Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Documents of Maratha History

Documents of Marathi history dating to the eighteenth and nineteenth century presented to the Royal Asiatic Society by Sir Alexander Malet in 1828 and by General John Briggs in 1874. The papers donated by Briggs are predominantly correspondence from the Peshwa Court at the time of Nana Fadnavis and were given by Nana Fadnavis' widow to Briggs in 1825. Those from Malet were collected by his father, Sir Charles Warre Malet, during his political career in India and are predominantly handwritten accounts of Marathi history.
Each of the documents also has a description provided by Simon Digby when Honorary Librarian at the Royal Asiatic Society from 1970. The documents written in Marathi are in modi script.

John Briggs entered the Madras Infantry in 1801. He took part in the Mahratta wars, serving in the final campaign as a political officer under Sir John Malcolm, whom he had previously accompanied on his mission to Persia in 1810. He was one of Mountstuart Elphinstone's assistants in the Dekhan, subsequently served in Khandesh, and succeeded Captain Grant Duff as resident at Sattára. In 1831 Briggs was appointed senior member of the board of commissioners for the government of Mysore when the administration of that state was assumed by the British. His appointment to this office, which was made by the governor-general Lord William Bentinck, was not agreeable to the government of Madras, and after a stormy tenure which lasted around a year, Briggs resigned his post in September 1832. He was transferred to the residency of Nágpur, where he remained until 1835. In that year he left India, and never returned. After his return to England he took a prominent part as a member of the court of directors of the East India Company in the discussion of Indian affairs, and was an opponent of Lord Dalhousie's annexation policy. He was also an active member of the Anti-Corn-law League. He was also a proficient Persian scholar and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of this. He died at Burgess Hill, Sussex, on 27 April 1875, at the age of eighty-nine.

Simon Everard Digby was born in India in 1932 and was educated at Stowe School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He travelled in India and Pakistan before returning to England to complete a PhD at the School of Oriental and Africa Studies. He returned to India in 1961-1962 and continued to make trips to India throughout his life. He was Honorary Librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1968-1984. During this time he worked to identify some of these documents. In 1972 he was appointed to a post in the Department of Eastern Art of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. He also taught and examined post-graduate students at SOAS. He died in Delhi in 2010 from pancreatic cancer.

Sir Charles Warre Malet entered the service of the East India Company at an early age. He filled various posts, including charge of a mission to the Mughal emperor and of the residency at Cambay from 1774 to 1785, where he formed views in favour of expanding British power in India. Malet also developed an unrivalled knowledge of Gujarat and western India more generally, and was dispatched by the government in Calcutta to persuade the Maratha leader Sindhia to accept the appointment of a company resident to the court of the peshwa at Poona, a post which he took up himself in November 1785. He considered western India an asset to improve British trade with China, and considered it important to have greater control over the rulers of western India. When Tipu Sultan attacked Travancore in 1789, Cornwallis made an alliance with the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Peshwa of Mahratta through Malet. This treaty was signed with difficulty, as Tipu also sought to forge alliances with the Peshwas. For his efforts Malet was created a baronet in February 1791. Malet retired to Britain in 1798 accompanied by Susanna (d. 1868), daughter of the portrait painter James Wales. The couple married on 17 September the following year and had eight sons. He died at Bath on 24 January 1815, when he was described as living at Wilbury House, Wiltshire.

Nana Fadnavis (Furnewees) was an influential minister and statesman of the Maratha Empire during the Peshwa administration in Pune, India. He was born in Satara in 1742. Nana was the grandson of Balaji Mahadji Bhanu, an administrator at the Peshwa court, and inherited his grandfather's name. He was educated at the court and also worked there under Madhu Rao Narayan. Nana's administrative, diplomatic, and financial skills brought prosperity to the Maratha Empire and his management of external affairs kept the Maratha Empire away from the thrust of the British East India Company. He displayed his best warfare skills in various battles won by Maratha forces against the Nizam of Hyderabad, Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan of Mysore, and the English Army. After the assassination of Peshwa Narayanrao in 1773, Nana Fadnavis managed the affairs of the state with the help of a twelve-member regency council known as the Barabhai council. The council was Nana's mastermind plan to protect Madhavrao II, son of Narayanrao, born posthumously to Gangabai, the widow of Narayanrao, from the Peshwa family's internal conflicts. The Barabhai Council was an alliance of influential Sardars (generals) led by Nana. Other members of the council were Haripant Phadke, Moroba Phadnis, Sakaram Bapu Bokil, Trimbakraomama Pethe, Mahadji Shinde, Tukojirao Holkar, Phaltankar, Bhagwanrao Pratinidhi, Maloji Ghorpade, Sardar Raste, and Babuji Naik. While visiting Daulatrao Scindia's camp one day in 1798, Nana was suddenly imprisoned, leading to unprecedented looting and anarchy in Pune. He was released a few months later. After a short illness, Nana died at Pune on the 13th of March, 1800.

The papers were divided into two series having been created from two different sources - General John Briggs and Sir Charles Warre Malet.

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The papers were acquired from Alexander Malet on 7 May 1828, and John Briggs on 18 September 1874.

John Briggs entered the Madras Infantry in 1801. He took part in the Mahratta wars, serving in the final campaign as a political officer under Sir John Malcolm, whom he had previously accompanied on his mission to Persia in 1810. He was one of Mountstuart Elphinstone's assistants in the Dekhan, subsequently served in Khandesh, and succeeded Captain Grant Duff as resident at Sattára. In 1831 Briggs was appointed senior member of the board of commissioners for the government of Mysore when the administration of that state was assumed by the British. His appointment to this office, which was made by the governor-general Lord William Bentinck, was not agreeable to the government of Madras, and after a stormy tenure which lasted around a year, Briggs resigned his post in September 1832. He was transferred to the residency of Nágpur, where he remained until 1835. In that year he left India, and never returned. After his return to England he took a prominent part as a member of the court of directors of the East India Company in the discussion of Indian affairs, and was an opponent of Lord Dalhousie's annexation policy. He was also an active member of the Anti-Corn-law League. He was also a proficient Persian scholar and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of this. He died at Burgess Hill, Sussex, on 27 April 1875, at the age of eighty-nine.

