The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c6.37

c6.37

Shivaji was in urgent need of money. War required funds for its prosecution, even in those medieval days; and he was fighting simultaneously against two powerful enemies. He had done all that he could to develop the natural resources of his territories; but his normal income was hardly adequate for the incessant hostilities involved in the foundation of a new kingdom and the creation of a nation. He had therefore no alternative but to make war pay for war. The Muhammadan kings of India had set an example which he now emulated with rapid effect. He sent his army on *mulk-giri*, which connoted its existence at other people's expense for eight months out of the twelve. This was obviously a clumsy way of maintaining a standing army, for the material advantage accruing to the invading force was bound to be far less than the loss it inflicted on the invaded country. Shivaji realised that it would be far more profitable and convenient to exact a regular contribution from his enemies in return for an undertaking to refrain from plunder; and this was in fact the salient feature of his subsequent demand for *chauth*. Shivaji made his position quite clear in a letter to the Governor of Surat and Mirza Mosum to which reference is made in a letter written from Surat to Bombay on 25 June 1672 (fol. 47, F. R. Surat. Vol. 87): ‘The same day also were brought letters from Sevage to the Governor and Mirza Mosum demanding the third time (which he wrote should be the last) the Couty or ¼ part of the king’s revenues under this Government, declaring that as their king had forced him to keep an army, for defence of his people, and countrey so that army must be payed and if they sent him not the money speedily, he bid them make ready a large house for him, for he would come, and sitt downe here, and receive the rents and customs; for there was none now to stop his passage’. Those who condemn Shivaji as an enemy of trade and commerce forget that no belligerent power can afford to foster trade and commerce in an enemy country, nor was it to his interest to constitute himself the guardian of peace and order in Mughal provinces. It was the business of the Mughal Government to provide for the security of life and property in their dominions. How sadly they had failed in this primary duty is evident from the account of their defenceless condition as conveyed by the Surat factors to their friends at Bombay on 26 May 1677 (F.R. Surat. Vol. 89, fol. 40 and 41). ‘This citty of Surat and the countreys adjacent have for this four years been under a continuall feare of being surprized by Sevagees armys for his soldiers are loged and garrisoned securely in Nunsaree and Gundavce and the chief officers taken up the Desy’s owne houses who with their family and the Cozzy’s and the chiefe men are all fled to Surat, and Sevagees men do not only force contribution from the country but come boldly into this towne with forty or fifty horse att a time and publiquely demand provisions, and contributions from the Governor and the Kings officers, and tis confidently affirmed that Sevagees army increases daily more and more, and that many of his souldiers are loged privately in the very town of Surat upon some designe, which hath caused the captain of the castle to raise 500 souldiers more for his defence, and to keep an extraordinary strict watch day and night and you may concceive that our French and Dutch neighbours, as well as ourselves, have the same apprehension for their masters’ estates, and our own libertys, but should Sevagee surprize the towne, there is no possibility for us to oppose them, but must keep as fair termes with them as wee can.’¹ In demanding and exacting *chauth* from Mughal subjects Shivaji did nothing more than the primary duty of every soldier, which consists in taking every advantage of an enemy’s weakness and unpreparedness.