In Hindustan and Bengal the republic or village system has been greatly disturbed by the repeated inroads and conquests of foreign races and the long period of Muhammadan rule, and the village officers and servants are less complete. But even there the headman and the accountant are almost invariably retained, and some of the other officers and servants are also to be found, and in most instances the offices are hereditary, are capable of being mortgaged or sold, are paid by recognised fees and perquisites, by allotments of grain at the time of harvest, or sometimes by portions of land held rent-free or at a low quit-rent.
In the Canarese and Mahratta countries the village authorities are still ruling. They greatly vary in number and in duties, but there are office-holders who claim to be descendants of the persons who first settled, and at dates long before the oldest of the European dynasties were estab lished. retails are in the Mahratta country who trace their descent from persons who settled a thousand years ago and more iu the villages they now hold, and the same is to be found amongst the Reddi and Gauda, of the south and east. It is this that preserves the Indian villages from the changes which would otherwise have occurred from the irruptions of the Aryan, Brahui, Jat, Persian, Tartar, Rajput, Arab, Moghul, Afghan, Portuguese, • French, and British. Amongst the Mahratta, office-bearers aro known as I3alute or Alute ; amongst the Canarese, as Ayakarru, Ayagarru, or Ayangandlu. The following muni• cipal officers may be enumerated :— Head office, styled Potail, Clutudari or convener of Reddi,Gauda, and assist- trades.
ant do. or Changala. Money - changer, assayer Accountant or hallcarni, gold and silversmith, m district do. or Despandi. Potadar.
The Mahratta village head, the Wail, rents the Lands to cultivators, collects the Government land tax, and forwards it to the tahsildar. He is also the civil magistrate, and settles petty civil matters to the extent of two maunds of grain, or four or six rupees, and sends higher claims to the tahsildar. In criminal matters he is only the police, and sends all to the Amin. In lieu of pay for the above services, the potail is allowed from 25 to 50 bighas of land rent free, the land tax being about Re. 3 or 4 the bigha. For the cultivation of his rent free lands two to four bullocks would be needed, because from 10 to 16 bighas, according as the rains are heavy or light, arc all that a pair of bullocks can get over. There are, generally, two to four potails in a village, not always of the same caste ; for instance, the village of Khanpur, zillah of Nandair, has four potails, two Mahratta, a Canarese-speaking Lingaet, and a Kulkargah, and there are a few Brahman and Muhammadan and Pariah potails, but a Chris tian potail is unknown.
Their prominent leaders were— Shah Ji Bhonsla, 1634.
Sivaji, son of Shah Ji Bhonsla, born 1627, died 1680. Sambaji, Bon of Sivaji, reigned 1680-1689.
Their successors, the Peshwas, were Balaji Viswanath.
Balaji, let Peshwa, 1718. • Bail Rao, 2d Peshwa, 1721-1740.
Balaji Baji Rao, 3d Pcshwa, 1740.
Madhu Rao, 4th Peshwa, 1761-1772.
Naraynn Rao, 5th Peshwa, 1772, assassinated. Nladhu Rao Narayan, 6th Peshwa, 1774-1795. Baji Rao 1I., the 7th and last Peshwa, 1795, defeated and deposed 1818, died at Bithur near Cawnpur.
—Prinsep's Antiquities, p. 286; Moor, pp. 241, 424; Cole. Myth. pp. 189, 285 ; Glossary; Central Provinces Gazetteer; Elphinstone's