Ashta Pradhan

Ashta Pradhan, (Marathi: “Council of Eight”) also spelled Asta Pradhad, administrative and advisory council set up by the Indian Hindu Maratha leader Shivaji (died 1680), which contributed to his successful military attacks on the Muslim Mughal Empire and to the good government of the territory over which he established his rule.

The council’s senior member, the peshwa, or mukhya pradhan, was in charge of general administration and held the state seal. The amatya, or mazumdar, and the pant sachir dealt with finance, the sumanta with foreign affairs, and the mantri with intelligence and police reports. The commander in chief (senapati) together with a legal member (nyayadhisha) and a member for religious matters (pandit rao) completed the council. All except the last two held military commands, their civil duties often being performed by deputies. These deputies, along with a staff of secretaries, formed the nucleus of the peshwa’s bureaucracy.

Shivaji’s son Sambhaji (1680–89) scattered the council, but, when Maratha power revived in the 18th century, the council members became hereditary with nominal powers except for the peshwas, who, in the persons of the Bhat family, became the actual controllers of the Maratha state, which was nominally under the weaker descendants of Shivaji.