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New History of the Marathas v1: Volume 1

New History of the Marathas v1

Language
English

Contents

Volume 1

Front matter

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लाल बहादुर शास्त्री प्रशासन अकादमी Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy of Administration मसूरी MUSSOORIE

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पुस्तकालय LIBRARY the *Gesta Romanorum*, the *Legenda Aurea* of Jacobus de Voragine, and the *Speculum Historiale* of Vincent of Beauvais. These were the books that fed the imagination of the Middle Ages, and they were the books that the Church, in its wisdom, provided for the instruction and edification of the faithful.

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But the Church did not merely provide books; it also provided the means of their dissemination. The monastic scriptoria, where monks labored in silence to copy the sacred texts, were the precursors of the printing press. And when the press finally arrived, it was the Church that first harnessed its power, using it to spread the word of God to the corners of the earth. The Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in Europe, was a testament to the Church's commitment to the written word.

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Yet, even as the Church championed the spread of knowledge, it also sought to control it. The *Index Librorum Prohibitorum*, or List of Prohibited Books, was a tool used by the Church to suppress ideas it deemed dangerous or heretical. This tension between the desire to educate and the need to control would define the Church's relationship with literature for centuries to come.

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It is a complex history, one that is marked by both enlightenment and suppression. But it is a history that cannot be ignored, for it is the history of the very foundation of Western civilization. The Church, in its role as the guardian of knowledge, has shaped the way we think, the way we write, and the way we understand the world around us.

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[Figure: Shahji's jaghirs Shivaji's Territories The Mahratta Country English Miles 0 50 100 150]

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NEW HISTORY OF THE MARATHAS VOLUME I SHIVAJI & HIS LINE

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GOVIND SAKHARAM SARDESAI, B. A.

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Rupees Ten

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR

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*First Impression 1946*

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Printed by B. G. DHAWALE at the Karnatak Printing Press Chira Bazar, Bombay 2

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Published by K. B. DHAWALE for Phoenix Publications Chira Bazar, Bombay 2

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To the Memory of

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Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Sena-Khaskhel Samsher Bahadur, Grand Commander of the Star of India,

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Maharaja of Baroda

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to whom I have given all my life’s years of Service, and who had led my young steps into the pleasant path of History.

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G. S. Sardesai the *Gesta Romanorum*, the *Legenda Aurea* of Jacobus de Voragine, and the *Speculum Historiale* of Vincent of Beauvais. These were the books that fed the imagination of the Middle Ages, and they were the books that the Church, in its wisdom, provided for the instruction and edification of the faithful.

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But the Church did not merely provide books; it also provided the means of their dissemination. The monastic scriptoria, where monks labored in silence to copy the sacred texts, were the precursors of the printing press. And when the press finally arrived, it was the Church that first harnessed its power, using it to spread the word of God to the corners of the earth. The Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in Europe, was a testament to the Church's commitment to the written word.

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Yet, even as the Church championed the spread of knowledge, it also sought to control it. The *Index Librorum Prohibitorum*, or List of Prohibited Books, was a tool used by the Church to suppress ideas it deemed dangerous or heretical. This tension between the desire to educate and the need to control would define the Church's relationship with literature for centuries to come.

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It is a complex history, one that is marked by both enlightenment and suppression. But it is a history that cannot be ignored, for it is the history of the very foundation of Western civilization. The Church, in its role as the guardian of knowledge, has shaped the way we think, the way we write, and the way we understand the world around us.

Preface

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The great historian of the Rise of the Dutch Republic has truly marked : " The spectacle of a brave nation, inspired by the soul of one great man and rising against an overwhelming despotism, will always speak to the heart from generation to generation." This hope has inspired me to write my book. And there is a special need in the present condition of India why we should know and ponder on such a history. Maratha history is no longer the cherished treasure of a single community or province ; it should prove a source of inspiration, wisdom and warning to all India.

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The character and achievements of Shivaji and the Peshwas have left a permanent mark on the history of India. They form the most recent example of our genius for nation-making of which we today may well be proud. Of all the diverse races inhabiting the Indian Continent, each gifted with a peculiar trait of its own, the Marathas alone can claim to have made a distinct contribution to the political fortunes of this land by daring to establish Indian self-rule throughout the country, although measured by the length of time their construction proved too short-lived. For over half a century the politics of India were directed from Satara or Poona. The Maratha Government, with all its faults, inspired the people under its rule with a living sense of unity and co-operation without which no self-rule is attainable. It thus provided free scope for the energies of all classes of the people, each according to its natural bent. This is a political lesson which India sorely needs today. If the true function of history is to impart wisdom of the past for the benefit of the present, to warn a nation in the days of prosperity against the hidden dangers of creeping deterioration, as also to stimulate its courage and call forth its recuperative energy in times of adversity,—then India cannot afford to ignore the lessons which Maratha history has left behind in its short but eventful career. The inspiring careers of Shivaji and Baji Rao I, the daring planning and earnest execution of Madhav Rao I and Mahadji Sindia, contrasted with the vices and follies of Raghunath Rao Dada and Baji Rao II, convey a moral which modern India will be the wiser for laying to its heart.

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Unfortunately, however, no worthy narrative of Maratha achievements and failures has yet been written by weaving together all the fascinating and colourful material which the patient industry and critical acumen of modern scholars have made available to us. The subject still waits for scientific investigation by a trained mind endowed also with the constructive vision of a true historian. By far the largest proportion of the original sources exists in Marathi only, and they cannot reach workers ignorant of that language. On the other hand indigenous writers in Maharashtra are often handicapped by their ignorance of Persian, French and sometimes English also, and their want of access to essential books and manuscript records in these foreign languages; for we should never forget that the history of India in the eighteenth century is made up of the varying strands of the European and Indian powers struggling for dominion in this vast land, and each of them has left records of its transactions written in its native tongue, which cannot be left out of account.

