The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c11: Chapter VII: European Officers and Trained Battalions
The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c11
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Chapter VII: European Officers and Trained Battalions
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THE ARMY that had become so formidable under Shivaji and the first Baji Rao consisted entirely of light cavalry and fleet footmen, but the army that lost the battles of Assaye, Argaom and Lasswari had in it a new element — infantry regiments armed, disciplined and trained by European officers in the western style. This improvement or innovation has been popularly attributed to Mahadaji Sindhia, the celebrated founder of a new empire in Hindustan, but it has been commonly ignored that although the popularity of trained battalions was largely due to him, the appointment of Benoit de Boigne in 1784 was the inevitable corollary of the employment of Muzaffar Khan and Ibrahim Khan nearly thirty years earlier.
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Mahadaji was by no means the first Indian ruler to appreciate the superior fighting qualities of European officers. They had been welcomed by Indian princes since their first advent in the country, and Cosme da Guarda² tells us that in the seventeenth century every European in India was supposed to be an artillery expert, and even an apostate clergyman did not find the least difficulty in securing a lucrative office in the Mughal army without any previous military training. Gemelli Careri was asked by Rajaram’s men, whom he met on his way to Goa, ‘whether he could shoot out of a Musket or understood the Art of Gunnery’, and he further tells us what a good pay and an easy life a European in the Mughal service might expect. ‘Many *Frenchmen* belonging to the Army’, he writes, ‘told me it was a Pleasure and Diversion to serve the Mogul, because they that will not Fight, or do not keep their Guards are Subject to no other Penalty but losing that day’s pay, that they are convicted of having Transgress’d, and that they themselves did not value Honour much in the Service of a Barbarous King, who has no Hospital for the wounded Men. On the other side there being no Prince in the World that pays his Souldiers better, a Stranger that goes into his service soon grows Rich, especially an European or Persian.’¹ We are further told by the same Italian traveller that ‘All this Artillery, especially the heavy, is under the direction of Franks or Christian Gunners, who have extraordinary pay; especially the Portuguese, English, Dutch, Germans, and French, who go from Goa, or run away from aboard Ships. Some of them formerly had 200 Roupies a Month; but now the Moguls have learnt somewhat of the Art they have less’. ²
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² Cosme da Guarda, Vida e accoens do famoso e felicissimo Sevagy, p. 109.
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¹ Churchill’s *Voyages*, Vol. IV, p. 234.
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² Ibid, p. 250.
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The same reason that led the Mughal Emperors to offer such excellent terms to foreigners of unknown antecedents with nothing but their European origin to recommend them, had also induced the Maratha princes to employ them in their own army. Since Mahadaji’s time trained battalions had become so much the rage of the day that even Bapuji Ganesh Gokhle³ had in his army infantry regiments commanded by two European officers, and those who could not find white captains were content to engage some *gardis* led by their brown disciples. But long before the superiority of the western method of warfare was appreciated, the westeners’ efficiency as sailors and artillerymen had been recognised by Indian rulers and even Shivaji had some Portuguese in his army. Their presence in the Maratha force had probably occasioned some protest from Mirza Raja Jai Sing, but in which department of the army and in which capacity they had been employed by Shivaji, we do not precisely know. In July 1686, a royal proclamation was issued requiring ‘all English subjects who had entered into the service of the Country Powers, particularly the Mogul, the King of Siam, the Queen of Acheen, and Sambagee Rajah, to return to the Company’s settlements at Bombay or Madras, within six months of the publication of this Proclamation in India’.¹ The English subjects in Sambhaji’s army might have been Portuguese or Indian residents of Bombay, but it is not improbable that some English deserters had found employment with their nearest neighbour. English deserters continued to seek safe refuge in the Maratha service during the Peshwa period as well, for they are specifically mentioned in the instructions framed for Captain W. A. Price, who was sent on an embassy to Poona in 1759.² John Henry Grose, who came to India in 1750, also says that the Marathas ‘encouraged deserters from European nations’ and gave them ‘a pretty high pay’, but he also adds that ‘no Europeans take service amongst them, but such as are of desperate fortunes, or have committed crimes that have obliged them to seek refuge amongst them’.³ In the navy also these European deserters were warmly welcomed. Even if we leave aside the ambiguous reference to the Portuguese soldiers in connection with one of Shivaji’s naval expeditions, there is conclusive evidence of the employment of European sailors and gunners by Kanhoji Angria and his sons. Clement Downing says that there were several Dutchmen in Kanhoji’s fleet and Plantain, a notorious pirate, also entered his service, while Kanhoji himself mentions a Portuguese officer in his letter to Governor Boone.⁴ Captain Anselm of the Derby saw a Portuguese and a Dutch gunner in the employment of Sambhaji Angria.¹
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³ Gurwood, *The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington*, Vol. I, p. 93.
