A History of the Mahrattas v1.c27.61

v1.c27.61

¹ [Compare Colonel Broughton's estimate of the Marāthā character : ‘I have never been able to discover any quality or propensity they possess which might be construed into a fitness for the enjoyment of social life. They are deceitful, treacherous, narrow-minded rapacious and notorious liars; the only quality they are endowed with, which could, according to our system of ethics, be placed to the credit side of the account, being candour; for there is not one of these propensities I have enumerated to which a Mahratta would not immediately plead guilty; in his idea of things they are requisite to form a perfect character; and to all accusations of falsehood, treachery, extortion, &c., he has one common answer: “Mahratta durbar hue” (’tis a Mahratta court).’ (Letters from a Mahratta Camp, ed. 1892, p. 79.) The author's judgment of the Marāthā government is fully corroborated by the testimony of Malcolm and Munro. See also Professor J. Sarkar's verdict at pp. 488-90 of Shivaji and His Times, Calcutta, 1919. As regards the Marāthā people no official who has served in the Deccan will dissent from the author's enumeration of their good qualities, and will assuredly add thereto their frugality and their uncomplaining courage in adversity.]