Shivaji and His Times c4.s1: §1. Extent, rainfall, soil and crops

Shivaji and His Times c4.s1

Language: English

§1. Extent, rainfall, soil and crops

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To-day nearly eleven millions of men, forming about half the entire population of the Bombay Presidency (minus its unnatural adjunct, Sindh), speak Marathi, and another nine millions living in the Central Provinces, the Nizam's Dominions, and other parts, claim the same language as their mother-tongue.* This language has been steadily gaining ground since the days of the Peshwas, and its peaceful annexation of the children of ruder and less literary tongues has gone on unabated even during the British period.

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But the Maratha country is not co-extensive with the land where the Marathi speech prevails to-day. Four centuries ago the name *Maha-rashtra* was confined to the western edge of the Deccan plateau, *i.e.*, to a tract bounded on the north by the Tapti, on the south by the upper courses of the Krishna (probably the Warna), and on the east by the Sina.† The cradle-land of Maharashtra was, therefore, formed by the Nasik, Puna and Satara districts, parts of Ahmadnagar and Sholapur, and probably the western corner of Aurangabad,—a rough total of 28,000 square miles. The Maratha race was also settled in Konkan or the narrow land between the Western Ghats and the Indian Ocean. Here the districts of Thana, Kolaba and Ratnagiri and the State of Savant-vadi,—with a total area of over 10,000 square miles,—are now predominantly Marathi-speaking ; but in the 16th century a considerable portion of the population, probably one-half, belonged to other races and spoke other tongues.

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∗ The Census of 1911 showed a total of 19.8 millions as speaking Marathi (against 18.23 millions in 1901.) Of this total 10.74 millions live in Bombay and its States, 4.8 millions in the C. P., and 3.5 millions in the Haidarabad State. Marathi is spoken by above 86 p. c. of the population of the Konkan division, 85 p. c. of the Deccan division, and nearly 54 p. c. of Bombay city. In the C. P. 31 p. c. and in the Haidarabad State 26 p. c. of the population speak it.

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† "The word Dekkan expresses the country watered by the upper Godavari and that lying between that river and the Krishna. The name

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Four centuries ago the population of Maharashtra was very thin and forests covered much of the land. The western edge of the Deccan plateau is subject to a low and uncertain rainfall, cultivation is poor and precarious, and it is only along the narrow margins of the few rivers that the peasant is assured of a good return for his labour. From nearly the whole of the Western Deccan the heavy clouds of the S. W. monsoon are either shut out by the Ghat range, or, if they surmount this barrier, they sail away to the east leaving the land unwatered and untilled, so that "the Deccan, generally speaking, yields to much labour a bare measure of subsistence."* (Moral and Mat. Prog. 1911-12, p. 10.)

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In such a soil rice cultivation is impossible, and wheat and barley grow in very small quantities. The

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Maharashtra also seems at one time to have been restricted to this tract. For that country is, in the Puranas and other works, distinguished on the one hand from Northern Konkan and from the regions on either side of the Narmada and the Tapti, as well as from Vidarbha" or Berar. (Bom. Gaz. i. pt. ii. pp. 134, 587; xxiv. 81.)

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∗ The rain is precipitated on the coast-line [i.e., Konkan] at an average of 100 to 120 inches [in the year.] Once the crest [of the Western Ghats] is passed, the precipitation decreases very rapidly, until a belt is reached only 35 miles from the hills where the rainfall is very

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staple crop of most of this region is the hardy millet,—*jawari*, *bajra* and *ragi* or maize. But even these cannot always be depended upon. One year the rain would fail, the sprouting plants would be scorched by the sun or the young heads of grain would shrink and wither before they can grow to fulness and ripen, and there would be famine throughout the length and breadth of the land. The soil, covered with bare rock at places and with only a thin layer of mould at others, would be baked to a brown dust, not a green blade would be seen anywhere, and in addition to the human victims the cattle would perish by tens of thousand.

Linked texts (1)

Purāṇa — Sanskrit