The First Anglo-Maratha War (1775–82) was essentially a stalemate. It concluded with the Treaty of Salbai (1782), which restored the status quo ante bellum. While the Marathas achieved a major tactical victory at the Battle of Wadgaon, the British balanced ...
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James Grant Duff, a British soldier and historian who served as the resident at Satara, used this famous metaphor in his book “A History of the Mahrattas.” He viewed the emergence of the Maratha power as an abrupt, explosive event ...
Mahadaji Scindia was the first major Maratha leader to realize that traditional guerrilla tactics were insufficient against modern European armies. He hired European mercenaries, most notably the Frenchman Benoit de Boigne, to raise and train elite “Compagnies d’Infanterie” equipped with ...
At Panipat, the Maratha army was a collection of individual contingents rather than a unified force. Sadashivrao Bhau lacked the absolute authority to command veteran chiefs like Malharrao Holkar, who often disagreed with his tactics. This lack of a “centralized ...
The Maratha revenue system was primarily designed to support a state in a state of “permanent war.” While the Mughals emphasized a detailed land-survey-based bureaucracy (Zabt system), the Marathas focused on “Chauth” and “Sardeshmukhi.” These were military levies collected from ...