पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

THE BATTLE 193
without even taking leave of the Afghan monarch! It will be seen from these
descriptions that this great victory had not brought much cash into the coffers
of the Afghans, and was thus a financial failure. While the Marathas had lost
their all in the immediate as well as distant sense, there was no commensurate
gain to the victors Verily it was a Pyrrhic victory!
FOOD ARRANGEMENTS DURING THE BATTLE
Sir Jadunath's charge (Fall 2.337) that the Marathas did not carry
"roast meat and dry bread" in their saddle is due to his ignorance of the
Maratha manners. Roasted gram and rice were generally carried by the
Marathas when on travel, together with raw sugar (gur) to be eaten before
drinking water after a long journey. Flour for baking bread was carried on
the person to be used at halt. The Marathas were vegetarians to a great ex-
tent, but they also knew the sustaining power of meat in preference to bread.
At least one reference mentioning its use is available in RAJWADE 10-59, dur-
ing the war between Janoji Bhonsle and Madhavrao Peshwa in 1769. Janoji
for one month was continually on the march every day with Madhavrao close
at his heels During a march of three or four days in succession, he could not
make a halt so as to bake bread. The Bhonsle army subsisted on mutton only
and thus gave the slip to the Peshwa. This clearly proves that occasionally,
when available, the Marathas made use of roast meat to subsist on. Of course,
it is more than we can say whether the Marathas on the field of Panipat were
actually carrying ready-made food on their persons, but our surmise is that
they did.
MARATHA MODE OF WARFARE
That the historic Marathas had perfected an individual mode of
cavalry movement is clear from its adoption by Col. Skinner in his later famous
"Skinner's Horse." General G. C. MUNDY²⁰ who accompanied Lord COMBER-
MERE, the Commander-in-Chief in India in 1830, on his tour through northern
India, writes of it in the following manner:
"The peculiar evolution of the 'Skinner's Horse' and which is most striking to a Eu-
ropean eye is the Maratha charge. In this movement the whole corps advances in line,
two deep, at a canter or trot, which, like John Gilpin's, becomes 'a gallop soon'; and as
they approach their object, the files open out, and every man, uttering a wild, shrill scream,
comes thundering on with his sword waving above his head In spite of the apparent
disjointed irregularity of the charge, and the amazing speed of their approach, at the word
'halt' every horse is brought upon his haunches within ten paces of the reviewing General.
The Maratha charge is certainly well calculated to strike terror into a foe already wavering,
but its real physical effect upon staunch troops must be far inferior to the close combined
charge of our cavalry" (Page 165)
The Marathas were known as superb spearmen and their mode can be
judged from the Skinner's Horse trained in the same tradition
²⁰ MUNDY's Pen and Pencil Sketches in India, 3rd ed. (1858).