Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s14.23

v2.c27.s14.23

As for the irregulars, on Ahmad Shah’s side, “they were four times the number [of the regular Durrāni troops mentioned above], and their horses and arms were very little inferior to those of the regular Durrānis. In action it was their custom, immediately after the regulars had charged and broken the enemy, to fall upon them sword in hand, and complete the rout. All the Durrānis were men of great bodily strength, and their horses of the Turki breed; naturally very hardy and rendered still more so by continual exercise.” [Kashiraj, 12-13.] On the Maratha side there were 15,000 Pindharis (Chorghori and Hul sawar.) These were employed in ransacking the battle-field and searching for the wounded of their side, after the fighting was over, and they could not therefore be used as reinforcements to turn the tide of an obstinately contested battle. In fact, their valour was reserved for unarmed peasants, defenceless women, and footsore solitary stragglers, and they were more of a danger to their own employers (by eating up the available grain and grass supply of the neighbourhood) than to their foes.