The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.86

c2.s5.86

To return to our orders. Only one distinct quotation seems to be current from the wisdom of antiquity in regard to the best occasions for applying the different vyūhas (battle-orders). This rule, that a small force, in order to compete with a large force, should charge in one long narrow column, concentrating all its strength at one point, is applied at the opening of the war, but afterwards only in a hastily made-over array, when another had failed. Of the other battle-orders mentioned, the double triangle with apices joined (makara) is employed by the Pāndus once, by the Kurus twice; the wedge (çakaṭa) twice by the