Administrative System of the Marathas c11.2

c11.2

Ranade was not the only scholar to point out that "Like the first Napoleon, Shivaji in his time was a great organiser, and a builder of civil institutions."¹ Scott-Waring, writing in the first decade of the 19th century, observes "while Sevajee carried on his predatory warfare, he was not inattentive to the growing interests of his state. The lands in the Kokun were secured and defended."² That was not all. The lands were secured and defended and suitable measures were taken for the extension of cultivation and improvement of agriculture. Jervis tells us that according to the popular traditions, Shivaji's subjects enjoyed plenty though not peace. "In the midst of all this confusion, warfare, and general disloyalty, the state of the revenue and population is said to have prospered."³ The reason is not hard to find out; Shivaji introduced a flexible system that long survived his dynasty's overthrow, and as Mr. Pringle Kennedy says "The peasant knew what he had to pay and he seems to have been able to pay this without any great oppression."⁴