Administrative System of the Marathas c23.s4.4

c23.s4.4

But we need not lay too much emphasis on this coincidence. It was a matter of common prudence, and one so able and shrewd as Shivaji did not want the injunctions of the Mahabharata, or the Manu Samhita, to see that his capital should be well-fortified, well-protected, well-provisioned and favourably situated on an inaccessible rock, within a convenient distance from the sea. But the buildings and quarters of his newly founded metropolis were not unconnected with the past and will well repay our attention. We can profitably turn to his son's court historian, Krishnaji Ananta Sabhasad for necessary information on this head. According to him Shivaji had built in the fortress of Rairi not only palaces for his queens, separate quarters for the Sarkarkuns and Commanders of five thousand and men of note, council-hall building and market, but also stables for elephants, horses and camels, sheds for palanquins, chariots, and cattle and a store-house. "The palace is to be in the midst of the council-buildings," Shukracharya tells us, "and it, must have stables for elephants, horses and cattle."³ He further recommends that "dwelling houses for ministers, clerks, and members of council and officers should be built separately to the north and east." "The wise king should provide for the house of the people in order of wealth and birth near his palace in all directions."* It is remarkable that, while recounting the buildings to be constructed within a fort, Kautilya mentions among others, the royal kitchen, elephant-stables, the store-house, the treasury, the accountant's office, the store-house for forest produce, the arsenal, stables for asses and camels, stables for conveyances and chariots, shops and hospitals, stables for cows and horses, and quarters for the superintendents of the city, of commerce, of manufactories, and of the army. But this was not all. Raigad will bear a detailed comparison with the ideal fort of Kautilya and the ideal metropolis of the Shukraniti.