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Appajirao Chalukya sitting in the attire of a Sardar, 4 the same Sardar Chalukya on the background of the fort of Kalyani, 5 ancient
paintings of the Sardar s ancestors, and 6 various locations from the fort of Kalyani. Interestingly, the editor reports in his
Bhūmikā that both the original manuscripts were thrown by him into the Ganga due to heavy termite-infestation, and hence the text was brought out only from the press-copy
prepared by the editor and possessed by the Sardar.
1.3: Attention of V. V. Mirashi was drawn to the book by a letter written to him in
June 1973 by Devisingh Chauhan, a scholar of ancient and medieval Indian history,
6
who had already written an article on the said
kāvya Bhāratīya Itihāsa āṇi Saṁskṛti, Vol. 37, April 1973, pp. 19-30.
7
Mirashi communicated to him his doubts about its genuineness and also wrote an article maintaining that such a
kāvya could not have been composed before the various literary and archaeological sources of Indian history were brought to
light by researchers of the 19th and 20th centuries. He, thus, labelled the said kāvya as
spurious Bhāratīya Itihāsa āṇi Saṁskṛti, Vol. 40, January 1974, pp. 48-60, also Journal
of Indian History , Vol. 52, pp. 217 ff..
1.4: As mentioned earlier, G. B. Mehendale has dealt with this issue exhaustively
in Eka Banāvaṭa Aitihāsika Kāvya which stands as the 15th Appendix to his work rī
Rājā ivachatrapatī published in 1999 Vol. 1, part 2, book 1, pp. 531-561, and has thrown fresh light on various aspects of the issue.
8
He has enumerated the objections on the authenticity of the
kāvya as follows: 1 Dates of about a hundred historical events from aka 143 to aka 1713 have been
given in the kāvya, a fact that does not corroborate with the level of historical knowledge
that the Indians or for that matter even outsiders
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possessed in 1815 CE. 2 Such a long history of no other dynasty or house is known.
3 Various modern ideas and elements of articulation appear in the text; for example, the k
āvya mentions that Ayyaṇa had researched in astronomy and propounded his discoveries in a text called Viraha-
abhiharā . This stands against the ancient Indian practice to refrain from identifying any discovery with the name of its investigator.
4 Information of historical facts that have come to light decades after the composition of the
kāvya appears in the same. Mehendale has alleged that Vishwanath Shastri Bharadvaj himself must have
fabricated the kāvya at the instance of the Sardar in order to establish him in the lineage
of the Cālukyas, and that a great amount of paraphernalia in the form of photographs,
etc. has been deliberately created around its text with the same objective in mind.
10
1.5: The discussion on the use of kerosene as mentioned in the said
kāvya, however, went on for a year between Chauhan and Mirashi.
Responding to Chauhan s article in support of its knowledge
Bhāratīya Itihāsa āṇi Saṁskṛti, Vol. 42, October
6
Chauhan was a rare combination of an activist and a scholar. He was a freedom-fighter, later on a member of local and state legislative bodies and a minister in the Government of Maharashtra. He was a
member of the BORI, the Bharat Itihas Samshodhak Mandal and many other scholarly bodies. His collection of books has been received and held by the BORI library.
7
Chauhan s articles could not be referred to due to unavailability of the volumes of the said journal. Mirashi s articles, however, could be referred to through their reprint in the seventh volume of his
Saṁ odhana-muktāvalī.
8
The last portion of the kāvya that deals with the ancestors of Sardar Patil, attempts to provide some
imaginary details of the Maratha history and particularly of the relation of the house of the Patils with Chhatrapati Shivaji.
9
Parentheses mine.
10
It may also be pointed out that an extraordinarily thick paper is used for printing the book. Excluding its binding, the book altogether 324 pages is about 2.6 cm thick. The generous sponsorship of Sardar Patil
seems to have been exploited very well
Page 3 of 6
1974, pp. 15-27, Mirashi cautioned Chauhan through a personal letter written on January 16, 1975.
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Fictitiousness of ancient Indian kerosene was finally brought out by
Mirashi in print Bhāratīya Itihāsa āṇi Saṁskṛti, Vol. 43, April 1975, pp. 3-10.
1.6: As is evident from the letter dated July 27, 1975, written to Devisingh
Chauhan, Sardar Chalukya seems to have kept on persuading Chauhan and perhaps also others to pay attention to it.
12
The said letter is worth citing in full in order to have the sense of
the Sardar s anxiety and eagerness. It reads: Dt. 27
–7–75 My dear Devisinghji,
It is ages that I did not hear from you. I learnt that you are now a Chairman, Sugar Factory, and as such, must be very busy. However you
can’t neglect your literary pursuit. That is also, important. I do try to contact you, nay make it a point to meet you there, but unfortunately I am
greatly disappointed so far
. I don’t know whether your address is changed as I did not get a reply to my letters so far and as such I am sending this co
our common friend Dr. V. G. Khobrekar,
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who too has the same complain. I hope you will now shall
sic. attend to this letter and contact me at Hotel Amir, Poona
– Near Railway Station, 15, Connaught Road, Phone 27371; as I will be there from 1
st
to 6
th
August 75, and then proceed to Kolhapur. My address at Kol
hapur is: New Palace Phone: 20, Kolhapur and do expect a letter from you as you have to reply a nasty attack on you, as it
seems to be absurd and we have sufficient reliable authorities to substantiate your point of view and genuineness of our original documents
referred
sic. by Foreign Authorities. The maliced criticism must be set at
rest once for all, as it is baseless and based on hatred, naturally when the efforts of that group for more than two centuries are going to be smashed
and thrown out to their woe and, a great failure in writing true History. You shall be entirely armed with weighty arguments, loaded with very
importan
[t] historical evidence, recently unearthed and published in Royal Asiatic Society, London, Magazines Bulletins etc. along with our old
Mss. and a number of mistakes in reading, translating, typing and printing has occurred, and were not noticed and timely corrected but the facts are
now all collobrated
[?] and found to be absolutely correct, be assured and hence the request. More when we meet.
With regards Yours ever sincerely
A. P. Chalukey
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This inland letter sent from Nagpur was seemingly delivered to Chauhan at his Mumbai address on January 22, 1975. It was found in the Devisingh Chauhan Collection at the BORI Library.
From Mirashi s article published in the next issue of the journal, it is learnt that Chauhan had requested the Editors to
delete the kerosene-related matter from his article. But the same was published by oversight.
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This handwritten letter sent from Kalyani Kothi, Radha Ganj, Dewas, MP , bears the heading Sardar A. Patil Chalukey, IAS Retd., MRAS in purple colour. It holds the emblem printed in red ink of the
Sardar showing an eagle over a circle having: 1 two scimitars on the sides, 2 image of two bastions and a gate of a fort with a flag mounted, 3 a legend Cālukya Kalyāṇī in Devanāgarī, Kannaḍa and Roman
scripts, and 4 all this encircled by an eagle holding with its feet a serpent The letter is carefully pasted by Chauhan between the 2nd and the 3rd page of his copy of the book. Chauhan seems to have seriously
studied the
kāvya, as is evident from the other insertions and marginal notes he has made in the said copy.
13
V. G. Khobarekar was a renowned scholar of medieval documents who held the post of Director of Archives, Government of Maharashtra.
Page 4 of 6 1.7: However, Chauhan and other scholars do not seem to have paid heed to this
persuasion.
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Thereafter the kāvya under reference seems to have sunk into oblivion for
about three decades.
2.1: About a decade ago a doctoral dissertation on the said
