Indian Antiquary Vol 50

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 64

54
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(FEB., 1921
hundred pages honestly printed, and the whole of it was found inscribed on the stone walls of a temple at Tanjore. Mention should also be made here of Jedhe Yanche Shakavali published by Mr. B. G. Tilak. But its main importance is chronological. A few Marathi papers have also been published by the Bharat Ilihas Sanshodhak Mandal of Poona. Some more papers have been published by Rao Bahadur Sane in his Patre Yadi Bagaire and by Messrs. P. V. Mawji and D. B. Parasnis in their Sanads and letters. Sardesai's Marathi Riasat is not of much importance in this respect. And this fairly exhausts the materials we have in Marathi.
Sanskrit Sources. In Sanskrit, I have come across only two works, viz., Shiva Raj Prashasti of Gaga Bhatta and Shiva Kavya of Purushottam Kavi. Both of them were Maharashtra Brahmans, and he former a contemporary of Shivaji, but their works are useless for our purpose.
Hindi Sources. In Hindi, there is only one contemporary work the poems of Shivaji's Court poet Bhusan. His Shiva Raja Bhusan and other poems may be of considerable literary merit but they are of very little interest to a historian. Moreover they do not make the slightest reference to Shivaji's administrative system.
Tamil Sources. Very recently a Tamil Chronicle, Shiva Bharat by name, has been discovered by a Madras Scholar. Part of the work has been translated into English and read before the Bharat Itihas Sanshodak Mandal. Until the whole work is translated into English or Marathi, we shall not be in a position to judge its historical value. At presont we do not know whether it gives any account of the Civil or the Military branch of Shivaji's Government.
Persian Sources. Both Hindu and Muhammadan writrrs must have written a good deal about the wonderful career of Shivaji in Persian. There are moreover very important letters, so far as political history is concerned, written by Jai Singh and other officers of Aurangzib from the Deccan. Whether these make any incidental reference to Shivaji's administrative system, is yet to be investigated. This source however promises to be fruitful in more than one way. For the present, I have to be satisfied with such an imperfect English translation as we get in Scott's Ferishta, Vol. II, and with the still more inaccurate and fragmentary translation that has been given by Elliott and Dowson, in their History of India as told by its own historians. Of the authors selected there,
the most important is Khafi Khan, but there is very little in Khafi Khan. his work to help us in our study of the administrative system
of Marathas.
French Sources. Hitherto I have not seen more than one contemporary French work. Dr. Dellon, a French
physician, visited the western coast of India towards the close of
Shivaji's career. He published a short account of his travels on his return home, and the small volume was so interesting that it was translated into English shortly after its publication. He praises Shivaji as a tolerant and liberal prince, but his information was derived mainly from hearsay.
6 Another Hindi work-Chhatra Prakash is mentioned by Prof. Jadu Nath Sarkar but unfortu. nately I have not yet been able to procuro & copy.
Dellon.