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1655] frankly telling him, "Unless Chandra Rao is killed, the kingdom cannot be secured. None but you can do this deed," (p. 10), and that Raghunath committed the murder on getting a suitable opportunity. This book was written by a courtier of Shivaji, by order of Shivaji 's favourite son. He had the best means of knowing the truth and no motive for suppressing it. It is inconceivable that such a writer invented a false charge of murder against Shivaji, unless the latter had been notoriously guilty of the crime. A century later, Malhar Ram Rao, the hereditary secretary of Shivajis descendants and keeper of their family records, also tells the same story, (p. 41.) What motive could he have had for calumniating the great founder of his master's family as a murderer? The Marathi life of Shivaji preserved in Raigarh castle when it was in Maratha possession, and composed much earlier than Chitnis's history, tells us, "Raghunath treacherously assassinated Hanumant Rao. Shivaji was pleased with Raghunath's conduct," (p.ll.) But as the original of this work has been lost, I attach no importance to it.

Against the unanimous testimony of such known and authentic witnesses, Rao Bahadur Parasnis puts the evidence of the so-called Mahabaleshwar Bakhar, which exists in a single anonymous undated MS., — discovered some 20 years ago among the papers of the modern Rajahs of Satara, while of Sabhasad and Chitnis's bakhars many MSS. have been found and in different parts of the country. The unique