Administrative System of the Marathas c24.s1.1

c24.s1.1

The distinction between Shiledar and Bargir force was quite well-known when the Sukranitisara was compiled. Thus we find the author discriminating between two kinds of army "untrained or trained, officered by the state or not officered by the state; equipped by the state with arms, or supplying their own arms and ammunitions, bringing their own vehicles or supplied with vehicles by the State."[¹] These apply equally well to the Shiledar and the Bargir; the Shiledar, it is true, had been placed by Shivaji under the orders of the Sarnobat, but properly speaking they were not officered by the State. Similarly the distinction between three kinds of strongholds or gad, kot and janjira, was known to Kautilya.[²] The Mauryan sage recommends the appointment of many officers with each military unit to prevent treachery. "Elephants, cavalry, chariots, and infantry shall each be officered with many chiefs inasmuch as chiefs, when many, are under the fear of betrayal from each other and scarcely liable to the insinuations and intrigues of an enemy. The same rule shall hold good with the appointment of boundary-guards and repairers of fortifications."[³] We learn from Sabhasad that exactly for the same reason Shivaji never entrusted the sole charge of any of his strongholds to a single commander, but appointed no less than three officers of equal rank but of different caste to exercise conjoint authority over each fort.⁴