Chauth (fromSanskrit:चतुर्थ,romanized: caturtha,lit. 'one fourth') was a regular tax or tribute imposed from the early 18th century by theMaratha Empire in theIndian 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. Thesardeshmukhi was an additional 10% levy on top of thechauth. A tribute paid to the king, it was started byKoliMaharaja Som Shah of Ramnagar.[1]
Opinions on the function of the chauth vary. According toM 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 byLord Wellesley to bringIndian states underBritish control.[2]
The historianJadunath 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 asprotection money against Maratha invasions of the chauth paying state. The tax was levied at the rate of one fourth the annual revenues of the state and was levied at the cost of the revenue paid by the state to theMughals or the Deccan kingdoms.[3][4]
In 1719, theMughal emperorRafi ud-Darajat grantedChhatrapati Shahu Raje Bhonsale the chauth and sardeshmukhi rights over the six Deccan provinces in exchange for his maintaining a contingent of 15,000 troops for the emperor. The revenues from chauth were in turn divided into four parts that went to various functionaries of the Maratha empire.[5]
One fourth of the levy, calledbabti, went to theChhatrapati and he also had discretionary grant making authority over thenadgaunda, proceeds which amounted to 3% of the total collection. Also, 6% of the chauth collections was granted to thepant sachiv, the officer in charge of the royal secretariat and was called thesahotra grant. Two thirds of the collections, however, remained with the Maratha sardars, who collected the taxes and used them for maintaining their troops for the chhatrapati. That part of the levy was calledmokasa. The chauth, along with sardeshmukhi levies, ensured a steady and large stream of income for the Marathas and helped them expand their beyond theswarajya territories of Shivaji.[5]