08-11-2006, 01:29 AM
Continuation of posts from "Advanced History of India -Vol 1" by Majumdar:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->508Â AN ADVANCED HISTORY OF INDIA
experience, gained during his campaigns in different part® of the Empire, much diplomatic skill and foresight, proceeded cautiously against the clever Maratha chief. Raising a ring of enemies round Shivajl, he besieged the fort of Purandhar. The beleaguered garrison in the fort maintained a heroic resistance for some time, during which its "Prabhu" commander, Munar Bajl Deshpande of Mahad, lost his life with 300 Mavlis. The Mughuls also blockaded Rajgarh, the seat of Shivajf s government, Considering the cost of farther resistance, Shivajl concluded the treaty of Purandhar with Jay Singh on the 22nd June, 1665, whereby he ce4ed to the Mughuis twenty-three of his forts, retaining only twelve for himself, promised to supply a contingent of 5,000 cavalry to act with the Mughul army in the Deccan, and was permitted to compensate himself for his territorial losses by collecting chawth and sardesh-mnkhi in some districts of the Bijapur kingdom. He soon joined 4he imperialists in a war against Bijapur. But Jay Singh's Bijapur campaign ended in failure. He, however, plied Shivajl "with high hopes", and using "a thousand devices" prevailed upon him to visit the imperial court at Agra.
Jay Singh's object in sending Shivaj! to the imperial court was to remove him from the troubled area of the Deccan, but it is very difficult to understand what led Shivajt to agree to his proposal. Mr. Sardesai writes that the consideration which led Shiviji to go to the imperial court was his deske to see with his own eyes the Emperor, his court, and the sources of his strength, with a view to preparing his plans for future operations against him proparly. We know, on the other hand, that Jay Singh had to persuade him to take such a risky step by holding out promises of reward and honour and taking solemn oaths to be responsible for Ms safety at Agra, To secure the consent of the Emperor to the occupation of the island of Janjlra, then held, by the Siddi, an imperial servant, might have also been an objective of the Maratha chief. With the assurance of the astrologers and con¬currence of the majority of his officers, he started for Agra with his son, Shambhuji, and reached there on the 9th May, 1666.
But Shivaj! was coldly received by Aurangzeb and ranked as a noble commanding 5,000 men, which wounded his sense of .honour so much that he created a scene and swooned. On being restored to his senses, he accused the Emperor of breach of faith, whereupon he was placed under guard* Thus his "high hopes were dashed to pieces and he found himself a prisoner instead'*. An ordinary man would have given way to despair under such<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->AURANGZEB 'lLAMGlR 500
trying circumstances, but, being gifted with extraordinary resource¬fulness, he resorted to a stratagem to effect his escape. Pretending to recover from his feigned illness, he began sending out of his house every evening baskets of fruits and sweetmeats for Brahma^as, mendicants and nobles, as thanksgiving offerings for his fictitious recovery. After a few days, when the guards had relaxed their vigilance and allowed the baskets to go out unchecked, Shivajl and his son concealed themselves in two empty baskets and slipped out of Agra, eluding all the spies of the Mughul Emperor. He hastened with Shambhuji to Muttra and, leaving his fatigued son there in charge of a Maratha Brahma$a, reached home, in the guise of a mendicant, on the 30th November, 1666, by following a roundabout way, via Allahabad, Benares, Gaya and Telingana. For three years after this, Shivajl remained at peace with the Mughuls and utilised the period in organising his internal administra¬tion, Aurangzeb granted him the title of JRdjd and &jagir in Berar8 and raised his son Shambhuji to the rank of a noble of 5,000. But war was renewed in 1670. The position of the imperialists being weaker than before, owing to a bitter quarrel between the viceroy.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->510 ANÂ ADVANCED HISTORY OF INDIA
Shah * Alam, and his lieutenant, Dilir Khan, Shivajl recovered almost all th© forts surrendered by him in 1665. In the month of October 1670, he sacked Sur§t for the second time and captured immense booty in cash and kind. He then carried daring raids into Mughul provinces and repeatedly defeated Mughul generals in open tight. In 1672 he demanded chaittih from Surlt.
The tribal risings in the north-west then engaged Aurangzeb's attention more than anything else, and a part of the Mughul army was transferred from the Deccan to that region. The desultory fighting of the Mughul captains against Shivajl from. 1672 to 1678 led to no success. The Maratha hero was then in the full tide of power. On the 16th June, 1674, h© formally crowned himself king at Raigarh with great pomp and splendour, and assumed the title of CKh&irapati (Lord of the Umbrella, or king of kings).
