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ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM OF SHIVAJI
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twenty in breadth. His forts extended over the vast range of mountains which skirt the western shore of India. Regular fortification barred the open approaches : every pass was commanded by forts; every steep and overhanging rock was occupied as a station to roll down great masses of stone, which made their way to the bottom, and impeded the labouring march of cavalry, elephants and carriages."102 Chitnis pointedly remarked that forts were the very life of the kingdom 103 and Lokhitvadi tells us that Shivaji was famous mainly for building forts. Shivaji's hill forts, impregnable by nature, did not require a strong garrison. Five
hundred was the normal strength, but in some exceptional cases & Officers in charge of forts.
stronger force was allowed. No single officer was ever placed in
entire charge of the fort and its garrison. “In every fort," says Sabhasad, there should be a Havaldar, & Sabnis (and) a Sarnobat; (and) these three officers should be of the same status. These three should conjointly carry on the administration. There should be kept a store of grain and war material in the fort. An officer called Karkhananis should be appointed for this work. Under his supervision should be written all accounts of income and expenditure. Where the fort is an important one and where forts are of extensive circuit, there should be kept five to seven Tat Sarnobats. The charge of the ramparts should be divided among them. They should be careful about keeping vigilant watch. Of every ten men of the garrison to be stationed in the fort one should be made a Naik-nine privates and the tenth a Naik. Men of good families should in this manner be recruited. Of the forces, the musketeers, the spearsmen, the archers and the light-armed men should be appointed, after the Raja himself had carefully inspected each man individually, and selected the brave and shrewd. The garrison in the fort, the Havaldar and the Sarnobat should be Marathas of good family. They should be appointed after some one of the royal personal staff has agreed to stand surety (for them). A Brahman known to the king's personal staff should be appointed Sabnis and a Prabhu Karkhananis. In this manner each officer retained should be dissimilar (in caste) to the others. The fort is not to be left in the hands of the Havaldar alone. No single officer can surrender the fort to any rebel or miscreant. In this manner was the administration of the forts carefully carried out. A new system was introduced.”104 The system was however by no means new in Southern India. The regulations of
Muhammad Adil Shaha of Bijapur lay down clearly that the officers The system not new.
*. in charge of a fort should be three in number, neither lees nor more. The Muhammadan ruler also says that these officers should be frequently transferred from one fort to another.106 We have seen in the preceding chapter that Shivaji also used to transfer the Mudra Dharis, or officers in charge of forts and strong-holds. very often. Shivaji had no prejudice against his Muhammadan predecessors and freely borrowed their ideas. He was moreover strongly influenced by the circumstances of the time, while framing these regulations. It would have been sheer imprudence to leave a fort entirely in charge of a single officer in those days of disloyalty and treachery, when gold succeeded where policy or prowess failed. Shivaji himself had frequently used the golden 103 Scott Waring, pp. 96-97. 103 Chitnis, p. 80,
Far u n 479. 104 Sabhasad, pp. 27-28. 100 किळांव व कोठांत मुख्य कामगार तीन असावे २किशार २माकडील कामगार व गुपवाबनी. लिहिणारा या विषाहन भाधिक कामगार ने नवे काही दिवसानंतरमा कामगारांचा बदल्या करीताम्बा. -Itiha Sangraha Aitihanit Spheda Lekh, p. 27.
