Chapter 17 of 52 · 12228 words · ~61 min read

CHAPTER III

THE VÁGHELÁS

(A.D. 1219-1304).

[Arnorája, A.D. 1170-1200.] While Bhímadeva II. (A.D. 1179-1242) struggled to maintain his authority in the north, the country between the Sábarmatí and the Narbadá in the south as well as the districts of Dholká and Dhandhuká in the south-west passed to the Vághelás a branch of the Solankis sprung from Ánáka or Arnorája, the son of the sister of Kumárapála's (A.D. 1143-1173) mother. In return for services to Kumárapála, [637] Ánáka, with the rank of a noble or Sámanta, had received the village of Vyághrapalli or Vághelá, the Tiger's Lair, about ten miles south-west of Anahilaváda. It is from this village that the dynasty takes its name of Vághela.

[Lavanaprasáda, A.D. 1200-1233.] Ánáka's son Lavanaprasáda, who is mentioned as a minister of Bhímadeva II. (A.D. 1179-1242) [638] held Vághelá and probably Dhavalagadha or Dholká about thirty miles to the south-west. The Kírtikaumudí or Moonlight of Glory, the chief cotemporary chronicle, [639] describes Lavanaprasáda as a brave warrior, the slayer of the chief of Nadulá the modern Nándol in Márwár. "In his well-ordered realm, except himself the robber of the glory of hostile kings, robbers were unknown. The ruler of Málava invading the kingdom turned back before the strength of Lavanaprasáda. The southern king also when opposed by him gave up the idea of war." The ruler of Málava or Málwa referred to was Sohada or Subhatavarman. [640] The southern king was the Devagiri Yádava Singhana II. (A.D. 1209-1247). [641]

Lavanaprasáda married Madanarájñí and by her had a son named Víradhavala. As heir apparent Víradhavala, who was also called Víra Vághelá or the Vághelá hero, [642] rose to such distinction as a warrior that in the end Lavanaprasáda abdicated in his favour. Probably to reconcile the people to his venturing to oppose his sovereign Bhímadeva, Lavanaprasáda gave out that in a dream the Luck of Anahilaváda appeared bewailing her home with unlighted shrines, broken walls, and jackal-haunted streets, and called on him to come to her rescue. [643] Though he may have gone to the length of opposing Bhímadeva by force of arms, Lavanaprasáda was careful to rule in his sovereign's name. Even after Lavanaprasáda's abdication, though his famous minister Vastupála considered it advisable, Víradhavala refused to take the supreme title. It was not until the accession of Víradhavala's son Vísaladeva that the head of the Vághelás took any higher title than Ránaka or chieftain. Lavanaprasáda's religious adviser or Guru was the poet Somesvara the author of the Kírtikaumudí and of the Vastupálacharita or Life of Vastupála, both being biographical accounts of Vastupála. The leading supporters both of Lavanaprasáda and of Víradhavala were their ministers the two Jain brothers Vastupála and Tejahpála the famous temple-builders on Ábu, Satruñjaya, and Girnár. According to one account Tejahpála remained at court, while Vastupála went as governor to Stambhatírtha or Cambay where he redressed wrongs and amassed wealth. [644]

One of the chief times of peril in Lavanaprasáda's reign was the joint attack of the Devagiri Yádava Singhana or Sinhana from the south and of four Márwár chiefs from the north. Lavanaprasáda and his son Víradhavala in joint command marched south to meet Singhana at Broach. While at Broach the Vághelás' position was made still more critical by the desertion of the Godhraha or Godhrá chief to Málwa and of the Láta or south Gujarát chief to Singhana. Still Lavanaprasáda pressed on, attacked Singhana, and gave him so crushing a defeat, that, though Lavanaprasáda had almost at once to turn north to meet the Málwa army, Singhana retired without causing further trouble. [645] Somesvara gives no reason for Singhana's withdrawal beyond the remark 'Deer do not follow the lion's path even when the lion has left it.' The true reason is supplied by a Manuscript called Forms of Treaties. [646] The details of a treaty between Sinhana and Lavanaprasáda under date Samvat 1288 (A.D. 1232) included among the Forms seem to show that the reason why Sinhana did not advance was that Lavanaprasáda and his son submitted and concluded an alliance. [647] In this copy of the treaty Sinhanadeva is called the great king of kings or paramount sovereign Mahárájádhirája, while Lavanaprasáda, Sanskritised into Lavanyáprasáda is called a Rána and a tributary chief Mahámandalesvara. The place where the treaty was concluded is styled "the victorious camp," and the date is Monday the fullmoon of Vaisákha in the year Samvat 1288 (A.D. 1232). The provisions are that, as before, each of the belligerents should confine himself to his own territory; neither of them should invade the possessions of the other; if a powerful enemy attacked either of them, they should jointly oppose him; if only a hostile general led the attack, troops should be sent against him; and if from the country of either any noble fled into the territory of the other taking with him anything of value he should not be allowed harbourage and all valuables in the refugee's possession should be restored. [648] His good fortune went with Lavanaprasáda in his attack on the Márwár chiefs whom he forced to retire. Meanwhile Sankha [649] who is described as the son of the ruler of Sindh but who seems to have held territory in Broach, raised a claim to Cambay and promised Vastupála Lavanaprasáda's governor, that, if Vastupála declared in his favour [650], he would be continued in his government. Vastupála rejected Sankha's overtures, met him in battle outside of Cambay, and forced him to retire. In honour of Vastupála's victory the people of Cambay held a great festival when Vastupála passed in state through the city to the shrine of the goddess Ekalla Víra outside of the town. [651]

Another of the deeds preserved in the Forms is a royal copperplate grant by Lavanaprasáda or Lávanyaprasáda of a village, not named, for the worship of Somanátha. Lavanaprasáda is described as the illustrious Ránaka, [652] the great chief, the local lord or Mandalesvara, the son of the illustrious Ránaka Ánalde born in the illustrious pedigree of the Chaulukya dynasty. The grant is noted as executed in the reign of Bhímadeva II. [653] while one Bhábhuya was his great minister. Though Bhímadeva was ruling in A.D. 1232 (Samvat 1288) Lavanaprasáda apparently had sufficient influence to make grants of villages and otherwise to act as the real ruler of Gujarát. It was apparently immediately after this grant (A.D. 1232?) that Lavanaprasáda abdicated in favour of Víradhavala. [654]

[Víradhavala, A.D. 1233-1238.] Soon after his accession Víradhavala, accompanied by his minister Tejahpála, started on an expedition against his wife's brothers Sángana and Chamunda the rulers of Vámanasthalí or Vanthalí near Junágadh. As in spite of their sister's advice Sángana and Chamunda refused to pay tribute the siege was pressed. Early in the fight the cry arose 'Víradhavala is slain.' But on his favourite horse Uparavata, Víradhavala put himself at the head of his troops, slew both the brothers, and gained the hoarded treasure of Vanthalí. [655] In an expedition against the chief of Bhadresvara, probably Bhadresar in Kacch, Víradhavala was less successful and was forced to accept the Kacch chief's terms. The chroniclers ascribe this reverse to three Rájput brothers who came to Víradhavala's court and offered their services for 3,00,000 drammas (about £7500). "For 3,00,000 drammas I can raise a thousand men" said Víradhavala, and the brothers withdrew. They went to the court of the Bhadresar chief, stated their terms, and were engaged. The night before the battle the brothers sent to Víradhavala saying 'Keep ready 3000 men, for through a triple bodyguard we will force our way.' The three brothers kept their word. They forced their way to Víradhavala, dismounted him, carried off his favourite steed Uparavata, but since they had been his guests they spared Víradhavala's life. [656]

