Public Administration in Ancient India c18.32

c18.32

The Commander-in-Chief (Pradhāna Senāpati) was the head of the military department of the State. Usually he was a man well trained in all the arts of warfare, and familiar with use of all kinds of weapons. It was his duty to attend to the training and efficient organisation of the army and the enforcement of proper discipline among the soldiers. The Harsha-charita gives a poetic description of the appearance and character of the Commander-in-Chief of the Kingdom of Sthānvesvara from which we make the following extract: “. . . a man foremost in every fight, in person yellow as the hill of orpiment, stately as a great full-grown Sāl tree’s stem, and tall as if ripened by valour’s exceeding heat . . . So stubborn was his frame that even old age laid but a trembling hand, timidly as it were, upon his stiff hair. He seemed while still alive to have been born anew into a lion’s nature . . . In spite of age his broad chest was rough with great gashes of wounds . . . and all across it ran in lines the writings of many great scars graven by the axe-edge of sharp swords, as though he were making a calculation of the hour of victory in every battle.”¹