War in Ancient India c8.81

c8.81

The Intelligence Department can well be taken to be a sub-department of the War Office. The employment of intelligencers and spies for both civil and military purposes was a regular feature in ancient Indian States. These men were set to reconnoitre the enemy country and report to the king on the military strength of the enemy, furnish information as to suitable sites for camps and battle-fields. The chief officials of this department were ambassadors and spies. In a subsequent chapter these will be treated separately and elaborately. The ambassadorial system and the system of espionage, especially the latter, must have cost the State a good deal. The documents mention a number of spies constantly in service, in and outside the State, besides regular institutes of espionage of which as many as five types are mentioned. Hence the establishment charges incurred by the State on these two institutions must have amounted to a considerable sum. The Cāras attained so much importance that, in one place, in the *Mahābhārata* they figure as one of the eight angas of an army.⁴⁶ In an earlier śloka it is said that Cāra is *vividhopāya*,⁴⁷ meaning that he takes different disguises to find out correct information about the position of the enemies of the king.