Ramchandra Pant Amatya
| Ramchandra Pant Amatya Bavdekar | |
|---|---|
Amatya  to the Emperor Shivaji of the Maratha Empire,Hukumat Panah of the Maratha Empire |
|
| Born | 1650 Kolwan (Pune District, Maharashtra) |
| Died | 1716 Panhala (Kolhapur District, Maharashtra) |
| Spouse | Janakibai |
| Religion | Hindu |
Ramchandra Neelkanth Bawadekar (1650–1716), also known as Ramchandra Pant Amatya, served on the Council of 8 (Ashta Pradhan) as the Finance Minister (Amatya) to Emperor (Chhatrapati) Shivaji dating from 1674 to 1680. He then served as the Imperial Regent (Hukumat Panah) to four later emperors, namely Sambhaji, Rajaram, Shivaji II and Sambhaji II. He authored the Adnyapatra, a famous code of civil and military administration, and is renowned as one of the greatest civil administrators, diplomats and military strategists of the Maratha Empire.
Ramchandra Pant was born in a Deshastha Brahmin ( देशस्थ ब्राह्मण ) family in approximately 1650. He was the youngest son of Neelkanth Sondeo Bahutkar (more popularly known as Nilo Sondeo) who had risen from a local revenue collection post (Kulkarni) to the post of Minister in the court of Shivaji Maharaj,
His family came from the village of Kolwan, near Kalyan Bhiwandi. Ramchandra Pant's grandfather Sonopant and uncle Abaji Sondeo were in the close circle of Shivaji. The Bahutkar family was closely associated with Samarth Ramdas, the spiritual guru of Shivaji Maharaj Samarth Ramdas is believed to be the one who named the newly born child as Ramchandra.
Before 1672, Ramchandra Pant was engaged in various clerical jobs in Shivaji's administration. In 1672, he and his elder brother Narayan were both promoted to the post of Revenue Minister (Mujumdar) by Shivaji. In 1674, at the coronation ceremony, the post of Mujumdar was renamed as Amatya and the title was solely bestowed upon Ramchandra Pant. He worked in this capacity until 1678. On his death bed, Shivaji named him as one among six pillars of the Maratha Empire that would save the kingdom in difficult times.
After Shivaji's death in 1680, Sambhaji became ruler of the Maratha Empire and Ramchandra Pant continued with his administration in various posts. Among other duties, Ramchandra Pant was sent to Prince Akbar, Aurangzeb's rebel son, for negotiations and, in 1685, Sambhaji also deployed him as an envoy to Vijapur for certain sensitive talks.
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