The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c8.10

c8.10

In the Peshwa period, however, the position was reversed. The Marathas were no longer compelled to defend their hearth and home. Secure in their native territories, they were now in a position to carry war into enemy country, and in these distant expeditions, designed mainly for plunder, a cavalry force was far more useful than infantry. In a Portuguese report, dated June 1787, therefore, we read that the Peshwa could bring in the field 80,000 to 100,000 horse, 10,000 foot and 40 to 50 pieces of artillery.⁷ In the few lists of military saranjams of the later Peshwa period that have come down to us, we find no mention of infantry at all, and Tone¹ tells us that in his days the Maratha did not care to enlist as a foot-soldier and the infantry consisted almost entirely of outsiders. The Maratha footmen were employed mainly for the suppression of disturbances by the Bhils, Kolis and other turbulent tribes.