It is worthy of remark that about the beginning of this century the resistance to the collection of tribute was stronger towards the west than in the east and south of the province. In the Mahi Kántha the lawlessness of the Koli chiefs, who had established themselves in the ravines and on the hills, necessitated the employment of a military force for collections. In the neighbourhood of Bijápur and Kadi, the chiefs would not pay tribute except under the compulsion of a siege or raid, but the mulakgiri system only reached its full development west of Dholka.
From these explanatory remarks the system and practice of the Maráthás can be clearly understood.
The Maráthás in Sorath.The Maráthás found their way to Sorath very early in their Gujarát career. The first raid probably took place about 1711, when the Muhammadans were occupied near Ahmedábád. After this incursions were frequent, and under Dámáji Gáikwár became, as has been seen above, annual. This leader did more. He took to wife a daughter of the Gohil chief of the small state of Láthi in east central Káthiáváḍa, whose dowry in land gave him the standpoint he sought in the heart of the peninsula. He managed also to secure his position in what are known as the Amreli Maháls, probably under the force of circumstances similar to those which caused the weaker Rájputs to gravitate towards the stronger of their own tribe. His expedition through the peninsula, generally as near the time of harvest as possible, was made regularly every year as soon as he had amassed a sufficient number of troops on the mainland to admit of a force being detached for mulakgiri. The object of these inroads was plunder, not conquest; the leaders would readily have entered into negotiations for the payment of the tribute had the chieftains been disposed to treat otherwise than after defeat. The expenses
The Maráthás, a.d. 1760–1819.
The Maráthás in Sorath. of such an army were heavy, and the more so as the time during which it would be in the field was quite indefinite, and dependent entirely upon the amount of resistance offered. In more than one instance the Marátha leaders, who usually had no artillery for a siege, were obliged to regularly beleaguer a town. Early in this century the town of Mália successfully defended itself against a remarkably well equipped force under Bábáji, and the Junágaḍh state was usually avoided by the Maráthás as much as possible on account of the time it would take to reduce its army to terms.
It is not on record that the mulakgiri force habitually devastated the country over which it passed, or caused much greater hardships to the ryots than are inseparable from the passage of an army in the field. There are, however, well authenticated stories of the depredations and damage committed during these expeditions. A village is said to have been deserted by order of the bhumia in order that the timber of its houses might furnish fuel for the Marátha army on its march. Tortures were doubtless inflicted on men supposed to be well off, who were suspected to have hidden their property. A Marátha army was usually, if not always, ill disciplined, as is proved by the testimony of Mr. Forbes, an eye witness of the campaigns of 1775.[16] From the same writer it is learned what an immense proportion the camp followers bore to the actual combatants. If this were the case in a real campaign against a formidable and active enemy, it is likely that the irresponsible element was still larger in an expedition like this of mulakgiri, where the enemy was insignificant and the country at the mercy of the invaders. It is probable therefore that the troops have been credited with misconduct that should in point of fact be attributed to these Pindháris. In after years, when the expeditions were conducted systematically, villages on the line of march were always allowed the alternative of entertaining a pioneer or two as a sort of guarantee. If no bandhári of this sort were accepted, the army occupied the place. In many cases the demands for supplies made by these pioneers were so exorbitant that the villagers preferred to compound in turn with them also for their absence. Another method by which a chieftain might avoid the necessity of the army’s passing through his territories was by sending to the commander of the expedition an envoy empowered to treat for the amount of tribute and to execute a provisional guarantee for its future liquidation. This deed was destroyed on the subsequent confirmation by the chief himself of the agreement for the sum fixed.
Securities.This habit of taking securities in all engagements was so prevalent in all parts of the province, and played so prominent a part in the financial administration of the Gáikwár’s home and tributary domains, that its main features are worth describing.
It is a well known characteristic of Hindu dealings that no transaction is carried on by two parties alone if a third can possibly be dragged in. This practice no doubt originated in the former insecure
The Maráthás, a.d. 1760–1819.
