Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s4.15

c18.s4.15

Some distinction between the old and the new aristocracy in question of precedence was bound to arise after the promotion of the Peshwa. The old nobility regarded the Peshwa as their equal. They obeyed him only as the deputy of the king, while the new nobility, the Sindhia, the Holkar, the Rastias were the Peshwa's servants. They regarded the Peshwa as the master whose bread they ate and whom they were bound to serve. Their sentiment is voiced by Nana Fadnavis when he says in his autobiography: 'we have long eaten his bread and he has favoured us as his children' and again 'this body is grown on his bread.'¹ These Sardars, therefore, were at first more amenable to discipline and obeyed the Peshwa without reluctance. The old Sardars, however, expected the Peshwa to remember that any respect that might be shown to him was a matter of courtesy and not of right, and that he in his turn should in courtesy return it. The Angria, for example, expected the Peshwa to come two miles from Poona to receive him on his visit to that city. It was also expected that the Peshwa should dismount on his approach and receive him on a *gasha* (an embroidered cloth) and then accompany him to his (Peshwa's) residence, always keeping on the left side of the visitor and after he has taken the betel leaf at his place, send him to the residence appointed for his use and send a dinner also. And in the hall of public audience the Angria expected the Peshwa to rise to receive him and then sit on the same galicha.²⁸ The Jadhava Rao also claimed similar privileges²⁹ and the Peshwa found it convenient to gratify their vanity by celebrating the occasion of the Jadhava Rao's visit to the Peshwa's palace by releasing prisoners.³⁰ As a logical consequence of this idea the old Sardars claimed precedence over the new Sardars in the field of battle. If the Bhonsle of Nagpur and the Sindhia of Gwalior were both present in the battle field, the Bhonsle would demand the chief command as a matter of right.