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¹ John Bruce, *Annals of the Honourable East India Company*, Vol. II, pp. 568-9.
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² Forrest, *Selections from State Papers, Maratha Series*, p. 127.
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³ Grose, *Voyage to the East Indies*, pp. 122-3.
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⁴ Kanhoji’s Letter to Boone, dated 27 April 1718, Bombay Public Consultations, CCCXLI, No. 4, pp. 77-83.
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¹ A Faithful Narrative of the Capture of the Ship Derby (belonging to the Honourable the East India Company, Abraham Anselm Commander) by Angria the Pirate, p. 111.
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Till 1750, therefore, the Maratha chiefs had employed in their army and navy European gunners, engineers and sailors, but in 1751 Balaji Baji Rao realised the need of going a step further. In his war against his hereditary enemy of Hyderabad he had suddenly found himself confronted with a new method of warfare hitherto unknown to him. Bussy had carried the war into the Peshwa’s own territories and penetrated as far as Koregao. Balaji Baji Rao at once perceived that the superiority of the hostile army was not due entirely to their artillery, and the tactics of the French general were different from those known to his Indian opponents, although the men under his command had been recruited in this country. The Peshwa adopted the time-honoured expedient of extracting a thorn with a thorn. He would gladly employ a European officer to face tbis new danger, but none, it appears, were available. He seriously thought of subsidising an English force, but the Government of Bombay was not in a position to lend any.² But if competent French and English officers were not available, there were Muhammadan adventurers with some knowledge and experience of the new methods ready to serve the Peshwa, and first Muzaffar Khan, and later Ibrahim Khan, entered the service of Balaji Baji Rao. They had both been trained by Bussy and were more or less familiar with his strategy and tactics, but they could hardly be regarded as fit substitutes for that general, and the Peshwa tried his best to induce him to leave Hyderabad for Poona. At one time the Peshwa felt sanguine about the ultimate success of his negotiations and in 1756 he actually communicated to his Portuguese neighbours of Goa the happy news of the admission of Monsieur Bussy in his service. On 22 May 1756, he addressed two letters to the Governor and the Secretary of State. The concluding paragraph of the first letter runs as follows: ‘In the company of Salabat Jang, who came to assist me, was M. Bussy. He left the said Nawab owing to some difference between them. I admitted M. Bussy into my service and gave him leave to go to his house at Masulipatam. He will join me after the winter and I make this communication so that Your Excellency may be informed of this happy news’. The Secretary of State was told that Bussy had expressed his willingness to enter the Peshwa’s service to which he had been accordingly admitted.¹ The temporary difference between the Nizam and his French protector was, however, soon composed, and Balaji Baji Rao could not procure any European expert to raise trained battalions for him. It should, however, be noted that he did not intend a wholesale military reform or the rejection of the old predatory tactics, but his old army was to be supplemented and reinforced by the new battalions as the Nizam’s had been, and this was exactly what the new gardi force of Muzaffar and Ibrahim did. They did not replace the old predatory force but they co-operated with it. The Peshwa did not pause to enquire whether such a combination of two entirely different and irreconcilable methods was practicable.
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² Forrest, Selection from State Papers, Maratha Series, pp. 120-1.
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¹ Biker, Tratados da India, Vol. VII, pp. 49-51. Also see Rajwade, Marathynchya Itihasachin Sadhanen, Vol. III, p. 445.
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The gardis have left a very bad record in the military annals of the Marathas. They were mercenaries of the worst type drawn from all parts of India and were not bound to the Maratha empire by any bond of common tradition or common interest. They had been attracted by prospects of pay and preferment and had therefore not the least hesitation in changing masters. Muzaffar Khan, one of their officers, had left the Nizam’s service for that of the Peshwa. After a difference with his new master he left Poona for Shrirangapattan and then joined the Nawab of Savnur. He had taken a prominent part in the defence of that place against the allied armies of the Peshwa and the Nizam. After the fall of Savnur he had been readmitted into the Peshwa’s service in spite of the protest of Sadashiv Rao, but he plotted against the life of that prince and was executed. Ibrahim Khan, his colleague and successor in the Peshwa’s new regiments, had also changed masters, but not so frequently, and he had not been disloyal to the Peshwa or his cousin, to whom he seems to have been personally attached. But the evil reputation left by Muzaffar was enhanced by the part taken by some of the *gardi* leaders in the political intrigues of Raghoba, and the murder of the young Peshwa Narayan Rao irretrievably tarnished their reputation.¹
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¹ The *gardis* were notorious for their unruliness and their troublesome attitude finds reference in many contemporary letters. For one such instance, see Rajwade, *Marathyanchya Itihasachin Sadhanen*, Vol. I, p. 199.
