Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c56.s22.3

v4.c56.s22.3

Thus there were members of the same clan and district, and even of the same family on the two sides that fought at Laswari, as well as Patparganj. Military service being the hereditary profession of these Purbias (Oudh men), when some brothers or cousins enlisted in the British army, others who were rejected joined De Boigne's corps. Dismissed sepoys and deserters from the E. I. Co's army were always welcome to De Boigne's campoo commanders as "ready-made soldiers". Grant Duff knew it; he writes thus of the Sindhian infantry at Laswari, "Few, if any of these men were natives of Maharashtra; they were chiefly from Oudh, Rohilkhand and the Doab, for except Shivaji's Māwalis, and men trained in the ranks of the [Company's] Bombay sepoys, the native Marāthas have never made good infantry." [iii. 256.]*