CHAPTER IX ; SOCIAL LIFE in Kaha Rashtra IK I) the Village Unit, Ii
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304 CHAPTER IX ; SOCIAL LIFE IN KAHa Ra SHTRA IK ------------------- fi/vRiy £i&faT£E^!fH d m m r i) The Village Unit, ii) Political Life, iii} Social Gtratification* iv) ficononiic Condition. v) Socisil Conditicn. vi) Administration of Justice. vii) Comparison between the Maratha & English Societies of the eighteenth centuiTr. 3v5 CHAPTER IX SOCIAL LIFE IN MAHARASHTRA IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ( C. 1700 - 1750 ) Leaving aside letters to and from the Swaml in the Dhavadshi Daftar of the Deccan Colle(^« Collection, there are a good number of other letters which are useful as they relate to the social conditions of the time* They roughly cover a period of about thirty years from 1720 to 1750 and there are a few letters written after 1750 . Ihey furnish valiiable material for reconstructing a reliable social history of the people of Maharashtra during an eventful period of their annals; but it will not be - representative ofyentire Maharashtra as the subject of the letters is restricted to a few villages in the Konkan and on the Desha, The Swami’s villages When the Swami was at Parshuram, he had secured fifty per cent of the revenue of the villages Dorle and Mahalunge from the Pratinidhi and oisd of the villages Pedhe, Ambdas and Naysiy from the Siddi. When he cam* up secured the Ghats, he the grant of the village Pimpri from the Peshwa, of Malshiras from the Sachiva and of Viramade Anewadi and Dhavadshi from the Chhatrapati* 396 The villages in the Konkan were in the northern Ratnagiri District and the villages up the ghats were in the Satara and Poona Districts. It is said that the village communities in southern India flourished from the dawn of history. A group of these self-contained units had formerly been placed under the Deshmukhs and Deshpandes, who were appointed for revenue collection. They were also called zamindars. Shivaji divested them of the authority which they had enjoyed then, but left the economic privi- -leges they enjoyed unaffected. The Peshwas simply continued this practice of Shivaji.^ C\\ The village unit The village communities were allowed to administer their own affairs under the paternal but lax supervision of a set of government officers under the Peshwas. The Surr ewn ded Maratha village on the Deccan plateaujby a wall tried to be independent of the outside world as much as possible. C a For centuries they kept the noiseless tenor of their way. Though the village autonomy was little interfered with, ik Tm li Kg yet there were occasions when’government was called upon to A give decisions. Inter-village boundary disputes were of such a character. 1. Inter-village boaadary disputes In 1733 fi dispute had arisen between the villages Virmade and Nimb. The villagers of Nimb had influence indth Viroobai, the mistress of Chhatrapati Shahu,and had unjustly extended their boundary within the lifldts of Virmade* When Brahmendra Swami learnt this, he went and squatted for nine days on the boundary line between the two villages* News was conveyed to the Chhatrapati who tUere . personally came/and consoled the Swami. We do not p la te know vrtiat had|t»iKe^1n the boundary dispute but the Swami had the good luck of securing a village from the - - Chhatrapati for the maintenance of the palanquin. In 1739 there arose a dispute between the villages Patas and Kangaon when recourse was hacl to an ordeal. A similar dispute had taken place between the villages Fursungi and Loni in 1741.^ In 1750 there was a dis] between the villages Virmade and Kharsi.^ 2. Communications The means of communications in those days were of course not very advanced, but the Peshwa*s governmert - 1. PBC p.94 2. fi.VI pp. 26-29, 43. 3. DCHM 20/287 did not neglect such meana of commiinication as ferry boats and roads. The roads were on the whol?» good, particularly in the neighbourhood of big cities.* Goods were conveyed on the backs of the bullocks and also v.lth the help of the forced labour. Brahmendra Swaitii had taken permits for hundreds of bullocks from the Peshwa, the Pratinidhi, the Angres and the Siddis. Horses were used by higher gentry. Palanquins and litters were used by the wealthier sections. There being no|Government Public i(»prks Department, the roads were not properly - attended to. On one occasion Brahmendra Swami repaired the Ambola pass which was: difficult for the bullocks up to climb/and spent Hs,i|.5,000/- for the building of Khambetki ghat and the tank on this ghat, on the Poona-Satara route. There was nothing as regular postal system and SudVi for particular occasionsyas when the armies went on distant campaigns, special agencies consisting of special ”jasuda" or "kassids", that is, runners were employed.