On which one of the following conditions, did the Marathas agree to serve the Mughal king with a cavalry contingent of 15,000 in the early 18th century?
- (a)Grant of the jagir of Malwa province
- (b)Control of the resources of Gujarat
- (c)The right to levy chauth and sardeshmukhi in the Deccan and South India
- (d)The right to mint coins in their own name
Correct — C, The right to levy chauth and sardeshmukhi in the Deccan and South India. The agreement in question is the settlement of 1719 between Shahu's minister Balaji Vishwanath and the Sayyid brothers, then the effective power at Delhi. Its terms were plain: the Marathas were confirmed in the swarajya, the home territory of Shivaji's kingdom, and were granted the right to collect chauth and sardeshmukhi from the six Mughal provinces of the Deccan; in return they undertook to keep 15,000 horse in the emperor's service, to maintain order in the Deccan and to pay an annual tribute. Chauth was a levy of one-fourth of the assessed revenue; sardeshmukhi was a further one-tenth, claimed on the ground that the Maratha ruler was the hereditary sardeshmukh, or head headman, of the country. The two together turned Maratha raiding into a legal right recognised by the empire.
- (a)Grant of the jagir of Malwa province — Malwa came later and came by force, not by this bargain. Baji Rao I pushed into Malwa through the 1720s and 1730s, and formal Mughal cession of the province followed only in the 1740s, well after the cavalry agreement.
- (b)Control of the resources of Gujarat — Gujarat also followed later, through the campaigns of the Dabhades and then the Gaekwads. It was not the consideration for which the contingent was promised.
- (d)The right to mint coins in their own name — The Mughals never conceded this, and the Marathas never needed to ask. Shivaji had already struck his own gold hon and copper coinage at his coronation in 1674, asserting sovereignty rather than negotiating for it.
Chauth and sardeshmukhi are the fiscal machinery of Maratha expansion. Chauth, one-fourth of the revenue of a district, began as protection money exacted from territories outside the swarajya; sardeshmukhi, an additional tenth, rested on a claimed hereditary office. Once the empire granted both by treaty, Maratha revenue officers could enter Mughal provinces with a legal title, which is how a regional kingdom turned into a subcontinental power inside two decades.
Date the options and the item resolves itself. The cavalry bargain belongs to the years right after Aurangzeb's death, when the Sayyid brothers needed Maratha troops for their own faction fight at Delhi; Malwa and Gujarat belong to the 1720s and after, once Baji Rao I was campaigning north. Anything involving coinage belongs to 1674 and to Shivaji, not to a Mughal grant at all. The single clue in the stem is the phrase 'early 18th century', which points at 1719 and rules out the later conquests.
- The 1719 settlement was negotiated by Balaji Vishwanath with the Sayyid brothers on behalf of Shahu.
- It granted chauth and sardeshmukhi over the six Mughal subahs of the Deccan, along with recognition of the swarajya.
- In return the Marathas were to maintain 15,000 cavalry in the emperor's service and pay an annual tribute.
- Chauth was one-fourth of the assessed revenue; sardeshmukhi a further one-tenth claimed as the hereditary sardeshmukh.
- Shivaji had struck his own coinage at his coronation in 1674, so minting rights were never part of any Mughal bargain.
- 1674 — Shivaji's coronation; he strikes his own coinage, which is why option (d) never needed a Mughal grant
- 1707 — Aurangzeb dies; Shahu is released and the Deccan succession opens
- 1719 — Balaji Vishwanath's settlement with the Sayyid brothers: chauth and sardeshmukhi for 15,000 horse
- 1720s-1730s — Baji Rao I takes Malwa and pushes into Gujarat by campaign, not by treaty
- 1740s — formal Mughal cession of Malwa, two decades after the cavalry agreement
The stem's 'early 18th century' is the whole clue. Only one of the four concessions belongs to that decade.
- Reading the Maratha conquest of Malwa and Gujarat back into the 1719 agreement.
- Confusing chauth with sardeshmukhi — one-fourth against one-tenth.
- Assuming minting rights were something the Marathas obtained from the Mughals.
Asked as a cause-and-consideration item: name the concession that bought a specific military obligation, with three later or unrelated gains supplied as distractors.
Which Maratha statesman signed the Treaty of Bassein on December 31, 1802?
- (a) Baji Rao II
- (b) Vithuji Holkar
- (c) Daulat Rao Sindhia
- (d) Madhava Rao Narayan
Answer(a) Baji Rao II
The other end of the same arc. In 1719 the Marathas sold cavalry service to the empire for a revenue right; in 1802 the last Peshwa signed away the confederacy's independence to the Company.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Sardeshmukhi, as levied by the Marathas, amounted to which share of the assessed revenue?
- (a)One-fourth
- (b)One-sixth
- (c)One-tenth
- (d)One-half
Answer(c) One-tenth — an additional levy on top of the chauth of one-fourth, claimed as the hereditary sardeshmukh.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Who negotiated the 1719 agreement with the Sayyid brothers on behalf of Shahu?
- (a)Baji Rao I
- (b)Balaji Vishwanath
- (c)Balaji Baji Rao
- (d)Madhav Rao I
Answer(b) Balaji Vishwanath — the first of the hereditary Peshwas, whose settlement won chauth and sardeshmukhi over the Deccan.