In Volume 1-1: Qurʾānic Literature, History, and Biography | Section 2, History, Biography, etc.

previous chapter: 12.39 Ḥaidarābād

¶ § 1047. At present unidentified is the Persian original of the

Translation of an account, of the Morattas, from the reign of Shaw Jehan, to the beginning of that of Shaw Allum, from a Persian MS. obtained at Allahabad, January 1769 (in A. Dalrymple’s Oriental Repertory, vol. i (London 1793°) pp. 403–18).

§ 1048. Between ad 1773 and ad 1777 an anonymous Hindu compiled the

Tafṣīl i aḥwāl i ʿurūj u k̲h̲urūj i rājahā u sardārān i Dak’han, a history of the Marāṭ’hās to the death of Sīvājī and the accession of his son Sambhājī ad 1680 (beg. Hazārān s̲h̲ukr K̲h̲udāy i bī-c̲h̲ūn rā): Rieu i 327b (18th cent.), Ethé 485 (n.d.), 490 (4) (n.d.).

§ 1049. It was in 1190/1776–7¹ that Muns̲h̲ī Ḥusām al-Dīn wrote

S̲h̲arḥ i aḥwāl i Marhaṭṭah dar zamān i sābiq u ḥāl bar sabīl i ijmāl,² a short (13 foll.) account of the Marāṭhās from S̲h̲ivājī to the death of Narāyan (ah 1188/1774) (beg. Awwal kasī kih bar sar i qaum i Marhattah nāmwar u mas̲h̲hūr gardīdah Sīwā walad i Sanbhā etc.): Rieu ii 861a (19th cent.).

Edition with English translation: A short account of the Marratta State. Written in Persian by a Munshy that accompanied Colonel Upton on his embassy to Poonah.—Translated by William Chambers … (in The Asiatick miscellany, vol. i (Calcutta 1785*), pp. 212–49).

§ 1050. Probably in 1776 or soon after was compiled

An account of the Maraṭ’hā Pēs̲h̲wās from the appointment of Bājī Rāō down to the negotiations of Rag’hūnāt’h with Col. Upton at Purand’har in 1776 (beginning Mād’hau Rāō pisar i Nārāyan Rāō walad i Bālā Rāō): Rieu ii 801b.

§ 1051. Not later than 1782 was written

Anonymous history of the Marāṭ’hās to the Battle of Pānīpat (beginning: Wīsōjī Panṭ kih jadd i sīwum i Bālājī Rāō Pēs̲h̲wā būd naukar i Yāqūt K̲h̲ān Ḥabas̲h̲ī Ṣāḥib i Rājpūrī būd): Glasgow³ (see jras. 1906, p. 597, no. 6).

¶ English translation: A short historical narrative of the rise and rapid advancement of the Mahrattah State, to the present strength and consequence it has acquired in the East. Written originally in Persian; and translated into English by an Officer in the East India Company’s service [James Kerr], London 1782*.

§ 1052. At present unidentified is the Persian original of the extract published in The Asiatic Annual Register … Vol. xii.—For the Year 1810–11. By E. Samuel, London 1812*, pp. 421–5, under the title Translated Extracts of a Persian Manuscript entitled Memorandums and Recent Anecdotes of the Southern Courts of Hindoostan, by a Mussulman Observer, in the year 1195–6 Hegree, A.D. 1781–2 (beginning: The Mahrattas of all the infidel tribes of Hindoostan, are best known to the Islaamites).

§ 1053. In 1197/1783 was compiled

An account of the Marāṭ’hā empire (beginning Mahārājah Rājah Sāhū Bhōnslah dar Satārah sukūnat dās̲h̲t): Rieu ii 801b (18th cent.).

§ 1054. Nawwāb Amīn al-Daulah ʿAzīz al-Mulk ʿAlī Ibrāhīm K̲h̲ān Bahādur Naṣīr-Jang has already been mentioned (pp. 551–552 supra) as the author of an account of Rājah C̲h̲ait Sing’h’s rebellion.

History of the Marāṭ’hā wars in Hindūstān from 1171/1757–8 to 1199/1784–5, especially Visvāsa Rāō’s attempt to seize the throne of the Tīmūrids, completed at Benares in 1201/1786–7: Berlin 15 (4) (ah 1204/1790), i.o. 3957 (late 18th or early 19th cent.), 4033 (ad 1896), Ethé 491 (defective at end and damaged. Not later than ad 1818), Rieu i 328a (ah 1229/1814), 328a (early 19th cent.), iii 968b (circ. ad 1850), 969a (circ. ad 1850), Lindesiana p. 121 no. 452 (“Aḥwāl i jang i Marhaṭṭah”. ad 1863), Ivanow Curzon 47 (19th cent.).

