History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c80.s3.8

v5.c80.s3.8

After 1703 the Marathas were masters of the situation all over the Deccan and even in parts of Northern India. The Mughal officers were helpless and reduced to the defensive; they only sought to escape from the enemy by flight or by the payment of blackmail, without venturing to resist them. A change now came over the Maratha tactics with this growth of their power: they were no longer, as in Shivaji's and Shambhuji's times, light forayers who "cut and ran" or merely looted defenceless traders and villages, and dispersed at the first report of the Mughal army's approach,—moving like the wind and keeping themselves in hiding as far as possible. On the contrary, as Manucci noticed in 1704, "These [Maratha] leaders and their troops move in these days with much confidence, because they have cowed the Mughal commanders and inspired them with fear. At the present time they possess artillery, musketry, bows and arrows, with elephants and camels for all their baggage and tents. They carry these last to secure some repose from time to time...In short, they are equipped and move about just like the armies of the Mughal... Only a few years ago they did not march in this fashion. In those days their arms were only lances and long swords two inches wide. Armed thus, they [used to] prowl about on the frontiers, picking up here and there what they could; then they made off home again. But at the present time they move like conquerors, showing no fear of any Mughal troops." [Storia, iii. 505]