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Till the Mughal Empire lasted, there was prosperity in Nadiad. Nadiad industries like weaving of clothes, dying and printing of clothes were known in far away lands. Most of the manufactures of Nadiad found their way to Rajputana and Malwa. Agate work, indigo and jagery (Gujarati gol; Hindi gud) were famous in distant lands.
Arrival of Marathas in Nadiad
The situation of Charotar changed with the arrival of the Marathas. Nadiad also suffered much during this time. Located geographically between Baroda and Ahmedabad, Nadiad was always the prey of Moghul and Maratha power play. If one moment Nadiad was busy pleasing the Moghuls then the next moment saw Nadiad making room for the escaping Marathas.
Nadiad felt to be ruled by two powers at this time. Naturally, this atmosphere of uncertainty was a bad omen for the businesses of Nadiad. Nadiad eventually came to be ruled by the Marathas as Damaji Gaekwad’s brother Khanerao made it his capital.
Marathas had obtained power but were more or less cluless about the administration. Khanderao had Borsad and Kadi ‘jagirs’ with him apart from Nadiad then and his main interest was always money than administration. Thus the internal order of Nadiad suffered a severe setback during these years.
Situation of the state
Amdavadi ‘hakems’ had ruled Nadiad with efficiency during the Moghul rule. Ruling with finesse, they had always sought to improve their administration. Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb himself had visited Kheda on a surprise visit. On this visit Aurangzeb had demanded to see the account books pertaining to the land tax and had pointed out mistakes in the records in presence of the Subedar-Desai- Amin and had cautioned them not to repeat their mistakes.
This kind of attention to details from the Emperor himself had kept his officers on alert all the time. Till Aurangzeb’s death Moghul Empire was safe. Representative of the Subedar of Ahmedabad visited regularly the ‘parganas’ to inspect records and other functioning matters of the administration. The power of the Desais and the Amins increased with the weakening of the Moghul Empire.
The new rulers, Marathas had appointed ‘Kalvisdar’ and ‘Diwan’ to collect the taxes. Himmat Bahdur Khanderao’s interest in the administration of Nadiad , Kadi and Borsad limited to the task of collecting money in form of taxes from people. During the Maratha rule, the ‘Kalvisdars’ had unlimited powers. The details given in the previous chapter about the Patidar Desais belong to this period of the history of Nadiad.
Malharrao of Kadi
Nadiad’s ‘jagirdar’ Khanderao Gaekwad Himmatbahadur’s son, Malharrao had to run away from Kadi following a scuffle and hide in Nadiad under house arrest. The great poet of Gujarati language, Dalpatram in his collection of poetry ‘Kavyadohan’ has written a ‘Rasdo’ ( a form of poetry in Gujarati and Hindi) that shows how popular actually Malharrao was among the people. The army mentioned in the poem is the ‘firanghi fauj’ ( British Army).
Malharrao no Rasdo
Galsses of brass are all ready for you to brush your teeth.
When will Malharrao come back?
We will brush our teeth at the family ‘wadi’ (fruit and vegetable growing farm)
While firanghi fauj is moving about us.
Pots of copper are all ready with warm water for your bath; come and take bath.
We will take our bath at the ‘wadi’
While the firanghi fauj is moving about us.
We have prepared food for you; please come and have lunch.
We will have lunch at the wadi
While firanghi fauj is moving about us.
The queen is crying in the palace; courtesans are crying at the court
Shop-keepers are crying in their shops; Bhats are crying in the streets.
The Suba has left the city; he has gone in the direction of Nadiad.
Bhats
We have earlier talked about the tantrums thrown by the Bhats in their unwillingness to pay taxes in Samvat 1831 in Nadiad. That time Nadiad was captured by the British army supported and guided by Raghunath’s army; both armies had camped on the outskirts of the town. Raghunath wanted money at all cost and as much as he could squeeze out of the population of Nadiad town.
