Administrative System of the Marathas c22.s2: E. Character of Maratha Peasants
Administrative System of the Marathas c22.s2
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E. Character of Maratha Peasants
c22.s2.2
"The most remarkable feature, perhaps, in the character of the Mahrattas, of all descriptions, is the little regard they pay to show or ceremony in the common intercourse of life. A peasant or mechanic, of the lowest order, appearing before his superiors, will sit down of his own accord, tell his story without ceremony, and converse more like an equal than an inferior; and if he has a petition to present, he talks in a loud and boisterous tone, and fearlessly sets forth his claims." *Jenkins' Report*, p. 54.
c22.s2.3
"The great body of the Mahratta people are a very peaceable and simple peasantry, of frugal habits, and gentle dispositions; there seems to be no district in India, of equal extent and population, where so few crimes are committed, and of the robberies and murders which really occur the greatest part by far are the work of the Bheels, who on these mountains as well as in Central India, maintain a precarious and sanguinary independence, and are found less accessible to such means of conciliation as have yet been tried with them, than any of their more northern kindred." *Narrative of a Journey*, Reginald Heber, Second Edition, Vol. III, p. 122.
c22.s2.4
F
c22.s2.5
*Gaon Khandi.*
c22.s2.6
This tax, Prof. Pissurlencar informs me, is still paid in some villages of Portuguese India. But what is still more interesting is that Prof. Pissurlencar finds from some entries in the *Livros dos Reis Visinhos* that Gaon Khandi was exacted from some villages in the District of Daman by Moro Pingle, Shivaji's Peshwa, in the years 1676, 1677 and 1678.