page_title: Maratha Army
section_title: Modernization post-1761
hierarchical_section_title: Maratha Army / 18th century / Modernization post-1761
caption_attribution_description: English: Old Citadel know as Shaniwar Wada This is a photo of ASI monument number&#160; N-MH-M64.
context_page_description: Maratha Army refers to the land-based armed forces of the Maratha Empire, which existed from the late 17th to the early 19th centuries in India. The formation, rise, and decline of the armies of the Maratha Empire can be broadly divided into two eras
context_section_description: From the 17th century till the mid-18th century the artillery of the Marathas was more dependent on foreign gunners rather than their own.    
  Post 1761 Mahadaji Shinde, a distinguished Maratha Maharaja, focused his attention on European artillery and secured the services of the noted Frenchman Benoît de Boigne. Benoît de Boigne had received training from the best of the European military schools. Following suit, the other Maratha chiefs (including their First Minister the Peshwa) such as the Holkars, the Bhosales, also raised French-trained artillery battalions.
  Peshwa's Cavalry: The elite Huzurat cavalry were equipped with matchlocks instead of long spears.
  Scindia's infantry organization and weapons under De Boigne: De Boigne organized his infantry under campoos. One campoo had 10 infantry battalions, which consisted of 4000 infantrymen equipped with flintlocks and bayonets. Each battalion had 5 guns (1 howitzer and 4 field guns) and every battalion was commanded by a European gunner. Each campoo had 3 siege guns (16 and 24 pounder guns), apart from mortar guns, howitzers, and camel-mounted blunderbusses. Five campoos were raised between 1790 and 1803. The artillery had 50 bronze cannons (half of which were big caliber guns).
  Training: Further there was emphasis on training and infantrymen were trained on handling firearms, gunnery practice, and military manoeuvres.
  Innovations: Under De Boigne a new weapon was invented having six musket barrels joined together. 
  Ambulance Corps: Another novelty was the ambulance corps in charge of providing aid to wounded soldiers (including enemy soldiers) 
  Composition: Under Mahadji Scindia, Rajput and Muslim infantrymen were recruited in the Maratha Army. Further, his cavalrymen had a different uniform - long trousers as opposed to the shorter Deccani ones
  Military-Industrial Complex: Further circa 1784, Mahadaji Shinde established a military-industrial complex for the armies of the Maratha near Agra. The ordnance factories of the Marathas made use of sophisticated indigenous technologies with more of adaptation as against innovation. Mahadaji Shinde created one of finest armies in India, with the help of the French and Portuguese and it also included a brigade known as Deccan Invincibles, which numbered some 27,000.
  There is a mention of induction of 6 pound field guns under the command of Pierre Perron, Maratha General of Scindia dominions (the successor of De Boigne). These 6 pound guns were inducted after phasing out the earlier light 3 pound ones.
  In a bid to Westernize the artillery, circa 1777, there is a mention of a Portuguese officer named Naronha heading the Peshwa’s artillery and further he had a number of European artillery men working under him. Circa 1790, the Peshwa's forces employed a Portuguese officer for casting 40-pounder guns.
  The Bhonsle's forces had two Westernized infantry brigades, however without any European officers, while Scindia's forces were the most Westernized. 
  However a point to be noted here is that it is untrue to conclude that armies of the Maratha got disciplined only post 1761. The Marathas were well aware of the importance of discipline and disciplined and drilled infantry in Maharashtra existed even in the Hindu classical era. The Mahrattas were aware of the Portuguese infantry models having concepts like "Spanish square" since sixteenth century. 
  In the late 18th century and early 19th century, with French-trained artillery and infantry, the Marathas managed to regain their lost ground in North India, however they could not match the superior artillery of the British East India Company, which in due course of time, among other reasons, led to the defeat of the Marathas at the Third Anglo-Maratha War and decline of their Empire itself.
caption: A Mahratta field artillery gun on display at Shaniwar Wada, Peshwa's Palace, in Pune
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