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The Maratha victory at Udgir was rightly attributed to the prowess of the new force and naturally added to its prestige. But it was not long before the incompatibility of the new method with the traditional Maratha tactics was demonstrated in the fatal field of Panipat. The Maratha horseman depended less upon his arms and more upon his speed. He left the hostile army alone as long as he could, and tried to harass it by devastating the country around. But the new regiments relied for success on superior artillery and firearms. They sought a pitched battle, while their colleagues systematically avoided it. The conflict between the old ideas and the new was pointedly brought home to the Maratha leaders when Malhar Rao Holkar and officers of the old school advocated the use of the traditional tactics (popularly called *ganimi kava*) against the heavily armed Afghan army, and Ibrahim Khan Gardi strenuously opposed their counsel.
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He knew that he and his men could not expect to keep pace with the light Maratha cavalry. In such an operation their artillery would be more of an encumbrance than an advantage and the small force would be easily annihilated by their Afghan opponents. He, therefore, not only opposed Holkar’s suggestion but compelled its rejection by threats of opening his battery upon anybody who dared to move away from the entrenched camp. For this obstinacy Ibrahim Khan paid with his life, but the irretrievable disaster strengthened the conservative elements in the Maratha army and they became openly hostile to the new-fangled ideas borrowed from foreigners. The Peshwa and his cousin should not be strongly blamed for their failure to find some means of reconciling the two methods. They had not much time for it, but though the trained battalions gained immensely in prestige, if not in popularity, since De Boigne demonstrated their superiority over the old armies of the country, no attempt was made to find a solution of this difficult problem during the forty years that intervened between Panipat and Assaye.
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The disaster of Panipat did not lead to the disbanding of the new force, as the circumstances that had originally called it into existence still prevailed, and the Peshwa still needed a strong and well-armed infantry force to meet similar regiments in the employ of other Indian powers.
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Mahadaji Sindhia simply continued the experiment begun by Balaji Baji Rao, but he was more fortunate than his master. The Peshwa failed to seduce Bussy and could not secure the service of any other competent European officer. Sindhia, however, obtained in the person of De Boigne, an expert of ability and experience, trained in the best military schools of Europe, who had served under the French and the Russian flags before his arrival in India. It was necessity and not love of innovation that compelled Mahadaji to employ this European veteran for raising trained battalions for him. Mahadaji, unlike the Peshwa, did not confine his ambition to plundering raids, but he wanted to establish his authority over the remnant of the Mughal empire in Hindustan. This brought him into direct conflict with the Rajput princes and the Muhammadan generals who were still associated with the imperial Government or what remained of it. To harass them in the open field was comparatively easy, and with reinforcement from Poona he could even beat their united army, but the predatory method of the Marathas had been found utterly useless in siege operations; and Mahadaji did not like to share his new conquests with the Government of Poona. The permanent subjugation of the imperial territories, which Mahadaji aimed at, demanded the reduction of numerous forts and strongholds held by unfriendly chiefs and the annihilation of their armies in the open field. For such a work the service of infantry regiments trained in western methods would be invaluable. He had witnessed the splendid stand made by Ibrahim Khan and his gardis at Panipat, and the achievements of the small English army in the first Maratha war could not but have highly impressed him. In the meantime, other Indian chiefs and princes had been enlisting European officers, and we have reason to believe that Sindhia was aware of the service rendered by such adventurers as Madec and Sombre to their Indian employers.¹ Mahadaji had obtained very convincing evidence of the Savoyard officer's military ability, and his employment was not, therefore, a leap in the dark. The achievements of the new army amply justified Sindhia's decision, and other Maratha leaders soon found themselves compelled to adopt similar methods. His nearest neighbour and rival, Holkar, was not long in following his example, and appointed a French officer, Dudrenec², to command the trained battalions of his army. The Poona Government enlisted some white officers for a similar purpose, although they could not get a European of reputation before Boyd entered their service.³
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¹ Both Madec and Sombre were at one time in the service of the Jat Raja; Madec had some guns manufactured under his supervision. See Emile Barbe, *Le Nabab Rene Madec*, p. 30.
