Administrative System of the Marathas c27.s7: 7. Taxes and Cesses
Administrative System of the Marathas c27.s7
- Language
- English
7. Taxes and Cesses
c27.s7.1
If the Mughals had been instrumental in the survival of many good Hindu practices, they were no less responsible for many of the vexatious cesses and dues. This was but natural, human nature being what it is. The Muhammadan rulers, on their assumption of the Government of India, found that many taxes and cesses were levied by its former rulers and they were in no hurry to abolish them. Sometimes the conscience of such orthodox Musulman Emperors as Firuz Shah Tughlak, and Aurangzib was pricked because some of these taxes did not quite conform to the injunctions of the Quran and they abolished them. Benevolent despots like Akbar and Jahangir abolished many extra cesses and abwabs because they were irksome to the trader and cultivator. But these prohibitions had little effect in the distant provinces where the local officers and jagirdars paid but scant respect to the Emperor’s wishes. Only in the big cities and the metropolis could these prohibitions be enforced. but even there it had only a temporary effect. After a few years the vexatious cesses and abwabs were all revived; and the Marathas continued to levy these dues when they became the masters of the land.
c27.s7.2
1. Lagnapatti or marriage cess was certainly one of these old dues, levied by Hindu rulers of Vijayanagar and abolished by them in the sixteenth century. We find Lagnapatti and Patdam frequently mentioned in Marathi documents, and the cess survived till the British conquest. The Marathas did not rise to power immediately after the abolition of the marriage cess by the Vijayanagar rulers in the 16th century, but in the meantime the great Akbar continued to levy it in his empire. Abul Fazl informs us, "His Majesty also takes a tax from both parties, to enable them to shew their gratitude. The payment of this tax is looked upon as auspicious. Mancabdars commanding from five to one thousand, pay 10 Muhars, Mancabdars commanding from one thousand to five hundred 4 Muhars, Mancabdars to commanders of forty 1 Muhur, do to commanders of ten 4 R. The latter fee is also paid by rich people. The middle classes pay 1 R. and common people one dam. In demanding this tax, the officers have to pay regard to the circumstances of the father of the bride."¹⁵ During the Peshwa regime the marriage cess was levied at the rate of 8 annas in case of a marriage and 1 Re. when it was a re-marriage.
c27.s7.3
¹⁵ Blochmann, Ain-i-Akbari, Vol. I, p. 278.
c27.s7.4
2. Among the taxes remitted by Akbar is mentioned *Sardarakhti*¹⁶ a tax on each tree. Jahangir also says, "Thanks to the Almighty God, that no revenue on fruit trees has been taken during my reign; and I gave orders that if any one were to plant a garden in cultivated land he was not to pay any revenue."¹⁷ So it is evident that *sardarakhti* was levied before Jahangir and Akbar, but though abolished by them it was revived later on. In Maratha days the tax was known as *jhadjhadora*.
c27.s7.5
¹⁶ Jarrett, *Ain-i-Akbari*, Vol. II, p. 66. Also Thomas, *Revenue Resources of the Moghul Empire*, p. 17.
c27.s7.6
¹⁷ Elliot and Dowson, Vol. VI, p. 365.
c27.s7.7
3. *Ashva Zakati* is a cess we have mentioned in a previous Book. It is interesting to note that a similar tax is mentioned by Abul Fazl. "From foresight and on account of the large profits of the horse-dealers, His Majesty enforced a tax of three Rupees for every Iraqi Mujammas and Arab, imported from Kabul and Persia; two and a half Rupees for every Turkish and Arabian horse imported from Quandahar, and two for Kabul horses and Indian Arab breed."¹⁸ Manucci also mentions a similar tax.¹⁹ "Most of the horses used by the Mogul come from the regions of Balkh, Bukhara and Kabul. Thence come every year more than one hundred thousand, and on them the King makes a great profit by the duty he imposes. At the crossing of the Indus alone a payment twenty-five per cent. on their value is made."
c27.s7.8
¹⁸ Blochmann, *Ain-i-Akbari*, Vol. I, p. 215.
c27.s7.9
¹⁹ Manucci, ed. Irvine, Vol. II, p. 371.
