War in Ancient India c7.s3.5

c7.s3.5

themselves they did not constitute two separate divisions as mentioned by Śukra who probably lived in the early centuries of the Christian era. The attempt to show that the Vijayanagara army consisted of the divisions mentioned by Śukra with the exception of chariots on the single evidence of the Bakhar of Rāmarāja cannot be definitely accepted as we are told by Sewell that the troops of Vijayanagara which marched against the Sultan of Gulbarga in A.D. 1419 consisted of horse, foot and elephants. (Saletore, *Social and Political Life*, I, pp. 420-21 and Sewell, *Forgotten Empire*, p. 65). We have to treat this evidence with caution. It seems more likely that bulls and camels continued to be auxiliaries of the cavalry and elephants. This larger use of camels and bulls was necessitated by the lack of supply of good horses. We are told that the foreign policy pursued by Vijayanagara was to get a good supply of horses from Armuz (Sewell, *op. cit.*, pp. 381-2). It may also be noticed that the price of a horse was very heavy (Barbosa, I, p. 211). As for the artillery it is difficult to agree with the view often glibly expressed that it was unknown to the age of the *Arthaśāstra* (Saletore, *op. cit.* p. 420). In the epic and *Arthaśāstra* period artillery included mostly chariots and sometimes infantry who used fire arms against the enemy.