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² This name is differently written as Du Drenec, Du Dernaig, Duderneg, Du Dernec, Dodernaigue, and Dudernek. Compton, *European Military Adventures of Hindustan*, p. 347. The Marathas called him Jujharnag.
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³ Rajwade, *Marathyanchya Itihasachin Sadhanen*, Vol. VII, p. 15, gives the following names of officers commanding a gardi force of 10,000 men—Musa Motro, Musa Jalle, Musa Bas, Musa Pit and Musa Joranj.
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The growth of the regular army in Sindhia's service was naturally slow. Mahadaji himself was fairly well convinced of its superiority, but he had to proceed with caution and circumspection. It is needless to say that his countrymen did not approve of his military policy, and the disaster of Panipat apparently afforded considerable justification for their prejudice. In 1784 De Boigne was commissioned to raise two battalions only. The two thousand men under his command formed an insignificant fraction of the immense horde that fought at Lalsot and Chaksana. De Boigne did not as yet hold an independent command, but though the Maratha army was beaten, the two battalions of De Boigne more than vindicated their employer's confidence. When Sindhia's fortune was at low ebb, De Boigne left him, evidently because he was not content with a subordinate position and the service did not offer any bright prospect in the immediate future. But in 1790 he was recalled and asked to raise a brigade of ten battalions of infantry with a suitable complement of cavalry and artillery. The success of Patan and Merta led to the addition of a second brigade, and a third brigade was not long in coming. When Daulat Rao Sindhia challenged the English supremacy established by the treaty of Bassein, the three principal Maratha chiefs had all a fairly strong regular army with them. The regular armies of Sindhia and Holkar were officered by European adventurers, while that of Bhonsla was led by Indian officers alone. The total numerical strength of the three regular armies has been thus estimated by Major Lewis Ferdinand Smith: 1
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| | Battalions. | Guns. | Cavalry. |
| *SINDHIA* | | | |
| Perron's 5 Brigades | 39 | 225 | 5,000 |
| Filoze's Brigade | 8 | 45 | 500 |
| Sombre's Brigade | 6 | 35 | 500 |
| Shepherd's Brigade under | | | |
| Umbajee | 5 | 25 | 500 |
| Umbajee's army | 10 | 40 | 10,000 |
| *HOLKAR* | | | |
| Vicker's Brigade | 6 | 30 | 500 |
| Armstrong's Brigade | 4 | 20 | 200 |
| Dodd's Brigade | 4 | 20 | 200 |
| Under native commanders | | | |
| including the Park | 10 | 130 | 30,000 |
| *BHONSLA* | | | |
| Under native commanders | 15 | 60 | 30,000 |
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The regulars in the Peshwa army were not so numerous and consisted of two battalions only.
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'A brigade was composed of 8 battalions. Each battalion comprised within itself infantry and artillery. Each was commanded by a captain, having under him a lieutenant, either European or European by descent. A battalion had eight companies of infantry;
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¹ Lewis Ferdinand Smith, *A Sketch of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the Regular Corps formed and commanded by Europeans in the service of the Native Princes of India with details of the Principal events and actions of the late Marhatta War*, p. 61.
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each commanded by a subadar aided by two jemadars, one kot havildar, three havildars, four naicks and fifty-two sepoys. The artillery of the same battalion consisted of one sergeant-major (European), and five European gunners, one jemadar, one havildar, five naicks, thirty-five golandaz, five tindals, thirty-five klassis, twenty bildars, thirty gariwans, four ironsmiths and four carpenters. A battalion had also a native surgeon, and a complement of matsadis, water carriers, and the like. Every battalion had 408 stand of arms, four field-pieces, one howitzer, five tumbrils, 120 bullocks, and two native carts. Every gun had constantly ready with it 300 rounds of shot and 100 rounds of grape. A howitzer had fifty stone balls shells and fifty rounds of grape. The monthly pay of the native officers and men of a battalion was about 4500 rupees. ‘The pay of the commissioned officers was as follows:— A colonel received 3000 rupees; a lieutenant-colonel 2000; a major 1200; a captain 400; a captain-lieutenant 300; a lieutenant 200; an ensign 150. These rates were increased fifty per cent when the officers concerned were serving in the Dekhan. The men received under the same circumstances, a proportional increase. Besides their pay, officers commanding brigades, whether colonels, lieutenant-colonels or majors received 100 rupees a month as table allowance.’
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‘A brigade of eight battalions consisted of 6000 men. Besides the battalion complement of guns above detailed the brigade had attached to it three battering guns and two mortars with men to serve them. Each had likewise 200 irregular cavalry and 500 irregular infantry (Rohillas).’
