Why Mohar

The walls and main gate of Raigad fort winding along a cliff in the Sahyadri hills — Raigad fort in the Sahyadris, the Maratha capital from 1674.

A carved stone inscription in Devanagari at Raigad fort — Stone inscription at Raigad fort, Maharashtra.

Why a seal

In Maratha administration a letter wasn't an order until it carried the mohar, the seal that said who stood behind it. Mohar does the same for agents: every action carries proof of whose authority it ran under and what the agent had earned at that moment.

The stone bastions and main gate of Shaniwar Wada in Pune — Shaniwar Wada, Pune, seat of the Peshwa administration.

The seal on this page is Mohar's own, cut in that tradition: an octagon with a double border, engraved मोहर and ॥ सत्यमेव साक्षी ॥, "truth alone is the witness".

Two pages of an 1843 Marathi manuscript of the Jnaneshwari in Devanagari — Jnaneshwari manuscript, 1843 CE, Devanagari Marathi.