Nana Farnavis is looked upon by the Marathas as the last of the greatest statesman of their race. The work is based on original mss, family records and verbose conversations with the relations and personal attendants of Nana Farnavis. Nana was an influential minister and statesman of the Maratha Empire during the Peshwa administration in Pune. He played a pivotal role in holding the Maratha Confedaracy together in the midst of internal dissension and the growing power of the East India Company. James Grant Duff once stated that Nana Farnavis was called ‘the Maratha Machiavelli’ by the Europeans. Only 250 copies of the original edition were published and it is still the only biography in English of the greatest of the Maratha statesman.