New History of the Marathas v2.c30.50

v2.c30.50

One school of critics argue that the Marathas lost the day at Panipat because they gave up their traditional method of guerilla warfare. But such a view has no basis in fact. It is doubtless true that it was this method which enabled the Maratha nation in the last century to rise above others. But this warfare was suited only to the hilly regions of the Deccan plateau; it could not be effective in the vast plains of northern India, where not a single natural barrier exists from the Indus to the Bay of Bengal. Nor were the Marathas at home in these foreign regions, the inhabitants of which were not only strangers but positively hostile to them. To obviate these defects Bhau Saheb equipped himself with an efficient artillery, with which he reduced Delhi and Kunjpura.