English translation by Major A.R. Fuller: b.m. ms. Add. 30,784.

Description and 40 pp. of extracts from Fuller’s translation (nearly the whole work apart from the account of the Battle of Pānīpat): Elliot and Dowson History of India viii pp. 257–97.

Urdu translation: Tawārīk̲h̲ i Marhaṭṭah u S̲h̲āh i Abdālī [called in the colophon Tārīk̲h̲ i Marhaṭṭah. Written in 1209/1794–5 by S.M. Mahdī Ṭabāṭabā for S̲h̲. Muḥammad-Bak̲h̲s̲h̲, Printer, of Gāō G’hāt]. Edition: Maṭbaʿ i Aḥmadī [Benares? 1794–5? *].

Extract: Waqāʾiʿ i jang i Aḥmad S̲h̲āh i Abdālī bā Wiswās Rāō etc., the account of the Battle of Pānīpat extracted from ʿAlī Ibrāhīm K̲h̲ān’s work at the request of the Governor-General Lord Cornwallis by Muns̲h̲ī ¶ M. Muḥsin al-Dīn, who was for seven years Governor of Benares in the time of Lord Cornwallis (1786–93 and 1805) and who added some information from his own experiences during the Marāṭ’hā war: Bodleian ii 2355.

§ 1055. It was for Captain (afterwards Sir) John Kennaway (the first Resident at Ḥaidarābād, 1788–94) that an anonymous author wrote

A history of the Poona State from the reign of Narāyan Rāō (ad 1773) to the peace of 1787 between the Pēs̲h̲wā and Ṭīpū Sulṭān (beg. Sawāniḥ i mamlakat i Dakhan): Rieu i 328a (early 19th cent.).

§ 1056. Lac̲h̲hmī Narāyan “S̲h̲afīq” Aurangābādī (see pp. 476–8).

Bisāṭ al-g̲h̲anāʾim, a history of the Marāṭhās to their defeat by Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Abdālī at Pānīpat in 1174/1761, written at the request of Captain (afterwards Sir John) Malcolm and completed in 1214/1799: Rieu i 328b (circ. ad 1799), 329b (ah 1215/1801), Āṣafīyah i p. 220 nos. 282 (ah 1297/1880), 343 (ah 1204/1789–90), Ethé ii 3018, Rehatsek p. 73 no. 10.

Edition (Persian text or Urdu translation?): place? 1322/1904–5 (Āṣafīyah i p. 220 no. 921).

Urdu translation (?): Bisāṭ al-g̲h̲anāʾim [described as “A history of the Marhattas in Urdu” by G̲h̲ulām Ṣamdānī K̲h̲ān Gauhar without mention of Lac̲h̲hmī Narāyan], Niẓām al-Maṭābiʿ, Ḥaidarābād (see Ḥaidarābād Coll. p. 27, where the date is not specified).

§ 1057. It was by order of the British Resident that Sītā-Rām, the Ak̲h̲bār-nawīs, translated from Marāṭ’hī originals and completed in July 1824 the work which in the b.m. ms. has the heading—

Tarjamah i kaifīyat i nasab-nāmah i Rājah i Satārah-wālah qaum Marhattah Bhōslah, a history of the Marāṭ’hās to the reinstatement of Bājī Rāō by Wellesley in May 1803: Rieu i 329b (ad 1824).

§ 1058. For the Mak̲h̲zan al-futūḥ of Bhagwān-Dās S̲h̲īvpūrī see p. 506 supra.

§ 1059. Wājid ʿAlī K̲h̲ān, a grandson of Nawwāb ʿAlī Mardān K̲h̲ān, left Ḥaidarābād in the time of Sikandar-Jāh (acc. 1218/1803, d. 1244/1829) and went to Poonah, where he entered the service of Bājī Rāō. After serving him for four years and taking an active part in his wars against the British he returned home.

Guls̲h̲an i jang, a history of Bājī Rāō’s wars against the British from 1230/1815 to 1233/1818: Rieu iii 969 (19th cent.).

