¹ Ogilby, John, Asia the first part being an accurate description of Persia … the vast empires of the Great Mogol and other parts of India (London, 1673), p. 237.Google Scholar

² Toy, Sidney, The Strongholds of India (London, 1962), p. xv.Google Scholar

³ Sen, Surendranath, Military System of the Marathas (Calcutta, 1928), p. 93.Google Scholar

⁴ Ajnapatra, , Pt I, p. 94. The Ajnapatra was first published in the Marathi magazine Vividhadyanavistara (1875–76). The original manuscript.Google Scholar I have used two later editions. Throughout, page references refer to a translation by Puntambekar, S. V., in two parts, as follows: Journal of Indian History, Vol. VIII, Pt 1 (04 1929), pp. 81–105;Google ScholarJournal of Indian History, Vol. VIII, Pt 2 (08 1929), pp. 207–33.Google Scholar I have checked this translation against a recent Marathi edition: Dere, R. C. and Joshi, P. P., Ajnapatra (Poona, 1960).Google Scholar

⁵ Ibid., pp. 81–2. See also Sardesai, G. S., New History of the Marathas, Vol. II (Bombay, 1948), pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

⁶ Ajnapatra, , Pt 2, p. 219.Google Scholar

⁷ Ibid., p. 220.

⁸ Ibid., pp. 224–5.

⁹ Ibid., pp. 226–7.

¹⁰ Ibid., pp. 228–9.

¹¹ Ibid., p. 221.

¹² Ibid., p. 224.

¹³ Ibid., p. 222.

¹⁴ Ibid., p. 221.

¹⁵ Ibid., p. 223.

¹⁶ Ibid., p. 222.

¹⁷ British Museum MSS Add. 29213, ‘A Journal of the Road Travelled by Colonel Upton from Kalpee … to Poonah… in the years 1775 and 1776.’Google Scholar

¹⁸ Poona Daftar, Revenue File No. 3, Wingate's Report, p. 83.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, XII Khandesh (Bombay, 1880), p. 575.Google Scholar

²⁰ Even with vastly superior firepower, the British capture of Asir was no mean task. It required seven days of bombardment and the construction of several batteries. The British lost 47 men; an additional 250 were wounded. See ‘Casualties in the Siege of Aseerghur,’ The Asiatic Journal, Vol. XIII, Pt 48 (12 1819), p. 598.Google Scholar

²¹ Ogilby, , Asia, p. 238.Google Scholar

²² India Office Library, MSS Eur.F. 149, ‘Extracts from the Records of the Recorder or Kainogo of Aurangabad and Extracts from Authentick Records of the Revenue of the Deccan (1752) compiled in 1788,’ I. Emphasis added.

²³ India Office Library, Mackenzie Collection, General Volume 44, ‘Hakeekut Hindostan of Letchmee Narain’ [Geography and statistics of the Deccan written in 1789], p. 51.

²⁴ The pay was about the same in other areas under Maratha control. Cf. Wad, Ganesh C. and Parasnis, D. B., Selections from the Satara Rajas and the Peishwas' Diaries (Poona, 1907), Vol. III, pp. 198–200.Google Scholar

²⁵ It is impossible to translate this into modern units because we have no examples of Maratha measures from eighteen-century Khandesh. We cannot use nineteenth-century seer measures because of their great variety. In the chaos of 1798–1820, every district, every town, even different shopkeepers in the same market were using different weights and measures. Sykes' exasperation with this situation makes illustrative reading. See India Office Library, MSS Eur. D. 143, 475–7.Google Scholar

²⁶ Cf. Tone, W. H., Illustrations of Some Institutions of the Maratha People (London, 1818).Google Scholar

²⁷ The Mughal position of fauzdar was apparently not continued, though the ruins of his house were shown on nineteenth-century maps of the fort.Google Scholar

²⁸ Their income may have been supplemented by small grants of land as suggested in Sen, , Military System of the Marathas, p. 105.Google Scholar

²⁹ Ibid., p. 107.

³⁰ Poona Daftar, Peshwa Khandesh, Rumal 210, several zhadtis from 1769, 1770, and 1771.Google Scholar

³¹ Gazetteer, p. 538.Google Scholar

³² Ogilby, , Asia, p. 238. Rapid disappearance remained a common response to any army's approach. For example, Upton's detachment, in 1775, arrived at the village of ‘Tarlah Gon’ (about 20 miles east of Burhanpur) to find ‘only one man left, the rest deserted their habitations yesterday.’ Upton, ‘Journal,’ p. 19.Google Scholar

³³ Oral tradition in Maharastra. This festival was explained by my research assistant, B. D. Apte. The fall campaigning season was also a time of recruiting fresh troops. There is documentary evidence that the Marathas regularly recruited from Khandesh as early as 1750. Cf. Wad, and Parasnis, , Selections, III, 176 (letter 269).Google Scholar Another document of 1750–51 mentions specific recruiting to replenish the Asir garrison, some of whom had died or become ill and returned home. Ibid., III, 195 (letter 310).

³⁴ The Peshwa regularly ordered that the cannon be fired at least once a year and matchlocks more often. Ibid., 191 (letter 303).

³⁵ Cf. Poona Daftar, Peshwa Khandesh Rumals, No. 194 and 128.Google Scholar

³⁶ Poona Daftar, Peshwa Rozkirds Rumals 5, 10, 222, 223.Google Scholar Also Selections from the Peshwa Daftar xxx (Bombay, 1933), 283–4 (letter 314) and 307 (letter 319).Google Scholar

³⁷ For a study of this process in Malwa, see Gordon, Stewart, ‘The Slow Conquest: Administrative Integration of Malwa into the Maratha Empire, 1720–1760,’ Modern Asian Studies, Vol. XI, Pt 1 (1977), pp. 1–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁸ The Maratha ruler of Gujerat was equally reluctant to give up the fort of Ahmedabad, and for the same reasons. See Gillion, Kenneth L., Ahmedabad: A Study in Indian Urban History (Berkeley, 1968), p. 41–2.Google Scholar