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Administrative System of the Marathas c23.s11: 1. The Kotwal and the Nagaraka

Administrative System of the Marathas c23.s11

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1. The Kotwal and the Nagaraka

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From the village let us turn to the city. The officer in charge of a Maratha city was the Kotwal and the officer in charge of Mauryan city was styled, as we learn from Kautilya, as Nagaraka. The Kotwal was a Police Magistrate and at the head of the city police. He had to dispose of all important disputes. He had to regulate prices. He had to take the census and keep a record of all persons coming into and leaving the city. He had to dispose of all disputes relating to roads, lanes and houses, and finally he had to furnish monthly accounts to the government.¹ It is evident that the Maratha Kotwal had inherited some of his duties from the Mauryan Nagaraka who also had "to look to the affairs of his city," whose assistants the Gopas and the Sthanikas kept accounts and also took the census. (What else can Kautilya mean when he says of the Gopa ; "he shall not only know the caste, gotra, the name and occupation of both men and women in those households, but ascertain their income and expenditure ? ”) He also kept himself informed of all new arrivals, through the Gopa and the Sthanika. The Nagaraka enforced regulations regarding houses and streets as well as sanitary regulations. He had to arrest thieves and to search for bad characters with the help of the spies, and the city police.² This is not all. We learn from Tone that at Poona, under the regime of Baji Rao II no person could appear in the streets without being arrested, after the firing of the gun at ten at night. The prisoner was detained till morning when he was dismissed by the Kotwal. “So strict is the discipline,” Tone tells us, “that the Peshwa himself had been kept prisoner a whole night for being out at improper hours.” This regulation is, we find to our surprise, at least as old as Kautilya's Arthashastra. While recounting the duties of the Nagaraka, the Mauryan statesman writes: “The interval between six nalikas (2 2/5 hours) after the fall of night and six nalikas before the dawn shall be the period when a trumpet shall be sounded, prohibiting the movement of the people. The trumpet having been sounded, whoever moves in the vicinity of the royal buildings during the first or the last yama (3 hours ?) of the period shall be punished with a fine of one pana and a quarter, and during the middlemost yamas with double the above fine, and whoever moves outside (the royal buildings or the fort) shall be punished with four times the above fine." ³

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¹ Peshwa's Diaries, Madhava Rao I, Vol. II, pp. 234-236.

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² Kautilya, Arthashastra, pp. 180-185, and p. 273.

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³ Kautilya, Arthashastra, p. 184.

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Thus we find that the administrative divisions of Maharashtra, the organisation of the village communities, the organisation of the city government were all based on the old Hindu system. The old Hindu institutions in most cases not only survived but largely contributed to the development of the Maratha administrative system. And if we examine the Maratha revenue and judicial system, we will get further convincing proofs of the survival of the old Hindu institution in Maharashtra. Even the Marathi grant deeds and judgments will yield fresh evidence of this process of slow evolution of Maratha institutions from the earlier Hindu institutions through successive stages.

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LAND REVENUE AND CESSES

Cites (1)