Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v1.c15.s6.17

v1.c15.s6.17

This method of infusing courage into the heart of the soldiers was not an invention of the Vijayanagara monarchs. Kauṭilya has laid down the following rules as regards the encouragement that was to be given to the army: "As to an open fight or fair fight, a virtuous king should call his army together, and, specifying the place and time of battle, address them thus: 'I am a paid servant like yourselves; this country is to be enjoyed (by me) together with you; you have to strike the enemy specified by me'. His minister and priest should encourage the army by saying thus: 'It is declared in the Vedas that the goal which is reached by sacrificers, after performing the final ablutions, in sacrifices in which the priests have been duly paid for, is the very goal which brave men are destined to attain'."³