War in Ancient India c14.24

c14.24

That every *vyūha* of the Mauryan army was distinguished by the device of *dhvajas* and *patākas*, besides the special musical instruments like *turya* is evident from the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭalya. It is said that these different divisions had their respective flags and banners whether they were in camp, in march or in active warfare.¹² It is not possible to show whether *dhvajas* and *patākās* connoted the same meaning of flags and banners or they stood for different varieties of standards. The fact that Kauṭalya uses the two terms together raises a doubt that *dhvaja* was different from a *patākā*. *Patākās* were possibly festoons which were a feature and adornment of an army and those were hanging in rows between two points of the army. The *patākās* were such an essential feature of the army in later times that the army came to be designated as *Patākini* by writers like Kālidāsa.¹³ Later on in suggesting remedies against the injuries of one's own army,¹⁴ Kauṭalya again refers to the trumpets, *dhvaja* and *patākā*, and suggests the preparation of a certain medicinal mixture which, when besmeared over these flags and banners, would tend to remove the poison at the very look, if their poisoning were in any way suspected. The *dhvaja* was evidently a flag attached to a pole on the war chariot.¹⁵ It was so much valued that the army became designated in the *Mahābhārata*, *dhvajani* and in Tamil *koḍiccenai*.¹⁶