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Administrative System of the Marathas c23.s15: 6. Agriculture

Administrative System of the Marathas c23.s15

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6. Agriculture

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All Maratha rulers from Shivaji to Madhava Rao II took particular care to improve and extend agriculture, to reclaim waste lands, to found new villages and market towns, to induce traders, artisans and cultivators from other territories to come and settle, and thereby contribute to the wealth and prosperity of the kingdom as well as to the revenue of the king. Shivaji ordered that "New Rayats (who) will come (to settle) should be given cattle. Grain and money should be given (to them) for providing themselves with seeds. Money and grain (should be) given for their subsistence (and) the sum should be realised in two or four years according to the means (of the Rayats). In this manner should the Rayats be supported." 47 This policy was not only continued but further developed under the Peshwas. In a letter dated 1774 addressed to Mahadeva Nana Shet, Mamlatdar of Amod, he is instructed to bring the waste lands under cultivation and to advance Tagai to the Rayats. The details of concessions to be made for the reclamation of waste lands are given in another document; "Should any person bring an entirely rocky ground under cultivation by covering it with earth and by providing embankments around it, half the land shall be given him in Inam and the remaining half shall be continued rent-free for twenty years and at reduced rate for five years more and shall after that period be subjected to full assessment. Should any person reclaim cultivable land on the sea coast by providing embankments, one-fourth of the land shall be given to him in Inam and the remaining portion shall be continued rent-free and at reduced rates for such periods as upon a consideration of the money and labour spent may seem fit." This was not all. Irrigation works were either constructed by the State or a substantial grant was made to encourage and further private enterprise. In times of famine "no fee was levied from cultivators purchasing bullocks and buffaloes in case they were in want of cattle for agricultural purposes."

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⁴⁸ Shukraniti, S. B. H., p. 149.

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⁴⁷ S. N. Sen, Siva Chhatrapati, p. 37.

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These were the various concessions made for improving and extending agriculture under the Peshwa regime. It may be added that similar concessions were made for the introduction of new, and for the improvement of infant, industries as well as for the foundation of new market towns.

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Let us now see what was done, or what in theory at least was recommended, by Hindu writers on polity for the improvement and development of agricultural industry. Shukra simply lays down that "If people undertake new industries or cultivate new lands and dig tanks, canals, wells, etc., for their good, the king should not demand anything of them until they realise profit twice the expenditure."⁴⁸ Kautilya recommends similar concessions more than once. "Unprepared lands," he observes, "shall not be taken away from those who are preparing them for cultivation."⁴⁹ This is however not much. In a subsequent passage he goes a step further, provides for a reduced rate of rent for reclaimed waste lands as an inducement for undertaking their cultivation, but even there he is not too liberal. He still expects something from the cultivator. "Fields that are left unsown may be brought under cultivation by employing those who cultivate for half the share in the produce or those who live by their own physical exertion may cultivate such fields for 1/4th or 1/8th of the produce grown; or they may pay (to the king) as much as they can without entailing any hardship upon themselves, with the exception of their own private lands that are difficult to cultivate." 50 But we should remember that this recommendation applies to those lands only which remain fallow for want of hands alone. Their cultivation does not demand any unusual hardship or present any exceptional difficulty. The Mauryan sage offers really tempting terms for improving irrigation facilities and reclaiming waste or uncultivated tracts. In the case of construction of new works, as tanks, lakes, etc., taxes (on the lands below such tanks) shall be remitted for five years. For repairing neglected or ruined works of a similar nature, taxes shall be remitted for four years. For improving or extending water works, taxes shall be remitted for three years. In the case of acquiring such newly started works by mortgage or purchase, taxes on the land below such works shall be remitted for two years. If uncultivated tracts are acquired for cultivation by mortgage, purchase or in any other way, remission of taxes shall be for two years. Out of crops grown by irrigation by means of wind power or bullocks or below tanks, in fields, parks, flower gardens, or in any other way, so much of the produce as would not entail hardship on the cultivator may be given to the Government. Persons who cultivate the lands below tanks, etc., of others at a stipulated price, or for annual rent, or for certain number of shares of the crops grown, or persons, who are permitted to enjoy such lands free of rent of any kind, shall keep the tanks, etc., in good repair; otherwise they shall be punished with a fine of double the loss." And finally he lays down that the "kings shall never demand of such of his subjects as live in the tracts of low quality * * He shall, on the other hand, supply with grain and cattle those who colonise waste lands." ⁵¹

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⁴⁸ Sukra Niti, S. B. H., p. 148.

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⁴⁹ Kautilya, p. 52.

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⁵⁰ Kautilya, p. 144.

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⁵¹ Kautilya, pp. 216 and 302.

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The resemblance between these regulations of Kautilya and Sukra and those of the Marathas is too striking to be dismissed as accidental. The Marathas were Hindus, their rise had been preceded by the revival of Hinduism of a living liberal and militant type, and they had inherited the old traditions of the land with the indigenous faith, it is therefore but fair to acknowledge that their land revenue system was nothing but an evolution of the old Hindu system, transmitted almost in its entirety by the Muhammadans. The Muhammadans no doubt made a change here and an addition there, but that did not materially affect its real character, and to look at it whether under the Muhammadans or the Marathas is but to recognise it as the time honoured system that prevailed in Mauryan and possibly pre-Mauryan India.

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