New History of the Marathas v1.c2.9

v1.c2.9

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.