Nature of Political System of the Marathas
The political system of the Marathas evolved through three distinct phases, moving from a tightly centralised monarchy under Shivaji to a loosely structured confederacy of autonomous chiefs by the late 18th century.
Phase I (17th Century): The Centralised Maratha Political System Under Shivaji
Centralised State Machinery
- Shivaji functioned as an absolute ruler, with all powers of the state concentrated firmly in his own hands.
- He is generally characterised as a benevolent despot — wielding near-total authority, yet exercising it with a genuine concern for his subjects’ welfare.
Ashtapradhan
- Shivaji instituted the Ashtapradhan — a council of eight ministers — comprising:
- The Peshwa (Prime Minister), who headed the Ashtapradhan.
- The Amatya (Auditor).
- The Mantri (Record Keeper).
- The Sachiv (in charge of the Royal Secretariat).
- The Sumant (Foreign Secretary).
- The Senapati (Commander-in-Chief).
- The Pandit Rao (in charge of Religious Affairs).
- The Nyayadhish (Chief Justice).
- All ministers, with the exception of the Nyayadhish and Pandit Rao, were additionally required to command armies and personally lead military expeditions when called upon.
- Their formal role within the council itself, however, remained purely advisory — final authority rested with Shivaji alone.
- M. G. Ranade observed that “like the first Napoleon, Shivaji in his time was a great organizer and a builder of civil institutions.” His system, in Ranade’s assessment, amounted to an autocracy of which Shivaji himself was the supreme head — though one whose guiding administrative principles were firmly rooted in the welfare of his subjects.
Centralised Military
- Shivaji established India’s first genuine regular standing army under the command of the Senapati, organised into distinct infantry and cavalry wings.
- The cavalry, in particular, was largely composed of men accustomed to working their own fields for half the year, taking up active military service only during the dry season.
- Navy: Shivaji recognised early the strategic importance of a strong navy, both for protecting trade and for defending the coastline against the growing European presence.
- Forts: Fortifications occupied a central position within the Swarajya (Shivaji’s sovereign territory).
- Each fort was administered by a Havaldar, assisted by a Subedar and a Karkhanis — a deliberate multiplicity of officials designed to build genuine checks and balances into fort administration.
Centralised Revenue System
- For the purposes of revenue collection and administration, Shivaji’s kingdom was divided into a number of provinces, further subdivided into parganas, with the village forming the basic administrative unit.
- Revenue settlement was based on the actual measurement of land.
- Assessment followed a careful, systematic survey of land holdings, with state dues fixed at 30 per cent of produce.
- Beyond ordinary land revenue, Shivaji also levied a range of additional taxes — on profession, trade, and social and religious functions.
- To check the power of the hereditary Deshmukhs, Shivaji proclaimed himself Sardeshmukh and introduced a corresponding tax, the Sardeshmukhi, on the strength of this claim.
- Similar checks were also built into the broader land-tenure system, governing categories such as inam, watan, and saranjam grants.
Legitimacy Through Ideological Means
- Shivaji sought to legitimise his rule through explicitly ideological means — most notably by adopting the title Kshatriya Kula Vatamsa (“jewel of the Kshatriya lineage”), asserting a formal Kshatriya claim to kingship.
- To reinforce this claim, he traced his lineage back to the Sisodias of Mewar.
- He further adopted the titles Haindav Dharmoddharak (“protector of Hindu Dharma”) and Gau Brahman Pratipalak (“protector of cows and Brahmins”) — titles that further cemented his standing as a legitimate Hindu sovereign in the eyes of his subjects.
Phase II (1713–1761): A Feudal System Under the De Facto Head, the Peshwa
- With Shivaji’s own successors proving comparatively weak, both the Ashtapradhan council and the office of the Peshwa gradually became hereditary institutions in their own right.
- The Maratha king was reduced to a merely de jure (nominal) head of state, while the Peshwa emerged as the true de facto authority, wielding real power.
- The earlier centralised state machinery built by Shivaji steadily lost its practical relevance, giving way instead to a system increasingly organised around land-based power — in effect, a genuinely feudal order.
- Deshmukhs correspondingly grew in importance during this period.
- Prominent Maratha chiefs — such as the Nimbalkars, Holkars, Gaekwads, and Bhonsles — grew steadily more powerful, even as they continued to operate, at least nominally, under the overall leadership of the Peshwas.
- By the Sangola Agreement of 1750, the Peshwa was formally recognised as “the real and effective head of the state,” while the Maratha king was reduced to the position of a “Roi Fainéant” — a figurehead, or, as it was put, merely “the Mayor of the Palace.”
Phase III (From 1761): The Maratha Confederacy
- The essentially feudal system that had taken shape under the Peshwas ultimately culminated in the emergence of the full-fledged Maratha Confederacy.
- This confederacy was principally composed of five major centres of power:
- The Peshwa of Poona.
- The Scindia of Gwalior.
- The Gaekwad of Baroda.
- The Bhonsle of Nagpur.
- The Holkar of Indore.
- Although the Peshwa remained the nominal head of this confederacy in principle, individual Maratha chiefs — the Gaekwad, Holkar, Scindia, and Bhonsle among them — grew increasingly sovereign in all but name.
- As a result, a number of genuinely parallel centres of power emerged across the Maratha domains, each functioning with near-complete autonomy — a development that considerably eroded the Peshwa’s own effective authority over the confederacy as a whole.
