Administrative System of the Marathas c24.s3.1

c24.s3.1

The Pendharis formed, as we all know, an integral part of the Maratha force. Plunderers by profession they accompanied every Maratha expedition and shared their ill-gotten spoils with the state. For they had to pay a duty called *Palpatti* or tent duty which amounted to 25 p.c., of their entire booty for the license granted to them. Occasionally professional thieves or *chortas*, as they were called in Peshwa times, were also sent both by the Maratha generals and the Habshi rulers of Janjira to harass the enemy subjects. It is noteworthy that Kautilya recommends the use of "brave thieves and wild tribes who make no distinction between friend and foe," in order to weaken the enemy. But whether their duty corresponded exactly with those of the Maratha *chortas* is not clear. The thieves mentioned by Shukracharya, however, must have been the progenitors of the Pendharis, for they shared their spoil with the king. But it seems that they had to carry on their thieving operations at the king's order but independently of any military assistance from the state, and thus acted in the same manner as the chortas. "If thieves steal something from other's kingdom by the king's order they should first give one-sixth to the king and then divide the rest among themselves."⁹ Brihaspati also refers to licensed free-booters in unmistakable terms. "When anything has been brought from a hostile country by free-booters, with the permission of their lord, they shall give a sixth part to the king and share (the remainder) in due proportion." The proportion as recommended by Brihaspati is also worth noting, as individual exertion and enterprise are taken into consideration. "Four shares shall be awarded to their chief, he who is (specially) valiant shall receive three shares; one (particularly able) shall take two; and the remaining associates shall share alike."¹⁰ It is therefore clear, that the Maratha Pendharis could boast of a very long lineage, if that counts for anything, and they had the bluest blood among thieves and marauders. Perhaps they were not sufficiently well grounded in Sanskrit to know that they had in their favour the incontestable authority of no less than two great political philosophers and one great law-giver, or they might have pleaded prescriptive right and vested interest when Lord Hastings waged a war of extermination against them. As it is, they had more faith in the good old law of might, and when a mighty government refused to let them ply their old trade, they had perforce to beat their swords into ploughshares. Some of them, the strongest no doubt, became Chiefs and Nawabs, but there again the old law held good.