Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s19.1

v2.c27.s19.1

Bitter was the jealousy felt by the Maratha generals towards the Bhāu’s favourite Gārdi sepoys, who were paid their salaries more regularly and at higher rates than the starving Deccani soldiery and whose mode of warfare that supreme commander had preferred to the traditional guerilla tactics which alone the Maratha army knew. Indeed, some days before the battle, Ibrahim and Malhar had almost come to blows over this difference in military policy. The Bhāu, therefore, isolated Ibrahim Khan's division on his extreme left, furthest from Malhar; and so it happened that his disciplined foot-musketeers were assembled in a very deep column (according to the French practice) in one place, instead of being distributed along his entire front, judiciously mixed up with his cavalry.*