11-26-2006, 12:42 AM
Did not notice this thread before. Already got a good link to Dighe's book on Maratha expansion. Has this discussion died out. Surely not I hope, Marathas were my childhood heroes. Surely I have not come too late onto the scene.
Saw one good question on why Marathas did not target Kashmir. Come on... they have already done so much, they went upto Attock. I guess thats nearly as north as Kashmir and if they had not lost at Panipat ("Panipat" nahi "jhale" hot tar), even if would have been only half as much debacle, then who knows in 1760s and 1770s Marathas would have been skiing in Kashmir. Just joking <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
But on a serious note, we need to look at the economics of expansion and war. Somebody made a point about logistics. Thats important but it comes later, first you need to raise finances. I assume some of you are active professionals in some or other stream of life. You would be working in a company or maybe as an entrepreneur. If you are handling a company, want to start a new project or spend on upgrading your system etc., then you need to look at your budget. During his period Balaji Bajirao started to maintain larger contingents of standing army, generally of professional (not part time) soldiers, who needed to be paid on time. Besides the Maratha sardars, Holkars, Shindes started becoming more and more independant. Bhosles were always playing politics with the Peshwas even during Bajirao's time. I can't say exactly, maybe some of you could provide more input, but on a general basis the Peshwa was getting increasingly lesser rewards out of the Maratha expansion in this period post 1740, while his costs were increasing. Again for a campaign like Panipat, the Peshwa would have borrowed heavily from the Pune bankers. I remeber seeign in the serial "Great Maratha", when Bhau captured Delhi, he was sorely dissappointed to find there no finances for the war. As per the treaty between Mughals and Marathas, the Mughals were to pay 50 Lakhs to Marathas besides some chauth and sardeshmukhi rights. I don't know, whether the Mughals actually paid it. One of the reasons Nanasaheb would have died heart broken due to Panipat, besides it being a military loss, is the huge financial loss it had been (Ironically a famous contemporary communication about the defeat was also in pecuniary terms, everybody knows about: "Two pearls are lost.... twenty seven gold mohurs....) But even Abdali was disappointed as he also did not gain much by it, while the campaign was a huge drain on his resources. His being a poor country without a developed economy he required a huge plunder very much.
It would be interesting to see what kind of interactions and relations were there between the Peshwa, Maratha sardars and their bankers. How much influence they had. How much akin to the present influence of FIs and shareholders on present day companies.
PS: Iz there any way to copy the books on http://dli.iiit.ac.in to my comp.
Saw one good question on why Marathas did not target Kashmir. Come on... they have already done so much, they went upto Attock. I guess thats nearly as north as Kashmir and if they had not lost at Panipat ("Panipat" nahi "jhale" hot tar), even if would have been only half as much debacle, then who knows in 1760s and 1770s Marathas would have been skiing in Kashmir. Just joking <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->But on a serious note, we need to look at the economics of expansion and war. Somebody made a point about logistics. Thats important but it comes later, first you need to raise finances. I assume some of you are active professionals in some or other stream of life. You would be working in a company or maybe as an entrepreneur. If you are handling a company, want to start a new project or spend on upgrading your system etc., then you need to look at your budget. During his period Balaji Bajirao started to maintain larger contingents of standing army, generally of professional (not part time) soldiers, who needed to be paid on time. Besides the Maratha sardars, Holkars, Shindes started becoming more and more independant. Bhosles were always playing politics with the Peshwas even during Bajirao's time. I can't say exactly, maybe some of you could provide more input, but on a general basis the Peshwa was getting increasingly lesser rewards out of the Maratha expansion in this period post 1740, while his costs were increasing. Again for a campaign like Panipat, the Peshwa would have borrowed heavily from the Pune bankers. I remeber seeign in the serial "Great Maratha", when Bhau captured Delhi, he was sorely dissappointed to find there no finances for the war. As per the treaty between Mughals and Marathas, the Mughals were to pay 50 Lakhs to Marathas besides some chauth and sardeshmukhi rights. I don't know, whether the Mughals actually paid it. One of the reasons Nanasaheb would have died heart broken due to Panipat, besides it being a military loss, is the huge financial loss it had been (Ironically a famous contemporary communication about the defeat was also in pecuniary terms, everybody knows about: "Two pearls are lost.... twenty seven gold mohurs....) But even Abdali was disappointed as he also did not gain much by it, while the campaign was a huge drain on his resources. His being a poor country without a developed economy he required a huge plunder very much.
It would be interesting to see what kind of interactions and relations were there between the Peshwa, Maratha sardars and their bankers. How much influence they had. How much akin to the present influence of FIs and shareholders on present day companies.
PS: Iz there any way to copy the books on http://dli.iiit.ac.in to my comp.