The Maratha Fighting Forces: Quality vs. Quantity at Panipat (1760)

Marathi History Book Reading Session Summary

The Maratha Force Composition: Multiple Tiers

Ibrahim Khan Gardi's European-Trained Regiment

The Force:

• 2,000 cavalry
• 9,000 foot soldiers
• ~200 cannons
• Advanced artillery support
• French-trained gunners

The Military System:

• "Kawayati fauz" = European-style disciplined army
• Coordinated unit tactics (not individual warriors)
• Command and control structure
• Concerted actions as groups
• Revolutionary for Indian warfare

Why This Mattered:

• Traditional Indian forces = individual brave warriors
• No coordination between units
• No unified command structure
• Each soldier fights independently
• Doesn't function as cohesive army

The European Innovation:

• British, French, Portuguese introduced discipline
• 1,000 soldiers = single coordinated unit
• If commander says move, all move together
• If commander says fire, all fire together
• Act as one organism, not collection of individuals

Bhau's Core Fighting Force

The Breakdown:

• 55,000 cavalry
• 15,000 foot soldiers
• 200 cannons
• "Bhanu Maji" special forces (personal elite)
• High-caliber warriors

The Quality:

• Top-notch soldiers
• Properly trained
• Properly paid
• Expected to be highest quality
• Tested and proven

The Morale:

• Understand why they're fighting
• Regular payment (monthly)
• Professional soldiers
• Motivated to victory
• Committed to cause

Pandhari Forces: The Mercenaries

The Nature:

• Not disciplined soldiers
• Self-interested fighters
• Loot-focused operations
• Free for hire
• Soldiers of fortune

The Reality:

• Go around and loot villages
• Not paid regularly by any commander
• "Live off the land"
• Not highly trained
• Not highly motivated

The Problem:

• May not fight to the last man
• Morale dependent on circumstances
• Given motivation: will fight
• Without motivation: will flee
• Unreliable in crisis

The Necessity:

• Still a fighting force
• Help with numbers
• Can contribute to battle
• But quality questionable
• Expendable compared to core

The Total Maratha Force: Different Estimates

Kashi Ram's Count

His Assessment:

• Abdali: 80,000 fighting force
• Marathas: 70,000 fighting force
• Direct observation basis
• Professional documentation
• Contemporary record

Yudhunath Sarkar's Analysis

His Method:

• Counted dead after battle
• Assessed survivors
• Calculated based on losses
• Historian-based approach
• Analytical methodology

His Numbers:

• Abdali: 60,000 fighters
• Marathas: 45,000 core fighters
• Plus Pandhari forces (secondary tier)
• Different composition than Kashi Ram
• More conservative estimate

The Accounting:

• Core Maratha: 45,000 (high-quality)
• Pandhari: ~5,000-10,000 (mercenary)
• Total: ~50,000-55,000 vs. 60,000 Afghan
• Afghan advantage: 10,000-15,000 troops
• But Maratha artillery advantage significant

The Critical Quality Distinction

Abdali's Second-Tier vs. Maratha Second-Tier

Abdali's "Hangami" Forces:

• Contract/semi-permanent soldiers
• Not fully fledged but committed
• Better than Pandhari mercenaries
• More disciplined
• More motivated

Maratha's Pandhari Forces:

• Pure mercenaries
• Loot-focused
• Minimal training
• Low motivation
• Unreliable

The Advantage:

• Abdali's reserves > Maratha's reserves
• Even second-tier Afghans > second-tier Marathas
• "Kamasal" forces (lower quality)
• Afghan second-tier better than Maratha second-tier
• Quality gap throughout hierarchy

The Non-Combatant Workforce: The Hidden Army

Servants and Support Staff

The Numbers:

• Maratha: ~100,000 support personnel
• Afghan: fewer (less developed infrastructure)
• Both armies depended heavily on support
• Not fighting force but essential
• Logistical backbone of army

The Roles:

• Food procurement and preparation
• Tent pitching and maintenance
• Animal care (horses, camels, elephants)
• Sentry/guard duty
• General maintenance work

The Logistics:

• Like a small town moving
• Everything a town needs to function
• Shopkeepers and merchants (Boongi)
• Cooks and kitchen staff
• Animal handlers and farriers
• Barbers and medical staff

The Maratha Advantage: Family Entourages

The Commanders' Families:

• Major sardars brought families
• Bhau brought his wife: Parvati Bhai
• Appa Mehendare brought wife: Lakshmi Bhai
• Nana Fadnavis brought his mother
• Others brought wives for holy site tourism

The Holy Site Tourism:

• Kashi (Varanasi) pilgrimage interest
• Mathura visit opportunity
• Religious significance
• Women wanted to participate
• Seen as spiritual journey with military campaign

The Enthusiasm Factor:

• Marathas extremely confident
• "We're going to win"
• Why not bring families?
• Why not make it pilgrimage trip?
• Overconfidence led to bringing dependents

The Burden of Support Staff: The "Lag Load" Concept

The Necessary Evil

The Metaphor:

