Shivaji and His Times c20.s7.2

c20.s7.2

The value of the Memoire of Francois Martin (of Pondicherry) is the highest imaginable for Shivaji's Karnatak expedition. His agents were frequently in attendance in the camp of Shivaji and the reports they brought back were immediately entered in his diary. The English of Madras also sent a clever Brahman to Shivaji on two or three occasions. The reports of such witnesses entirely displace the later gossip about the Karnatak expedition given in the Marathi books. The Jesuit letter for 1677 is mostly wrong and based on distant rumour; it cannot stand against Martin's testimony for this episode in Shivaji's life.