47 



cult passes and narrow defiles, afforded an asylum to the rajepoots, 

 Avho there preserved the Hindoo worship, manners, and customs 

 in genuine purity. This country, chiefly situated in a delightful 

 climate, between 24 and 28 degrees of north latitude, affords some 

 of the grandest and most picturesque scenery in Asia. 



The Mahratta cavalry are divided into several classes: the 

 husserat, or household troops, called the kassey-pagah, are reckoned 

 very superior to the ordinary horse, and belong entirely to the 

 peshwa's government. Those of the second order are contracted 

 for with government, either by their own commanders, or persons 

 employed for the purpose: the third class are the Moguls, poor- 

 beahs, and other soldiers of fortune, just mentioned, who with their 

 own horse and arms enlist in the service of the oriental sovereigns 

 on the best terms they can. Besides these, and the other cavalry 

 corps which under various descriptions accompany the Mahratta 

 jaghire-dars and chieftains, are a prodigious number of pindarees, 

 or licensed marauders, who join the army in quest of plunder: 

 these cruel wretches spread ruin indiscriminately on friends or foes, 

 wherever they appear, and purchase the privilege for so doing 

 by a moiety of the spoil to the commander of the corps to which 

 they respectively attach themselves. 



These pindarees, and various descriptions of unarmed followers 

 of the camp, swell the Indian armies to an amazing number. 

 When Ragobah's forces marched towards the ministerial army, 

 after the junction, they consisted of an hundred thousand, includ- 

 ing camp-followers of all sorts; the cattle exceeded two hundred 

 thousand : the confederates were still more numerous. 



Ragobah's encampment covered a space of many square miles; 



