A History of the Mahrattas v1.c7.190

v1.c7.190

These preliminary explanations being afforded, we shall proceed to the period when the Mahomedans first invaded the Deccan. From that time the Mahrattas were quite lost sight of, and so little attention was paid to them, that in the seventeenth century when they started up from their native hills and plains, they were, to other nations, a new and almost unknown race of people. The object of this work is to endeavour to afford some information respecting the condition of the Mahrattas under the Mahomedan dynasties, and to trace more clearly than has yet been done, the rise, progress, decline, and fall of our predecessors in conquest ⁴ in India, whose power, it will be perceived, was gradually gaining strength before it found a head in the far-famed adventurer, Sivajee Bhonslay.