Shivaji and His Times c20.s8.t1: A. Marathi
Shivaji and His Times c20.s8.t1
- Language
- English
A. Marathi
c20.s8.t1.1
101. Shiva-chhatrapati-chen Charitra by Krishnaji Anant Sabhasad, written in 1694 at Jinji, by order of Rajaram; ed. by K. N. Sane,- 3rd ed. 1912. A small book of barely 100 pages, composed from memory without the help of written memoranda or documents. The events are not arranged in the order of time. Some of the statements are incorrect. Weak in topography, no dates. Language very condensed and sometimes obscure.
c20.s8.t1.2
But the most valuable Marathi account of Shivaji and our main source of information from the Maratha side. Later biographies in the same language have mostly copied this Sabhasad Bakhar and padded out their source (Sabhasad) by means of Sanskrit quotations, miracles, rhetorical flourishes, emotional gush, and commonplace remarks and details added from the probabilities of the case or from pure imagination. [In Sane's 4th ed. the text has been very unwisely mixed up.]
c20.s8.t1.3
Translated into English by J. L. Manker as *Life and Exploits of Shivaji* (Bombay, 1st. ed. 1884, 2nd ed. 1886.)
c20.s8.t1.4
102. *Chitra-gupta Bakhar*, composed about 1760; contains merely Sabhasad's facts (and even language), interspersed with copious extracts from the Sanskrit Scriptures. Useless.
c20.s8.t1.5
103. *Shiva-chhatrapati-chen Sapta-prakaran-atmak Charitra*, written by Malhar Ram Rao Chitnis in 1810, and ed. by N. J. Kirtane, 2nd ed. 1894. Incorrect, rambling or pure guess-work in many places. No State-paper used, no idea of correct chronology. Muhammadan names grossly incorrect and anachronistic. Moro Pant is perpetually conquering and having to conquer again "twenty-seven forts in Baglana &c." (pp. 41, 71, 124 and 176)! Worthless modern fabrication.
c20.s8.t1.6
104. *Shivadigvijay*, ed. or published by P. R. Nandurbarkar and L. K. Dandekar, (Baroda, 1895). Falsely described as written by Khando Ballal (the son of Shivaji's secretary Balaji Avji) in 1718. Fabricated by a writer familiar with the style of modern vernacular novels written by imitators of Bankim Chandra Chatterji. Too much gush (esp. pp. 453, 208, 444), rhetorical padding and digression. The author speaks of an English general being present at Shivaji's coronation (p. 435) and of goods from Calcutta being used in decorating his hall in 1674 (p. 417) !!! Shiva bows to his mother two years after her death (p. 296) ! Tanaji Malusare visits Haidarabad seven years after his death ! (p. 301.)
c20.s8.t1.7
105. *Shivapratap* (Baroda), an utterly worthless modern fabrication; does not even claim to be old.
c20.s8.t1.8
106. *Shrimant Maharaj Bhonsle-yanchi Bakhar* [of Shedgaon], pub. by V. L. Bhave (Thana, 1917.) Utterly worthless expansion of Sabhasad with forged letters and imaginary details.
c20.s8.t1.9
107-8. Two alleged old *bakhars* (called *More-yanchi Chooti Bakhar* and *Mahabaleshwar-chi Juni Mahiti*) pub. in Parasnis's *Itihas Sangraha*, *Sfuta lekh*, i. 21-29 and ii. 9-12. Full of palpable historical errors and deliberate fabrication (probably of the same factory and date as No. 106.)
c20.s8.t1.10
109. *Jedhe-yanchi Shakavali*, ed. by B. G. Tilak in *Chaturtha Sammelan Britta* (Puna.) A bare record of events with dates, kept by the Jedhe family of Bhor (Puna district.)
c20.s8.t1.11
The Shivapur deshpandes have preserved two *Shakavalis*, one in their *Yadi* (very short) and the other in their *Bahi*. I have secured a transcript of the very large Shivapur Deshpande *Shakavali* preserved in the library of the Bombay Royal Asiatic Society (Forbes collection.) The above three *Shakavalis* as well as three others are printed in the *Shiva-Charitra Pradip* (a very useful book) which also gives the *Jedhe Karina* (an amplification of the *Shakavali* from the purely family point of view). An uncorrected English translation of the Jedhe Shakavali and Karina is given in the *Shivaji Souvenir*.
