War in Ancient India c5.s1.8

c5.s1.8

The first and foremost among the general duties was study, adhyayanam. The period of study for a Kṣatriya commenced at the age of six and continued up to the end of his twenty-second year,⁵ when the warrior usually took to arms. This was so only in theory. In practice sixteen was considered the normal age to get the Kṣatriya knighthood and to entitle him to enter the field of battle.⁶ When the sage Viśvāmitra wanted to take the boy Rāma to fight the Rākṣasas in the forests, Daśaratha pleaded that he was not yet sixteen,⁷ with the implication that sixteen was normally the age at which boyhood ordinarily terminated. In the Mahābhārata again we are told that Prince Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna, became a full-fledged knight at the age of sixteen.⁸ He had been married and had already been in the battle-field. These facts show the difference that existed between theory and practice.