Simon Everard Digby was born in India in 1932 and was educated at Stowe School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He travelled in India and Pakistan before returning to England to complete a PhD at the School of Oriental and Africa Studies. He returned to India in 1961-1962 and continued to make trips to India throughout his life. He was Honorary Librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1968-1984. During this time he worked to identify some of these documents. In 1972 he was appointed to a post in the Department of Eastern Art of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. He also taught and examined post-graduate students at SOAS. He died in Delhi in 2010 from pancreatic cancer.

Sir Charles Warre Malet entered the service of the East India Company at an early age. He filled various posts, including charge of a mission to the Mughal emperor and of the residency at Cambay from 1774 to 1785, where he formed views in favour of expanding British power in India. Malet also developed an unrivalled knowledge of Gujarat and western India more generally, and was dispatched by the government in Calcutta to persuade the Maratha leader Sindhia to accept the appointment of a company resident to the court of the peshwa at Poona, a post which he took up himself in November 1785. He considered western India an asset to improve British trade with China, and considered it important to have greater control over the rulers of western India. When Tipu Sultan attacked Travancore in 1789, Cornwallis made an alliance with the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Peshwa of Mahratta through Malet. This treaty was signed with difficulty, as Tipu also sought to forge alliances with the Peshwas. For his efforts Malet was created a baronet in February 1791. Malet retired to Britain in 1798 accompanied by Susanna (d. 1868), daughter of the portrait painter James Wales. The couple married on 17 September the following year and had eight sons. He died at Bath on 24 January 1815, when he was described as living at Wilbury House, Wiltshire.

Nana Fadnavis (Furnewees) was an influential minister and statesman of the Maratha Empire during the Peshwa administration in Pune, India. He was born in Satara in 1742. Nana was the grandson of Balaji Mahadji Bhanu, an administrator at the Peshwa court, and inherited his grandfather's name. He was educated at the court and also worked there under Madhu Rao Narayan. Nana's administrative, diplomatic, and financial skills brought prosperity to the Maratha Empire and his management of external affairs kept the Maratha Empire away from the thrust of the British East India Company. He displayed his best warfare skills in various battles won by Maratha forces against the Nizam of Hyderabad, Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan of Mysore, and the English Army. After the assassination of Peshwa Narayanrao in 1773, Nana Fadnavis managed the affairs of the state with the help of a twelve-member regency council known as the Barabhai council. The council was Nana's mastermind plan to protect Madhavrao II, son of Narayanrao, born posthumously to Gangabai, the widow of Narayanrao, from the Peshwa family's internal conflicts. The Barabhai Council was an alliance of influential Sardars (generals) led by Nana. Other members of the council were Haripant Phadke, Moroba Phadnis, Sakaram Bapu Bokil, Trimbakraomama Pethe, Mahadji Shinde, Tukojirao Holkar, Phaltankar, Bhagwanrao Pratinidhi, Maloji Ghorpade, Sardar Raste, and Babuji Naik. While visiting Daulatrao Scindia's camp one day in 1798, Nana was suddenly imprisoned, leading to unprecedented looting and anarchy in Pune. He was released a few months later. After a short illness, Nana died at Pune on the 13th of March, 1800.

This material was catalogued by Nancy Charley, RAS Archivist, in 2022. The cataloguing was aided by notes made by Simon Digby.

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With the papers donated by John Briggs is a letter from him to the Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, dated 18 September 1874. Within the letter he asks to present to the Society a portrait of the Court of Bijapur A.D. 1579 and 'original letters and other documents in the Mahratta language presented to [him] by the Widow of the Great Minister Balojee Jumardhan, commonly styled Nana Farnevise or Prime Minister at Poona during many years of the last century'. These letters were in Briggs possession before 1828 when he read his translation of some of them at the Society's General Meeting.
The papers of Charles Malet were found within his father's papers by his son, Alexander Malet. They had been collected during Malet's residence in India. The papers were donated to the Oriental Translation Committee with a number of Persian manuscripts for possible translation. Their donation was minuted and listed in the Report of the Committee dated 7 May 1828 and found within the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society II, 1830, pp. xxxiii-xxxv.

The Society still has in its collections Persian manuscripts also presented by Alexander Malet from his father's collections. Details can be found https://ras.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?idx=kw&q=Malet&sort_by=relevance_dsc&count=20&limit=itype:MS.
John Briggs translated the biography: Memoir of the early Life of Nana Farnevis and also Secret Correspondence of the Court of the Peshwa, Madhu Rao, from the Year 1761 to 1772. Translated from Original Mahratta Letters, translations of these papers and others. Both these articles can be found in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society II, 1830, pp. 95-165.
The pen-and-ink drawing of the Adil Shah Dynasty of Bijapur also donated by Briggs in 1874 forms part of the Society's collections (Cat. No. 010-004) as do three other drawings by Briggs of monuments at Bijapur (Cat. Nos. 010.001 - 010-003). Details can be found here. The Society also has books written by John Briggs, details of which can be found https://ras.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?idx=kw&q=John%20Briggs&sort_by=relevance_dsc&count=20&limit=itype:MONO.

Published

gb891-sc29