Besides being relieved of pressure from the Mughuls, owing to their preoccupations in the north-west, Shivajl secured the friendship of the Sultln of Golkunda, and conquered in one year (1077) JinjI, Vellore, and the adjoining districts. These greatly enhanced his prestige and gave Mm the possession of a vast territory in the Madras Camatic and the Mysore plateau, covering sixty leagues by forty, yielding him an annual revenue of 20 lacs of huns and containing 100 forts. His successful career came to a close with his premature death at the age of fifty-three (or fifty, according to some) on the 14th April, 1680. Shivlji*s kingdom extended roughly along the entire coast from Bamnagar (modern Dharampur State in the Surat Agency) in the north to Karwar in the south, excluding the Portuguese, African and English settlements of Daman, Salsette, Bassein, Chaul, Goa, Janjira and Bombay. On the east, its boundary ran in an irregular line from Baglana in the north, through the Nasik and Poona districts and round the whole of Sat&ra, to Kolhipur in the south. His last conquests brought within the limits of his dominions the Western Camatic, extending from Belgaum to tlr banks of the TungabhadrS, opposite to the Bellary district of the modern Madras Presidency, and also a large part of the present kingdom of Mysore.
C. ShivtfP* Government
Shivajl was not merely a daring soldier and a successful military conqueror, but also an enlightened ruler of his people. As Mr, Rawlinson observes; "lake nearly all great warriorsâ.Napoleon is a conspicuous exampleâShivaj! was also a great administrator, for the qualities which go to make a capable general are those<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->AURANGZEB 'ALAMGlR 511
which are required by the successful organiser and statesman.*1
His system, like that of the Muslim rulers of India, was an auto¬
cracy, of which he himself was the supreme head. But in the actual
discharge of State business he was helped by a council of eight
ministersâthe asMapradhdnâwhose functions were chiefly advisory.
The eight ministers wetre: (i) The Peshwd or the Prime Minister,
who had to look after the general welfare and interests of the
kingdom, (ii) the Amatya or the Finance Minister, whose duty was
to check and countersign all public accounts, (iii) the Jfanln,
who had to preserve a daily record of the king's acts and the
proceedings of his court, (iv) the Sachiva or the superintendent, who
was in charge of the king's correspondence and had also to check
the accounts of the maMls and paragands, (v) the Sumtwi or the
Foreign Secretary, (vi) the Sendpati or the Commander-in-chief,
(vii) t&e Pandit Mao and Ddriddhyakslva or the Royal Chaplain and
Almoner, and (viii) the Nydyddhwa or the Chief Justice. All the
ministers, excepting the Nydyddhua and the Pandit Rao, held
military commands besides their civil duties, and at least three
of them were placed in charge of provincial adininistration as well.
The ministers were in charge of different departments of the State,
which were no less than thirty in number, Shivajl divided hi$
kingdom into a number of provinces, each being placed under a
viceroy, who held office at the king's pleasure and was assisted
like him by a staff of eight chief officers. The viceroy of the
Karnatak had a position somewhat different from that of the
other provincial governors, and he exercised more power and
discretion. .
For purposes of revenue collection and administration, iShivftjf s kingdom was divided into a number of prante or provinces. Each prant waa subdivided into paraganas and tarfs, aad the village formed the lowest unit. Shivajl abandoned the existing practice of farming out land revenue and substituted for it direct collection from the ryots through State officials, who had "no right to exercise the powers of a political superior (overlord) or harass the ryots**, The assessment was made after a careful survey of lands, for which purpose a uniform unit of measurement was introduced. The State dues were fixed at 30 per cent of the expected produce, which was after some time raised by Sbivaj! to 40 per cent after he had abolished other kinds of taxes or cesses, The cultivators knew definitely the amount of their dues, which they could pay without any oppression. They were given the choice of payment either in cash or in kind.* The State encouraged agriculture by granting advance loans from the treasury to the ryots for the purchase of
WVANfEli HISTORY â $9<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->512 AN ADVANCED HISTORY OF INDIA
seed and cattle, and the latter repaid these by easy annual instal-meats. It is wrong to say, as Fryer has done, that the State officers practised extortions and oppressions on the cultivators, though it might have been that Shivaji, with a view to making his kingdom financially sound, was strict in the matter of revenue collection. Modern researches have amply proved that the revenue adminis¬tration of Shivaji was humane, efficient, and conducive to the interests of his subjects, as even Grant Duff admitted many years ago.
