War in Ancient India c5.s5.42

c5.s5.42

Traces of this kind of war are found in the *Śangam* works which also breathe the lofty atmosphere of *dharmayuddha*. From the *Puranānūru* (15) it is seen that the ruin of the enemy's city was effected by ploughing the roads and streets with donkeys and sow ing seeds of castor, cotton, and other cereals.¹⁵⁷ Another stanza (392) says that even the houses of gods were not spared. In the expedition against Kalingam, though it is said to have been fought on principles of fair fighting, Karuṇākara Toṇṭaimān laid waste the whole of the sea-coast kingdom of Kalinga.¹⁵⁸ A ruthless war was asurayuddha. But it was rarely indulged in, and we may conjecture that it is a relic of the ancient warfare fought by the primitive tribes who had neither a code of chivalry nor a code of ethics.