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‘The battalions were named after the famous cities or forts, such as Delhi, Agra, Burhanpur. The men were disciplined according to the English regulations of 1780, then in force in the British army. The regular infantry were armed with muskets and bayonets manufactured at Agra; the irregulars with matchlocks and bayonets. The cavalry were well mounted. Seven hundred of them were armed with matchlocks and swords; 500 with carbines, pistols and swords; they were drilled in the European fashion.’ Such was in short the composition and constitution of the regular army under De Boigne.¹
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¹ For these details we are indebted to the small but valuable work of
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Though the army was organised on the European model its Commander-in-Chief was paid, according to the current feudal ideas, by an extensive jahgir. While encamped near Jaipur in 1792 Mahadaji had received a letter from De Boigne. The army was in arrears for seven months and the General bitterly complained about the hardship and anxiety to which he was subjected by the irregularity of payment; and in order to avoid similar troubles in future Sindhia decided to place an extensive province entirely at the disposal of De Boigne. This decision was communicated to him in the following terms: ‘You complain of the delay in sending the arrears of the army. You say that at the end of Shawal the pay will be seven months in arrear. I have got your receipt for 190 thousand Rupees that you have permitted to be paid to your soldiers and officers. On account of three months of the arrear you demand 185 thousand Rupees more and you apprehend that the money may not be sent to you.’
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‘In reply be assured that I have personally taken notice of all your demands and find them correct. The anxiety, the disquiet, the pre-occupations that overwhelm you are even heavier and more painful in my case; my own embarrassments are greater than you can believe. It is my very keen desire and ambition, you know, to render durable these military creations which have cost us so much labour and such enormous expense and to prove my affection for an army whose services I appreciate.’
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‘Wishing therefore to cut short these embarrassments and to put an end to the incessant complaints caused by the continual delay that my treasurers make in paying the salaries, I have decided to give my soldiers a new mark of my solicitude and you complete satisfaction by separating from my administration and confiding to your exclusive care a province of my estate having a revenue equal to the total amount of the annual pay and expenses of the army. You will have the sole control of the territory, you yourself will choose the governors and the collectors who will be your men. You will fix the extent of this district in the light of your experience, and I am confident of your discretion, and you will regularly pay the troops each
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Lewis Ferdinand Smith, but the above extracts are quoted from the excellent summary of Colonel Malleson in his Final French Struggles in India, pp. 192-4.
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month without being henceforth obliged to have recourse to my ministers for this care.'
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'This grant, which I make to you, of a wide stretch of country, offers me another advantage, the certainty of seeing in this province, the increase of population and the improvement of agriculture, thanks to your talents and to your sense of justice and foresight.'¹
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¹ Victor de Saint-Genis, *Une Page inedite de L'histoire des Indes, Le General de Boigne*, pp. 192-3.
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De Boigne was an able administrator as well as a military leader and Sindhia's expectations were fully justified. Aligarh and its neighbouring districts prospered under De Boigne's Government, but luckily for Mahadaji, the Savoyard had no desire of settling in India or carving out an independent principality for himself. With a splendid army and the entire revenue of one of the richest provinces of the empire at his disposal, the Savoyard might have easily succeeded in accomplishing what an Irishman, more daring but less fortunately situated, attempted in vain. Whether the Peshwa's Government had realised the unwisdom of granting such rich *jahgirs* to strangers we do not know, but neither Boyd nor John Ford was as lucky as De Boigne and Perron. The new experiment was fraught with other dangers. The Marathas did not enter the regular army. Their tradition and habit equally disqualified them for such service, and the regular forces, whether under Sindhia or under the Peshwa, were composed entirely of non-Marathas. The Hindu privates, commonly called Telingas, were drawn mainly from Oudh, and the Muhammadan contingents, called Najibs and Alygholes, consisted almost entirely of Rohillas and Pathans. William Henry Tone, who knew them well, has described them as the most unscrupulous adventurers who did not hesitate to commit the worst crimes.² The private in the newly raised battalions, therefore, was not morally superior to his predecessor in the old *gardi* regiment. If the men were bad, their officers were worse. The European adventurers who sought the service of Indian princes came in pursuit of fortune. They were more daring than the old *gardi* leaders but hardly less unscrupulous. If Muzaffar Khan had been guilty of frequently changing his masters, Dudrenec behaved no better and he was by no means the only offender in this respect. Their inconstancy earned Dudrenec and his colleagues the unenviable epithet of *Daghabaz* or traitors from Jaswant Rao Holkar.¹ Moreover, these unreliable officers were hardly a match for accomplished English generals like Lake and Wellesley. Most of them had no previous military training. Perron, Borquin and George Thomas were all runaway sailors, and the French officers in Sindhia’s army have been described by Lewis Ferdinand Smith as ‘low in every sense of the word’. ‘Low they were in every sense of the word,’ he writes, ‘in birth, in education and in principle. Perron’s army was a minute miniature of the French Revolution — wretches were raised from cooks, bakers, and barbers, to be the Majors and Colonels, absurdly entrusted with the command of brigades and shoved into paths to acquire lacks.’² Michael Filoze, who made a fortune in Sindhia’s service and then retired to Europe, is described by the same writer, who knew him, as a ‘Neapolitan of mean birth, low character and illiterate.’³ Some allowance might have been made for the natural bias of an Englishman against his French rivals in the same service, had not Smith’s denunciation of the average officer been substantially confirmed by Colonel Skinner who was absolutely free from such a prejudice.