As the hilly regions of Maharashtra did not yield much in land revenue, Shivaji often levied chavtii and sardeshmukhi on the neighbouring tracts, which were completely at his mercy, and also on the Mughul provinces as well as some districts of the Bijapur kingdom. The practice of levying chauth had already been in vogue in western India, as we find that the Raja of Ramnagar exacted it from the Portuguese subjects of Daman. Scholars differ in their opinions regarding the nature of the chaukh contribution, Ranade, who compares it with Wellesley's subsidiary system, writes that it was "not a mere military contribution without any moral or legal obligation, but a payment in lieu of protection against the invasion of a third power". Sir J. N. Sarkar expresses a different opinion when he writes: "The payment of the chauth merely saved a place from the unwelcome presence of the Maratha soldiers and civil underlings, but did not impose on Shivaji any corresponding obligation to guard the district from foreign invasion or internal disorder. The Marathas looked only to their own gain a,nd not to the fate of their prey after they had left. The chavih was only a means* of buying off one robber; and not a subsidiary system for the maintenance of peace and order against all enemies. The lands subject to the cka,v£h cannot, therefore, be rightly called spheres of influence." According to Mr. Sardesai, it was a tribute realised from hostile or conquered territories. Dr, Sen writes that the chauth was a contribution exacted by a military leader, which was justified by the exigencies of the situation. Whatever might be the theory of this burdensome imposition, which amounted to one-fourth of the government revenue, in practice it was nothing but a military contribution. The sardeshmulcM was an additional levy of 10 per cent, which Shivaji demanded on the basis of his claim as the hereditary Sardeskmukh (chief headman) of Maharashtra. But this was a legal fiction. The exaction of chauth and sardc'\mukh% gave to the Mar&thas influence over the districts which lay beyond their jurisdiction and was followed by their easy annexation.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->AURANGZEBÂ lLAMGlR 513
The organisation of the Maratha army by Shivaji on a new model is a brilliant proof of his military genius. Previously the Maratha fighting forces consisted mostly of cavalry, who had heen in the habit of working half the year upon their fields, and engaged themselves during the dry season in active service. Shivaji, however, introduced a regular standing array. His soldiers had to be always ready for duty, and were provided with pay and quarters during the rainy season. The strength of this force rose from thirty to forty thousand cavalry and ten thousand infantry. Shivaji built a considerable fleet, the crews for which were recruited from among the low-caste Hindus of the Bombay coast. Although the achieve¬ments of the Maratha navy under Shivaji were not very remark¬able, yet in later times the Maratha fleet under the Angrias gave considerable trouble to the English, the Portuguese, and the Dutch. According to the Sabhdsad BaJchar^ he maintained an elephant corps numbering about 1,260 and a camel corps numbering 3,000 or 1,500. We do not know definitely what was the strength of his artillery, but Orme writes that "he had previously purchased eighty pieces of cannon and lead sufficient for his matchlocks from the French Director at Surat".
There was a regular gradation of officers both in the cavalry and the infantry. The cavalry had two branchesâthe bargls or soldiers provided with pay and equipment by the State, and the sildhddrs, who equipped themselves at their own cost and supplied the pay and equipment of the soldiers whom they brought to the service of the State, but were paid a stipulated sum by the State to defray the expense of service in the field. In the cavalry, 25 troopers formed a unit; over twenty-five men was placed a havalddr, over five havaUars one jumldddr, and over ten jumladdrs one Mzan, who received 1,000 huns a year. Higher ranks over hdzarls were pdnjhazaris and the samobat or supreme commander of the cavalry. In the infantry, nine privates (pdiks) formed the lowest unit under a naik. Over five ndiJcs there was one havalddr, over two or three havalddrs one jumladdr, and over ten jumldddrs one MzarL Instead of five hdzdris as in the cavalry, there were seven Mzans in the infantry under the command of the sarnobat of the infantry. Although Shivaji in most cases led the army hi person, it was formally under a sendpati^ or oommander-in-chief, who was a member of the council of ministers. Since forts played an important part in the history of the Marathas, ample precaution was taken to maintain the garrisons there in an efficient condition. Every fort was under ihree officers of equal status, viz, the havaldar, the is, and the sarnobat, who were to act together and thus to serve<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->514 AN ADVANCED HISTORYÂ OF INDIA
as a check oa one another. Further, to prevent treachery on tke part of the fort-officers, Shivajl arranged "that in each garrison there should be a mixture of castes".
