Digital Rare Book:
MARATHA HISTORY
By S.R. Sharma
Published by Karnatak Publishing House, Bombay - 1944

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Book Excerpt:

Introduction:
No apology is needed to introduce a re-examination of Maratha history which, it will be admitted, has been long overdue. I wish, however, that the task had been attempted by some one more competent or better qualified than myself to undertake it. " The Mahrattas were once a mighty nation ", wrote Edward Scott Waring in 1810 ; " how they rose and how they fell may surely challenge enquiry." Nearly twenty years before Waring's History of the Mahrattas appeared the subject had attracted the attention of a German professor of Halle University who published his now little known Geschichte der Maratten, as early as 1791, for the edification of his European contemporaries. The writer himself admitted that he could not vouch for the authenticity of the earlier parts of his fantastic work, but that he had compiled it from such accounts as were available to him in the several European languages. It comprised 288 octavo pages and also contained a map prepared by Forster in 1786. The book closes with ' the peace with England of 17th May, 1782.' The author never visited India and the work has little value today except as a rare specimen of the first European account of the Marathas full of quaint errors.

The next in point of interest is the better known work of Edward Scott Waring, published in London in 1810. The author was for seven years attached to the English embassy at Poona and had greater opportunities of gaining information upon many points than usually fall to the lot of other persons. " I states, this," he records in his Preface, " to excuse the presumption of my undertaking, aware that I expose myself to the charge of having trifled with my time, and of having lost opportunities not to be recovered." Modestly conscious of his limitations, " yet, without arrogance," he adds, " I may assume the merit of having been the first to present the reader with a connected history of the Mahrattas, derived from original sources, and sources till lately not known to have existed. I am aware that some portions of Mahratta history are before the Public; none, however, derived from their own annals, and consequently neither so copious nor so authentic ". He particularly assumes merit 'of having considered his subject most fully, and of having spared no pains to procure every possible record that could add greater interest to his work, or justify the favourable opinion of his friends'. His appraisal of the comparative merits and demerits of the Persian and Marathi source materials is worthy of special attention.

Regarding the former, he writes, " None, so far as I can judge, can be more fallacious, or can less requite the diligence of patient investigation. Ferishta, who composed a general history of India, as well as a particular history of the Deccan, is almost the only historian who merits the praise of impartiality and accuracy. He died before the era of Mahratta
independence, and his mantle has not fallen upon any of his brethren. The Mooslims, of course, view with animosity and anguish, the progress the Mahrattas have made in the conquest of their fairest provinces ; and which of late years must have been aggravated by the bondage of their king, the unfortunate representative of the house of Timoor. From such persons little that was favourable to the Mahratta character could be expected. The facts they give are garbled and perverted, while the slightest circumstance against them is seized upon, and extended to an immeasurable length. Their style is also a subject of just reprehension. Their forced and unnatural images, their swelling cadences and modulated phraseology, are as disgusting to a discriminating taste, as they must be inimical to historical truth. For in a history composed in verse, something will be sacrificed to measure, and much to rhythm. Although the Persian histories be not written in verse, yet they partake of all its faults. They abound in quaint similes and forced antithesis, while the redundancy of their epithets distract and bewilder attention. If this judgment to the Persian scholar seem harsh, I refer him to the history of the late Nizam of the Deccan, or, if he object, to the undisputed master of this prurient style, the celebrated Abul Fazil."

One may not quite fall in with this criticism in toto, but it is certainly a welcome corrective to the exaggerated importance that is attached by some latter day scholars to the sanctity of the Persian authorities. Apart from the linguistic features, the Muslim accounts may not be considered more reliable or authentic simply because they contradict the native sources. There is much truth in Waring's warning that from such persons little that was favourable to the Maratha character could be expected : The facts they give are garbled and perverted, while the slightest circumstance against them is seized upon, and extended to an immeasurable length'.

On the contrary, " Not so the Mahratta histories ", states Waring. " Their historians (some will deny them the name) write in a plain, simple and unaffected style, content to relate passing events in apposite terms, without seeking turgid imagery or inflated phraseology. 'Excepting in the letter addressed to the Peshwa, by the great Mulhar Rao Holkar, no attempt is made to make the worse appear the better reason. Victory and defeat are briefly related ; if they pass over the latter too hastily, they do not dwell upon the former with unnecessary minuteness. They do not endeavour to bias or mislead the judgment, but are certainly deficient in chronology and in historical reflections. Whether I have done justice to their works I am at a loss to determine, aware of my own incompetency, and not ignorant of the deficiency of my materials." The frankness and modesty of Waring are worthy of emulation, though we may not accept all his conclusions.

The premier historian of the Marathas in English, though not on that account unchallengeable, has been and still is, James Cunningham Grant Duff. He was captain of the Native Infantry of Bombay and Political Agent at Satara (1806-22). The first edition of his well-known History of the Mahrattas was published in London in 1826 (in 3 vols.).


Image:
Helmet, Maratha, 18th century.

Helmet with pointed and curved-over crest and a curved tail projecting below rim. Partially gilt, leaving panels of steel.

Gwalior, India

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