A Military History of Ancient India

Book excerpt: India's military history goes back to the Indus or Harappan people who flourished 5,000 years ago; the history of military fortifications in the country goes back even further. It remains, however, a subject largely neglected by the country's historians. This book traces the evolution of India's military tactics and strategy during the ancient period and till the eleventh century ad by examining available sources from a dispassionate, professional military perspective. The author analyses the military factors which led to the end of the Harappan civilization. The Rig Veda contains a great deal of information about battles fought by the Aryans. The author makes use of the description of the first recorded battle, the Dasrajan War fought around 1900 bc, as a basis for reconstructing the strategy and tactics employed by the combatants. The portion of Kautilya's Arthashastra dealing with matters military has been examined at some length because it exercised a profound influence on the tactics of Indian warfare for over a millennium. Such loyalty to the injunctions of the shastras bred extreme conservatism in military doctrine and often effectively prevented progress and innovation in the art of war. Learning from experience, the Guptas repudiated Kautilya's static concept and successfully defended the country against the Hunas. This work traces how a subsequent reversion to tradition and the antiquated Kautilyan system led to tragic consequences.