Memoir of the Life of the Late- Nana Farnavis (Compiled From Family Records and Extant Works)

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Nana Farnavis is looked upon by the Marathas as the last of the greatest statesman of their race. The work is based on original mss, family records and verbose conversations with the relations and personal attendants of Nana Farnavis. Nana was an influential minister and statesman of the Maratha Empire during the Peshwa administration in Pune. He played a pivotal role in holding the Maratha Confedaracy together in the midst of internal dissension and the growing power of the East India Company. James Grant Duff once stated that Nana Farnavis was called 'the Maratha Machiavelli' by the Europeans. Only 250 copies of the original edition were published and it is still the only biography in English of the greatest of the Maratha statesman.

A. Macdonald was a Captain in the 18th Regiment, Bombay Native Infantry.

LITTLE is known of the author of this interesting work, which, he tells us, was undertaken at the request of Captain S. V. Hart, who suggested that it would prove of considerable interest to all interested in Indian History, and, if translated into the vernacular of the country, would be eagerly read by the Marathas, who look upon Nana Farnavis, and not without reason, as the last and greatest statesman of their race.' He used in its compilation, original MSS., family records, and verbose conversations with the relations and personal attendants of Nana Farnavis.' He also visited the widow of Nana Farnavis at her famous country seat at Manaoli, where she received numerous European visitors, including Sir Arthur Wellesley and Lord Valentia. This work, like Grant Duff's great classic, is, therefore, based on material which is partly no longer extant. The author apologises for the imperfections of his style. The book was, he tells us, written ` in the leisure hours of a soldier,' and principally for translation. It is a straightforward soldierly account, written by one who knew the language intimately, and had access to original documents and State papers. Only 250 copies of the original edition were published, and it is now very rare indeed. It is still the only life in English of the greatest of the Maratha statesmen. In this reprint, the spelling of proper names has been modernized and several obvious misprints have been corrected.

The autobiography of Nana Farnavis, which is printed in the same volume, was originally translated by Lieut.-Col. John Briggs, a well-known Marathi and Persian scholar, who succeeded Grant Duff at Satara (1823-26), opened up the hill-station of Mahableshwar, and translated Ferishta's Rise of the Muham-medan Power and Sujar ul Mutakkutin into English. The translation appeared in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1827, Vol. II, Part I, alongside with an article on the ` Secret Correspondence of the Court of the Peshwa Madhavrao from 1761 to 1772.' The translation is a free, but not inaccurate one : it may be checked by reference to the original, which was published by Mr. V. B. Dixit in the Kavetihasa Sangraha, Saka 1800 (A.D. 1878). Poona, 1927.