State and Government in Ancient India c21.32

c21.32

We may well assume that these rules were actually followed in practice as long as the opposing states were evenly matched and annexation did not follow the defeat. Megasthenes was surprised to notice that warfare in India did usually not interfere with the agricultural operations; combatants on either side waging the conflict made carnage of each other, but allowed those engaged in agriculture to remain quite unmolested. Yuan Chwang was also struck by the fact that wars, though not infrequent, produced little harm to the country.