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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s8: The Hindu Tradition in Maratha Politics

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s8

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The Hindu Tradition in Maratha Politics

The Anti-Foreign and Democratic Tendencies

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The Maratha positivism such as in politics took shape in the *dharma-rājya* of Śivāji the Great is not an isolated phenomenon in the Hindu culture of Southern India or of the Deccan. Among the formative forces of Śivāji's *Hindwi Swarājya* are to be detected from his mother's side the memories of the war of self-defence against the Moslems conducted by the Yādavas of Devagiri (c. 1200-1318). And on account, again, of his father's experiences in Vijayanagara, the Empire (1346-1646) which successfully upheld Hindu liberty for several centuries although with vicissitudes of fortune, the ideas of Hindu statehood were imbibed by Śivāji as a matter of course.¹ Śivāji can then be regarded as but a continuator under Moghul conditions of the traditional Hindu spirit, the *dharma*, which is obstinate enough not to submit to foreign forces. In Śivāji's ambitions, exploits and achievements are, further, to be seen the embodiments of the same *parākrama* (prowess) and *digvijigīṣā* (conquest of the quarters) which enabled Chandragupta Maurya to emancipate the north-western frontiers of India from the Hellenistic Seleukos (c. 305 B.C.). In subsequent times the same assertion of the Hindu spirit against foreign domination found expression in Skandagupta's expulsion of the Huns (c. 455 A.C.) furnishing thereby another precedent to Śivāji's triumphant service to Hindu culture. Historically, however, it is the South-Indian exploits of the Yādavas and of the Vijayanagara Rāyas that in point of time as well as region served to inspire Śivāji with direct examples.

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¹ G. S. Sardesai: *The Main Currents of Maratha History* (Bombay 1933), pp. 5-7.

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Śivāji was a nationalist in culture. “Back to Hindu tradition” may be said to have been his war-cry. It is the language of the *Manu Samhitā* and the *Nīti Śāstras* that was on his lips on the most important problems of life. Speaking to a Bundella (“Rajput,” “Kṣatriya”) chieftain Śivāji gave a bit of his mind when he declared as follows:

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“Does not the Kṣatriya faith consist in protecting the cow and the Brāhmaṇa, in guarding the Vedas, in showing skill and valour in battle? And if you lose your life will you not through the solar orb enter the mansion of bliss, enjoying plenitude of happiness and repose?”²

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² W. R. Pogson: *A History of the Boondelas*, pp. 52-53 in Sen: *The Military System of the Marathas* (Calcutta 1928), p. 24.

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In this inspiring message of Śivāji’s the Rajput chief was introduced to the deliberate restoration of ancient ideals, to the *renaissance* of Hindu culture by which Śivāji’s personality was fired. It is as apostle and embodiment of *Hindwi Swarājya* (Hindu independence) and a *dharmarājya* (kingdom of *dharma*, i.e., law, duty, and justice as conceived in the *Nīti Śāstras*) that he wanted to hold forth.

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There are other items in the Maratha *milieu* which point likewise to the strength of the Hindu tradition. It is out of tailors, carpenters, potters, gardeners, shopkeepers, barbers and even untouchable *mahars* that the Maratha saints and prophets of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries arose.³ The rise of the lower tribes into the higher orders of the Hindu society, "social mobility" of the "vertical type," has been an eternal fact of Indian culture history since the earliest epochs of the Vedic period. In the Marathi-speaking regions during the epoch of the Hindu re-assertion expressions of the same democratic social "metabolism" were witnessed as elsewhere in India as but regular phases of the dynamic "culture-contacts." To a certain extent this ascendancy of the under-world was partly an expression of the great *bhakti* or Vaiṣṇava movement which was almost universal during the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. Democracy and *bhakti* (love or faith) went hand in hand as much in Northern India and Bengal as in South-western India and the Deccan.

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³ M. G. Ranade: *Rise of the Maratha Power* (Bombay 1900), pp. 10, 24, 146-147, 150.

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It was therefore as an integral feature of the Hindu societal tradition that by following the profession of arms the Mores of Jawli, the Savants of Wari, the Ghorpādes of Mudhol, the Nimbalkārs of Phaltan, the Jādhavas of Sindkhed, the Jedhkes, the Mānes, the Dāfles, and others rose into prominence in the Maratha world.⁴ Śivāji the Bhonsle himself belonged to a low caste (cultivator). And prior to coronation he had to be dubbed a Kṣatriya. Not only Śivāji but all his successors down to the last Peshwa had to recruit the army from the lower tribes or castes. Husbandmen, carpenters, shopkeepers, men of mean birth always constituted the backbone of the Maratha army, as says the *Tarikh-i-Ibrahim* towards the end of the eighteenth century. 'All through the ages in India as elsewhere the military profession has functioned as a most potent "social ladder," to use a modern socio-logical category.

