History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c41.356

v2.c41.356

of Orissa. There is no mention of Sadāśiva Rāo in this record. In fact, the only record mentioning Sadāśiva Rāo is a *parwanah* sent to him by Raghujī II in *fasli* 1200 or 1793, in which he is called Sadāśiva Rājārām, thus proving the accuracy of Stirling that he was the son of Rājārām Mukund Pandit. At the request of Colebrooke, who was then at his Court, Raghujī wrote strongly about the depredations of the Maratha subjects of Paṭaspur on the British *parganah* of Partabbhān who carried away seven men and still detained two. A copy of this *parwanah* was sent to Vyankājī Tirumal *Phadnīs*, *Dīwān* of Orissa at Katak. Vyankājī Sakadev has become Inkājī Sukhdeo of the English Records, just as Viṭṭhal Rāo became Eetul Rao in Franklin’s Shāh ’Alam. The pilgrimage of Chimā Bāī and her co-wife Kamalajābāī took place in the winter of *Fasli* 1208, *i.e.*, 1797-98. Therefore, it is certain that the *Ṣubahdārship* of Sadāśiva Rāo began some time after 1792 and ended before 1797. Bālāji Kāṇher is perhaps the same as Bālāji Konji of the *Bengal District Gazetteer*. Nineteenth Century writers like Beames did not even care to consult Marathi Records published in their times. Gupte’s *Bakhar* of the Nagpur Bhonsles was published in the *Mārāṭhi* monthly *Kavy-Etihāsa Sangraha* for March, 1883, yet Beames puts one Chimnājī¹ Bālā as the successor of Sadāśiva Rāo without stating any reason or giving any reference. Stirling’s knowledge was far more limited but the information given by him is more accurate, as he wrote within a quarter of a century of the British conquest of Orissa. This can be proved by the name “Bālāji Kunwar,”