The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c12.34

c12.34

The Maratha generals had no commissariat department. For their supplies they depended entirely on the enterprise of their foragers and the Brinjaras. The Brinjaras were mostly Hindus by religion and Jats by race. A hardy tribe of nomads, they travelled in large bands called *tandahs* and had their own headmen and peculiar organisation. They travelled throughout the country and were well capable of defending themselves in war and peace, but their service was most in demand during the wars, when they transported a large quantity of provisions laden on bullocks to the war zone from peaceful settlements and trading centres. As traders they were honest, but sometimes they did not hesitate to obtain their merchandise by force. Railways and quicker methods of transport have today rendered it difficult for us to appreciate the service rendered by the Brinjara hordes to the belligerents in India, and their number seems almost incredible now. Wellington says that there were no less than 10,000 Brinjaras with Dundhia Vagh, the notorious robber chief, who infested the frontier of Mysore and Southern Maratha districts.³ Although this might have been an unusually large band, companies of three to five thousand were by no means uncommon. On 20 August 1800, Wellington wrote from Hubli : ‘I have 1200 loads in the grain departments, and 1500 full brinjarries in the camp; I am told that I have 5000 between the Werdah and Malpoorba; and as the headman has not deceived me lately, I believe it. Besides that, 3000 brinjarries left me at Kittoor on the 5th, in order to fill along the borders of Soonda, Savanore, and Darwar. There are 5000 brinjarries full, who are following Nizam’s camp.¹ Wellington regarded the Brinjaras as public servants and regulated the sale of their grains to keep his army well supplied,² but we have no evidence of any Maratha general ever exercising such wise and far-sighted control over the food supply. Besides the Brinjaras, the Marathas could count upon the Pendharis accompanying them. Those marauders and freebooters had an uncanny genius for discovering the secret stores of the villagers. Whatever they found, they brought to the camp and sold at a price much below the current rate. The lack of supervision of such sales, however, sometimes led to hardships after a few days of plenty, as the Maratha army experienced during the second Mysore war. But, generally, a Maratha private and his mount were both accustomed to subsist on very little food and fodder.³