40 



edged sword, and will give a great price for those which they call 

 Alleman, or German, though formerly brought from Damascus. 



In the Mahratla army are no regular commanders by seniority 

 or merit; the principal officers arc called jemidars: some com- 

 mand five thousand horse, others, though equally dignified in title, 

 only five hundred. The Mahratta government, in many instances, 

 resembles the feudal system in Europe: the great chieftains, like 

 the ancient barons, hold their lands by military tenure; they en- 

 joyed their estates, on condition of furnishing a stipulated number 

 of knights, esquires, and armed-men, in proportion to their terri- 

 tory; and thus in the Mahratta empire, the principal jaghiredars, 

 or nobles, possessed of landed property, when summoned by the 

 peshwa, appear in the field with the number of men expressed in 

 their firmauns, or grants of land; and there they exercise every act 

 of authority, without appeal, more fully than was claimed by the 

 powerful barons in the Germanic bodies, when issuing from their 

 northern forests, and emerging from Gothic barbarism, they 

 marched against the degenerate Romans, and conquering then- 

 provinces, established that military system, which, under different 

 modulations, so long prevailed in Europe. 



Every rajah, prince, or leader among the Mahrattas, is in some 

 degree responsible to the peshwa, or head of the empire, for his 

 general conduct; he pays a tribute for his district, and attends, 

 when summoned, with the stipulated body of men, according to 

 its wealth and population: over this corps he has the entire com- 

 mand; to him and his fortune they are alone attached, and adhere 

 to whatever party he joins. This variety of independent com- 

 manders destroys that authority and subordination which prevails 



