Ashta Pradhan

[1] The council is credited with having implemented good governance practices in the Maratha heartland, as well as for the success of the military campaigns against the Mughal Empire.

The formalization of an administrative mechanism was of a piece with other measures, indicative of the formalization of a sovereign state, which were implemented on the occasion of Shivaji's coronation: coinage bearing his insignia (the copper Shivrai and the gold hon) were issued, and a new era, the Rajyabhishek era, was proclaimed on the occasion.

Hence, with the notable exception of the priestly Panditrao and the judicial Nyayadisha, the other pradhans held full-time military commands, and their deputies performed their civil duties in their stead.

Beginning 1714 AD, a prime minister appointed by Shivaji's grandson Shahu gradually arrogated power.

However, the Ashta Pradhan council was never revived to fill the functions it discharged for the last decade of Shivaji reign.