The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c11.68

c11.68

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.