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⁴ S. N. Sen: *The Military System of the Marathas* (Calcutta 1928), pp. 11, 26; J. N. Sarkar: *Shivaji* (Calcutta 1929), pp. 210, 212. The idea of the lowly origin of Śivāji is contested by Bal Krishna: *Shivaji the Great* (Bombay) Vol. I. (1932) p. 4. See the discussion on the Paretian circulation of elites in the section on the "State-systems of the Hindus," pp. 108-110.

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In the matter of organizing his army from among the lower orders Śivāji was but following in the wake of the Hindu generals and statesmen of yore. He followed the Hindu tradition in other ways too, as we shall see later.

The Positivism of the Dāsabodha

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The *Dāsabodha* by Rāmdās (1608-1681) is a work in 20 books. Each book is furnished with 10 sections, and is therefore called a *daśaka*. The sections are called *samāsas*. So there are altogether 200 *samāsas* in the entire treatise, each of which is furnished with a colophon. The *samāsas* are of diverse sizes. The *Dāsabodha* is described in every colophon as *Guruśiṣya-sambāda* (conversation between the master and the disciple). It is, however, throughout composed in the form of the master's sayings rather than in that of questions and answers.

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The sayings⁵ in these 200 *samāsas* deal with such topics as *bhakti* (faith), *rajoguṇa* (activism), *tamoguṇa* (inertness), *dukkha* (pain), *mrityu* (death), *Brahma*, *mokṣa* (liberation), *ātmā* (self), *anātmā* (not-self), *yuga-dharma* (duties or mores of the Kali age). It is necessary to observe that of politics there is hardly anything in this treatise. There are but just a few references to *rāya-* *karaṇa* (king's functions) in this work, voluminous as it is. Its make-up is non-political.

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⁵ L. R. Pangarkar : *Sārtha Śrīdāsabodha* (Poona 1923).

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The work is mainly made up of ideas relating to man as an animal and as a person. The verses are terse and epigrammatic and simple enough to pass from mouth to mouth becoming thereby the household words of the masses. Although the gods are mentioned once in a while the *Dāsabodha* is not a treatise of god-lore. It is principally a work of psychology and morals, such as we get from the genuine saints and *sādhus* even of today. Its teachings are calculated to have a sober influence on the mind and character of individuals. As such its spiritual significance is considerable. Like the Sanskrit *Gītā* and the Tamil *Kurāl* the *Dāsbodha* is one of the greatest classics of world-literature. Not less important as a moral and spiritual force than the *Rāmāyaṇa* of Tulsīdās (1532-1624), the *Dāsabodha* of Rāmdās (1608-1681) has a special literary feature in so far as it is, unlike the former, entirely independent of a story but is a collection of precepts bearing on man's nature and goal. It was by such doses of positive philosophy that the moral atmosphere of the masses in the midst of which Śivāji had to live, move and have his being in order to organize invincible legions was impregnated. Whether Rāmdās was the guide-philosopher-friend to Śivāji is perhaps a controversial point.⁶ But that he wielded the moral dynamo with which to energize the springs of action of the folk that Śivāji was destined to serve there is no doubt. Rāmdās can by all means then be treated as a colleague of Śivāji in the self-same mission of establishing the '*dharmarājya* of the Marathas. The personal relations between Rāmdās and Śivāji are likely to be debated for some long time. Whether he had any finger in Śivāji's military plans and constructive statesmanship may always remain among the unsolved questions of Maratha “antiquities.” But as makers of Mahārāṣṭra and remakers of Hindustan Rāmdās and Śivāji will always go together as creative twins, so to say, as one ideological complex in the historical scholarship of future generations just as tradition has brought them together in a more direct and personal relationship.

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⁶ *J. N. Sarkar*: *Shivaji* (Calcutta 1929), pp. 381-382.

