Shivaji and His Times c20.s8.t2.2

c20.s8.t2.2

119. *Shiva Bharat*, by Paramanand, ed. with a Marathi trans. copious notes and portentously long disquisitions (*à la* Rajwade) in a sumptuous edition by S. M. Divekar (1927.) An epic poem on Maloji, Shahji and Shivaji (ending abruptly with Shiva's conquest of the Ratnagiri district in April 1661, canto 32, v. 9.) Narrated in the form of a dialogue between the poet and the Brahmans of Benares, where Paramanand had come on a pilgrimage (between 1664 and 1673.) A Hindu priest-pilgrim to far off Benares could not, in those days of difficulty of transport and unsafe travelling, have burdened himself with history books, and yet our poet, writing about 1670, professes to give minute details and long lists of generals (sometimes on three sides) for battles that were fought in 1624 and even earlier! This holy Brahman must have had a prodigious memory for non-Scriptural matters! His nauseating flattery of his patron and absurd exaggerations have been already noted in my preliminary paragraphs. Such a work cannot be taken literally as history.