History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c46.149

v3.c46.149

On the other hand in numerous instances the assembly of learned brāhmaṇas was approached either by the Paṇḍitarao or by the interested parties themselves to declare the proper penance and restore the guilty party to his caste.²²¹⁸ Numerous documents and letters showing the part played by the family of Gijre at Karad (in the Satara District) in the matter of giving decisions on questions of dharma-śāstra have been published by the late Mr. V. K. Rajvade. One Gangadhara Ranganatha Kulkarni of Harsul2218a was forcibly converted by the Moslems; then the Maratha king Sambhaji ordered his minister the Paṇḍitarao to restore him to his caste after giving him appropriate prāyaścitta and the Paṇḍitarao called a meeting of learned brāhmaṇas, looked into works like the Mitākṣarā and with the approval of the brāhmaṇas administered prāyaścitta to him and sent him on a pilgrimage. There is a similar case in which the Paṇḍitarao under orders from the king writes to the learned brāhmaṇas of Karad about the prāyaścitta to be administered to one Khandu Jadhav²²¹⁹ who had been forcibly made by the Moslems to eat their food and in which he informs the brāhmaṇas that a fee of two rupees should be taken from the man. It may be noted in passing that Raje Netaji Palkar who was one of the great commanders under Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Empire, was made a moslem by the Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb and was subsequently taken back into the Hindu fold by Shivaji. In another document²²²⁰ the learned brāhmaṇas of Poona, 46 in number, write to the brāhmaṇas of Karavīra about one Narasiṁha Bhaṭṭa Toro of Paithan who had engaged as a priest in a Vedic sacrifice in which he had offered the effigy of an animal made of flour, who had therefore been made outcast and who was subsequently restored to the caste after undergoing penance.