The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c8.27

c8.27

Of all these foreigners the Arabs enjoyed the highest reputation for valour and intrepidity, and Blacker tells us that ‘Every substantive Native Power had a portion of these troops’.¹ Prinsep confirms this statement when he writes: ‘It may be proper to mention, as a proof of the estimation in which the Arabs are held as soldiers by the native powers, the rate of pay they received in the Peshwa’s army in comparison with natives of other countries’. Arabs, natives of Arabia, according to this authority, got 15 Rupees a month, their descendants born in the country got 10 Rupees, the Hindustani sepoy was paid 8 Rupees, while the lowest salary, that of 6 Rupees a month, was allotted to the Maratha and his fellow Dakshinis in the infantry service.²