Monday, April 25 2005 22:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: After his controversial book on Shivaji which resulted in protests in the State two years ago, historian James W Laine's is once again in the eye of the storm with his another book on the Maratha warrior.

Bharatiya Itihas Sanshodhan and Prabodhan Mandal president and historian Prof Prafullachandra Tawde today (Apr 25, 2005) demanded a ban on Laine's latest book 'The Epic of Shivaji' saying it insulted Jeejabai, Maratha king's mother.

Laine's earlier book 'Shivaji-Hindu King in Islamic India' on Shivaji created a controversy, resulting in ransacking of the Pune-based Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and widespread protests in Pune in December 2003.

The latest book written in collaboration with noted historian S S Bahulkar, is a translation of 'Sivabharata' by Kavindra Paramananda.

The book, published by Orient Longman in 2001, contains disparaging remarks about Shivaji and Jijabai, Tawde told reporters in Mumbai. On page 15 it mentions Shivaji as an 'Oedipal rebel', Tawde said, adding, "We cannot tolerate Shivaji being denigrated thus."

Tawde said he had written to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to accept the honorary doctorate being conferred by the Oxford University, as Laine's earlier book was published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), a department of the university.

That book also denigrated Shivaji with 'references to Shivaji's absentee father' and his guardian Dadoji Konddev being his 'biological father', Tawde added.