Maratha Historiography (Based on Heras Memorial Lectures)

Scott Waring, a British historian, of the early nineteenth century wrote, 'The Mahrattas were once a mighty nation. How they rose, and how they fell, may surely challenge enquiry'. This was, perhaps, the main reason why administrators, researchers and historians-both Indian and foreign have been attracted towards the history of Marathas from seventeenth century till this day. A contention that is amply reiterated by the scope of the present volume. This work on Maratha historiography is divided into three parts. It starts with an account of the writing of the foreign historians Cosme da Guarda (Portuguese), M.C. Sprengel (German) and Rober Orme, Scott Waring. Elphinstone and Grant Duff (British). The second part of the work is devoted to the Archival movement in Bombay Presidency in the colonial period and the popular movement launched by the Maratha scholars against the rigid policy regarding the access to the State Archives, and the amount of source material collected by them. The contribution of Kashinath Narayan Sane, Vasudeo Vaman Khare, Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade, Dattatraya Balwant Parasnis is discussed in this part. The work also analyses the contribution of the medieval chroniclers or the bakkarkars, to historical writings on Marathas and an assessment of the major modern Indian historians, namely G.S. Sardesai, Jadunath Sarkar, and Surendra Nath Sen along with many others. The post Independence phase is discussed by the author in the last chapter.