The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c9.4

c9.4

The sites were generally well selected. Raigad could be reached by one narrow steep and difficult footpath that zigzagged along an inaccessible precipice and every care had been taken to provide for its defence. No less strong was the site of Lohagad. In fact Lord Valentia was of opinion that defective knowledge of fortification had considerably impaired its natural strength.¹ ‘We examined’, he says, ‘the gateways as we came down, and I am quite convinced, that the whole of the artificial works much lessen the natural strength of the place. Each high side of the way forms a sheltering place, secure against all attacks from the top, whether of musquetry or their more usual weapons, large stones rolled down from above. The gateway and the parapets have the same effect. Had the whole been scalped off, and only a strong work at the top, I believe no earthly power could have taken it.’ But progress in military engineering as in everything else is also influenced by the laws of demand and supply. Had the artillerymen and miners of the time been more efficient, there might have been a greater necessity on the part of the military architects to use their brain and improve upon the traditional scheme of fortification they had inherited from their ancestors.