Apparently the Bhata of Nadiad refused to pay the said taxes arguing that it was called ‘fine’ by Raghunath’s men and that Bhats had done nothing that would require them to pay ‘fine’. Col. Keating sent his Brigadier to tell the Bhats to pay up the fine and promised to take the side of Bhats in other matters.
After much talking no conclusion could be arrived at and the Bhats gathered in the bazaar in broad day light standing in two rows with dagger drawn by each hand. With loud sky shattering shrieks of ‘Jai Ambe’ (Goddess Ambaji) the Bhats drew dagger in the chest of the other standing opposite each other. Many were injured seriously and many also died; Raghunath remained unmoved by the incident.
Bhat in the Court of Raghunath 964
This incident of Bhats killing Bhats in the bazaar was seen by an older Bhat from his house on the first storey of his house. The tragedy of the incident had moved him and he appeared in the court of Raghunath along with three of his children, all below the age of eighteen.
As he entered the court, he drew his dagger and pierced it in the chest of his beautiful daughter first; the daughter seemed to be cooperating with the act of father stoutly. Then the father killed both his sons before killing himself. This incident too failed to move Raghunath though it had profoundly moved the British and Maratha soldiers who saw it.
The incident of Samvat 1917
Sixty five years ago from today (1927 AD), the Bhats had again refused to pay either the income tax or some other tax saying that the Bhats had never paid any form of tax ever to anyone. Duly warrants were issued against the Bhats who had refused to pay up the taxes but the police officer who was to arrest the Bhats returned empty handed as he was terrified by the probable tantrums of the Bhats.
After this, the police superintendent himself tried to convince the Bhats who had gathered at ‘Modi Santh’ to pay up their taxes in order to save trouble but his convincing had not worked. Suddenly the mob of Bhats turned in to two rows with each individual carrying a dagger and attacking others.
Many Bhats were seriously wounded by the incident and one Bhat had died. 49 Bhats were charged with trying to incite ‘tantrums’ out of which 27 were charged with the crime and served with 6 months of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rupees 200 , the failure to pay which may extend the term of imprisonment by 3 months This incident is noted in the Bombay Gazetteer
Brahmins try tantrums
Two shameless Brahmins of Nadiad apparently bought two old women for Rupees 80 in order to throw tantrums in order not to pay taxes. Hindus hold the last rites very important and the poor women were anyway old and tried to secure money for their last rites by agreeing to do what the Brahmins told them to do.
Apparently Brahmins gave ‘shaps’ (curses) to the old women in full public light in the bazaar and the old women died as was pre arranged. But both Brahnins and the Bhats always became like little cats when the arm of the law caught up with them and they always did what the law required them to do shamelessly.
Swami Sahajanand 965
It is said that in Samvat 1880 or in 1824 AD, in the month of March, Rev. Reginald Heber under protection of the Resident of Baroda Mr. Williams had visited Nadiad. Apparently at this very time Sahajanand Swami had also come to Nadiad accompanied by a Thakor with two hundred horses. Rev. Heber and Swami Sahajanand met each other in the government office located right in the centre of the town.
Sahajanand Swami’s two hundred horses and other horses could be put up in the compound of the government office as the walls of this building were high. In one of the buildings, the Resident of Baroda Mr. Williams had put up. This government office was known as ‘valanda kacheri’ in the old days and some people also refer to this building as Shakar Bada ni Haveli till today. It is not likely that in those days there were many buildings in Shankar Badani Pol in the time that we are speaking about.
Kheta Patel in Samvat 1516 came from Singlaw to Nadiad at Ram Alhad’s Pedhi (office) and caused this Kheta Talav to be built (Talav is lake) in 1526 AD. Desai vago.
Founder Kheta Patel
Comes from Village Singlav, Taluka Borsad
Samvat 1516 arrives in Nadiad
Tonadia is his maternal grand father’s village and settled in Nadiad.
Built the Talav (lake) called Kheta Talav in Samvat 1526.
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