History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c11.14

v1.c11.14

It is, however, necessary to state before concluding this chapter that the despotic states of India of the seventh century were certainly strong as compared with the contemporary despotic kingdoms of Asia and it is hence that they could beat back the Huns who in Europe could not be beat away. The physical and moral capacities of a people are also an important factor in the vitality of nations. Even a vegetarian people inured to arms and abstemious in habits can hold their own in the struggle of nations. In the seventh century the people of India were habituated to the use of arms owing to the constant warfare waged by the different kingdoms. They were also, as Hiuen Tsang testifies, simple and abstemious in habits. The Indian states of the seventh century were strong and warlike in spite of their despotic constitutions and were neither enervated by luxury nor enfeebled by want of martial exercises. The prominent index of the enervation of a people is their employment of mercenary forces and neither Hiuen Tsang nor Bāṇa mentions any mercenary troops in the army of Harsha.