Though regular and generous in making payments and giving rewards to the soldiers, Shivaj! did not forget to enforce strict discipline on them. He drew up a set of regulations for their conduct so that their morals might not be lowered. The more important of these regulations laid down: **No woman, female slave, or dancing girl, was to be allowed to accompany the army.1 A soldier keeping any of these was to be beheaded. Cows were exempt from seizure, but bullocks might be taken for transport only. Brahma^as were not to be molested, nor taken as hostages for ransom. No soldier should misconduct himself (during a cam¬paign}/' As regfiards spoils of war, Shivajl ordered that "when¬ever a place was plundered, the goods of poor people, pulsiyah (copper money), and vessels of brass and copper, should belong to the man who found them; but other articles, gold and silver, coined or uncoined, gems, valuable stuffs or jewels, were not to belong to the finder but were to be given np without the smallest deduction to the officers and to be by them paid over to Shivaji's government *J0
D. An Estimate of Shivagi
Both as a ruler and a man, Shivaj I occupies a distinguished place in the history of India. A bom leader of men, who could throw a spell over all who came in contact with him, he elevated himself, by dint of his unusual bravery and diplomacy, from the position of a jagtrddr to that of a Chhatrapati and became an irresistible enemy of the mighty Mughul Empire, then at the zenith of its power. The most brilliant of his achievements was the welding together of the Maratha race, "scattered like atoms through many Deeeam Kingdoms", into a mighty nation in "the teeth of opposition of four great powers like the Mughul empire, Eijapur, Portuguese India, and the Abyssinians of Janjira". He left an extensive kingdom at his death. "The territories and the treasures, however, which SMvaji acquired, were not so formidable to the Mughuls/' writes Grant Duff, "as the example he had set, the system and habits he had introduced, and the spirit he had infused into a large proportion of the Maratha people/* The Maratha nation that he built up defied the Mughul Empire during
*W« may contrast with this the influence of the harem that accom¬panied the Mughul army.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->AURANGZEB 'ALAMGlR 515
and after Aurangzeb's reign, and remained the dominant power in India during the eighteenth century, so that a descendant of Aurangzeb became the virtual puppet of a Maratha chief, Mah&dijl Sindlua. The Mar§tha power also competed with the English for supremacy in India till it was finally crushed in the time of Lord Hastings,
It would be unjust to describe Shivaji as "an entrepreneur of rapine or a Hindu edition of 'Aiauddln or Tamarlene", as Khafi Khan and even some modern writers have done. A great constructive genius, he possessed all the essential qualities needed for the national regeneration of a country. "His system was his own creation and, unlike Ranjit Singh, he took no foreign aid in his administration. His army was drilled and commanded by his own people and not by Frenchmen. What he built lasted long; his institutions were looked up to with admiration and emulation, even a century later in the palmy days of the Peshw&s* rule. ** He was not a relentless conquerpr indulging in unnecessary cruelty and plunder for the sake of plunder. His chivalrous conduct during his campaigns towards women and children, including those of the Muslims, has been eulogised even by Khafi Khan, a hostile critic: "Shivaji had always striven to maintain the honour of the people in his territories . . * and was careful to maintain the honour of women and children of Muhammadans when they fell into his hands. His injunctions upon this point were very strict, and anyone who disobeyed them received punishment*" Rawlinson rightly observes: "He was never deliberately or wantonly cruel. To respect women, mosques, and non-combatants, to stop promift-cuous slaughter after a battle, to release and dismiss with honour captured officers and menâthese are, surely, no light virtues." Shivijfs ideal was the restoration of an indigenous Empire in his country, and he pursued it with singleness of purpose* But he had no time to work it out in full*
In his private life, Shivaji remained upmune from the prevalent vices of the time, and his moral virtue^ were exceptionally high. Sincerely religious from his early life, he did not forget the lofty ideals with which he had been inspired by his mother and his guru Ramdas, in the midst of political or military duties. He sought to make religion a vital force in the uplifting of the Maratha nation and always extended his patronage to Hindu religion and learning. "Religion remained with him*', remarks a modern Marathi writer, "an ever-fresh fountain of right conduct and generosity; it did not obsess his mind or harden him into a bigot." Tolerant of other faiths, he deeply venerated Muslim saints and granted rent-free<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->516 AN ADVANCED HISTOEY OF INDIA
