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Chauth
Chauth (from Sanskrit, meaning ''one fourth'') was a regular tax or tribute imposed from the early 18th century by the Maratha Empire in the Indian subcontinent. It was an annual tax nominally levied at 25% on revenue or produce, hence the name, on lands that were under nominal Mughal rule. The sardeshmukhi was an additional 10% levy on top of the ''chauth''. A tribute paid to the king, it was started by Koli Maharaja Som Shah of Ramnagar. Opinions on the function of the chauth vary. According to M G Ranade, the chauth was charged to provide armed security for a state by the Marathas and is thus comparable to the system of subsidiary alliances that was used by Lord Wellesley to bring Indian states under British control. The historian Jadunath Sarkar has argued that the chauth was essentially a tax paid by those states that did not want the Marathas to enter into their realm. The chauth thus served as protection money against Maratha invasions of the chauth paying state. The ...
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Som Shah Of Ramnagar
The Maharaja Soma Shah was Koli ruler of the petty kingdom of ''Ramnagar'', present days in Gujarat. He invented the Chauth system which was a form of the Protection fees. Chauth system It was started by Maharaja of Ramnagar when Portuguese possessed the Daman and Diu and was an annual tax nominally levied at 25% on revenue or produce, hence the name. It was levied on the lands which were under nominal Portuguese Rule by Maharaja Som Shah. Chauth was a fee for Portuguese to purchase the protection from Maharaja of ramnagar so Maharaja Som Shah was called as '''Chauthia Raja''' which means Guardian King. The Portuguese chief '''Fernao De Miranda paid the 1/4 share of the total revenue of daman and diu. Disputes and Politics on Chauth The British Indian historian Jadunath Sarkar states that there was several disputes between petty kingdom of Jawhar and the kingdom of Ramnagar in 1670 after the treaty between ''Raja Vikram Shah Mukne (Vikramrao)'' of Jawhar and Portuguese ''C ...
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Maratha Empire
The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Shivaji of the Bhonsle Dynasty as the ''Chhatrapati'' (Marathi: "The title "Chhatrapati" was created by Shivaji upon his coronation"). Although Shivaji came from the Maratha caste, the Maratha empire also included warriors, administrators and other notables from Maratha and several other castes from Maharashtra. They are largely credited for ending the Mughal control over the Indian subcontinent and establishing the Maratha Empire. The religious attitude of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb estranged non-Muslims, and his inability to finish the resulting Maratha uprising after a 27-year war at a great cost to his men and treasure, eventually ensued Maratha ascendency and control over sizeable portions of former Mughal lands in the north or abo ...
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Mahratta Invasions Of Bengal
The Maratha invasions of Bengal (1741-1751), also known as the Maratha expeditions in Bengal, refers to the frequent invasions by the Maratha forces in the Bengal Subah (Bengal, Bihar, parts of modern Orissa), after their successful campaign in the Carnatic region at the Battle of Trichinopoly. The leader of the expedition was Maratha Maharaja Raghoji Bhonsle of Nagpur. The Marathas invaded Bengal five times from August 1741 to May 1751 which caused widespread economic losses in the Bengal Subah. During their occupation, the Bargi mercenaries of the Marathas are said to have perpetrated massacres against the local population. According to estimation of Chief of Dutch Factory Jan Kerssebom's memoirs perhaps close to 400,000 Hindu people in western Bengal and Bihar were killed. Contemporary accounts of the invasions report mass gang rape against women and children, and mutilation of victims by the Marathas which included cutting off their hands and noses. According to the Bengal ...
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Protection Money
A protection racket is a type of racket and a scheme of organized crime perpetrated by a potentially hazardous organized crime group that generally guarantees protection outside the sanction of the law to another entity or individual from violence, robbery, ransacking, arson, vandalism, and other such threats, in exchange for payments. The perpetrators of the racket may protect vulnerable targets from other dangerous individuals and groups or may simply offer to refrain from themselves carrying out attacks on the targets, and usually both of these forms of protection are implied in the racket. Due to the frequent implication that the racketeers may contribute to harming the target upon failure to pay, the protection racket is generally considered a form of extortion. In some instances, the main potential threat to the target may be caused by the same group that offers to solve it in return for payment, but that fact may sometimes be concealed in order to ensure continual p ...
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Shahuji
Chhatrapati Shahu Bhosale I (Pronunciation: �aːɦuː CE) was the fifth Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire founded by his grandfather, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Born into the Bhonsle family, he was the son of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, Shivaji Maharaj's eldest son and successor. He was captured at a very young age and held captive by the Mughals till the death of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. At that time, he was released from captivity in the hope of keeping the Marathas locked in an internecine struggle. Under Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj's reign, Maratha power and influence extended to all corners of the Indian subcontinent, which eventually turned into a strong Maratha Empire during his time. After his death, his ministers and generals such as the Peshwas, Bhonsle of Nagpur, Gaikwad, Shinde and Holkar carved out their own fiefdoms and turned the empire into a confederacy. Early life Shahu, as a seven year old child, was taken prisoner along with his mother in 168 ...
