The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c10.63

c10.63

The Marathas had great faith in their artillery and always carried with them a large number of guns. This was supposed to add to their prestige² in the eyes of other Indian powers, but their artillery often proved a source of great and unmixed inconvenience. However old and useless, their honour demanded that they should not allow any of their guns to fall into the hands of their enemies or to be left behind, while the transport of heavy pieces was necessarily slow, as they were drawn by bullocks on very clumsy gun-carriages. Major Dirom, an eye witness, has left the following pen picture of the slow movement of these heavy and often useless machines: "The park of artillery, where all their guns are collected, made an extraordinary appearance. The gun-carriages, in which they trust to the solidity of the timber, and use but little iron in their construction, are clumsy beyond belief; particularly the wheels, which are low, and formed by large solid pieces of wood united. The guns are of all sorts and dimensions; and, having the names of their gods given to them, are painted in the most fantastic manner; and many of them, held in esteem for the services they are said to have already performed for the state, cannot now be dispensed with, although in every respect unfit for use. Were the guns even serviceable, the small supply of ammunition with which they are provided, has always effectually prevented the Mahratta artillery from being formidable to their enemies. On a marching day, the guns and the infantry move off soon after daylight, . . . the guns and tumbrels, sufficiently unwieldy without further burden, are so heaped with stores and baggage, that there does not seem to be any idea of its ever being necessary to unlimber, and prepare for action on the march. As there are no pioneers attached to the Mahratta artillery to repair the roads, this deficiency is compensated by an additional number of cattle, there being sometimes a hundred or a hundred and fifty bullocks, in a string of pairs, to one gun’.¹ Lt. Moor says that ‘The gun is so heaped up with baggage of every description, that it could not be cleared ready to fire, under, at least, half an hour; nor could anyone from its appearance, in its travelling state, were it not for the number of bullocks dragging it, conceive it to be a gun; fifty, sixty, and sometimes a hundred couple of bullocks, drag one of these guns; and in very heavy roads, where the cattle have been hard worked and ill fed, an elephant is posted in the rear, who pushes it with its head over difficult passages’.² Besides the heavy artillery the Peshwa’s army was furnished with a large number of Shutarnals, small swivels mounted on swift camels.³ These had the advantage of speed but were otherwise of little use. The Maratha chroniclers and Mannuci mention swivels mounted on elephants as commonly used by the Mughals, but this practice seems to have been unknown in the Maratha army.