पान:आंग्ल प्रभा.djvu/30

2S contumacious, they were sent to forts, and were imprisoned there by way of punishment. A rich Maratha Patel in the Khed Taluka was warned once against the danger incurred by reason of his intemperate habits, and when this warning proved ineffective, half of his Inam land, measuring one Chahur, was confiscated by way of punishment. As regards marriage reforms, it may be noted that Bajirao II passed strict orders specially for the Konkan District and for Wai, prohibiting the sale of girls by the bride's father in consideration of marriage. Very strict regulations were passed imposing fines, equal to the amounts received, upon one or both the parties and the marriage brokers. Арparently with a view to check the practice, Bajirao further ordered that no girl above 9 should remain unmarried, thereby claiming for the State the right to interfere in what is generally regarded as the province of the Shastras. In a few cases, where attempts had been made to marry young children by force, and the full rite was not completed, the Peishwas set aside the attempted marriages, and permitted the girls to be given to other more suitable persons. In one case, where a marriage alliance had been formally settled, and the bridegroom was afterwards found to be suffering from leprosy, the Peishwa's Government interfered, the betrothal was set aside, and the bride's father was permitted to give his girl to whom-so-ever he chose. It is also well-known that on Sadashivrao Bhau’s disappearance on the battle-field of Panipat, his Wife Parwatibai, who survived him, was allowed to retain all the insignia of wife-hood, till the day of her death, which took place in 1783, twenty one years after the disappearance of her husband, and the funeral rites of both the husband and wife were performed together on her death. This exhibition of chivalrous regard for the feelings of the lady in question is to be noted, specially because a Kanoja Pretender had appeared in the mean-while and claimed to be Sadashivrao Bhau himself, and had to be put down after great exertions by the Peishwa's army. After being once put 嵩 prison, he had escaped after some years' confinem ent, and raised a rebellion in the Konkan which was put down again in 1776, and he was sentenced to be trodden under foot by an elephant Narayanrao Peishwa's widow Was similarl ILLO y allowed LO Temain without di for several years during the ti t disfigurement me she survived her husband's death. it on the point, it is well-known that the hau Patwardhan, on behalf of his widowed marria or ahmins for her second iage, found no opposition from the Peishwa. But Bl lphis idea unde SLIra " . " 't Shau had to give