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The historical ancestors of the Marathas such as the Mauryas, the Guptas, the Yadavas, the Parmars and others who had wielded the sceptre in this land at different times, have left very scanty records of their reigns. What remains to remind us of their times consists of a few cryptic inscriptions, fanciful eulogies (*prashasti*) of court poets, and a few old coins or stray notices of foreign travelers. No full and documented history can be built in such poverty of materials. But as the Maratha rule best known to us, happens to be a very modern phenomenon, there are available in the Marathi language the most valuable materials in the form of state-papers, news-reports, diplomatic despatches, legal decisions, diaries, chronologies, land-grants, official and private correspondence, military regulations, budgets and accounts. The enormous volume of these records can be judged from the fact that at a rough estimate they extend over a hundred thousand printed pages. This is a proud heritage of Maharashtra unshared by any other province of India.

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The first history of the Marathas worthy of the name was published by Captain James Grant Duff in three volumes as far back as 1826. Since then a vast amount of original material unknown to him has come to light. Historical research in our country has made phenomenal progress during the present century, with the effect of profoundly altering the objective of historical treatment. Besides fresh points of view are being forced on us by deep social changes bringing on a new mental outlook and by the advancing tide of research and criticism in this field as in others. As Goethe observes:

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“ History must from time to time be re-written, not because many new facts have been discovered, but because new aspects come into view, because the participant in the progress of an age is led to standpoints from which the past can be reviewed and judged in a novel manner.”

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My second justification for attempting this task can be best stated in the words of Professor Goldwin Smith : “ Each nation in the main writes its own history best ; it best knows its own land, its own institutions, the relative importance of its own events, the characters of its own great men. Each nation has also its peculiarities of view, its prejudices, its self-love, which require to be corrected by the impartial or even hostile view of others.”

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An extreme form of national pride had hitherto kept our modern Maratha historical workers back from using the English language, which is the only medium that can reach all parts of India and also make their researches available to the civilized world in general. The most glaring example of this mental attitude was the great explorer and life-long devotee of the muse of history in Maharashtra, the late Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade. Had he and other workers of his school published the results of their investigations in English, instead of exclusively in Marathi, they would have reached students of history all over India and enabled Maratha history to become a fruitful subject of higher study and criticism in our Indian Universities, and thus speeded up a healthy advance in our knowledge of this subject. Rajwade’s scholarly dissertations on various historical topics, his illuminating discussions of problems of philology, grammar and religion as also the researches of the Poona Itihas Samshodhak Mandal, have for this reason remained a sealed book to all other provinces of India and indeed to the rest of the non-Marathi world.

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I started my study of Maratha history forty years ago, and embodied the result in a work completed in nine volumes written in the Marathi language and entitled *The Marathi Riyasat*. In it I tried to bring together the scattered, disarranged and uncalendared (even unlisted) mass of historical data and opinions found in that tongue and, after comparing them with available materials in other languages, to construct a compact critical study of the rise and fall of the modern Maratha State. My work too like Rajwade’s, remained unknown to the world ignorant of my native language. The present *New History of the Marathas*, to be completed in three volumes (the whole now ready in manuscript), is the first attempt to present a fresh and full treatment of Maratha history in English, embodying the results of the latest research. It is not a translation of my *Marathi Riyasat*; nor does it pretend to be a work of the ideal merits as described above. Indeed no one individual, unless he has the encyclopaedic mind of a Gibbon, can do full justice to the subject, which requires rather the co-operative effort of a syndicate of scholars. In the absence of the hope of any such ideal combination, this book is offered to the public in full consciousness of its imperfections. If it provokes further study and thought in any corner of the great republic of letters, I shall be happy. And I shall be happier still if after a look at my book, some better gifted scholar is tempted to advance this subject, handle the enormous mass of materials and produce the long sighed for masterly History of the Marathas.

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One word more of apology is needed from me. The Marathas have long been misjudged by their rivals and adversaries and painted in blackest colours both during and after the period of their downfall, as if they had no single good point to their credit. This attitude became confirmed in popular mind owing to the first flush and glow of the foreign conquest. But more than a century has elapsed since the Maratha State was extinguished, a sufficiently long period for the dust of passion to settle down and enable us to form a sober and rational judgment and to justly appraise the virtues and defects of that race. It is still a difficult task for a Maratha writer to paint his people’s history on a canvas with colours that truly represent facts and avoid prejudices. In the following narrative I aspire to produce a true apologia (*Kaifiat*) of the Maratha people and place it before the impartial public. It is mostly made up of the utterances of the great figures who dominated the historic stage during the two centuries of our rise and fall.

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A studied attempt has been made to weave into the narrative ample citations from original authorities. This appeared to be the only way of making the reader acquainted with the pith and essence of the Marathi papers. So far as possible the sources have been indicated in the foot-notes, though, it must be admitted, the materials are so varied and extensive that it is not possible to quote chapter and verse evidence in every case. As a supplementary attempt the reader’s attention may be invited to the author’s “Main Currents of Maratha History” published a few years ago. In it have been discussed some of the outstanding and debatable questions arising out of the past life of the Maratha people.

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My grateful thanks are due to the numerous scholars and publishers of original materials on which this work is mainly based. I cannot adequately acknowledge the debt I owe to my valued friend Sir Jadunath Sarkar for his patient revision of my manuscript, to him a labour of love, the worth of which those only can estimate who are acquainted with his extraordinary erudition and his rare critical acumen. I am equally indebted to Dr. V. G. Dighe, my constant companion and collaborator in all historical work during the last seventeen years without whose unstinted help I could never have completed my onerous undertaking. I am inscribing this work to the sacred memory of my first great inspirer the late Sayaji Rao Gaikwad of Baroda, whose grandson the present Maharaja Pratap-sinh Rao continues to take the same interest in my historical labours.