c27.s7.10
4. There cannot be any doubt that *gau shumari* or a tax on each head of oxen²⁰ abolished by Akbar, was the Mughal prototype of the Maratha Shingshingoti, but it is needless to multiply instances. "Rahdari which was collected on every highway frontier and ferry, and brought in a large sum to the revenue," and Pandari (or Pandharpatti) a ground or house cess, which was paid throughout the Imperial dominions by every tradesman and dealer, from the butcher, the potter and the green-grocer to the draper, jeweller and banker" had both been prohibited by Emperor Aurangzib.²¹ This prohibition however was not quite effective. Khafi Khan tells us, "Although his gracious and beneficent Majesty remitted these taxes, and issued strict orders prohibiting their collection, the avaricious propensities of men prevailed, so that, with the exception of pandari, which, being mostly obtained from the capital and the chief cities, felt the force of the abolition, the royal prohibition had no effect and faujdars and jagirdars in remote places did not withhold their hands from these exactions.” And again, “The rahdari in particular is condemned by righteous and just men as a most vexatious impost, and oppressive to travellers but a large sum is raised by it. In most parts of the Imperial territories the faujdars and jagirdars by force and tyranny, now exact more than ever from the traders and poor necessitous travellers.” ²² So it is no wonder that the Marathas should continue to exact rahdari and taxes analogous to pandari as the Mughals did before them. They had accepted the bad as well as the good points of the administrative system which they found in operation when they wrested the land from their Islamic masters.
c27.s7.11
²⁰ Jarrett, Ain-i-Akbari, Vol. II, p. 66.
c27.s7.12
²¹ Elliot & Dowson, Vol. VII, p. 247.
c27.s7.13
²² Ibid, p. 248.
c27.s7.14
It is needless to go into details about every tax and cess. It will suffice here if some of the taxes and cesses levied by Muhammadans and afterwards continued by the Marathas are mentioned.
c27.s7.15
1. Beth Begari²³
2. Belekati
3. Telpati
4. Tup
5. Hejib 6. Mohtarfa
8. Ghurpatti
9. Bat Chapai
10. Kotowali
14. Wancharai ²⁵
c27.s7.16
²³ Forced labour existed under the Portuguese in a very rigorous form. Even the Brahmans were not exempted from it. See da Cunha, Origin of Bombay, pp. 116-118.
c27.s7.17
²⁵ For these see Thomas, Revenue Sources of the Moghal Empire, pp. 5, 16, 17, 18 & 19. Manucci, ed. Irvine, Vol. II, pp. 386 & 387, Elliot & Dowson, Vol. VII, pp. 247 & 248. Bird, Gujarat, pp. 113 & 114. Jarret, Ain, Vol. II, pp. 66 & 67. The Portuguese generally took care to preserve the old revenue customs and usages as far as possible. A Commission with Antonio Francisco Benjamin Pinto as President and Xavier da Cunha, V.A. Ceaser de Mello, Francisco João Jacob Coutinho as members was appointed (2nd May 1867) to report on the practices, usages and customs regarding payment of rents, etc., in the villages of Daman. They submitted their report on the 24th August, 1871. The report has been published in Noticias E Documentos Para A Historia de Damão Antiga Provincia Do Norte by Antonio Francisco Moniz Junior (1900 Bastora). It recounts all the rights, taxes, cesses and privileges enjoyed by the State and the landlords, and we find (p. 168) that jirayet land was recognised for revenue purposes as in Maharashtra (terra alta chamado Jerat) that coconut trees were taxed (p. 169) (pagão por zem cajuris...dez rupias) and that rent varied according to the nature of the crop cultivated. Mention is made of a due called Dan (p. 172), most probably analogous to Dani of our list. Poruma Viga de terra de Undo do producção de Dangue, ou cara com jerat pago-se vinte e dois parās e sem jerat Vinte a titulo de Dan.
c27.s7.18
Khafi Khan has mentioned, among other taxes, cesses and abwabs, prohibited by Aurangzib, "the fourth part of debts recovered by the help of Magistrates from creditors." We have seen in Book II, how creditors had to pay a fee amounting to twenty-five per cent. of the money recovered from debtors with state help under the Peshwa regime. Customs, specially when favourable to the powerful, die hard indeed!
