Excerpt from Debates at the India House: August 22nd, 23rd, and September 24th, 1845, on the Case of the Deposed Raja of Sattara, and the Impeachment of Col. C. Ovans, With Historical Notes, and a Sketch of Previous Proceedings at the India House

British Government to his descendant in 1818) were, by the vigour and energy of the Peshwas greatly extended, and before the termina tion of the reign of Sahoojee, almost all India, from Tanjore on the south, to Delhi on the north, acknowledged the Mahratta sway. Such parts as were not actually conquered, consented to pay to the great predominant power an annual tribute levied under various pretensions. Sahoojee lived to an extreme old age, having survived two Peshwas, and leaving by will the care of his government to the then Peshwa, Ballajee Bajee Row. Sahoojee left no issue; but his minister caused his nephew, Raja Ram, a youth brought up in obscurity, to be pro claimed king, and the great officers of the State recognized him as such. From that period to the time when the Raja of Sattara was liberated from the thraldom of the Peshwas at the victory of Ashta, obtained by the British arms under Sir Lionel Smith, in the month of February, 1818, the descendants of Sivajee, under the rule of the Peshwas, were deprived of all political power; but each was recog nized as the head of the Mahratta empire. Every attention was paid to the domestic comforts of the Raja and his family. He resided in a palace, on the hill fort of Sattara, containing an area of six or eight acres of land, affording abundant room even for horse exercise, and having a fish preserve for amusement. The several great officers of state, with their extensive domains, were always maintained as an appendage to the Raja's dignity; and his signature and seal were re quired to the completion of royal grants and patents for high offices. All official reports of military operations, the confirmation of treaties, and the declaration of war, went forth in the Raja's name, and he is designated up to the present period as chatr-putty, the sovereign bearing the Royal Canopy, and is addressed and announced as Hindoo put Raja, the King of Hindostan.

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