Shivaji Rao Saheb G. K. alias Baba Saheb Deshpande, the author of this book is a very old friend of mine. I have known him these forty years and more. I saw him first as a student in t h e Deccan Education Society’s New English School, Poona. He was even in his boyhood a warm admirer of the founders of the Institution but particularly thought very highly of Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar and Messrs. Agarkar and Tilak. He was a very diligent student and won easily the top most Place in Languages and History.

Every careful student of the History of the Mahrattas knows that, Shivaji “the mountain rat” of Aurangzeb, was, by his superior abilities, unerring tact. stern discipline, astounding patriotism, and by his amiable and God-loving temperament, able to weld the “separatist” Mahrattas into a united nation—our Maharashtra. His magnetic influence did and could command and secure the unstinted loyalty of strong, stalwart soldiers like Baji Deshpande, Tanaji Malusrey, and others and of statesmen like Moropant Pingle, Nilkanth and Abaji Sondeo, Raghunath Hanmante, and others. To be only seen by him was to be electrified by him. And,so almost all his colleagues and servants devoted themselves heart and soul to labour for and to further the noble cause Shivaji Maharaj had at heart.