6_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History

5TH GLORIOUS EPOCH
them. That weapon is
uddha'
GUERRILLA WARFARE
417
1026. This type of war is called in Sanskrit 'Vraky-
This Vrakyuddha (f^^s) of the Marathas humbled the
vast armies of the Muslims. According to the peculiar mode
of this guerrilla warfare the Marathas never faced the highly
well-equipped fourfold armies of the enemy. Whenever the
Maratha forces were small in number, they attacked the
enemy from the right or the left flanks or from behind,
1027. Yet it should be borne in mind that while thus
harassing and cutting off the huge armies of the Moghals with,
their meagre numbers and inadequate arms, they never
hesitated to offer pitched battles standing face to face at the
most unexpected moments, if they found that their own
military strength had grown sufficiently strong to do this.
As |even when the Maratha forces went on increasing in
number and quality, and their responsibility about the
various states, smaller or greater in size, about the forts and
territories that fell in their hands, began to assume enormous
dimensions, they did not lie idly in their different capitals,
guarding their own positions. Every-one of them had
always a keen eye on the neighbouring or the distant Moghal
territories and pushed on into those territories as soon as the
monsoons were over, even before the enemy had time to come
aggressively against the smaller Maratha feudal lords and
Jagirdars or their forts. The Maratha forces attacked
even the Muslim Nawabs and Nizams, who never gave them
offence under some pretext or another. Moreover they were
hardly to be found in their usually known capitals, great or
small, or in their forts or caves known to be their usual
resorts. On the the contrary they seemed to carry their so,
called capitals on horse-back while they started on their
campaigns against the Muslims. The de facto address of the
various Maratha war-lords and their brave followers was not
their homes or fortresses; it was invariably their ever shifting