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² Tone says of them: 'They are mere soldiers of fortune and serve only for their pay . . . . They have no idea of patriotism or love of their country, but would plunder their native village without pang.'
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¹ Compton, *European Military Adventurers of Hindustan*, p. 350; for Holkar’s aversion to the French, ibid, p. 337.
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² Lewis Ferdinand Smith, *A Sketch of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the Regular Corps*, p. 47.
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³ Ibid p. 55. Filoze stopped for a time at Goa after retiring from Sindhia’s service and obtained a Tenente (Lt.) Colonel’s commission in the Portuguese army. *See* Letter No. 85, Officios dos Governadores, Maco 32, (Archivo Ultramarino tf Lisbon). It is not known whether Filoze ever reached Europe. His descendants continued to occupy positions of honour and influence at Gwalior. One of them obtained a knighthood under the British regime.
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Although adventurers of all nations were equally welcome in Sindhia’s army, Frenchmen and Englishmen, naturally from their long connection with and acknowledged interest in the country, formed the majority. The only result was dissension and disagreement. Sutherland could not get on with Perron and the latter’s promotion as Commander-in-Chief after De Boigne’s resignation did not improve their relations. Even the Savoyard Drugeon was jealous of his French superior and wrote to De Boigne on 30 April 1802: ‘Here M. Perron, so far as concerns power, is as autocratic as the King of Prussia, and as regards money, he resembles Croesus, for it falls upon him like the most abundant rain by night and by day in the form of rupees. Courted at the same time by all the Rajas and grandees of the country, even by the Prince who fears him, as indeed do all his chiefs; for like him, they are all of them, so to speak, under Perron’s orders. At the same time M. Perron must not deceive himself despite his strength (you have prepared the soup for others who to-day have only got the trouble of eating it) and imagine that he has served the Prince well.’¹ They had all dared the unknown dangers of a long journey to a fabulously rich land with the sole desire to be put on ‘the way to lacks’, they all wanted to have a share of the excellent soup and could not brook the least disappointment.
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¹ Victor de Saint-Genis, *Une Page inedite de L’histoire des Indes*, p. 367.
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The cupidity of the foreigners did not constitute the only danger to the State that employed them. The *gardi*, at the worst, cared for his own interest and he was not definitely identified with any power other than his master. But however ill-educated or ill-born the Frenchman or the Englishman might be, he was imbued with a certain amount of patriotism with which the average Indian in those days was unfamiliar. War with the French was a remote possibility but war against the English was a certainty, and the Marathas ought to have been prepared for such a struggle after the treaty of Salbye. But in such a war the Maratha employer could not rely on the services of his English captains. They would not and could not not fight against their countrymen and in such a contingency the military secrets known to these officers were sure to be used against their previous masters. When war broke out in 1802, not only the English but the French officers as well of the Maratha army, took advantage of the Governor General’s offer. They had come to seek fortune and not to lose it. The strong fort of Aligarh was captured with incredible ease, for while the French commander of the garrison was not particularly anxious to defend it, its reduction was rendered easy by the local knowledge of Lieutenant Lucan who led his countrymen to the weakest points.¹ Skinner complains that the ‘conduct of the Europeans in the Mahratta service totally ruined their own character and led to the destruction of their comrades who had remained staunch to their master’s cause’. ² The powerful army organised by Mahadaji and De Boigne, which had served so well against Indian rivals, proved utterly useless at the moment of the greatest need, because its officers would not fight. And the Maratha empire was so easily shattered because its defence had been entrusted to foreign mercenaries.
