by P. V. Paranjape

Dhule and Jalgaon districts make up the Khandesh region
of Maharashtra. Khandesh is bounded on the west by Gujarat,
in the east by the Vidarbha part of Maharashtra, in the south by
the Nashik district and the Marathwada part of Maharashtra and
in the north by Madhya Pradesh. The Tapi Basin that we are
concentrating upon lies in the north-west of Dhule district now
comprising talukas of Shahade, Talode and Nandurbar.

By the period of the later Moghuls, Khandesh had become
an important and covetable part of the Moghul empire. Euro-
pean travellers of the late sixteenth century describe Khandesh
as a rich and well-peopled country yielding great abundance of
grain, cotton, wool and sugar with big markets for dry fruits. It
was during the first viceroyalty of Aurangzeb in Shahjahan's
time (the seventeenth century) that we find the first systematic,
recorded and centralized land revenue assessment being applied
to Khandesh. This assessment, known as the "Tankha" and
reorganized on a more lenient basis during Aurangzeb's second
viceroyalty was to serve as the nominal standard and the basic
departure point right up to British times.

In Khandesh, the west and north-west formed a very im-
portant part. The seven divisions of Nandurbar district (includ-
ing what today form the Shahade and Talode talukas) yielded a
yearly revenue of £125,000, while the 32 other divisions of
Khandesh yielded a yearly revenue of £76,000. ¹ European
travellers mentioned the Kunbis, the Bhils and the Gond Adi-
vasi ^* tribes as a main class of cultivators, ² and Muslim records
show that the area north of the Tapi (Shahade-Talode region)
was exclusively peopled and tilled by the Adivasi (tribal) popu-
lation. ³ Thus by the time of the late Moghuls theTapi Basin
plains north of the Tapi in what forms the Dhule district today ⁴
were peopled and tilled by Adivasi but ruled by the Moghuls
through Adivasi chieftains, and Rajput, Muslim as well as
Maratha feudatories.

It is necessary to separate clearly the Adivasi "husband-
men" and their non-Adivasi counterparts. The prosperity or
revenue of the north-west basin did not arise from an advance in
production on Adivasi-cultivated land. The crucial position of
Khandesh on trade-routes and the production of non-Adivasi
cultivators on the fertile plains appear to be at the root of the
prosperity. It seems that the Adivasis and their entire life formed
a relatively autonomous enclave in the region. It was the fertility
and production of the lands and the trade in Khandesh which
made it important that peace with the Adivasis be secured. The
Adivasis were tolerated on the land and they retained their own
rites and practices in regard to the land. The Bhil Adivasis who
form the largest part of the population of the north-west basin,
are believed to be a group of tribes occupying the whole area of
the Satpudas and its northern parts. The Bhil have been pressed
southwards ⁵ so that they occupy the large forest belt starting
from the Thane district in the west to the western parts of the
Vindhya mountains. The Adivasis of the basin thus form simul-
taneously the fringe of this vast tribal area and a part of the larger
Moghul empire.

Since the late thirteenth century trade routes criss-crossing
the south and the north-east of the whole of Khandesh region
have developed, and by the fourteenth century the area had
become important enough to warrant a separate fiefdom and a
separate centre for administration. This administrative seat,
which was later to be of importance also during Moghul times,
was situated at Sultanpur — now a small village in the centre of
Shahade taluka. With the integration of the region into the larger
Moghul Empire, its stability and peace assured the development
of trade on an extensive scale. The road just south of the Tapi
River and following it became an important artery of this trade.
Gathering unto itself most of the export trade bound for Surat
from the Madhya Pradesh as well as the deeper Central Prov-

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