Administrative System of the Marathas c27.s21.6

c27.s21.6

This was typical of the whole Maratha administrative system. It was a happy combination of Hindu and Muhammadan institutions. The Muslim conquerors came to India with readymade principles of government and finance but they were confronted in their new home with another set of principles and ideas, much older and in a sense more systematic than their own. To their credit they did not reject these old ideas that prevailed in their newly conquered kingdom nor did they set themselves to enforce their own principles at the point of the sword. When two civilisations meet under such circumstances they naturally interact on each other. The result was that while the Muhammadans borrowed something from their Hindu subjects, the Hindus in their turn got much in return from their Muslim rulers. Hindu influence was evident in the Muhammadan Government and many Muhammadan sects and subsects in India.⁷ And Muslim influence was equally evident in the Hindu literature of the time, in the Vaishnavism of Chaitanya and the Sikhism of Nanak. The Marathas founded their kingdom when this process of mutual influence and interaction had had free play for several centuries. And so in their literature, in their language, in their dress and customs. Muslim influence was clearly visible,