War in Ancient India c9.s3.t1.23

c9.s3.t1.23

Let me conclude this section by referring to the attitude of modern military experts towards the use of fortifications. Most of them take the view that as conditions exist at present fortresses are unnecessary and dangerous. The men garrisoning them might be better employed in other places. Both the country and the army are either ruined by them or draw from them no tangible benefit. They entail enormous and wasteful expenditure for their building, maintenance, and garrisoning with troops. In fine, fortresses are seldom anything but an incubus. These remarks of a weighty authority must be respected, though we see a tinge of exaggeration in them. There is a wrong notion that is still current, namely, that these forts have lost their military value and are an anachronism since the invention of gun-powder.⁷³ But Dr. Oppert and some other scholars have demonstrated that gunpowder was in use in ancient India even in very early times, and still those strongholds were recommended as safe ones.