Another of Víradhavala's expeditions was to East Gujarát. Ghughula, chief of Godraha or Godhrá, plundered the caravans that passed through his territory to the Gujarát ports. When threatened with punishment by Víradhavala, Ghughula in derision sent his overlord a woman's dress and a box of cosmetics. The minister Tejahpála, who was ordered to avenge this affront, dispatched some skirmishers ahead to raid the Godhra cattle. Ghughula attacked the raiders and drove them back in such panic that the main body of the army was thrown into disorder. The day was saved by the prowess of Tejahpála who in single combat unhorsed Ghughula and made him prisoner. Ghughula escaped the disgrace of the woman's dress and the cosmetic box with which he was decorated by biting his tongue so that he died. The conquest of Ghughula is said to have spread Víradhavala's power to the borders of Maháráshtra. [657] The chroniclers relate another success of Víradhavala's against Muizz-ud-dín apparently the famous Muhammad Gori Sultán Muizz-ud-dín Bahramsháh, the Sultán of Delhi (A.D. 1191-1205) [658] who led an expedition against Gujarát. The chief of Ábu was instructed to let the Musalmán force march south unmolested and when they were through to close the defiles against their return. The Gujarát army met the Musalmáns and the Ábu troops hung on their rear. The Musalmáns fled in confusion and cartloads of heads were brought to Víradhavala in Dholká. The chronicles give the credit of this success to Vastupála. They also credit Vastupála with a stratagem which induced the Sultán to think well of Víradhavala and prevented him taking steps to wipe out the disgrace of his defeat. Hearing that the Sultán's mother, or, according to another story, the Sultán's religious adviser, was going from Cambay to Makka Vastupála ordered his men to attack and plunder the vessels in which the pilgrimage was to be made. On the captain's complaint Vastupála had the pirates arrested and the property restored. So grateful was the owner, whether mother or guide, that Vastupála was taken to Delhi and arranged a friendly treaty between his master and the Sultán. [659]

Their lavish expenditure on objects connected with Jain worship make the brothers Vastupála and Tejahpála the chief heroes of the Jain chroniclers. They say when the Musalmán trader Sayad was arrested at Cambay his wealth was confiscated. Víradhavala claimed all but the dust which he left to Vastupála. Much of the dust was gold dust and a fire turned to dust more of the Sayad's gold and silver treasure. In this way the bulk of the Sayad's wealth passed to Vastupála. This wealth Vastupála and his brother Tejahpála went to bury in Hadálaka in Káthiáváda. In digging they chanced to come across a great and unknown treasure. According to the books the burden of their wealth so preyed on the brothers that they ceased to care for food. Finding the cause of her husband Tejahpála's anxiety Anupamá said 'Spend your wealth on a hill top. All can see it; no one can carry it away.' According to the chroniclers it was this advice, approved by their mother and by Vastupála's wife Lalitádeví, that led the brothers to adorn the summits of Ábu, Girnár, and Satruñjaya with magnificent temples.

The Satruñjaya temple which is dedicated to the twenty-third Tírthankara Neminátha is dated A.D. 1232 (Samvat 1288) and has an inscription by Somesvara, the author of the Kírtikaumudí telling how it was built. The Girnár temple, also dedicated to Neminátha, bears date A.D. 1232 (Samvat 1288). The Ábu temple, surpassing the others and almost every building in India in the richness and delicacy of its carving, is dedicated to Neminátha and dated A.D. 1231 (Samvat 1287). Such was the liberality of the brothers that to protect them against the cold mountain air each of their masons had a fire near him to warm himself and a hot dinner cooked for him at the close of the day. The finest carvers were paid in silver equal in weight to the dust chiselled out of their carvings. [660]

The author Somesvara describes how he twice came to the aid of his friend Vastupála. On one occasion he saved Vastupála from a prosecution for peculation. The second occasion was more serious. Simha the maternal uncle of king Vísaladeva whipped the servant of a Jain monastery. Enraged at this insult to his religion Vastupála hired a Rájput who cut off Simha's offending hand. The crime was proved and Vastupála was sentenced to death. But according to the Jains the persuasions of Somesvara not only made the king set Vastupála free, but led him to upbraid his uncle for beating the servant of a Jain monastery. Soon after his release Vastupála was seized with fever. Feeling the fever to be mortal he started for Satruñjaya but died on the way. His brother Tejahpála and his son Jayantapála burned his body on the holy hill, and over his ashes raised a shrine with the name Svargárohanaprásáda The shrine of the ascent into Heaven. [661]

In A.D. 1238 six years after his father's withdrawal from power Víradhavala died. One hundred and eighty-two servants passed with their lord through the flames, and such was the devotion that Tejahpála had to use force to prevent further sacrifices. [662]

[Vísaladeva, A.D. 1243-1261.] Of Víradhavala's two sons, Vírama Vísala and Pratápamalla, Vastupála favoured the second and procured his succession according to one account by forcing the old king to drink poison and preventing by arms the return to Anahilaváda of the elder brother Vírama who retired for help to Jábálipura (Jabalpur). Besides with his brother's supporters Vísala had to contend with Tribhuvanapála the representative of the Anahilaváda Solankis. Unlike his father and his grandfather Vísala refused to acknowledge an overlord. By A.D. 1243 he was established as sovereign in Anahilaváda. A later grant A.D. 1261 (Samvat 1317) from Kadi in North Gujarát shows that Anahilaváda was his capital and his title Mahárájádhirája King of Kings. According to his copperplates Vísaladeva was a great warrior, the crusher of the lord of Málwa, a hatchet at the root of the turbulence of Mewád, a volcanic fire to dry up Singhana of Devagiri's ocean of men. [663] Vísaladeva is further described as chosen as a husband by the daughter of Karnáta [664] and as ruling with success and good fortune in Anahilaváda with the illustrious Nágada as his minister. [665] The bards praise Vísaladeva for lessening the miseries of a three years famine, [666] and state that he built or repaired the fortifications of Vísalanagara in East and of Darbhavatí or Dabhoi in South Gujarát.

[Arjunadeva, A.D. 1262-1274.] During Vísaladeva's reign Vághela power was established throughout Gujarát. On Vísaladeva's death in A.D. 1261 the succession passed to Arjunadeva the son of Vísaladeva's younger brother Pratápamalla. [667] Arjunadeva proved a worthy successor and for thirteen years (A.D. 1262-1274; Samvat 1318-1331) maintained his supremacy. Two stone inscriptions one from Verával dated A.D. 1264 (Samvat 1320) the other from Kacch dated A.D. 1272 (Samvat 1328) show that his territory included both Kacch and Káthiáváda, and an inscription of his successor Sárangadeva shows that his power passed as far east as Mount Ábu.

The Verával inscription of A.D. 1264 (Samvat 1320), which is in the temple of the goddess Harsutá, [668] describes Arjunadeva as the king of kings, the emperor (chakravartin) of the illustrious Chaulukya race, who is a thorn in the heart of the hostile king Nihsankamalla, the supreme lord, the supreme ruler, who is adorned by a long line of ancestral kings, who resides in the famous Anahillapátaka. The grant allots certain income from houses and shops in Somanátha Patan to a mosque built by Piroz a Muhammadan shipowner of Ormuz which is then mentioned as being under the sway of Amír Rukn-ud-dín. [669] The grant also provides for the expenses of certain religious festivals to be celebrated by the Shiite sailors of Somanátha Patan, and lays down that under the management of the Musalmán community of Somanátha any surplus is to be made over to the holy districts of Makka and Madina. The grant is written in bad Sanskrit and contains several Arabic Persian and Gujaráti words. Its chief interest is that it is dated in four eras, "in 662 of the Prophet Muhammad who is described as the teacher of the sailors, who live near the holy lord of the Universe that is Somanátha; in 1320 of the great king Vikrama; in 945 of the famous Valabhi; and in 151 of the illustrious Simha." The date is given in these four different eras, because the Muhammadan is the donor's era, the Samvat the era of the country, the Valabhi of the province, and the Simha of the locality. [670] The Kacch inscription is at the village of Rav about sixty miles east of Bhúj. It is engraved on a memorial slab at the corner of the courtyard wall of an old temple and bears date A.D. 1272 (Samvat 1328). It describes Arjunadeva as the great king of kings, the supreme ruler, the supreme lord. It mentions the illustrious Máladeva as his chief minister and records the building of a step-well in the village of Rav. [671]

