Page:Shivaji and His Times.djvu/465



The Marathas in the 17th century were a poor and rude people, dispersed through many States, and with no literature of their own except folk-songs and religious poetry. Shivaji for the first time gave them peace wealth and an independent national Court, without which it is not possible to produce literature or store official records. But this happy state of things lasted barely 18 years, from his last rupture with the Mughals in 1671 to the death of Shambhuji in 1689. Thereafter every Maratha fort and city was occupied by the Mughals and the Maratha State records were burnt or dispersed, exactly as Elphinstone's library was destroyed by the Marathas when they captured his Residency in 1817. Even during these 18 years of power and prosperity the Marathas were more busy with the sword than the pen ; no literature proper, no long history or biography was produced then. Both of Shivaji' s Court-poets were foreigners. Office records, revenue returns and copies of letters sent and received were, no doubt, kept, and might have supplied us with valuable raw materials of history if they had survived. It is significant that not a single State-paper or