Administrative System of the Marathas c8.s6.4

c8.s6.4

The system required a strong and good ruler. After Shahu, there was none among Shivaji's descendants who possessed the requisite qualities, and that is why the Peshwas found it so easy to do away with the central government. The eight pradhans still continued, but the hereditary councillors found themselves in an anomalous situation. They enjoyed great fiefs, but were never in practice called upon to perform their civil duties. The Peshwa, in theory their equal, became in reality their superior. The king, their master, was a state prisoner. The Peshwa's Fadnis, originally an officer of no importance, gradually rose to very great power, and the central government was transferred from Satara to Poona. But through all these changes and revolutions, both bloody and bloodless, the village communities survived unaffected, and the Peshwas also found it convenient to continue the provincial governments as they existed in Shivaji's time.