Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s23.1

c18.s23.1

We have already seen how specially lenient assessment was made for bringing waste lands into cultivation. During the administration of the second Madhava Rao, the government went further. It seems that the rocky parts of Talukas Anjanvel and Suvarnadurg were specially unsuitable for farming purposes. The documents say that even trees and grass did not grow there. The Maratha peasants and the Peshwa's government were not, however, daunted by the niggardliness of nature, and the peasants offered to level the hill tops and fill up the *nalas* with newly-brought earth and thereby convert nature's wilderness into teeming fields if suitable terms were offered them. The Peshwa's government was equally prompt in coming forward, and the following well acceptable terms were offered: