Administrative System of the Marathas c14.s4: 5. Military Regulations

Administrative System of the Marathas c14.s4

Language: English

5. Military Regulations

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The Maratha camp during the Peshwa period presented a disreputable spectacle. "Camp," says Elphinstone, "presents to a European the idea of long lines of white tents in the trimmest order. To a Mahratta it presents an assemblage of covering, of every shape and colour, spreading for miles in all directions, over hill and dale, mixed up with tents, flags, trees, and buildings In Jones's 'History' march means one or more columns of troops and ordnance moving along roads, perhaps, between two hedges; in the Mahratta history horse, foot and dragoons inundating the face of the earth for many miles on every side, here and there a few horse with a flag and a drum mixed with a loose and straggling mass of camels, elephants, bullocks, nautch-girls, fakeers, and buffoons; troops and followers, lancemen and matchlockmen, bunyans and mootasuddies." ³¹ Broughton gives a no less disparaging picture of Sindhia's camp. Wine was publicly sold and public women accompanied the army to the prejudice of discipline and order.³² This was unthinkable in Shivaji's time. No one was allowed to keep in the camp a female slave or dancing girl and any breach of this rule was punished with death. Shivaji, a lover of discipline and method, had drawn up for his army a set of wise regulations. These have been summed up by Sabhasad in the following lines:

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³¹ Elphinstone to Grant Duff, quoted in Colebrooke's Life of Elphinstone, vol. II, p. 137.

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³² Broughton, Letters from a Maratha Camp, p. 21.

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"The army should come to cantonments in the home dominions during the rainy season. There should be kept stored grains, fodder, medicines, houses for men and stables for horses thatched with grass. As soon as the Dasra ³³ was over, the army should march out of their quarter. At the time of their departure, an inventory should be made, of the belongings of all the men, great or small, in the army and they should start on the expedition. For eight months, the forces should subsist (on their spoils), in the foreign territories. They should levy

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³³ Scott-Waring wrongly supposes "The festival of the Dessara was instituted by Sevajee." It was an old practice of the Hindu kings to set on their expedition of conquest on the Dasra day.

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contribution. There should be no women, female slaves, or dancing girls in the army. He who would keep them, should be beheaded. In enemy territories, women and children should not be captured. Males, if found, should be captured. Cows should not be taken. Bullocks should be requisitioned for transport purposes only. Brahmans should not be molested; where contribution had been laid, a Brahman should not be taken as a surety. No one should commit adultery. For eight months, they should be on expedition in foreign countries. On the way back to the barracks in the month of Vaishakh, the whole army should be searched at the frontier of the home dominions. The former inventory of the belongings should be produced. Whatever might be in excess, should be valued and deducted from the soldiers' salary. Things of very great value, if any, should be sent to the royal treasury. If any one secretly kept (any thing) and the Sardar came to know (of it), the Sardar should punish him. After the return of the army to their camp an account should be made, and all the Sardars should come to see the Raja, with gold, jewels, clothes, and other commodities. There all the accounts should be explained and the things should be delivered to his Majesty. If any surplus should be found due to the contingents, it should be asked for in cash from His Majesty. Then they should return to the barrack. Saranjam should be given to the men who had worked hard in the late campaign. If any one had been guilty of violating the rules or of cowardice, an enquiry should be made and the truth ascertained with the consensus of many and (the offender) should be punished with dismissal. Investigation should be quickly made. For four months they should remain in the barracks, and on the Dasraday they should wait on the Raja. (Then) they should march out to the country, selected for the expedition, by the order of the Raja. Such were the rules of the army.³⁴

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³⁴ Sabhasad, pp. 29-30. Sen, Sivachhatrapati, pp. 31-33.

