02 CH1 SCOPE AND EXTENT OF SOURCE MATERIAL

In 1510, the Portuguese conquered the city of Goa from Ibrahim Adilkhan as a result of which the then Goa State extending from Kudal, now in Ratnagiri District, Maharashtra, to Chita-Kut, now in Mysore State. came under their sway.1 But they were not able to keep such an extensive territory in their hands for long.

By May 1511, the Portuguese had under their command only Tiswadi and some neighbouring islands and Adilkhan began to rule the rest of the territory of Goa Kingdom. In 1520, the Portuguese again captured Salçette, Bardez and other parts of the Goa Kingdom and they continued to rule these areas till April 1524, when Adilkhan re-captured them.2

In 1543,3 Mealkhan (Mealcao), a rival of Ibrahim Adilkhan, sought refuge with the Portuguese. To ensure that the Portuguese would not help him against the Bijapur Kingdom, Ibrahim Adilkhan made a present of Salcette and Bardez to the Portuguese.4It was thus that, by January 1543, the Portuguese had secured possession, in addition to Tiswadi, of Salçette and Bardez in South Konkan.

In 1534, the Portuguese had gained the Bassein province from the Sultan of Gujrat. In 1535, they began to build the fortress of Diu. In 1556, the Portuguese Governor, Françisco Barreto, took Asheri and Manora fortresses and in 1559, the Portuguese Viceroy, Constantine de Braganza, captured the Fort of Daman.

By about 1580, the Portuguese were ruling Diu, Daman, the island of Bombay, Bassein and Chaul in North Konkan, Goa island, Salçette and Bardez, Negapattam, and Mylapur on the Coromondel Coast, and Hughly and Satigaon in Bengal.

In 1632, the Moghul Emperor deprived the Portuguese of their possessions in Bengal. In 1653-54, Shivappa Nayak, of Bednur captured the Portuguese Forts in Karnatak. In 1658, the Dutch deprived them of Nagapattam. Kutubshah of Golconda took Mylapur in 1662 and in the following year 1663, the Dutch took all Portuguese possessions in Malabar.

In 1665, the Portuguese handed over the island of Bombay to the British. In 1739, the Mahrattas captured Bassein and the surrounding areas and, in accordance with the treaty of 1740, the Portuguese handed over the Fortress of Chaul to the Mahrattas. As a result of all this, the Portuguese were left with only Diu, Daman, Goa island, Salçette, Bardez and Anjadev island by about the middle of the 18th century.

In 1763, the Portuguese conquered Ponda Panchmahal from the Mahrattas, and in 1781 they took possession of Bhatagram and Satari (Sankhli) from the Savantvadikar Bhonsales. In 1783, they captured part of the Pernem Mahal from Savantvadi and the rest of it in 1788. In accordance with the treaty of 11th January 1780, with the Mahrattas, they secured the Nagar Haveli province.

The Portuguese established their mastery over the Indian Ocean in the 16th century and they prohibited the ships of other nations from plying in it without Portuguese permit.5 Later when the Dutch and the British came to India, their conflicts with the Portuguese gradually diminished Portuguese maritime power. Even so, during the regimes of the Moghuls, Adilshah, the Rajah of Bednur, and also Shivaji the Great and Sambhaji, it was customary for them to take Portuguese permits (cartazes) for navigation of their ships in the Indian Ocean.6 The Portuguese formally ended this practice in 1774 but it had fallen into disuse many years earlier. As a matter of fact, by 1721, even Portuguese ships from Daman and Bassein had to secure permits from Kanhoji Angria to ensure peaceful passage.7

Sambhaji Angria always insisted that Portuguese trading vessels take permits from him.8 Two frigates had to escort Portuguese trading vessels, lest Tulaji Angria molested them.9 The Portuguese fought several battles in the Indian Ocean. Their conflicts with the Mahrattas are recorded in Portuguese history.

From the beginning of the 16th century, the Portuguese came into political contact and conflict with the various indigenous ruling dynasties. The number of treaties and pacts they entered into with the Hindu and Muslim princes is very large. Between the Portuguese and the Mahrattas alone, no less than 25 pacts and treaties were concluded.10

Portuguese chroniclers began to record events in India in connection with Portuguese activities in the 16th century. In 1528, Fernao Lopes de Castanheda, a Portuguese writer, came to Goa. He collected a good deal of material about events and incidents in which the Portuguese were involved, travelling all over Goa and other parts of India between 1528 and 1538. On his return to Portugal, he devoted twenty laborious years to producing his Historia do Descobrimento e Conquista da India. He died in 1559, after completing his work. His work recorded forty years of the history of the Portuguese in India since their first landing. The first seven parts of this volume were published in Coimbra in 1551-54; the eighth part in 1563. A copy of his manuscript of the ninth part was preserved in the collections of Father Maffei at Rome. All nine parts were published in a single edition at Coimbra between 1924-1933. The tenth part of Constanheda’s history is untraceable.

Gaspar Correia, another Portuguese writer, came to Goa sixteen years before Constanheda, i.e. in 1512. He was a Secretary to Afonso de Albuquerque and knew well a number of Portuguese Viceroys. In 1547, under his supervision, a number of portraits of Portuguese Viceroys were drawn by a Hindu artist for hanging in the old palace in Goa. These included portraits of Juao de Castro and his predecessors. From this it is obvious that he was in India for a long time. Gaspar Correia wrote in 1551 Lendas da India alias Cronica dos Feitos da India but he kept on improving on it till 1563. It consists of four parts and covers the history of the Portuguese in India till 1550. He died in about 1565. His work was published in 1858-1866.

Another well-known Portuguese chronicler is Joao de Barros. He never came to India but he nevertheless collected a considerable amount of information from India. In the 16th century, there was a big India office in Lisbon known as Casa da India. Barros held a high position in this office for a number of years and so had no difficulty in collecting information about the doings of the Portuguese in India. He was well patronised by the then Portuguese King.

Joao de Barros wrote Decadas da Asia. The first part of this work (Decada Ⅰ) was published in 1552; the second (Decada Ⅱ) in 1553. He intended the work to have four parts, but was unable to complete it and his account takes us only up to 1527. He died in 1570, but had already prepared notes for writing the fourth part. Joao Baptista Lavanha made use of these notes and wrote the fourth part which was published in Madrid in 1615. In this Decada Ⅳ, the period 1527-1539 is covered.

On 25 February 1595, the King of Portugal ordered the founding of a record office in Goa Palace.11 The record office in Lisbon was called Torre do Tombo. The record office in Goa was named Torre do Tombo da India. A Portuguese savant, Diago do Couto (1542- 1616) who had been in India since 1560, was appointed the Chief of this record office and was designated Guarda-Mor. He was besides entrusted with the task of continuing the work of Barros on Portuguese history in India. Diago do Couto was therefore also designated Cronista-Mor da India, Chief Choronicler of India. This type of designation was first given in Portugal in the 15th century when it was awarded to Fernao Lopes (1380-1460), a well known historian. Since then, the office had acquired great dignity and prestige and a rich scholarly tradition.

Diago do Couto wrote Parts Ⅳ to Ⅻ of Decadas da Asia in Goa between 1597 and 1616. He started from Part Ⅳ because the Part Ⅳ prepared by Barros had not then been published. The result is that two versions of Part Ⅳ, on the same period, are now available. Couto has recorded events till 1599 in Decadas Ⅻ. He died in 1616 in Goa and the last part of the Decadas remained unfinished. He wrote only the first five books (livros). Couto’s Decadas was published between 1602 and 1736.

A manuscript copy of Couto’s Decada Ⅴ, covering 1537-45, has been preserved in the library of Leyde. Marcus de Jong published this manuscript at Coimbra in 1937. Couto also has to his credit publications other than the Decadas. One such volume is Dialogo do Soldado Pratico Portuguese. He made a number of alterations in this work when it was published under the title Dialogo do Soldado Pratico. In these two books, he severely criticised contemporary Portuguese officials in Goa.

Sixteen years after the death Diago do Couto, Antonio Bocarro, who came to Goa in 1615 and was a man of learning, was appointed Cronista and Guarda-Mor in the Goa Records Office. He wrote Decada, afterwards called Decada ⅩⅢ do Historia da India. It was published in Lisbon in two parts in 1876. It covers the period 1612-1617. Another important work by this author is his Livro das plantas de todas as fortalezas, cidadese provoçoes do Estado da India Oriental. It was written in 1635 and two well-preserved manuscripts of it are available, one at Evora and the other in Madrid. Information on further copies is to be found in Professor C. R. Boxer’s writings.12

Antonio Bocarro has given in this manuscript varied information about Portuguese forts in India and elsewhere of those days. Cunha Rivara had published in 1868-69 several chapters from Bocarro’s Evora copy in his Cronista de Tisuari. Dr. Braganza Pereira got unpublished chapters from the Evora MS. copied and, adding them to the published chapters in Rivara’s book, published all in Archivo Portugues Oriental in 1937-38. Since Pedro Barreto de Resende’s blocks of the maps in his manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris have been appended to this, this work edited by Braganza Pereira is considered useful. But there is inexcusable negligence in this publication of Braganza Pereira as in several other portions of Archivo-Portugues Oriental edited by him.

