Administrative System of the Marathas c27.s14: 8. The Shiledars
Administrative System of the Marathas c27.s14
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8. The Shiledars
c27.s14.1
From the horses let us turn to their owners, the Shiledars. The Shiledar had to purchase his own horse and was not compensated for its loss, whether in war or otherwise, by the State. From a paper published in the Itihas Sangraha, it appears that this rule was suspended by Chimnaji Appa during his campaign against Bassein and the horseman who lost his horse in the siege operations got its price. But this was an exceptional case, the general practice was the same as that prevailing in the Mughal army. The Shiledar's horse was his own property and he seldom risked its loss. Irvine writes of the Mughal army, "The constitution of the army was radically unsound. Each man was, there can be no doubt, individually brave, even to recklessness. Why then do we find them so ready to retreat from a battle-field, so anxious to make off after the slightest reverse? Simply because they had so much to lose and so very little to gain. A trooper rode his own horse, and if it was killed he was ruined irretrievably." Irvine further remarks, "Moor noticed among the Mahratta cavalry that the same cause produced the same effect. A reluctance to charge will be frequently observed; which does not proceed from any deficiency in personal courage, but from this cause: a great part of the horses in the Mahratta service are, we have understood, the property of the riders, who receive a certain monthly pay, according to the goodness of the horse, for their own and their beast's services. If a man has his horse killed or wounded, no equivalent is made him by the Sirkar, but he loses his animal and his allowance; he will, therefore, of course, be as careful as possible to preserve both." ²² Moor wrote in the last decade of the 18th century, and we do not know whether his remarks hold good of Shivaji's army. It is however certain that many of his military regulations were suffered to disappear during the Peshwa period, and the Peshwas not only tried to imitate the pomp and splendour of the Mughal court, but also organised their army on the Mughal model. The organisation of the Peshwa army therefore was equally unsound.
c27.s14.2
²² Irvine, Army of the Indian Moghuls, pp. 298-299.