Administrative System of the Marathas c8.s1.1

c8.s1.1

"Shivaji Raja was famous for his forts," says Lokahitavadi.¹ He had captured and built no less than two hundred and forty forts and strongholds.² He used to prize them highly and large sums were usually granted for their upkeep and repair.³ The importance of these forts in a defensive war had been amply demonstrated in his lifelong struggle against the Mughals, yet no one will concede for a moment that fortification of inaccessible hills and rocky isles formed Shivaji's best claim to the reverence of posterity. His greatness as a military leader has never been contested, but his greatness as a civil administrator is perhaps still more undoubted. The Marathas have been well known for their military prowess from time immemorial. The old Rashtrikas, their ancestors, were soldiers of no mean reputation. They had fought under the banner of the Chalukya prince Pulakeshin and beaten back the victorious army of the great Harshavardhan. Ferishta tells us how difficult the Bahmani kings found it to tackle the mountain chiefs of Maharashtra. They had again won fresh laurels under the celebrated Malik Ambar, when the Mughal forces of the great Akbar had to beat an ignominious retreat before them. Shivaji, therefore, found the materials for an efficient army ready made. The rocks and hills, the mountain passes of his native land, offered him suitable sites for impregnable forts. But neither the nature of the country nor the character of its inhabitants was in favour of the establishment of an orderly government.