Professor C. R. Boxer of the University of London comments as follows in connection with Branganza Pereira’s work :

Unfortunately this edition leaves a great deal to be desired, and is in some respects worse than useless. The proofs were evidently corrected very carelessly or not at all, so that the text teems with misprints and misreadings. Moreover, the notes provided by the editor make no attempt to clarify or illuminate the text, but consist of a mass of miscellaneous documents… uncritically selected and printed without any order or system.13

Contemporaneously with Antonio Bocarro, there was in Goa a Portuguese scholar named Pedro Barreto de Resende who was secretary to the Portuguese Viceroy, Conde de Linhares. He prepared in 1646 a work called Livro de Estado da India Oriental, making use of the description of Portuguese and other forts in the manuscripts of Antonio Bocarro. In this work he gives brief biographical sketches of the Portuguese Viceroys and Governors from the beginning to 1634 accompanied by 44 portraits in colour. Besides, there are coloured ground plans of 66 forts with necessary descriptions and nine maps. A beautiful copy of this manuscript is to be found in the Biblioteque Nationale de Paris (Fonds Portugais).13 Another copy is in the collection of the British Museum, London (Sloane Ms. 197).

Barros, Diago do Couto and Bocarro wrote about events before the rise of Mahratta power. Even so, their writings are indirectly useful for compiling the history of the Mahrattas. Diago do Couto, for instance, has discussed the emergence of the Chauthai with ability. Bocarro has also given illuminating information on the subject. In the Paris manuscript, Resende pays high tribute to Conde de Linhares for having forcibly converted Brahmans from Salçette to Christianity.14 What is remarkable is that there is much difference between what Couto has recorded and what Ferista has written. Couto says that what he has written about Mealkhan was collected from that prince himself.15 Not only this, but what Ferista has written about Mealkhan appears to be wrong in the light of contemporary Portuguese sources of information.16 Information about the sons and grandsons of Mealkhan is to be found only in the correspondence of the Portuguese.17 The echoes of Mealkhan’s intrigues are noticeable in Shivaji-Portuguese relations 125 years later. What is very surprising is that the Mealkhan affair was mentioned by the Mahratta spokesmen when the treaty between Bajirao Ⅰ and the Portuguese was being negotiated in 1737.

Those who succeeded Bocarro as curators at the Torre do Tombo da India at Goa did not do any worthwhile writing during the 17th and 18th centuries. But much information about the Mahrattas is available in the writings of other contemporary Portuguese writers.

Conde de Linhares ruled as Viceroy at Goa from 1629 to 1635. His Diario is an important source of historical information. But a good deal of it has been destroyed. A part of this Diario is preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa and has been published. Conde de Linhares mentions Shahaji, Murari Pandit and other contemporary Mahratta sardars in his Diario and deals with them at some length.

In 1695, Cosme de Guarda, a Portuguese writer, wrote a biography of Shivaji. It was published in Lisbon in 1730. It has 168 pages. Dr. Surendranath Sen has published an English translation of this book. Cosme de Guarda appears to be a Portuguese born at Mormugoa. This book is not of much historical value. A good deal of it is just gossip. Even so, what de

Guarda says about the Desais of the Konkan has a sound historical basis. He mentions a battle between Shivaji and the Portuguese near Mormugoa and is supported by a contemporary record in the Goa Archives.18 His book gives an idea of what the Portuguese in Goa thought about Shivaji at the end of the 17th century.

While Cosme de Guarda wrote a biography of Shivaji, his contemporary Portuguese Padre, Francisco de Souza, wrote O Oriente Conquistado a Jesus Cristo Pelos padres de Companhia de Jesus da Provincia de Goa. This was passed by the Censor for publication in 1697, but it was actually published only in 1710 at Lisbon in two parts.19 This volume contains a description of Sambhaji’s invasion of Goa in 1683.

Padre Leonardo Pais, a Goan Catholic priest, was the author of a book called Promtuario das Difinicoes Indicas published in Lisbon in 1713. Emperor Aurangzeb was alive when it was written.20 There is a clear mention in it that Akbar, Aurangzeb’s son, camped at Bicholim. It is also said in this book that it was a great miracle that Conde de Alvora should have returned safely to Goa after raising the siege of the fortress of Ponda in 1683. Francisco de Souza and Leonardo Pais were then staying in Goa.

In the 18th century, the Portuguese contacts and conflicts with their neighbours, the Chhatrapatis of Satara and Kolhapur, the Peshwas, the Angrias, the Bhonsales of Savantvadi, and the Dhulaps, Saundekars and others grew intense. There were quite a few battles and skirmishes. Descriptions of these incidents were recorded in the Portuguese language. Some of them were published in Portugal and some are still lying there in manuscript form. The present author has in his possession photostat copies of some of these MSS. All these documents are important because the information contained in them is accurate as regards dates, which cannot be said about the Mahratta and English chronicles. Partisanship was, of course, inevitable and a historian has to be careful while making use of this material. We shall now deal with some such published sources.

There were wars between Kanhoji Angria and the Portuguese in 1713 and 1714. Descriptions of these are available in two accounts of the administration of the Portuguese Viceroy, Vasco Fernandes Cezar de Menezes, published in Lisbon. They are as follows :

Relaçao dos successos & gloriosas acçoes militares obradas no Estado da India Ordenadas, & dirigidas pelo Vice-Rei e Capitam General do mesmo Estado Vasco Fernandes Cezar de Menezes Em o anno passado de 1713 by Antonio Rodrigues de Costa, (Lisboa 1714) and Relaçao dos progressos das armas portuguesas no Estado da India no ano de 1714 sendo Vice-Re e Capitam General de mesmo Estado, Vasco Fernandes Cezar de Menezes, continuando os successos desde o ano 1713, referidos na Relaçao que se imprimim no pincipio de presente by Jose Freise de Monterroyo Mascarenhas (Lisboa 1716).

In 1726, the Portuguese besieged the Bicholim fort and conquered it from the Savantvadi Bhonsales on 27 May. A day to day account of this battle by an engineer, Andre Ribeiro Coutinho, was published in Lisbon in 1748. The Bicholim fort is well known in the history of Savantvadi. It was demolished later on and no trace of it is to be found at the site today.

A description of the fort of Bicholim is to be found in Andre Ribeiro Coutinho’s book and in the report on Bicholim written by the Governor of Goa, Gilherme de Souza, in 1782.21 Khem Savant Bhonsala Ⅱ built this fort. Subsequently, in 1725, Fond Savant repaired it with the help of two British engineers.22 The title of Andre Ribeiro Coutinho’s book is Relaçoes Diaria da expugnaçao e rendimento da praça de Bicholim em 27 de Maio de 1726. There is also a manuscript on this subject in the library of Coimbra University (Manuscript No. 594).

Diogo da Costa published in 1741 in Lisbon a book of 24 pages on the Bassein Campaign called Relaçao das guerras da India desde o ano de 1736 ate o de 1740. Although this report may not be as valuable as other manuscripts in Portuguese on this subject, there is some information in it which cannot be had anywhere else. Therefore, it is a useful source of information on the history of the Mahrattas. The battles between the Portuguese and the Mahrattas at Dongri or Dharavi form an important phase of this Bassein compaign and information about them in a contemporary source is found in a book by Ⅰgnacio Barbosa Machado called Factos Politicos e Militares da Antiga e Nova Lusitania. This book was published in Lisbon in 1745. The only contemporary Marathi source on this compaign consists

of three minor registries in the Peshwa daily account book. Not one letter of the day is available. On the other hand, in Portuguese, there is a detailed letter written on 5 March, 1738 by General Antonio Cardim Frois.

During the course of the Bassein campaign, the Bhonsale of Savantvadi captured Bardez but it was re-captured from him by the Viceroy, Conde de Eriseir, in 1741. A full description of its recapture is contained in a book published in Lisbon in 1742, written by Jose Ferreira de Monterroya Mascarenhas : Noticia de Viagem que fez segunda vez ao Estado da india o illustras Excell. Senhor Marquez do Lourical e primeiros progressos de seu Governo.

