The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c14.19

c14.19

Of the numerical strength of Shivaji’s navy we have different estimates. Krishnaji Anant Sabhasad says that Shivaji’s fleet was divided into two squadrons of two hundred ships of varying types, and dimensions. The total numerical strength, according to him, was four hundred, a very big figure, even according to modern standards.³ Malhar Ram Rao Chitnis also says that ‘Four to five hundred ships of these different types were built and five to ten lakhs of Rupees were spent for the purpose’.¹ If these figures appear high, the one given by Cosme da Guarda is certainly low. He says that Shivaji’s fleet consisted of twenty-five ships only, all purchased from his subjects and designed for the capture of the small coasting craft called *Parangues*² belonging to the country merchants. Fryer saw on his way to ‘Serapatan (Kharepatan), to the South of Dan de Rajapore, a Strong Castle of Seva Gi’s defended a deep Bay, where rode his Navy, consisting of 30 Small Ships and Vessels, the Admiral wearing a White Flag aloft’.³ But different squadrons of Shivaji’s fleet were stationed at different ports like Rajapore, Jetapore,⁴ Malwan and Suvarnadurg, and Fryer does not pretend to speak of the entire fleet. The most reliable figures are supplied by the English factory records. Oxinden wrote on 26 June 1664: “Wee are heere allarmed to expect him by sea; for which intent report speaks him to bee fitting up some and building of others, to the number of 60 saile of frigotts, to surprize all jouncks and vessayls belonging to this port’.⁵ On 26 November of the same year, the Surat council informed their masters at home that Shivaji had fitted up four score vessels and sent them down to Batticola.⁶ The fleet that conveyed Shivaji and his army to Barcelore in 1665 consisted, according to a letter of Streynsham Master, of ‘85 frigotts and three great shipps’.⁷ We read in a letter written in 1667 that Shivaji had ‘in readiness 50 or 60 small frigotts’.⁸ In 1675 the Rajapore factors wrote to their colleagues at Bombay that Shivaji had ordered about forty small vessels to be got ready.⁹ In October 1670, Bombay was alarmed by the appearance of 60 or 70 vessles belonging to Shivaji near the mouth of the port¹⁰ and in November of the same year he fitted out a grand fleet ‘of 160 sayle of vessels small and great’.¹ From these figures it appears that Sabhasad’s estimate may not have been greatly exaggerated. We have conclusive evidence that Shivaji built new ships from time to time, and it will not be unreasonable to suppose that when he sent Dariya Sarang to an unknown destination at the head of 160 ships in November 1670, he had not completely denuded his naval bases of their protecting fleets and that the total numerical strength of his navy may be reasonably put at 200 ships, big and small. Krishnaji Anant Sabhasad and Malhar Ram Rao Chitnis were probably thinking of the mercantile fleet as well when they made their estimate, for of the different types of vessels included in their lists *Taru*,² *Tarandi*, *Pagar*, *Dubare*, *Vabhor* and *Tirkati* were not used in naval engagements; while we read not only of Shivaji’s salt boats but also of his regular ‘May fleet’ plying between his ports and those of Arabia and Persia. Whether the trading or the fighting fleet came first into existence, we cannot as yet decide.