Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s4.26

c18.s4.26

At the head of the government was the Peshwa who had power to act as the deputy of the Satara Raja. He was therefore the head of the feudal nobles and one of them at the same time. The feudal nobles rendered military service in return for their fiefs or saranjams and were independent rulers in everything but name. The villages in Maharashtra proper, however, were managed by their own officers under the supervision of the Saranjami's agents. Thus the whole constitution was a curious combination of democracy and feudal autocracy. In fact no single term of political philosophy can be applied to it. Unable to call it a monarchy, aristocracy or democracy, Tone calls it a Military Republic. This is true only in one sense that the meanest soldier, if he had ability, could logically expect to be a Sardar of the empire. The empire itself, as Tone points out, was based, not upon confidence, but jealousy; and incapable of a comprehensive policy of national patriotism which had been the aim of Shivaji, fell to pieces when it came into conflict with a nation which combined individual self-sacrifice with national ambition.