In May 1742, Govindpant Thakur invaded Salçette. A detailed account of the battle that ensued between him and the Portuguese is available in two booklets published in Lisbon : Relaçao das Victorias Alcancadas na India contra o enimigo Marata, sendo Vice-Rei daquele Estado o Illustrissimo e Excellentissimo D. Luiz Carlos Inacio Xavier de Menezes and

Relaçao e verdadeiras noticias das ultimas acçoes Militares, ordenadas pelo Illustrissimo e Excellentissimo senhor D. Luiz de Menezes, Marquez de Lourical, Vice-Rei e Capitao General de India e executadas por Manuel Soares Velho, General da Provincia da Bardez. The first of these was published in 1743 and has fifteen pages. The other was published in 1747 and has twelve pages. There is one more book in Portuguese about the victory that Marquez de Lourical won over the Mahrattas : Elogio de Francisco Xavier Mascarenhas, Cavalleiro professo da Ordem do Christo, Coronel que foi de um dos regimentos de Marinha e com antante da esquarda que no ano de 1740 foi para Estado da India com a patente de sargento mor de batalha (Lisboa 1742). This was written by Francisco Jose Freire.

There is ample material in Portuguese regarding the skirmishes between the Portuguese and the Bhonsalas of Savantvadi during the reign of Marquez de Alorna (1744 to 1750). Jose-Freire de Monteiro wrote a series of six volumes on this topic called Epanhaphora Indica and published them in Lisbon between 1741 and 1753. There is also a good deal of information in this book about the Angrias, the Peshwas and the Chhatrapatis. In view of this, it is not an exaggeration to say that it constitutes an excellent source of material on the history of the Mahrattas. It deserves to be fully translated into Marathi.

Another Portuguese writer-engineer, Manuel Antonio de Meireles, wrote a five volume account of the victory of Marquez de Alorna over the Bhonsalas of Savantvadi. These volumes were published in Lisbon between 1747 and 1750. Besides these, some poems in Portuguese on the subject were also published in Lisbon in 1747.24 Engineer Meireles had participated personally in these skirmishes and his books therefore have an importance all their own.

In his Relaçao de Conquista das Praças Alorna, Bicholim. Avaro, Morly, Satarem, Tiracol, e Rary, Engineer Meireles lists, at the end of the book on p. 51, the various ships from the Savantvadi armada that were captured by the Portuguese. There are three other books by Engineer Meireles which contain detailed accounts of the battles between the Savantvadi Bhonsalas and the Portuguese of which the titles are : (1) Relaçao dos felices successos da India desde 20 de Dezembro de 1746 ate 28 do dito de 1747, (2) Relaçao dos felices successos da India desde o primeiro de Janeiro ate o ultimo de Dezembro de 1748, (3) Relaçao dos felices successos da India desde Janeiro de 1749 ate o de 1750.

The Marquez de Tavora succeeded the Marquez de Morna as Viceroy in 1750. There are three books on his rule. One of these was published in Lisbon in 1753 and another in 1754. The manuscript of the third book is in the Evora Library. The author of the book published in 1753 is Dr. Françisco Raymundo de Moraes Pereira and the book is Annal Indico Lusitano. This writer also published a book in 1752 about the voyage from Portugal to Goa of the

Marquez de Tavora in which an account of the conflict between the Angria and Savantvadi Bhonsla is given. The title of the book is Relaçao da Viagem que de Porto de Lisboa fizeram a India o Illustrissimo e Excellentissimo Senhore Luiz Marquez de Tavora, offerecida ao Illustrissimo e Excellentissimo Senhor Luiz Bernardo de Tavora. The book on the Marquez de Tavora published in 1754 was written by Dr. Baltazar Manuel de Chaves. The title of the book is Annal Indico Historico 3a parte.

In the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisbon, there is an eight-page report on the conquest of Sadashivgad and Kurmagad (Shimpi) by Marquez de Tavora from the Saundekars. The title of the report is Relaçao das Proezas e Victorias que na India Oriental tem consequindo o inexplicavel valor de Assis de Tavora, Marquez de Tavora, Conde de Alvor Vice-Rei e Capitao General dos Estado da India. An eight page booklet, describing the reception given to the Vakil of the Saundekar who was sent to Goa after the Portuguese victory was published in Lisbon under the title, Relaçao da Embaixada que o Sunda depois de vencida das armas Portuguezas mandou ao Marquez de Tavora.

Conde de Alvor succeeded the Marquez de Tavora as Viceroy. De Alvor led an attack on Mardangad in 1756 and was killed in action. A detailed account of this assault is available in a book by Joseph Roger. Published in Lisbon in 1757, under the title, Relaçao dos Successos prosperos e infelices do Illustrissimo e Excellentissimo Senhor Conde de Alva.

An account of what followed this incident is available in an eight page pamphlet published in Lisbon in 1759 written by a Portuguese settled in Goa, Jose da Silva Machado, entitled Relaçao das successos da India e principio de felicissimo Governo do Illustrissimo e Excellentissimo Senhor Conde de Ega. This book also contains information about the Savantvadi-Portuguese conflicts.

A number of actions took place between Savantvadi and the Portuguese during the latter half of the 18th century. A number of Portuguese accounts of these actions are available. Some of these are listed below :—

• (1) Relaçao verdadeira dos felices successors da India e victorias que alcansaram as armas Portuguezas naquelle Estado em o ano de 1757, Lisboa 1753.

• (2) Relaçao as noticia certa dos Estados da India. Reference os progressos das Armas Portuguesas na Azis como novamente tem tido varias contendas com o Bonsulo, Marata e Mogor …, Lisboa, 1756.

• (3) Relacao Marcial do plausivel e affortunado successo, que nas partes da India tiveram as armas Portuguezas contra o Bonsulo nosso inimigo em o conflicto comele havido em o dia nove de Maio do ano passado de 1758.

• (4) Breve noticia que se da as publico para consolaçao dos Portuguezes, dos successos, que acontecerao no Estado da nossa India, Desde o mez de Janeiro de 1759 ate o de 1760, Lisboa, 1760.

• (5) Nova e Curiosa das batalhas que os Portuguezes deram na India, e das, grandes victorias que alcançarao contra o Bonsulo, Lisboa, 1785.

All the above-mentioned publications are now out of print but copies are preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa and other libraries in Portugal. The present writer possesses copies of some of them.

In the 18th century, a number of reports on happenings in Goa were published and, in the middle of the 19th century, documents in the Goa Archives began to be noticed and studied. A learned Portuguese author, Cunha Rivara, was appointed to a high position in Goa in 1855. He had studied a number of historical manuscripts when he was Librarian and Curator of the Library at Evora. He was a great historicist. He gave new direction to historical research in Goa and started the era of studying historical documents. He found an enormous amount of material in the Goa records which could be used for constructing a connected history of the Portuguese in Goa. He published hundreds of documents.

Cunha Rivara was in Goa for 22 years. He brought to light from 1857 to 1877 a collection of historical letters in ten parts under the title Archivo Portugues Oriental. Besides making this collection, he conducted for three years a monthly periodical (1866-69) called Chronista do Tissuari which was devoted to historical topics. Although there is not a single paper pertaining to Mahratta history in Archivo Portugues Oriental, there are plenty of documents dealing with the Portuguese campaign of persecution of Hindus in the territory under their domination and in promotion of Roman Catholicism. This helps to illuminate the background of the Mahratta campaign for the conquest of Bassein. There is some description in Sashtichi Bakhar but the documents in Archivo Oriental and the manuscript Provisoes a favor da cristanidade afford well-documented evidence of religious persecution by the Portuguese. Cunha Rivara published in Cronista da Tissuary, in its 41st issue and onwards, the instruçoes given to Vice-Rei Conde de Ericeira by the King of Portugal, which throw a flood of light on Portuguese policies regarding the Mahrattas.

The Goa Government contemplated moving the seat of power from Old Goa to Mormugoa after the invasion of Goa by Sambhaji. Cunha Rivara wrote a series of articles on this subject in Cronista da Tissuary and brought to light some information regarding this invasion by Sambhaij. He also published in the Boletim do Governo between 1873 and 1875 the texts of the treaties and pacts (pages e tratados) which the Portuguese entered into with the local kings. This involved much laborious work.

A Portuguese compiler, Julio Firmeino Judici Biker, incorporated in his Collecçao de Tratados, a work in fourteen parts, all the treaties and pacts published by Cunha Rivara but nowhere gave credit to Rivara! This Biker material was published in Lisbon in 1881-1887. The texts of most of the treaties concluded between the Portuguese and the Mahrattas are to be found in this book, but he did not include any of the Marathi and other Indian-language documents.

Contemporaneously with Cunha Rivara, another savant, Filipe Nery Xavier, undertook important research work regarding the history of Goa. He was born in Lotulim in Goa. He published an annotated edition of the Instruçoes written by the Marquez de Alorna which contain much information about the Mahrattas. Dr. Surendranath Sen translated it in English from the third edition of Instruçoes and his translation has been published. There is much useful information in the notes entitled Bombaim and Bonsule that Filipe Nery Xavier appended to the book Uma Viagem de Duas mil legoas by the Portuguese writer Borbuda. The substance of these notes is also found in Filipe Nery Xavier’s Esboço de um Diccinario Historico-Administrativo.

