A History of the Mahrattas v1.c10.2

v1.c10.2

¹ From this period I have recourse principally to Mahratta manuscripts. Those to which I shall have immediate occasion to refer are as follow :—
1. A Life of Sivajee, procured from the late Raja of Kolapoor, written by Kistnajee Anund Subhasud. There are several copies of this work; one is in possession of Mr. Hale, the judge and magistrate of the Southern Concan, to which I had access. I returned the original copy to the Raja of Kolapoor, and lodged a copy of it with the Literary Society of Bombay. [This work was compiled by Krishnājī A. Sabhāsad at Tanjore in 1694 to the order of Rājā Rām, Sivājī’s second son. It was translated into English and published by Jagannāth Lakshman Mānkar in 1884, a second edition appearing two years later. Copies of this translation are now exceedingly rare. Mānkar states in his introduction that the original Marāthī manuscript was found by Mr. T. Bosanquet, I.C.S., with the Patel of Pachad, a village in the Mahād (formerly Raigarh) tāluka, Kolāba District, and appeared, from the style and language used, to be a copy of a much older document. Mānkar, who was Head Accountant in the Kolāba Collector’s office, prepared the translation for Mr. Bosanquet under the direction of Mr. J. Elphinstone, I.C.S., who succeeded Mr. Bosanquet as Collector of that District. Professor J. Sarkar describes K. A. Sabhāsad’s work as ‘the most valuable Marāthī account of Sivājī and our only source of information from the Marāthā side. All later biographies in the same language may be dismissed as they have copied this Sabhāsad Bakhar (at places word for word), and the additional matter they furnish is either incorrect or trivial, often mere ‘loose traditions.’ None of them are based on any contemporary document, though a few have recorded some correct traditions of true events (as we know from non-Marāthī sources). But they have padded out their source (Sab-