The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.62

c2.s5.62

† I do not understand how ‘one elephant, one chariot, two horsemen, and three foot-soldiers’ make ‘ten parts,’ and, as I have not the text of the commentator, must suppose a clerical error in Bühler’s note to Vās. xix. 17. While the first-mentioned method of dividing the army into groups of regiments, companies, and squads (of one thousand, one hundred, and ten respectively), each with its commander (adhipati; the commander of one thousand being also called śūra), appears a late invention, it may, nevertheless, be based on an old unit of ten. If we compare the words of Vasistha (samyāne daçavāhavāhinī dviguṇakāriṇī syāt) with the late Epic distribution of officers, in which all those that can divide the foe’s force and re-establish their own disbanded force are counted equal and drinking together, and receiving double pay (dviguṇavetanāḥ), as applicable to all officers; and then find certain special officers called ‘leaders of ten’ (daçādhipatayaḥ), ‘leaders of a hundred,’ etc.—we might almost be tempted to transfer the meaning here to Vasistha’s words, and translate vāha as ‘dux’: ‘in an attack (samyāne), the army led by its leaders of ten shall be employed in the double (duty of breaking the foe’s ranks and holding its own).’ But this may seem far-fetched, and leaves no better meaning for the next verse than we had before; whereas, if we take vāha as squad (=patti), with Bühler, we may give a better sense to 18 (pratyekam prapāḥ syuḥ) by reading (instead of prapāḥ) pragāḥ, authorized by Pāṇini, and a natural error in writing, and rendering ‘and each squad shall have its fore-fighters,’ which was the practice in actual battle (compare purogama). The following verse of Vasistha (pumsām çatāvarārdhyam cā ’havayet) I take as an indication that the division of one hundred was the next to the division of ten in his system. I ought to add, however, that prapāḥ is authorized by the like Epic text, xii. 69. 53. The passage above from the Epic gives us the word (bala-) mukhyāḥ ‘captains’ as the general term for officers, and shows us in the following verses that the king ought to call these men together (mukhyān sannipātya) and exhort them before the battle (xii. 100. 30-32).