Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s3.1

c18.s3.1

Next to the Emperor in status came the Raja of Satara, the lineal descendant of Shivaji, and the nominal head of the Maratha Empire. It was he who appointed the Peshwa and the other hereditary officers of state like the Pratinidhi, Sachiv, Sumanta, etc. This appointment or grant of clothes resembles in spirit the ceremony of papal coronation that the Emperors had to undergo at Rome, and was like it, nothing but a time-honoured form. This form was strictly observed so long as the Maratha Empire lasted. Even Baji Rao II, careless as he was of his Sardars' rights, could not or did not venture to do away with this formal ceremony. In his daftar has been found a document, an account of state expenses, which begins as follows: