Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s15.35

c18.s15.35

It will not be out of place here to add a sentence or two about the reliability of the daftar-officers, specially because Mr. Macleod has some doubt upon that point. In all cases of proprietorship the Maratha watandar, if he failed to produce his sanad, referred the government official to the daftar. The British officers were on several occasions referred to the Poona daftar for copies of the original grants by the Maratha Jagirdars. Unless they had complete confidence in the authenticity of the papers in the daftar and the honesty of the daftar-officers, they would certainly have not relied so much on the Secretariat for copies of their family papers. Thus writes the then representative of the Parasnis family to Henry Brown "papers relating to our property are in the Marathi Daftar of the Peshwa."² The descendant of Visaji Krishna Biniwale wrote to the same officer "of the old papers we have got copies only which we send for your inspection. The originals will be found in the daftar."³