The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c6.69

c6.69

In its origin and character *sardeshmukhi* differed widely from *chauth*. While the latter was based openly on might and could be exacted from any province of India, the former was based on a legal fiction and was expected to be limited in its application to the Deccan. Shivaji claimed to be the hereditary *sardeshmukh* of Maharashtra and *sardeshmukhi* was supposed to be his *watan*. In theory this claim did not conflict with the sovereign rights of the existing Governments and could be conceded by them with better grace and less loss of prestige. According to Ranade, Shivaji first claimed sardeshmukhi for Junnar and Ahmadnagar in 1650. In a letter dated July 1 1675, the Factors of Bombay wrote to their friends at Surat, (F. R. Surat, Vol. 107, fol. 109): ‘Here hath been a very great report of peace settled between the Mogoll and Sevagee and it continues still much creditted and it is said that Sevagee is to deliver up all his castles and country which hee hath taken from the Mogoll reserving only Sallera and Mawlee and that hee is to be the King’s Desy of all the countreys and that the present Governour of Juncar is to come downe to be Governour of Cullian Brimberly but to this wee give noe certain creditt till wee heare further of it.’ Both Khafi Khan¹ and Bhimsen² inform us that Tara Bai offered to conclude peace with Aurangzib, if sardeshmukhi were granted her; or in other words she offered to serve the Emperor of Delhi as his Desai in the Deccan. But the Emperor’s sense of prestige did not allow him to conclude peace on such terms. At last Daud Khan granted sardeshmukhi and chauth with the wise reservation that the collection of the two contributions should be left in the hands of Mughal agents. This arrangement, as has already been noticed, did not meet with the Emperor’s approval; and nothing but the imperial sanction could implement the fiction on which the demand for sardeshmukhi was based. Legal validity was eventually secured when Balaji Vishwanath obtained for Shahu imperial farmans for chauth and sardeshmukhi. The terms on which the grant was made were the same as in the case of chauth; but for the sardeshmukhi Shahu had to promise a Peshkash of one crore seventeen lakhs nineteen thousand three hundred and ninety rupees, twelve annas, a quarter of which was to be paid immediately and the remaining three quarters by instalments.³ As a result of this arrangement, says Bhimsen, ‘for a time the calamities of war and its attendant famine, which had vexed Dekkan for a long series of years, subsided, and the people began to taste repose; but the governors of districts and farmers of revenue were more distressed than ever, as they had now three collectors, one from the presence, one for the choute, and a third for the dees-mukkee’.¹