Shivaji and His Times c13.s12.15

c13.s12.15

The territory annexed by Shivaji in the Karnatak was estimated to yield 20 lakhs of hun a year and included a hundred forts, taken or built by him. (Sabh. 90.) In August 1678, the Madras factors write, "Shivaji by his deputies has a full and quiet possession of all these countries about those two strong castles of Jinji and Vellore, which are worth 22 lakh of pardoes or 550 thousand pounds sterling per annum, at five shillings the pardoe, in which he has a considerable force of men and horse, 72 strong hills and 14 forts [in the plain],—being 60 leagues long and 40 broad." (Diary and Consult. 1678-79, pp. 105-106.) But gold, and not land, was his chief object. The whole of the Karnatak was "peeled to the bones" by his system of "organized plunder" and exaction, which is graphically described by the Madras President as well as by Francois Martin. The booty carried off in this expedition* was so vast as to stagger the imagination of the Maratha chroniclers, and they made no attempt to compute its value.