Rāmdās’s Utopia of Ānanda-vana-bhūvana

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It is possible to detect an utopistic futurism in Rāmdās's writings. That futurism took shape in his conception of *ānanda-vana-bhūvana* (the bower and world of bliss) such as he is said to have seen in a dream.⁷ The contents of this dream introduce us to the kind of miseries which he saw removed from his people and the kind of relief, joy or happiness that he found brought or restored to the community. The hindrances to *svadharma* were, we are told, things of the past. The emergence of the *sureśa* (the hero) and the *sura-senā* (the army of the hero), on the one hand, and the discomfiture of the *Mlechchha daitya* (the barbarian devil), on the other, constituted two important features of the *ānanda-vana-bhūvana* (the happy world) as envisaged in the dream. The *pāpīs* (sinners and criminals) of all sorts as well as the *abhaktas* (faithless) disappeared or diminished in number. The expansion of *dharma* was consummated. The *pāpī* (sinner) Aurāngyā's (Aurangzeb's) “sinking” or decline was distinctly seen (*buḍālā aurāngyā pāpī*). On the positive side were noticed, again, the assured facilities for *snāna* (bath) and *sandhyā* (evening prayers), *japa tapa* (sacrifices) etc., ceremonial items such as affected the Hindus of those days as of today. Then, again, love, fellow-feeling and sympathy were on the increase (*chaḍhatā bāḍhatā premā*).

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⁷ V. L. Bhave: *Mahārāṣṭra-Sārasvat* (Poona 1921), p. 224.

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In Rāmdās's doctrine of *ānanda-vana-bhūvana* which has been exquisitely put in as the fourth hemistich in every verse we are indeed getting a seventeenth century (?) paraphrase, adaptation or application of the celebrated *Gītā* doctrine of *yugāntara*. The great transformation, transvaluation of values, or remaking of epochs is initiated by God Kriṣṇa, as declared to Arjuna, whenever corruption creeps in into *dharma* (law, order and justice) and ascendancy is enjoyed by *adharma* (disorder, vile practices, negation of law, justice and morals). Kriṣṇa takes shape in human form under those calamitous conditions in order to protect the *sādhu* (the good, the just and the honest) and to annihilate the *duṣkrita* (the culprits, the evil-doers and the ruffians) as well as to re-establish *dharma*, i.e., law, order, justice, morality, virtue and allied desirables.

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Rāmdās's dream saw *kalpānta*, the end of a *kalpa*, i.e., the close of an era of *pāpī*, *Mlechchha*, *Chaṇḍāla*, *abhakta* and others of the kind. And at the same time the establishment of *svadharma*, *premā*, *ānanda*, etc., was an item in the consummation achieved by the hero dreamt of. It is interesting that the *Gītā* doctrine of God's *sambhavāmi yuge yuge* (I appear age by age) was serviceable to the Maratha poet-saint of the seventeenth century in the formulation of his professedly futuristic politics.

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In Rāmdās's ideology there is no vagueness about the particular *pāpī* who was responsible for the miseries and calamities and against whom it was necessary to raise the *surasenā* in order that *ānanda-vana-bhūvana* (the Kingdom of God, so to say) might flourish on earth. Aurangzeb has been singled out in the verses as the butt of Rāmdās’s wrath, and naturally the *sureśa*, the hero, who is responsible for the break-up of the old conditions and the inauguration of the new era is none other than Śivāji.

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Evidently all this jubilation over the annihilation of the *pāpī* and the restoration of *dharma* and expansion of *premā* is to be attributed to a date after the *dharma-rājya* of Śivāji has become a *fait accompli* (1674-80). We encounter here perhaps a “pious wish,” the expression of patriotic idealism on the part of Rāmdās. The material, as we have it, is of course regarded as a part of something dreamt of by Rāmdās in a period of national calamity, i.e., previous to Śivāji’s exploits and successes. The dream is narrated in the form of a prophecy and as something that is to happen at some future date. This futuristic forecasting of Maratha glories is in keeping with the prophetic form of the *Bhaviṣya-Purāṇa*’s dynastic history. One may often suspect as to whether the verses on *ānanda-vana-bhūvana* are to be ascribed to Rāmdās at all. Besides, one cannot be positive about their being composed even in the life-time of Śivāji himself. Whatever be the actual history of the composition, sociologically there can be no harm in believing that some Maratha author of the eighteenth century, while studying the glorious origins of the *dharmarājya* which had been established by the veritable *yugāvatāra* Śivāji and which maintained its career of *digvijaya* for quite a long time afterwards, should have been inspired by holy imagination to father such prophetic verses on the greatest patriot-poet of Śivāji’s times, Rāmdās. In any case, we understand from almost contemporary sources how powerfully the imagination of the young Maratha was inspired by the epoch-making and *kalpānta*-consummating achievement of Śivāji, the Indian Frederick the Great, perhaps the greatest Hindu of all ages, and one of the profoundest remakers of mankind. The fine lyrical verses on *ānanda-vana-bhūvana* constitute a valuable document of Maratha history as much as a text of Maratha *nītiśāstra* or political philosophy. Such texts, be it observed *en passant*, are very rare in Indian literature.

