The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c6.54

c6.54

Only one question now remains to be answered, did the Marathas ever undertake to protect the chauth-paying countries from external aggression other than their own? Ranade says they did so. He writes: ‘In 1668, the Bijapur Adilshahi kings agreed to pay three lakhs of rupees on account of chauth and sardeshmukhi, and the Golconda ruler agreed to pay five lakhs about the same time. In 1671 chauth and sardeshmukhi levies were recovered from the Moghul province of Khandesh. In 1674, the Portuguese possessions in the Konkan were made to pay tribute by way of chauth and sardeshmukhi for that part of the country. In return for the tributes paid by the Bijapur and Golconda rulers, Shivaji undertook to protect them from the aggressions of the Moghuls, and this protection was found very effective in the wars which took place about that time. Before his death in 1680 Shivaji had thus established his system of subsidiary and tributary alliances with the consent of the Mahomedan and Hindu rulers in Southern India whom he protected, and he enforced his demand on some of the Moghul provinces also. The demand for chauth was subsequently added with the consent of the powers whose protection was undertaken against foreign aggression, on payment of fixed sums for the support of the troops maintained for such service. This was the original idea as worked out by Shivaji, and it was this same idea which in the Marquis of Wellesley’s hand bore such fruit a hundred and twenty-five years later’.¹