A History of the Mahrattas v1.c5.s1.6

v1.c5.s1.6

In 1818 Grant, who now held the rank of captain, was appointed Resident at Sātāra, his instructions being contained in a letter from Mountstuart Elphinstone, dated April 8, 1818. His remuneration was fixed at 2,000 rupees per mensem, with allowances aggregating 1,500 rupees per mensem in addition to the cost of his office establishment.¹ By a proclamation of April 11, 1818, Elphinstone invested Captain Grant with full powers for the arrangement of the affairs of the Sātāra State; and by a treaty of September 25, 1819, entered into with the Rājā Pratāp Singh, Grant was to administer the country in the name of the Rājā until 1822, and then transfer the entire administration to him and his state officials, who might be presumed to be fit by that time for the task. Grant carefully impressed upon the Rājā that intercourse with other princes, except such as were specifically mentioned in the treaty, would be punished with annexation of his territory, and he trained the young chief so successfully in habits of business that Pratāp Singh was given complete control in 1822.² Mountstuart Elphinstone described the Rājā in 1826 as ‘the most civilized Marāthā I ever met with, has his country in excellent order and everything, to his roads and aqueducts, in a style that would do credit to a European. I was more struck with his private sitting-room than anything I saw at Sātāra. It contains a single table, covered with green velvet, at which the descendant of Shivaji sits in a chair and writes letters, as well as a journal of his transactions, with his own hand. I do not know what his ancestor would think of so peaceful a descendant.'¹ For this result credit is mainly due to Grant, who not only instructed Pratāp Singh in the art of administration, but cultivated in him a taste for literary and general knowledge, and taught the value of refinement of character.² During his period of office as Resident Grant concluded treaties with the Sātāra jāgīrdārs or feudatories, namely with the Pant Sachiv, the Pant Pratīnidhī, and the chiefs of Daphle and Phaltan on April 22, 1820, and with the Rājā of Akalkot and Sheikh Waekar (i.e. the descendant of Sheikh Mīran of Wai) on July 3, 1820. The character of his administration is best described in the words of a Brahman writer of to-day, who is known throughout the Bombay Presidency as an ardent student of Marāthā history. ‘In addition to judgment, energy and talent for business of no ordinary kind, he (Grant) possessed in an eminent degree the power of appreciating the character of the people and adopting measures to suit their peculiarities, which made him popular with the Rājā and his rayats alike. The name of “Grant Sāheb” is still familiar as a household word in the Sātāra district.’³ Before he finally relinquished office Captain Grant obtained for the Rājā the restoration of the fort of Pratāpgarh, then in British possession, which contained the famous temple of Bhavānī, the family goddess of Sivājī and his descendants, and which the Rājā was particularly anxious on this account to include in his own possessions.⁴