The Pluralistic World of Śivāji

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In the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Maratha masses and classes were used in daily life to the Mussalman institutions and practices. The Hindu tradition survived by all means in the more important items of personal and domestic life.⁸ The social polity may in general be taken to have been still governed by the *Manu Samhitā*, and the general *mores* by the *Mahābhārata*. Certain branches of public law, i.e., political life, also, e.g., the land revenue system, the law of property, and agricultural practice remained Hindu to the last although somewhat Moslemized in a few items. But the other branches of public law, i.e., the executive and the judiciary, the army and the police had become Islamic in the main and did not possess more than mere traces of the Hindu institutions.⁹ In the Moslem states of the Deccan and South India the Hindu *personnel* was however always a noticeable feature even in the higher rungs of service.

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⁸ M. G. Ranade: *Rise of the Maratha Power* (Bombay 1900), pp. 27-38, 44-45.

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⁹ For Moslem contribution to Maratha polity see S. N. Sen: *Administrative System* etc. (Calcutta 1925), pp. 593-664 and J. N. Sarkar: *Shivaji* (Calcutta 1929), pp. 216, 386-387.

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In Śivāji's politics are therefore to be seen both these strands, Hindu and Moslem. He is a representative not only of the tribal contacts and caste-fusions so common to the Hindu culture of all ages, but at the same time a specimen and embodiment of Hindu-Moslem cultural *rapprochement*. Like Abul Fazl the Hinduized Moslem, Śivāji was to a certain extent a Moslemized Hindu, both being true indices to the Indo-Saracenic Renaissance of the times. Śivāji's sympathy with Moslems in the practice of their religion and patronage of Moslem mosques is worthy of mention in this connection.¹⁰

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¹⁰ Ranade: *Rise of the Maratha Power*, p. 277; J. N. Sarkar: *Shivaji* p. 381.

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It is in the perspective of these Hindu-Moslem culture-contacts, extensive and profound as they were, that we are to appraise the attempts of Śivāji to hold forth as a Hindu monarch, nay, as a Hindu nationalist bent upon reviving, or rather providing a fresh fillip to, the institutions and *mores* of Hindu culture. An important item as well as evidence of Śivāji's cultural nationalism is to be found in the very coronation itself.¹¹

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¹¹ J. N. Sarkar: *Shivaji* (1929) pp. 208-219.

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This ceremony, administered as it was by the "Brahmadeva and Vyāsa" of those days, namely, Paṇḍit Viśveśvara Bhaṭṭa (nicknamed Gāgā Bhaṭṭa) of Benares, served to establish his *liaison* with the entire Hindu world of the time. On the other hand, it was by this ceremony that his *Hindwi Swarāj* was affiliated to the great pre-Moslem Hindu empires of antiquity.

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The *Śukranīti* can very often be cited in illustration of the institutions and principles of the polity established by Śivāji and developed by the Peshwas.¹² The state-council of eight (*aṣṭa pradhāna*), town-planning, land revenue, forced labour, agricultural policy, military ideas, punishments, legal procedure, etc., can be explained in terms of this *nīti-śāstra*. Indeed, in the first edition of the present work (Vol. I, 1914, p. 259) it was pointed out that Śivāji's war-cry about the inviolability of the cow might suggest a date for that line of the *Śukranīti* (IV, vii, 453) which declares the killing of cows to be one of the most serious *casus belli*. And the ideas of Manu, nay, of Kauṭalya can likewise be detected in the system of Śivāji and his successors.

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¹² S. N. Sen : *Administrative System of the Marathas* (Calcutta 1925), pp. 488, 489, 499-501, 527, 531, 533, 534, 541, 549, 551-552, 556, 570, 573, 577. It is to this author that I am indebted for most of the books in Marathi language utilized in the present work as well as for the meanings of some of the more difficult words and phrases such as are beyond the competence of my very limited knowledge of Marathi. He is, however, not responsible for any of the interpretations offered in this study.