Some documents from the Goa records were published in the book. Os Portugueses no Oriente, by a Portuguese writer, Eduardo Balsemao. In the third part of this book, there are descriptions of the naval battles between the Mahrattas and the Portuguese. A detailed report on the attack on Mardangad in 1763 by Viceroy Conde de Ega and its demolition by the Viceroy is available in this book.

The Instruçoes of Viceroy Marquez de Alorna published by Filipe Nery Xavier as also the Instruçoes to the Governor of Goa given by Portugal’s Prime Minister, the Marquez de Pombal, in 1774 are worthy of perusal. An annotated edition of these was published in 1841 at Panjim by Claudio Langrange Monteiro de Barbuda. There is a Chapter on the Mahrattas in this volume. The full title of this volume is Instruçoes com que El-Rei D’Jose Ⅰ Mandou passar ao Estado da India o Governador e Capitao General e o Arcebispo Primaz do Oriente, no ano de 1774.

A renowned Goan historical research worker, Professor Jose Antonio Ismael Gracias, making use of the Goa Archives, wrote, and published at Panjim in 1907, a book entitled, Uma Dona Portuguesa ba Corte do Grao Mogol. It contains two letters about Kanhoji Angre written in the years 1715 and 1716. Gracias also wrote a series of articles in the periodical, O Oriente Portuguez, on the Mahratta campaign against Bassein. These were based on material in Portuguese in the Goa Archives. The title of this series of articles is ‘Os Ultimos Cinco Generais do Norte’.

Dr. Braganza Pereira, a Judge of the Panjim High Court (later called the Judicial Commissioner’s Court), selected about 1,500 letters from the Goa Archives and published them in 1939 and 1940 in five parts in Arquivo Portugues Oriental, tomo Ⅰ Vol. Ⅲ. The papers contained in these parts relate to the period from 1700 to 1739 and hundreds of them pertain to Mahratta-Portuguese relations. A preface to the first part extending over 193 pages quotes a number of letters on Mahratta-Portuguese relations. Thus, all these five parts are useful to students of Mahratta history. But, unfortunately, many letters abound in printing errors and inaccuracies. Great care has therefore to be exercised while making use of them.25 Professor C. R. Boxer of the University of London says about this book : ‘Edited (very carelessly) and riddled with misreadings and misprints, this series, neverthless, contains many interesting documents…’

Dr. Braganza Pereira also contributed a series of articles entitled Portugueses em Baçaim to the O Oriente Portuguese in which there is some information about the Bassein campaign, culled from the Goa Archives.

Jeronimo Quadros studied historical documents of the Portuguese from Diu. He found there three letters regarding the Bassein campaign which he published in the O Oriente Portugues in May 1905. Antonio Francisco Moniz in his Noticias e Documentos para a Historia de Damao has published some papers in which echoes of the Mahrattas’ doings in Gujarat are heard. Moniz selected a number of papers from the records of the Daman Municipality and published them in four parts in his book. Many of these letters relate to the history of the Mahrattas.

Lastly, with all humility, the present author must mention his own work in this field. He gained admission to the Goa Archives in 1919 with great difficulty. His intention was to study the relations between the Portuguese and the Mahrattas. For about three years, he studied only documents in Marathi. Since the manuscripts were not properly listed, he began to study such material in Portuguese as he could lay his hands on. In 1931, he was appointed Director of Archives in Goa and he then became quite free to carry on research and allow others to do so. The Portuguese Government recognised his services in bringing order and system to the directorate.26

The following is a list of the books, tracts and essays by Pissurlencar in Portuguese :—

• (1) A Extinçao do Reino de Nizam Shah—Bastora, 1935 (English translation : Sardesai Commomoration Volume Bombay 1938.)
• (2) ‘A India em 1629’ (Boletim do Instituto Vasco da Gama no. 7, 1930). (3) Portugueses e Maratas, Ⅰ, Shivaji, 1926.
• (4) Portugueses e Maratas, Ⅱ Sambhaji, 1928.
• (5) Portugueses e Maratas, Ⅲ, Rajaram, 1929. (English translation : Proceedings of Meetings of the Indian Historical Records Commission, Seventeenth Session, 1940).
• (6) Portugueses e Maratas, Ⅳ Como se perdeu Baçaim, 1932.
• (7) Portugueses e Maratas, Ⅴ, Restauraçao de Bardez e Salçette, 1933.
• (8) Portugueses e Maratas, Ⅵ, Tentativas para e Reconquista da Provincia do Norte, 1940.
• (9) Maratas em Baçaim, 1935.
• (10) A Companha Luso-Marata de Bacaim, 1942. (English translation: Proceedings of Meetings of Indian History Congress, Hyderabad, 1941).
• (11) Tentativas dos Portugueses para a ocupaçao do Conçao, 1955 (Academia Portuguesa Historia, Annis Ⅱ series, Vol. Ⅵ, Lisboa).
• (12) O Enigma da Morte do Vice-Rei, Conde de Alva esclarecido a luz de Documentos Maratas, 1957 (Academia das Ciencias de Lisboa, Letras, Memorias, t. Ⅵ Lisboa).
• (13) Um Frade Capucho na Corte de Punem, 1934. CONTENTS(14) Noticias do Reino, Situaçao, Forças e Costumes do Marata. 1959. (15) Antigualhas, 1941.
• (16) Agentes da Diplomacia Portuguesa na India, 1951.
• (17) Assentos do Conselho do Estado, Vol. Ⅲ, Ⅳ, Ⅴ, 1955-1957.

All the books mentioned above have been written on the basis of published and unpublished material in Portuguese and other languages and they pertain to the period from the rise of Shahaji, Shivaji’s father, to the last of the Peshwas. Some events and incidents touching Mahratta-Portuguese relations have still to see the light of day, particularly those about conflicts on the sea, but they will be published in due course. Extracts from the correspondence of the Portuguese envoys at the Mahratta Court at Poona such as Narayan Vithal Shenvi Dhume, Vithalrao Valavalikar, Lakshiminarayan Valavalikar have been cited among other papers in the above-mentioned Agentes da Diplomacia Portuguesa na India, 1952. Several of the Portuguese and Latin letters about Mahratta history obtaining in Portugal, Londan, Paris and Rome, besides those in the Goa Archives, have been quoted in Assentos de Conselho do Estado, Vols. Ⅲ, Ⅳ, Ⅴ, 1955-1957. Portuguese records in the Bombay Secretariat and those in Lisbon, Evora, Coimbra, Madrid, Paris, and London have also been used. There is one Portuguese letter in the collection of the Bharat ltihasa Samshodhaka Mandal of Poona, a copy of which has been published in Agentes da Diplomacia Portuguesa na India. Some Dutch sources have also been exploited. Even so, it need hardly be said that some information still remains undiscovered and future historical research workers can work on it.

The main source-material on Mahratta-Portuguese relations is to be found in the 22 books of Livro dos reis vizinhos in the Goa Archives. Copies of all official Portuguese letters from 1619 to 1842 have been recorded in these books. They are letters written by the Portuguese to the neighbouring princes and potentates. In the second book of Livro do Segredo, there are copies of Portuguese letters written between 1711 and 1715. Among them are about thirty-five important letters about Kanhoji Angria.

There is in the Goa Archives a collection of 409 books relating to the period 1560-1880 known as Livros das Moncoes, in which there are many documents about the Mahrattas. The documentary material in the Goa Archives has been classified under different heads such as, Cartas e Orders (1609-1865), Cartas patentes e alvares (1557-1875), Regimentos e instruçoes (1564-1869) Livro da Provincia do Norte (1686-1720), Tombo de Damos (1592), Saguates (1598-1688) and Presas do Sul. This could be easily gathered from the present author’s Roteiro dos Arquivos da India Portuguesa, published at Panjim in 1955. This classification follows the tradition of the Goa Records Office which was established about 350 years ago as mentioned earlier.

There are over 3,000 letters in Marathi written to Portuguese officials by the Mahratta Court. Many of them are from Savantvadi and Saunde. Not on letter from Shivaji the Great is to be found among them. The original documents of the treaty between Shivaji and the Portuguese concluded in 1667 is now in Portugal. A photostat copy has been reproduced in the author’s Assentos do Conselho do Estado, Vol. 4. The text of this treaty was first published in 1926 by him in the Shivaji Souvenir. No letter from Sambhaji also is traceable among these letters. But some letters of his envoy, Sidoji Farjand, who came to Goa in December 1684 are available. 27

Letters from Bajirao, Balaji Bajirao and Madhavrao have been published by the author in some Marathi periodicals.28 The author came across some important Marathi documents in the Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Lisboa, the Biblioteca da Ajuda, Lisboa, and the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa. There is ample material touching on Mahratta history in these as well as in the Biblioteca de Evora and the library of the Coimbra University. There are letters in Portuguese in the Biblioteca Nationale, Paris, in ‘Lefond Portugais’ touching Shivaji

Portuguese relations. Even in the British Museum there are accounts of Portuguese-Mahratta contacts, particularly about the Portuguese victory over Savantvadi in 1746 (Additional No. 20907).

