A History of the Mahrattas v1.c5.s4.19

v1.c5.s4.19

Throughout these centuries of Muhammadan invasion and predominance the general mass of the people remained inert and indifferent to the changes around them. Professor Patvardhan holds that the philosophical doctrines of the earlier writers taught them to regard the changes and disorders of this epoch with resignation. It is more likely that the mass of the people awaited the call of a leader, whom they could follow blindly, before grappling with the foreign invader. Their attitude of docile indifference was not shared at any rate by some of the younger and more enthusiastic Marāthās, whose ancestors had been petty chieftains and had bequeathed to them traditions of daring and adventure. They realized that in the unsettled condition of the country principalities might be secured and fortunes be made by bold enterprise; and these ideas coupled with the hatred aroused by the ill-treatment occasionally practised by the foreigner inclined them to listen eagerly to anyone who could expound the old Purānic tales of warfare, the myths of mighty warriors, and stories of divine intervention on behalf of the down-trodden and oppressed.¹