven miles from a well-defined hill. There are no level plains, and the general appearance of the district is that of a confused mass of rocky hills, mostly covered by a dense growth of jungle. From the summit of a ridge or hill, the country appears covered by a waving sheet of low forest, with all signs of human habitation concealed from view, except perhaps a glimpse here and there of a low red tiled roof, a distant grove of trees, or an occasional herd of cattle." The population is scanty, living in small and scattered villages embosomed in the hollows among the hills.[*]
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The dominant people of the district in the 17th and 18th centuries were the Cheros, a Dravidian people, said to have branched off from the Rajbhant tribe which once held sway over the country stretching from Gorakhpur to Bundelkhand and which has left there many remains of its former power.
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∗ O' Malley's Palamau District Gazetteer (1907), 2, 3, 6-9.
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The growing pressure of Rajput expansion in the Ganges valley dislodged the Cheros from the district of Shahabad. From the Rohtasgarh plateau, which they had long held, they sallied forth to the conquest of Palamau. They first entered this district as mercenary soldiers and then seized the throne by treacherously massacring their employers, Rajput chiefs of the Raksel clan (1613). The conquerors settled in the country in 12,000 families, and were given lands on condition of military service.
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This was early in the 17th century. One of the Chero chiefs, "Medini Rai, surnamed the Just, (c. 1625), extended his sway and made himself lord paramount of the southern portion of Gaya and of large portions of Hazaribagh and Sirguja, and penetrated into Chota Nagpur as far as Doisa."* His clansmen were hereditary cattle-lifters and they made life and property insecure on their borders. The Rajahs had evidently come into conflict with the Mughal empire and been forced to promise tribute. When payment was neglected, Shaista Khan, the governor of Bihar, invaded the country (Oct., 1641—February, 1642), received the submission of the chief, Pratap Rai, and returned with an indemnity of Rs. 80,000.
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∗ On the race and early history of the Cheros, O' Malley's Gaz., 18-20, 51-52 ; Beames, Memoirs of the Races Folklore &c., i. 33, 59-61. The upper classes of the Cheros in Palamau have now intermarried with the local Rajputs and call themselves Chauhans !
v3.c36.s5.7
Next year, an attempt was made by the discontented nobles (including Pratap's own uncles) to dethrone him. Both sides begged help from the viceroy of Bihar, with profuse promises. Taking advantage of these family disputes, the Mughals gained possession of the fort of Deogan (near their Gaya frontier), reduced Pratap to the status of a Mughal *mansabdar*, and turned his ancestral kingdom into a fief, subject to an annual payment of one lakh of Rupees (1643).*
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The tribute was exorbitant in amount, and beyond the power of the Rajah to pay regularly.†
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∗ Early Mughal relations with Palamau, Abdul Hamid's *Padishah-namah*, ii. 248-250, 356-361.
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† The gross revenue collected from the Shahabad district seventy years afterwards was seven lakhs. (*Chahar Gulshan*, 65 a.) Palamau is incomparably less fertile and smaller in cultivable area. Pratap's heritage had been reduced by the cession of a productive tract in the N. E. corner to the Mughals (in 1643), and much of his territory was held on service tenure, yielding no revenue in cash or grain. Under the British, the current demand of land revenue (1905) is only Rs. 1,09,000. (*Gaz.* 139). But in 1643 the gross revenue of Palamau, to be collected by the Rajah, was assessed by the Mughals at 2½ lakhs, *i.e.*, the Rajah had to pay nearly half his income to the paramount Power and could not have possibly maintained himself and his retainers—much less kept state, on the balance, unless the standard assessment was collected every year without fail, which was never the case in such a primitive and sterile country, subject to the calamities of the seasons.
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It naturally fell into arrears, while additional provocation was given by the cattle-raids of the Cheros across the Bihar frontier every year. Very likely these evils increased during the War of Succession.