1689.—"But the Pishcushes or Presents expected by the Nabobs and Omrahs retarded our Inlargement for some time notwithstanding."—Ovington, 415.
1754.—"After I have refreshed my army at Delhie, and received the subsidy (Note.—'This is called a Peischcush, or present from an inferior to a superior. The sum agreed for was 20 crores') which must be paid, I will leave you in possession of his dominion."—Hist. of Nadir Shah, in Hanway, ii. 371.
1761.—"I have obtained a promise from his Majesty of his royal confirmation of all your possessions and priviledges, provided you pay him a proper pishcush...."—Major Carnac to the Governor and Council, in Van Sittart, i. 119.
1811.—"By the fixed or regulated sum ... the Sultan ... means the Paishcush, or tribute, which he was bound by former treaties to pay to the Government of Poonah; but which he does not think proper to ... designate by any term denotive of inferiority, which the word Paishcush certainly is."—Kirkpatrick, Note on Tippoo's Letters, p. 9.
PESH-KHĀNA, PESH-KHIDMAT, ss. Pers. 'Fore-service.' The tents and accompanying retinue sent on over-night, during a march, to the new camping ground, to receive the master on his arrival. A great personage among the natives, or among ourselves, has a complete double establishment, one portion of which goes thus every night in advance. [Another term used is peshkhaima Pers. 'advance tents,' as below.]
1665.—"When the King is in the field, he hath usually two Camps ... to the end that when he breaketh up and leaveth one, the other may have passed before by a day and be found ready when he arriveth at the place design'd to encamp at; and 'tis therefore that they are called Peiche-kanes, as if you should say, Houses going before...."—Bernier, E.T. 115; [ed. Constable, 359].
[1738.—"Peish-khanna is the term given to the royal tents and their appendages in India."—Hanway, iv. 153.
[1862.—"The result of all this uproarious bustle has been the erection of the Sardár's peshkhaima, or advanced tent."—Bellew, Journal of Mission, 409.]
PESHWA, s. from Pers. 'a leader, a guide.' The chief minister of the Mahratta power, who afterwards, supplanting his master, the descendant of Sivaji, became practically the prince of an independent State and chief of the Mahrattas. The Peshwa's power expired with the surrender to Sir John Malcolm of the last Peshwa, Bājī Rāo, in 1817. He lived in wealthy exile, and with a jāgīr under his own jurisdiction, at Bhitūr, near Cawnpoor, till January 1851. His adopted son, and the claimant of his honours and allowances, was the infamous Nānā Sāhib.
Mr C. P. Brown gives a feminine peshwīn: "The princess Gangā Bāī was Peshwīn of Purandhar." (MS. notes).