The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c6.32

c6.32

Despite the protest of Antonio Paes de Sande, the payment of *chauth* cannot be regarded as a private arrangement of the villagers of Daman, when it formed the subject matter of so many treaties from 1579 to 1719; nor could the Portuguese Government have been so ignorant of this levy in 1678, since one of the treaties had been renewed in 1670. It is equally clear that when the Portuguese Government conceded this impost to the King of Ramnagar, otherwise called the Chauthia, they did not in any way acknowledge his supremacy or suzerainty. On the contrary, from the language of the letter patent and the treaties already discussed, he seems to have been in the position of a vassal of the Portuguese. He received the *chauth* as a sort of remuneration for the performance of certain police duties.² It is noteworthy that in the viceregal letter of 1638 *chauth* is described as an impost, and in another viceregal letter of 1719 it is called a pension. Prof. Pissurlencar, Curator of the Records at Goa, said in a paper published in May 1926 that in the old Portuguese records the *chauth* is never styled a tribute (Tanto isto e verdade que nos antigos documentos o chouto e designado como uma pensao ou foro e nunca como um tributo), and he quotes Antonio Bocarro, who wrote in 1634 that the Raja Chauthia had enjoyed this pension even in pre-Portuguese times.¹ This may or may not be accurate; but the *chauth* which he collected in Portuguese times was hardly different from the perquisites granted in the period of the Peshwas to the Koli and Bhil Naiks for keeping their disorderly bands in check and maintaining peace and order throughout the countryside.²