Shivaji and His Times c20.s6: Materials rejected
Shivaji and His Times c20.s6
- Language
- English
Materials rejected
c20.s6.1
I have not found it safe to make any but a very cautious and sparing use of these three classes of materials in my book. Tested in those points where genuine contemporary evidence of other kinds is available, the whole class of Kaifiyat literature and the Tanjore inscription (carved in 1803) are often proved to have recorded opium-eaters' tales as history. Many of their dates are ludicrously incorrect and persons are made to tread the earth and figure in action before their birth or after their death as known beyond doubt I
c20.s6.2
No higher credence can be claimed by the bakhar literature of the 19th or very late 18th century. They do not make the least pretence of being based upon old written records, but contain loose traditions (often palpably false) in their latest and most perverted form, a maximum of legends, supernatural marvels and bazar gossip, with a minimum of facts and dates. Nearly all of them are of unknown date and authorship. They are no more history than the Sanskrit Puranas, and they bear the signs of being the production of some ignorant credulous dull-brained persons and not the work of any intelligent minister of State or scholarly author.