Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s15.30

c18.s15.30

The Secretariat, called by the Marathas the *Huzur Daftar*, was a very big establishment, employing more than two hundred Karkuns, where records of all branches of the Peshwa's administration were preserved with the utmost care and order. An enquirer could confidently turn to the daftar-records for any information concerning the Peshwa's government, and in fact the materials of the present work are drawn mostly from the same source. "The general contents of the Duftur under the Peshwas," says Mr. J. Macleod,¹ "may be described as follows; *viz.*, all accounts rendered to the Government of the revenue and expenditure of the districts, with the settlements of them by Government; the accounts of districts rendered by the hereditary district officers; and those of villages by village officers, of farms, of customs, etc., accounts of all alienations of public revenue, whether Surinjam, Inam or otherwise, of the pay, rights, and privileges of the Government and village officers; accounts of the strength and pay of troops and the expenses of all civil, military and religious establishments. The Rozkirds (daily registers) were registers of all revenue transactions generally, together with all grants and payments, and more particularly the accounts of all contributions and exactions, levied on foreign states. The whole of which were considered and exhibited in one comprehensive view in the Turjamas." It is said that Nana Fadnavis introduced many improvements in the working of the daftar as well as in the accounts department in general; and it is no small tribute to the ability of the Maratha officers and the Maratha Karkuns that after the English occupation of Poona, documents concerning government transactions of all kinds for a period of eighty-eight years were found tolerably complete in this vast store-house of information. At the head of this great establishment was the Huzur Fadnavis, and it is needless to say that the very nature of this office required a man of the highest ability.