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These regulations were not designed merely to figure in the statute book, but were strictly enforced. While passing through the kingdom of Golkonda on his way to Tanjore, Shivaji had ordered his soldiers not to harass the people in any way. Whatever they wanted was obtained by peaceful purchase and any breach of law was severely punished. Sabhasad tells us that Shivaji on this occasion had made examples of a few offenders to intimidate others, and his severity had the desired effect. But the spirit of the times was not favourable to strict discipline.³⁵ and although Shivaji's spies seldom failed to bring to his notice all cases of violence and fraud,³⁶ yet it was impossible for him to put a stop to military excesses. In a letter dated the 8th September, 1671, we read how a Maratha soldier had attacked the Sabnis of his regiment with a naked sword.³⁷ On the 23rd July of the next year Shivaji wrote to Dattaji Pant Waknis that the soldiers gave trouble to the pilgrims of the Chaphal fair.³⁸ At Chaphal lived Ramdas, Shivaji's spiritual guide. He was revered throughout Maharashtra as a great saint and an incarnation of the monkey-god Maruti. If soldiers did not behave properly in the precincts of Ramdas's temple, we may easily imagine to what extremes their insolence carried them at safer places. Shivaji, however, could not achieve the impossible. His countrymen had before them the example of the Bijapur army, where discipline was conspicuous by its absence. Shivaji placed before them a high ideal, but an ideal cannot always be forced on an unwilling people at the point of sword. None the less, the great Maratha leader never failed to harangue his soldiers about their duties and responsibilities. In the year 1676 he came to learn that the regiment encamped at Chiplun had given great troubles to the people of the neighbourhood. The troops were short of provision and took by force what they wanted. Shivaji, therefore, issued a circular to the Jumledars, Havaldars, and Karkuns of the army reminding them that it was their duty to store sufficient provision in time. "If grain, bread, grass and vegetable were forcibly taken away from the peasant, they would desert the locality. Some of them would die of starvation and your presence would be more unwelcome than that of the Mughals." "Do not give the rayat the least trouble," continues Shivaji, "you have no need to stray out of your camping places. Money has been given to you from the government treasury. Whatever any soldier may want, either grain or vegetable or fodder for the animals, should be purchased from the market. Violence should not be offered to any one on any account." The remarkable document fully illustrates Shivaji's anxiety for the welfare of his people and the good name of his soldiers. The last portion of the letter shows how the minutest details of the army administration did not escape his notice. He admonishes his officers to take special precaution against fire. Soldiers were not to smoke or cook near the haystacks and lamps were to be put out before the men went to bed lest mice dragged the burning wicks and set fire to the haystacks. "If the haystacks were burnt the necessary hay could not be procured even if the Kunbis were decapitated and the Karkuns harassed. The horses would die of hunger and the cavalry would be ruined." ³⁹ Shivaji knew everything about his army, its needs and requirements. He was anxious to secure the welfare of his people and he tried his best to protect them from the violence of his soldiers. We should not be too severe with him if instances of tyranny or oppression took place inspite of his vigilance. We should judge him by what he attempted and not by what he achieved; although his achievements were by no means small.

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³⁵ From the preamble of a treaty it appears that Shivaji's men had carried away a number of men, women, children, cattle besides transport bullocks from Portuguese territories in contravention of Shivaji's military regulations. See Biker, Collecçao de Tratados, Tomo, IV, pp. 131-132 and Sen, Historical Records at Goa, p. 10.

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³⁶ He had numberless informers about his troops; so that if they kept back any money or goods from account, he forced them to give them up. Scott, Hist. of the Dekkan, Vol. II, p 55.

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³⁷ Rajwade, M.I.S., Vol. VIII, p. 20.

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³⁸ Bhate, Sajjangad-wa Samartha Ramdas, p. 122.

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³⁹ Rajwade, M.I.S., Vol. VIII, pp. 23-25.

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Inspite of his defects the Maratha soldier was a fine fellow. Of short stature and light built he was man for man inferior to the tall and stout Mughal and Deccani Mussulman. But his courage, hardihood, wonderful energy, presence of mind and agility more than compensated for his physical inferiority. Demoralised by the tactics of their elusive adversary, the Bijapuris and the Mughals at last failed to meet him even in the open field on equal terms. Fryer's comparison of the two armies well illustrates the merits and demerits of the contending forces as they struck an intelligent foreign observer. Says the Docter,⁴⁰ "Seva Gi's Men thereby being fitter for any Martial Exploit, having been accustomed to Fare Hard, Journey Fast, and take little Pleasure. But the other will miss of a Booty rather than a Dinner ; must mount in state and have their Arms carried before them, and their Women not far behind them, with the Masters of Mirth and Jollity ; will rather expect than pursue a Foe ; but then they stand it out better ; for *Seva Gi's* Men care not much for a pitched Field, though they are good at Surprizing and Ransacking ; yet agree in this, that they are both of stirring Spirits." It is remarkable that the same love of luxury and comfort characterised the Maratha officers at Panipat. While Shivaji did not allow " Whores and Dancing Wenches in his army," ⁴¹ the Maratha army at Panipat was encumbered with a large number of women. Broughton says of Daulat Rao Sindhia's soldiers that, "such as think that life is bestowed for superior enjoyments and have a taste for more spirited modes of whiling it away, retire, at the approach of evening, to the arrack shop, or the tent of the prostitute ; and revel through the night in a state of low debauchery which could hardly be envied by the keenest votary of Comus and his beastly crew." ⁴² Shivaji's successors had for reasons best known to them suffered these salutary regulations to lapse and the result was disastrous for their army and themselves. The Maratha soldiers declined in morale, discipline and alertness that had made them so formidable under Shivaji's leadership.