The Central Government in the Maratha Con Fad* Racy Bi
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chapter IHRXE The Central Government In the Maratha Con fad* racy bi- chapter three Thg Central Govenwwit in the Mataiii| Cnnf<»^^racy The study of the central government of the Marathas In the elqhteenth century is a search for the dwindling* The power and authority of the central government under the Marathas both in theory and practice went on atrophying to such an extent that by the end of the eighteenth century very little of it remained. This was quite ironic, because the central govemiTient of the Marathas# to begin with, was strong and vigorous* The central government of ttw Marathas under Shivaji and his two sons was mainly represented by the Chhatrap>ati it was a strcxig and vigorous government* In the eighteenth « century, however, the power, though theoretically in the hands of the Chhatrapati, caiae to^be exercised by the Feshwa* In t^e ^^ c o n d half of the eighteenth centiiry/^the power ceune in the hands of the Karbharis of the Peshwa and in due course a Fadnis became the Peshwa of the Peshwa* The Peshwa and the Fj>dnis were like the^maller wheels within the big wheel represented by the Chhatrapati. While the . Peshwa was the servant of the Chhatrapati, the Karbharis were the servants of the Peshwa* The theoretical weakness of the Peshwa and the Karbharis did affect their position in practice ' h V 6 to a ccrtaln extent* ]i" - Maratha Kinadom and Chhatrapatl "■ --''iiMJwlKii'" ■ -j" 1 Shlvajl, prior to 1674, did lead the Marathas in western Maharashtra and had aiven them aovernnent, but the important requireinent of a state vig« sovereignty was gained in 1674 by the coronaticm ceremony* The significance of the coronation ceremony of Shivaji has been discussed by historians like Jadunath Sarkar* Sardesai and V .S. Bendre* Shivaji himself, however* was aware of the significance of the coronation ceremony. In the agreement^ with the English in 1674, the term kingdom of the MaharaJ is used repeatedly* By the agreement Shivaji exempted the lakat on the English goods entering in kingdom of Shivaji* The English wanted to use their coins in Shivaji*s kingdom and to claim goods shipwrecked on the coast of his kingdom*^ Shivaji flatly refused to accept these two requests* £>hivajl was, thus, aware of the concept of territorial sovereignty* In a letter^ written to Maloji Ghorpade Just prior to his Kamatak campaign# Shivaji described his meeting with the Qutb Shah at Hyderabad* Shivaji conmxinicated to Maloji that as he was the Chhatrapati, he did not bow before the Outb Shah and that he met the ruler of Golecunda on the footing of equality*^ 6 4 Shivaji thus scrupulously maintalnad his position as the head of a sovereign state* His sons and successors too tried In their way to maintain the sovereignty of the state* Sanbhajl continued the 5 astapradhans and was against the policy of granting sarangams liberally*^ £»ainbhajl was strong In keeping the watjuidars In ccxitrol*'^ But both of them made or had to make significant changes in the form of govemntent* Under 5ambhajl« Kavl Kalas 8 had the yekhtiyar» meaning the sole charge# of administration* Rajararn^ while proceeding to Jlnjl, had to give the respcmsl- blllty of administration to Ramchandrapant Amatya and Shankarajlpant*^ Both Sambhajl and Rajaram# thus, delegated their power to other persons* Rajaram was* moreover, unduly liberal In giving different land assignments to different perstxis^®, making the centripetal forces strong in the Maratha state* Rajaram also aave saranjam to the Maratha sardars to enlist them in the war against the Mughal Eimperor*^^ The Maratha sardars, in order to counter the Mughal invaslcoi of their homelands, attacked the Mughal provinces in the vicinity. The net result of all t h e ^ developments was the strong j tendency towards decentralisation, which was jiMitl the qLvll war* After the death of Rajaram a civil war started 6 5 bet%Mren Shahu and his atint Tarabal* While Shahu was ostensibly a Mughal prot«g«, Tarabal too had applied to th« Emperor for pardon and submissionThe Mughals knew both of them at first hand* They rejected the request of TarabalThe Mughals felt that In the releast of Shahu there were better chances of stopping the decline of the Mughal Emplre^^ rather than under Tarabal who had tenaciously fought against them for years• In the civil war, Shahu came out victorious and It was in his reign that the transformation of a kingdom into a confederacy became a reality. It was xinder Shahu ultimately that the power of the Chhatrapati, for practical imrposes, came to be delegated by the Peshwa. Shalaii ShahU/ son of Sambhajl and grandson of Shivaji, was bom at Gangavali in north Konkan on 18 May 