Govind
Sakharam Sardesai
(May 17,
1865 - November 29, 1959), popularly known as Riyasatkar Sardesai ,
was an eminent historian from Maharashtra, India.
Through
his Riyasats written in Marathi, Sardesai presented an account
of over 1,000 years of the Indian history until 1848. His
three-volume New History of Marathas in English has been
acclaimed as a reliable history of Maratha Empire.
Sardesai
received for his literary work a Padmabhushan award from the Government
of India in 1957.
With
encouragement from the Maharaja and availing himself of access to the large
collection of books and historical papers in the royal library, Sardesai
compiled voluminous historical data and wrote several books.
He often
accompanied the Maharaja during the latter's trips to the U.K., U.S.A.,
and Europe; this helped Sardesai to broaden his outlook of history.
Sardesai
wrote eight volumes of Marathi Riyasat, three volumes of Musalmani
Riyasat, and two volumes of British Riyasat.
Historian Tryambak
Shankar Shejwalkar had worked as his assistant in the above endeavor.
Shejwalkar had written the preface to one of his volumes on Peshwas;
Sardesai asked him to write the preface because Shejwalkar held some contrary
historical views.
After
retiring from service at Baroda state in 1925, Sardesai settled in
the village of Kamshet near Pune. In accord with a suggestion from Sir Jadunath
Sarkar, the government of Bombay asked Sardesai to take up the work
of editing and publishing Peshwa daftar. He then
painstakingly examined almost 35,000 documents, comprising 27,332 in ModiMarathi;
7,482 in English; 129 in Gujarati; and 29 in Persian.
Subsequently, he published 45 volumes of Peshwa daftar consisting
of 7,801 pages and covering 8,650 documents.
Later,
jointly with Sarkar, Sardesai edited and published Poona Residency
Correspondence consisting of 7,193 pages and covering 4,159 letters. With
the help of some newly discovered sources, he wrote at his age 80, The
New History of Marathas.
'Govindrao-nana',
as he was called, led a disciplined life and could climb up Sinhagadh without
having to stop even in his seventies.
Sardesai
died at Kamshet on November 29, 1959 at the age of 94.
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