English Records on Shivaji (1659-1682) (2 Part in 1 Book)

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WE have great pleasure in presenting to the public this-the sixth-volume of historical papers, on behalf of the Shiva-Chritra Karyalaya and in connection with the Shivaji Tercentenary Memorial Series. The first five volumes have been to our knowledge largely appreciated by the students of Mahratta History. The present volume, being English Records on Shivaji, has special itfterest and importance, as constituting a very material portion of any source-book containing testimony about Shivaji from foreign sources.

The material of this volume is a logical unit. It covers a very important period of the lifetime of a single personality. And though divided into two parts, with separate numbering for letters and pages for each part, it is presented herewith as one single volume. The division was resorted to solely in the interest of expeditious printing. This, no doubt necessitates reference being indicated in double figures, but the chronological arrangement has saved any further complications.

The seven hundred and twenty nine closely printed pages, include over a thousand letters and eleven extracts from histories and contemporary narratives. It will be noted that travellers' accounts, like those of Dr. Fryer, have not been incorporated, as some of them are included by Dr. Sen in his 'Foreign Biographies of Shivaji' and others by Mr. Rawlinson in the "Source book of Maratha History." About eight hundred (out of a thousand and odd) extracts are herein printed for the first time. The remaining, though included in Sir William Foster's "English Factories in India," are compared with and copied from the original Factory Re-cords, expressly for this volume. About one hundred and fifty extracts made by Dr. Surendranath Sen, of the Calcutta University, personally, are included in this volume. Thirty extracts are from the collection of the late Mr. S. M. Divekar, who got them copied from the Records of the Bombay Secretariat. These extracts from Dr. Sen's and Mr. Divekar's collections are indicated by prefixing an initial (S) and (D) respectively.

The references are quite simple and explain themselves. The dates are those of despatch and not of receipt. Some margin has, therefore, to be allowed, if the latter date is required. The date of receipt is naturally the date of effect and would be important if the effect of any order or recommendation of policy is to be traced. The date of despatch is, in most cases, more approximate than the date of the receipt, of the news reported, and is important in the matter of sifting circumstantial evidence.

We offer our thanks to Mr. B. G. Paranjape, Barrister-at-Law and Mr. D. V. Kale, M. A. for all that they have done to enable us to bring out this volume on behalf of the Shira Charitra Karyalaya. Our thanks are due to Mr. Paranjpe for the initiative he took in making selections of relevant historical passages, from the Factory Records and Orme's Collection, preserved at the India Office. We avail ourselves of this opportunity to offer our thanks to the officers in charge of records of the India Office and especially to Mr. W. T. Ottewill, C. B. E.,, the Superintendent of Records, for giving Mr. Paranjape every facility in his work, and to Miss L. M. Anstey for doing all she could to make the collection exhaustive and for copying it. But for Mr. Paranjape's presence in London in 1928-29 and the keen interest he took in securing these records, we could not have included the same in our Marathi publications of the last year. We could not have brought out the present volume within a year from the date of the tercentenary celebration of the birth date of Shivaji (according to the new calculation) without Mr. Paranjape continuing to take the same interest in the work.

"If any portion of history merita more attention than others, it should seem that a period of a revolution in the state or the progress of the foundation of a new one demand the strictest investigation. Shivaji was the founder of the Mahratta Dominion, in the peninsula of India, and hitherto we have no account, either sufficiently accurate or sufficiently connected to follow his life."

Thus wrote Robert Orme on the 26th of June 1779. His first attempt to collect such accurate and conneeted account about Shivaji is embodied in his volume 174 which in this collection is no (533 Vol. II). This search he followed up by collecting such information as was then available for him at the India House. He read all the necessary Factory Records and marked out the passages which had according to him some bearing on the life of Shivaji. The passages were subsequently transcribed and arranged for him under separate heads. This is, Orme vol. 114. He also tried to collect contemporary information about the times and the life of Shivaji from other private sources. Robert Orme continued his researches far and wide; he wrote to Sir Charles Mallet at Poona to supply him with a picture and the carly history of Shivaji and some account of Shahaji. He also collected such information as he could trace from Portugese, Dutch and French sources (Nos. 534-541). Orme's work has been the foundation of all the attempts-as also of this one-which have so far been made to gather an accurate and connected account of the life and times of Shivaji from English and European sources. There are a few passages in Orme's collection (114) which cannot now be traced back to the originals, as the originals have been lost and but for Orme's pioneer work we would have been deprived the use of these for all time. Our grateful thanks are due to Orme's indefatigable labour in saving the extracts for posterity.

With the collection of Robert Orme as a guide, I tried to trace the originals, and read some of the Factory Records to make sure that Orme had not left out such material as would be found relevant, by a student who had studied Mahratta history from Marathi sources. My attempt has been to include such additional relevant passages in this collection. Such pas-sages were marked out with the assistance of and copied by Miss L. M. Anstey who has worked on 17th century Indian History with Sir William Foster, Sir Richard Temple and others. Miss Anstey can be said to be a living repertory of India Office Records for the 17th century. She has waded through the old records to make sure that nothing which should have been incorporated in the collection was left out; and thus the collection has been made as exhaustive with regard to matters of political importance as I could then make it.

This does not exclude the possibility of improving upon the work by researches into these records made with some other objectives suggested by the study of this or such other collections from Mahomedan or Marathi sources. Such additional information suggests a few new points for inquiry and passages which were once thought to be unimportant become relevant. In this collection about a hundred such passages are reproduced from Prof. Sen's personal collection and are marked (S) for identification. Prof. Sen had copied out these passages from the Factory Records in London. The late Mr. S. M. Divekar was allowed to copy extracts from the Bombay Secretariat Records and few passages from his collection are also included in this volume and marked (D) for identification. Some passages from printed books also find a place in this work in order to make the collection complete.

This selection is made with an eye only on topics of political importance. Anybody trying to write the social, religious or the economic history of the times of Shivaji will have to go through the records over again for himself. The problems of transport and ammunitions will necessitate yet another study of the records as these problems must have been the principal governing factors in deciding the fate of Shivaji's campaigns.

**Contents and Sample Pages**