Which of the following statements about the Bundela rebellion against Aurangzeb are correct? 1. Shivaji advised Chhatrasal to promote local risings against Aurangzeb 2. Chhatrasal levied chauth like marathas 3. In 1705, Aurangzeb decided to make peace with Chhatrasal and Chhatrasal was granted mansab of four-thousand Select the answer using the code given below:

Correct — D, 1, 2 and 3. Chhatrasal, son of Champat Rai of Bundelkhand, went to Shivaji as a young man seeking service, and Shivaji sent him back with the advice to raise his own country against the Mughals instead of fighting in the Deccan — the first statement. Once established, Chhatrasal financed his war in the Maratha manner, levying chauth on the territory he dominated, which is the second. The rebellion outlasted every attempt to crush it, and in 1705 Aurangzeb, by then old and tied down in the Deccan, made peace with him and confirmed him with a mansab of four thousand, which is the third. All three statements are part of the standard account of the Bundela rising.

• (a)1 and 2 only — This drops the settlement of 1705, which is the outcome of the rebellion and the reason Chhatrasal ended his life as a recognised ruler in Bundelkhand rather than as a fugitive.
• (b)2 and 3 only — This drops Shivaji's advice, which is the best-known episode in Chhatrasal's early career and the link between the Maratha and Bundela risings.
• (c)1 and 3 only — This drops the levy of chauth, the fiscal device Chhatrasal borrowed from the Marathas to pay for a long war against a much larger state.

Aurangzeb's later decades were consumed by simultaneous revolts — Jat, Satnami, Sikh, Maratha, Rajput and Bundela — each drawing on local society and each too diffuse to be ended by a single battle. Chhatrasal's rising in Bundelkhand, begun about 1671, is the clearest case of the Maratha method spreading north: mobile war, refusal of pitched battle, and the levy of chauth, a claim to one-fourth of the revenue of a territory in return for not raiding it.

Statement 3 is the one candidates hesitate over, because a rebel being granted a mansab looks like a contradiction. It is not: the mansab was how the empire absorbed a power it could not defeat, and the same instrument was offered to Maratha and Rajput chiefs. Later history reinforces the connection with which the item opens — in 1729, when the Bangash Afghans pressed him hard, the aged Chhatrasal called in Baji Rao I, and the Marathas gained a permanent foothold in Bundelkhand as a result.

• Chhatrasal was the son of Champat Rai and led the Bundela rebellion against Aurangzeb from about 1671.
• Shivaji advised him to raise a rising in his own region rather than take service in the Deccan.
• He levied chauth on the Maratha model to finance the war.
• In 1705 Aurangzeb made peace with him and granted him a mansab of four thousand.
• In 1729 Baji Rao I came to his aid against the Bangash Afghans, opening Bundelkhand to Maratha influence.

• Assuming a rebel could not also hold a Mughal mansab.
• Treating chauth as a purely Deccan institution.
• Confusing Chhatrasal with Chhatrapati Shivaji on the strength of the name.

A three-statement item on a single rebellion, where each statement covers a different phase — its origin, its finances and its settlement.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Chauth, as levied by the Marathas, was a claim to

  • (a)one-fourth of the revenue of a territory
  • (b)one-tenth of the produce
  • (c)a fixed annual tribute in horses
  • (d)one-half of the customs duties

  Answer(a) one-fourth of the revenue of a territory — sardeshmukhi was a further one-tenth.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Maratha ruler came to the aid of Chhatrasal against the Bangash Afghans in 1729?

  • (a)Shahu
  • (b)Baji Rao I
  • (c)Balaji Vishwanath
  • (d)Madhav Rao I

  Answer(b) Baji Rao I — the campaign gave the Marathas a lasting position in Bundelkhand.