Administrative System of the Marathas c14.s1: 1. Forts and Strongholds
Administrative System of the Marathas c14.s1
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1. Forts and Strongholds
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In his military organisation Shivaji aimed at efficiency. Vastly inferior to his enemies in numerical strength, he tried to compensate by quality the lack of quantity. He, therefore, tried to enforce strict discipline in his army and appealed not only to the military instinct but also to the patriotism of his soldiers. His earliest adherents were the Mawalis, a race of hardy hillmen, who came into prominence under Shivaji's leadership and have since then relapsed to their original obscurity. Shivaji depended mainly on these hillmen and the hills. The hills constituted an excellent defence, while the hillmen accompanied him in all his blod excursions and perilous raids. The ill clad and ill fed hillmen of Mawal were trained into an excellent infantry by the great Maratha captain, and he converted the bare rocks and mountains into impregnable forts to bar the enemy's progress through his country. At the time of his death, Shivaji possessed no less than two hundred and forty forts and strongholds, and in the jabita swarajya of Shahu¹ we find that not a single Taluka or Pargana was left without a protecting fort. Scott-Waring says that, "before his death he (Shivaji) had established his authority over an extent of country four hundred miles in length, and one hundred and twenty in breadth. His forts extended over the vast range of mountains which skirt the western shore of India. Regular fortification barred the open approaches : every pass was commanded by forts: every steep and overhanging rock was occupied as a station to roll down great masses of stone, which made their way to the bottom, and impeded the labouring march of cavalry, elephants, and carriages."² Chitnis pointedly remarked that forts were the very life of a kingdom,³ and Lokahitavadi tells us that Shivaji was famous mainly for building forts.
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¹ J. B. Br. R. A. S., Vol. XXII, pp. 36-42.
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² Scott-Waring, pp. 96-97.
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³ Chitnis, p. 80.
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Shivaji's hill forts, impregnable by nature, did not require a strong garrison. Five hundred was the normal strength, but in some⁴ exceptional cases a stronger force was allowed. No single officer was ever placed in entire charge of the fort and its garrison. "In every fort," says Sabhasad, "there should be a Havaldar, a Sabnis (and) a Sarnobat; (and) these three officers should be of the same status. These three should conjointly carry on the administration. There should be kept a store of grain and war materials in the fort. An officer called Karkhanis was appointed for this work. Under his supervision should be written all accounts of income and expenditure. Where the fort was an important one and where forts were of extensive circuit, there should be kept five to seven Tat Sarnobats. The charge of the ramparts should be divided among them. They should be careful about keeping a vigilant watch. Of every ten men of the garrison to be stationed in the fort, one should be made a Naik; nine privates and the tenth a Naik. Men of good families should in this manner be recruited. Of the forces, the musketeers, the spearmen, the archers, and the lightarmed men should be appointed, after the Raja himself had carefully inspected each man individually and selected the brave and shrewd. The garrison in the fort, the Havaldar, and the Sarnobat should be Marathas of good families. They should be appointed after some one of the royal personal staff had agreed to stand surety (for them). A Brahman known to the king's personal staff should be appointed Sabnis and a Prabhu, Karkhanis. In this manner each officer retained should be dissimilar (in caste) to the others. The fort was not to be left in the hands of the Havaldar alone. No single officer could surrender the fort to any rebel or miscreant. In this manner was the administration of the forts carefully carried. A new system was introduced.⁵
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⁴ Fryer, p. 127.
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⁵ Sabhasad, pp. 27-28. Sen, Siva Chhatrapati, pp. 29-30.
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The system was neither new nor unknown in Southern India. The regulations of Muhammad Adil Shah of Bijapur lay down clearly that the officers in charge of a fort should be three in number, neither less nor more. The Muhammadan ruler also says that these officers should be frequently transferred from one fort to another.⁶ We have seen in the preceding chapter that Shivaji also used to transfer the Mudradharis or officers in charge of forts and strongholds very often. He could not safely ignore the low standard of public morality that prevailed at the time while framing these regulations. It would have been sheer imprudence to leave a single officer entirely in charge of a fort in those days of disloyalty and treachery, when gold succeeded where policy and prowess failed. Shivaji himself had frequently used the golden bait with success and it was but natural that he should take proper precaution against its repetition at his cost. It was also necessary that he should conciliate the three principal castes by distributing the responsible posts under his government equally among them. The Prabhus and the Brahmans were jealous of one another, may be for social reasons, but the state of their feeling could not be overlooked even in affairs administrative. Shivaji himself had reason to fear Brahman opposition when he assumed the sacred thread prior to his coronation. The Marathas of his time also eminently deserved high commands in the army. The different sections of the great Brahman caste were not in amity⁷ and Chitnis tells us that the Sabnises were recruited from all classes of Brahmans, *viz.*, the Deshasthas, the Karhadas, the Konkanasthas and the Madhyandins.
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⁶ Itihas Sangraha, Aitihasik Sphuta Lekha, p. 27.
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⁷ It may be incidentally mentioned here that the Konkanastha had not yet come to the forefront in Maratha politics and most of Shivaji's principal Brahman officers belonged to the Deshastha section. The keen intelligence of the Shenvis had already espied a bright prospect in another quarter and they had in large number entered the Portuguese service. With their characteristic literary aptitude, they mastered European tongues before long and acted as interpreters for European merchants of all nationalities. It is not clear whether their persecution had begun so early. In any case prudence demanded that Shivaji should recruit his officers from all the principal castes, and conciliate them all.