The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c6.3

c6.3

Long before Shivaji and his Marathas were heard of, a petty Rajput chief, the ancestor of the present Raja of Dharampur, used to exact *chauth* from the Portuguese subjects of Daman. His territories were first raided and then conquered by Shivaji and as all the rights and prerogatives of the conquered were held to have automatically passed to his conqueror he demanded *chauth* from the Portuguese as a matter of routine. The demand, however, was extended to Bassein, another Portuguese possession, and in the closing month of 1677 Pitambar Shenvi¹ was sent as an envoy from the Maratha court to the Portuguese capital to settle the question, if possible, by peaceful negotiations. The relations between the two powers were not uniformly friendly, and how the negotiations ultimately terminated we are unaware. But a few letters on the subject have come down to us, which, while representing the views of one party only, form conclusive evidence of the pre-Maratha origin of *chauth*.