[Sárangadeva, A.D. 1275-1296.] Arjunadeva was succeeded by his son Sárangadeva. According to the Vichárasreni Sárangadeva ruled for twenty-two years from A.D. 1274 to 1296 (Samvat 1331-1353). Inscriptions of the reign of Sárangadeva have been found in Kacch and at Ábu. The Kacch inscription is on a pália or memorial slab now at the village of Khokhar near Kanthkot which was brought there from the holy village of Bhadresar about thirty-five miles north-east of Mándvi. It bears date A.D. 1275 (Samvat 1332) and describes Sárangadeva as the great king of kings, the supreme ruler, the supreme lord ruling at Anahillapátaka with the illustrious Máladeva as his chief minister. [672] The Ábu inscription dated A.D. 1294 (Samvat 1350) in the temple of Vastupála regulates certain dues payable to the Jain temple and mentions Sárangadeva as sovereign of Anahillapátaka and as having for vassal Vísaladeva ruler of the old capital of Chandrávati about twelve miles south of Mount Ábu. [673] A third inscription dated A.D. 1287 (Samvat 1343), originally from Somanátha, is now at Cintra in Portugal. It records the pilgrimages and religious benefactions of one Tripurántaka, a follower of the Nakulísá Pásupata sect, in the reign of Sárangadeva, whose genealogy is given. A manuscript found in Ahmadábád is described as having been finished on Sunday the 3rd of the dark fortnight of Jyeshtha in the Samvat year 1350, in the triumphant reign of Sárangadeva the great king of kings, while his victorious army was encamped near Ásápalli (Ahmadábád). [674]

[Karnadeva, A.D. 1296-1304.] Sárangadeva's successor Karnadeva ruled for eight years A.D. 1296-1304 (Samvat 1352-1360). Under this weak ruler, who was known as Ghelo or the Insane, Gujarát passed into Musalmán hands. In A.D. 1297 Alaf Khán the brother of the Emperor Alá-ud-dín Khilji (A.D. 1296-1317) with Nasrat Khán led an expedition against Gujarát. They laid waste the country and occupied Anahilaváda. Leaving his wives, children, elephants, and baggage Karnadeva fled to Ramadeva the Yádava chief of Devagiri. [675] All his wealth fell to his conquerors. Among the wives of Karnadeva who were made captive was a famous beauty named Kauládeví, who was carried to the harem of the Sultán. In the plunder of Cambay Nasrat Khán took a merchant's slave Malik Káfur who shortly after became the Emperor's chief favourite. From Cambay the Muhammadans passed to Káthiáváda and destroyed the temple of Somanátha. In 1304 Alaf Khán's term of office as governor of Gujarát was renewed. According to the Mirát-i-Ahmadí after the renewal of his appointment, from white marble pillars taken from many Jain temples, Alaf Khán constructed at Anahilaváda the Jáma Masjid or general mosque.

In A.D. 1306 the Cambay slave Káfur who had already risen to be Sultán Alá-ud-dín's chief favourite was invested with the title of Malik Naib and placed in command of an army sent to subdue the Dakhan. Alaf Khán, the governor of Gujarát, was ordered to help Malik Káfur in his arrangements. At the same time Kauládeví persuaded the Emperor to issue orders that her daughter Devaladeví should be sent to her to Delhi. Devaladeví was then with her father the unfortunate Karnadeva in hiding in Báglán in Násik. Malik Káfur sent a messenger desiring Karnadeva to give up his daughter. Karnadeva refused and Alaf Khán was ordered to lead his army to the Báglán hills and capture the princess. While for two months he succeeded in keeping the Muhammadan army at bay, Karnadeva received and accepted an offer for the hand of Devaladeví from the Devagiri Yádava chief Sankaradeva. On her way to Devagiri near Elura Devaladeví's escort was attacked by a party of Alaf Khán's troops, and the lady seized and sent to Delhi where she was married to prince Khizar Khán. Nothing more is known of Karnadeva who appears to have died a fugitive.

Though the main cities and all central Gujarát passed under Musalmán rule a branch of the Vághelás continued to hold much of the country to the west of the Sábarmatí, while other branches maintained their independence in the rugged land beyond Ambá Bhawání between Vírpur on the Mahí and Posiná at the northmost verge of Gujarát. [676]

GENEALOGY OF THE VÁGHELÁS.

## PART II.

MUSALMÁN GUJARÁT.

A.D. 1297-1760.

This history of Musalmán Gujarát is based on translations of the Mirat-i-Sikandari (A.D. 1611) and of the Mirat-i-Áhmedi (A.D. 1756) by the late Colonel J. W. Watson. Since Colonel Watson's death in 1889 the translations have been revised and the account enriched by additions from the Persian texts of Farishtah and of the two Mirats by Mr. Fazl Lutfulláh Farídi of Surat. A careful comparison has also been made with other extracts in Elliot's History of India and in Bayley's History of Gujarát.

MUSALMÁN GUJARÁT.

A.D. 1297-1760.

INTRODUCTION.

Muhammadan rule in Gujarát lasted from the conquest of the province by the Dehli emperor Alá-ud-dín Khilji (A.D. 1295-1315), shortly before the close of the thirteenth century A.D., to the final defeat of the Mughal viceroy Momín Khán by the Maráthás and the loss of the city of Áhmedábád at the end of February 1758.

This whole term of Musalmán ascendancy, stretching over slightly more than four and a half centuries, may conveniently be divided into three parts. The First, the rule of the early sovereigns of Dehli, lasting a few years more than a century, or, more strictly from A.D. 1297 to A.D. 1403; the Second, the rule of the Áhmedábád kings, a term of nearly a century and three-quarters, from A.D. 1403 to A.D. 1573; the Third, the rule of the Mughal Emperors, when, for little less than two hundred years, A.D. 1573-1760, Gujarát was administered by viceroys of the court of Dehli.

[Territorial Limits.] In the course of these 450 years the limits of Gujarát varied greatly. In the fourteenth century the territory nominally under the control of the Musalmán governors of Pátan (Anahilaváda) extended southwards from Jhálor, about fifty miles north of Mount Abu, to the neighbourhood of Bombay, and in breadth from the line of the Málwa and Khándesh hills to the western shores of peninsular Gujarát. [677] The earlier kings of Áhmedábád (A.D. 1403-1450), content with establishing their power on a firm footing, did not greatly extend the limits of their kingdom. Afterwards, during the latter part of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries (A.D. 1450-1530), the dominions of the Áhmedábád kings gradually spread till they included large tracts to the east and north-east formerly in the possession of the rulers of Khándesh and Málwa. Still later, during the years of misrule between A.D. 1530 and A.D. 1573, the west of Khándesh and the north of the Konkan ceased to form part of the kingdom of Gujarát. Finally, under the arrangements introduced by the emperor Akbar in A.D. 1583, more lands were restored to Málwa and Khándesh. With the exception of Jhálor and Sirohi on the north, Dungarpur and Bánsváda on the north-east, and Alirájpur on the east, since handed to Rájputána and Central India, the limits of Gujarát remain almost as they were laid down by Akbar.

[Sorath.] Though, under the Musalmáns, peninsular Gujarát did not bear the name of Káthiáváda, it was then, as at present, considered part of the province of Gujarát. During the early years of Musalmán rule, the peninsula, together with a small portion of the adjoining mainland, was known as Sorath, a shortened form of Saurâshtra, the name originally applied by the Hindus to a long stretch of sea-coast between the banks of the Indus and Daman. [678] Towards the close of the sixteenth century the official use of the word Sorath was confined to a portion, though by much the largest part, of the peninsula. At the same time, the name Sorath seems then, and for long after, to have been commonly applied to the whole peninsula. For the author of the Mirat-i-Áhmedi, writing as late as the middle of the eighteenth century (A.D. 1756: A.H. 1170), speaks of Sorath as divided into five districts or zilláhs, Hálár, Káthiáváda, Gohilváda, Bábriáváda, and Jetváda, and notices that though Navánagar was considered a separate district, its tribute was included in the revenue derived from Sorath. [679] In another passage the same writer thus defines Sauráshtra:

Sauráshtra or Sorath comprehends the Sarkár of Sorath the Sarkár of Islámnagar or Navánagar and the Sarkár of Kachh or Bhujnagar. It also includes several zillahs or districts, Naiyad which they call Jatwár, Hálár or Navánagar and its vicinity, Káthiáváda, Gohilváda, Bábriáváda, Chorvár, Panchál, Okhágir in the neighbourhood of Jagat otherwise called Dwárka, Prabhás Khetr or Pátan Somnáth and its neighbourhood, Nághír also called Sálgogha, and the Nalkántha. [680]

The present Sorath stretches no further than the limits of Junágadh, Bántwa, and a few smaller holdings.

