The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c8.47

c8.47

These troops were generally armed with muskets and matchlocks, swords and targets, spears and lances, daggers and clubs and bows and arrows. John Henry Grose says that the muskets and matchlocks were used 'chiefly in bush-fighting where when they have made a discharge, they retreat in a hurry to their main body. But their chief dependence is on their swords and targets. Their swords are, generally speaking, of an admirable temper, and they are well trained up to the exercise of them; so that on all occasions on battle, they quit their musket, and betake themselves to them with great success'. 'As to their targets, they are exactly round, convexing almost to a point on the outside, light and covered with so smooth and hard a varnish or lacquer, that if tolerably good, they will easily turn a pistol-ball, and at some little distance a musket one. They also have among them excellent slingers and archers; but of these they make lately less account since the introduction of firearms; though considering their imperfection in the management of these last, it is a query whether they are much gainers by the change.'² Nearly forty years later when William Henry Tone wrote his Letters, the Marathas, or rather their foreign employees, had learnt to make better use of their firearms, but in the cavalry charge they still relied more upon their swords than on their banduks or muskets. Says Tone: 'The bandook takes a longer time to load than the firelock, as it is chambered, but then it carries a ball much farther and infinitely truer; and long practice enabled the nujeebs to load with a readiness sufficiently applicable to ordinary service; they are also excellent swordsmen and are usually employed in making a charge upon any appearance of confusion in the enemy.'³