The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c5.14

c5.14

It was, however, in the army that the Marathas particularly distinguished themselves. The art of war was still in its infancy, primitive weapons like sword and spear, bow and arrows, lance and dagger, which demanded little or no technical knowledge were still in general use, so that every able bodied man was a potential soldier. He could enlist as a *Bargir*³ or, if he had means enough to buy a horse and the slender outfit that a soldier needed in those days, he could join as a *Silhedar*¹ with much better prospects of advancement. A well-to-do *Silhedar* was really a *condottiere* leader with his own followers whose services he could utilise as he chose. Naturally he tried to secure the best market for his commodity. This was the time-honoured system in India and it is at least as old as the *Sukranitisara*.² Neither time nor foreign conquest had affected it in the least. Success added to the *Silhedar*'s reputation and following and of course improved his worldly prospects, for his reward generally came in the shape of a *jahgir* or military fief. It was in this way that some Maratha families rose to prominence. The most important of them in rank as well as in power were the Mores of Jawli with the twin titles of Raja and Chandra Rao. Next came the Savantas of Wari, the Ghorpades of Mudhol, the Nimbalkars of Phaltan, the Jadhavs of Sindkhed, the Shirkes, only lately dislodged from their paternal principality, the Surves with whom the Shirkes had found an asylum, the Mahadiks, the Mohites and the Ghatges. Of less note were chiefs like the Jedhes, the Manes and the Dafles.