lands to meet the expenses of illumination of Muslim shrines and mosques, and his conduct towards the Capuchin fathers (Christian monks) of SurSt, during its first sack by him, was respectful. Even his bitterest critic, KhafI Khan, writes: "But he (Shivajl) made it a rule that whenever his followers went plundering, they should do no harm to the mosques, the Book of God, or the women of any one. Whenever a copy of the sacred Quran came into his hands he treated it with respect and gave it to some of his Mussalman followers. When the women of any Hindu or Muhammadan were taken prisoners by his men, he watched over them until their relations came with a suitable ransom to buy their liberty."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->508Â AN ADVANCED HISTORY OF INDIA
experience, gained during his campaigns in different part® of the Empire, much diplomatic skill and foresight, proceeded cautiously against the clever Maratha chief. Raising a ring of enemies round Shivajl, he besieged the fort of Purandhar. The beleaguered garrison in the fort maintained a heroic resistance for some time, during which its "Prabhu" commander, Munar Bajl Deshpande of Mahad, lost his life with 300 Mavlis. The Mughuls also blockaded Rajgarh, the seat of Shivajf s government, Considering the cost of farther resistance, Shivajl concluded the treaty of Purandhar with Jay Singh on the 22nd June, 1665, whereby he ce4ed to the Mughuis twenty-three of his forts, retaining only twelve for himself, promised to supply a contingent of 5,000 cavalry to act with the Mughul army in the Deccan, and was permitted to compensate himself for his territorial losses by collecting chawth and sardesh-mnkhi in some districts of the Bijapur kingdom. He soon joined 4he imperialists in a war against Bijapur. But Jay Singh's Bijapur campaign ended in failure. He, however, plied Shivajl "with high hopes", and using "a thousand devices" prevailed upon him to visit the imperial court at Agra.
Jay Singh's object in sending Shivaj! to the imperial court was to remove him from the troubled area of the Deccan, but it is very difficult to understand what led Shivajt to agree to his proposal. Mr. Sardesai writes that the consideration which led Shiviji to go to the imperial court was his deske to see with his own eyes the Emperor, his court, and the sources of his strength, with a view to preparing his plans for future operations against him proparly. We know, on the other hand, that Jay Singh had to persuade him to take such a risky step by holding out promises of reward and honour and taking solemn oaths to be responsible for Ms safety at Agra, To secure the consent of the Emperor to the occupation of the island of Janjlra, then held, by the Siddi, an imperial servant, might have also been an objective of the Maratha chief. With the assurance of the astrologers and con¬currence of the majority of his officers, he started for Agra with his son, Shambhuji, and reached there on the 9th May, 1666.
But Shivaj! was coldly received by Aurangzeb and ranked as a noble commanding 5,000 men, which wounded his sense of .honour so much that he created a scene and swooned. On being restored to his senses, he accused the Emperor of breach of faith, whereupon he was placed under guard* Thus his "high hopes were dashed to pieces and he found himself a prisoner instead'*. An ordinary man would have given way to despair under such<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->AURANGZEB 'lLAMGlR 500
trying circumstances, but, being gifted with extraordinary resource¬fulness, he resorted to a stratagem to effect his escape. Pretending to recover from his feigned illness, he began sending out of his house every evening baskets of fruits and sweetmeats for Brahma^as, mendicants and nobles, as thanksgiving offerings for his fictitious recovery. After a few days, when the guards had relaxed their vigilance and allowed the baskets to go out unchecked, Shivajl and his son concealed themselves in two empty baskets and slipped out of Agra, eluding all the spies of the Mughul Emperor. He hastened with Shambhuji to Muttra and, leaving his fatigued son there in charge of a Maratha Brahma$a, reached home, in the guise of a mendicant, on the 30th November, 1666, by following a roundabout way, via Allahabad, Benares, Gaya and Telingana. For three years after this, Shivajl remained at peace with the Mughuls and utilised the period in organising his internal administra¬tion, Aurangzeb granted him the title of JRdjd and &jagir in Berar8 and raised his son Shambhuji to the rank of a noble of 5,000. But war was renewed in 1670. The position of the imperialists being weaker than before, owing to a bitter quarrel between the viceroy.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->510 ANÂ ADVANCED HISTORY OF INDIA
Shah * Alam, and his lieutenant, Dilir Khan, Shivajl recovered almost all th© forts surrendered by him in 1665. In the month of October 1670, he sacked Sur§t for the second time and captured immense booty in cash and kind. He then carried daring raids into Mughul provinces and repeatedly defeated Mughul generals in open tight. In 1672 he demanded chaittih from Surlt.
The tribal risings in the north-west then engaged Aurangzeb's attention more than anything else, and a part of the Mughul army was transferred from the Deccan to that region. The desultory fighting of the Mughul captains against Shivajl from. 1672 to 1678 led to no success. The Maratha hero was then in the full tide of power. On the 16th June, 1674, h© formally crowned himself king at Raigarh with great pomp and splendour, and assumed the title of CKh&irapati (Lord of the Umbrella, or king of kings).
