Administrative System of the Marathas c21.s3.21

c21.s3.21

The Maratha forts were in the Peshwa days of the same primitive type as in the time of Shivaji. "In the art of fortification," Blacker observes, "the Natives of India are still less advanced. In this country, it is in the same state as it was in Europe before the introduction of the regular systems. Even though some judicious works have been constructed by European engineers for Indian powers, they appear to have neither imitated the example nor appreciated its superiority. They place their reliance more in a strong profile than in a judicious plan." As a consequence, impregnable as these strongholds appeared to the Indian armies, they could offer but little resistance to the superior military science of the west.