1 6 8 2 He# along with his mother Yesubai, was impriscnied by the Mughals when Raigad, the capital of the Marathas# fell in the hands of the 17 Mughals on 3 November 1689* Shahu was imprisoned %ihen he was seven years old and came out of confinonent in 1706« when he was twenty-five years old* He then passed eighteen years of his formative life as a prisoner, watching the Maratha war of Independence passively and that too from the Mughal camp. The cmly recorded politico- 66 military activity of Shahu in this period was that he merely accompanied Zulfiqarkhan by the order of Aurangzeb on 18 18 January 1706 to take Sinhagad* Ihroughout the period he lived in the perpetiial fear of losing his life and/or religion, with the memory of his father fresh in the mind* These eighteen years of imprisonment must have left an indelible mark on his character and, therefore, on his policy* Was such a man fit to lead a turbulent people like the Marathas 7 I^id he possess necessary military# political and administrativs experience to tackle multifarious problons facing the Marai^as at the decline of the Mughal Empire ? Did he share the agony and the glory of the Marathas fighting a war of independence 7 The answers to these questicxis are obviously in the negative* Accustomed to live a confined limited life at the expense of the Emperor, Shahu perhaps subconsciously created a prison for himself at Satara where he tried to live at the xpense of his servants and sardars* Shahu, in view of the civil war with his aunt and his own ^WMll^character, and weaker purse, was not in a positicm to -establish his own authority* The opportunists and the careerists 'that asseirbled around him did not wish him to f o i l e d stxo^g- pollcy for obvious reasons* 6 7 The position of the Chhatrapati* which can be likened to central government* and his relations with his servants# like IQ the Ashtapradhans , and the Maratha nobility form an important aspect of the Maratha confederacy. The change of Maratha kingdom into Maratha confederacy was perceived and expressed by Rasichandrapant Amatya* The feeling of one kingdom with one frontier was lost*^^ Due to the lack of jadinini strati on chieftains arose at different ^ 21 places^who started fighting among theinselves* The suffering of the subjects* who are called as the life of the kingdcm by the Amatya, knew no bounds; the people instead of being 22 administered by the king* came to be dominated by others* The Deshmukhs* deshpande* mokadam kulkamis/ mahajan and the balutedars of tarf Arle described the condition in Maharashtra in one word* bahusahebi* meaning many sahebs*^^ The word saheb was used to refer to members of the Chhatrapati family • These developments Indicate the gradual transformation of Maratha kingdom into Maratha cc»ifederacy* Shahu called the Mughal Emperor as sarvabhOum^^^ meaning th^sovereign* He was* unlike his grandfather, totally unaware of the concept of the sovereignty of the Maratha*. Ramraja* in December 1751* presented through Khoja 6 S Jawedkhan a nazar of coie hundred mohors* a golden key along with a letter expressing loyalty and cd^edience to the Mughal s^peror.^^ These presoits and the letter expressing loyalty were* it may be mentioned, brought by Bapu Pandit Hingane, vakil o f the Pesh%fa at Delhi* Ramraja, therefore* must have sent the nazar and the letter expressing obedience and loyalty, on the auggesticm of Peshwa Balaji Bajirao# as he was quite a new and inexperienced king in 1751* The Peshwa had, therefore, a role in lowering the positicm of the Chhatrapati as the head of the Karatha siate* The process started by Shahu was thus accelerated by Balaji Bajirao to the political disadvantage of the Marathas, though they enjoyed suprmne military position in India. Maratha Confederacy Phase One» Rise of the Peshwa With the^ r a d u e i l ^ r a n « f o n r » f e U « t h e Maratha kingdomV4nm f4r«r> I t'Xi into Maratha confederacy, the-JgcafaB-JMJg«:~in--power» Though the rise of the Peshwa occurred in the eighteenth century due to personal and circumstantial factors, the office of the Peshwa had a Itxig history* There was an office of Vakil and ir>eshwa under the Nizamshahi of Ahmadnagar• The office of the Peshwa was, therefore, adopted by the Marathas from Nizamshahi, which was destroyed by the ^hlghals in 1536 • Shahaji, who was the last champicm of Nizamshahi, supplied his own men as the Peshwa, 6 9 Majumdar, Dabir and C h ltniv^^Sh lvaJl probably in 1642»'44.^^ The Peshwa was In th« coronation of Shivajl, one of ttie aahtapradhans or sarkarkuns who were called as the traditional 28 servants of the kingdom. There are references about half a dozen persons from different families, holding the office of 29 the Peshwa prior to the Peshwas frown the Bhat family.