Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s25.6

c18.s25.6

The principle was that the levy should be *Jivan maphak* or in proportion to the resources of the tax-payer and these various taxes, although they look tremendous on paper, could not be very oppressive except in the hands of bad rulers like Baji Rao II. It is significant that although most of these taxes fell on lands, Mirasi lands always fetched as high a price as ten years' purchase. Some of these taxes however were not levied on the Rayats at all. Vancharai for instance was levied really to safeguard the interests of the peasants. The tax was imposed on the professional shepherds or *khilaris*, whose flocks were often let loose to graze freely in the fields and villages (mountainous regions where cultivation was difficult). To put a check on them these *khilaris* were required to take a license for their sheep and if the number ever exceeded that sanctioned in the license they had to pay a tax of Rs. 6 per hundred sheep. But the Rayats, whether Dhangar or Kunbi, was not to be taxed for the sheep that they might keep. This principle of levying Vancharai is clearly set forth in a letter written to Bapu Rao Yeshwant in 1767-68.