BharatNotes What is Chauth and Sardeshmukhi?
Chauth and Sardeshmukhi were the twin revenue levies that anchored the Maratha fiscal system. Chauth (from the Sanskrit for "one-fourth") was a tax nominally set at 25% of the assessed land revenue of a territory. Sardeshmukhi was a further 10% levy, claimed by the Maratha ruler in his asserted capacity as the Sardeshmukh — the hereditary chief headman of the Deccan. A territory that paid both therefore surrendered roughly 35% of its revenue to the Marathas.
Crucially, these taxes were collected outside the Maratha swarajya (homeland), in the neighbouring lands of the Mughal Empire and the Deccan Sultanates. In return for Chauth, the Marathas agreed not to raid the paying territory; Sardeshmukhi was framed as a hereditary right. Chhatrapati Shivaji introduced this system to replace unreliable plunder with a dependable, institutionalised income.
Key features and distribution
The Chauth collection was further sub-divided among Maratha officials and chiefs. The shares are a favourite source of factual Prelims questions:
| Share | Approx. portion of Chauth | Recipient / purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Babti | 25% | The Chhatrapati (king) |
| Sahotra | 6% | Pant Sachiv (royal secretariat officer) |
| Nadgaunda | 3% | Discretionary grant of the Chhatrapati |
| Mokasa | 66% | Maratha sardars, to maintain troops |
The large mokasa share retained by the sardars is significant: it tied military service directly to revenue, sustaining the cavalry-based Maratha war machine.
Significance and the 1719 grant
The system gave the Marathas a steady, scalable source of funds and was central to their transformation from a regional kingdom into a pan-Indian power. A turning point came in February 1719, when the Mughal emperor Rafi-ud-Darajat — placed on the throne by the Sayyid brothers after Farrukhsiyar's deposition — granted Chhatrapati Shahu the right to collect Chauth and Sardeshmukhi across the six Mughal subas of the Deccan. The agreement was negotiated by Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath, and historian Richard Temple later called the 1719 settlement the "Magna Carta of the Maratha Empire."
Under its terms, the Marathas were to maintain a contingent of about 15,000 troops for the emperor in return for Chauth, and were made responsible for maintaining peace and suppressing rebellion in the subas in return for Sardeshmukhi. The grant legitimised, in Mughal law, what had begun under Shivaji as a frontier practice.
UPSC angle
This is a foundational concept that recurs across the Maratha and "decline of the Mughals" segments of GS1. For Prelims, lock in the figures (Chauth 25%, Sardeshmukhi 10%), the fact that they were levied on external territories, the sub-shares (babti/sahotra/nadgaunda/mokasa), and the 1719 grant. For Mains, the levies illustrate how the Marathas engineered a sustainable fiscal-military state — a stronger answer than treating them as mere "protection money."
Don't confuse with: Sardeshmukhi (a tax/levy) and Sardeshmukh (the office/title claimed by the ruler); and Chauth's mokasa share (sardars) with babti (the king).