[Káthiáváda.] The name Káthiáváda is of recent origin. It was not until after the establishment of Musalmán power in Gujarát that any portion of the peninsula came to bear the name of the tribe of Káthis. Even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, the name Káthiáváda was applied only to one of the sub-divisions of the peninsula. In the disorders which prevailed during the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Káthis made themselves conspicuous. As it was from the hardy horsemen of this tribe that the tribute-exacting Maráthás met with the fiercest resistance, they came to speak of the whole peninsula as the land of the Káthis. This use was adopted by the early British officers and has since continued.

[Under the kings, 1403-1573.] Under the Áhmedábád kings, as it still is under British rule, Gujarát was divided politically into two main parts; one, called the khálsah or crown domain administered directly by the central authority; the other, on payment of tribute in service or in money, left under the control of its former rulers. The amount of tribute paid by the different chiefs depended, not on the value of their territory, but on the terms granted to them when they agreed to become feudatories of the kings of Áhmedábád. Under the Gujarát Sultáns this tribute was occasionally collected by military expeditions headed by the king in person and called mulkgíri or country-seizing circuits.

[States.] The internal management of the feudatory states was unaffected by their payment of tribute. Justice was administered and the revenue collected in the same way as under the Anahilapur kings. The revenue consisted, as before, of a share of the crops received in kind, supplemented by the levy of special cesses, trade, and transit dues. The chief's share of the crops differed according to the locality; it rarely exceeded one-third of the produce, it rarely fell short of one-sixth. From some parts the chief's share was realised directly from the cultivator by agents called mantris; from other parts the collection was through superior landowners. [681]

[Districts.] The Áhmedábád kings divided the portion of their territory which was under their direct authority into districts or sarkárs. These districts were administered in one of two ways. They were either assigned to nobles in support of a contingent of troops, or they were set apart as crown domains and managed by paid officers. The officers placed in charge of districts set apart as [Crown Lands.] crown domains were called muktia. [682] Their chief duties were to preserve the peace and to collect the revenue. For the maintenance of order, a body of soldiers from the army head-quarters at Áhmedábád was detached for service in each of these divisions, and placed under the command of the district governor. At the same time, in addition to the presence of this detachment of regular troops, every district contained certain fortified outposts called thánás, varying in number according to the character of the country and the temper of the people. These posts were in charge of officers called thánadárs subordinate to the district governor. They were garrisoned by bodies of local soldiery, for whose maintenance, in addition to money payments, a small assignment of land was set apart in the neighbourhood of the post. On the arrival of the tribute-collecting army the governors of the districts through which it passed were expected to join the main body with their local contingents. At other times the district governors had little control over the feudatory chiefs in the neighbourhood of their charge.

[Fiscal.] For fiscal purposes each district or sarkár was distributed among a certain number of sub-divisions or parganáhs, each under a paid official styled ámil or tahsildár. These sub-divisional officers realised the state demand, nominally one-half of the produce, by the help of the headmen of the villages under their charge. In the sharehold and simple villages of North Gujarát these village headmen were styled patels or according to Musalmán writers mukaddams and in the simple villages of the south they were known as desáis. They arranged for the final distribution of the total demand in joint villages among the shareholders, and in simple villages from the individual cultivators. [683] The sub-divisional officer presented a statement of the accounts of the villages in his sub-division to the district officer, whose record of the revenue of his whole district was in turn forwarded to the head revenue officer at court. As a check on the internal management of his charge, and especially to help him in the work of collecting the revenue, with each district governor was associated an accountant. Further that each of these officers might be the greater check on the other, king Áhmed I. (A.D. 1412-1443) enforced the rule that when the governor was chosen from among the royal slaves the accountant should be a free man, and that when the accountant was a slave the district governor should be chosen from some other class. This practise was maintained till the end of the reign of Muzaffar Sháh (A.D. 1511-1525), when, according to the Mirat-i-Áhmedi, the army became much increased, and the ministers, condensing the details of revenue, farmed it on contract, so that many parts formerly yielding one rupee now produced ten, and many others seven eight or nine, and in no place was there a less increase than from ten to twenty per cent. Many other changes occurred at the same time, and the spirit of innovation creeping into the administration the wholesome system of checking the accounts was given up and mutiny and confusion spread over Gujarát. [684]

[Assigned Lands.] The second class of directly governed districts were the lands assigned to nobles for the maintenance of contingents of troops. As in other parts of India, it would seem that at first these assignments were for specified sums equal to the pay of the contingent. When such assignments were of long standing, and were large enough to swallow the whole revenue of a district, it was natural to simplify the arrangement by transferring the collection of the revenue and the whole management of the district to the military leader of the contingent. So long as the central power was strong, precautions were doubtless taken to prevent the holder of the grant from unduly rackrenting his district and appropriating to himself more than the pay of the troops, or from exercising any powers not vested in the local governors of districts included within the crown domains. As in other parts of India, those stipulations were probably enforced by the appointment of certain civil officers directly from the government to inspect the whole of the noble's proceedings, as well in managing his troops as in administering his lands. [685] The decline of the king's power freed the nobles from all check or control in the management of their lands. And when, in A.D. 1536, the practice of farming was introduced into the crown domains, it would seem to have been adopted by the military leaders in their lands, and to have been continued till the annexation of Gujarát by the emperor Akbar in A.D. 1573.

[Under the Mughals, A.D. 1573-1760.] It was the policy of Akbar rather to improve the existing system than to introduce a new form of government. After to some extent contracting the limits of Gujarát he constituted it a province or sûbah of the empire, appointing to its [Administration.] government an officer of the highest rank with the title of sûbahdár or viceroy. As was the case under the Áhmedábád kings, the province continued to be divided into territories managed by feudatory chiefs, and [Crown Lands.] districts administered by officers appointed either by the court of Dehli or by the local viceroy. The head-quarters of the army remained at Áhmedábád, and detachments were told off and placed under the orders of the officers in charge of the directly administered divisions. These district governors, as before, belonged to two classes, paid officers responsible for the management of the crown domains and military leaders in possession of lands assigned to them in pay of their contingent of troops. The governors of the crown domains, who were now known as faujdárs or commanders, had, in addition to the command of the regular troops, the control of the outposts maintained within the limits of their charge. Like their predecessors they accompanied the viceroy in his yearly circuit for the collection of tribute.

As a check on the military governors and to help them in collecting the revenue, the distinct class of account officers formerly established by king Áhmed I. (A.D. 1412-1443) was again introduced. The head of this branch of the administration was an officer, second in rank to the viceroy alone, appointed direct from the court of Dehli with the title of diván. Besides acting as collector-general of the revenues of the province, this officer was also the head of its civil administration. His title diván is generally translated minister. And though the word minister does not express the functions of the office, which corresponded more nearly with those of a chief secretary, it represents with sufficient accuracy the relation in which the holder of the office of diván generally stood to the viceroy.

[Revenue Officials.] For its revenue administration each district or group of districts had its revenue officials called amíns who corresponded to the collector of modern times. There were also amíns in the customs department separate from those whose function was to control and administer the land revenue. Beneath the amín came the ámil [686] who carried on the actual collection of the land revenue or customs in each district or parganáh, and below the ámil were the fáîls, mushrifs, or kárkúns that is the revenue clerks. The ámil corresponded to the modern mámlatdár, both terms meaning him who carries on the amal or revenue management. In the leading ports the ámil of the customs was called mutasaddi that is civil officer.