^ When a messenger happened to fall ill en route, or was Killed, the communication was either delayed or lost. Mudhoji Bhonsale had sent the grant of Balapur and Ankole to the Swami»s successor, Advaitendra, in 1755, but the messengers were killed en route and Mudhoji had, therefore, to send the grants again.^ Similarly in 1742 the kassid from 1. SASM 350-531 2. P8C1. 3. PBC fp- 4. p-370 ^ £)CUM ^oj3S\, 399 Parshuram, while coming to Dhavadshi, fell ill and the letters were delayed for two months. Marriages were difficult to contract on account of the primitive communica- tions,j^»nri flim one Shivaram Visaji came from Karmala to Poona and stayed at the latter place for four months but had to z*eturn vdthout being able to settle the marriage.^ In 1740 a person from Konkan borrowed some money for purchasing a pair of dhoti but nothing was heard for six months from the person he had entrusted to purchase the dhoti, ^ The lender, therefore, had to send a reminder.^ Employees of savkars made long Journeys to ' carry remittances at stated intervals and they carried the private post of those who cared to correspond with their distant relations.^ Many times the work of runners was done by Mahars. C(ii Political L'fe The Maratha State, since the return of Shahu,consisted of two autonomous principalities governed by the Bhonsale family within the Mughal empire, UndtfP Slxahu the system of feudal nobility was introduced. The nobles manageol civil, military and judicial matters within 1. QQHbi 12/71 2., 0 0 their jagirs and paid tribute to tha Chhatrapati* This system was enforced by Balaji Vishwanath, the first Peshwa of Shahu* Shahu was compelled to grant Jagirs to the in©rol-er -Vo vvi ^ over "tcs his -sMe Sardars because the Nizam had started doing so^o the Maratha oardars, went t n w W hia. Afterbnndln^ the nobles unde.- &ys4em. * feudal^ cJhahu appointed the chief minister or Feshwa. Constitutionally, in the official order of precedence, the Peshwa was a lower functionary in the hierarchy of officials than the Pant Pratinidhi, but in practice he was the Prime Mnister and executive head of the Council. ^ the posi-it'an The other ministers gradually occuple<ysubordinate^to the Peshwa and the council of eight ministers receded in the background. Along with the introduction of the feudal system in the Internal administration, the Marathas had started their expansion schemes before the death of Aurangzeb. Let us have a glimpse of the Maratha campaigns of this period. 1. Campaigns > The Maratha armies spent eight months of the year exclusive of the rainy season, in campaigning in enemy country. Chimaji Appa, the brother of the Peshwa Bajirao I, 401 had been to the north at the beginning of 1733. He writes to Brahmendra Swaml| ” Gwalior is ten kos from here. Every“thing this side is in order on account of your blessings. The region has become desolate and the * ryot * have trekked beyong the river Yamuna. Not a person is to be seen in this region ” • In the same year in May» Bajirao was at Rajapur4. in the Konkan to chastise the Siddi. He wrote to Purandare, ” It is necessary to spend huge amounts of money to get any work done. Where we were paying rupees three on the ghat, we have to pay rupees five here. We cannot predict the future. It is raining cats and dogs and the nights are dark. We fear sorae day we shall find ourselves in the same pitiable (^onjj-iion as that of the finperor ^urangzeb at Vishalgad whila he was campaii^ning there ” From Bhopal, where the Niaam was besieged in 1737| Bajirao wrote, " Corn has becoae very dear. Within four days the price of flour has shot to four seers per rupee. No fodder is available for elephants and horses. Tree skins and pond scubj is being fed to the horses and the elephants. Sven that too has become scarce ncv^. For the Nabob’s army, retreat has become almost impossible on account of his camp followers teing confined in the city. Check posts are scattered here and there. Nights are stormy due to occasional - firings on outposts. Soldiers are fed up of being compelled 2 to stand in vigilance. Horses are starving." 1. PPDl 103, 105 , 2. PBCL 33. '5 \n I O 2. State bo\mdari>8 As territories were constantly being transferred from one state to the other, boundaries of states were not fixed at the time* Balajl Vlshwanath brought the titles of Chauthal and Sardeshmukhi conferred onj^ Chhatrapatl at‘-Delhl in 1719i but most of the terrltoz7 that was granted by the Ii&pex*ial grants required to be wrested from the Slddi and the-Nizam. , The question of boundaries was very difficult In the,Konkan where the states of the Portuguese, Angres, Slddls, Sawants and the Pratinidhis of Vlshalgad - had intermixed territories.