Besides being relieved of pressure from the Mughuls, owing to their preoccupations in the north-west, Shivajl secured the friendship of the Sultln of Golkunda, and conquered in one year (1077) JinjI, Vellore, and the adjoining districts. These greatly enhanced his prestige and gave Mm the possession of a vast territory in the Madras Camatic and the Mysore plateau, covering sixty leagues by forty, yielding him an annual revenue of 20 lacs of huns and containing 100 forts. His successful career came to a close with his premature death at the age of fifty-three (or fifty, according to some) on the 14th April, 1680. Shivlji*s kingdom extended roughly along the entire coast from Bamnagar (modern Dharampur State in the Surat Agency) in the north to Karwar in the south, excluding the Portuguese, African and English settlements of Daman, Salsette, Bassein, Chaul, Goa, Janjira and Bombay. On the east, its boundary ran in an irregular line from Baglana in the north, through the Nasik and Poona districts and round the whole of Sat&ra, to Kolhipur in the south. His last conquests brought within the limits of his dominions the Western Camatic, extending from Belgaum to tlr banks of the TungabhadrS, opposite to the Bellary district of the modern Madras Presidency, and also a large part of the present kingdom of Mysore.
C. ShivtfP* Government
Shivajl was not merely a daring soldier and a successful military conqueror, but also an enlightened ruler of his people. As Mr, Rawlinson observes; "lake nearly all great warriorsâ.Napoleon is a conspicuous exampleâShivaj! was also a great administrator, for the qualities which go to make a capable general are those<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->AURANGZEB 'ALAMGlR 511
which are required by the successful organiser and statesman.*1
His system, like that of the Muslim rulers of India, was an auto¬
cracy, of which he himself was the supreme head. But in the actual
discharge of State business he was helped by a council of eight
ministersâthe asMapradhdnâwhose functions were chiefly advisory.
The eight ministers wetre: (i) The Peshwd or the Prime Minister,
who had to look after the general welfare and interests of the
kingdom, (ii) the Amatya or the Finance Minister, whose duty was
to check and countersign all public accounts, (iii) the Jfanln,
who had to preserve a daily record of the king's acts and the
proceedings of his court, (iv) the Sachiva or the superintendent, who
was in charge of the king's correspondence and had also to check
the accounts of the maMls and paragands, (v) the Sumtwi or the
Foreign Secretary, (vi) the Sendpati or the Commander-in-chief,
(vii) t&e Pandit Mao and Ddriddhyakslva or the Royal Chaplain and
Almoner, and (viii) the Nydyddhwa or the Chief Justice. All the
ministers, excepting the Nydyddhua and the Pandit Rao, held
military commands besides their civil duties, and at least three
of them were placed in charge of provincial adininistration as well.
The ministers were in charge of different departments of the State,
which were no less than thirty in number, Shivajl divided hi$
kingdom into a number of provinces, each being placed under a
viceroy, who held office at the king's pleasure and was assisted
like him by a staff of eight chief officers. The viceroy of the
Karnatak had a position somewhat different from that of the
other provincial governors, and he exercised more power and
discretion. .
For purposes of revenue collection and administration, iShivftjf s kingdom was divided into a number of prante or provinces. Each prant waa subdivided into paraganas and tarfs, aad the village formed the lowest unit. Shivajl abandoned the existing practice of farming out land revenue and substituted for it direct collection from the ryots through State officials, who had "no right to exercise the powers of a political superior (overlord) or harass the ryots**, The assessment was made after a careful survey of lands, for which purpose a uniform unit of measurement was introduced. The State dues were fixed at 30 per cent of the expected produce, which was after some time raised by Sbivaj! to 40 per cent after he had abolished other kinds of taxes or cesses, The cultivators knew definitely the amount of their dues, which they could pay without any oppression. They were given the choice of payment either in cash or in kind.* The State encouraged agriculture by granting advance loans from the treasury to the ryots for the purchase of
WVANfEli HISTORY â $9<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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seed and cattle, and the latter repaid these by easy annual instal-meats. It is wrong to say, as Fryer has done, that the State officers practised extortions and oppressions on the cultivators, though it might have been that Shivaji, with a view to making his kingdom financially sound, was strict in the matter of revenue collection. Modern researches have amply proved that the revenue adminis¬tration of Shivaji was humane, efficient, and conducive to the interests of his subjects, as even Grant Duff admitted many years ago.