• Like tying log around cow/buffalo's neck
• Prevents animal from running fast
• Can still move but slower
• Dragging weight slows progress
• Eventually you catch it anyway

The Application:

• 100,000+ support staff are "lag load"
• Necessary for army function
• But slow down operations
• Can't move quickly with them
• Reduce flexibility

The Problem Times:

• In adverse situations, they become liability
• When things don't go as planned
• When army needs to be mobile
• When quick withdrawal needed
• Dead weight in crisis

The Women and Children Issue

The Vulnerability:

• Can't protect themselves
• Must be protected by army
• Requires dedicated guard forces
• Takes fighting troops from battle lines
• Reduces combat effectiveness

The Distraction:

• Commanders worried about families
• Not fully focused on battle
• Emotional attachment affects judgment
• Family safety = divided attention
• Reduces strategic flexibility

The Historical Precedent: Mughal vs. Maratha Tradition

The Mughal System: Integrated Families

The Practice:

• Mughal emperors brought families
• Mughal princes brought families
• Elite warriors brought families
• Standard military practice
• Tradition for centuries

The Implementation:

• Women installed on elephants
• Back of army positioning
• Reserve troops guard them
• Protected entourage system
• Accepted military practice

The Problem:

• Battle doesn't spare anybody
• Women as non-combatants vulnerable
• What happens when things go wrong?
• Can't defend themselves in crisis
• Becomes strategic liability

The Shivaji Tradition: Minimal Entourage

The Approach:

• Shivaji never took families
• Even in final southern campaign
• Minimal support staff
• Lean military machine
• Focused on mobility

The Difference:

• Shivaji: guerrilla/mobile warfare
• Needed speed and flexibility
• Couldn't afford support burden
• Families would slow operations
• Strategic doctrine required it

The Peshwa Evolution:

• Started with Shivaji's methods
• Bajirao I maintained lean force
• But over time: expanded entourages
• More settled empire style
• More Mughal-like operations

The Mastani Incident: Why Wives Came Along

Bajirao I's Controversial Marriage

The Situation:

• Campaign in Bundelkhand
• Married Mastani
• Brought her back to Pune
• Created major havoc
• Challenged traditional norms

Who Was Mastani:

• Hindu father, Muslim mother
• Born Muslim (or converted)
• Beautiful and accomplished
• Not Hindu (major issue)
• Second wife (another issue)

The Reaction:

• Hindu society wouldn't accept her
• Refused conversion to Hinduism
• She chose to remain Muslim
• Massive resistance in Pune
• Religious and cultural crisis

The Consequence: Why Wives Now Travel

The Fear:

• Men going to north
• Coming back with second/third wives
• Women wanted to prevent this
• Decided to go with husbands
• "We'll accompany you"

The Decision:

• Royal families agreed to travel
• Elite warriors' wives agreed
• Prevention strategy against remarriage
• Keep watch on husbands
• Control the situation

The Rationalization at Panipat:

• Tremendous confidence in victory
• "We're going to win"
• Why not bring families?
• Wives could do pilgrimage
• Make it tourism trip alongside victory

The Overconfidence Problem

The Mental State

The Belief System:

• Absolutely certain of victory
• No doubt whatsoever
• "Nothing else can happen"
• Only outcome = winning
• Didn't think of uncertainty

The Reality:

• Battle = inherently uncertain
• Especially on plains (no cover)
• Multiple factors unpredictable
• Overconfidence = strategic blindness
• Set up for disappointment

The Composition Summary

What They Had

Fighting Forces:

• 45,000-55,000 core fighters (depending on count)
• 5,000-10,000 Pandhari mercenaries
• Total: 50,000-65,000 combat troops
• 200+ cannons (French technology)
• Disciplined core (Gardi's regiment)

Support Forces:

• ~100,000 support staff
• Women and children
• Families of commanders
• Servants and merchants
• Animal handlers

The Total:

• 150,000-165,000 total personnel
• Mix of combat and non-combat
• Significant proportion = non-warriors
• Reduces combat effectiveness
• Increases logistical burden

Where This Leads: The Maratha forces are smaller (50,000-70,000 fighters depending on count) but more disciplined—at least the core Gardi regiment. But the Pandhari mercenaries are unreliable second-tier troops, worse quality than even Abdali's secondary forces. The 100,000+ support staff—especially women and families—create a massive liability. They needed protection, slowed movement, and distracted commanders. The overconfidence (thinking victory inevitable) led to bringing pilgrims and wives. It was a strategic blunder that turned the army into more of a traveling city than a war machine.

Fifty thousand good fighters. Ten thousand mercenaries who'd rather loot than die. One hundred thousand support staff. And one hundred thousand dreams of pilgrimage and victory. They brought their wives and mothers thinking this was going to be a procession to glory, not a battle. The wives wanted to tour Kashi. The mothers wanted holy blessings. The soldiers wanted victory. What nobody imagined was that wives and mothers and pilgrims would end up being what lost the war.