Administrative System of the Marathas c27.s21.1

c27.s21.1

Let us now turn to the Karkhanas. There were eighteen of them and twelve mahals, as we have seen in Book I, and both of these terms are of Persian extraction. First organised in Shivaji's time they continued down to the close of the Peshwa period. They had been, in all probability, most of them copied from Muslim originals. Mr. Beveridge tells me that all of them had Persian synonyms. Firuz Shah Tughalak had thirty-six Karkhanas or royal establishments. The treasury (Khajina of Sabhasad), the treasury for precious stones (jawahir khana, Sabhasad), the mint (Tanksal, Sabhasad), the Harem (Daruni, Sabhasad), the Farash Khanah, the Abdar Khanah, the Imperial kitchen (Mudbak khana, Sabhasad), the Arsenal, the elephant stables (pilkhana), the horse stables, the camel stables, the gaukhana or cowsheds, are mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari as forming different departments. A Mir Shikar⁴ is mentioned and the mention of hunting leopards and falcons under the same Ain leaves but little doubt that here we find the origin of Shivaji's Shikarkhana. Sabhasad, unlike Abul Fazl, gives no detailed account of these departments. But so far as the Shikarkhana is concerned the necessary informations can be fortunately culled from a much later work, the Peshwas' Bakhar. In the Shikarkhana of the second Madhava Rao, were seven or eight talking Mynahs and talking green parrots. There were several Chandols, (the pyramid-crested wood lark), several ducks, cormorants, several pairs of peacocks, one hundred or two hundred deer, hunting leopards, tigers and rabbits.⁵ An adequate number of keepers were appointed to look after these animals. This bakhar also tells us that these leopards were used for hunting. Although this small menagerie offers but a poor comparison to the grand hunting department of Akbar consisting of hundreds of animals and birds, yet there is little doubt that the Peshwa's Shikarkhana was an imitation of that of the Mughal Emperor.