The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c6.64

c6.64

Such contributions naturally appealed to the imagination of predatory people like the Bundelas and the Sikhs in the early days but it is not generally known that the English also on one occasion received *chauth* from two petty chiefs of the Bombay Presidency. It is needless to add that in this case *chauth* was not obtained by military expeditions or plundering raids; but the Maratha rights were by a peaceful agreement transferred to the English in 1802. Baji Rao II sought English assistance after his flight from Poona and signed the treaty of Bassein, which practically marks the end of the Maratha imperial power. Among the territorial and other rights which he conceded are mentioned ‘Waunsda Choute’, which amounted to 7,000 Rupees, ‘Durumpoory Choute’ 9,000 Rupees, and ‘Surat Choute’ 4,21,000 Rupees.¹ Surat, until recently, formed an integral part of British India, and *chauth* no longer constituted any part of its revenue; but the Raja of Dharampur used to pay *chauth* to his British suzerain until India attained independence. The English took good care to include the *chauth* in all the territorial cessions obtained from the Peshwa’s Government,² for they knew that so long as the Marathas retained the right of collecting this contribution from the ceded districts, the English would never be secure from their interference. But the cession of the Dharampur *chauth* could not cause them any inconvenience, while the cession of the Surat *chauth* was doubly welcome, as it gave them in practice, if not in theory, full and undisputed dominion over that district of South Gujarat.