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¹ Bailie Fraser, *Military Memoir of Lt. Col. James Skinner*, Vol. I, pp. 262-3; 271; and Thorn, *Memoir of the Campaigns in the Hindoostan of the Late General Lord Lake*, p. 99.
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² Bailie Fraser, *Military Memoir of Lt.-Col. James Skinner*, Vol. I, p. 303.
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British subjects were, as a matter of policy, encouraged to enter native service to safeguard their country’s interest and to counterpoise the French influence in the Maratha army which had caused great anxiety at Calcutta and Bombay. Boyd and Tone were really serving the British Government at Hyderabad and Poona.³ But the Marathas on the other hand did not make the least distinction of nationality in their choice of military officers. Their ignorance or indifference about the country and the nationality of their employees was appalling. To mistake Boyd for an Englishman was probably natural and immaterial, but even De Boigne has frequently been called an *Ingraz* or Englishman.⁴ There was a scarcity of military experts, and when one was available the Marathas did not take the slightest trouble of making enquiries into his nationality or antecedent, while his complexion was considered enough evidence of his military knowledge. The Marathas in the Nizam’s army had not the least scruple in fighting against their relatives of Poona and it was argued that an Irishman or an American might also be expected to look after the interests of his master even when they clashed with those of his country. As a result of this blind confidence or childish sense of security the military secrets of the Marathas were never safe, not even in times of peace.
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³ Martin, *Dispatches of Wellesley*, Vol. I, pp. 6-7.
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⁴ *Itihas Sangraha*, Hingnyanchi Vakili, pp. 11, 13, 26.
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In 1788 an English soldier named John procured some information sought by the Portuguese Government.¹ In 1802 Drugeon wrote to De Boigne that a European officer had been guilty of carrying on treasonable correspondence with his master's enemies,² and Colonel Close obtained valuable information about Holkar's army and military designs from a European officer in his employment.³
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¹ Officios dos Governadores, Maco 22, No. 35 (Archivo Ultramarino of Lisbon).
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² Victor de Saint-Genis, Une Page inedite de L'histoire des Indes, p. 366.
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³ Forrest, Selections from State Papers, Maratha Series, pp. 565-6.
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With all its defects Sindhia's regular army was the best that any Indian prince had at that time. The defects were common to them all, but Sindhia's men were better armed, better paid and more efficiently trained. In theory, however, the trained battalions of Sindhia did not belong to the Maratha empire. De Boigne had his jahgir in Hindustan and though Perron took part in the battle of Khada the new army was supposed to serve the Emperor of Delhi. The Peshwa's trained battalion was never so numerous as that of Sindhia, and its first commander of whom we know anything was an English deserter from Madras. He was a bold man, as is testified by Lt. Moor who knew him, but he could not be expected to know much of the higher science of war that had rendered the European forces so superior to their Indian opponents. Evans had under him about fifty Europeans of diverse nationalities, but he was succeeded in his command by his wife, a native Christian woman.⁴ Baji Rao II, however, had two battalions under the efficient command of Col. Boyd. The old battalions consisted of 677 sepoys commanded by 2 Captains, 4 Lieutenants, 3 Sergeants, 14 Subhedars, 2 Cumedans (Commandants), 20 Jamadars, 59 Havaldars and 38 Naiks, while the new battalion of 484 Sepoys had 1 Captain, 2 Lieutenants, 1 Sergeant, 4 Subhedars, 5 Jamadars, 32 Havaldars and 7 Naiks. Both the battalions had a complement of artillery but only the new battalions had also a body of 15 horsemen commanded by a Jamadar. Colonel Boyd, who held the chief command, got a salary of 3,000 Rupees per month, the Captains under him got Rs. 400 each, a Lieutenant was paid Rs. 250 per month, while his Sergeant's monthly remuneration was Rs.90.⁵ The scale of salary, therefore, was not higher than that in Sindhia’s army; for when Sindhia’s men were called upon to serve in the Deccan they got an allowance in addition to their usual pay.¹ John Ford, who commanded the Peshwa’s battalions in 1812-13, got a lower salary than Colonel Boyd (Rs. 2,500), but the two Captains under him got Rs. 1,000 each, while the two Assistant Captains were paid Rs. 500 (each) per month.²
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⁴ Moor, A Narrative of the Operations of Captain Little's Detachment, pp. 26-7.
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⁵ Peshwas' Diaries, Vol. V, pp. 184-7.
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¹ Lewis Ferdinand Smith, *A Sketch of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the Regular Corps*, pp. 50-2.
