Shivaji and His Times c13.s15.1

c13.s15.1

A striking illustration of the deliberate falsification of history by later Maratha writers is furnished by the attempt of Chitnis and others to paint Vyankoji as a dull incompetent sluggard, without any noble ambition or martial spirit, or even the power to appreciate an able and useful minister like Raghunath N. Hanumante. Contemporary records enable us to correct these misrepresentations and put Vyankoji's character in a true light, as no unworthy brother of Shivaji. The Persian histories mention his gallant fight against the Mughals during Jai Singh's invasion of Bijapur (1665.) He himself, and not his father, annexed Tanjore (to which, therefore, Shivaji had no legal claim.) The Jesuit missionary Andre Freire thus praises his civil administration of the newly conquered kingdom of Tanjore: "He sought to make himself beloved by the inhabitants. The justice and wisdom of his government began to close the wounds of the preceding reign and to develop the natural resources of the country. By repairing the canals and tanks, he has given fertility to the vast fields which had been left untilled for many years, and the last crop has surpassed all that was seen before." [Letter of 1676 in Mission, iii. 249.]