Francois Martin Memories

It was my late wife, Indrani, who first brought to my notice the 3 volumes of the Mémoires (printed in French). The document fascinated me and I broached the subject of translation, with due edition, to Prof. Satish Chandra and Prof. S. Nurul Hasan after my return from France in the early seventies. They had encouraged me and promised all help. Prof. Ram Sharan Sharma, then Chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research, also encouraged me. I am most grate- ful to them as well as to the staff of the Indian Council of Historical Research for all help and facilities given to me. Prof Satish Chandra had kindly agreed to write the Foreword of a work with which he was associated from the very beginning. I am most grateful to him.
As per the decision made by the Indian Council of Histori- cal Research, I have translated and edited the whole of Part I and a portion of Part II of volume I of the printed French edition. The rest had been translated by Dr. Lotika Varada- rajan and had been published as India in the 17th century.
I am also thankful to a large number of my colleagues friends, teachers and students. Late Prof. Satish Chandra Mishra and late Prof. S. P. Sen, Dr. P. M. Joshi, Prof. A. R. Kulkarni, Prof. Bipan Chandra, Prof. Irfan Habib, Prof. Har- bans Mukhia, Prof. Iqtedar Alam Khar, Prof M. Athar Ali Prof. Arun Dasgupta, Prof. Ashin Dasgupta, Prof. S. Arasara- tnam, Prof. Denys Lombard, Prof, Amiya kumar Bagchi and Prof. Jasodhara Bagchi, Dr. Z. A. Desai, Prof. B. R. Grover, Dr. Ramesh chandra Sharma, Dr. Jean Deloche, Prof. Atul chandra Ray, Prof. Muhammed Qamaruddin, Dr. Ratnabali Chatterjee, Prof. Ashoke Sen, Prof. Amalendu Guha, Late Dr. Hitesh Ranjan Sanyal and Late Prof. Niharranjan Ray- all encouraged me and accepted my explanations for delay.
I am once again thankful to Prof. Barun De and to my old friend, SriAsho ke Bhattacharjya of West Bengal Government