The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c18.2

c18.2

The Maratha empire suffered from many maladies. The principal chiefs professed to serve the same master and the same State but, divided by personal jealousy, they were seldom able to pursue resolutely a concerted plan or a coherent policy and common interests were frequently sacrificed to private ends. The irregular cavalry was slow to mobilise and not generally available for prompt action or prolonged services in distant parts and the personnel of the army, therefore, had to be largely changed; the non-Maratha recruits who replaced the Maratha horsemen were mercenaries of the worst type drawn by prospects of plunder and were not bound to their masters by racial or any other affinity. The policy of indiscriminate aggression for financial purposes initiated by Balaji Baji Rao led to incessant but incomplete and ineffective invasions, which naturally left bitter memories in the harassed principalities; the Marathas thus made many enemies, who were not without means and motives of retaliation and who waited for favourable circumstances, while they had very few firm friends to rely upon in any serious emergency. The proved superiority of trained sepoys commanded by European officers led to the employment of a large number of military adventurers of diverse nationalities, unknown antecedents and doubtful character. The great majority of these officers were either English or French, and they naturally sacrificed their masters’ interests to those of their own and of their respective nations. The craze for trained battalions of infantry led the Maratha chieftains to underestimate the value of cavalry which had formed in the past the greatest source of their strength. Cavalry was, therefore, neglected and allowed to degenerate. The Marathas had long been familiar with artillery and firearms, but they neglected to learn the science and technique of these invaluable weapons and continued till their final overthrow to rely for their supplies on the European settlements at Bombay and Goa. Nor was this all, the last decade of the eighteenth century found the Marathas without any able military leader, and it was no wonder that the ill-led, ill-organised, ill-equipped and ill-disciplined hordes with irreconcilable methods of fighting were easily discomfited and routed by Wellington and Lake.