Shivaji and His Times c13.s10: §11. Condition of the invaded country
Shivaji and His Times c13.s10
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§11. Condition of the invaded country
c13.s10.1
The flood of Maratha invasion swept over the Karnatak plains. Only a few fortified places offered resistance and stood like islands above the waste of waters, for some time. The vanguard of a thousand horsemen rode a day or two's march ahead of the main body which Shivaji accompanied. The report of his exactions and the fury of his soldiery had preceded him; and at the news of his coming, all who had anything to lose made haste to remove their property to the safe refuge of the neighbouring woods or the fortified sea-ports of the Europeans. The rich men were the first to flee, lest he should seize and torture them for ransom.
c13.s10.2
∗ *Jedhe Shakavali* says that Vellore fell on Shravan Shukla 14 (=22 July 1678.) But Madras Diary, 21 Aug., records the fall of Vellore that day, after a siege of 14 months. If we read *Bhadra* instead of *Shravan* in *Jedhe S.*, the date would be 21 August.
c13.s10.3
Shivaji was in need of money. On his refusal to deliver the fort of Jinji and his other conquests in this region to Golkonda as required by the treaty, the Qutb-Shahi Government rightly stopped the payment of the promised subsidy of 3,000 hun a day. Therefore, he sent letters to the chief places in the coast districts, in advance of his march, demanding loans to the amount of two lakhs of hun, out of which Madras and Pulicat were asked to contribute half a lakh each. The loan, which was only another name for a forced contribution, was naturally refused, and this fact, the Madras President feared, "would serve him for a pretence to play his old pranks."
c13.s10.4
Nor was this fear unfounded. As Shivaji passed by Madras southwards, he took minute account of all the rich men in the country around him with a view to estimating each man's ransom correctly. A net-work of his collectors of blackmail spread throughout the invaded province.
c13.s10.5
This was the authorized or regular exaction. But the sufferings of the people of the unhappy land, whose only crime was their wealth, did not end with paying it. Behind Shivaji's army came a vast crowd of some 20,000 unattached persons, mostly hungry Brahmans in search of official employment in the province to be conquered. Nothing could exceed their shameless greed and dishonesty. The newly appointed administrators of Shivaji and even their soldiers plundered the wayfarers and the town-dwellers without fear or mercy.
c13.s10.6
The disorder was further aggravated by local robbers. Most of the petty chiefs (the poligars or 'woodmen' as they are called in the old English and French records) of that region made peace with Shivaji by sending him tribute, and some even joined his army with their followers to share in the plunder. Nay more, the shock of the Maratha invasion dissolved the civil government and tempted every private robber to come out of his den with his band and hang in the rear of the Maratha army in the hope of picking up what the lion would leave undevoured. [Martin's *Memoires*.]