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Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion, diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age#South Asia, Bronze Age. Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. It was a lingua franca, link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture, and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Indo-Aryan languages#Old Indo- ...
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Mughal Emperors
The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled themselves as " padishah", a title usually translated from Persian as "emperor". They began to rule parts of India from 1526, and by 1707 ruled most of the sub-continent. After that they declined rapidly, but nominally ruled territories until the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The Mughals were a branch of the Timurid dynasty of Turco-Mongol origin from Central Asia. Their founder Babur, a Timurid prince from the Fergana Valley (modern-day Uzbekistan), was a direct descendant of Timur (generally known in western nations as Tamerlane) and also affiliated with Genghis Khan through Timur's marriage to a Genghisid princess. Many of the later Mughal emperors had significant Indian Rajput and Persian ancestry through marriage alliances as emp ...
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Mahratta Sackings Of Goa And Bombay-Bassein
Maratha Invasion of Goa (1683) or Sambhaji's Invasion of Goa refers to the invasion of Portuguese controlled portion of Old Goa and the northern areas of Konkan. The battles were fought between the Mahratta confederacy and the Portuguese in Goa and Bombay-Bassein, on various fronts in between 1682-1683. In 1682, 2 years after the death of Shivaji, Mahrattas began arming and fortifying their border with Portuguese held territories, and the Portuguese increasingly aligned themselves with the Moghal empire to avert the looming threat. This would set the background for a series of Mahratta hostilities in and around the present-day Goa (Gomantak) and Bombay (Mumbai) of the Konkan region. The Ponda Fort near the capital city of Velha Goa was a strategic Maratha position, hence Francisco de Távora (viceroy) led a botched attack on it in late 1683, attempting to prevent the raids. Sambhaji ordered reinforcements to press on the advantage of the Portuguese retreat at Ponda and elsewhere ...
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Sack Of Surat
Battle of Surat, also known as the Sack of Surat, was a land battle that took place on January 5, 1664, near the city of Surat, in present-day Gujarat, India; between Maratha ruler Shivaji and Inayat Khan, a Mughal captain. The Marathas defeated the Mughal force, and ransacked the city of Surat for six days. According to James Grant Duff, a captain in the British India Regiment, Surat was attacked by Shivaji on 5 January 1664. Surat was a wealthy port city in the Mughal Empire and was useful for the Mughals as it was used for the sea trade of the Arabian Sea. The city was well populated mostly by Hindus and a few Muslims, especially the officials in the Mughal administration of the city. The attack was so sudden that the population had no chance to flee. The plunder was continued for six days and two-thirds of the city was burnt down. The loot was then transferred to Rajgad fort. Background As Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor, was in Deccan for more than three years fighting ...
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Aurangzeb
Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling from July 1658 until his death in 1707. Under his emperorship, the Mughals reached their greatest extent with their territory spanning nearly the entirety of South Asia. Widely considered to be the last effective Mughal ruler, Aurangzeb compiled the Fatawa 'Alamgiri and was amongst the few monarchs to have fully established Sharia and Islamic economics throughout South Asia.Catherine Blanshard Asher, (1992"Architecture of Mughal India – Part 1" Cambridge university Press, Volume 1, Page 252. Belonging to the aristocratic Timurid dynasty, Aurangzeb's early life was occupied with pious pursuits. He held administrative and military posts under his father Shah Jahan () and gained recognition as an accomplished military commander. Aur ...
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Durgadas Rathore
Durgadas Rathore (13 August 1638 – 22 November 1718) was the Rathore Rajput General of Kingdom of Marwar. He is credited with having preserved the rule of the Rathore dynasty over Marwar, India, following the death of Maharaja Jaswant Singh in the 17th century. In doing so he had to defy Aurangzeb, a Mughal emperor. He commanded the Rathore forces during the Rajput War (1679–1707) and played a major role in the Rajput Rebellion (1708–1710) which became one of the main reason of decline of Mughal Empire. He was elected as the leader of the revolt along with Raja Jai Singh II of Jaipur. He won a number of victories against the Mughals and forced many Mughal officers to pay tribute to him in the form of chauth. Early life Durgadas was the son of Askaran Rathore, a Rajput minister of Jaswant Singh, the ruler of Marwar. He was a distant relative of the royal family, being a descendant of Karana, a son of Rao Ranmal. Support for Ajit Singh Jaswant Singh was campa ...
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Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdivision globally. It was formed on 1 May 1960 by splitting the bilingual Bombay State, which had existed since 1956, into majority Marathi-speaking Maharashtra and Gujarati-speaking Gujarat. Maharashtra is home to the Marathi people, the predominant ethno-linguistic group, who speak the Marathi language, the official language of the state. The state is divided into 6 divisions and 36 districts, with the state capital being Mumbai, the most populous urban area in India, and Nagpur serving as the winter capital, which also hosts the winter session of the state legislature. Godavari and Krishna are the two major rivers in the state. Forests cover 16.47 per cent of the state's geographical area. Out of the total cultivable land in the ...
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