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The publisher and I highly regret that the abnormal conditions of life prevailing in the country now for years have not only delayed the publication of this work, but prevented us from executing our cherished desire of putting in maps, illustrations and other essentials of study adequately. We can only hope to make up the deficiency in the succeeding volumes.

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Kamshet Dt. Poona, 31st Oct. 1946 }

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G. S. SARDESAI

Contents

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CHAPTER | PAGES --- | --- I. EARLY BEGINNINGS [Upto 1600 A.C.] | .. 9

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1. Origin of the Marathas. 2. The Marathi Language. 3. Political background of Maharashtra. 4. Rise of the Manabhav Sect. 5. Manabhav literature. 6. Deaths of Chakradhar and Hemadri. 7. Successful revolt against Muslims. 8. Saints and Writers of Maharashtra. 9. Maratha character. 10. The Present day Marathas. 11. The Maratha country in pulsation.

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II. SHAHJI THE RISING SUN [1614-1636] | .. 41

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1. Survey of the situation. 2. The family of the Bhosles. 3. Battle of Roshangaon. 4. Shahji's marriage, Shivaji born. 5. Battle of Bhatavadi. 6. Rebellion of Khan Jahan Lodi. 7. Shah Jahan's march against Nizam Shah. 8. Shahji's bold stand. 9. Moral of the two figures.

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III. SHAHJI'S LATER CAREER [1636-1664] | .. 67

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1. Shahji's work in Karnatak. 2. Shahji possesses Bangalore. 3. Shahji under disfavour. 4. Shahji's two sons in action. 5. Shahji's death.

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IV. THE FIRST PHASE OF THE MOON [1644-1653] | .. 85

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1. Shivaji's birth and training. 2. His guardian Dadaji. 3. The first coup. 4. Dream put into action. 5. Independence achieved.

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V. RAPID PROGRESS [1654-1660] | .. 109

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1. Short work with Morays. 2. Political situation of 1667. 3. North and South Konkan seized. 4. Administrative measures. 5. Afzal Khan's end. 6. Panhala invested, Shivaji escapes.

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VI. UPS AND DOWNS [1601-1665] | .. 135

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1. Kartalb Khan humbled. 2. English Factors confined. 3. Night raid on Shaista Khan. 4. Surat sacked. 5. Bijapuri activities, Baji Ghorpade crushed. 6. Jay Sinh and Shivaji face to face.

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VII. THE LION BEARDED IN HIS DEN [1666-1667] .. 163

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1. Hesitation to visit Agra. 2. The audience hall. 3. The wonderful escape. 4. After effects, peace.

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VIII. STILL GREATER TRIUMPHS [1668-1673] .. 185

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1. Fresh wave of Mughal fanaticism. 2. Shivaji's reply, recovers lost forts. 3. Second sack of Surat and its sequel. 4. Bloody toll of Salher. 5. Panhala taken. 6. Pratap Rao Gujar sacrifices himself.

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IX. THE FULFILMENT [1674-1676] .. .. 205

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1. The coronation, its true significance. 2. The ceremony. 3. A year of unrest all round.

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X. THE CONQUEST OF THE SOUTH [1677-1678] .. 223

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1. Expansion southwards, necessity and opportunity. 2. Kopbal seized. 3. Grand visit to Bhaganagar. 4. Bijapuri Karnatak seized. 5. The two brothers on their heritage. 6. Agreed division of patrimony.

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XI. THE MOON SETS [1678-1680] .. .. 245

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1. Results of the Karnatak campaign. 2. Public remonstrance against Aurangzeb's intolerance. 3. Sambhaji's desertion. 4. Effort to reclaim Sambhaji fails. 5. The end. 6. Family and religious preceptors.

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XII. SHIVAJI'S CHARACTER AND WORK .. .. 259

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1. The Amatya's tribute. 2. Shivaji and Ramdas. 3. Shivaji and a Hindu Samrajya. 4. The Eight Ministers, and administration. 5. Forts on land and sea. 6. Army organization. 7. The navy and the Siddi of Janjira. 8. Shivaji's relations with the English. 9. Was Shivaji a mere plunderer? 10. Estimate of Shivaji by thinkers and writers,1-8. 11. Conclusion.

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XIII. SAMBHAJI THE VIOLENT [1680-1689] .. 293

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1. Accession. 2. Akbar's flight to Sambhaji. 3. Aurangzeb descends into the Deccan. 4. Bloody beginning of Sambhaji's reign. 5. Grand projects. 6. Aurangzeb's discomfiture. 7. The Portuguese cowed by Sambhaji. 8. Sad end of Akbar. 9. The chivalrous Durgadas. 10. Sambhaji captured. 11. Tragic death.

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XIV. RAJARAM THE QUIESCENT [1689-1700] .. 319

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1. Two stars of dazzling brilliancy. 2. Fall of Raigad, Ramchandra Pant's leadership. 3. Maratha trek to Jinji. 4. The Emperor's movements. 5. Jinji besieged. 6. The Maratha aims. 7. Besiegers besieged. 8. Heroic deeds of Santaji. 9. Santaji's tragic end. 10. Guerilla warfare described. 11. Rajaram escapes, Jinji falls. 12. Rajaram's death and character.

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XV. RETRIBUTION [1700-1707] .. .. .. 347

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1. Tarabai opposes the Emperor. 2. Shahu in captivity. 3. Contact with Balaji Vishwanath. 4. Raybhanji Kaka. 5. Piteous appeals of Yesubai. 6. Tragedy of Aurangzeb's life. 7. Aurangzeb's death. 8. Tarabai triumphant.