Securities. state of society when no man considered himself safe in person or property from government on the one hand and his neighbour on the other. With classes like Kolis and predatory Rájputs, the feeling is intelligible enough, and from these it spread into other branches of the society. To such a pitch was distrust carried in the early part of the nineteenth century, that the Gáikwár himself could find no one to enter into a contract with him without the guarantee of one of his own subjects. The consequences of this practice and the power it threw into the hands of the Arab mercenaries, who were the principal securities for the public debts, are matters that touch the history of the Baroda State rather than that of the province. The chiefs in their dealings employed a special sort of security which owed its validity not to political consideration like that of the Arab Jamádárs but entirely to its religious and traditional character.
Bháts and Chárans, 1807.A society of the military type like the Rájput has a tendency towards caste and privilege. Without a leader the warlike instincts of the tribe would not carry them beyond petty robberies; whilst with a leader they can achieve greater exploits of valour and destruction. The successful chief then is idolized, and after a certain stage the privileges of the chieftainship become hereditary. Once this system is established, the celebration of ancestors follows, and when circumstances are favourable to the perpetuation of the hereditary position, the genealogy of the chief is a matter of the highest importance, and the person entrusted with the record of this is vested with peculiar sanctity. It is the genealogist’s duty to enter in the record, not only the direct line but the names of the more distant relations of the chief by whom he is retained, and also to be the continual chanter of the glorious deeds of their common ancestors. He is therefore a referee of the highest authority in questions of pedigree or of the partition of inheritance. An injury to his person might entail the loss of the pedigree of the ruling family (especially as many of the bards kept no written record) and thus produce a misfortune which would be felt by the whole tribe. The chief, being a warrior, must take his chance in the field with the rest, but the person of the genealogist was sacred and inviolable. Amongst the Rájputs the greatest reverence was paid to purity of pedigree, and each principal family had its Bhát to record births and deaths amongst its members and to stimulate pride in their lineage by the recital of the wars and exploits of their ancestors.
These Bháts necessarily multiplied beyond the number of the families that could entertain them, so that many took to banking and some to cultivation. Surrounded as they were by the social system of the Hindus, it was not long before they became differentiated into a distinct caste, and the inviolability of their persons, formerly due only to respect for the pedigree, was now extended to the whole tribe, even though a large proportion of it performed none of the duties of genealogists. Similar to the Bháts in many respects, notably in that of sacredness of person, were the Chárans, numerous in Káthiáváḍa, where they had founded villages and lived as ordinary
The Maráthás, a.d. 1760–1819.
Bháts and Chárans, 1807. cultivators. This tribe also claimed divine origin like the race whose annals they had the privilege of recording. It is said that Rája Todar Mal, the celebrated minister of the Dehli empire, was the first to introduce the practice of taking these Bháts as securities for the Rájputs. The assertion is possibly true, but rests merely on tradition, and after ages usually find some great man as a sponsor for all such innovations. It is clear however that for many years before 1807 no dealings of Kolis or Rájputs with the state or with each other took place without the security of a Bhát being taken. This practice seems to have been as prevalent on the mainland as in the peninsula, the Kolis having doubtless borrowed it from their Rájput neighbours after the Bháts had become a separate caste.
Under this system the Bháts acquired considerable wealth, as they usually demanded a percentage on the amount for which they became security. There are instances in which they presumed upon the strength of their engagements and sacred character to bully or dictate to their employer. Such was the case of the Rával of Bhávnagar in 1808, which is also interesting in another way, as showing how the spirit of industry and commerce tends to sap the old observances which have their roots in superstition. This chief engaged in trade, fostered merchants, and increased his revenue. When his security, a Bhát, got troublesome and interfering, he applied to the power to whom he paid tribute to have the old security bond cancelled and a fresh one taken on his own personal responsibility. In doing this he seems to have been prompted by nothing but his appreciation of the modern code of commercial honour.
To return to the mulakgiri. The tribute for which preliminary security had been taken seems to have fluctuated from year to year, but always with reference to a fixed standard. It was one of the Marátha rules never to recede from a former demand lest they should be thereby setting up a precedent for future years. They preferred to secure a year or two’s arrears at the full rate to the payment of all the arrears due at a reduced rate.