Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c30.t2.233

v2.c30.t2.233

Dand.—There is an arbitrary tax levied throughout these regions, universally known and detested under the name of dand, the make-weight of all their budgets of ways and means. It was first imposed in Jaisalmer in S. 1830 (A.D. 1774), under the less odious appellation of ‘ additional dhuan or thali,’ and the amount was only two thousand seven hundred rupees, to be levied from the monied interest of the capital. The Mahesris¹ agreed to pay their share, but the Oswals (the two chief mercantile classes) holding out, were forcibly sent up to the castle, and suffered the ignominious punishment of the bastinado. They paid the demand, but immediately on their release entered into a compact on oath, never again to look on the Rawal’s (Mulraj’s) face, which was religiously kept during their mutual lives. When he passed through the streets of his capital, the Oswals abandoned their shops and banking-houses, retiring to the interior of their habitations in order to avoid the sight of him. This was strenuously persevered in for many years, and had such an effect upon the prince, that he visited the principal persons of this class, and ‘ spreading his scarf ’ (pala pasarna),² intreated forgiveness, giving a writing on oath never again to impose dand, if they would make the dhuan a permanent tax. The Oswals accepted the repentance of their prince, and agreed to his terms. In S. 1841 and 1852, his necessities compelling him to raise money, he obtained by loan, in the first period, twenty-seven thousand, and in the latter, forty thousand rupees, which he faithfully repaid. When the father of the present minister came into power, he endeavoured to get back the bond of his sovereign abrogating the obnoxious dand, and offered, as a bait, to renounce the dhuan. The Oswals placed more value on the virtue of this instrument than it merited, for in spite of the bond, he in S. 1857 levied sixty thousand, and in 1863, eighty thousand rupees. A visit of the Rawal to the Ganges was seized upon as a fit opportunity by his subjects to get this oppression redressed, and fresh oaths were made by the prince, and broken by the minister, who has bequeathed his rapacious spirit to his son [284].