Indian Antiquary Vol 50

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 61

FEB., 1921]
ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM OF SHIVAJI
51
present state. As I have gone into the question of the alteration more fully elsewhere, I will not discuss it further here. I will, however, point out other features of Mesopotamian origin. Firstly, the brick piers with their engaged columns, counterfeited in brick at the angles, are similar to those found in the mosque at Raqqah?. Mosques on piers had been previously unknown in Egypt, and this feature was such a povelty that a fable about a Christian architect was invented to explain it. Secondly, the position of the minaret in the centre of the west zidda corresponds exactly with the position of the two similar spiral minarets in the mosques of Samarrâ and of Abd Dulaf close by. Thirdly, the decorative band, consisting of a recessed square with a circular hole in the centre, which runs round the mosque below the perapet but just above the level of the roof. It is tberefore to be expected that the ornament of this mosque was chiefly influenced by slightly earlier ordement at Samarra. It is well known that Professors Sarre and Herzfeld were carrying out very exhaustive excavations at this spot when the war broke out, and had even published two reports. The great work on the site, however, has not yet appeared, but I understand that no less than sixty cases of stucco ornament, eto.. packed ready for despatob to Berlin, fell into the hands of the British Army when Samarra was occupied. Until they see the light of day any remarks on the ornament shown on the attached plates would be premature, and I publish them without further comment so that they may be at hand when the time comes for a comparative study.
ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM OF SHIVAJI.
BY SURENDRA NATA SEN, M.A.; CALCUTTA.
INTRODUCTION.
OUR SOURCES OF INFORMATION. The History of the Maratha Administrative system can be conveniently divided into
two periods. The first period opens with the rise of Shivaji, and Two periods.
* ends with the accession of Shahu. The second period opens with the rise of the Peshwas, and ends in 1818, when the second Baji Rao retired to Brahmavarla to spend his last days in performing solution and offering oblations to his gods and ancestors. I have already dealt with the latter period elsewhere. Here I shall try to give an account of the administrative system of Shivaji, which practically continued unchanged till the death of Rajaram, except in some minor details. In fact the administrative system of any country is naturally of gradual growth, and develops but slow ly as ages pass, but has always its root in the deep substratum of legendary or prehistoric past. Dynasties rise and fall, conqueror after conqueror comes and goes, native Government yields to foreign yoke; but it is always the interest of every ruler not to disturb the administrative system in its essential characteristics. The Muhammadans largely adopted the old indigenous system that they found prevalent in the Deocan at the time of their conquest. Shivaji borrowed a good deal from the former Muhammadap rulers, and the Peshwas, when they
6 Svo my Brief Ohronology, loc. cit., pp. 47-48. 7 See Bell (G. L.), Amurath to Amurath, fig. 39. 8 Ibid., figs. 137 and 164. Bell (G. L.), Palace and Mosque of Ukhaidir, p. 156 and Plate 91 (1).