History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c43.28

v2.c43.28

I have had occasion, four years ago, to point out how far Mr. B. C. Mazumdar is capable of camouflaging facts and of misrepresenting truth. Here I must warn readers against believing propagandist literature either on behalf of the chief of Mayurbhanj or that of Sonpur. Propaganda in Indian States is a dangerous shoal for the general public and for the students of Indian History. I must quote one particular example in which a decent person (Mr. L. S. S. O'Malley, *l. c. s. Retd.*) was misled into making a totally false and misleading statement. While compiling the Gazetteer of the Orissa Feudatory States Mr. O'Malley was persuaded by two Oriya gentlemen named Babu Satyabadi Padhi and Babu Nand Kishore Bohidar of Sambalpur to state that eighteen States were feudatories to the Chiefs of Patna or Sambalpur. But Major H. B. Impey, Deputy Commissioner of Sambalpur, writing in 1863, mentions eighteen other states as forming the Athara-gaḍh :—