Ashtapradhan

Also called: Council of eight ministers · Topic: The Marathas · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 3 "The Marathas"

Meaning

The Ashtapradhan (ashta pradhana mandala, "council of eight ministers") was the group of eight ministers who helped Shivaji run the Maratha state. It gave advice and ran departments, but it could not overrule the king [2].

• It matters because it shows how Shivaji built a central government run by paid officials, not by hereditary landlords.
• One of its posts, the Peshwa, later grew more powerful than the king himself [3].

Explanation

Background: why Shivaji needed such a council

• Shivaji abolished hereditary posts and land assignments.
• Under the Deccan Sultans and the Mughals, an officer was often paid with land. He kept the revenue from it.
• Over time, the officer became the real master of that land, and his son took over the post.

• Shivaji's fix was that every official drew a cash salary from the state treasury.

• Officials were transferred from place to place at regular intervals. This meant no official could build a local power base and dictate terms to the king.

• A council of salaried ministers fitted this plan. Each minister served the king, not a family estate.

The eight posts and their work

• Peshwa: the "prime minister". The word is Persian.
• Also called mukhya pradhan (chief minister).

• Looked after general administration and held the state seal [2].

• Amatya: the finance minister. Also called mazumdar (keeper of accounts) [2].

• Its best-known holder was Ramachandrapant Amatya, who wrote the Adnyapatra, a handbook on how to run a state.

• Sachiv (pant sachiv): worked with the amatya on finance [2].

• Some textbooks instead say the sachiv was in charge of the king's letters and correspondence.

• Mantri: handled intelligence and police reports [2].

• Some textbooks instead describe him as the keeper of records of the king's daily affairs.

• Sumant (sumanta): handled foreign affairs, meaning dealings with other states [2].

• Senapati: the commander-in-chief of the army.
• Nyayadhish: the minister of justice.
• Panditrao: in charge of religious matters and charitable gifts to learned men.
• Standard textbooks note that all ministers except the Nyayadhish and the Panditrao also commanded troops. Most ministers were soldiers as well as administrators.

How it changed over time: the rise of the Peshwa

• In Shivaji's time the council was advisory and administrative. The Chhatrapati (king) held final power [2].
• Under the later Marathas, the Peshwa became more powerful than the Chhatrapati [3].
• The office passed into the Bhat family, who became the real controllers of the Maratha state [3].
• Pune became the capital of the Peshwas [3].

• Peshwas Balaji Vishwanath and Baji Rao I organised the collection of chauth (one-fourth of a district's revenue) and sardeshmukhi (an extra 10%) into a regular system [3].

• So one post in an eight-member council grew into a hereditary office that ran the whole state.

Results

• It gave Shivaji a central government with clear departments: finance, foreign affairs, army, justice and religion.
• Because ministers were paid in cash, power stayed with the king while Shivaji lived.
• In the long run, the reform did not last. The hereditary Peshwa became the very kind of over-mighty official that Shivaji had tried to stop [3].

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the reign of Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha state in the Deccan (western India), in the 17th century. Standard textbooks link the full council to his coronation (c. 1674).
• Later phase: the 18th century, when the Peshwas ruled from Pune [3].
• Key people:
• Shivaji, the Chhatrapati.
• Ramachandrapant Amatya, finance minister and author of the Adnyapatra.
• Balaji Vishwanath and Baji Rao I, Peshwas [3].

• The Bhat family, hereditary Peshwas [3].

• How we know:

• The Adnyapatra, a Maratha manual of statecraft.
• Shivaji's own orders to officials, such as the teak-tree letter. It told officials not to take even "a blade of grass" from the people without paying for it.
• Surviving Peshwa-era papers, such as the printed collection Decisions from the Shahu and Peshwa Daftar. It contains watan-patras (grant deeds) and nivad-patras (judgment deeds) [4].
• Much of the revenue vocabulary in these papers is Persian, which shows a link with Mughal administration [3].

Don't confuse with

• Peshwa vs Chhatrapati: the Chhatrapati was the king. The Peshwa was only the first of his eight ministers. The Peshwa overshadowed the king only under the later Marathas [3].
• Amatya (the post) vs Ramachandrapant Amatya (the person): the Amatya was the finance ministry. Ramachandrapant was a famous holder of it and wrote the Adnyapatra.
• Ashtapradhan vs Maratha panchayat: the Ashtapradhan was the king's central council. The panchayat was a local gathering of officials and prominent men that acted as the main court. Appeals against a panchayat went to a Maratha chief, not to the council.
• Ashtapradhan vs Mughal mansabdari: under mansabdari, nobles held ranks and were often paid through land revenue assignments. Shivaji's ministers and officials were paid cash salaries from the treasury and were transferred regularly.

Prelims Hooks

• Peshwa is a Persian word meaning "prime minister". The Peshwa was also called mukhya pradhan and held the state seal [2].
• Ramachandrapant Amatya wrote the Adnyapatra. The Amatya was the finance minister, also called mazumdar [2].
• Sumant handled foreign affairs and Mantri handled intelligence and police reports [2]. A common trap is to swap these two.
• In the textbook account, the Nyayadhish (justice) and Panditrao (religion) were the only two ministers who did not hold military commands.
• The council was advisory. It could not overrule the king [2].
• Under the later Marathas, the Peshwa's office became hereditary in the Bhat family, with its capital at Pune [3].

Mains Points

• An anti-feudal design. The Ashtapradhan, together with cash salaries and regular transfers, kept power with the Chhatrapati. It also blocked hereditary nobles, the weakness that had hollowed out the Sultanates and the Mughals.
• The reform did not survive its author. The Peshwa started as one adviser among eight. Later the post became hereditary in the Bhat family and controlled the state from Pune [3]. This is a good GS-I example of continuity and change inside an Indian institution.
• Break and continuity with the Mughals. The council had Sanskrit/Marathi names, and Shivaji rejected Mughal land assignments. Yet the top post had a Persian title, and Peshwa-era revenue papers use Persian terms inherited from Mughal administration [3]. So the Maratha state both rejected Mughal governance and carried it forward.

Related concepts

• Maratha administration
• Peshwa
• Amatya
• Sachiv
• Sumant
• Nyayadhish
• Panditrao
• Deshmukh
• Chauth and sardeshmukhi
• Saranjam

Read more

• Civilian administration, revenue, justice and trade