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War in Ancient India c4.s6.t6: (6) Angry Behaviour

War in Ancient India c4.s6.t6

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(6) Angry Behaviour

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If the fear impulse is of the defence-complex, angry behaviour is of the aggression-complex.⁵⁴ Śenguṭṭuvan wanted to lead an expedition to the North and show off to the kings there his prowess. But no activity is aroused by the motive alone. Given the right stimulus and the motive, there comes automatically the response.⁵⁵ While the king was sitting in the audience hall filled with resentment at the insult offered to him by northern kings in their joint social meeting, there came the suggestion to found a temple to the chaste Kannaki by carving the deity on a stone taken either from the Podiyil or the Himalayas. When it was agreed to consecrate the temple in honour of Pattini Devī, Śenguṭṭuvan said that he would get the slab of stone from the Himalayas after duly bathing it in the Ganges and reducing to subjection the northern kings if they should resist him. Soon he made elaborate preparations for the expedition and set out for the north. He extended his arms successfully, defeated a confederacy of northern kings, and after imprisoning the chief monarchs, Kanaka and Vijaya, he made them bear on their heads the slab of stone to his distant capital at Vañji in Tamil India.⁵⁶

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⁵⁴ See in this connexion hymns 42 and 43 of Bk. VI, A. V. to remove wrath and to assuage wrath.

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⁵⁵ Woodworth: op. cit., ch. vi.

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⁵⁶ Dikshitar: *Śilappadikāram*, Intrn. pp. 3-8.

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An examination of this war fought by Śeṅguṭṭuvan on the banks of the Ganges shows that it was not a defensive one, but was due to the aggressive impulse on the part of the monarch. ‘If you would avoid war, study human beings, study in particular the impulses of aggression; and study them first where they are more readily open to inspection in yourself.’⁵⁷ Whatever views theorists may hold on the defence-complex, it is not possible to deny that aggression may be caused even by a slight provocation. We cannot get over the fact that impulses of aggression have led to several wars in ancient India. For the effective discharge of such aggressive impulses, sadistic and masochistic, war-mongering provided, as it even now does, an admirable channel, though the belligerents on either side knew full well that in injuring others they injured themselves. In several cases when we speak of defence as one of the causes of war, we speak, possibly consciously, in terms of aggression. If we turn to the pages of the Purāṇas we find that the Haihaya king was responsible for the death of Jamadagni, father of Paraśurāma. The natural thing for Paraśurāma would have been to avenge his father’s murder. Instead of stopping with this, in a fit of exasperation he resolved to ruin root and branch the Kṣatriya race for twenty-one generations. It was a mad venture, we may say, based on an aggressive spirit. Animated by such destructive impulses, Paraśurāma went on persecuting one Kṣatriya prince after another. There would not have been a Kṣatriya community after him, had not some princes hidden themselves in caves and forests out of his sight and come out after the bloody conqueror had ceased fighting.

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⁵⁷ Edward Glover: *War, Sadism and Pacifism* (Allen & Unwin).

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The Spirit of Jealousy

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In the examination of this jealousy motive we find an unbridled indulgence of almost all evil passions. The *Atharva Veda* (Bk. V, 8. 3) says: ‘Let not the gods go to his call; come ye only unto my call’. Jealousy, if nothing else, was the real cause of the great Mahābhārata war fought at the historic Kurukṣetra, the belligerents being the Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas who were after all agnates. When king Pāṇḍu was unable to wield the reins of administration, Dhṛtarāṣṭra was elected to the throne. The five sons of Pāṇḍu and the hundred sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra were trained by common teachers, and the Pāṇḍavas gained the knowledge of science and the use of weapons much more quickly and much more easily than the Kauravas. At this the Kauravas became jealous of their cousins, and from that time they, under the guidance of their eldest brother Duryodhana, laid plans to get rid of the growing power and influence of the Pāṇḍavas. Kṛṣṇa, the king of Dvāraka and a skilled diplomat, saw the justice of the Pāṇḍava cause and threw his whole weight on their side. This further increased the jealousy of Duryodhana, who sought secret means to do away with the five brothers. Finding that all his plans had failed, Duryodhana angered his cousins to such a pitch that nothing short of war, it was thought, would result. Huge forces were brought into the field especially by Duryodhana, and war was waged for eighteen days. We need not enter into the details here. The result was that all the Kauravas and their soldiers were ruthlessly killed, and the Pāṇḍavas won a decisive victory. The Bharatakaṇḍa lay at the feet of Yudhiṣṭhira, the royal sage, and his four brothers. The Pāṇḍavas became the virtual rulers of all India and their alliance was sought by many a prince including those of the Tamil kingdoms of the South, with whom the Pāṇḍavas had relations of a social and political nature. If we are to believe the second stanza in the anthology of the Tamil classic Puranānūru, it is one Udiyan Ceral that fed the combatants of the Mahābhārata war.

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