[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Administrative System of the Marathas](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923) › c19.s1 # Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s1: 1. Primitive Simplicity of the Maratha System Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s1 - **Language:** English ### 1. Primitive Simplicity of the Maratha System ### [c19.s1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923.c19.s1.1) The system of administration of justice was simple and suited to the temper of the time. Codified law there was none and procedure was uncertain and informal. For one, the judiciary depended upon the old Sanskrit treatises on law like Mitakshara and Manu's Code, for the other, they had to depend upon old customs. And as those old customs prescribed, among other forms, trial by ordeal, the Maratha judges allowed ordeal by fire and water as well as appeal to divine intervention in the form of an oath taken in a sacred temple. But the Chhatrapati Maharajas and the Peshwas after them acted more like the patriarchs of old than modern judges. What law there was, was not strictly enforced in civil suits. Legal exactitude was not their ideal. Amicable settlement was encouraged, and an attempt was always made to give a suitor every facility for proving his case. Sometimes consideration was made for a defeated party, to ensure good feeling between the parties in future. Thus in the suit of Maloji bin Shahaji Bhanga \*vs.\* Hiroji bin Narsoji Bhanga about the proprietary right of a Patilki watan although the latter had failed to substantiate his claim, the \*Panch\* directed Maloji to give Hiroji a site to build a house on and 30 bighas of land. ### [c19.s1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923.c19.s1.2) "A piece of land about 30 cubits in length and about 15 cubits in breadth in the inhabited portion of the aforesaid village and the Patilki right of 30 bighas of the superior, ordinary and inferior classes out of the cultivable land of the village have been given to Hiroji, son of Narsoji Bhanga by the assembled \*got\*."¹ (\*Got\*—caste-men. ### [c19.s1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923.c19.s1.3) ¹ P. D., Vol. I, pp. 179-181. ## Linked texts (1) - [Mānava Dharmaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.manu) — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923.c19.s1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923.c19.s1) · Pramāṇa