War in Ancient India c11.t1.80

c11.t1.80

Indrajāla: The last of the expedients which had the acceptance of the later Nīti writers, in whose works we find traces of deviation of religious principles from things purely secular, was indrajāla. A close and careful examination of the uses for which this policy was followed indicates that it partook of the nature and character of māyā. This is, in other words, the use of stratagem to win over the enemy. It may also be the use of stratagem in war. It seems to us that these two expedients were the outcome of the growing popularity of the Atharva Veda Samhitā and its tenets.⁹⁵ Here we have a number of spells and charms, surely of baser kinds, to achieve one’s end. These were by slow degrees increasingly used in wars and in the subjugation of the recalcitrant and the rebellious. Even the Buddhist canonical books, which are supposed to breathe an air of higher ethical atmosphere, countenance these intriguing and superstitious methods. For example, we read several of these things in the section Brahmajālasutta of the Dīgha- Nikāya.⁹⁶ It reads something like a summary of the important Atharva rites and recommendations.⁹⁷ The following details of this device of indrajāla are mentioned in the Kāmandakīya.⁹⁸ ‘Alluring the troops of the enemy out of their camps, villages and castles into pastures, a cool-headed king should slay them. Concealing the inefficient portion of the army and with the rest of it supported by the allies, a king should crush the foe, falling upon him even like a lion.’⁹⁹