Correction

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Page 27, line 3 bottom read समा for मसा Page 62, line 20 read operations for operation Page 69, line 8, first para read gold for good Page 79, line 4 of 4th Section read An for As Page 149, Section 5, "Bijapuri activities, Baji Ghorpade crushed". Page 180, last line read "20 November" Page 210, line 2 of second para. read advisers for guru Page 211, line 9 of Section 2 read "weighed" for "weighted" Page 232, line 8 read three thousand for 30000 Page 267, line 5 read subjugated for subjected Page 269, foot note 6 is given on next page.

Further Corrections

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Page 60 line 12 read 17 for 7 Page 105 footnote 15 read प्रतिपचंद्र for प्रतिपचंद्र Page 211 last line read Ait. Sankirna for Shiva charita Page 270 transfer footnote 6 to page 269 Page 301 footnote* read श्रीशंभो for श्रीशंभो and कलशाहस्तगा for कलुशाहस्तगा Page 362 last line read 7 for 6 in the footnote and add "Sardesai Com. Volume, Marathi Section p. 181" as footnote 6.

Chronology

Chapter I

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*(Most of the dates are merely approximate.)*

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B.C. 73 — A.D. 218 Sātavāhanas rule over Mahārāshtra : Bhaja, Karla and other caves excavated.

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A.C. 550 — 753 Early Chālukya dynasty.

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608 — 642 Chālukya ruler Satyāshraya Pulakeshi.

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750 — 975 Rāshtrakuta rule.

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800 — 1000 Early Marathi writers.

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884 — 959 Rājashekhar, great poet in Mahārāshtri.

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975 — 1189 Later Chālukyas.

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1187 — 1294 The dynasty of the Yādavas.

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1153 — 1276 Chakradhar, founder of the Mānabhāv sect.

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1276 Chakradhar and Hemādri meet their death.

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1290 Saint Jnaneshwar wrote his great work.

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1310 Muslim subjugation of peninsular India completed.

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1323 Pratāparudra of Warangal captured by Md. Tughlak.

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1325 Muhammad Tughlak makes Deogiri his capital.

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1336 April 18 Harihar crowned King of Vijayanagar.

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1347 Ala-ud-din Hasan Shah founds the Bahmani kingdom.

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c. 1350 Saint Nāmdev flourishes.

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1565 Jan. 22 Battle of Talikot ; Vijaynagar destroyed.

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1548 — 1599 Saint Eknāth.

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c. 1600 Rise of the Bhosles to prominence.

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1607 — 1650 Saint Tukārām.

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EARLY BEGINNINGS

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[Up to 1600 A.C.]

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1. Origin of the Marathas.
2. The Marathi language.
3. Political Background of Maharashtra.
4. Rise of the Manabhav sect.
5. Manabhav literature.
6. Deaths of Chakradhar and Hemadri.
7. Successful revolt against Muslims.
8. Saints and writers of Maharashtra.
9. Maratha character.
10. The present day Marathas.
11. The Maratha country pulsation.

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1. Origin of the Marathas.—The latest census has computed two and a half crores of persons to be the Marāthi-speaking population of India, and most of them inhabit that portion of the country which has been known by the ancient name Mahārāshtra, ‘the great nation of the Rathas, Rathikas or Rashtrikas’, famous from the days of yore for valour and energy. In the literature of the early Christian centuries the words Mahārāshtra, Mahārāshtrika and Mahārāshtri (the last being the name of one of the Prakrit languages) occur in copious frequency. Mahārathi (masculine) and Mahārathini (feminine) are words in the Karla cave and other inscriptions of the Sātavāhana period. Varāhamihira, a famous astronomer of the sixth century, uses the word Mahārāshtras, which later came to be corrupted into Mahrāttā or Marāthā. Rājashekhar, a Sanskrit author of the 9th century, uses the word Marahatti in the feminine gender. The word occurs in various forms in all subsequent literatures of India.¹

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Mahārāshtra, as its plain meaning shows, is a great Rāshtra or nation formed by a race of men who in ancient times were probably known as Ratthas, some of whom came to be styled Mahāratthas or great Ratthas. The land which they occupied also came to be called after them, that is, the

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1. Several hypotheses have been put forth by different scholars on the origin of the word Maratha.

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country of great men. Their language too was first known as Mahārāshtri, a Prakrit dialect whose range was originally much wider than that of the present Marāthi, its later derivative. The large tract of western India known to this day as Mahārāshtra, extended from the Arabian sea on the west to the Satpura mountains in the north, and comprised the modern tracts of Konkan, Khandesh, Berar, part of the Central Provinces, the British Deccan and about a third of the Nizam’s dominions, the whole being known as Marātha-vādā.

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The land south of the river Narmada was called by the Aryan settlers as Dakshināpatha and included the Dandakāranya which was so named from the vast forest that stretched southwards from the Tapti to the Godavari. During the early centuries of the Christian era Mahārāshtra consisted of three distinct portions, *viz.* the first, Vidarbha or Berar; the second, Asmaka or the Godavari basin (later known as Seuna Desh); and the third Kuntala, that is the valley of the river Krishnā. It also embraced the western coastal region known as Aparānta or Konkan, stretching from Daman in the north to Goa or even Karwar in the south. Thus, the lands between the Narmada and the upper Krishna practically formed the main Mahārāshtra country in which first the Prakrit Mahāshtri and later its derivative Marathi, was spoken and which linguistically and geographically is one solid homogeneous block, although at present cut up into several disjointed political areas.²

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² The Aihole inscription of the famous Chalukya monarch Satyāshraya Pulakeshi dated the Christian year 634 (556 Shaka), accurately mentions the extent of Mahārāshtra, as containing three portions, altogether comprising 99,000 villages. The three parts probably are Vidarbha (including Asmaka), Kuntala, and Aparanta. अगमदधिपतित्वं यो महाराष्ट्रकाणां, नवनवतिसहस्रग्रामभाजां श्रयाणाम् ॥

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Thus Mahārāshtra proper where the Marāthi language prevails, can be understood with almost exact accuracy as a right-angled triangle, of which one side is represented by the western coast line from Daman to Karwar and the other from

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Subsequent to the date of this inscription ample testimony is available confirming this description of Mahārāshtra, but the exact number of villages in it and its accurate demarcation are still open questions.

