Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with interdependence of state policy making and circulation of oral/written information and its carriers: messengers, mercenaries, traders etc., and with facilities and means of traveling through roads leading to and from Maheshvar on the Narmada river in the early 1780s.

Paper long abstract:

By the end of the eighteenth century Maheshwar had got the reputation of 'the Northern Gate of Poona, i.e. of the Maratha Confederacy. Its geographical location on the intersection of various routes, and its pious woman-ruler who reigned throughout almost three decades, led to population increase and as a result to traffic intensity. As per a Latin aphorism, scientia potentia est, appropriation and command of information was an important attribute of accomplished statehood.

Though a part of a larger entity, Maheshvar pursued its own interests, aiming at building and securing its own territorial administration, maintenance of order and fiscal control. Therefore its policy, especially against the background of uncertainty and fluidity of authority after the 1761 Panipat battle and the British advent, was shaped as power of awareness -- by knowledge of action and moves of other political players which were traced, overheard, spied and reported through daily correspondence treated as 'local', 'from our region', 'from Hindustan', 'from Gujarat' etc. Irrespective of communication facilities provided from Poona and other parts of the Maratha Confederacy, Ahilyabai chose to arrange for her own postal service for practical politics of the principality's interrelations with other states and for ascertaining Maheshvar's full-fledged suzerainty along with her own legitimacy as a ruler. Being correspondence-dependent in her decisions, she personally supervised the quality of postbags, number of postal camels and other details pertaining to circulation of letters and their safety as epistolary samples sent in the early 1780s from and to Maheshvar reveal.