The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c13.8

c13.8

Among the Maratha officers employed in Hindustan none understood the complex political situation better than Govind Pant Bundele. In February 1755, he addressed a letter to the Peshwa explaining the unsatisfactory political condition then existing and suggesting the necessary measure. He told the Peshwa plainly that a force of at least 20,000 well trained and well disciplined men who were not given to plunder should be permanently stationed in Northern India for safeguarding the Maratha interests and securing the Maratha possessions there. He plainly told that the force under him was not at all adequate and, in view of the impending return of Raghoba to the Deccan, he urged the necessity of sending a strong army.¹ About four years earlier Bapuji Mahadev Hingne had requested his brother to explain the necessity of posting a strong force at Delhi, for the Maratha cause was by no means popular there.² But all these warnings from the men on the spot went unheeded, and when in the rainy season of 1755 Raghoba left for home and Holkar accompanied him, only a small force was left with Antaji Mankeshwar to look after the Maratha interests in Northern India. Sindhia was still engaged in a protracted war against the *de facto* Raja of Jodhpur.