भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

(One should court death for the sake of religion (But) while dying, one should kill (the enemies) and by thus killing them, one should win back one’s kingdom.) 1025. The most important weapon of this aggressive war policy of the Marathas was at least, till that time a new one to the Hindus. It was not used so far by any before them. That weapon is Guerrilla Warfare 1026. This type of war is called in Sanskrit’ Vrikayuddha’ (वृकयुद्ध). This Vrikayuddha (वृकयुद्ध) 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 force 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. Everyone 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 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 warlords and their brave followers was not their homes or fortresses; it was invariably their ever shifting camps or bivouacs in the Moghal territories.