The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c5.6

c5.6

Yet peace was not the keynote of this primitive society. The climate and the physical features of the land, which engendered courage and endurance in the Maratha, made him also self-centred and crafty. The isolation of his daily life led also to a certain parochialism in political affairs. The ambition of the average Maratha villager was confined to his own village and the ambition of the average Maratha chief seldom extended beyond the narrow confines of his paternal principality. But to every Maratha high or low one thing was of paramount importance. He lived and died for his watan.¹ What his bapoti² was to the Rajput, the watan was to the Maratha. There was no sacrifice he could not make for it; even apostasy from his religion was not too high a price to pay for its retention. As each watan had more than one claimant, it caused continual strife between rival chiefs and rival families. And as the Maratha of those days did not readily forget a loss or forgive an injury, these quarrels inevitably led to blood feuds, which could only be ended by the complete extermination of one of the rival families.³ Such hostilities kept the Maratha so busily engaged that he had hardly time or inclination to notice the movements and progress of the external world. The habit narrowed his vision but made a good soldier of him; and thus when the time came, he was ready to take advantage of the new situation and improve his fortunes.