Shivaji and His Times c17.s8.1

c17.s8.1

So much for Shivaji's regulations in theory. But in practice they were often violated except where he was personally present. Thus, the assertion of Sabhasad and Chitnis that his soldiers had to deliver to the State every item of the booty taken by them, is contradicted by the sack of Dharangaon (1679), where the English factors were robbed of many things without these being entered in the official papers of the Maratha army or credited to Shivaji's Treasury (Ch. 14.) Shivaji could not be everywhere and at all times; hence it was impossible for him to prevent private looting by his troops and camp-followers. In the wake of the Maratha army, gangs of private robbers took to the road. The Pindharis were the logical corollary of the Maratha soldier, to whom rapine was a normal duty.