Secret Correspondence of the Court of the Fesh'j:a. Ill 



RUNGZEB (where he had remained for many years a state prisoner,) permitted 

 his prime minister, denominated Peshtva, to become virtually the executive 

 ruler of the state ; and this officer held his vice-regal court at Poona. 

 Balaji the first, and Baji Rao his son, the second Peshwa, had successively 

 filled these offices, when Balaji the second, the father of Madhu Rao the 

 Great, succeeded to the dignity of his ancestors in the year 1740. 



By this time the Mahratta ascendancy was so great in India, that while 

 one of its armies had repelled a partial invasion of the Afghans near the 

 Indus, a second levied tribute in Behar, and a third having besieged and 

 taken possession of Trichinopoly,* carried its Muhammedan prince, Chunda 

 Sahib, a prisoner to Satara, where he remained in confinement for more than 

 seven years. A sum of twenty thousand rupees, being a share of the 

 tribute derivable from the territory of Arcot, was assigned to the Peshwa 

 Balaji the second ; heavy contributions had been imposed on the ruler of 

 the Mysore at the very gates of his capital ; while the whole of the country 

 below the western mountains, conquered from the Portuguese at this period, 

 was made over by the Raja of Satara to his minister : and the occupation of 

 Malwa was at the same time granted to Balaji by the feeble emperor of 

 Dehli, in order to induce the Mahrattas to furnish a body of four thousand 

 horse to protect his throne. 



The following substance of this grant, to be found in Captain Grant 

 Duffs Mahratta history, affords a fair specimen of the duties imposed on the 

 Peshwa : 



" The dignity of the Shahzada's (prince's) deputy in Malwa, together 

 " with the income attached to that situation, having been conferred on you, 

 " proper arrangements must be made in that province, so as to afford the 

 " subjects paying revenue to government due favour and protection, and 

 " to punish all such as are evil-disposed and disaffected. You must pre- 

 " vent the use of intoxicating drugs and spirituous liquors, and must 

 " administer justice equally, so that the strong shall not oppress the weak, 

 " and that no species of violence be tolerated." 



The Raja Shao of Satara had for many years been in a state of mental 

 inbecility ; this aberration of mind was produced, it was supposed, by 

 the death of a favourite wife. During his lucid intervals he was 

 advised to adopt a son, his own having died some time before the wife 



26th March 1741. 