It has already been mentioned that some information about Shahaji is available in the Diario of Vice-Rei Conde de Linhares. Some is also to be found in the second part of Assentos do Conselho do Estado. There were 62 manuscripts in the Goa Archives known as Documentos remetidos da India, but they were sent to Portugal in 1777 and they are now kept in Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo in Lisbon. Some selected papers have been published in five parts under the title : Documentos Remetidos da India. There are some letters in the last part about some events touching Sir Jadunath Sarkar in the fifth issue of the Journal of the Hyderabad Archaeological Society for 1919-20. On comparing the English translation published by Sir Jadunath with the original Portuguese, the present author came across two small errors. On p. 15 the words should be ‘ten o’clock, at night’ (pelas des horas de noite) instead of ‘ten o’clock’, and on p. 17 ‘at seven to eight o’clock’ (as sete para as oito horas) instead of ‘at seven o’clock’. The writer of this report was presumably some Portuguese Franciscan padre resident in Goa.

The title of the second report is, Breve Resumo dos successos do Estado Portugueseh na India nos anos de 1682 e 1683. This report has not been published. It contains some information about the invasion of Ponda by Vice-Rei Conde de Alvora. The writer of this report probably was someone intimate with the Conde de Alvora.30 It bears the date 23 January, 1684.

Besides these two reports, there is one excellent source of material on Sambhaji Portuguese conflict. It is the correspondence of the Secretary and the Vice-Rei, Dr. Luiz Gonsalves Couto, between 1681 and 1686. This is available in the Biblioteca da Ajuda, Lisbon. A great deal of otherwise unrecorded information about Sambhaji is available in this correspondence.

How Sambhaji’s armada was destroyed is described in the account by Sambhajirao and Vithojirao, Desais of Karwar, which they wrote for the then Vice-Rei of Goa. The original Marathi letter seems to have been lost, but a contemporary Portuguese version of it is available in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, in manuscript No. 4179. The present author has published two letters from Sambhaji’s envoy, Rangaji Lakshimidhar, on pp. 98-102 in his Antigualhas, 1941, as also Portuguese material regarding Rajaram in his Portuguesese Maratas.

The Moghul power was established in the Konkan six years after Sambhaji’s invasion of Goa. A number of manuscripts relating to this period are to be found in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. Two manuscripts of these are of particular interest : Extracto das novas que vierao do Oriente (No. 647 in Colleccao Pombalina); and Livro das Cartas que escrevo a S. Magestade o Senhor Dom Rodrigo da Costa …….. Governador e Capitao General da India nos anos de 1686, 1687, 1688 e das que S. Madge escrevo ao Vice-Rei o Conde de Alvora em antecessor no governo e ao mesmo Sr. Governador e das respostas que fez a ellas.

After his release from Moghul captivity, Shahu began to lay claim to the Konkan territories which had been usurped by Savantvadi and Saunde princes. Information about this is found in the fifth part of Assentos do Concelho do Estado. Ramchandrapant Amatya attacked Siddi Yakut Khan and over-ran his territory. After Amatya’s return, the Siddi besieged Kolaba fort and captured fifty ships of the Angria. This information is available in a manuscript in the Biblioteca da Ajuda entitled Livro que Cartem Carzas do Governo de Almotace-Mor em Pernambuco, Bahia e India eo governo nella de Luis de Mendonça Furtado.

Vice-Rei Vasco Fernandes Cezar de Menezes was appointed Governor of Goa on 21 September, 1712. He came in particular contact with the Angrias. Mention has already been made of the two booklets about this Viceroy. There is a manuscript about this in the

Biblioteca da Ajuda in which information about Angria-Portuguese conflicts is available. The title of this manuscript is : Relaçao de todos os successos que houve no tempo do governo de Excellentissimo Sr. Vasco Fernandes Cezar de Menezes, Vice-Rei e Capitao General da India. All the happenings after the reign of this Viceroy till 1738 have been recorded in a manuscript now in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, which was written by the Vice-Rei Conde de Eriseir himself. The title of this manuscript (F. G. 465) is : Noticia da India desde o fun do Governo do Vice-Rei Vasco Fernandes Cezar ate o fun do ano de 1738.

In this manuscript, Portuguese relations with Shahu, Angria, Savantvadi, the Siddi of Janjira, the Raja of Ramnagar, Saunde, etc. from 1717 onwards, are dealt with. Some things mentioned in it do not get mention anywhere else. It throws a considerable amount of light on the history of the Angrias. A number of important matters concerning the Mahrattas are dealt with in the Instruçoes left by Vice-Rei Conde de Eriseir to succeeding Viceroys. These Instruçoes are dated 22 October, 1720. A copy is available in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, and another copy in the Biblioteca, Evora. This manuscript contains information about Angria, the Siddi, the Chhatrapati of Kolhapur, Chhatrapati Shahu, the Bhonsale of Savantvadi, Dabhade, the Raja of Ramnagar and so we get a picture of how a Portuguese administrator viewed these figures.

The correspondence of Vice-Rei Francisco Josef de Sampayu e Castro between 1720 and 1723 is available in the library of the Academia das Ciencias. It provides information about Angria-Portuguese relations (manuscript No. 258). Similar papers are found in-manuscript No. 8548 in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. During the region of Vice-Rei Conde de Sandomel, the Mahrattas captured Bassein Fort and invaded Goa also. There are two detailed accounts of the Bassein campaign in Portuguese and the present author has made wide use of them in his Portuguese e Maratas.

The author came across two reports on Vyankatrao Ghorpade’s invasion of Goa in the Biblioteca da Ajuda which are very valuble. Copy of one of these manuscripts (F. G. 660) is available in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. Its title is Relaçao Sumaria dos successos de Goa com a guerra do Marata, escrita com a individualçao de algumas particulares circumstancias que nao a todos manifestas. Unfortunately, it has been written in a poor hand and the copy contains a number of errors. The original manuscript is probably in the Oratorian Convent in Old Goa. The writer of this report claims that he is revealing many unknown facts for the first time.

The second report was written by Bhagun Kamat Vagh, an interpreter in Portuguese employ. He knew a great deal about many then current happenings. He had participated, along with the Portuguese envoys, in pourparlers with the Mahrattas. Thanks to this report, we get first-hand information about how the Portuguese richly bribed Sardar Dadajirao Bhave Nargundkar to ensure that the Mahrattas quit Goa. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is first-class material on this subject. It is surprising that it has remained unpublished. The present author has a photostat copy.

There is yet another report on the discussions between Vyankatrao and Dadajirao on the one hand and the Portuguese on the other, concerning the conclusion of a treaty. This report by Antonio Carnero de Alcacona has been published.30

What is remarkable is that, in the Marathi sources, nothing of value is available about this invasion of Goa which was proceeding while the Bassein campaign was in progress. On the contrary, what one meets with in Marathi on this topic is highly perverted as can be seen from the affair of Phondu Kamat.31 Curiously enough, very detailed accounts are available in the three reports in Portuguese just referred to. Rajwade, Sane, Vad, Sardesai and others have published a good deal of contemporary correspondence but none has been able to compile a connected account of the Bassein campaign with proper reference to dates. The Portuguese sources enable us to do this and connected Marathi material can also be better used on that basis. The present author was able to write about the Bassein campaign only because he had access to this material in Portuguese.

How the campaign of the Mahrattas in Salçette, affected Portugal and how the statesman there reacted to it can be gathered from some of the writings recorded there. There is in the Biblioteca da Ajuda a diary written by a wealthy and learned Portuguese gentleman, Don Francisco Xavier de Menezes, 4° Conde da Ericeira. There are in it some notes of the years 1731 to 1733. When the Mahrattas invaded Salçette in 1730 and captured some territory from the Portuguese and news about it reached Portugal, there arose a rumour that Goa itself was captured by the Mahrattas.32 The note of 6 November 1731 in this diary says that the Angria had captured three Portuguese ships. This diary was published in Biblos, Vol. ⅩⅧ, Tomo Ⅱ, in 1743.

What great loss the Portuguese sustained as a consequence of the capture of Bassein by the Mahrattas is described in the report of the Vice-Rei Conde de Sandomel. This report is available in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon (Manuscript No. 929). The correspondence of this Viceroy from 1733 to 1741 makes nine books preserved in the Academia das Ciencias, Lisbon (Manuscript Nos. 503-511). It gives valuable information about the Mahrattas, particularly the Angrias. The situation obtaining at the time of the arrival of Conde de Ericeira in Goa has been described very well by Conde de Sandomel in his letter dated 20 September 1741. It contains a day-to-day account of the invasion of Bardez by the Bhonsale of Savantvadi. This letter can be read in Documentos Comprovativos do Bosquejo dispossessoes Portuguesas no Oriente by Joaquim Pedro Celestino Soares.