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Daman straight east to Nagpur and Gondia, practically along the river Tapti. The hypotenuse of this triangle would be an irregular line joining Gondia to Karwar and touching in its course the towns of Belgaum, Sholapur and Bidar. The North Khandesh territory lying between the rivers Tapti and Narmada is indeed a border land of essentially Mahārāshtrian character. In the daily religious rites of the Maratha people this demarcation of Mahārāshtra is still being commonly repeated.³

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The people of this land were known in early ages as Ratthas, Mahāratthas or Rāshtrakutas, who had long since earned great distinction for wealth, valour and political power. An image of a Mahā-rattha warrior is to be seen to this day in the Nane-Ghat caves near Junnar, which were carved by the Andhra rulers about the first century of the Christian era. The present Marathi tongue is the direct descendant of the literary Prakrit *Mahārāshtri*, the language of Mahārāshtra.

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These ancient Ratthas came to be divided into and known by the names of several sub-tribes or families, such as the Sātavāhanas, the Bhojas, the Mauryas, the Kadambas, the Silāharas, the Yādavas, the Chālukyas, the Rāshtrakutas, etc., some of whom established in this region powerful kingdoms of their own, patronized arts and literature and produced many great rulers of outstanding merit. Their cultural achievements are perpetuated to this day by the unique execution and grandeur of the caves of Bhaja and Karla, of Ellora, Ajanta and Elephanta, and the temples and sculptures in which this land of Mahārāshtra so fully abounds. These Ratthas or Mahāratthas must have been a hardy race in whose character the best traits of the Aryan settlers from the north were blended with the best characteristics of the indigenous stock of western India.

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2. The Marathi language.—The Aryan settlers when they first entered this vast Indian continent brought with them their ancient Vedic culture and their highly refined tongue Sanskrit, which in due course imparted its polish to the origi-

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3. “गोदावर्याः उत्तरे or दक्षिणे तीरे or कृष्णावेण्योः उत्तरे तीरे”

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nal dialects which used to be spoken in the various wild recesses of the land. These local speeches came to be styled under the common denomination "Prakrit", meaning the natural and unartificial dialects used by the common folk as distinguished from Sanskrit, which was the refined medium employed by learned priests, poets and authors in their works. These Prakrit speeches came to be classified, according to their regional character or religious importance, into five or six main divisions each with a literature and a grammar of its own, viz. Mahārāshtri, Pāli or Māgadhi, Ardha-Māgadhi, Sauraseni and Paisachi, not to speak of Tamil and other primary Dravidian tongues which prevailed in the southern peninsula. Of all these mediæval languages, Mahārāshtri was the most highly cultivated and at one time it was most widely used in popular speech and literature, right from the borders of Malwa and Rajputana in the north to the banks of the Krishna and the Tungabhadra in the south. Buddhist literature mostly exists in Pāli and Jain literature in Ardha-Māgadhi, while Sauraseni prevailed in the region round about Mathura, the land of the Saurasenas, and Paisachi had its hold in the north-west, i.e., in the western Punjab and beyond. All these Prakrit languages have been freely employed by classical writers like Kalidas and others in the dramas that they produced, Sanskrit being spoken by the higher characters and the Prakrits by the females, servants and lower classes. It is clear that by about 500 B.C. Sanskrit had gone out of use as a spoken language and the Prakrits had taken its place in popular parlance. The most important of these Prakrits was doubtless Mahārāshtri in which there exists a copious literature, consisting of several well-known works of high merit, such as *Sapta-Shati*, *Setu-bandha*, *Gauda Vaho* and *Karpura-Manjari*, etc. The first of these, that is, *Sapta-Shati*, is a famous anthology of 700 verses selected from different writers by King Hala of the Sātavāhana dynasty, who flourished about the first century after Christ. This *Sapta-Shati* contains the names of mountains, rivers and towns of Mahārāshtra, many of which are still extant. Grammarians specifying rules for the various Prakrits mainly depend upon Mahārāshtri for their illustrations. The word Mahārāshtri came to be corrupted into Marhati or as it was latterly called, Marathi. Rajashekhar, a learned Mahārāshtra poet, who is known to have lived from 884 to 959 A.C., has written several Sanskrit and Prakrit works, *Ramayana*, *Bala-Bharata*, *Viddha-Shala-Bhanjika*, *Karpura-Manjari*, etc., and his Prakrit works in point of style mark the borderland between the outgoing Mahārāshtri and the incoming Marathi.

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If one were to trace the linguistic development of India through ancient times, one might roughly put down Vedic Sanskrit to be the spoken speech of the early Aryans until about 500 B.C. ; Mahārāshtri and the other Prakrits were in vogue for about a thousand years from 500 B.C. to 500 A.C., after which Marathi and other modern Indian languages gradually began to take shape; and Marathi became the language of the court and learned writers from about 800-1000 A.C. onwards. *Bhāvārtha-Dīpika*, a commentary on the *Bhagavadgita* by the first great writer in Marathi, Jnaneshwar, is the earliest celebrated work in Marathi, having been completed in the year 1290 A.C. during the reign of King Ramachandra Yadav of Devgiri, only four years before he was attacked and his kingdom destroyed by the Muslim conqueror Ala-ud-din Khilji. Jnaneshwar concludes his work with these words, "I have thus decorated the Goddess of Gita with this country ornament."⁴ Side by side with the use of the Prakrits and Marathi, the use of classical Sanskrit was never abandoned as the literary tongue *par excellence*. Learned scholars always preferred to write in Sanskrit.

