CHAPTER I.
Naro Mahadeo Joshi
THE earliest traces of the family of the hero of this chapter are to be found in Varwada, a small village in Ratnagiri District where for several generations there had resided an unknown and very poor Konkanasth Joshi family. Seeing few prospects ahead of him, and having in his blood that spirit of adventure and ambition which so often produces the most unexpected results, Vishwanath Pant, the grandfather of the founder of the Ichalkaranji State, left his home village in the sixteenth century, and settled down at Mhapana in Savantwadi State. To poor Vishwanath Pant, however, the change was of little consequence, and he died at Mhapana in as great poverty and obscurity as he would have done in Varwada.
His son Mahadji Pant was thereupon called to face a future which was anything but bright, and many a time he must have regarded the decision of his father to leave the village of his ancestors as only a vain attempt to better the fortunes of the family. Day after day it became more apparent that his income as an agent of the hereditary Kulkarni of Mhapana did not provide him with a living adequate for his family's needs, and his
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