[Village Officers.] The ámil or mámlatdár dealt directly with the village officials, namely with the mukaddam or headman, the patwári or lease manager, the kánúngo or accountant, and the haváldár or grain-yard guardian. The haváldár superintended the separation of the government share of the produce; apportioned to the classes subject to forced labour their respective turns of duty; and exercised a general police superintendence by means of subordinates called pasáitás or vartaniás. In ports under the mutasaddi was a harbour-master or sháh-bandar.

[Desáis.] Crown sub-divisions had, in addition, the important class called desáis. The desáis' duty appears at first to have been to collect the salámi or tribute due by the smaller chiefs, landholders, and vántádárs or sharers. For this, in Akbar's time, the desái received a remuneration of 2 1/2 per cent on the sum collected. Under the first viceroy Mírza Ázíz Kokaltásh (A.D. 1573-1575) this percentage was reduced to one-half of its former amount, and in later times this one-half was again reduced by one-half. Though the Muhammadan historians give no reason for so sweeping a reduction, the cause seems to have been the inability of the desáis to collect the tribute without the aid of a military force. Under the new system the desái seems merely to have kept the accounts of the tribute due, and the records both of the amount which should be levied as tribute and of other customary rights of the crown. In later times the desáis were to a great extent superseded by the district accountants or majmudárs, and many desáis, especially in south Gujarát, seem to have sunk to patels.

[Land Tax.] Up to the viceroyalty of Mírza Ísa Tarkhán (A.D. 1642-1644), the land tax appears to have been levied from the cultivator in a fixed sum, but he was also subject to numerous other imposts. Land grants in wazífah carried with them an hereditary title and special exemption from all levies except the land tax. The levy in kind appears to have ceased before the close of Mughal rule. In place of a levy in kind each village paid a fixed sum or jama through the district accountant or majmudár who had taken the place of the desái. As in many cases the jama really meant the lump sum at which the crown villages were assessed and farmed to the chiefs and patels, on the collapse of the empire many villages thus farmed to chiefs and landlords were retained by them with the connivance of the majmudárs desáis and others.

[Justice.] The administration of justice seems to have been very complete. In each kasbah or town kázis, endowed with glebe lands in addition to a permanent salary, adjudicated disputes among Muhammadans according to the laws of Islám. Disputes between Muhammadans and unbelievers, or amongst unbelievers, were decided by the department called the sadárat, the local judge being termed a sadr. The decisions of the local kázis and sadrs were subject to revision by the kázi or sadr of the súbah who resided at Áhmedábád. And as a last resort the Áhmedábád decisions were subject to appeal to the Kázi-ul-Kuzzát and the Sadr-ûs-Sudûr at the capital.

[Fiscal.] The revenue appears to have been classed under four main heads: 1. The Khazánah-i-Ámirah or imperial treasury which comprehended the land tax received from the crown parganáhs or districts, the tribute, the five per cent customs dues from infidels, the import dues on stuffs, and the sáyer or land customs including transit dues, slave market dues, and miscellaneous taxes. 2. The treasury of arrears into which were paid government claims in arrear either from the ámils or from the farmers of land revenue; takávi advances due by the raiyats; and tribute levied by the presence of a military force. 3. The treasury of charitable endowments. Into this treasury was paid the 2 1/2 per cent levied as customs dues from Muhammadans. [687] The pay of the religious classes was defrayed from this treasury. 4. The treasury, into which the jaziah or capitation tax levied from zimmís or infidels who acknowledged Muhammadan rule, was paid. The proceeds were expended in charity and public works. After the death of the emperor Farrukhsiyar (A.D. 1713-1719), this source of revenue was abolished. The arrangements introduced by Akbar in the end of the sixteenth century remained in force till the death of Aurangzíb in A.D. 1707. Then trouble and perplexity daily increased, till in A.D. 1724-25, Hamíd Khán usurped the government lands, and, seeking to get rid of the servants and assignments, gradually obtained possession of the records of the registry office. The keepers of the records were scattered, and yearly revenue statements ceased to be received from the districts. [688]

[Assigned Lands.] Akbar continued the system of assigning lands to military leaders in payment of their contingents of troops. Immediately after the annexation in A.D. 1573, almost the whole country was divided among the great nobles. [689] Except that the revenues of certain tracts were set aside for the imperial exchequer the directly governed districts passed into the hands of military leaders who employed their own agents to collect the revenue. During the seventeenth century the practice of submitting a yearly record of their revenues, and the power of the viceroy to bring them to account for misgovernment, exercised a check on the management of the military leaders. And during this time a yearly surplus revenue of £600,000 (Rs. 60,00,000) from the assigned and crown lands was on an average forwarded from Gujarát to Dehli. In the eighteenth century the decay of the viceroy's authority was accompanied by the gradually increased power of the military leaders in possession of assigned districts, till finally, as in the case of the Nawábs of Broach and Surat, they openly claimed the position of independent rulers. [690]

[Minor Offices.] Of both leading and minor officials the Mirat-i-Áhmedi supplies the following additional details. The highest officer who was appointed under the seal of the minister of the empire was the provincial diván or minister. He had charge of the fiscal affairs of the province and of the revenues of the khálsa or crown lands, and was in some matters independent of the viceroy. Besides his personal salary he had 150 sawárs for two provincial thánás Arjanpur and Khambália. Under the diván the chief officers were the píshkár diván his first assistant, who was appointed under imperial orders by the patent of the diván, the daroghah or head of the office, and the sharf or mushrif and tehwildár of the daftar khánáhs, who presided over the accounts with munshis and muharrirs or secretaries and writers. The kázis, both town and city, with the sanction of the emperor were appointed by the chief law officer of the empire through the chief law officer of the province. They were lodged by the state, paid partly in cash partly in land, and kept up a certain number of troopers. In the kázis' courts wakíls or pleaders and muftís or law officers drew 8 as. to Re. 1 a day. Newly converted Musalmáns also drew 8 as. a day. The city censor or muhtasib had the supervision of morals and of weights and measures. He was paid in cash and land, and was expected to keep up sixty troopers. The news-writer, who was sometimes also bakhshi or military paymaster, had a large staff of news-writers called wákiâh-nigár who worked in the district courts and offices as well as in the city courts. He received his news-reports every evening and embodied them in a letter which was sent to court by camel post. A second staff of news-writers called sawáníhnigár reported rumours. A third set were the harkárás on the viceroy's staff. Postal chaukis or stations extended from Áhmedábád to the Ajmír frontier, each with men and horse ready to carry the imperial post which reached Sháh Jehánábád or Dehli in seven days. A line of posts also ran south through Broach to the Dakhan. The faujdárs or military police, who were sometimes commanders of a thousand and held estates, controlled both the city and the district police. The kotwál or head of the city night-watch was appointed by the viceroy. He had fifty troopers and a hundred foot. In the treasury department were the amín or chief, the dároghah, the mushrif, the treasurer, and five messengers. In the medical department were a Yúnáni or Greek school and a Hindu physician, two under-physicians on eight and ten annas a day, and a surgeon. The yearly grant for food and medicine amounted to Rs. 2000. [691]

[Land Tenures.] Besides the class of vernacular terms that belong to the administration of the province, certain technical words connected with the tenure of land are of frequent occurrence in this history. For each of these, in addition to the English equivalent which as far as possible has been given in the text, some explanation seems necessary. During the period to which this history refers, the superior holders of the land of the province belonged to two main classes, those whose claims dated from before the Musalmán conquest and those whose interest in the land was based on a Musalmán grant. By the Musalmán historians, landholders of the first class, who were all Hindus, are called zamíndárs, while landholders of the second class, Musalmáns as a rule, are spoken of as jágírdárs. Though the term zamíndár was used to include the whole body of superior Hindu landholders, in practice a marked distinction was drawn between the almost independent chief, who still enjoyed his Hindu title of rája, rával, ráv, or jám, and the petty claimant to a share in a government village, who in a Hindu state would have been known as a garásiá. [692]

