War in Ancient India c8.76

c8.76

The keynote of foreign policy was the maintenance of the balance of power. Students of English History will recall to their minds the reign of Henry VIII, whose famous foreign minister, Thomas Wolsey, pursued a similar policy in dealing with continental powers. This power was realised in ancient India by the excellent device of forming a circle of states. Ancient India was composed of a number of small states, each with a chieftain or a king at its head. Most of these were military chiefs and some of them stood in terms of subordinate alliance. Their relations were international in the sense that the obligations between one State and another were all matters of special covenant agreed to by the sovereign authority in each. In this respect it resembles the political conditions of ancient Greece. George Grote, the historian, writes:⁴⁴ “The relation between one city and another was an international relation, not a relation subsisting between members of a common political aggregate”. This means that an Athenian citizen could not contract inter-marriage or acquire landed property in the next city of Corinth. A similar state of affairs prevailed in ancient India. Foreign affairs seemed to have been carried out on the principle, “never despise an enemy nor trust a friend,” which is preached also in Buddhist works like the Jātakas.⁴⁵