c20.s8.t1.12
¹¹⁰ *Sanads and Letters*, ed. by P. V. Mawjee and D. B. Parasnis (1913) and
c20.s8.t1.13
111. Marathyan-chya-Itihasachin-Sadhanen, ed. by V. K. Rajwade and others; Vols. viii and xv-xxiv contain a few political letters and a vast mass of private legal documents and charters of Shivaji and his times. Some of them are clearly forgeries made to deceive the Inam Commission and other judicial bodies. Some others seem to have been faked to support "popular" history or family prestige.
c20.s8.t1.14
Many documents of this class have been also printed in the Annual Proceedings (Varshik Itibritta), Conference Reports (Sammelan Britta) and Quarterly (Traimasik) of the Bharat Itihas Samshodhak Mandal of Puna, in the Shiva-Charitra-Pradip, (1925), Shiva-Charitra-Sahitya (ed. by K. V. Purandare, 1926), Itihas Ani Aitihasik, Vol. 5 (ed. by Rajwade), Marathi Daftar, Vol, 3 (ed. by V. L. Bhave, 1928), Shiva Samsmriti and Shivaji Souvenir (English tr.), ed by G. S. Sardesai (1927.)
c20.s8.t1.15
112. Powadas, or Marathi ballads, collected by H. A. Acworth and S. T. Shaligram, 2nd (really 3rd) ed., 1911. All legendary and of a much later date than Shivaji's lifetime. The Afzal Khan ballad is the oldest, and probably belonged to Shambhuji's reign. Only two of the ballads deal with Shivaji, but are unhistorical. A new and critical edition by Y. N. Kelkar (1927.)
c20.s8.t1.16
English tr. of ten of the ballads (with an excellent introduction), by Acworth (Longmans, 1894.)
c20.s8.t1.17
113. Savant-vadi-Samsthancha Itihas, by V. P. Pingulkar (1911.) Useful; but the dates of some of the Persian farmans have been wrongly transcribed, and the seal has been incorrectly ascribed to the Emperor (whose name stands on the top of it) instead of to the owner of the seal (whose name is modestly put below that of the Emperor.)
c20.s8.t1.18
114. Ajna-patra of Ramchandra Amatya, 2nd. ed. 1923. A book of "good counsels," but not a genuine document by a contemporary of Shivaji. Throws no real light.
c20.s8.t1.19
115. V. L. Bhave published a number of pamphlets on incidents of Shivaji's life, which, in spite of their minute and lawyer-like argument, are vitiated by the fact that he lumped together all the dates and incidents given by every known work, without critically sifting their evidence.
c20.s8.t1.20
116. Tanjavarcha Shilalekh, a prodigiously long (2652 lines in print) inscription in Marathi carved in December, 1803, on stone in the Vrihadishwar temple of Tanjore. Printed by Rajwade in the Prabhat and included in his Sadhanen, vol. ix (1906); another ed. by T. Sambamurti Row in Tanjore (1907.) Utterly worthless modern concoction of the history of Shahji and Shivaji, evidently for exalting the junior Bhonsle branch, (the House of Tanjore.)
c20.s8.t1.21
¹¹⁷ 91 qalmi Bakhar, also called 96 qalmi Bakhar, containing that number of paragraphs (mostly very short.) The manuscript from which Rajwade printed his text (in vol. ix. of his Sadhanen) is described in the colophon as in the handwriting of Khando Anaji Malkare, the son of Anaji Ranganath Malkare, who was appointed accountant (majmuadar) of the army of Hambir Rao by Shivaji. An incorrect text (with many variants) is printed in Parasnis's Bharat-varsha. It is the same work as the "Raigarh Life of Shivaji," (Eng. trans. in Forrest's Selections from the Letters &c., in the Bombay Secretariat, Maratha Series, vol. i, pp. 1-22, 1885). The
c20.s8.t1.22
expanded Persian translation is known as the *Tarikh-i-Shivaji*. (For its nature and value, see the introductory discussion to this Bibliography.)