[Hereditary Hindu Landholders.] The larger landholders, who had succeeded in avoiding complete subjection, were, as noticed above, liable only for the payment of a certain fixed sum, the collection of which by the central power in later times usually required the presence of a military force. With regard to the settlement of the claims of the smaller landholders of the superior class, whose estates fell within the limits of the directly administered districts, no steps seem to have been taken till the reign of Áhmed Sháh I. (A.D. 1411-1443). About the year A.D. 1420 the peace of his kingdom was so broken by agrarian disturbances, that Áhmed Sháh agreed, on condition of their paying tribute and performing military service, to re-grant to the landholders of the zamíndár class as hereditary possessions a one-fourth share of their former village lands. The portion so set apart was called vánta or share, and the remainder, retained as state land, was called talpat. This agreement continued till, in the year A.D. 1545, during the reign of Mahmúd Sháh II. (A.D. 1536-1553), an attempt was made to annex these private shares to the crown. This measure caused much discontent and disorder. It was reversed by the emperor Akbar who, as part of the settlement of the province in A.D. 1583, restored their one-fourth share to the landholders, and, except that the Maráthás afterwards levied an additional quit-rent from these lands, the arrangements then introduced have since continued in force. [693]

[Levies.] During the decay of Musalmán rule in Gujarát in the first half of the eighteenth century, shareholders of the garásia class in government villages, who were always ready to increase their power by force, levied many irregular exactions from their more peaceful neighbours, the cultivators or inferior landholders. These levies are known as vol that is a forced contribution or pál that is protection. All have this peculiar characteristic that they were paid by the cultivators of crown lands to petty marauders to purchase immunity from their attacks. They in no case partook of the nature of dues imposed by a settled government on its own subjects. Tora garás, more correctly toda garás, is another levy which had its origin in eighteenth century disorder. It was usually a readymoney payment taken from villages which, though at the time crown or khálsa, had formerly belonged to the garásia who exacted the levy. Besides a readymoney payment contributions in kind were sometimes exacted.

[Service Lands.] The second class of superior landholders were those whose title was based on a Musalmán grant. Such grants were either assignments of large tracts of land to the viceroy, district-governors, and nobles, to support the dignity of their position and maintain a contingent of troops, or they were allotments on a smaller scale granted in reward for some special service. Land granted with these objects was called jágír, and the holder of the land jágírdár. In theory, on the death of the original grantee, such possessions were strictly resumable; in practice they tended to become hereditary. No regular payments were required from holders of jágírs. Only under the name of peshkash occasional contributions were demanded. These occasional contributions generally consisted of such presents as a horse, an elephant, or some other article of value. They had more of the nature of a freewill offering than of an enforced tribute. Under the Musalmáns contributions of this kind were the only payments exacted from proprietors of the jágírdár class. But the Maráthás, in addition to contributions, imposed on jágírdárs a regular tribute, similar to that paid by the representatives of the original class of superior Hindu landholders.

Under Musalmán rule great part of Gujarát was always in the hands of jágírdárs. So powerful were they that on two occasions under the Áhmedábád kings, in A.D. 1554 and A.D. 1572, the leading nobles distributed among themselves the entire area of the kingdom. [694] Again, during the eighteenth century, when Mughal rule was on the decline, the jágírdárs by degrees won for themselves positions of almost complete independence. [695]

[Condition of Gujarát, A.D. 1297-1760.] The changes in the extent of territory and in the form of administration illustrate the effect of the government on the condition of the people during the different periods of Musalmán rule. The following summary of the leading characteristics of each of the main divisions of the four-and-a-half centuries of Musalmán ascendancy may serve as an introduction to the detailed narrative of events.

[Under the Early Viceroys, 1297-1403.] On conquering Gujarát in A.D. 1297 the Musalmáns found the country in disorder. The last kings of Anahilapur or Pátan, suffering under the defects of an incomplete title, held even their crown lands with no firmness of grasp, and had allowed the outlying territory to slip almost entirely from their control. Several of the larger and more distant rulers had resumed their independence. The Bhíls and Kolis of the hills, forests, and rough river banks were in revolt. And stranger chiefs, driven south by the Musalmán conquests in Upper India, had robbed the central power of much territory. [696] The records of the early Musalmán governors (A.D. 1297-1391) show suspicion on the side of the Dehli court and disloyalty on the part of more than one viceroy, much confusion throughout the province, and little in the way of government beyond the exercise of military force. At the same time, in spite of wars and rebellions, the country, in parts at least, seems to have been well cultivated, and trade and manufactures to have been flourishing. [697]

[Under the Kings, 1403-1573.] The period of the rule of the Áhmedábád kings (A.D. 1403-1573) contains two divisions, one lasting from A.D. 1403 to A.D. 1530, on the whole a time of strong government and of growing power and prosperity; the other the forty-three years from A.D. 1530 to the conquest of the province by the emperor Akbar in A.D. 1573, a time of disorder and misrule. In A.D. 1403 when Gujarát separated from Dehli the new king held but a narrow strip of plain. On the north were the independent chiefs of Sirohi and Jhálor, from whom he occasionally levied contributions. On the east the Rája of Ídar, another Rájput prince, was in possession of the western skirts of the hills and forests, and the rest of that tract was held by the mountain tribes of Bhils and Kolis. On the west the peninsula was in the hands of nine or ten Hindu tribes, probably tributary, but by no means obedient. [698] In the midst of so unsettled and warlike a population, all the efforts of Muzaffar I., the founder of the dynasty, were spent in establishing his power. It was not until the reign of his successor Áhmed I. (A.D. 1412-1443) that steps were taken to settle the different classes of the people in positions of permanent order. About the year A.D. 1420 two important measures were introduced. Of these one assigned lands for the support of the troops, and the other recognised the rights of the superior class of Hindu landholders to a portion of the village lands they had formerly held. The effect of these changes was to establish order throughout the districts directly under the authority of the crown. And though, in the territories subject to feudatory chiefs, the presence of an armed force was still required to give effect to the king's claims for tribute, his increasing power and wealth made efforts at independence more hopeless, and gradually secured the subjection of the greater number of his vassals. During the latter part of the fifteenth and the first quarter of the sixteenth century the power of the Áhmedábád kings was at its height. At that time their dominions included twenty-five divisions or sarkárs. Among nine of these namely Pátan, Áhmedábád, Sunth, Godhra, Chámpáner, Baroda, Broach, Nándod or Rájpípla, and Surat the central plain was distributed. In addition in the north were four divisions, Sirohi, Jhálor, Jodhpur, and Nágor now in south-west and central Rájputána; in the north-east two, Dúngarpur and Bánsváda, now in the extreme south of Rájputána; in the east and south-east three, Nandurbár now in Khándesh, Mulher or Báglán now in Násik, and Rám Nagar or Dharampur now in Surat; in the south four, Danda-Rájapuri or Janjira, Bombay, Bassein, and Daman now in the Konkan; in the west two, Sorath and Navánagar now in Káthiáváda; and Kachh in the north-west. Besides the revenues of these districts, tribute was received from the rulers of Ahmednagar, Burhánpur, Berár, Golkonda, and Bijápur, and customs dues from twenty-five ports on the western coast of India and from twenty-six foreign marts, some of them in India and others in the Persian Gulf and along the Arabian coast. [699] The total revenue from these three sources is said in prosperous times to have amounted to a yearly sum of £11,460,000 (Rs. 11,46,00,000). Of this total amount the territorial revenue from the twenty-five districts yielded £5,840,000 (Rs. 5,84,00,000), or slightly more than one-half. Of the remaining £5,620,000 (Rs. 5,62,00,000) about one-fifth part was derived from the Dakhan tribute and the rest from customs-dues. [700]

