The Marathas, an almost unknown political entity in the first half of the seventeenth century AD, suddenly rose to prominence under their great leader, Shivaji around the middle of that century. But within less than two centuries of its establishment, the Maratha Empire fell after offering a brief resistance of just fifteen weeks. In its infancy, the Maratha state was a monarchy, governed by an enlightened aristocracy. Shivaji knew of the evils the feudal structure, the term, in the context of the Marathas, been used in the sense of the granting of land (jaghir) to high officials in lieu of salaries, and hereditary appointments to such posts. He was not in favour of granting land to his high officials in lieu of salary; also, he did not favour hereditary appointments.
The present study has been undertaken with three main objectives: 1. To deal in some detail with the role of the Senapati in Maratha history; 2. To seen whether he had any role to play in Maratha polity the army, sena, is one of the elements of the state, and the term polity, as used in this monograph, includes not only civil administration, but all the elements of the state; and 3. To examine the validity of the theory that the reversion to feudal structure in the time of the successors of Shivaji led to the decline and fall of the Maratha empire, in the light of the decline in the status of the Senapati in the post-Shivaji period, after lands came to be allotted to Senapatis in lieu of salary, and the office became sort of hereditary.
The work is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 is introductory in nature; after discussing the available sources, the author has attempted a brief survey of the political history of the Deccan prior to the rise of the Marathas under Shivaji. In chapter 2, 3 and 4, she has given an account of the activities of the Maratha Senapatis under Shivaji, under Shambhuji and Rajaram, and under the successors of Rajaram, respectively. The conclusions drawn from the study have been summarized in chapter 5. A select bibliography and an index of proper names have been appended at the end.
Caraka-Samhita: Agnivesas Treatise Refined and Annotated by Caraka and Redacted by Drdhabala: Text with English Translation.
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