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⁴ शके बाराशें बारोत्तरें । तैं टीका केली ज्ञानेश्वरें । केले ज्ञानदेवें गीते । देशीकार लेणें ।

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One may be curious to know what are the oldest existing compositions in Marathi. Curiously enough, the oldest writings⁵ in Marathi comes from the Mysore State, being dated 983 A.C. A few inscriptions in old Marathi have been found in different places, such as Palasdev (1157 A.C.), Ter (1184 A.C.), Parel (A.C. 1180), another at Patan in Khandesh (A.C. 1206) and one at Pandharpur (A.C. 1273). Some stray pages of *Panchatantra* translated from Sanskrit into old Marathi and an astronomical treatise by Shripati called *Ratnamālā* are known to be the earliest extant compositions in Marathi. Mukundrāja preceded Jnaneshwar by about a hundred years and wrote his work *Viveka-Sindhu* in Marathi, although the present manuscripts give a modernized form of it. The Mahanubhav literature of the last quarter of the thirteenth century is also available for the study of old Marathi. While, therefore, we are sure that modern Marathi began to take a definite shape about 1200 A.C., the writing, the forms and structure now available to us, belong to a much later period.

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⁵ श्रीचामुंडराएं करवियले= "Executed by Chamund Rai" is an inscription near the left-foot of the statue of Gomateshwar at Sravana-Bel-gola about 60 miles north-west of Mysore.

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It was Jnanadev’s boast to have transplanted the best thoughts of the Sanskrit language into the popular Marathi. He bestows the highest eulogy on Marathi and declares it to be in no way inferior to the polished Sanskrit. What height the Marathi language and the Maratha people had then attained can well be imagined from the following eloquent words of Jnanadev. “There rules,” says he, “Shri Ramachandra, the magnificent scion of the Yadav dynasty, the supporter of all arts, a monarch who rules justly.” ⁶

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Since the days of Jnaneshwar a regular succession of saints and poets began to appear rapidly and to enrich the Marathi language in increasing volume and grandeur, till the advent of the great Maratha hero Shivaji. A people is thus inseparably connected with its land and language.

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3. Political background of Maharashtra.—How was this land of the ‘great nation’ ruled in bygone ages? The earliest glimpse we obtain in this connection refers to Chandra-

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6. तेथ यदुवंश विलास । जो सकल कला निवास ।
न्यायातें पोषी क्षितीश । श्रीरामचंद्र ॥

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This compliment paid by the great author to King Ramadeva need not be interpreted as an accurate historical statement. It was rather the formal expression of a poet’s reverence towards the ruling sovereign.

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About Marathi Jnaneshwar says —

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मूळ ग्रंथीचिया संस्कृता— । वरी मराठी नीट पाहतां ।
अभिप्राय मानलिया चित्ता । कवण भूमि ते न चोजवे ॥
माझा मऱ्हाठाचि बोल कौतुकें । परी अमृतातें ही पैजा जिंके ।
ऐसी अक्षरेंचि रसिकें । मेळवीन ॥

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gupta Maurya, an Indian warrior contemporary with Alexander the Great, who had established his sway over Mahārāshtra. Chandragupta’s grandson Ashoka took the cue from his grandfather and extended his Empire to the east and the south. Throughout this Indian continent his numerous edicts have been discovered, which prove that great monarch’s zeal for the spiritual amelioration of his people and his enthusiasm for the spread of the teachings of Lord Buddha. Thereafter during the early centuries of the Christian era, Mahārāshtra was ruled for about 300 years (B.C. 73 to A.C. 218) by a dynasty of rulers known as Āndhra or Sātavāhana whose capital city was Pratisthān or Paithan, situated on the river Godavari, then a renowned seat of learning, culture and commercial activity. Some of the Puranas enthusiastically describe the conquests and achievements of these Sātavāhana rulers, after whom the present Shaka era has been named. The Sātavāhanas attained a high degree of civilization which is disclosed by the wonderful caves of Nasik, Karla, Bhaja, and Kanheri, as well as by a number of coins and inscriptions which have been discovered, belonging to that dynasty.

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The several clans of the ancient Ratthas, among whom may be included the Rāshtrakutas, the Bānas, etc., exercised influence at different places under the Sātavāhanas, although they were then too weak to assert any organized political power. During the 4th and 5th centuries the Gupta Emperors of northern India now and then extended their influence over rulers of the Deccan such as the Vakatakas, Kalachuris and Kadambas, but it is doubtful if the Guptas actually ruled over any portions of these Deccan lands. At the beginning of the sixth century, however, a new dynasty of the Chālukyas appeared on the scene and gave this land a succession of wise and strong rulers for more than a century and a half. They ruled from Badami, now a town in the district of Bijapur. Satyāshraya pulakeshi, the most famous ruler of this Chālukya dynasty,⁷ who reigned from 608—642 A.C., successfully repelled an attack of the Emperor Harsha and strongly guarded the northern boundary of Mahārāshtra at the river Narmada. The Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang visited Pulakeshi’s court and has left an illuminating account of that ruler's policy and achievements, and of the Maratha people as well. The Chālukyas worshipped the God Shiva and assumed grand titles significant of their power and fame.

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⁷ See note 2 on page 12.

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The Chālukyas were succeeded by another powerful dynasty, the Rāshtrakutas, who ruled Mahārāshtra for a period of 225 years from about 750 to 975 A.C., the longest on record for any southern Hindu dynasty to hold sway. It is a most important epoch in the history of the Deccan, when both the Karnatak and Mahārāshtra were welded into one political entity. Most of the rulers were able men; in a line of 14 kings only 3 were found to be inefficient. Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism lived side by side in this land in perfect harmony under these Rāshtrakuta rulers.

