Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 272

246
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
DECEMBER, 1930
Francois Martin's unpublished Mémoires mir Déta. be cutt off imediatly and than told him begone : blissement des colonies françaises aus Indes Orien. he had noe need of his cloth." This story, at all talea, 1864-1696. The original MS., which M. Alfred events, does not emanate from Smith : but is it Martineau (Camb. Hist. Ind., v. 616) declares worth while to attach so much importance to the to be of the utmost value, is in the Archives matter? As Dr. Sen himself says, Shivaji did not Nationales at Paris : and there is a transcript by go to Surat " on a mission of mercy," and "the the late M. P. Margry in the Bibliothèque Nationale, procese of relieving opulent merchante of so much which all studente of Indian history would be glad money must have involved torture and death, to see in print. Dr. Sen has therefore done good cruelty and oppression." The cult of Shivaji es & service in translating the portion which deals with national hero is perfectly intelligible, and he was the most notable of Shivaji's military achievemente. remarkable both as a general and as an admini. The fifth document in Dr. Sen's volume is the strator ; but he was not an angel incarnate. An “Beschryving van Suratte" in the first volume (pp. interesting passage is cited (pp. 386-387) from the 264-267) of Valentijn's Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien Dutch Records, which disposes of the favourite (Amsterdam, 1724). The description of the first sack tradition, endorsed, among others, by Mr. Kinoaid of Surat, which is well known, is evidently based (History of the Maratha People) and Professor on the day book of the Dutch Factory, which Dr. Takakhav and Mr. Keluskar (Life of Shivaji Maharaj: Sen reproduces later on (pp. 372-382) together Bombay, 1921), that the family of Shivaji was with other extracts from the copies of the Dutch connected with the Sesodia clan of Rajpute, of Records preserved at the India Office.
which the Mahārånă of Udaipur is the Chief. The In his Introduction Dr. Sen discusses at some fact is that the founder of the house-Bhogavant length (pp. xxxi-xxxviii) the charge brought against Bhosle—was in reality a patel or village headman, Shivaji in connexion with the first sack of Surat, and, like the great mass of the Mahratta people, that he cut off the heads and hands of a number of was by casto a Kunbi or cultivator. The Bhogles prisoners. The evidenoe for this is contained in the are neither Kshatriyas nor members of any twice. Rev. John L'Escaliot's letter which is among the born caste: and if we turn to the pages of Ranade Sloane MSS. at the British Museum and was tran- and Sarkar, we shall find that the genealogy of scribed by Sir William Foster in the Indian Antiquary descent from the sun was fabricated by Balaji Avji for December 1921 (vol. L., pp. 812-321), the and other agents of Shivaji, in order to overcome log of the Loyall Merchant (Orme MSS. No. 263) and the Brahman prejudice against the coronation of a a letter from the Prosidont and Council at Surat, Sudra king, and that Gaga Bhat, & padil from dated January 28, 1684. Dr. Sen declines to accept Benares, accepted it as genuine in return for a huge any of these authorities on the ground, firstly, that fee. That these manoeuvres were publicly known at the Dutch records make no reference to the incident, the time, is evidenced by the Dutch letter of Octoand secondly, that the accounts are all based upon ber 13, 1674, to which we have referred. "Sivaay" the testimony of Anthony Smith, en English factor, is distinctly stated to have declared that "he could who was a prisoner for three days in the hands of not be crowned unless he had abandoned his present Shivaji and who was sent to England & year later caste of Bhonsla and taken the caste of Kettery." with an extremely bad report of his character. The series is completed by a number of selections This hardly seems an adequate reason for supposing from the Bombay original correspondence. These that Smith deliberately lied: and in any chee relate principally to the various embassies to Dr. Sen appears to have overlooked the following Shivaji --of Lieut. Stephen Usticke in 1672, Thomas independent evidence which he will find in L'Esca- Niccolls in 1673, Henry Oxinden in 1874, and Samuel liot's letter. We are told that a cloth merchant Austen in 1878. Ueticke's journal appears to have "from about Agra " took refuge in the English been lost; the journale of the others are printed Factory : he had presented himself before Shivaji in full. That of Oxinden is of particular interest, and offered all he had. As this was cloth and as he was progent at the coronation. "noe mony, the villaine made his right hand to
EVAN COTTON. NOTES AND QUERIES. CHANGE IN THE COURSE OF THE SON RIVER.
THE KHIZRI SCRIPT. In note to his translation of the Indika of Mr. H. A. Rose, Tribes and Castes of the Pandab. Arrian, and again in his later work, Ancient India p. 564, writes: "In Jalalpur Jattan in the Gujrat as described in Classical Literature, the late Dr. Mc. District [of the Panjab) a script called Khizri is Crindle stated that the Son joined the Gangee in the
well known. The writers say that Khwaja Khizr immediate vicinity of Patna till the year 1379, when (the ubiquitous supernatural being of the East] it forsook its old channel and shifted westwards. taught their forefathers the art of writing."
Can any reader of the Indian Antiquary refer me to the authority (not quoted by MoOrindle) for
Can any reader tell me the nature and origin of designing the shifting of the channel of the Son
this soript, or where a MS. or sample of it can river to this particular year?
be got 0. E. A. W. OLDEAM.
R. C. TEMPLE.