The Cultural Nationalism of Śivāji

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Śivāji was fully conscious of his mission as a restorer of Hindu political dignity to its ancient or rather pre-Moslem conditions. Accordingly he wanted to go back to the fountain of Hindu culture in the smallest details of his life. The very words and phrases of daily existence especially in public, civic, administrative or political life, had become Persianized in his time on account of longstanding Moslem influence. His first and foremost ambition in this regard consisted in Sanskritizing these terms. He desired the old Hindu atmosphere to be reborn even in the common-place conversations of the day. A veritable *renaissance* (rebirth) of the ancient conditions has thus to be ascribed to the conscious patriotism of this Hindu *avatāra* of the seventeenth century. As a specimen of the linguistic remaking of his fatherland may be presented the *Rāja-vyavahārakoṣa*¹³ (Dictionary of Royal Conduct) in Sanskrit prepared under his orders by Raghunātha Paṇḍit more or less in the form of *Amarakoṣa*.

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¹³ Apte and Divekar: *Śiva-Charita Pradīpa* (Poona, 1925), pp. 144-175.

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It is a work complete in 386 verses and comprises the following *vargas* or groups:

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1. *Rājavarga* (relating to the king).
2. *Kāryasthānavarga* (relating to the office).
3. *Bhogyavarga* (relating to food and drink).
4. *Śastravarga* (relating to arms and accoutrements).
5. *Chaturangavarga* (relating to four parts of the army).
6. *Sāmantavarga* (relating to officers of the army).
7. *Durgavarga* (relating to forts).
8. *Lekhanavarga* (relating to writers).
9. *Janapadavarga* (relating to territory).
10. *Paṇyavarga* (relating to goods).

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The classification into *vargas* does not indicate any special respect for logic, however. There are some 1500 words in this Lexicon.

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Some of the words in the *Rājavarga* are given below :·

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| *Sanskrit* | | *Persian* |
| Rājā | = | Pādsāh |
| Swāmi | = | Sāheb |
| Rājaputra | = | Sāhajādā |
| Pradhāna | = | Peshwā |
| ʾAmātya | = | Majumdār |
| Senādhyakṣa | = | Hukumat |
| Sandeśa-lekha | = | Chitnis |
| Dūta | = | Hejiva |
| Dhanika | = | Saudāgar |
| Sannihita | = | Huzuri |
| ʾAnuchara | = | Mahaldār |
| Sarvakarī | = | Harkarā |
| Parichāraka | = | Āfrādā |

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The second chapter describes some of the offices and things relating to them as follows :

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| *Sanskrit* | | *Persian* |
| Kāryasthāna | = | Kārkhānā |
| Koṣāgāra | = | Khājānā |
| Koṣarakṣaka | = | Jāmdār |
| Nikṣepa | = | Dafinā |
| Samchita | = | Dāstānā |
| Śrimkhalika | = | Janjeriā |
| Nupūra | = | Painjne |

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In the third group, that on food and drink, we have the following synonyms :

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| *Sanskrit* | | *Persian* |
| Dhūmayantra | = | Guḍguḍi |
| Dhūmapatraka | = | Tāmākhu |
| Sugandhidravya | = | Khusavaya |

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The section of forts commences in the following manner:

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*Durgam ḳilleti vijneyam*
*giridurgo gaḍah smritah*
*Prākārah koṭo ityukto*
*Janjīrā dvīpa uchyate.*

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We get the following synonyms:

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| *Sanskrit* | | *Persian* |
| Durga | = | Killā |
| Giridurga | = | Gaḍ |
| Prākāra | = | Koṭ |
| Dvīpa | = | Janjīrā |

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It is as an expression of Śivāji’s cultural nationalism that we have to watch his sedulous re-christening of old hill forts in Sanskrit.¹⁴ The names of such forts as Sinhagaḍ, Viśālgaḍ, Rājgaḍ, Suvarṇadurg, Vijaydurg, Bhīmagaḍ, Pāṇḍavagaḍ, Sundargaḍ, Prachaṇḍagaḍ bespeak his interest in the age-long tradition of the Hindu states.

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¹⁴ Bal Krishna: *Shivaji the Great* (Bombay 1932) Vol. I. Part II. p. 11.

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Students of modern nationalism or of the “nationality question” are aware of the rôle that has been played by language in the military history and “geopolitics” of nineteenth century Europe and is still being played in the “minorities” problems of post-war Europe. Evidently Śivāji was no mere dare-devil soldier, victorious general and successful statesman. He was a political and social philosopher too and a champion of culture. In his life’s work are to be detected the influences of linguistic patriotism. As a nationalist, more precisely as an exponent of national language in politics Śivāji can claim recognition as one of the first among the modern makers of history as a precursor of Herder (1744-1803) and Fichte¹⁵ (1762-1814). No estimate of Śivāji's achievements in political action and thought can be adequate which ignores his great solicitude for emancipating his countrymen from the thraldom of a foreign tongue.

