War in Ancient India c7.t1.1

c7.t1.1

Owing to peculiar geographical features,¹ with her vast plains interspersed with forests, the ancient Indian State had to make extensive use of mounted forces which comprised cavalry, chariots, and elephants. This does not mean that infantry was neglected or it formed an unimportant limb of the army. Hindu India possessed the classical fourfold force of chariots, elephants, horsemen, and infantry,² collectively known as the Caturangabala. Students know that the old game of chess also goes by the name of Caturanga.³ Chess is a game of war, and in each game there are a king, a councillor, two elephants, two horses, two chariots, and eight foot-soldiers. The major pieces occupy the opposite edges of the board and in front of them are posted the foot-soldiers. The corner squares are occupied by the chariots, the next squares are occupied by the horses with the well-known move of the Knight, and the third squares by the elephant. In the two central squares are the King and the Councillor. The foot-soldiers are arranged on the second and seventh rows. On the whole the board is 8 × 8 squares.⁴ According to Tylor,⁵ the game of chess was the invention of some Hindu who devised a game of war with the aṣṭāpada board as his field of battle. From the reference to this game in the Ṛg Veda and the Atharva Veda and in the Buddhist and Jaina books, it must have been very popular in ancient India. The Persian term Chatrang and the Arabic Shatrang are forms of the Sanskrit Caturanga.5a This shows that India was the original home of this game which spread throughout the ancient world.