The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c9.65

c9.65

It is needless to say that these officers had lost under the new system much of their old importance. The expenses of a fort were paid out of the revenue of a number of villages attached to it for that purpose, and all the forts in a province were placed directly under the authority of the provincial governor. Thus we find that in 1774-75 the eighteen forts in the province of Bassein were all placed under the control of Visaji Keshav, the *Mamledar* of that province.¹ The fortress of Anjanvel, a naval station, was under the joint control of the *Havaldar* and the provincial governor, and while the latter had in his custody the key of the outer gates, that of the inner gates was in the possession of the former.² Such an arrangement naturally did not work satisfactorily, and in 1794-95 a dispute took place between Bapuji Shinde, the Governor of the province, and Babu Rao Salokhe, the *Havaldar* of the fort of Dharwar.³ The *Karkhan-nis* was sometimes so ill-paid that he did not care to live in the fort and attend to his official duties, and the Peshwa's Government had, therefore, to send inspectors not only to examine the stores and accounts of the forts but also for the distribution of ration and the payment of the salary of the garrison.⁴ In the Peshwa period forced and unpaid labour was employed for the building and repair works of the forts. Timber was supplied from the neighbouring forests and the neighbouring villages supplied the carpenters and unskilled labourers. And here again we notice a departure from Shivaji's practice.