Rise of the Maratha Power (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...trouble at Bedar. The story of Dnmajipant, a servant of the Bedar Kings, is well known to all. In a time of famine he distributed the Government stores of grain among the poor, and on being taken to task he was relieved by an unexpected remittance of the full value of the grain to the King's treasury. The saints came out well in their struggles with their foreign rulers, and they prevailed not by fighting nor by resistance, but by quiet resignation to the will of God. There was a tendency perceptible towards a reconciliation of the two races in mutual recognition of the essential unity of Alia with Rama, and by the time Shivaji appeared on the scene, this reconciliation seems to have been almost complete, though occasional outbursts of Mahomedan fanaticism were not altogether unknown even then. We have thus noticed all the principal features of the religious movement, which, commencing with Dnyandev who lived in the fifteenth century, can be traced to the end of the last century as a steady growth in spiritual virtues. It gave us a literature of considerable value in the vernacular language of the country. It modified the strictness of the old spirit of caste exclusiveness. It raised the Shudra classes to a position of spiritual power and social importance, almost equal to that of the Brahmans. It gave sanctity to the family relations, and raised the status of woman. It made the nation more humane, at the same time more prone to hold together by mutual toleration. It suggested and partly carried out a plan of reconciliation with the Mahomedans. It subordinated the importance of rites and ceremonies, and of pilgrimages and fasts, and of learning and contemplation, to the higher excellence of worship by means of love and faith. It checked...