The buildings at Áhmedábád, and the ruins of Chámpáner and Mehmúdábád, prove how much wealth was at the command of the sovereign and his nobles, while the accounts of travellers seem to show that the private expenditure of the rulers was not greater than the kingdom was well able to bear. The Portuguese traveller Duarte Barbosa, who was in Gujarát between A.D. 1511 and A.D. 1514, found the capital Chámpáner a great city, in a very fertile country of abundant provisions, with many cows sheep and goats and plenty of fruit, so that it was full of all things. [701] Áhmedábád was still larger, very rich and well supplied, embellished with good streets and squares, with houses of stone and cement. It was not from the interior districts of the province that the Áhmedábád kings derived the chief part of their wealth, but from those lying along the coast, which were enriched by manufactures and commerce. [702] So it was that along the shores of the gulf of Cambay and southward as far as Bombay the limit of the Gujarát kingdom, besides many small sea-ports, Barbosa chooses out for special mention twelve 'towns of commerce, very rich and of great trade.' Among these was Diu, off the south coast of Káthiáváda, yielding so large a revenue to the king as to be 'a marvel and amazement.' And chief of all Cambay, in a goodly, fertile, and pretty country full of abundant provisions; with rich merchants and men of great prosperity; with craftsmen and mechanics of subtle workmanship in cotton, silk, ivory, silver, and precious stones; the people well dressed, leading luxurious lives, much given to pleasure and amusement. [703]

The thirty-eight years between the defeat of king Bahádur by the emperor Humáyún in A.D. 1535 and the annexation of Gujarát by Akbar in A.D. 1573 was a time of confusion. Abroad, the superiority of Gujarát over the neighbouring powers was lost, and the limits of the kingdom shrank; at home, after the attempted confiscation (A.D. 1545) of their shares in village lands the disaffection of the superior landowners became general, and the court, beyond the narrow limits of the crown domains, ceased to exercise substantial control over either its chief nobles or the more turbulent classes. In spite of these forty years of disorder, the province retained so much of its former prosperity, that the boast of the local historians that in A.D. 1573 Gujarát was in every respect allowed to be the finest country in Hindustán is supported by the details shortly afterwards (A.D. 1590) given by Abul Fazl in the Áin-i-Akbari. The high road from Pátan to Baroda was throughout its length of 150 miles (100 kos) lined on both sides with mango trees; the fields were bounded with hedges; and such was the abundance of mango and other fruit trees that the whole country seemed a garden. The people were well housed in dwellings with walls of brick and mortar and with tiled roofs; many of them rode in carriages drawn by oxen; the province was famous for its painters, carvers, inlayers, and other craftsmen. [704]

[Under the Mughals, 1573-1760.] Like the period of the rule of the Áhmedábád kings, the period of Mughal rule contains two divisions, a time of good government lasting from A.D. 1573 to A.D. 1700, and a time of disorder from A.D. 1700 to A.D. 1760. Under the arrangements introduced by the emperor Akbar in A.D. 1583, the area of the province was considerably curtailed. Of its twenty-five districts nine were restored to the states from which the vigour of the Áhmedábád kings had wrested them; Jálor and Jodhpur were transferred to Rájputána; Nágor to Ajmír; Mulher and Nandurbár to Khándesh; Bombay, Bassein, and Daman were allowed to remain under the Portuguese; and Danda-Rájapuri (Jinjira) was made over to the Nizámsháhi (A.D. 1490-1595) rulers of the Dakhan Ahmednagar. Of the remaining sixteen, Sirohi, Dungarpur, and Bánsváda now in Rájputána, Kachh, Sûnth in Rewa Kántha, and Rámnagar (Dharampur) in Surat were, on the payment of tribute, allowed to continue in the hands of their Hindu rulers. The ten remaining districts were administered directly by imperial officers. But as the revenues of the district of Surat had been separately assigned to its revenue officer or mutasaddi, only nine districts with 184 sub-divisions or parganáhs were entered in the collections from the viceroy of Gujarát. These nine districts were in continental Gujarát, Pátan with seventeen sub-divisions, Áhmedábád with thirty-three, Godhra with eleven, Chámpáner with thirteen, Baroda with four, Broach with fourteen, and Rájpipla (Nándod) with twelve. In the peninsula were Sorath with sixty-two and Navánagar with seventeen sub-divisions. This lessening of area seems to have been accompanied by even more than a corresponding reduction in the state demand. Instead of £5,840,050 (Rs. 5,84,00,500), the revenue recovered in A.D. 1571, two years before the province was annexed, under the arrangement introduced by the emperor Akbar, the total amount, including the receipts from Surat and the tribute of the six feudatory districts, is returned at £1,999,113 (Rs. 1,99,91,130) or little more than one-third part of what was formerly collected. [705]

According to the Mirat-i-Áhmedi this revenue of £1,999,113 (Rs. 1,99,91,130) continued to be realised as late as the reign of Muhammad Sháh (A.D. 1719-1748). But within the next twelve years (A.D. 1748-1762) the whole revenue had fallen to £1,235,000 (Rs. 1,23,50,000). Of £1,999,113 (Rs. 1,99,91,130), the total amount levied by Akbar on the annexation of the province, £520,501 (Rs. 52,05,010), or a little more than a quarter, were set apart for imperial use and royal expense; £55,000 (Rs. 5,50,000) were assigned for the support of the viceroy and the personal estates of the nobles, and the remainder was settled for the pay of other officers of rank and court officials. Nearly £30,000 (Rs. 3,00,000) were given away as rewards and pensions to religious orders and establishments. [706]

Besides lightening the state demand the emperor Akbar introduced three improvements: (1) The survey of the land; (2) The payment of the headmen or mukaddams of government villages; and (3) The restoration to small superior landholders of the share they formerly enjoyed in the lands of government villages. The survey which was entrusted to Rája Todar Mal, the revenue minister of the empire, was completed in A.D. 1575. The operations were confined to a small portion of the whole area of the province. Besides the six tributary districts which were unaffected by the measure, Godhra in the east, the western peninsula, and a large portion of the central strip of directly governed lands were excluded, so that of the 184 sub-divisions only 64 were surveyed. In A.D. 1575, of 7,261,849 acres (12,360,594 bighás), the whole area measured, 4,920,818 acres (8,374,498 bighás) or about two-thirds were found to be fit for cultivation, and the remainder was waste. In those parts of the directly governed districts where the land was not measured the existing method of determining the government share of the produce either by selecting a portion of the field while the crop was still standing, or by dividing the grain heap at harvest time, was continued. In surveyed districts the amount paid was determined by the area and character of the land under cultivation. Payment was made either in grain or in money, according to the instructions issued to the revenue-collectors, 'that when it would not prove oppressive the value of the grain should be taken in ready money at the market price.' [707] The chief change in the revenue management was that, instead of each year calculating the government share from the character of the crop, an uniform demand was fixed to run for a term of ten years.

