पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

A CRITICAL AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SOURCES (PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED) 1 Kashiraj • Persian account of the battle of Panipat and the events leading to it (Oxford University Press, 1926) Corrected by the translation of Sir JADUNATH SARKAR, published in Indian Historical Quarterly, 1934 and 1935 Kashiraj Shivdev was a Deshastha Brahmin (native of the Nizam's Dominions) at the court of Shuja ud daulah of Oudh, who was present through out the campaign in the camp of his master His narrative is taken as the best authority on the battle of Panipat He seems to have been working in the north for some twenty five years before Panipat since the time of Safdar Jang He had occasional correspondence with the Peshwas¹ for more than twenty years His exact status at the court of Shuja-ud daulah is not quite clear He is called a Vakil or a diplomat, but is scarcely sent anywhere as an emissary with full powers In his account he is found assuming superior airs, standing tightly on his dignity But there is no mention of him in the whole range of Marathi political correspondence,² an omission which seems to us rather significant His account was written nineteen years after the battle of Panipat, and from memory It appears to have been purposely written for some one inquisitive on the point, possibly a British official at the Oudh Court In 1780 when this account was written, the British power in India was already combating with that of the Maratha power The glory of the Maratha power was on the wane Kashiraj, though racially a Maratha, had culturally, by this time, become by his long sojourn in northern India, almost a U P Kayasth with all that it means When he wrote his account he was almost seventy, an age when the mental faculties are on the decline He seems to have been, at first, a disappointed candidate for service under the Peshwa,³ and later on moved to the north in search of employment, which he secured on account of his profi- ciency in the Persian language That there was no particular love lost between him and the Maratha nation or their Empire is evident from the tone of his ac- count. According to him, Sadashivrao Bhau was defeated on account of his arrogance and pride⁴ Throughout his narrative, he seems to have been con- vinced that fate had ordained the miscarriage of the Maratha enterprise⁵ On the other hand, whenever he had occasion to write about Ahmad Shah Abdali, he is found completely over awed by his superior prowess and his divine role of punishing the Marathas for their wicked pride, for in the eyes of Kashiraj, pride is sin This much for the mental make up of the man Bhau's munshi once wrote a letter to Kashiraj at which Kashiraj was offended on account of some deficiency in the proper form of address due to his station It means that the Maratha Court did not think Kashiraj to be 1 SPD 40.25 dated Feb 1741 2 KASHIRAJ 14 3 SPD 30.329 4 KASHIRAJ 52 5 Ibid. 8 IHQ 11.552, 10.266. [128]