Administrative System of the Marathas c16.s1.5

c16.s1.5

Shivaji fostered and encouraged education in an indirect way. There was no organised education department under him. State-founded or state-aided schools were unknown. Learned scholars as in the days of yore attracted eager students from all parts of the country and the schools which thus grew formed the only centres of culture. Shivaji indirectly encouraged the foundation of these schools by making large grants in money or land to all the distinguished scholars of his time. Similar grants were made to physicians of note irrespective of their caste and creed and so the votaries of the science of medicine were permitted to carry on their studies and humanitarian endeavours in comparative ease and security. It was one of the duties of the Pandit Rao to test the merit of and assign a proper inam to the deserving candidates. This system of Dakshana grant for the encouragement of learning has survived Shivaji and the Peshwas.