The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c10.58

c10.58

The record left by the Maratha artillerymen cannot be regarded as a glorious one. On their performance at Panipat, Kasiraj Pandit, an eye-witness, has left the following comment: 'Mahratta guns being very large and heavy and their level not easily altered, their shot began to pass over our troops, and fell a mile in the rear'.¹ The inferiority of the Maratha artillery was responsible for the conversion of a sure victory at Arras² into a defeat, but Bhim Rao Panshe earned some credit by his operations in the Bhore Ghat region against the badly led army of Colonel Egerton. The operations of Parashram Bhau's artillery during the siege of Dharwar left an unfavourable impression on the mind of an English observer, Lieutenant Moor. He writes: 'From the method of proceeding adopted by the Mahrattas, we are convinced they would not, with twenty guns against the present garrison, approach and breach Darwar in seven years. A gun is loaded, and the whole of the people in the battery sit down, talk, and smoke for half an hour, when it is fired, and if it knocks up a great dust it is thought sufficient; it is reloaded, and the parties resume their smoking and conversation. During two hours in the middle of the day, generally from one to three, a gun is seldom fired on either side, that time being, as it would appear, by mutual consent set apart for meals. In the night the fire from guns is slackened, but musquetry is increased on both sides, and shells are sparingly throwin into the fort with tolerable precision.'³ This may have marked an advance from the early Mughal days, when the gunner frequently had his beard singed when he fired his gun; but such clumsy methods and slow firing could hardly be expected to secure any advantage in a battle against a European enemy, as was demonstrated in their final struggle with the English.¹