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The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11: Chapter V. The Hindu Machinery of Imperial Nationalism

The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11

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Contents

Chapter V. The Hindu Machinery of Imperial Nationalism

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The War Office.

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In no branch of national life was the administrative genius of the Hindus more in evidence than in the organization of the army and the navy. It was not only in the numerous aggressive wars within the Indian continent that the efficiency of the race in generalship and as a fighting machine was put to the fire test. Hindu military might was also equally manifest when pitted against foreigners who threatened the freedom of India. From Seleukos to Menander (B. C. 305 — B. C. 155) the Hellenistic Greeks of the Afghan bufferland were successfully driven back within their own folds by Hindu archers, horsemen, and elephant corps. In later times, the Huns also had to sustain severe defeats, first, from Skanda-gupta between A. C. 455 and 458, and, secondly, from Narasimhagupta about 528.

1. Militarism in Hindu Culture

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Indeed the Charlemagnes and Fredericks, by whose *parâkrama* (prowess) the frontiers of India were advanced so far as to include, on several occasions, Afghanistan and Central Asia on the land side, and the islands of the Indian Ocean to the south, had their hands always full with the problem of training and equipping the soldiers and sailors. The profession of arms and the command of the fleet called forth as a matter of course the administrative capabilities of Young India from age to age, — in the northern, eastern, central, western and southern provinces. And the spirit that pervaded these disciplined forces is what came out in the fourth gymnosophist's reply to Alexander's query. Alexander asked him as to why he had persuaded Sabbas (Śambhu) to revolt. Because, as we read in Plutarch's *Lives*, said the Hindu sage, "I wished him either to live with honor or die as a coward deserves."¹

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¹ Plutarch's *Life of Alexander*.

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And this was not an empty word of the philosopher cited like a maxim, as it were, from the *Mahâbhârata*. We are told by Plutarch that Alexander experienced no less trouble from the priests, preachers, and religious teachers of India than from the warriors who “used to fight for pay”. It was the endeavour of the “philosophers” to fix a mark of infamy upon those princes, who, like the king of Taxila, declared for the Macedonian and became traitors to Indian independence. The free republican nations also were excited by what appear to be the learned and priestly classes, i. e., the *intelligentsia*, to take up arms against the alien invaders. Many are the Hindu philosophers who therefore had to espouse the martyr’s doom meted out to them by Alexander’s vindictive court-martial.

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In order to appreciate the age-long militarism of the Hindus and their organization of the general staff it is necessary to have an idea of the Roman institutions of national defence and war-machinery.¹ In B. C. 225 the republic placed 65,000 soldiers on the field and had 55,000 in reserve at Rome.² At Trebia (B. C. 218), as Polybius writes in his *History of the Roman Conquest from B. C. 264—146*, the strength of the army was 38,400. And the largest force that the Romans are known to have mustered during their republican period was that under Scipio for the Second Punic (Hannibalian) War (B. C. 218—202).³ On this occasion the army consisted sometimes of 18, 20, or even 23 legions. A “legion” at that time was made up of 4,000 or 5,000 soldiers, and of this number about 300 or 400 constituted the cavalry.

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¹ Greenidge’s *Roman Public Life*, pp. 68—74 (Roman army according to the Servian classification).

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² *Enc. Brit.* (Article on Roman Army).

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³ Ramsay’s *Roman Antiquities*, p. 432.

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In point of numbers the Roman armies must have been regarded as pigmy indeed or but as “pocket armies” by the generalissimos of Hindu nationalities. For, the fighting hordes maintained by the states of India appear to have always been formidable in size. A “standing army” of half a million was nothing extraordinary in military India’s psychology. Among the fragmentary notices of the nations, some of them difficult to identify accurately, that we can glean from Megasthenes’ stories (*c* B. C. 300) we find that the Pândyas⁴ of the extreme south who were ruled by women had an army of 150,000 foot and 500 elephants. The ruler of Gujarat⁴ on the Arabian Sea coast was in command of 1,600 elephants, 150,000 infantry and 5,000 horse; and the force wielded by the sovereign of the races⁵ between the Ganges and the Himalayas, occupying the districts of north Bihar, north Bengal, and possibly western Assam, was composed of 50,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 400 elephants.

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⁴ Mc Crindle’s *Anc. Ind.* (*Meg.*, LVI), 147.

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⁵ *Ibid*, 138.

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In Plutarch’s *Life of Alexander* we learn, further, that the king of Magadha (the Gangaridae and Prasii nations on the banks of the Ganges) in Eastern India was master of 20,000 horse, 200,000 foot, 2,000 chariots, and 3,000 or 4,000 elephants. Evidently this ruler was one of the “nine Nandas”. The size of one of the smallest Hindu armies can be given from Pliny’s *Natural History*.¹ It belonged to another people of the eastern provinces of India, viz., the Gangaridae Kalingoe, ancestors of the modern Oriyas. Their king with capital at Protalis had 60,000 infantry, 1,000 horse, and 700 elephants “always caparisoned for battle”. But, as usual, in regard to most of the periods of Hindu military and naval history, authentic information is wanting about the system of discipline, salaries, hierarchy of officers and other items of the War Office, except what may be gathered from the *nîti-śâstras* and other literature on polity.

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¹ Book VI, Ch. xxii; *Vide also Meg.* LVI, B.

