War in Ancient India c4.s2.2

c4.s2.2

To the early tribes war was a holy function. Before the actual expedition, they offered sacrifices to the tribal god or goddess. The idea was that god was all-powerful and would protect the soldiers and confer victory in war. The notion was entertained that the gods of these tribes ‘ went in person with them to war—an idea which totemism bequeathed to more advanced stages in religion, for instance, to Peruvian polytheism.’² We learn from the Tamil classic *Śilappadikāram* that the Eiynar, perhaps the aborigines of South India, who lived by cattle-lifting and highway robbery, invariably invoked the aid of their goddess Korravai, the deity who led the Eiynar host in all their expeditions with a view to securing for them victory and getting in return sacrifices of both animals and men.³ Bows and arrows were their principal weapons, though the use of spears was not unknown.