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¹⁵ R. E. Ergang: *Herder and the Foundations of German Nationalism* (New York 1931); B. K. Sarkar: *From Herder to Hitler* (Calcutta 1933).

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It is to be observed that his linguistic patriotism is not restricted to Sanskrit. His mother-tongue Marathi also he rescued from Persianization and rendered more popular among the masses and the classes.

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As a result of the linguistic nationalism initiated under Śivāji the Marathi language became Sanskritized. In the sixteenth century the great Marathi writer Eknāth had used Persian words to the extent of 75 per cent. But in the eighteenth century the amount of Persian words to be found in Moropant's Marathi is not more than 5 per cent.¹⁶ The success of the nationalist movement pioneered by Śivāji the Great was thus colossal.

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¹⁶ Sardesai, p. 23.

Śivāji as Avatāra in the Śiva-Bhārata

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In the imagination of Maratha poet-patriots Śivāji was certainly a *yugāvatāra*. In the Sanskrit epic *Śiva-bhārata*,¹⁷ complete as it is in thirty-two *adhyāyas*, Kavīndra Paramānanda has left no room for doubt on this point.

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¹⁷ Edited by S. M. Divekar with a lengthy Marathi introduction, Poona (1927); P. K. Gode: "Harikavi *alias* Bhānubhatta, A Court Poet of King Sambhāji and His Works" (*Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute*, Poona, Vol. XVI., 1935).

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In the very first chapter this *Śivā-bhārata* is described as a *purāṇamiva nūtanam*, i.e., something like a new *Purāṇa*. It is said to be known in all the words. The messages of *dharmaśāstra* and *arthaśāstra* are likewise referred to as inspiring the contents of this epic (I. 18).

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In this work *Śivāji* has the reputation of being the protector of gods, Brāhmaṇas and cows (*devadvijagavām-goptā*) and *durdāntayavanāntaka* (destroyer of the vehement Yavana). He is, besides, known to be an *amśa* (part) of god Viṣṇu and descended from the parts of the eight *Lokapālas*, gods of the quarters (I. 12, 15).

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In chapter VI. we are presented with the miracle of Śivāji's birth. He is none other than a child of God Viṣṇu himself (2-7). In order to favour the *devas* (gods) and suppress the *daityas* (evil doers) the Lord of the worlds got himself born in the family of Bhonsles (VI. 38).

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It is with the application of the six military attitudes (*ṣāḍguṇyasya prabhāvena*), we are told, that Śivāji's father Śāhāji reduced the whole of Karṇāṭa to submission (XI, 3). The author has a command over racy and vigorous style adapted to ballads and chronicles and has his *forte* in descriptions of wars and war-preparations. One may believe that Paramānanda had always with him Kālīdāsa's *Raghuvamśa* as his literary model. And as for some textbook of *nītiśāstra*, the author was by all means familiar with its contents. At certain points the *Śiva-bhārata* reads almost like a *nīti*-treatise in motion or historic application. In the colophons it is called an *Anu-Purāṇa*. We may call it a text book of applied politics in verse.

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The story is given out in the form of questions from a number of Paṇḍits in Benares and the replies by Paramā- nanda. If one overlooks the interview character of this piece one will not fail to find in it the application of Kālidāsan "fine frenzy" to some of the objective facts of solid history. But most of this material is to be taken as pure poetry and enjoyed as such, without reference to history.

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The work is said to have been composed in the lifetime of Śivāji. Nay, it is alleged to have originated in his express order to describe all his *charitra* (exploits) commencing with his grand father Maloji (I. 36-37). But curiously enough the story comes down to Śivāji's conquest of Ratnāgiri (1661). Whatever be the historical basis, the work has grown into a treatise on *dharma*, *artha*, *kāma*, *mokṣa*, horses, elephants, forts, and what not. *Śiva-Bhārata* has turned out to be nothing short of a *rājanīti śāśvatī*, i.e., a text of eternal politics (I. 40).

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The *Śiva-Bhārata* appears to have been composed both in Tamil and Sanskrit. The Tamil text is said not to be very old.

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Incidentally, attention may be called to the Sanskrit *mahākāvya*, *Sambhājicharita* (1685) by Harikavi, a court-poet of Sambhāji. This is but another instance of the continuity and renaissance of the Sanskritic tradition as fostered by Śivāji the Great.

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