Administrative System of the Marathas c14.s2.30

c14.s2.30

What arms of defence were supplied to these forts we do not precisely know. Shivaji had an artillery department and Orme¹⁵ tells us that "He had previously purchased eighty pieces of cannons and lead sufficient for all his match-locks from the French Director at Surat." We find mention of matchlockmen and archers in Sabhasad's pages; we have there an account of at least one dashing sally by Murar Baji Prabhu when Diler Khan laid siege to Purandhar. The enemy was sometimes "assailed with rockets, musket-shots, bombs and stones."¹⁶ Scott-Waring says that "his (Shivaji's) artillery was very contemptible, and he seems seldom to have used it but against the island of Gingerah."¹⁷ But Shivaji's soldiers, in common with the Muhammadans of the Deccan, hurled a curious, but none the less, effective missile against their enemy while labouring up the steep sides of their inaccessible strongholds. Fryer saw "on the tops of the Mountains, several Fortresses of Seva Gi's, only defensible by Nature, needing no other Artillery but Stones, which they tumble down upon their Foes, carrying as certain destruction as Bullets where they alight."¹⁸ Huge pieces of stone were for this purpose heaped at convenient stations and the Maratha soldiers rolled them down upon their enemy below. This could hardly check the progress of a determined foe; when this preliminary defence failed, the Marathas sallied out sword in hand and rushed upon the besiegers. But they did not always depend on their valour and gold was often used with very good results when steel failed.