The account of the invasion of Salçette by Sardar Govindpant Thakur on 12 May, 1742 is available in manuscript No. 677 in the library of the Coimbra University. Information about this invasion can also be gained from manuscript No. 465 (F. G.) entitled Noticias da India in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon.

A detailed account of the battles between the Marquez de Alorna and the Bhonsale of Savantvadi is embodied in a contemporary report. This description is by a high Portuguese officer who had participated in these battles. It is manuscript No. 479 in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. Its title is Relaçao das victorias que na Asia alcantaram as armas Portuguesas Comandadas pelo Illustrissimo e Excellentissimo Marquez de Castelo-Novo Vice-Rei e Capitao Geral da India em 4 e 5 be Maio de 1746 e as vanlajosas consequencias que se seguiro ao Estado, pielmente descrita por um oficial de infanteria que se achar nelas.

Whatever political steps were taken by the Chhatrapati of Satara, the Peshwa and the Bhonsala of Savantvadi after the Portuguese had invaded the fort of Redi have been fully described in a manuscript (51-9-8) available in the Biblioteca da Ajuda. The title of this manuscript is ‘Noticia do que foi sucedendo despois que o nosso Corpo se retirou da praça de Rari.’

There are three more important reports on this subject, the first covering events upto 28 December 1747, in the Biblioteca Nacional (Caixa 13 No. 3). They provide information regarding the efforts made by Sadashivrao Bhau, cousin of the Peshwa, Nanasaheb, to reconquer the territory of Savantvadi taken by the Portuguese; why Sadashivrao Bhau did not succeed has also been dealt with. In the second report, information regarding shahu’s efforts to induce the Portuguese to help Apaji Angre in 1748 is available. This account states that Apaji Angria was a son of Kanhoji Angria by his second wife. The third report contains information about happenings during the year 1749.

The first report states that Chhatrapati Sambhaji of Kolhapur requested Chhatrapati Shahu to see to it that the daily worship of Saptakoteshwara at Narve, for which Shivaji the Great had awarded some land, which had fallen into disuse since Bhatagram was taken by the Portuguese, should be restarted.

The second report tells how the Savantvadi Bhonsala re-captured the fort of Masure, Bharatgad, from Angria, Tulaji Angria begged of the Portuguese to conclude a treaty with him and help him. The third report tells how Nanasaheb Peshwa carried on intrigues, with the help of Ramchandra Malhar, to capture the whole coastal tract from Kolaba to Anjedev.

In brief, these three reports (Successos da India nos anos de 1747-1750) throw considerable light on Mahratta history. The information contained in these reports corresponds in many respects with the information in the volume of Monteiro Mascarenhas known as Epanaphora India. Very probably, these reports were unpublished chapters of this valuable book.

The Jesuit, Father Francisco Alvares, has written two reports dealing with Mahratta intrigues in Karnatak. These two reports are : (1) Relaçao das guerras dos Turcos e Maratas no Reino de Madurey, and (2) Relaçao da guerra que fizerao os Maratas no Reino de Carnate, e Madurey desde o ano 1740. These manuscripts are in the Biblioteca Nacional, Libon (F. G. 4179), Francisco Alvares prepared these reports for the information of Vice-Rei Marquez de Castellinovo. One of them bears the date 16 September 1745.

This Jesuit writes that the people are mortally afraid of the Mahrattas not because of their bravery or valour, but because of their oppressive methods of plunder. (O grande medo que a pobre gente concebe ao nome so de Marata nasce nao tanto de valor que estes mostrao nas suas emprezas … quando nascendas refinadas traças que uzao nos improvizos coubos, e das cruis tenanias que fazem para tirarem dinheiro, ainda que escondio…). This padre also said that all the gold and silver of the area was passing into the hands of the Mahratta State. (Aqui dizem que a maior parte do ouro e prata desta India vai para nas terras do Marata).

The history of the reign of Vice-Rei Marquez de Tavora is given in two Portuguese books which have been already mentioned. There is one more book on this subject, yet unpublished, of which the manuscript is available in the Biblioteca Publica de Evora. Its title is : Annal Indico Historico do Feliz Governo do Illustrissimo e Excellentissimo Senhor Marquez de Tavora, Vice-Rei e Capitao General do Estado da India, 4° parte. Ano de 1753. The present author prossesses a photostat copy. There are two letters from the Marquez de Tavora and his wife to their sons in the Biblioteca Publica de Evora in which there is information regarding Mahratta politics and the skirmishes between the Portuguese and the Saundekar during the reign of this Vice-Rei. His wife pays compliments to Rani Tarabai of Kolhapur for her intelligence. She calls her a very intelligent woman, Mulher Sumamente espirituosa. The well-known Portuguese literateur, Camilo Castello Branco, has published them in his Noicolicos, but the Hindu names in it have been erroneously printed. The present author has microfilm copies of the original letters.

Just as the Marquez de Alorna left behind him instructions for the guidance of his succeeding Viceroy, the Marquez de Tavora also left instructions for his successor, the Conde de Alva. These instruçoes bear the date 7 November 1964. He has said a good deal in them about Tulaji Angria, Nanasaheb Peshwa, the Chhatrapati of Kolhapur and the Bhonsala of Savantvadi. The manuscript is in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. The present author has a photostat copy.

The Portuguese were greatly concerned with Mahratta politics during the administration of the Marquez de Tavora. The Nizam of Hyderabad, Maharani Tarabai of Kolhapur, the Nawab of Savnur, Chhatrapati Sambhaji and Tulaji Angre formed a conspiracy against Peshwa Nanasaheb and demanded the help of the Portuguese against him. The present author has published most of the relevant papers in Vol. Ⅵ of his Portuguesas e Maratas. A previously unpublished Portuguese letter from Muzaffar Jung of Hyderabad to the Viceroy of Goa, written in 1753, is in that volume, In the letter it was stated that if the Portuguese helped Tarabai against Balaji Bajirao alias Nanasaheb Peshwa, she was prepared to return Bassein to the Portuguese. But the author did not come across in the Goa records or in Portugal any Marathi letter from Tarabai to this effect. All the same, it is true that in the old index (Vol. Ⅱ p. 90) of Livro das Monçoes there is a mention of Tarabai having asked for Portuguese help against Nanasaheb.33 Similarly, in a letter of the Governor of Goa, there is mention of Tarabai having appealed for such help against the Peshwa. There is a Portuguese translation of a letter to one Ismail Khan in the service of the Portuguese in Goa records. It can be gathered from that letter that Tarabai was secretly intriguiging with the Portuguese through one Vithojirao Patole whom she had sent to Goa. This letter bears the date 25 October, 1756. It was translated on 25 December, 1756. 34

During the administration of Conde de Alva (1754-1756), the Peshwa attacked Tulaji Angria and invaded Vijaydurg with the help of the English. Tulaji sought the help of the Portuguese. Accordingly, the Conde de Alva sent the Portuguese Armada to his aid. Portuguese papers regarding this have been published in the Collecçao of Biker.

Some correspondence of Vice-Rei Conde da Ega is found in manuscript No. 430 in the Arquivo Ultramarino, Lisbon (Cartas que o Illustrissimo e Excellentissimo Conde da Ega Expedio desde o ano 1758 em que tomar posse do Governo do Estado da India aos Reis e mais Potentados vizinhos do Estado). A good many letters from this manuscript appear to have been quoted in Livro das Reis Vizinhos in the Goa records. There are many letters written by the Marquez de Alorna and Conde da Ega to the King of Potugal about Portuguese intrigues with the Peshwa, the Angria, the Bhonsala of Savantvadi and the Raja of Saunde in manuscripts numbered 440, 448 and 449 in the records in the Arquivo Historico Ultramarino.

The Peshwa sought Portuguese help in 1760-61, during the administration of the Conde de Ega, to take Danda-Rajpuri and Kansa forts belonging to the Siddi of Janjira. Portuguese papers regarding this from the Goa records have been published in Biker’s Collecçao, Part Ⅶ. There are also some mostly unpublished letters about this in the Arquivo

Historico Ultramarino some of them were published in the Arquivo das Colonias for October 1930 and December 1931 by Dr. Mariano Saldanha, bearing numbers 34 and 38. There are some Marathi letters also, yet unpublished, about this campaign in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. One of them is from Vishnu Naik Pratapro Sardesai which sheds a flood of light on this affair. The present author has photostat copies. Only three letters in this connection have been published in Marathi. (Kavyetihasa Sangraha Letters, list 182, Peshwa Daftar, Part 24, pp. 261 and 262).