As the hilly regions of Maharashtra did not yield much in land revenue, Shivaji often levied chavtii and sardeshmukhi on the neighbouring tracts, which were completely at his mercy, and also on the Mughul provinces as well as some districts of the Bijapur kingdom. The practice of levying chauth had already been in vogue in western India, as we find that the Raja of Ramnagar exacted it from the Portuguese subjects of Daman. Scholars differ in their opinions regarding the nature of the chaukh contribution, Ranade, who compares it with Wellesley's subsidiary system, writes that it was "not a mere military contribution without any moral or legal obligation, but a payment in lieu of protection against the invasion of a third power". Sir J. N. Sarkar expresses a different opinion when he writes: "The payment of the chauth merely saved a place from the unwelcome presence of the Maratha soldiers and civil underlings, but did not impose on Shivaji any corresponding obligation to guard the district from foreign invasion or internal disorder. The Marathas looked only to their own gain a,nd not to the fate of their prey after they had left. The chavih was only a means* of buying off one robber; and not a subsidiary system for the maintenance of peace and order against all enemies. The lands subject to the cka,v£h cannot, therefore, be rightly called spheres of influence." According to Mr. Sardesai, it was a tribute realised from hostile or conquered territories. Dr, Sen writes that the chauth was a contribution exacted by a military leader, which was justified by the exigencies of the situation. Whatever might be the theory of this burdensome imposition, which amounted to one-fourth of the government revenue, in practice it was nothing but a military contribution. The sardeshmulcM was an additional levy of 10 per cent, which Shivaji demanded on the basis of his claim as the hereditary Sardeskmukh (chief headman) of Maharashtra. But this was a legal fiction. The exaction of chauth and sardc'\mukh% gave to the Mar&thas influence over the districts which lay beyond their jurisdiction and was followed by their easy annexation.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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The organisation of the Maratha army by Shivaji on a new model is a brilliant proof of his military genius. Previously the Maratha fighting forces consisted mostly of cavalry, who had heen in the habit of working half the year upon their fields, and engaged themselves during the dry season in active service. Shivaji, however, introduced a regular standing array. His soldiers had to be always ready for duty, and were provided with pay and quarters during the rainy season. The strength of this force rose from thirty to forty thousand cavalry and ten thousand infantry. Shivaji built a considerable fleet, the crews for which were recruited from among the low-caste Hindus of the Bombay coast. Although the achieve¬ments of the Maratha navy under Shivaji were not very remark¬able, yet in later times the Maratha fleet under the Angrias gave considerable trouble to the English, the Portuguese, and the Dutch. According to the Sabhdsad BaJchar^ he maintained an elephant corps numbering about 1,260 and a camel corps numbering 3,000 or 1,500. We do not know definitely what was the strength of his artillery, but Orme writes that "he had previously purchased eighty pieces of cannon and lead sufficient for his matchlocks from the French Director at Surat".
There was a regular gradation of officers both in the cavalry and the infantry. The cavalry had two branchesâthe bargls or soldiers provided with pay and equipment by the State, and the sildhddrs, who equipped themselves at their own cost and supplied the pay and equipment of the soldiers whom they brought to the service of the State, but were paid a stipulated sum by the State to defray the expense of service in the field. In the cavalry, 25 troopers formed a unit; over twenty-five men was placed a havalddr, over five havaUars one jumldddr, and over ten jumladdrs one Mzan, who received 1,000 huns a year. Higher ranks over hdzarls were pdnjhazaris and the samobat or supreme commander of the cavalry. In the infantry, nine privates (pdiks) formed the lowest unit under a naik. Over five ndiJcs there was one havalddr, over two or three havalddrs one jumladdr, and over ten jumldddrs one MzarL Instead of five hdzdris as in the cavalry, there were seven Mzans in the infantry under the command of the sarnobat of the infantry. Although Shivaji in most cases led the army hi person, it was formally under a sendpati^ or oommander-in-chief, who was a member of the council of ministers. Since forts played an important part in the history of the Marathas, ample precaution was taken to maintain the garrisons there in an efficient condition. Every fort was under ihree officers of equal status, viz, the havaldar, the is, and the sarnobat, who were to act together and thus to serve<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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as a check oa one another. Further, to prevent treachery on tke part of the fort-officers, Shivajl arranged "that in each garrison there should be a mixture of castes".
