The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c6.41

c6.41

¹ In a letter from Chupra dated 24 February 1679-80 (Factory Records, Surat, Vol. 108, fol. 53), we read: ‘As to Sevagees forces they have plundered and burnt most of these parts, excepting the townes which pays him 4 part, those he meddles not.’ It can be safely inferred that this was his uniform practice, for in a Surat letter dated 19 December 1670, (Factory Records, Surat, Vol. 105, fol. 93) we find that while he plundered Karanja, he spared the villages about Nandurbar, from which, ‘he hath taken writings that they will pay him 4 per cent. (probably a clerical mistake) of the revenues thereof’. In 1678 the Governor of Hubli purchased the forbearance of Shivaji’s army by payment of *chauth* as the Carwar merchants wrote on 5 May 1678, ‘this hee sayes was partely (due) to the payment of Sevagee’s ‡ part of the revenue of Hubely veliott, having made peace with him upon those termes’ (Factory Records, Surat, Vol. 107. fols. 91-2). Also see another Carwar letter dated 24 August 1678, Factory Records, Surat, Vol. 107, fols. 135-6. The successors of Shivaji also conformed to the same practice as in 1704 they ravaged the greater part of Berar but desisted from doing any