The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c12.31

c12.31

However useful these animals might prove for transport and other services, their feeding was not the only problem with which the army was confronted. There was no separate place for herding and stabling the beasts, and sometimes lack of care and underfeeding told so heavily on their health that the poor animals proved a source of infection. Broughton says that he and his companions always camped at least a mile away from Sindhia’s army to avoid the disagreeable ‘stench arising from carcases of horse, bullocks, and camels, which no one takes the trouble to remove’.¹ The men in the Maratha army often lived pell-mell with their mounts, and this insanitary condition sometimes led to the outbreak of epidemic when the distress of the poor sufferers knew no bounds. For although the camp was well supplied with druggists and quacks, there were but few qualified physicians, and hospital arrangements were either unknown or deemed unnecessary.²