In 1761, the Third Battle of Panipat was fought. It is not surprising that its effects were felt on Portuguese policies. In 1763, the Conde de Ega conquered Mardangad near Ponda from the Mahrattas and demolished it immediately. Papers from Portuguese records regarding this have been published by Balcemao and Biker. In this campaign, Bispo Alicarnaço, alias Don Antonio Jose de Noronha, played an important part on behalf of the Portuguese. He effectively won over the Mahratta sardars in the fort by his espionage and gratification. Jivaji Vishram Sabnis, Dewan of Savantvadi, was himself in the pay of the Portuguese and he even gave them military help against the Mahrattas. All this is conclusively proved by the papers of Bispo de Alicarnaço. These papers are manuscript No. 172 (Pombalina) in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. This manuscript provides full information about the Portuguese assault on Mardangad. This writer knew the Mahrattas well in some respects. The manuscript of a book (Pombalina No. 308) he wrote is in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. Its title is Sistema Marcial Asiatico, politico, historico, genealogico, analitico, e miscelanico. This book contains a section on the Mahratta army and navy. It was written in 1772 and has 141 pages. The present author has a photostat copy.

Bispo de Alicarnaço was a skilful warrior. He was connected with Dupliex and Hyder Ali. He camped in Poona for some time to collect information about the Poona Court and spoke in terms of obtaining the return of Bassein to the Portuguese through peaceful negotiations.

The Mahrattas captured the Portuguese warship Santan in 1772 and made its Captain, Francisco de Costa Athide, captive in Vijayadurg fort. Portuguese papers concerning negotiations in this behalf have been published. Later, because of preoccupations with Raghunathrao’s troubles, this warship was returned to the Portuguese. Some days later, the treaty regarding Nagar Haveli was concluded. The present author has published all correspondence in this behalf in the sixth part of his Portuguesas e Maratas. One paper from the Goa records in this behalf is still unpublished. It is in Livro de Damao, No. 10 (pp. 84-55). There is a list in this document of the terms that the Peshwa laid down in 1785 for the enjoyment of Nagar Haveli revenues.

The present author has also published documents in Antiguolhas regarding Portuguese policies and doings in connection with the Mahrattas, Hyder Ali and Tipu. The correspondence between 1790 and 1793 is available in manuscript No. 4401 in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. The title is : Negociaçoes que decorreram desde o ano de 1790 a 1793 sendo governador e capitao-geral da India, Francisco de Cunha e Menezes, respeitantes a guerra dos Inglezes e seus aliados contra Tipu Sultano, rei de Sunda e praça de Piro.

The ‘Piro fortress’ is Sadashivgad. The Portuguese had usurped it by buying over Tipu’s officers. The Poona Court laid claim to this and carried on negotiations for two years. At last, with the consent of Nana Fadnavis, the Goa Government handed it over to Tipu.

The envoys of the Portuguese at the Poona Court kept the Goa Government informed about happenings there. There are hundreds of letters regarding this in the Goa records. On the basis of these, the Goa Government too, wrote despatches to Portugal and they thus also contain information about the Mahrattas. There is a letter in the Biblioteca Publica, Evora, written in 1744 by Pedro Vicente Vidal to the Conde de Unhao which mentions a battle between two frigates of the Portuguese and two galevats and nine pals of the Angria. In the same library, there are letters written to Father Manuel do Cenaculo Vilao-Boas, a learned Archbishop from Goa. Letter No. 3529, dated 2 May, 1776 says that five country craft under the protection of Portuguese naval force were captured by some galevetas of the Mahrattas.

Letter No. 3532 written by Fr. Luis do S. Jose Castel Branco on 15 December 1777 refers to the death of the impersonator of Sadashivrao Bhau Peshwa. The Portuguese believed that he was not an impostor. This view is also expressed in a report entitled Noticias do Reino, Situaçao, Forças e Constumesdo Marata. This report was presumably prepared in 1778. The author has published this report in the 77th issue of 1959 of the Boletim do Instituto Vasco-da-Gama.

Letter No. 3535 dated 1 March 1779 says that the Mahrattas believe that the Portuguese would go to Bassein to recaputre it. In another letter, No. 111 dated 23 March, 1795, there is mention of Khem Savant Bhonsala having invaded Ponda Mahal in September 1794.

Even this brief survey will indicate how rich a source of material on the history of the Mahrattas is in the Portuguese language. Historically it is very important because we learn about events, incidents and personages with dates given accurately. Beside, the writers were often scholars and men of letters. It is obvious, therefore, that the history of the Mahrattas will suffer from imperfections for want of study of this material in amplitude.

In conclusion, it would be in the fitness of things to say a few words about the Portuguese material regarding the historical geography of Maharashtra in general and the Konkan in particular.

At least three or four volumes in Portuguese written in the first haIf of the 16th century are worthy of study for their historical geography. One of them is Summa Oriental by Tome Pares. An English translation of this has been published by the Hakluyt Society. Tome Peres wrote his book between 1512 and 1515 in Malaya and India. The information about Goa incorporated in it was written in 1515. The other book is O Livro by Doarte Barbosa which was prepared in 1516. An English translation of this book is also available. There is in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, a manuscript (No. 9163) described as a book by Vasco da Gama. But there is not much difference between its contents and what Barbosa writes. It could be definitely said that it was prepared on the basis of the book by Barbosa. The present author has a photostat copy of this manuscript.

Don Joao de Castro has given in his book Roteiro de Goa e Diu, written about 1540, a description of the sea-coast from Goa to Diu. It was published in 1843. An appendix to this book was published in de Castro’s Cosmographia e Descripçao de Reino de Daguem. This appendix covers the geography of the Deccan State and contains much valuable information about the Deccan and the Konkan. Its importance is increased by reason of the maps added to it which were drawn by Don Joao de Castro. The original maps are at present in the library of Coimbra University.

A manuscript entitled Livro que trata das consas da India e do Japao which was formerly in the Library Elhaso, was published in 1957 at Coimbra. The chapter on Southern Konkan in it was written in 1548 and states that the northern limit of Southern Konkan is the Kharepatan River and the southern limit is the Chitakul River (Symtacor). Vaz Dourado prepared a map of India in Goa in 1571 where Cinatacor is mentioned as Cintacola. It is obviously a corruption of Chitakul.

Some books published in the seventeenth century are also noteworthy in connection with the historical geography of Maharashtra. Of these, Bocarro’s Fortalezas da India and Pedro de Barreto Resende’s Livro do Estado da India Oriental have already been mentioned. Besides these, Dr. Avro’s de Costa’s Tratado da Viagem da India Oriental written in 1610-11 and preserved as manuscript No. 482 in the library at Porto and particularly Relaçao do novo Caminho written in 1663 by Padre Manoel Godinho are important. There is a manuscript no. R 202 in the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid by Antonio Bocarro to which 52 maps have been appended. They are drawn by Joao Teixeira Albernaz Ⅰ, a Portuguese. The title of this manuscript is : Livro em que se relata o sitio de todas as fortalezas, Cidades e provoaçoes do Estado da India Oriental. Besides the map of India in 1571, Manoel Godinho Eredia prepared a book a map of India in 1571, Manoel Godinho Eredia prepared a book of maps ino 1610 which is now in the Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. Eredia drew up a map of Goa under the Portuguese about 1616 which is in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. Dr. Machado Figueira has in his collection in Lisbon, a book of maps (1615-1622). All of these have been published or are about to be published.35 The present author had an opportunity to see the book of maps in the possession of Dr. Machado Figueira in 1954, while he was in Lisbon.

In 1780, Gustav Adolfo Ereulis de Sermo, a military officer, prepared a coloured map of Goan territory then under the Portuguese and sent it to Lisbon. It has been preserved in Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Lisbon. One more map of Goa was sent to Portugal with a covering letter dated 12 February 1817 by Vice-Rei Conde de Rio Pardo which is now in Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Lisbon. There is also a map of Bombay Island and Bandra there. Maps of Malvan and Sadashivgad drawn in colour in 1790 are also there. Similarly, maps of the territory conquered from Savantvadi in 1746 by Vice-Rei Marquez de Castelo Novo and of territory between Terekhol and Redy fortresses drawn by Engineer Francisco Augosto Monteiro Cabral in 1817 as also maps of Sanquelim and Bicholim forts drawn by him in 1779 are preserved in the Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Lisbon. Joao Antonio Aguiar Pinto Sarmento, an engineer, prepared in 1782, a map of Daman and the territory around it. Under orders of the Governor of Goa, Frederico Gillerme de Souza, Manoel Furtado prepared a map of Goa in 1716 which is to be seen in the house of the Conde de Sabugose, Lisbon.

Maps of Ponda and Sadashivgad fortresses which were attacked by the Portuguese in 1763 and 1768 are preserved in the Biblioteca Publica de Evora. A map of Sadashivgad prepared in the 18th century (manuscript No. 553) is in the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa.

A picture of Ponda fort during the Adilshahi days was drawn on a wall, which has been preserved in the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vieno.36 A map of Goa and adjoining territory drawn by D’Orgeval in 1747 is included in Epanaphora Indica. The site of the battle between Bhosla of Savantvadi and the Marquez de Alorna has been shown in this map.