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² Itihas Sangraha, *Peshave Daftarantil Nivadak Kagad Patra*, pp. 93-5. The scale of salary in the service of the East India Company was as follows in 1743 (Bombay Public Consultation, Range CCCXLI, No. 13, p. 172): Subedar—Rs. 20, Jumbledar—Rs. 13, Havaldar—Rs. 6½, Naique—4-3-20. Sabnis—4-2-20. Trumpeteer—Rs. 4, Colour bearer—Rs. 4, Bhaldar—Rs. 4 and Sepoy—Rs. 4.
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The European soldiers in the Maratha service enjoyed many high privileges irrespective of their pay and position, as Colonel Tone informs us. ‘I calculate’, he writes, ‘that there were scattered about, in the interior, in the various services, of all countries, and situations, about three hundred Europeans; of these about seven commanded tolerably large corps, and may be considered as men of fortune. There were perhaps about sixty more, in the rank of officers; the remainder were serjeants and gunners, some of whom have deserted from the settlements; others from ships, but the majority were French. Persons of this description had from thirty to sixty rupees per month; being under very little discipline, were generally of extremely irregular conduct and do but small honour to the European character, except by their extraordinary courage and intrepedity when employed on actual service; yet so great is the partiality of the Mahratta chiefs for Europeans in general, that they enjoyed many privileges in this country which the native himself does not partake of. The various European articles necessary for his consumption passed through the Mahratta territories duty free; in the native durbars, no person in the service can set up a palankeen without permission but with regard to an European, no leave is ever required. In the Mogul Government no person can make use of a yellow howda but the nabob, except Europeans, who labour under no restriction of this kind. In travelling through the interior, your baggage is transported from town to town without expence, and your person and property are perfectly secure, none of the natives, but military men, have any advantage of this nature.'¹
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¹ Tone, *Illustrations of some Institutions of the Maharatta People*, pp. 67-8.
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These concessions might have been justified if the Marathas had meant to make the fullest use of the military talents of the foreigners whose superiority was thus frankly acknowledged. But though the Hindu and Muhammadan soldiers of the North readily enlisted in the new battalions the Maratha scrupulously kept away. He preferred his time-honoured profession of an irregular *Silhedar*. The strict discipline that the new method enjoined and the Drill Sergeant, an unfamiliar figure, did not appeal to him, and the average *saranjam*-holder could not afford to have such an expensive force, while by the terms of his *saranjam* he was expected to serve the State with inexpensive cavalry regiments only: Of the numerous military leaders who were called upon to account for their rent-free estates before the *Inam* Commission only one, Rupram Chaudhari, could claim to be the commander of a *paltan* or trained battalion.² The Europeans were employed not to teach and train the Marathas for a period of transition but were expected to occupy a permanent position in the Maratha army; and, as we have seen, all of them did not possess even the minimum qualification.
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² Mawjee and Parasnis, *Kaifiyats Yadis*, p. 94.
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Such a force, though useful in a war against an Indian rival, equally or more inefficient, could not stand against the superior army of the East India Company. It did not in any way strengthen the fleet Maratha horsemen, it only hampered them. Gopal Rao, a conservative officer in Sindhia's service, had once given his master a significant warning: 'Our fathers,' he said, 'the first founders of the Mahratta power, made their houses on the backs of their horses; gradually the house came to be made of cloth; and now you are making it of mud: take care — and mark my words — take care that in a very short time it don't all turn to mud, and is never rebuilt.'³ What was true of the barracks was equally true of the army. The main strength of the Maratha army lay in its speed and in its mobility. It was the interest of its European rival with better artillery to catch it in the open field and to force a pitched battle.
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³ Bailie Fraser, *Military Memoir of Lt.-Col. James Skinner*, Vol. I, p. 191.
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It was the interest of the Maratha to elude his foe, to keep out of the range of his death-scattering cannon, to ravage his country, to cut off his supplies, and to exhaust and worry him by an incessant war of attrition. These tactics were successful against Egerton and Goddard when they tried to penetrate into the heart of Maharashtra through the Bhore Ghat. These tactics, when pursued by Jaswant Rao Holkar, caused Col. Monson much more trouble than the English generals ever suffered from the regular army of Daulat Rao Sindhia. But neither Sindhia nor Bhonsla could execute the rapid marches, the quick evolutions, the unexpected surprises in company with their artillery and musketry laden trained infantry, and their army succumbed to the superior artillery and superior generalship of Lake and Wellesley. Trained battalions had made Mahadaji the master of Delhi and Agra, and trained battalions led his nephew to his doom and reduced him to the position of a humble feudatory of the British Government.