A History of the Mahrattas v1.c16.95

v1.c16.95

[The only supposed portrait of Sivājī in existence is that which appears in Orme’s Fragments. This is reproduced in O.H.I., p. 426, and appears as a frontispiece to Mānkar’s translation of Krishnājī Anant Sabhāsad’s life of Sivājī. Whether this portrait is authentic cannot be determined. The picture of Sivājī which appears at p. 13 of D. B. Parasnis’s Mahābleshwar and the frontispiece of Kincaid and Parasnis’s A History of the Maratha People, both seem to be modern and unauthentic productions. Escaliot, who was resident in the English factory at Surat when Sivājī attacked the town, speaks of Sivājī being ‘of meane stature, lower somewhat than I am erect, and of an excellent proportion . . . and when ever hee speakes seemes to smile a quicke and peercing eye, and whiter than any of his people.’ (V. A. Smith in Times Lit. Supp., May 15, 1919.) When I visited Shivnēr in 1904 I saw two pictures of Sivājī in the shrine of Shivabāi. They are probably still there; but their authenticity is doubtful.]