It is needless to enlarge on how important all these fortresses were in Mahratta history. 37

NOTES

• 1. Pissurlencar, Colaboradores Hindus e Afonso de Albuquerque, 1941 p. 1; Tentativas dos Portuguese para a ocupacao do Concao, 1955. Goa was captured by the Portuguese in 1510. That the southern border of the then Goa State (Reino de Goa) was Kalinadi can be gathered from such historical sources as Tome Peres (1515), Dorvate Barbosa (1516), Don Joao Castro (Cosmographia 1540), Livro que tratadas consas da India e Japao (1548), Letters of Albuqueque (1511), Commentarios do Grande A. de Albuquerque, Gaspar Correia, Castanhada, Barros, etc. Kudal was within the northern border of Goa at this time. (Pissurlencar, Colaboradores, p. 16; Letter of Albuquerque dated 22 December 1510, Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, Vol. Ⅰ p. 28.)
• 2. Cristovam Afonso’s letter dated 31 October, 1524 (T. T. Corpo Cronologico, parte Ⅰ, Maco 31, dos. 83); Gaspar Correia, Lendas, Liv. Ⅱ, f. Ⅱ parte Ⅱ, pp. 759-60).
• 3. According to Rober Sewell, Mealkhan was another name of Abdulla of Bijapur (A Forgotten Empire, 1962, p. 184). What is surprising is that Yusuf Khan himself says that his father was Mealkhan (B. N. P. Fond Portugais).
• 4. Pissurlencar, Tombo da Ⅰlha de Goa e das terras de Salçette e Bardez, Organizado em 1595 por Francisco Pais, p. 14; Padre Sebastiao Gonsalves, Da Historia dos Religiosos da Compannia de Jesus, Ms. Res. 915, fl. 320 V (BNL); George Portugiesisch, Asiens zur seit des hl. Franz Xavier, Leipzig, 1932, pp. 1148, 1981.
• 5. Dastak, i.e. permit, was called cartez by the Portuguese.
• 6. Goa Archives, Livro de Cartazes, Biker, Tratados, Vol. Ⅰ; Pissurlencar, PM. Ⅰ Shivaji, pp. 26-7.
• 7. Letter of the Viceroy of Goa dated 22 January, 1721 (Goa Archives, MR 86, fl. 696; Pissurlencar, Portugal nos Mares da India, in a Provincia, NovaGoa, 5 April, 1926).
• 8. Letter from Conde de Sandomel to Antonio Cardim Froice dated 15 January, 1934 (Goa Archives Livro de Chaul No. 1 fl. 4 V).
• 9. Goa Viceroy’s letter dated December 1744 to Cardeal da Motta (AHU, Ms 448, Concelho Ultramarino). 10) See Biker.
• 11. Pissurlencar, Roteiro dos Anquivos da India Portuguesa, Intr; C. R. Boxer, ‘Three Historians of Portuguese Asia (Barros, Castro and Bocarro)’, in Boletim do Instituto Portuguese de Hongkong, Ⅰ, 1948.
• 12. C. R. Boxer, ‘Antonio Bocarro and the “Livro do Estado da India Oriental” in Gracia de Orta,’ Lisboa, 1956, p. 208 n.
• 13. Ibid. p. 210; C. R. Boxer in J-R-A-S, Parts Ⅲ and Ⅳ, London 1948, pp. 188-9.
• 14. BNP Fondo Portugais 1, fl. 68.
• 15. Diogo do Couto; ‘porque o mesmo Meale nos disse nesta cidade de Goa—Mealkhan himself told us in this city of Goa; Decada Quinta da Asia. Texte inedit, public d’apres un manuscrit de Ia Biblioteque de J’Universite de Leyde, par Inaseus de Jong. Coimbra, 1937, p. 591.
• 16. Diogo do Couto, Decada Quinta, p. 585; Leonardo Nunes, Chronica de Dom Joao de Castro, ed. by J. D. M. Ford, Cambridge, 1936, p. 13; Pissurlencer, ‘Os Primeiros Goescs em Portugal’, in Bol. inst. Vasco da Gama No. 31 (Krishna Shenvi’s letter to the king of Portugal dated 5 December, 1546); Let ter of Luis Froise dated 12 December, 1557 (Father Wicki, Documenta indica, Vol. Ⅵ; Letter from Yusufkhan, son of Mealkhan, to King of Portugal dated 3 December 1581 (BNP, Fond Portugais); Don Joao de Castro’s letter to King of Portugal in 1545 (Elaine Sancean, Cartas de D. Joao de Castro, 1955, pp. 110-21).
• 17. Pissurlencar, A Des Cendencias de Mealcao.
• 18. Viceroy of Goa’s letter dated 16 April, 1665 to Krishnaji Bhasker, Governor of Shivaji (Goa Archives, RV No. 2, fls. 36 V-37); Viceroy Antonio do Melo Castros letter dated 4 June, 1665 to Francisco de Melo and Diogo de Melo (Goa Archives).
• 19. Second Edition, Bombay, 1881-1886.
• 20. Promptuario, 1892, p. 83; e. o. Aurangxa Mogor, que actualmente de Senhor de Todos os Reinos. 21) Biker, Tratados, Ⅷ, p. 175 (Governor’s letter of 21 February, 1782).
• 22. Goa Archives, MR. 93B, fls. 536-537 v. (Viceroy’s letter of 16 July, 1726).
• 23. A.H.U., India avulos, maco 7.
• 24. The names of the poems are : (1) Poema heroico, historico, da glorioso e immortal Victoria que contra o inimigo Bounsulo alcançar o Illustrissimo e Excellentissimo Senhor D. Pedro Minguel de Almeida e Portugal, Marquez de Castello Novo, Viecs-Rei da India etc. na tomada de Alorna, Bicholim e Sanquelim, no ano 1746, Lisboa, 1747. (2) Poema heroico, ou metricos proesas de Marte, executadas pelo lllustrissimo e Excellentissimo Senhor Marquez de Castello Novo etc. na continuacao das conquistas das terras do Bounsulo ate a praca de Rarim, Lisboa 1747. (3) Applansos metricos ao Excellentissimo Senhor D. Pedro Minguel de Almeida e Portugal, Marquez de Castello Novo etc. pelos felices successos e victorias, que tem conseguido na India contra o inimigo Bounsulo, Lisboa, 1747. Three poems by Joseph Luiz Coutinho on the same subject are available. The present author has one of them. It was published in Lisbon in 1750. Some more poems on the subject are preserved in the British Museum (Add. No. 20907).
• 25. C. R. Boxer, Four Centuries of Portuguese Expansion, 1415-1825, Johannesburg, 1961, p. 94.
• 26. In 1951, the Portuguese Governor of Goa informed the Government of Portugal that, “Devido as esporco intelegente, ininterrupto e pertinaz (de Pissurlencar), poder o Governo Geral deste Estado orgulhar-se de possuir um Arquivo Historico que nos honra.” (Conselho do Governo do Estado da India. Acta no. 9, sessao de 12-6-1951). Pissurlencar, Roteiro dos Arquivos da India Portuguesa.
• 27. Pissurlencar, A Portuguese Embassy to Raigad in 6184. Reprinted from the All India Modern History Congress Proceedings, 1936, p. 6 n. 12.
• 28. Sahyadri, May 1940; Bhratamitra, Goa; Sardesai Smaraka Grantha; A D P I.
• 29. The writer of Breve Resumo says that he came to know of the concessions and other benefits offered to the Portuguese by the Moghuls from the Vice-Rei (Cfr. e estes ultimos offerencimentos do Mogol flou O Sr. Conde de my com os mais segredos (Vice-Rei).
• 30. Goa Archives : MR 112 fts. 111-114; Oriente Portuguez Vol. Ⅳ, p. 170; Pissurlencar, P. M. Ⅳ pp. 96, 104, 122.
• 31. Y. N. Kelkar, Vassaichi Mohim, p. 165.
• 32. Eduardo Brazao, Diorio de D. Francisco Xavier de Menezes, 4° Conde de Ericeira, Coimbra 1943, page 95. 33) Letter from the Governor of Goa dated 23 January 1757 (Goa Archives MR 129, fl. 422).
• 34. Goa Archives; Old Portuguese translation of Marathi letters; No. 881.
• 35. A good many of these maps have been given in the Portuguese Government publication, Portugalise Monumenta Carthographica.
• 36. Luiz Keil, As Tapeçarias de D. Joao de Castro, p. 26.
• 37. A Portuguese artist prepared a manuscript between 1538 and 1546 which contained pictures of man and women from Goa and other parts of India. It is available in the Biblioteca Casana tens, Rome. (Father G. Schurhammer, S. J., Desenhos Orientais do tempo de S. Francis Xavier,’ in Garcia de Orta, 1956. Pissurlencar’s contribution to the September 1964 issue of Mandavi.).