Adnyapatra, also pronounced as ‘Ajnapatra’, is a royal edict on the principles of Maratha policy written in Modi Marathi by Ramchandra Pant Amatya, who served on the Council of 8 (Ashta Pradhan) as the Finance Minister (Amatya) to Maratha King Shivaji, with intention to guide Shivaji’s grandson Sambhaji II. It is supposed to be the formal documentation of Shivaji’s ideals, principles and policies of state administration.

Background

In the strict sense, Adnyapatra is not an official document as it does not bear any seal or other traditional signs used to denote the beginning and end of the official document. It is presented in the traditional form supposing as if the ruling teen-age king orders an experienced person in his court to tell him the history and the state policy adopted by his forefathers for his guidance. Date of completion of Adnyapatra is mentioned on the script itself as 19 November 1715.

Contents

Adnyapatra is a script of about 7000 words in Modi Marathi. It is divided into two sections. The first section comprises the first two chapters which give a brief narration of the achievements of Shivaji and his sons in building and preserving the Maratha Empire. The second section comprises seven chapters in which he discusses the principles of state policy and various aspects of administration he had learned while working with Shivaji.

First Section

Second Section

Select Principles

Comparison

Controversy

According to historians Sir Jadunath Sarkar, V.B.Kolte and S.N.Banhatti, the authorship of Adnyapatra is denied to Ramchandra Pant Amatya on the following grounds :

Refutation

These charges have, however, been refuted by historians T S Shejwalkar, G.H.Khare, S.N.Joshi and R.C.Dhere and were well supported by Govind Sakharam Sardesai and Datto Vaman Potdar on the following grounds :

Sources

Citations