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India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s3: Section 4. Army

India as Known to Pāṇini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashṭādhyāyī c12.s3

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Section 4. Army

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*FOUR-FOLD DIVISION*—The organisation of the army as known to Pāṇini was based on the traditional four-fold division, *viz.* infantry, chariots, horses and elephants. These were known as *senāṅga*, or limbs of the army (II.4.2; cf. *hastyārohāḥ rathinaḥ sādinaścha padātayaścha*, Udyogaparva, 30.25). There is a grammatical rule saying that the names of army-divisions when compounded take singular number, *e.g.* a combination of charioteers and horsemen was called *rathikāśvāroham*; and of the former and foot-soldiers as *rathika-pādātam*. The compounds must have had their origin from the prescribed grouping of these different units for the purpose of military operations. An infantry division was called *padāti* (VI.3.52). Special mention is made of the infantry units organised in the Sālva country (IV.2.135). As against the *padāti* soldiers or footmen were the mounted ones called *sādi* (VI.2.41; cf. *sādi-padāti-yūnām*, Bhīshmaparva, 60.20). Pāṇini makes special mention of dromedary riders or camel corps (*ushṭra-sādi*, VI.2.40). Mule and camel corps together are referred to as *ushṭra-vāmī* (VI.2.40). Army was sometimes named in terms of caste, *e.g.*, *Brāhmaṇa-senā*, a Brāhmaṇa battalion (*Kāśikā* on II.4.25).

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A big army required, besides its fighting services, a hierarchy of civil officers to manage its organisation, *e.g.* clerks, accountants and men in charge of supply. The accountants in charge of infantry and chariots are named as *patti-gaṇaka* and *ratha-gaṇaka* with a special suffix to denote their functions in connection with military accounts (V.1.129, *Udgātrādi gaṇa*). *Pṛitanā* is obviously mentioned as a Vedic word in *pṛitanāshāṭ* (VIII.3.109).

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*FIGHTING SERVICES*—The army to be effective must be properly manned and officered. A cavalry commander was called *aśvapati* (IV.1.84). The commander of the army as a whole was *senāpati*, whose rank according to Kauṭilya was one of the highest in the realm mentioned along with the chief-minister and the crown-prince in the civil list. An ordinary soldier who served in the army was known as *sainika* or *sainya* (IV.4.45). A soldier with a marching army or bound for field operations was distinguished as *senāchara* (III.2.17). The principle underlying the nomenclature of the various classes of fighting forces was the same as found at present in such words as musketeers, lancers, riflemen, etc. Pāṇini says that the fighter is named after the weapon which he wields (*Praharaṇam*, IV.4.57), *e.g.* *āsika* (swordsman), *prāsaka* (lancer), *dhānu-shka* (bowman). He makes special reference to those fighting with a battle-axe (*pāraśvadhika*, IV.4.58), and spear (*śāktika*, IV.4.59). Patañjali says that in forming the names of armed persons no suffix is necessary, for example *kunta* would denote both a lance and a lancer (cf. *kuntān praveśaya*, II.218). Amazonian soldiers also seem to be known, as *śāktikī*, *yāsh-ṭikī*, mentioned by Patañjali (II.209), but since neither Pāṇini nor Kātyāyana makes provision for the addition of a female suffix after *īkak*, it is doubtful if the institution of women warriors was known before the Mauryan period. Kauṭilya mentions them in connection with the emperor's palace-guards (*strī-gaṇair-dhanvibhiḥ*, *Arth*. I.20, p. 12), and it is possible that it was an innovation of Chandragupta. Special mention is made of contingents of armoured soldiers organised as *kāvachika* units (*kavachināṁ samūhaḥ*, IV.2.41). *Kavacha-hara*, 'one who wears the coat of mail', was a term denoting the age at which a youth was admitted to arms (III.2.10). The armour seems to have become a part of regular military uni-form for which a special root (*saṁvarmayati*, III.1.25, dons the armour) had come into use.

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PARISKANDA—According to Pāṇini the word was pro-nounced as *pariskanda* in the Prāchya-Bharata region (*Kuru-* *Pañchāla*), and *parishkanda* elsewhere (VIII.3.75). The word occurs in the Vrātya hymn of the *Atharvaveda* (XV.2.6, *et. seq.*) denoting in the dual, the two footmen running beside a chariot (*Vedic Index*, I.497). The *Mahābhārata* also refers to footmen protecting the wheels of a chariot on either side (*rathānāṁ chakra-rakshāścha*, Bhīshmaparva, 18.16). The Greeks also found them as forming part of the full equipment of a chariot in the Indian army in the fourth century B.C. It is said of war-chariots that each of them 'was drawn by four horses and carried six men, of whom two were shield-bearers, two archers posted on each side of the chariot, and the other two, charioteers, as well as men-at-arms, for when the fighting was at close-quarters they dropped the reins and hurled dart after dart against the enemy.' (McCrindle, *Alexander's Invasion*, p. 260). The two shield-bearers correspond to the two footmen running by the side of the wheels, and called *chakra-raksha* or *pariskanda*.

