Survey of Material in Marathi on the Economic and Social History of India (An Old and Rare Book)

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The Bharata Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandala, since its foundation in 1910, has endeavoured all along to collect material relating to all aspects of Indian history in general and Maratha history in particular. A vast amount of material thus collected includes lakhs of records and manuscripts which are of social and economic significance. Similar material is also available at other archival centres in Maharashtra and elsewhere. Those are mostly in Marathi language written in Modi script.

During the course of the last seventy years or so, the members of the Mandala not only collected the records but also tried to interpret them, and present them for discussion at the periodical meetings of the Mandala. Some of the records thus collected and interpreted appeared later in the Mandala's journal, viz. Bharata Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandala Quarterly started in 1920.

The research work put forth in Marathi by the members of the Bharata Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandala and similar other organisations, and a large number of private individuals needed to be surveyed, discussed and indexed together for the benefit of researchers in the field. A considerable number of scholars whose mother-tongue is not Marathi, have also research interest in the history of the Maratha people. They wish to know in detail about the availability of material in Marathi language on the particular field of their study. It is a happy sign that their number is growing day by day.

In the present bibliographical survey Dr. V. D. Divekar has presented in one place a vast amount of material available in Marathi language on various aspects of economic and social history of India. While so doing, he had to consult necessarily a very large number of old periodicals and books, and this he has done diligently and painstakingly. In the process he has referred to the articles and books of about nine hundred authors. The Survey generally covers the publications published upto 1978. The titles appearing in the Survey are presented in the popular form of transliteration. The work is divided into four chapters. The first chapter deals with source material, and the remaining three chapters deal with writings on different periods of social and economic history of India.

By writing this monograph, Dr. Divekar has indeed rendered most valuable and useful service to the cause of Indian history. Preparation of similar surveys for other Indian languages is a great desideratum. It is hoped that scholars working in other Indian languages will come forward to meet this need.

The Bharata Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandala is greatly indebted to the Indian Council of Historical Research for making available most of the financial assistance for the publication of this work. Our thanks are also due to the Aksharchhaya, Pune, our printers, for the excellent job they have done.

The present Survey attempts to cover the source material available and research work done in the Marathi language on the economic and social history of India. There is some material on regions outside Maharashtra (and it is mentioned at appropriate places in the following pages), but it is negligible. Hence a survey of Marathi literature tantamounts to a survey of the literature on Maharashtra.

There is no comprehensive, up-to-date Marathi bibliography on Maratha history G.S. Sardesai's 'Marathyanchya itihasache sahitya (Baroda, Arya- sudharak, 1924) is now both inadequate and out-of-date. V. S. Bendre's 'Maha- rashtretihasache samshodhan kshetra va sadhan-sampatti (Bombay. Mumbai Marathi Grantha-Sangrahalaya, 1966) discusses the availability of material for historical research on Maharashtra, and is a good intorductory work on the subject. L. B. Keni discusses source material on Maratha history in his article in "Bharateeya Itihas ani Sanskriti (quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1. April 1964, pp. 28-36). as part of a general discussion on Indian historiography. Although written in English, we may also mention here an article by V.G. Dighe. Modern Historical Writing in Marathi in C.H. Philips (ed.), 'Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon (London. Oxford. 1961). A bibliography of Marathi works on social and economic history of India (or, of Maharashtra) has not been attempted so far, perhaps because the main interest in historical research in Maharashtra has heen, till recently, in political rather than social and economic fields.

The present Survey is divided into four Chapters. Chapter I deals with source material, and the remaining three chapters deal with works relating to ancient and medieval times (upto C. 1650 A. D.), Maratha times (C. 1650 A. D. to 1800 A. D.) and British times (C. 1800 A. D. to 1947 A. D.) respectively. A brief overview of the field surveyed is given at the end of the chapters, followed by the index.

The present work originally appeared in four instalments in the issues (Vol. 15, 1978) of 'The Indian Economic and Social History Review of the Indian Economic and Social History Association, Delhi School of Economics. Delhi, and published by Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi. The subject was first suggested to me by Prof. Dharma Kumar, the editor of the Review. She also went carefully through the final draft and edited it. I am much thankful to her for all her help in this regard. The Indian Council of Social Science Research extended financial support during the preparation of the Survey. The Indian Council of Historical Research has made available a publication grant for bringing out the work in a book form. The Bharata Itihasa Samshodaka Mandala, Pune, the leading historical research institute in the country, has taken upon itself the task of publishing the work by utilising the grant made available by the ICH R. I am deeply in debt of gratitute to all the Institutions mentioned above and also to colleagues who helped in various ways in the progress and completion of this work.