The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c6.43

c6.43

Shahu received as a pension what Shivaji had demanded as a tribute, and what Shivaji had offered as a favour Shahu undertook as an obligation. To the Mughal Government *chauth* still remained what it had originally been viz., the purchase price of peace and security; but while in Aurangzib's time its demand indicated defiance of imperial authority, in Bahadur Shah's time it connoted unquestioned acknowledgement of the Emperor's suzerainty. Since Shivaji's time the Marathas had never once renounced their claim to the *chauth* of the Deccan, and whenever occasion offered they enforced their claim, as can be gathered from the pages of Khafi Khan: 'With large armies they invaded the *Subas* of the Dakhin, and Ahmadabad, and Malwa, for the purpose of collecting the *chauth*. To cities and large towns they sent messengers and letters demanding payment of the *chauth* from the governor or *zamindar*. Or the *mukkaddams* and *zamindars* of the towns and villages hastened out to meet the Mahratta army, undertaking to pay the *chauth*, and begged for protection. Taking back with them a messenger and a horseman to protect the village and the cultivation, instead of showing their total rent to be one or two thousand (rupees) they made it out to be four or five hundred. But whatever sum was settled, they promised payment, and gave sureties, called *ol* in the language of India. They thus saved themselves from violence and plunder.'¹ Shahu might have carried on this practice for the