Administrative System of the Marathas c27.s19: 1. The Council

c27.s19.1

We have seen how in their revenue system, military and police organisation the Marathas had been influenced by Muhammadan ideas and Indian Muslim practices. Other departments had not been unaffected. Most of the members of the Ashta Pradhan Council had Muhammadan designations before these were replaced by new Sanskrit designations at the time of Shivaji's coronation. But even then later heads of the Maratha Empire were known to the world outside, by their Muslim designation of the Peshwa while the Sanskrit Mukhya Pradhan seems to have been used in state papers alone. Even during the Peshwa period such Persian designations as Dabir and Surnis had not altogether fallen into disuse while, provincial governors were known, like their Mughal brothers as Subhedars. Karkuns, Kamavisdars and Mamlatdars are words of Persian origin and must have been borrowed from the Muslims. Though the Astha Pradhan Council owed its origin to Hindu ideas and Hindu works on polity, its original members, the Peshwa, the Dabir, the Surnis, the Waknis, the Mazumdar and the Sar-i-Naubtat had at first been appointed in imitation of the Muhammadan courts of the South. Thus inspite of its later re-organisation Shivaji's council never lost its original Muslim impress.