War in Ancient India c5.s2.9

c5.s2.9

But a critical study of the Vedic literature as a whole leaves on one the impression that the Asuras were advanced in the art of war, that they lived in well-fortified castles, and that they sometimes resorted to unscrupulous and unclean methods to overcome the enemy. They were past masters in the use of spells and charms, *mantra* and *tantra*. If we read the accounts of the different devāsura wars narrated in the Vedic works and amplified in the later Purāṇic literature, we may surmise, not without reason, that the origin of the kūṭayuddha, later on accepted by the Hindu law-givers as one of the permitted kinds of warfare, lay in the ancient and primitive institutions of the Asuras, which the Devas began slowly to copy and follow. However this may be, we meet with these two kinds of war in the early Dharmasūtras and in the epics. Already a code had been drawn up without much violation of the politics and conventions current at that time. And punishment was inflicted on the warrior who did not act up to the regulations laid down. The code of course synchronized with the formation of a separate military caste. Though it was enjoined on the military leaders and warriors to conform to the laws of war, still they were taught the different modes of fighting, including those of the kūṭayuddha,⁶³ and were expected to be well versed in all of them. The idea was to pay one in his own coin. If the enemy resorted to unrighteous and intriguing methods of war, the attacked could also resort to similar methods and strike the enemy down.