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ARMS—The general term for weapons is *praharaṇa* (IV.4.57), also mentioned in the *Arthaśāstra*. Of names of weapons mention is made of bow (*dhanush*, III.2.21), spear (*śakti*, IV.4.59), battle-axe (*paraśvadha*, IV.4.58), long and short lances (*kāsū* and *kāsūtarī*, V.3.90; *hrasvā kāsūḥ kāsūtarī; kāsūriti śaktirāyudhaviśesha uchyate, Kāśikā*) a special kind of missile called *heti* (III.3.97), and sword (*asi*; also called *kauksheyaka* from its scabbard or *kukshi*, IV.2.96). Short lances were effectively used in ancient cavalry units of the Scythians and Parthians both on their advancing and retreating tactics. In the army led by Xerxes against Hellas, the Gandhārians are described by Herodotus as bearing short spears, which seem to have been *kāsūtarī* (Raychaudhury, *Polit. Hist.*, 1950, p. 242). A bow was also called *kārmuka*, which Pāṇini derives from *karman* or action in the field (V.1.103). Sāyaṇa derives it from *kṛimuka*, name of a tree (*Śatapatha*, VI.6.2.11). According to Kauṭilya a *kārmuka* bow was made of the wood of *tāla* or palmyra tree (*Arth.*, II.10, p. 102). This agrees with Pāṇini who also refers to a bow made of *tāla*, and itself called *tāla* (*Tālād dhanushi*, IV.3.152, *tālaṁ dhanuḥ*; also mentioned in the *Mahābhārata* *tālamayaṁ dhanuḥ*). Pāṇini mentions a specially big kind of bow called *maheshvāsa* (VI.2.38). According to Kauṭilya a bow was equal to five cubits or seven and a half feet (*Arth.*, X.5, p. 372). This appears to have been the size of the big bows called *maheshvāsa* in Pāṇini and known much earlier. The Indian soldiers under Puru in the battle of the Vitastā are stated by the Greeks to have used long bows, one end of which rested on the ground and was held by the archer's foot, who shot with its string long and heavy arrows with such force as no breast-plate could withstand.

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The arrows were fitted with barbs (*patra*) to make them strike with deadlier effect. Pāṇini refers to the use of barbed arrows (*sapatra*), causing extreme pain (*Sapatra-nishpatrād ati-vyathane*, V.4.61). This is confirmed by the account of Plutarch of the arrow with which Alexander was wounded in the fortress of the Malloi (*Mālavas*). He also gives the measurement of the barb: 'An archer let fly an arrow which transfixed his cuirass and pierced to the bones around his breast and there stuck fast, the shaft as it projected from the wound aggravating the pain (cf. Pāṇini's *ativyathana*), while the iron of the barb measured four fingers in breadth and five in length'. (McCrindle, *Alexander*, 1901, p. 207).

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ART OF WAR—The *Āyudhajīvins* were warrior tribes organised on a military basis into *Saṅghas*, occupying mostly *Vāhīka* or the Panjab. Their members were known as *āyudhīya*, 'making a living by the profession of arms' (*Āyudhena jīvati*, IV.4.14). We know that these soldiers put up the stoutest resistance against the Greeks in the fourth century B.C. The Aśvakāyanas of Maśakāvatī and the Mālavas, all *āyudhajīvins*, constituted the finest soldiery, which extorted the admiration of the foreigners. The Kshudrakas and the Mālavas (*Gaṇa-pāṭha* of IV.2.45), we are informed by Kātyā- yana, pooled their military strength in a confederate army called the *Kshaudraka-Mālavī Senā*. The foot-soldiers (*padāti*) of the Sālva country have been especially noted (IV.2.135).

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Pāṇini also refers to military sports or tournaments (*praharaṇa-krīḍā*, IV.2.57), in which young men participated for display of archery and swordsmanship. Pāṇini states that the names of battles were derived from a two-fold factor, viz. the names of combatants (*yoddhṛi*) and the objective (*prayojana*) for which they fought (IV.2.56). The *Kāśikā* cites *āhimāla*, a battle fought by the Ahimāla soldiers (*ahimālā yoddhāro'sya saṁgrāmasya*); *syāndanāśva*, fight by contingents of chariots and horses; *Saubhadra* and *Gaurimitra*, a battle for the sake of Subhadrā and Gaurimitrā. Attacking with an army was termed *abhisheṇayati* (III.1.25; VIII.3.65); encircling *parisheṇayati*; and retreating *pradrāva* (III.3.27). ANUŚATIKA—Pāṇini refers to *Anuśatika* (VII.3.20), who was an officer of the Commissariat, according to the *Śukranīti*. He was an assistant of the *Śatānīka*, or commandant of 100 soldiers. 5 footmen were placed under a *Pattipāla*, 30 under a *Gaulmika*, and 100 under a *Śatānīka* (*Śukra*, II.140). The *Anuśatika* looked to army stores and recruitment.¹

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¹ तथाविधोऽनुशतिकः शतानीकस्य साधकः । जानाति युद्धसंभारं कार्ययोग्यञ्च सैनिकम् ।। शुक्रनीति २।१४४

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