Indian Antiquary Vol 50

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

Page 65

FEB., 1921]
ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM OF SHIVAJI
Portuguese Sources. Prof. J. N. Sarkar obtained from Lisbon a Portuguese biography of Shivaji, written
by a citizen of Goa and published in 1730 A. D. It is, however, Vido de Shivaji.
absolutely unreliable. The author hints that Shivaji, though popularly known as the youngest of Shahji's eleven (?) sons, was really the bastard of a Portuguese noble, Menedes by name. The assertion is so palpably false that it hardly requires any refutation. Curiously enough, this uncanny suggestion was very recently repeated by Dr. Da Cunha in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The whole question, however, was so thoroughly examined by Mr. V. K. Rajwade in the Sarswati Mandir of Satara that there remains not the slightest ground for giving credence to the unchivalrous fabrication of the Portuguese writer. It is not
from writers of Gaurda's mental attitude that we should expect Portuguese State papers of Goa.
to any historical truth. The masses of Portuguese State-papers lying
in the state archives of Goa may, indeed, yield really valuable information. Since Captain Grant Duff's time, no English or Indian Scholar, however, has cared to make any use of them. The Portuguese had for so many centuries dealings with the Marathas, both as friends and foes, that many contemporery events of Mera tha
politics must have found place in their letters and reports and Danvers' Report.
" despatches. It does not appear, however, from the Report of Mc. Danverge that the Portuguese papers have any important information to give except about the Angriay. This seems improbable on the face of it. Mr. Danvers, however, did not study the Gos records. There is no reason why these records should not contain as valuable historical materials as the Surat and the Bombay Factory Records. Dr. Gracious. A Portuguese scholar of Goa, used to take great interest in these old pepers, but the results of his researcher are not available in English. Dr. Gracious died only a few months ago, and it is urgently necessary that some other scholar should now carry on the self-imposed task of the late Doctor.
English Sources. i In English there fs a number of works about Shivaji and the Marathas. The Surat
and Bombay Factory Records are invaluable historical documents, Factory Records.
* and their importazice cannot be over estimated. They are, however, more important to the writer of a political history, but some information about Shivaji's navy and his commercial policy car be gleaned from them.
In addition to these old factory records, English travellers have left us the accounts of their travels in the Maratha country, and English historians have left us the result
of their researches. The earliest English traveller to write any Fryer.
account of the Maratha country and Shivaji's court was Fryer. A physician by profession, he had seen some parts of Shivaji's dominions, and he had doubtless seen the Reports of the Oxenden Embassy. His stay in the Maratha country was, however, very short, and his information was by no means accurate. His account of “ Several Brachmins whose flesh they tear with pincers heated red hot, drub them on the
Roport to the Secretary of Stato for India in Council on the Portuguese Records relating to the East Indies contained in the Archivo Da Foore Do Tombo and the Public Libraries at Liabon and Evora by F. C. Danvor, Registrar and Superintendent of Rocorda, India Omoe, London, 1892.