The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c11.20

c11.20

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.