Indian Antiquary Vol 53

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 81

Arrir, 1924 ) THE MARATHAS AT THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
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India, and Marco Polo refers to the large trade in horses from Arabia and Persia to South India. The imported animals, however, did not flourish, as they were unused to the climate, and the people did not understand how to manage them : and it was not till the rise of the BAhmani Sultanate and the Vijayanagar Empire that further efforts were made to import foreign horses. With the appearance of the Marathks as a political power, the trade again improved and many horses were imported into the Deccan from northern India. "There are no people in the world " writes Tone, "who understand the method of rearing and multiplying the breed of cattle, equal to the Mahrattas. It is by no means uncommon for a Sillahdaur (silândár] to enter a service with one mare and in a few years to be able to muster i very respectable Pagah. They have many methods of rendering the animal proliflo : they back their colts much earlier than we do, and are consequently more valuable as they come sooner on the effective strength. I do not know, however, whether they attempt to improve the breed of their horses by crossing the strain as we practise in Europe. It is this persevering industry and consumate knowledge which is the truc cause of the immense bodies of cavalry that the Mahratta States can bring into the field."
Tone adds that a great number of horses were brought annually from Kandahar and Tibet and sold at fairs in various parts of India, but that these formed a very small proportion of the gross strength of the Markth& armies. The Maratha, in fact, depended almost wholly upon the indigenous Deccan horse and managed to bring it to a high state of perfection. Colonel Broughton, who saw this breed in Sindia's camp, describes them as "seldom above fourteen and a half hands high, and the most valuable ones are often much less. They are short in the barrel and neck; have small, well-shaped heads, and slim, though remarkably well-formed linbs; they have generous tempers, and are full of spirit; and are said to be capable of undergoing more fatigue and hard fare than any horse in India. The sum of three and even four thousand rupees is often paid for Dukhunee whose pedigree is well-known; and so fond are the Marathas of these beautiful and valuable favourites, that, when they can afford it, they will feed them on wheaten cakes, boiled rice, sugar, butter and other similar dainties." It was on such ponies as these of the Deccan that the PindhAris made their extraordinary rides across India. No other breed could have stood the strain.
In describing the oommissariat arrangements of a Maráthâ army on the march, Tone gives some interesting information about the Vanjäris. "The Vanjarees or itinerary grain. morohants furnish large quantities (of grain) which they bring on bullocks from an immense distance. These are a very poouliar race and appear a marked and discriminated people from any other I have seen in this country. Formerly they were considered so sacred that they passed in safety in the midst of contending armies : of late, however, this reverence for their character is much abated, and they have been frequently plundered, particularly by Tippoo. They are able at times to resist a marauding party. They do not depend entirely on the sale of grain for subsistence, but take back large returns of merchandize from the Deccan to Hindustan. At their leisure they weave a coarse kind of hempen cloth called
Tartpurtoo,' which is used for grain bags and camel-cloths called salutas." As regards the origin and identity of the Vanjaris, Mr. Enthoven, in his article on the Lamanis or Vanjaris, gives the result of the most recent modern rescarch. "An examination of the endogamous divisions of the tribe," he writes, "tends to establish the conclusion that though in origin the tribe may have been an aboriginal section of the population with a distinct identity, named from its occupation of carrying supplies on bullocks, it has since been so overlain with additions from Rajputs, Marathås, Mahars, and a number of other well-known tribes