c27.s7.19
Customs and transit duties were levied in India by her Hindu rulers from very early times. The Muhammadan kings who succeeded them continued the old duties as usual and sometimes added to their incidence. In the early years of the Mughal rule, when Babar laid the foundation of his power at Delhi, "there was a duty levied on the frontier on goods" and "there were transit duties on merchandise transported from one part of the country to another."²⁴ Jahangir prohibited transit duties²⁵ but there cannot be any doubt that they continued to be levied. "Mundy, Thevenot, and Tavernier, who took an interest in such topics, show us a regular system of transit dues in force throughout large portions of the country, and Father Sebastian Manrique tells how the passport granted to him as an ecclesiastic to travel from Lahore to the mouth of the Indus was used by a merchant of his party to evade many demands during the journey."²⁶ Thevenot counted, on the road from Aurangabad to Golkonda, sixteen taxing posts in twenty-three leagues.²⁷ Customs, tolls and transit duties were collected throughout the territories of the Sultan of Golkonda even at the time of the Mughal conquest.²⁸ The Marathas did not cease to impose these time-honoured duties, but in their time the hardship of the merchants and tradesmen were considerably ameliorated as a class of men known as Hundikaris undertook to transport all commodities from one place to another for a single payment.
c27.s7.20
²⁴ Erskine, A History of India under the First two Sovereigns of the House of Taimur, Vol. I, p. 530.
c27.s7.21
²⁵ Elliot & Dowson, Vol. VII, pp. 290 & 291.
c27.s7.22
²⁶ Moreland, India at the Death of Akbar, p. 49.
c27.s7.23
²⁷ Ibid, p. 50.
c27.s7.24
²⁸ Irvine, Manucci, Vol. II, pp. 387 & 388.
c27.s7.25
Customs Duties were during the Peshwa regime farmed out to tax-contractors for a specified sum. Here also the Marathas seem to have followed in the footsteps of the Mughals. Manucci not only mentions tax-contractors, but gives a graphic account of their shameless conduct.²⁹
c27.s7.26
²⁹ Manucci, ed. Irvine, Vol. II, p. 175.
c27.s7.27
Thus we find that many of the cesses and taxes had been inherited by the Marathas from their ancient Hindu ancestors through the Muhammadans, while for others they were indebted to the Muhammadans alone. The term Zakat they must have borrowed from their Islamic rulers; but their Zakat could hardly be identified with the Poor tax which every follower of the Prophet of Mecca deemed it his bounden duty to pay for the benefit of the poorer and more indigent members of their community. The payment of Zakat formed part of the Islamic faith, technically therefore it could not be levied for the benefit of the State nor was an unbeliever entitled to pay it.³⁰ But it has to be remembered that Zakat was collected from tradesmen too for complete nisabs of articles of trade they possessed, by the ashirs. "The ashirs were collectors stationed by the imam on the public road in order to collect the Zakat of Moslem traders, as well as the tolls imposed on the dhimmi and harbi traders who pass him." It is not difficult to guess how the Zakat which originally formed an obligation on the part of all Muhammadan householders who possessed the taxable amount of property, became a source of income of the Non-Muslim Maratha rulers. The Muhammadans of course brought their theories of finance with them and tried to enforce them as far as possible, and as the payment of Zakat was an obligation on the part of all true believers, they continued to pay them. Gradually the more unscrupulous of the Muslim rulers began to appropriate the Zakat collected by public officers for their own use instead of properly disbursing it according to the injunctions of the Quran. The Hindus also became familiar with its collection by officers on the roadside and whether they were familiar or not with its origin, they began to regard it as a source of revenue like other taxes and cesses. When therefore the Marathas replaced the Muham-madans the term lost its original Quranic sense and acquired a far wider meaning. It was collected from all traders irrespective of their faith, caste and creed, and like some other taxes were farmed out to a contractor. But sometimes as we have seen a Kamavisdar of Zakat was appointed to check the oppression and corrupt practices of the tax-contractors.
c27.s7.28
³⁰ For Zakat see Aghnides, Muhammadan Theories of Finance.