The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c18.24

c18.24

The degeneration of cavalry was also due to the departure from Shivaji's practice. Had the Peshwas continued to replace the *Silhedar* force by state-paid and state-equipped horse, the efficiency of their cavalry would certainly have been maintained. But the revival of feudalism naturally encouraged the employment of *Silhedars*, who were unwilling to risk their horses which formed their professional capital. At last even the *Jahgirdars* began to hire horses for their personal cavalry, as we learn from Sir Thomas Munro. 'A great part of the horses employed in the Mahratta armies', he wrote, 'are the property of men who do not belong to the military profession. Many of the wealthy inhabitants, most of the despandes, dessyes, and other hereditary civil officers of the potails and curnums of villages, and many even of the most substantial rayets, breed horses for the armies. They send them to the field mounted by their own domestics and labourers, and hire them to the jagheerdars or the Government. They are horse-dealers rather than soldiers.'² It is no wonder that untrained men mounted on hired steeds proved of little use in actual fighting.