¶ § 1060. Ṣafdar ʿAlī S̲h̲āh “Munṣif” was, according to W. Erskine (see Rieu ii 725a), originally named M. Muḥyī al-Dīn but changed his name on renouncing the world just as his father Muẓaffar-Jang had taken the name of Qalandar ʿAlī S̲h̲āh. He belonged apparently to a noble family of the Niẓām’s Dominions, but that he lived for a time at least in Bombay may be inferred from the eulogies of W. Erskine, his special patron, and Dr. [John] Taylor, who had restored him to health, which occur in the Jirjīs i razm.

Jirjīs i razm, a mat̲h̲nawī on the wars of General Wellesley against Ṭīpū Sulṭān (ad 1799–1802) and the Marāṭhās (ad 1803): Rieu ii 725a (autograph, ah 1229/1814).

Continuation (on the war with Hōlkar, ad 1804): Rieu ii 7256 (autograph).

Further continuation (on the Bharatpūr campaign, ad 1804–5): Rieu ii 726a (autograph).

§ 1061. Of unknown authorship is

Muntak̲h̲ab i tawārīk̲h̲ i k̲h̲ānadān i Bhōnslah Rājahā-yi Nāgpūr, annals of the Bhōslah rājahs of Nāgpūr from ad 1659 to ad 1818 compiled from seven Persian and twenty-five Marāṭ’hī sources in December 1823 for Richard Jenkins, British Resident at Nāgpūr: Ethé 489.

§ 1062. Other works:

(1)

Aḥwāl i Bhāō Marhaṭṭah u sabab i āmadan i ū ba-Hindūstān u kus̲h̲tah s̲h̲udan i ū bā tamām i hamrāhi-yān dar muḥārabah i Aḥmad S̲h̲āh i Abdālī bah ḥudūd i Pānīpat: Ethé 527 (12 and 13. Circ. ad 1808 (?)).

(2)

Aḥwāl i ḥasab u nasab i Janūbiyān u kaifīyat i auj u ḥas̲h̲mat i ān-hā (the opening words) or, as in the colophon, Aḥwāl i āmadan i Marhattah-hā dar Hindūstān: i.o. 3959a (ad 1794), Ethé 488 (n.d.).

(3)

Aḥwāl i Rag’hunāt’h Rāō: Ethé 527 (4) (foll. 39a–41b, a few pages relating to the year 1187).

(4)

D̲h̲ikr i aḥwāl u ibtidā i binā i fasād i Sīwā i bad-nihād etc. a chronicle of the Bhōslah family from its origin to the operations against Rājah Rām after the capture of his capital Rāygaṛh in 1101/1689–90 or 1102/1690–1: Ethé 486 (incomplete).

(5)

Extracts relating to the Marāṭ’hās from the K̲h̲izānah i ʿāmirah, the ʿĀlamgīr-nāmah, the Tārīk̲h̲ i Rōhēlah (author not stated) followed by the history of the Marāṭ’hās mentioned on p. 598 supra: Ethé 490 (quite modern), Ivanow 198 (late 19th cent.).

(6)

¶ Ḥaqīqat i binā u ʿurūj i daulat i rājahā i Satārah, a short history (8 foll.) of the Rājahs of Satārah from the origin of the family to the time of Rām Rājah, when the government became vested in the Pēs̲h̲wā: r.a.s. P. 69 (4) = Morley 79, P. 69 (5) = Morley 80.

(7)

A history, incomplete and unidiomatic, of the rise of the Bhōslah family probably translated from a Marāṭ’hī chronicle by a certain Daulat Sing’h, who is described as the author in an inscription on the fly-leaf: Ethé 487.

(8)

S̲h̲ammah-ī az aḥwāl i Marhaṭṭah Sīwā-jī Rājah Sat̤ārā-wālah, as it is inappropriately headed, a very brief account of events from the accession of Bājī Rāō ii to the end of his reign, by Mīr Badr al-Dīn, a resident of C̲h̲ic̲h̲ōnd̤ (near Aḥmadnagar): Bombay Univ. 160 (probably autograph).

(9)

A short account (5 foll.) of Mād’hau Rāō Pēs̲h̲wā, comprising the events which took place between 1174/1760 and 1187/1773: r.a.s. P. 69 (6) = Morley 82.

For works relating to the Battle of Pānīpat see also pp. 313 and 488 supra.

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