A History of Agriculture in India v2.c86.s3.1

v2.c86.s3.1

The Marathas derived their finances from *chauth*, a tribute of twenty-five per cent of the revenue of a province. How the *chauth* was collected is thus described by Khafi Khan (1718 A.D.). 'With large armies the Marathas invaded the *subas* of the Dakhin, and Ahmadabad, and Malwa, for the purpose of collecting the *chauth*, and they plundered and ravaged wherever they went. 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 Maratha army, undertaking to pay the *chauth*, and begged for protection. Taking back with them a messenger (*harkara*) 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.