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Krishna I of this dynasty was a great builder who caused to be excavated out of solid rock the celebrated Kailas temple of Ellora, a magnificent specimen of Hindu art and a veritable wonder of the world. The name Rāshtrakuta was in local parlance changed into Rathod a clan-name later assumed by the proud rulers of the Jodhpur State. This dynasty had its main capital at Mānyakhet (Malkhed) with minor capitals, such as Chandrapur (Chandwad), Lattatur (Latur), etc. at different times. However clever and valiant might have been these Rāshtrakuta rulers, they altogether neglected the naval defence of their country, in which the Arabs of the west seemed to excel at this period.

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It was the later Chālukyas again who gave a death-blow to the Rāshtrakuta power and ruled Mahārāshtra for some two hundred years from 975 to 1189 A.C. from their capitals of Mānyakhet and Kalyani near Bidar. They produced some ten brilliant rulers of outstanding merit. Tribhuvanmalla Vikramāditya VI was the greatest monarch of this dynasty, and he founded an era named after himself. His prime minister Vijna-neshwar, the author of the Mitāksharā, is still held in high esteem as an eminent jurist of Hindu Law.

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After the later Chālukyas, Mahārāshtra came to be ruled by another powerful dynasty, the Yādavas, a clan from north India who had been striving in ages past to wield power and influence at different places. They wrested the sceptre from the Chālukyas and ruled for over a hundred years from 1187 to 1294 from their famous capital Deogiri, which the Muslims later named Daulatabad. Four eminent Yādava rulers, Singhana, Krishnadeva, Mahādeva and Rāmadeva became celebrated in the history of the Deccan for having patronized art and literature, the signs of which are amply visible to this day. The great mathematician Bhāskarācharya, the Yādava minister Hemādri, a versatile writer and inventor of many practical arts, and Hemādri's right-hand helpmate the scholarly Bopadeva, are all names among many others, still cherished in Maratha memory with peculiar reverence.

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Hemādri holds an important place in the history of Mahārāshtra. He was in many respects far ahead of his times. He was not only a learned scholar, but also a minister (*Shrikaranadhipa*) of the Yādava rulers possessing great powers of organization and a wide outlook directed to the many-sided improvement of the people inhabiting the Yādava dominion. With the help of a number of scholars he promulgated a huge compendium of religious observances, entitled *Chaturvarga-Chintamani*. He also produced works on medicine, introduced a code of private and official etiquette and of forms of address in private and public correspondence. He changed the Devnāgari script so as to suit a fast running hand by joining the letters, a mode which is known as Modi and which has long been current in Mahārāshtra.⁸ A special art of constructing houses and temples with hewn stones piled one upon another without the use of cement or mortar, was invented by Hemādri and came to be widely adopted throughout Mahārāshtra. The grain Bajri as a cheap food-stuff of plentiful yield, is said to have been first introduced by Hemādri. To his great work *Chaturvarga-Chintamani* he has added an illuminating supplement entitled *Yādav-Prashasti* in which he has immortalized the history of the Yādava rulers ending with Mahādeva Yādava.

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⁸ The oldest paper now available in this script dates about half a century after Hemādri.

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4. Rise of the Manabhav sect.—With the changes of dynasties, Mahārāshtra preserved its political freedom for some two hundred years more than its sister provinces in the north. Here foreign conquest was never dreamt of and no provision against it was considered necessary. About 1000 A.C. the Muslims began to knock at the gates of India, and by the end of the twelfth century Delhi passed into their hands, ushering in a new political experience for the warring indigenous princes of this vast country. It required a hundred years more for the shock to reach Mahārāshtra from Delhi. During the last quarter of the thirteenth century between about 1270 and 1295 when Jnaneshwar was penning the eulogy of Rāmachandra Yādava, a sudden collapse came, which requires to be explained on the basis of recent historical research. A dim light in the midst of complete darkness is perhaps to be found in the rise of the Mānabhāv sect and the conflict it provoked in the religious sphere. Let us see what the Mānabhāv revolution effected in the spheres of religion, society and politics of the period.

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The word Mānabhāv is a corruption of the Sanskrit original Mahānubhāva, meaning great respectability. The Mānabhāv sect, also known as Jayakrishna or Achyuta, is an important body of free-thinkers advocating a distinct departure from the traditional Vedānta system of religion formulated by Shankarāchārya. Indeed, from about the eleventh century onwards, as in earlier times, there has been a peculiar upheaval in Indian religion and society, giving rise from time to time to a number of divergent sects, such as the Vaishnavas, the Shaivas, the Lingayats, the Nath-panthis and Warkaries of the Pandharpur movement. During the thirteenth century a learned Nagar Brahman from the district of Broach in Gujarat named Haripāldev migrated to Ridhpur near Amraoti in Berar, and there under the inspiration of a learned saint named Govind Prabhu started preaching doctrines of a revolt against some of the absurdities of current orthodoxy.

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This Haripāldev, newly named Chakradhar by his guru, toured through Mahārāshtra and by his earnest oratory and forceful reasoning, collected round himself a large number of disciples, mostly learned Brahmans from different places. He possessed a wonderful mastery over the Marathi language and explained through its medium the best thoughts in the Upanishads and other old philosophical works, exposing the incongruities that existed between the real ideals and the actual practice of the Hindus of his time. Chakradhar soon came to be worshipped and respected by large masses of people as the very incarnation of God wherever he went. Thus a new sect came into existence, although Chakradhar himself never avowed that he was preaching a new religion. He is credited with an abnormally long life of more than a century, 1153 to 1276 A.C., which he spent in passionate preaching and enforcing rigid discipline upon his followers in every minute detail of conduct and worship. He did not confine his activities to Mahārāshtra only, but travelled over wide regions outside, extending roughly from the river Krishna in the south to the bank of the Indus in the north, a unique performance in the history of religious movements. Chakradhar’s successes extended even beyond the Indus to Peshawar and on to Kabul, where his followers read and recited the sacred texts in the language.