Another important effect of this survey was to extend to cultivators in simple villages the proprietary interest in the soil formerly enjoyed only by the shareholders of joint villages. By this change the power of the military nobles to make undue exactions from the cultivators in their assigned lands was to some extent checked. It was, perhaps, also an indirect effect of this more definite settlement of the crown demand that the revenue agents of government and of the holders of assigned lands, finding that the revenues could be realised without their help, refused to allow to the heads of villages certain revenue dues which, in return for their services, they had hitherto enjoyed. Accordingly, in A.D. 1589-90, these heads of villages appealed to government and Akbar decided that in assigned districts as well as in the crown domains from the collections of government lands two-and-a-half per cent should be set apart as a perquisite for men of this class. [708]

When the heads of villages laid their own private grievance before government, they also brought to its notice that the Koli and Rájput landowners, whose shares in government villages had been resumed by the crown in A.D. 1545, had since that time continued in a state of discontent and revolt and were then causing the ruin of the subjects and a deficiency in the government collections. An inquiry was instituted, and, to satisfy the claims of landowners of this class, it was agreed that, on furnishing good security for their conduct and receiving the government mark on their contingent of cavalry, they should again be put in possession of a one-fourth share of the land of government villages. While the province was managed agreeably to these regulations, says the author of the Mirat-i-Áhmedi, its prosperity continued to increase. [709]

Though these measures did much to check internal disorder, Gujarát, for several years after it came under Mughal control, continued disturbed by insurrections among the nobles, and so imperfectly protected from the attacks of foreign enemies that between the years A.D. 1573 and 1609 each of its three richest cities, Áhmedábád Cambay and Surat, was in turn taken and plundered. [710] During the rest of the seventeenth century, though the country was from time to time disturbed by Koli and Rájput risings, and towards the end of the century suffered much from the raids of the Maráthás, the viceroys were, on the whole, able to maintain their authority, repressing the outbreaks of the disorderly classes, and enforcing the imperial claims for tribute on the more independent feudatory chiefs. Throughout the greater part of the seventeenth century the general state of the province seems to have been prosperous. Its cities were the wonder of European travellers. Surat, which only since the transfer of Gujarát to the Mughal empire had risen to hold a place among its chief centres of trade, was, in A.D. 1664, when taken by Shiváji, rich enough to supply him with plunder in treasure and precious stones worth a million sterling [711]; and at that time Cambay is said to have been beyond comparison greater than Surat, and Áhmedábád much richer and more populous than either. [712]

From the beginning of the eighteenth century disorder increased. Unable to rely for support on the imperial court, the viceroys failed to maintain order among the leading nobles, or to enforce their tribute from the more powerful feudatories. And while the small Koli and Rájput landholders, freed from the control of a strong central power, were destroying the military posts, taking possession of the state share of village lands, and levying dues from their more peaceful neighbours, the burden of the Marátha tribute was year by year growing heavier. During the last ten years of Musalmán rule so entirely did the viceroy's authority forsake him, that, according to the author of the Mirat-i-Áhmedi, when the great landholders refused to pay their tribute, the viceroy had no power to enforce payment. And so faithless had the great landowners become that the viceroy could not pass the city gate without an escort. [713]

The above summary contains frequent references to three classes of zamíndárs: (1) The zamíndárs of the self-governed states; (2) The greater zamíndárs of the crown districts; and (3) The lesser zamíndárs of the crown districts.

[Self-governed Zamíndárs.] In the case of the zamíndárs of self-governed states the principle was military service and no tribute. The author of the Mirat-i-Áhmedi says that finally the zamíndárs of the self-governed states ceased to do service. In spite of this statement it seems probable that some of this class served almost until the complete collapse of the empire, and that tribute was rarely levied from them by an armed force. In the Mirat-i-Áhmedi account of the office of súbahdár or názim sûbah the following passage occurs: When occasion arose the názims used to take with their armies the contingents of the Ránás of Udepur Dúngarpur and Bánsváda, which were always permanently posted outside their official residences (in Áhmedábád). This shows that these great zamíndárs had official residences at the capital, where probably their contingents were posted under wakíls or agents. It therefore seems probable that their tribute too would be paid through their representatives at the capital and that a military force was seldom sent against them. Accordingly notices of military expeditions in the tributary sarkárs are rare though they were of constant occurrence in the crown districts.

[Crown Zamíndárs.] The position of the zamíndárs of the khálsa or crown districts was very different from that of the zamíndárs of self-governed territories. The khálsa zamíndárs had been deprived of the greater portion of their ancestral estates which were administered by the viceregal revenue establishment. In some instances their capitals had been annexed. Even if not annexed the capital was the seat of faujdár who possessed the authority and encroached daily on the rights and privileges of the chieftain. The principal chiefs in this position were those of Rájpípla and Ídar in Gujarát and the Jám of Navánagar in Káthiáváda. Of the three, Rájpipla had been deprived of his capital Nándod and of all the fertile districts, and was reduced to a barren sovereignty over rocks, hills and Bhíls at Rájpípla. Ídar had suffered similar treatment and the capital was the seat of a Muhammadan faujdár. Navánagar, which had hitherto been a tributary sarkár, was during the reign of Aurangzíb made a crown district. But after Aurangzíb's death the Jám returned to his capital and again resumed his tributary relations.

[Smaller Zamíndárs.] The lesser holders, including grásiás wántádárs and others, had suffered similar deprivation of lands and were subject to much encroachment from the government officials. Throughout the empire widespread discontent prevailed among subordinate holders of this description as well as among all the zamíndárs of the crown districts, so that the successes of Shiváji in the Dakhan found ardent sympathisers even in Gujarát. When the zamíndárs saw that this Hindu rebel was strong enough to pillage Surat they began to hope that a day of deliverance was near. The death of Aurangzíb (A.D. 1707) was the signal for these restless spirits to bestir themselves. When the Maráthás began regular inroads they were hailed as deliverers from the yoke of the Mughal. The Rájpípla chief afforded them shelter and a passage through his country. The encouragement to anarchy given by some of the Rájput viceroys who were anxious to emancipate themselves from the central control further enabled many chieftains girásiás and others to absorb large portions of the crown domains, and even to recover their ancient capitals. Finally disaffected Muhammadan faujdárs succeeded in building up estates out of the possessions of the crown and founding the families which most of the present Muhammadan chieftains of Gujarát represent.

[Marátha Ascendancy, 1760-1802.] When the imperial power had been usurped by the Marátha leaders, the chiefs who had just shaken off the more powerful Mughal yoke were by no means disposed tamely to submit to Marátha domination. Every chief resisted the levy of tribute and Momín Khán reconquered Áhmedábád. In this struggle the Maráthás laboured under the disadvantage of dissensions between the Peshwa and the Gáikwár. They were also unaware of the actual extent of the old imperial domain and were ignorant of the amount of tribute formerly levied. They found that the faujdárs, who, in return for Marátha aid in enabling them to absorb the crown parganáhs, had agreed to pay tribute, now joined the zamíndárs in resisting Marátha demands, while with few exceptions the desáis and majmudárs either openly allied themselves with the zamíndárs or were by force or fraud deprived of their records. [Gáikwár Saved by British Alliance, 1802.] So serious were the obstacles to the collection of the Marátha tribute that, had it not been for the British alliance in A.D. 1802, there seems little doubt that the Gáikwár would have been unable to enforce his demands in his more distant possessions. The British alliance checked the disintegration of the Gáikwár's power, and the permanent settlement of the tribute early in this century enabled that chief to collect a large revenue at a comparatively trifling cost. Not only were rebels like Malhárráo and Kánoji suppressed, but powerful servants like Vithalráv Deváji, who without doubt would have asserted their independence, were confirmed in their allegiance and the rich possessions they had acquired became part of the Gáikwár's dominions.

[Power of Chiefs.] It must not be supposed that while the larger chiefs were busy absorbing whole parganáhs the lesser chiefs were more backward. They too annexed villages and even Mughal posts or thánáhs, while wántádárs or sharers absorbed the talpat or state portion, and, under the name of tora garás, [714] daring spirits imposed certain rights over crown villages once their ancient possessions, or, under the name of pál or vol, enforced from neighbouring villages payments to secure immunity from pillage. Even in the Baroda district of the thirteen Mughal posts only ten now belong to the Gáikwár, two having been conquered by girásiás and one having fallen under Broach. In Sauráshtra except Ránpur and Gogha and those in the Amreli district, not a single Mughal post is in the possession either of the British Government or of the Gáikwár. A reference to the Mughal posts in other parts of Gujarát shows that the same result followed the collapse of Musalmán power.

[Power of Local Chiefs.] Since the introduction of Musalmán rule in A.D. 1297 each successive government has been subverted by the ambition of the nobles and the disaffection of the chiefs. It was thus that the Gujarát Sultáns rendered themselves independent of Dehli. It was thus that the Sultán's territories became divided among the nobles, whose dissensions reduced the province to Akbar's authority. It was thus that the chiefs and local governors, conniving at Marátha inroads, subverted Mughal rule. Finally it was thus that the Gáikwár lost his hold of his possessions and was rescued from ruin solely by the power of the British.