War in Ancient India c9.s3.18

c9.s3.18

When the enemy attacked, the defender should take refuge in a fort, removing all the inhabitants of the villages into it and gathering in quantities of all sorts of grain available.⁴⁸ If this were not possible he might destroy the bridges and minor forts in his own territory and set fire to the grain stores, etc., so that they might not be used by the invading king. Fresh ramparts should be thrown round his own fort on the outside. The moats must be filled up with creepers and with sharks and crocodiles. Pointed and sharp spikes of various kinds must be fixed in the bottom of the moats, thus obstructing their crossing by the enemy. The walls of the fort should be defended with fire-implements and guns and the gateways with death-dealing engines. Śataghnis or cannon and other weapons should be furnished on the impenetrable ramparts, so that an effective defence might be offered even against a powerful invader. Thus in Bhīṣma’s learned opinion a fort surrounded by a huge wall and a ditch full of water and furnished with only one entrance is the best.⁴⁹ It is again seen that the number of gates for the fort seems in no way to have been restricted. For example, if we may believe the testimony of Megasthenes, Pāṭaliputra was encompassed by a moat six *plethrons*49a broad and 30 cubits deep, and the ramparts were furnished with 572 towers and above all 64 gates.⁵⁰