Shivaji and His Times c20.s2.1

c20.s2.1

The only contemporary records of Shivaji's and even Shambhuji's times that now survive are in English and Persian and none at all in Marathi. The earliest Marathi history of his reign,—if we may apply this dignified title to Sabhasad's brief and confused recollections,—was written in 1694, and the skeleton *Jedhe Shakavali* later still. Laudatory poems by bards hankering for rewards from patrons who are flattered to the top of their bent, cannot claim to be histories. On the other hand, the Persian and English sources were absolutely contemporary, promptly set down in writing, often detailed and dated, and carefully preserved since then. Their writers belonged to a higher intellectual type than the Marathi chroniclers, as is clearly seen from a comparative study of the materials in the three languages.