The Modi Script in the Maratha Era

Unraveling Maratha History Through The Modi Script

A typical Letter in the Script

An unopened, nondeciphered mine of information lies in the Peshwe Daptar and the Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal in Pune.

Letters, Maps, Accounts, Budgets, Notices, all such information that would reveal the Maratha History from Pre Shivaji Maharaj till the British Raj. All of it bound in 'Rumals' and left for posterity.

The numbers are mind boggling. 4 crore papers yet to see the light of day at the Peshwe Daptar. More than 15 lakh papers lie in quiet anticipation to be studied.

The reason? 

These papers are all in the Modi Script. A Script which only a few historians in Pune have mastered. The papers which have been translated have been published in the form of articles and short accounts.

Reading these published works has given me just a glimpse of the vast ocean of information yet to be discovered.

I had the good fortune to study this script from Mr. Mandar Lawate, an eminent historian and an expert of the Script.

He not only taught us recognising the intricacies of the Script but also regaled us with anecdotes from the past, which he had translated from the Peshwe Daptar.

When we speak of Historians names of Ninad Bedekar, Pandurang Balkawde, Dr.Shivde and more recently Sandeep Tikhe, all come to mind. All of them masters in translating the Script, they have spent hours, pursuing the letters to glean more information about this bygone Era.

The Script, as I am given to understand, was formed after the Devnagari Script (ie.written Marathi and Hindi ).

It can be said that Modi is the cursive writing form of Devnagari. Although this sounds easy enough, it is far from that.
Firstly mastering the script is not enough.
Secondly translating it and then understanding the content is another hurdle. As the language is old      marathi it is difficult to know the meaning of the content.
Thirdly a lot of the words are in Farsi. The dates especially are in the farsi language and so are a lot of words...so with learning the script one has to also get adept at the written language and farsi to translate the information for today's use.

Modi script can be divided into different times. Some of it is extremely difficult to decipher.
The Pre Shivaji Era,
The Shivkaleen ( Of the Era of Shivaji Maharaj ),
The British Era all have heavy undertones of Farsi  and are difficult to translate.
The Peshwa Era script is comparatively easy to comprehend.

It has taken years of shuffling through papers for just a minuscule percentage to come out in the open.
As Mr. Lawate rightfully said " There is only so much a few can do. A lifetime is not enough to read all the papers and also not many are interested in our own History" Sad, but its the truth!
When I was attending his class, we were about 30 odd people. Out of them there were only maybe 3 of us who wanted to learn the script for the sake of history.
Others had joined because a lot of land deals were made in this script. Wills were written, mortgage notices were accounted for , all in this script.
Infact, Mr. Lawate also told us how people came to him to translate these official papers. Most of these were about farmlands or houses being passed on, or as gifts of land, given by the ruling classes and the legal aspect of the beneficiaries.
There were times when some of these papers gave valuable historical information.
He has found umpteen papers discarded from old Wada's and structures. The people just did not understand the importance of them and had thrown them as rubbish.

So what was the need of this script?
The Modi Script was generally used in an official form. Letters of importance, notices, messages were all written in this script as it could not be read by all and sundry.
It was used to send across secret documents or information, so the enemy could not understand it.
It could also be written at a speed, that is without lifting of the pen or "tak" as it was known then. You come across different thicknesses of the writing. This depended on the thickness of the 'tak' or wooden pen which was used.

I have made a mention about the 'Rumals' earlier. The papers in these 'Rumals', range from about 400 years to 100 years. As they have been stored, the papers, mostly handmade, are now disintegrating.
Although digitisation of the papers has now begun, it is time consuming. Due to the shortage of funds, manpower and scanning machines it is going to be many years before the documents will see the light of day.
Personally, I would like to do my best to help in the restoration, digitisation and translation of these valuable documents.
History waits for us to be unearthed. It is like going on a treasure hunt, trying to solve the clues, knowing that there is a treasure on the other side.
Will it not be us, who will be the benefit if we do reach that treasure?