Shivaji and His Times c20.s5.1

c20.s5.1

(iii) Some Sanskrit poems of Shivaji's time have survived and have been recently printed. Bardic flattery and exaggeration have been found in all countries to be the greatest perverters of historical truth. In India the art of literary beggary was carried to nauseating lengths by the Brahman Court flatterers of the Hindu kings and even of some of the Mughal Emperors. The very training, mode of life, and literary models of these Brahman poets made them unfit to be sober recorders of fact. Even for the events that they personally witnessed, one has to largely discount their narrative, while for the events of earlier times or elsewhere, they are absolutely untrustworthy. It is not the business of priests and poets to keep public records or copies of State-papers; at best they reproduce the traditions current among their class.