A History of the Mahrattas v1.c18.95

v1.c18.95

¹ Mahratta MSS., and an account of the Ghorepuray family, received from the late Jeswunt Rao Ghorepuray, Umeer Ool Oomrah, which was originally compiled for the late Sir Barry Close. I likewise received a history of the Ghorepuray family from the late Mr. Thackeray, which I lodged with the Literary Society of Bombay. [The Literary Society was founded by Sir James Mackintosh, Recorder of Bombay, in 1804, and in 1829 was affiliated to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland under the title of the Bombay Branch R.A.S. In 1873 the Bombay Geographical Society, founded in 1831, was amalgamated with it. The Society, which still flourishes, possesses a fine library and collection of Indian coins. Ranade (254–5) states that he had a careful search made for the documents which Grant Duff handed over to the Literary Society, but failed to recover any trace of them. An impression was prevalent that they had been burnt, but in all probability they were lost or misappropriated. Some of these documents, notably one headed Jabita Svarājya (i.e. statement of Svarāj), were subsequently traced by Rāo Bahādur D. B. Parasnis. Their discovery is referred to by Mr. P. V. Mavji of Bombay, in a paper on Shivaji's Svarājya, at pp. 30–42, vol. xxii of J.B.B.R.A.S., at the conclusion of which he expressed his intention of depositing with the B.B.R.A.S. ‘photographs and copies of the original papers and writings from which Grant Duff constructed his work. . .’ Mr. Mavji's article is dated December 18, 1903. See also article on Maratha Historical Literature, by D. B. Parasnis, at pp. 168–78, vol. xxii of J.B.B.R.A.S., read before the Society on January 19, 1905.]