The Best Marathi Biography Books of All Time

The mid-eighteenth century began with the Marathas as the paramount power in India, and in the next two decades, they rose in power and prestige. In the Carnatic, Bengal, Rajputana, Malwa, Bundelkhand they were supreme, and in Delhi, the Marathas ruled while the Mughal king reigned. In this period when Nanasaheb Peshwa was at the helm, the Maratha power reached its zenith. But that was not the entire story. The events of the mid-eighteenth century are pivotal, and determined the course of the next five decades.

The rise of the Europeans in the south and the east added a new dimension, so that this epoch eventually emerged as the crossroad of Indian history. This book narrates that engrossing story. The book is published in hardcover, with over 40 colour pictures on art plates and 27 maps and illustrations. The 500 page book is copiously annotated with over a thousand references and has a bibliography and a glossary along with an introduction to principal characters and important genealogies.

Rajesh Patil was born to poor farm workers in the backward Khandesh region of Maharashtra. He worked as a child labourer picking cotton, selling bread, and doing small jobs. But what set him apart was that, unlike most of his peers, he was driven by an intense desire to improve his lot through education. Against great odds, he moved to Nashik for a B.Sc. and then to Pune for an M.Sc. in statistics all this with the help of freeships, scholarships and the support of his teachers, friends and well-wishers.

By dint of his hard work, he managed to get into the Indian Statistical Service, but the Indian Administrative Service was his goal. Unsuccessful at fi¬rst, he persisted until eventually he cracked the competitive exams and quali¬fied for the IAS. Maa, I ve Become a Collector is the inspiring account of Rajesh s struggles that has been a bestseller in Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati and Odia and motivated thousands of students in India s hinterlands in their quest for a better life. At the same time, it is much more than one man s story it is a riveting and revelatory account of rural India.

A Biography Of Rahul Dravid (Revise).