History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.467
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.467
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differs from both tables in some respects. The Udyogaparva 155. 22 further notes that each horseman was surrounded by ten men as attendants ( narā daśa hayaścāsan pādarakṣāḥ samantataḥ ). Though throughout the centuries the infantry was theoretically and in practice more numerous than cavalry, not much importance seems to have been attached to them as compared with chariots or horsemen. The lexicon called Vaijayantī says that patti consists of three horses, five foot-soldiers, one chariot and one elephant, that three pattis are equal to senāmukha and that senāmukha, gulma, gaṇa, vāhinī, pṛtanā, camū, anīkinī represent each three times as many as the preceding one and that 10 anīkinīs are equal to an akṣauhiṇī. The Nītiprakāśikā²⁷⁰ gives a table of groups from *patti* to *akṣauhiṇī* and remarks that each of these groups had in turn numerous supporting men e. g. each elephant was followed by a hundred horsemen and a thousand foot-soldiers and each horseman was supported by a thousand foot-soldiers (VII. 3-10). Manu VII. 192 refers to battles on water also. From references in the Mahābhārata it appears that chariots had only two wheels. Vide Bhīṣma 98. 47, Droṇaparva 154. 3, Śalya 16. 24 ( Śaineyo dakṣiṇaṁ cakraṁ Dhṛṣṭadyumnas-tathottaram ). Two noted warriors were told off to guard the two wheels of the chariot of the principal commanders and are called ' cakra-rakṣau ' (vide Bhīṣma 54. 76, 108. 5, Droṇa 91, 36, Karṇa 11. 31, 34. 44 ).
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Chariots of great warriors were drawn by four horses e. g. Ādi. 198. 15, Udyoga 48. 50, Droṇa 145. 81. Udyoga 83. 15-21 describe the chariot of Kṛṣṇa and Udyoga 140. 21 states that chariots had small tinkling bells attached to them and also screens of tiger-skin. The Ṛg. contains very graphic descriptions of chariots. Chariots were generally drawn by two horses in the vedic age (Ṛg. V. 30. 1, V. 36. 5, VI. 23. 1) and had two wheels, but the chariot of the Aśvins is described as having three wheels ( Ṛg. I. 118. 2, I. 157. 3, X. 41. 1 ). Ghaṭotkaca, however, had eight wheels to his chariot ( Droṇa 156. 61, 175. 13 ). The Śukranītisāra (II. 140-148) mentions another method of grouping the army. Five or six foot-soldiers made a *patti* over which there was an officer called *pattipa*, over 30 pattipālas there was the gaulmika, over 100 gaulmikas was the officer called śatānīka, who had as his assistants an officer called anuśatika, a senānī and a lekhaka (scribe); the officer over twenty elephants or horses was called *nāyaka* (compare modern "naik"). Each of these officers should have a distinctive badge indicative of their position. Ayodhyā 100. 32 (=Sabhā 5. 48) asks: 'I hope you give at the proper time pay and rations to your soldiers according to their deserts and do not delay payment'. Both Nār. (sambhūya-22) and Bṛ. state that among persons who work for hire the best is the soldier. The Mānasollāsa (II. 6. 566-569 p.
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80) describes that the chiefs of the hereditary army should always be honoured by the king with presents of jewels, ornaments, costly clothes and sweet words and sumptuous provision for their maintenance should be made by bestowing on them a village, or two or more villages and heaps of gold, while hired soldiers should be paid every day or every month or once in three, four or six months or once in a year according to the needs of the king. Megasthenes (Fragment XXXIV p. 88) describes the organization of the Indian army: 'A third governing body directs military affairs, of which there were six divisions with five members to each. One co-operates with the admiral of the fleet, another with the superintendent of bullock trains, the third division has charge of foot-soldiers, the fourth of horses, the fifth of war chariots and the sixth of elephants.' In medieval times chariots appear to have become obsolete. In the graphic descriptions of armies contained in the Harṣacarita (particularly in the 7th ucchvāsa) war chariots are conspicuous by their absence. The Mahābhārata often speaks of horses from the countries to the north-west of India as the best; vide Sabhā 53. 5 (for Kāmboja and Gāndhāra horses), Udyoga 86. 6 (horses from Bālhi), Droṇa 125. 25 and Sauptika 13. 2 (Kāmboja horses). The Harṣacarita II speaks of the best horses as coming from Vanāyu, Āraṭṭa, Kāmboja, Sindhudeśa and Pārasīka. Śukra lays down certain practical rules about the army (IV. 7. 379-390).
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He says that the soldiers should be encamped outside the town or village but not far from it, that no money-lending should be allowed between the soldiers and the village people, that the king should open separate shops for goods required by soldiers, that no army should be encamped at one place for more than a year, that soldiers should not enter the village without the king's permission, that receipts should be taken from soldiers for payments made to them and they should be furnished with a writing about their pay. Some of these rules are very old. The Udyogaparva²⁷¹ 37. 30 mentions among persons with whom no contractual transactions should be entered into, the king, the king's servants and soldiers.