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THE INDIAN AXTIQUARY
SEPTEMBER, 1921
of them had been fighting for their country's liberation and both of them were surely in need of money. Washington requisitioned the property of his unwilling fellow-citizens and Shivaji levied contributions on the enemy's subjects. It served two ends at once. It not only weakened the enemy he was fighting, but at the same time added to his own resources. Shivaji's kingdom was a military state, if we are allowed to style it so. It was in a
state of chronic warfare. Even for its finances, Shivaji lepended Conclusion.
more on war than on the processes of peace. The wealth amassed in the ports of his enemies by their commercial enterprise flowed into Shivaji's treasury, as a reward of his military prowess. The result of this policy was the inevitable ruin of trade and commerce. Surat, the premier port of Western India, lost its trade for ever. But while plundering his enemies' lands, Shivaji took good care to protect his own country from a similar calamity. It was absolutely impossible that his attempts in this direction would be crowned with complete success. But he did all that was practicable. His statesmanship converted the hardy soldiers of Maharashtra into excellent civil administrators. Shivaji did not aspire to be a legislator ; indeed he had no leisure for such work. But he revived some of the best regulations of his predecessors, ard made slight improvements upon them. It does not seem possible that he was able to achieve much reform. We also do not know how far the spirit of these regulations was observed in their actual working by Shivaji's officers. The public opinion of that time did not condem'n bribery and corruption, and we are afraid, Shivaji's officers were not much better if not actually worse, than their successors of the Peshwa period. His country saw no peace till the overthrow of the Moghul power. Shivaji never had more than a couple of peaceful years at a time and even that not more than once in his life. It is futile to expect that commerce and agriculture could have prospered under these circumstances. But Shivaji's regulations were well suited to the needs of the country. The assessment was flexible and varied from year to year. Whatever might have been the annual yield, a considerable share was left to the peasants. In the years of scarcity they could expect relief from the State. Consequently they had good reasons to devote their attention to agricultural pursuits but it is quite probable that the prospects and honour of a military career had stronger charms for the hardy peasant of the Ghat ranges.
CHAPTER IV.
ARMY AND Navy. In his military organisation Shivaji aimed at efficiency. Vastly inferior to his enemies Efficiency aimed at.
in numerical strength, he tried to compensate by quality, the lack
base of quantity. He therefore tried to enforce strict discipline in his army and appealed not only to their military honour but also to the patriotism of his soldiers. His earliest adherents were the Mawlis, & race of hardy hill men, who came into prominence under Shivaji's leadership and have since then declined to their original obscurity. Shivaji depended mainly on these hill men and the hills. The hills constituted an excellent defence, while the hill men accompanied him in all his bold excursions and perilous raids. The ill clad and ill fed hill men of Mawal were trained into an excellent infantry by the great Maratha Captain, and he fortified the bare rocks and mountain passes to bar the enemy's progress through his country. At the time of his death, Shivaji possessed no less than two hundred and forty forts and strongholds, as in the Jabita Sw&rajya of Shah 101 we find that not a single Taluka or Pargana was left without a protecting fort. Scott Waring says that-"Before his death, he (Shivaji) had established his authority over an extent of country four hundred miles in length, and one hundred and
101 J. B. Br. A. S. P., XXII, pp. 36-42.
