The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c8.85

c8.85

Nor were they devoid of culture; of Shivaji’s officers, Raghunath Narayan Hanmante was a scholar of great reputation, and compiled the *Raj Vyavahar Kosh*;² Parashram Pant, the founder of the Pratinidhi family, was a Sanskrit author; Mahadaji Sindhia employed his scanty leisure in composing devotional hymns, and in spite of all his faults, the second Baji Rao was known as a good scholar and theologian. A boy of a good family was early given a military training. He was not only taught the use of the ordinary weapons and riding, an accomplishment in which the Marathas generally excelled, but he was often sent on active service in company with his elder relatives.³ But the education of the average chief was not limited to this practical military training. He was expected to learn Sanskrit, to know the epics and read such works as *Vidurniti*. Some of them attained some proficiency in Persian and accountancy, as it was then practised. It is true that their education was very limited judged by modern standards, and they had hardly the intellectual equipment of a student of the military academies of Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. But in their military knowledge and cultural attainments the hereditary chiefs were certainly not inferior to their contemporaries in other parts of India; and as men, if they were no better, they were not certainly worse than commanders of other nationalities.