Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s2.7

c18.s2.7

This arrangement was no doubt convenient to him in more than one way, but it was not merely expediency that led Shahu to make a formal acknowledgment of the Mughal supremacy when he was in a position to defy it most effectively. He was sincere in his belief in the legitimacy of the Mughal claim and it is said that Shahu protested when the Delhi Darwaja gate of Poona was built by the Peshwa, that a gate facing the north would mean defiance and insult to the Badshah. What Shahu sincerely believed, the Peshwas found most convenient to continue. Further, they actually tried to derive what advantage they could from that policy. When Malwa was conquered by Maratha arms, they did not hesitate to have their claims strengthened by an imperial grant. The celebrated Mahadaji Sindhia simply followed this traditional policy when he obtained for his master, the Peshwa, the farman of Vakil-i-mutluq. The great Balaji Janardan, better known as Nana Fadnavis, in his autobiography referred to the Emperor as *prithvi-pati*, master of the world²; in a letter from Ganesh Krishna, dated 1676 shaka, the Emperor is called *Sarbabhauma*³ and the unknown author of the ballad of the battle of Kharda thought that the Emperor was still in a position to order Daulat Rao Sindhia (the Shinde left Hindustan and Guzrat and came to the south, the Badshah ordered him).⁴