Ramchandra Pant Amatya

Ramchandra Neelkanth Bahutkar, (1650 to 1716), also known as Ramchandra Pant Amatya Bawadekar, was the youngest member of the council of ministers of Chhatrapati Shivaji from 1674 to 1680. He also worked as a senior minister of Chhatrapati Sambhaji, Rajaram, Shivaji II and Sambhaji II. He is known to be one of the greatest diplomats, administrators and warriors of the Maratha Empire. 'Adnyapatra', the famous code of civil and military administration was written by him.

Early life

Ramchandra Pant was born in a Rigvedi Deshastha Brahmin family in or around 1650. He was the youngest son of Neelkanth Sondeo Bahutkar, more popularly known as ‘Nilo Sondeo’ who had risen from a local ‘Kulkarni’ to the post of Minister in the court of Shivaji. This family was originally from village Kolwan near Kalyan Bhiwandi. Ramchandra Pant's grandfather Sonopant and uncle Abaji Sondeo were in the close circle of Shivaji. The family was also closely associated with Samarth Ramdas, the spiritual Guru of Shivaji, and he was the one who named the newly born child as 'Ramchandra'.

Early career

Before 1672, Ramchandra Pant was doing various clerical jobs in Shivaji's administration.In 1672 he and his elder brother Narayan were promoted to the post of "Mujumdar" (i.e. Revenue Minister) by Shivaji. In 1674, at the time of Coronation ceremony the post "Mujumdar" was renamed as ‘Amatya’ and it was offered to Ramchandra Pant alone. He worked on this post till 1678.He was named by Shivaji on his death bed among six pillars of Maratha Empire who would save the kingdom in hard times. In 1680, after Shivaji’s death Sambhaji took over and continued him on different posts like 'Sacheeva' (i.e.Secretary) and ‘Amatya’. He was sent to Prince Akbar, Aurangzeb's rebel son, for negotiations. In 1685, Sambhaji also sent him to Vijapur for certain talks.

Contribution to independence war

In 1689, at the time of Sambhaji’s assassination by Aurangzeb, Ramchandra Pant was on fort Vishalgad. In consultation with Sambhaji’s queen Yesubai; who was on fort Raigad along with Rajaram and her son Shahu, he decided to send Rajaram to fort Gingee to divide the battlefield in to two. Subsequently, Rajaram was brought to fort Panhala and was secretly sent to fort Gingee in Karnataka (now in Tamilnadu). Before leaving for Gingee, Rajaram conferred on Ramchandra Pant the title of ‘Hukumat Panah’ (i.e.The Final Authority) and thus made him as powerful as the Chhatrapati himself. Thereafter, with the help of Santaji Ghorpade, Dhanaji Jadhav, Parshuram Pant Pratinidhi and Shankaraji Narayan Sacheev, Ramchandra Pant set up a great war against the Mughal Empire.

New strategies

*To encourage the local Maratha warriors to fight on their own against Mughals, Ramchandra Pant adopted a new policy to officially reward ‘Vatans’ i.e. pieces of land to them. ‘Turn out the Mughals and own the land’ was the announcement. This was against Shivaji's policy but Ramchandra Pant did not have any alternative in the changed circumstances.
*Independent Maratha warriors were encouraged to cross the Maharashtra boundary and invade Mughal areas for robbing their treasures. Nemaji Shinde and Chimnaji Damodar were the first ones to successfully respond to this strategy.
*Maratha forts were handed over to Mughals for large sums and once they were well equipped by Mughals, they were captured again. These strategies proved to be extremely effective.

Later career

In 1698, after Rajaram’s return from Gingee, Ramchandra Pant voluntarily and happily stepped down the post of ‘Hukumat Panah’.In 1700, however, after Rajaram’s death Tarabai once again delegated enormous powers to him and both of them continued to struggle against the Mughal power.In 1707, at the time of Aurangzeb’s death, Marathas had become extremely powerful and Mughal Empire was on the verge of total devastation.After Shahu’s release from Mughal camp, most of the Maratha warriors and Generals left Tarabai and joined Shahu as a result of which Tarabai had to leave the capital Satara and move to fort Panhala. Ramchandra Pant, however, strongly supported Tarabai and worked as Senior Miniser for her son Shivaji II. In 1712, Sambhaji II overthrew Tarabai, put her and her son Shivaji II in prison and took over the charge. It is generally believed that Ramchandra Pant was behind this conspiracy and it could be well supported with his immediate appointment by Sambhaji II as Hukumat Panah. Ramchandra Pant was not happy with Tarabai’s way of behaving with her own people.

Later life

On request by Sambhaji II, Ramchandra Pant wrote ‘Adnyapatra’ (also pronounced as 'Ajnapatra'), a standard code of civil and military administration for the Maratha Kingdom. It is supposed to be an equivalent to Kautilya’s ‘Arthashastra’.In 1716, Ramchandra Pant was died at the age of 66. His monument is on the fort Panhala. His heirs are still living on fort Gaganbawada, which was gifted to him for his great contribution to the Maratha power.

References

*‘Marathi Riyasat’ (Marathi) by Govind Sakharam Sardesai
*'The New History of Marathas' by Govind Sakharam Sardesai
*‘Storia Do Mogor’ (Italian)by Niccolao Manucci (English Translation by Willian Irvine)
*‘Tarikh -E- Dilkusha’ (Persian) by Bhimsingh