Alex Michael Coutinho
Published in Vol.15, 2025
KEYWORDS: Peshwa, Ganesh Chaturthi, ritual, symbolic, discourse, theatre-state.
ABSTRACT:
The eighteenth century marked a decisive shift in the power equation with the office of the Peshwa, under the Bhat family, acquiring de facto control over the Maratha polity, displacing the authority of the Chhatrapati and reducing him to a ceremonial role. At the core of this political rearrangement was not just administrative control, but a much deeper reconfiguration of power and ritual sovereignty. The Peshwas of Pune did not rely merely on administrative and militaristic expansion to buttress their power; they also heavily relied on stories, symbols, rituals and spatial inscriptions that enabled them to generate a discourse of ritual/symbolic power to legitimise their rule. They created a discourse of ritual/symbolic power which was materially and symbolically articulated through ritual practices, sacralisation of space, and the patronage of festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi. This paper seeks to examine how the celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi functioned not just as a devotional event, but also as a performative and spatialised articulation of the Peshwa’s authority in eighteenth-century Deccan.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64833/hislopia.j.vol.15.issue1.141-153