Administrative System of the Marathas c23.s15.1

c23.s15.1

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."