peshwa means originally, a chief minister under the Marathi princes; later, (the title of) each of the rulers of the Marathi kingdom in central India from 1713–1818. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 83 out of 100.
Why this word is great
PESHWA — [Noun] Originally the chief minister under the Maratha princes; later, the hereditary title of the de facto rulers from 1713 to 1818. From Urdu پیشوا (peśvā), from Classical Persian پیشوا (pēšwā, "leader, guide"). Unlike Chhatrapati, which denotes the sovereign emperor, a ceremonial sun around which ministers orbited, or Vizier, which implies a generic administrative function portable across courts, the Peshwa embodies a singular political metamorphosis: the servant-prince whose office consumed the throne it was meant to serve. It is the scent of monsoon-damp parchment in a hill-fort secretariat, the weight of a seal pressed not in a king’s name but in one’s own, and the silent, generational shift where the steward inherits the estate—a testament to how the machinery of state, once set in motion, can outlast the hand that first wound it.
noun
- Originally, a chief minister under the Marathi princes; later, (the title of) each of the rulers of the Marathi kingdom in central India from 1713–1818.“I need not inform the Board that the power which the Peshwas have possessed for about forty years past, is an Usurpation on the Sovereign authority vested by the Constitution in the Raja Sahoo, the last who retained it […]”