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Chakradhar concentrated his teaching upon the worship of Krishna, emphasising dualism in contravention to the then existing Advait system as enunciated by Shankarāchārya and adopted for centuries by the common masses and rulers of the Yādava dynasty. The main points on which this new teaching differed from the old can be thus summarized : (1) Chakradhar did not accept the sanctity of the Vedas as the ultimate authority, (2) he denounced the artificial divisions of caste and (3) the adoration of the numerous gods, their forms and incarnations. (4) He also rejected the pollution by touch in any shape or form, upholding all human beings as equal in sanctity. He also enforced a strict vegetarian diet and allowed no sensual excesses unlike the Shāktas and Tāntrikas. The Mānabhāvs have two distinct orders, the householders and the recluses. The latter admit even women to the status of religious celibates ; the former live much the same social life as the common mass of their brother Hindus, and can be hardly distinguished by any special conduct at this day.

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5. Manabhav literature.—But it is more in the literary sphere than in the religious, that the Mānabhāvs have rendered their greatest service, which is not yet widely nor adequately recognised. They rigidly prohibited the use of Sanskrit either in common prayer or in their literary works. They adopted pure Marathi as the only channel of expression holding it to be as sacred as Sanskrit and, like our popular Mahārāshtra saints, made available to the common folk the highest philosophical thought of the old Sanskrit works. They were the first to create Marathi proto-types of the various forms, constructions and styles of classical writers, their Samhitas, Sutras, Bhāshyas and even the metres of the Sanskrit verse, both of the *Aksaragana* and the *Mātrāgana* systems. The Mānabhāv scholars were the first to write elegant Marathi prose, unlike the Sanskrit writers who preferred the metrical form. This Mānabhāv prose is of the blank verse type.

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Chakradhar himself never wrote any work of his own. He had a large number of gifted disciples all passionately devoted to him and whole-heartedly co-operating with him in his attack on orthodoxy. Every act and incident of his life, as also every utterance of his, were properly recorded and later arranged in two important works,—the first containing his sermons and utterances is termed *Siddhanta-Sutra-path*⁹ and has become the sacred book of the sect which the followers read and recite. The other, recording his acts and incidents, is called *Lilacharitra*.¹⁰ In order to preserve the sanctity of the text of these works, they were purposely written in thirteen different code-scripts according to as many sub-divisions, which prevented their being tampered with by ignorant readers. These two form the sacred scriptures of the Mānabhāv sect and are the compositions of Mahindra Bhatt Vyās, a learned scholar, who was helped in his task by half a dozen other scholars of equal calibre. One noticeable peculiarity of these works is that exact dates and places are mentioned in most cases for the occurrences that are narrated, and this fact materially helps the student of history. The use of the code scripts has preserved the original language from any manipulation or interpolation by subsequent scribes, so that in the Mānabhāv works we find today the very words, phrases and forms of the day of their composition, without the modernization which has vitiated the contents and form of the writings of our other Mahārāshtra saints like Jnaneshwar and Eknāth.

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⁹ सिद्धान्तसूत्रपाठ.

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¹⁰ लीलाचरित्र.

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Other works of high literary merit came to be written in quick succession by Mānabhāv writers on the model of the old poetical compositions of the Sanskrit Kavyas : the following seven of these are held in great esteem—

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1. *Rukmini-Swayamvara* by Narendra Borikar ;

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2 & 3. *Shishupāla Vadha* and *Uddhav-gita* by Bhāskar-bhatt ;

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4. *Vatsalā-Harana* by Dāmodar Pandit ;

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5 to 7. *Riddhipur Varnan*, *Jnana-bodh* and *Sahyādri-Varnan* are three descriptive narrations.

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The first of these *Rukmini-Swayamvara* is contemporary with the *Jnaneshwari* : the others belong to a little later period. All are in the common ovi metre and can take a high rank for their literary merit. Not a few women have figured among their authors. These Mānabhāv compositions long remained unnoticed by the scholarly world probably on account of the strange antipathy that Hindu orthodoxy entertained towards that sect. How and why such antipathy arose is a riddle which deserves to be satisfactorily solved.

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6. Deaths of Chakradhar and Hemadri.—The propagation of the Mānabhāv doctrines appears to have had an intimate relation with and was certainly a contributory cause of the sudden fall of the Yādavas of Deogiri, the very heart of the region, where Chakradhar first began his fanatical activities by openly preaching against orthodox beliefs and practices. He was doubtless a contemporary of the great Hemādri, the *Shrikaranādhipa* of the powerful king Mahādeva Yādava (A.C. 1260-1271), so that Hemādri and Chakradhar are found acting on the stage of mediæval history, both learned and possessing extraordinary capacity for organization and using their utmost powers, the one upholding the orthodox system and the other preaching a revolt. It would appear that Hemādri purposely promulgated his comprehensive code of religious observances (the *Chaturvarga-Chintamani*) consisting of four large books or parts, (1) the *Vratakhanda* or vows, (2) the *Dāna-khanda* or charities, (3) the *Tirtha-khanda* or pilgrimages, and (4) the *Moksha-khanda* or salvation, with several supplements (*Parishesha-khanda*) emphasizing the worship of various deities, of the manes and ancestors, the daily and seasonal duties with penances for failure. Hemādri completed this work during the regime of Mahādeva Yādava, who was succeeded by his nephew Rāmachandra in 1271. Rāmachandra obtained the crown by cruelly putting to death Mahādev’s son Aman, and confirmed Hemādri in his post. It is well-known that these Yādava rulers traced their descent from Shrikrishna and were his ardent devotees, just as were Chakradhar and his followers, who on that account were freely admitted into the palace and harem of Deogiri in a brotherhood of common worship, a result which the minister Hemādri highly resented and opposed with all the powers he possessed.

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