Peshwa

Topic: The Marathas · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 3 "The Marathas"

Meaning

The Peshwa was the 'prime minister' of the Maratha state. The word is Persian. Under Shivaji, the Peshwa was one of the eight ministers of the ashta pradhana mandala (council of eight). He was also called mukhya pradhan (chief minister), looked after general administration and held the state seal [2].

It matters because the office changed over time. Under the later Marathas, the Peshwa became more powerful than the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king) himself. The post passed to the Bhat family, who ruled the Maratha state in practice from Pune [3].

Explanation

Background: a minister in Shivaji's council

• Shivaji wanted a centralised state, where power stayed with the king.
• He abolished hereditary posts and land assignments. These were grants of land whose revenue an officer kept in place of pay.
• Every official drew a cash salary from the state treasury.

• Officials were transferred from place to place at regular intervals, so that none grew strong enough to dictate terms to the king.

• To run the state, he used the ashta pradhana mandala, a council of eight ministers. It was an advisory and administrative council. It could not overrule the king [2].

• The Peshwa headed this council as the 'prime minister'.

What the Peshwa did, and the other ministers

• Peshwa (mukhya pradhan): handled general administration and kept the state seal [2].
• Amatya (also called mazumdar): the finance minister. He handled finance together with the pant sachiv [2]. Ramachandrapant Amatya wrote the Adnyapatra, a manual of statecraft (a guide on how to run a state).
• Sumanta: handled foreign affairs [2].
• Mantri: handled intelligence and police reports [2].
• So, at first the Peshwa was the first among the ministers. He served the Chhatrapati and was not his rival.

How the office grew: from minister to real ruler

• The office became hereditary.
• It passed into the hands of the Bhat family [3].

• Father was followed by son. This is the very thing Shivaji had tried to stop for other offices.

• The Peshwa rose above the king.

• Under the later Marathas, the Peshwa became more powerful than the Chhatrapati [3].

• The Bhat Peshwas became the real controllers of the Maratha state [3].

• Pune became the Peshwas' capital [3].

• The Peshwas expanded Maratha power through tribute.
• Balaji Vishwanath and Baji Rao I made the collection of tribute systematic (regular and organised) [3].
• The main levies were chauth (one-fourth, or 25%, of a district's revenue demand) [4] and sardeshmukhi (an extra 10% on top of chauth).
• These were taken from provinces not directly ruled by the Marathas. In return, the Marathas protected those provinces and left their internal administration alone.
• The Marathas often claimed these levies as agents of Delhi, that is, as collectors acting for the Mughal emperor [3].

Results: how the Peshwas governed

• Revenue: the Marathas took over Mughal methods of assessing and collecting land revenue and made them regular [3].
• Much of the revenue vocabulary in the Peshwa's own documents is Persian [3].

• So the Peshwa's revenue office was closer to the Mughal one than people once thought [3].

• Justice: the panchayat was the main court. Here a panchayat means a local gathering of officials and prominent men, not today's Panchayati Raj body.

• Appeal from a panchayat lay to a Maratha chief.

• Death sentences were rare.

• Policing: in big towns such as Pune and Indore, the kotwal (town police officer) kept law and order.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the Maratha state, c. 1630–1818. The Peshwa began as Shivaji's minister. The office rose to supreme power in the 18th century, under the later Marathas.
• Place: the Deccan (Maharashtra). The Peshwas' capital was Pune [3]. Their tribute claims reached into north India too.
• Key people:
• Shivaji set up the ashta pradhana mandala.
• Balaji Vishwanath and Baji Rao I were the later Peshwas who systematised tribute-collection [3].

• The Bhat family held the office by inheritance [3].

• How we know:

• Original Peshwa-era papers survive, such as the printed collection Decisions from the Shahu and Peshwa Daftar. It contains watan-patras (grant deeds) and nivad-patras (judgment deeds) [5].
• The Persian revenue terms in these papers show that the Peshwas carried forward Mughal methods [3].

Don't confuse with

• Chhatrapati: the Maratha king (Shivaji and his successors). The Peshwa was his prime minister, who later overshadowed him [3].
• Amatya: the finance minister, also called mazumdar [2]. The Peshwa handled general administration and the state seal [2].
• Ashta pradhana mandala: the whole council of eight. The Peshwa was only one member of it. Do not treat the council and the Peshwa as the same thing.
• Peshwa vs Shivaji's anti-hereditary rule: Shivaji abolished hereditary posts. The Peshwa's office later became hereditary in the Bhat family [3]. It reversed his reform rather than continuing it.

Prelims Hooks

• Peshwa is a Persian word meaning 'prime minister'. Another name for the Peshwa was mukhya pradhan [2].
• The Peshwa held the state seal and looked after general administration [2].
• Pune was the capital of the Peshwas, and the office was hereditary in the Bhat family [3].
• Balaji Vishwanath and Baji Rao I systematised the collection of chauth and sardeshmukhi [3].
• Trap: the ashta pradhana mandala was advisory. It could not overrule the king [2].
• Decisions from the Shahu and Peshwa Daftar contains watan-patras and nivad-patras [5].

Mains Points

• A reform undone by its own institution.
• Shivaji paid officials cash salaries and transferred them often, so that no office became a family property.
• Yet the Peshwa's office became hereditary in the Bhat family and eclipsed the Chhatrapati [3].

• This shows that his anti-feudal reform did not outlive him. Power moved from the king to his chief minister.

• Continuity with the Mughals.

• The Peshwas used Mughal methods of revenue assessment and Persian revenue terms [3].
• They also collected chauth as "agents of Delhi" [3].

• So the Peshwa-led state both challenged Mughal power and inherited its system of government.

• Was it state-building or raiding?

• Under Balaji Vishwanath and Baji Rao I, tribute-collection became systematic [3]. It was backed by treaties, and in return the Marathas gave protection.
• Over time, some tribute-paying provinces merged into the Maratha Empire.
• But chauth often worked as a fee to buy off invasion [4]. This supports the critics who called the Marathas raiders. A balanced answer should give both views.

Related concepts

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

Read more

• Civilian administration, revenue, justice and trade