Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s4.4

c18.s4.4

The Marathas had long been familiar with delegated authority. During Shivaji's absence in Northern India, the Government was carried on by a small council of regency of which Jijabai was the acknowledged head. It was notorious that Sambhaji did not care to look after the affairs of the state and although the royal authority was never formally delegated to anybody during his short reign, Kalusha, his favourite, did in fact rule the kingdom with his master's consent and tacit approval. After Sambhaji's death and Shahu's capture, Rajaram became the ostensible head of the Maratha people, but he also permitted two of his officers to conduct the government as they liked. Ramchandra Pant Hukamatpanha, placed as he was, far from Jinji, where his master then resided, had no other alternative but to carry on the civil and military affairs of the country without waiting for his master's opinion. But even at Jinji, Rajaram resigned his authority to the able hands of Pralhad Niraji. Thus the Bhat Peshwas had in their favour a series of important and well known precedents. At Kolhapur during the minority of Sambhaji II, Ramchandra Pant continued to be the real head of the state. And things were not much different at Satara during the closing years of Shahu. The King lost his reason more than once. The empire had expanded far and wide and the weak old man, never used to exertion and industry, found it necessary to leave the reins of the state entirely in the hands of the young, energetic, and ambitious Peshwa. The Marquis of Alorna, Viceroy and Governor-General of the Portuguese Estate in India, regarded him as a mere phantom, an idol, worshipped but not always obeyed by his subjects.