Though regular and generous in making payments and giving rewards to the soldiers, Shivaj! did not forget to enforce strict discipline on them. He drew up a set of regulations for their conduct so that their morals might not be lowered. The more important of these regulations laid down: **No woman, female slave, or dancing girl, was to be allowed to accompany the army.1 A soldier keeping any of these was to be beheaded. Cows were exempt from seizure, but bullocks might be taken for transport only. Brahma^as were not to be molested, nor taken as hostages for ransom. No soldier should misconduct himself (during a cam¬paign}/' As regfiards spoils of war, Shivajl ordered that "when¬ever a place was plundered, the goods of poor people, pulsiyah (copper money), and vessels of brass and copper, should belong to the man who found them; but other articles, gold and silver, coined or uncoined, gems, valuable stuffs or jewels, were not to belong to the finder but were to be given np without the smallest deduction to the officers and to be by them paid over to Shivaji's government *J0
D. An Estimate of Shivagi
Both as a ruler and a man, Shivaj I occupies a distinguished place in the history of India. A bom leader of men, who could throw a spell over all who came in contact with him, he elevated himself, by dint of his unusual bravery and diplomacy, from the position of a jagtrddr to that of a Chhatrapati and became an irresistible enemy of the mighty Mughul Empire, then at the zenith of its power. The most brilliant of his achievements was the welding together of the Maratha race, "scattered like atoms through many Deeeam Kingdoms", into a mighty nation in "the teeth of opposition of four great powers like the Mughul empire, Eijapur, Portuguese India, and the Abyssinians of Janjira". He left an extensive kingdom at his death. "The territories and the treasures, however, which SMvaji acquired, were not so formidable to the Mughuls/' writes Grant Duff, "as the example he had set, the system and habits he had introduced, and the spirit he had infused into a large proportion of the Maratha people/* The Maratha nation that he built up defied the Mughul Empire during
*W« may contrast with this the influence of the harem that accom¬panied the Mughul army.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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and after Aurangzeb's reign, and remained the dominant power in India during the eighteenth century, so that a descendant of Aurangzeb became the virtual puppet of a Maratha chief, Mah&dijl Sindlua. The Mar§tha power also competed with the English for supremacy in India till it was finally crushed in the time of Lord Hastings,
It would be unjust to describe Shivaji as "an entrepreneur of rapine or a Hindu edition of 'Aiauddln or Tamarlene", as Khafi Khan and even some modern writers have done. A great constructive genius, he possessed all the essential qualities needed for the national regeneration of a country. "His system was his own creation and, unlike Ranjit Singh, he took no foreign aid in his administration. His army was drilled and commanded by his own people and not by Frenchmen. What he built lasted long; his institutions were looked up to with admiration and emulation, even a century later in the palmy days of the Peshw&s* rule. ** He was not a relentless conquerpr indulging in unnecessary cruelty and plunder for the sake of plunder. His chivalrous conduct during his campaigns towards women and children, including those of the Muslims, has been eulogised even by Khafi Khan, a hostile critic: "Shivaji had always striven to maintain the honour of the people in his territories . . * and was careful to maintain the honour of women and children of Muhammadans when they fell into his hands. His injunctions upon this point were very strict, and anyone who disobeyed them received punishment*" Rawlinson rightly observes: "He was never deliberately or wantonly cruel. To respect women, mosques, and non-combatants, to stop promift-cuous slaughter after a battle, to release and dismiss with honour captured officers and menâthese are, surely, no light virtues." Shivijfs ideal was the restoration of an indigenous Empire in his country, and he pursued it with singleness of purpose* But he had no time to work it out in full*
In his private life, Shivaji remained upmune from the prevalent vices of the time, and his moral virtue^ were exceptionally high. Sincerely religious from his early life, he did not forget the lofty ideals with which he had been inspired by his mother and his guru Ramdas, in the midst of political or military duties. He sought to make religion a vital force in the uplifting of the Maratha nation and always extended his patronage to Hindu religion and learning. "Religion remained with him*', remarks a modern Marathi writer, "an ever-fresh fountain of right conduct and generosity; it did not obsess his mind or harden him into a bigot." Tolerant of other faiths, he deeply venerated Muslim saints and granted rent-free<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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lands to meet the expenses of illumination of Muslim shrines and mosques, and his conduct towards the Capuchin fathers (Christian monks) of SurSt, during its first sack by him, was respectful. Even his bitterest critic, KhafI Khan, writes: "But he (Shivajl) made it a rule that whenever his followers went plundering, they should do no harm to the mosques, the Book of God, or the women of any one. Whenever a copy of the sacred Quran came into his hands he treated it with respect and gave it to some of his Mussalman followers. When the women of any Hindu or Muhammadan were taken prisoners by his men, he watched over them until their relations came with a suitable ransom to buy their liberty."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->