War in Ancient India c9.s3.t1.7

c9.s3.t1.7

During the actual operations of a siege, the ditch surrounding the ramparts of a fort if empty, should first be filled by the besiegers with water and with mud and sand if it contained water. Then reaching the outer walls of the parapet, and finding them strongly guarded with well-equipped warriors, machines, explosives, and other materials might be used to bring down the walls by assault. In the meantime, the cavalry troops would be employed in forcing a passage through the various gateways of the fortifications. If these endeavours should not bear fruit, then recourse might be had to the use of fire. This was the last alternative, for Kauṭalya himself says that it is immoral and should be used only in an extreme crisis. Arrows vomiting fire could be shot both at the defenders of the fortress and into its interior. But this would not be sufficient to set fire to the whole of the fortress inside. So it is suggested that the tails of birds could be tied with ‘agniyoga’ which, when deposited on the roofs of the houses, would ignite and reduce the whole building to ashes.⁶⁴ In a fragment of Megasthenes, mention is made also of a kind of boiling oil used in warfare and especially in sieges. It was extracted for the king, according to Ktesias, from a worm found in the Indus. The oil had the power to ignite everything. What exactly the worm referred to is, has not been finally settled, though Professor Wilson identified it with the alligator.