CHAPTER I
Introductory
The Hindu confederacy of which the subject of this book was, in his time, a prominent member, indicates an episode in that perennial struggle which has been going on for eight centuries in India between the social and religious system of the Hindus and that of their Musalmán compatriots. Neither Musalmán nor Hindu society can be considered 'national' though, as earlier conquerors who have associated and assimilated with the original inhabitants, the Hindus naturally appear now to represent whatever may be found at all deserving the name of an Indian nationality.
Maháráshtra, meaning the tract bounded on the west by the ocean, on the north by the Narbadá, on the east by the Waingangá, and on the south by the Krishna rivers, was a Hindu kingdom in the time of Hiuen Tsiang, the Chinese pilgrim (640 A. D.), of which the capital was at Kalyáni, or Kalyán, near the modern city of Bombay. In the sixteenth century the Portuguese obtained a considerable footing in Maháráshtra, of which fragments are still in existence, notably the town and territory of Goa. The people,
