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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t11: 9. The Peshwa's Diaries (1708-1817)

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t11

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9. The Peshwa's Diaries (1708-1817)

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In a letter¹² to his younger brother Raghunāth (Rāghobā) dated July 19, 1742 Bālājī Bāji Rāo advised him, among other things, to study regularly the *Raghuvaṁśa*, *Viduranīti*, Chāṇakya as well as the *Mahābhārata* from the *Virāṭaparva* to the end.

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¹² G. S. Sardesai, *Madhyavibhāga* Vol. II. (Bombay 1921) pp. 23-24.

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It is very interesting to observe that in modern India also these texts are to be mentioned amongst the most popular or favourite works of Sanskrit literature. Another item calls for notice. *Viduranīti* which has been singled out in the middle of the eighteenth century by the Maratha statesman was an important document with Mitra-Miśra also. The last chapter of his *Rājanītiprakāśa* (c. 1630) is, as we have seen above, given over to the teachings of Vidura as found in the *Mahābhārata*.

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Some of the civil and military institutions of Śivāji are described in a contemporary Marathi work, the *Bākhār* (chronicle in prose) by Sabhāsad (1693).¹³ This *Bākhār* was later expanded by Chitragupta (1760). The Sabhāsad *Bākhār* is known as *Śiva-Chhatrapati-chen Charitra*.

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¹³ Edited by K. N. Sane; Eng. transl. by J. L. Manker as *Life and Exploits of Shivaji* (Bombay 1886).

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Early in the nineteenth century Malhār Rām Rāo Chitnis wrote in Marathi a treatise on *rājanīti*¹⁴ (c. 1810). It is based professedly on Sanskrit *nītiśāstras* and is to be regarded as a Marathi *nibandha* on this literature. It may therefore be aptly compared to another Maratha work written likewise in Marathi, namely, *Ādnāpatra* or *Rājaniti* by Rāmachandrapant (1716), which we have discussed above. The tradition of Hindu political philosophy comes down therefore to the very days of Rammohun Roy (1772-1833).

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¹⁴ M. G. Ranade: "Introduction to the Peshwa's Diaries" in the *Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society* 1900, pp. 448-479.

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The selections from the Peshwa’s Diaries (*Daftar*) from Shāhu to Bāji Rāo II.¹⁵ introduce us to writings in Marathi language from 1708 to 1817 and thus cover almost double the ground of the Persian work of the Bengali Moslem historian, the *Seir Mutaqherin* (1780). This literature of some 22,000 folio pages (including the English summary) brings us into contact with some of the texts bearing on the economic, political and social institutions as well as ideologies of the Hindus during the eighteenth century.

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¹⁵ Edited by K. N. Sane, Poona, 1887 (Kavyetihasa-Samgraha Series No. 23). I am indebted to the historian G. S. Sardesai for his kindly placing this text at my disposal.

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It is in this daftar literature that we find the accounts of administration, revenue assessment and collection, the guarding of forts, the organization of the army and the navy, the dispensation of civil and criminal justice, the public debts of the government and so on. These diaries deal likewise with the police, post, mint, prisons, charities, pensions and public works, medical relief and sanitation. The same texts describe also the measures adopted by the Maratha state in order to encourage trade and commerce as well as foster learning. We can find in these documents the evidences as to the fact that the Maratha rulers, to quote Ranade, "even went, as some might say, out of their way, in undertaking reforms of social economy with a courage which is thought in these days by some to be outside the functions of the state." Naturally, therefore, as texts of Hindu positivism and secular endeavour no documents can be ranked as superior to these Marathi state diaries of the eighteenth century, kept, as they were, by the responsible officers in the Peshwas' civil service.¹⁶

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¹⁶ G. S. Sardesai's *Selections from the Peshwa Daftar* are available in fortyfive volumes (1935) some of which (Nos. 31, 32) are rich in social data.

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These Marathi diaries can be regarded as to a certain extent the *nītiśāstras* of the eighteenth century. From the very nature of the case they are of course more objective, concrete, factual and realistic by all means than the Sanskrit treatises of the same name or the Marathi *Rājanīti* of Rāmachandrapant (1716). Indeed, they are objectivity or realism itself. It is these Marathi texts that enable the modern student to grasp the political ideology of the eighteenth century. One can discover in them the causes which helped the Maratha confederacy in the first half of the eighteenth century, say, down to the battle of Panipat in 1761, to spread its rule and influence over the whole of India. Nay, the points of superiority such as enabled the Marathas to prevail over every Indian power, Mussalman or Hindu, Sikh or Jat, Rohilla or Rajput, Kathis or Gujars, the Portuguese, the Nizam and Hyder of Telingana and Dravid countries are mirrored forth in these official documents.

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The diary (*daftar*) literature of the Marathas is valuable in another regard. It is in these diaries that we come across constructive social reform tendencies on the part of the Hindus. The admission of converts or Islamized Hindus back to the Hindu fold is attested. Intermarriage is in evidence. Widow-remarriage in certain cases is spoken of as well as the prohibition of the sale of girls. Last but not least, the equality of the diverse castes before law is an item with which we are made familiar in these texts. We are already talking the language of Rammohun Roy and his circle (1772-1833).

Cites (5)