Administrative System of the Marathas c22.s1.11

c22.s1.11

It appears that both in Northern and Central India the Maratha conquerors always took care to keep intact the authority of the old rulers in form and apparently governed the conquered country as their representatives. Jenkins writes of the Bhonsla rulers of Nagpur. "The Booslah family then, as we have seen, founds its rights to the Government of Deogurh, on treaty with its original possessors, and it still allows the title of Rajah to the Gond princes, with a commutation for the original share of the revenue of the country, as it stood, at the period of the conquest, and with the privilege of receiving it through their own officers; whilst the observances due to the ancient proprietors of the state, are carefully and even ostentatiously adhered. The Gond Rajah gives the *Teeka*, or mark of royalty, to the Booslah princes, on their accession to the Gadee, and he is entitled to put his seal to certain revenue papers. These circumstances, though indicating a nominal partition of the sovereign dignity, do not however detract to any practical purpose, from the political independence of the Booslah Rajahs of Nagpore. In all foreign transactions, they were constituted by the Gond prince, the only channel of intercourse with other states." *Report on the Territories of the Rajah of Nagpore*, pp. 140-141.