Term
Dastak
Etymology
Persian dast\xC4\x81k, from dast (hand), originally a written pass or token of authority.
Definition
A formal pass issued by an Indian state authority — in Konkan-coast usage, by the Maratha admiral Kanhoji Angre and his successors — permitting a named vessel to pass through the issuer’s waters unmolested. Merchant vessels carrying a valid dastak were left alone; those refusing to acquire one were treated as fair targets. The system was the legal basis of what the English East India Company sources of the period invariably described as piracy.
