Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s1: 1. Original Marathi Sources
Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s1
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1. Original Marathi Sources
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We tread on firmer ground when we come to the Peshwa period. Under the able leadership of the Bhat Peshwas, the Maratha empire rapidly expanded, the Maratha heroes carried their victorious banner from one end of India to the other, and the hoarded wealth of Hindustan filled the coffers of the southern warriors. Prosperity and wealth naturally spurred the literary activities of the Marathas and numerous *bakhars* were written to immortalise the valiant achievements not only of the Peshwa and Shahu Chhatrapati but of lesser chiefs as well. The Dabhades, the Gaikwads, the Bhonsles, the Patwardhans, the Sindhia and the Holkar, all found or employed some able chronicler to compile the history of their respective families.¹ Two chronicles of the *Panipat disaster* have come down to us and the famous prince who led the Maratha army on that fateful day was not left without a biography. As in the old days stirring accounts of national triumphs and national disasters were supplied by those popular bards—the *shahirs*, who wrote not for the learned few but for the teeming masses toiling in the fields and forests, hills and dales, towns and hamlets of the Maratha country. But fortunately we have not to rely on the beautiful ballads of the *shahirs* or on the charming narrative of the chroniclers for an account of the administrative institutions of the Peshwas. We have more reliable materials in the contemporary records and state papers, carefully and methodically preserved in the *Huzur Daftar* or imperial secretariat at Poona.
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¹ A list of these chronicles will be found in *Marathyanchya Itihasanchen Sahitya*, compiled by G. S. Sardesai, T. S. Shejwalkar, D. V. Apte and V. S. Vakaskar.
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The Peshwa *Daftar* of Poona has not yet been thrown open to the general public, but the inquisitive student gets a glimpse of its treasures in the valuable selections published by the Deccan Vernacular Translation Society under the able editorship of a band of erudite scholars. The selections were made by Rao Bahadur Ganesh Chimnaji Wad, but they were published after his death. The nine volumes of *Selections from the Satara Rajas' and the Peshwas' Diaries* edited by Parasnis, Sane, Marathe and Joshi supply information about all the branches of the Peshwas' Government, their social and religious activities not excluded, as the following headings and subheadings under which the papers of the second Baji Rao's regime have been arranged will show:
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1. Political Matters
2. Military Administration
(i) Army
(ii) Forts
3. Land Revenue and its administration
(i) Survey and assessment of land
(ii) Mamlatdars, Kamavisdars, Farmers of land revenue and khots
4. Other Taxes Taxes on sales and purchases of things
5. Village and district Watandars
6. Other revenue officers
7. Administration of Justice
(i) Civil
(ii) Criminal
(a) Conspiracy and treason
(b) Murder and suicide
(c) Dacoity
(d) Forgery
(e) Adultery
(f) Miscellaneous offences
(iii) Police
(iv) Prison
8. Misconduct of Government officers and Jagirdars 9. Grants and continuance of Inams, Allowances, Watans, etc.
(i) Grants
(a) For service done or injury received or as a mark of favour
(b) For charitable purposes and in fulfilment of vows
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10. Postal service
11. Medicine and surgery
12. Mint and coins
13. Prices and wages
14. Slaves
15. Religious and Social matters
16. Public Festivals
17. Poona and its suburbs
18. The Peshwa's tour
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It is needless to add that in these selections not a single department of the Poona government has been left unillustrated and no student of the Maratha administrative system can do without these nine volumes of the *Peshwas' Diaries*. They are however not without defects as was pointed out by Mr. V. K. Rajwade. For unavoidable reasons, over which the editors had no control, some of the papers have not been published in full, and the uninitiated reader sometimes finds it difficult to grasp the purport of a mutilated record. The English summaries given in the footnote are not only very brief but sometimes hopelessly inaccurate. Rao Bahadur D. B. Parasnis further drew upon the Poona records and published two more volumes in his *Itihas Sangraha*. *Peshwe Daftaratil Nivadak Kagad Patre* deals with military matters alone and *Peshwe Daftaratil Sanada Patre* throws fresh light on both the civil and the military branches of the administration. I may here add that the seven volumes of *Itihas Sangraha* abound in original records of the greatest importance.
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To Rao Bahadur D. B. Parasnis and Mr. P. V. Mawji we are indebted for four volumes of *Selections from the Government Records in the Alienation Office of Poona, vis., Sanads and Letters, Vatan Patre Nivad Patre, Kaifyatyadi and Treaties and Agreements*. Many valuable papers have been published in Parasnis's *Bharatvarsha*, Rajwade's *Marathyanchya Itihasanchi Sadhanen*, Sane's *Patre Yadi Bagaire*, the *Ahavals* and *Itivrittas* of the Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal and the *Itihas Ani Aitihasik*.
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It is impossible to deal exhaustively with all the publications on this comprehensive subject within the short compass of a small chapter, but the works of the late Vasudev Shastri Vaman Shastri Khare of Miraj deserve more than a passing notice. He is by no means the only scholar to bring to light the important family papers of the Sardars and Jagirdars. K. N. Sane and V. K.
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Rajwade were his predecessors in this line and Mr. Apte, the editor of the *Chandrachud Daftar* is expected to be an able successor. But neither Sane nor Rajwade deemed it necessary to arrange chronologically the papers they were going to publish. The records were placed before the public as they were discovered without any arrangement and the absence of an index only adds to the difficulties of the student who has to grope through these volumes for any particular information. Vasudeb Shastri Khare's *Aitihasik Lekha Sangraha*, the twelfth volume of which was posthumously published a few months ago, offers to the wearied reader an agreeable surprise. The records are chronologically arranged and although no index is supplied its absence is more than compensated by an excellent introduction to each section which informs the reader what the succeeding papers have to tell him. In these twelve volumes the late Pandit Khare published for the first time the important papers of the Patwardhan chiefs who served for all practical purposes as the Wardens of the Southern Marches for so many years. No less important to the student of the administrative system of the Peshwas is Khare's *Ichalkaranji Sansthancha Itihas*. A very useful compilation is Mr. Apte's *Itihas Manjari* in which almost all the more important published documents have been included.
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2. *Modern Marathi Works:*
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From these old records we may for a short while turn to biographical and historical works of modern Maratha scholars. The foremost place in this section must be assigned to Mr. G. S. Sardesai's *Marathi Riyasat* the fifth volume of which is shortly expected. Among the biographies may be mentioned Natu's Life of Mahadaji Sindhia, Vasudev Shastri Khare's Nana Fadnavis, Atre's Malhar Rao Holkar, Rajadhyaksha's Jivba Dada Bakshi and Parasnis's Brahmendra Swami. In the appendices of the last two works have been published some important contemporary letters not available elsewhere. Bapat's Life of the first Baji Rao is a popular work which does not aim at historical accuracy and space does not permit me to mention other works of this type. Atre's *Ganv Gada* deals with village communities and Kelkar's *Maratha va Ingraj* treats among other subjects of the administrative system.
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3. *Portuguese and Persian:*
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The Portuguese records, though specially important for military and the naval organisation of the Marathas, occasionally give us an insight into the religious, commercial and domestic policy of the Peshwas. The later Persian histories and Rajput Hindi, and Gurumukhi records are important to a student of the political history of the Marathas. He cannot afford to be indifferent to such works as *Siyaru-l Mutakhirin* or *Ibratnama*, but these are not so indispensable to a student of the administrative system, though a knowledge of the Muhammadan revenue system prevailing in the neighbouring provinces is always helpful.