The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c11.26

c11.26

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