The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c14.1

c14.1

SHIVAJI'S followers had inherited from their ancestors a great military tradition; but the sea was a new element to them. The western coast of India had from time immemorial been inhabited by an intrepid race of seafarers, but no evidence can be found to support the view that any attempt had been made in the past to establish a naval power. Though the Yadava Kingdom, for example, had stretched right up to the seaboard, the ambition of the Devgiri princes seems to have been land-bound; they did not aspire to rule the waves. Shivaji may, therefore, be justly described as the father of the Maratha navy. The English factors in their wrath called him a robber and a pirate;¹ but he was in reality trying to create a new sea power; and it was not his fault that the Maratha fleet did not ride the sea with as much confidence as the Maratha horse scoured the land.