2. The Gupta and Pâla Digvijayas

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About A. C. 360 Hari-ṣeṇa, a *mahâdanda-nâyaka* (high grade military or judicial officer) of the Gupta Empire, composed in Sanskrit what he called a *kâvya*.² It was an ode, in verse and prose, in eulogy of Samudra-gupta’s conquest of “all the world”. That panegyric “in one single gigantic sentence”, which half a century later furnished Kâlidâsa with an epigraphic precedent for his own romantic account of Raghu’s *digvijaya* (“conquest of the quarters”) is at present the only contemporary account of a Hindu military enterprise that has satisfactory details as to the names of nations and rulers. Hari-ṣeṇa exults over the “violent extermination” of old states, and describes how kings were “captured and then liberated” by his hero. We are told that Samudra-gupta’s “officers were always employed in restoring the wealth of the various kings who had been conquered by the strength of his arms”.

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² Text of the *kâvya* in *Gup. Insc.* The English translation by Fleet was corrected in Bühler’s German article on Indian Artificial Poetry, and this has been Englished by V. S. Ghate for the *Ind. Ant.* (1913). *Re* the date of the composition *vide* the *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society*, 1898, pp. 386—387. The identification of some of the regions overrun by Samudra-gupta seems to be open to question. H. C. Ray Chaudhuri says in the *Mod. Rev.* (Oct. 1921) that the Western Deccan lay outside of the sphere of Gupta conquests. He accepts the interpretation in Dubreuil’s *Ancient History of the Deccan* and rejects Smith’s identifications.

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As might be naturally expected, in this description of the aggressor’s triumphant expeditions through kingdoms, forests, hills and rivers we read of the "blows of battle-axes, arrows, spears, pikes, barbed darts, swords, lances, javelins for throwing, iron arrows" and many other weapons that disfigured or rather "beautified", as the poet-laureate would have it, the "charming body" of Samudra-gupta with the "marks of hundred confused wounds".¹ But while the world-conqueror is portrayed as "skilful in engaging in a hundred battles of various kinds", with "*parâkrama* (strength) of his own arm for his only ally", the officer-biographer leaves us in the dark as to the Indian Napoleon's plan of campaign, methods of field organization, and administration of the army services. We can only guess the thoroughness of the military department from the fact that the extensive Alexandrine career of uninterrupted success covered no less than three thousand miles of territory and was spread over about twenty years (330—350).

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¹ *Ind. Ant.*, VIII, p. 31, 172; Fleet's *Gupta Ins.*, p. 12, 14, 16.

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Hardly anything has been unearthed as yet in regard to the Bengali legions with which Dharma-pâla started from Pâtali-putra on his Upper Gangetic Valley campaign about 783 in order to set up a nominee and protege, Chakrâyudha, on the throne of Kanauj. The adventure of this expeditionary force led to the temporary conquest of Malwa, North Eastern Rajputana, Eastern Punjab and Sindh, Western Punjab and the Northwestern frontier provinces, and parts of Afghanistan. The soldiers of Bengal were thus in a position to enjoy the waters as far to the northwest as at Kedâra in the Western Himalayas and as far to the southwest as at Gokarna in the North Kanara District of the Bombay Presidency.²

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² Banerji's *Memoir*, pp. 51—53, 55—56; *Bânglâr Itihâsa* (*History of Bengal* in Bengali), Vol. I. pp. 167—170; *Ind. Ant.* 1892, p. 257.

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In the Khâlimpur copper plate inscription we have a hint that Dharma-pâla had to build a bridge of boats at Pâtali-putra. And "the manifold fleets of boats proceeding on the path of the Ganges made it seem as if a series of mountain tops had been sunk to build another causeway". The general superintendent of boats was then as in Kautilya's language known as *târika*.³ The organization of Devapâla's extensive campaigns by which he compelled entire Northern India from sea to sea to pay tribute to Bengal is as unknown as that under his predecessor. The name of one general can be wrung out of the inscriptions, that of Someśvara, the son of the Premier, Darbha-pâṇi. For obvious reasons Bengal has always had a boat service attached to the army.

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³ *Ep. Ind.*, 1896—1897, pp. 252, 253.

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Under the Sena Emperors (1068—1200), as under the Pâlas, *nau-vala* (naval force) was an important arm of the military establishment.¹

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¹ *Ind. Ship.*, p. 220.

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It is known among archeologists today that during the tenth century there was a series of triangular conflicts² between the ambitious *digvijayî* monarchs of Bengal, Upper India and the Deccan. But the military achievements of the Gurjara-Pratîhâra and Râṣtra-kûta *sârva-bhaumas* are as unillumined, so far as the details of field work, training of officers, commissariat or transport service are considered, as are those of the Pâlas.

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² Banerji's *Memoir*, p. 52, 56.

3. The Tamil War Office

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The army of the Chola Empire in Southern India appears to have been divided into sections according to the kind of arms they carried, and according as they were mounted or otherwise.³ There were the "chosen body of archers", the "chosen foot-soldiers of the body-guard", the "chosen horsemen" and the "chosen infantry" of the "right hand" (i. e. the infantry recruited from the artisan class). Among the commanders of the elephant corps we find the names of a few princes. According to the plan of cities with which early Tamil literature makes us familiar, young recruits to the army received military training in quarters specially set apart for them outside the city. Conjeeveram,⁴ for instance, had an "outer city" with open spaces that were reserved for breaking the war elephants and horses. The grounds were utilized also for drill, parade and manoeuvres.

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³ Aiyangar, p. 184.

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⁴ Ayyar's *Town Planning*, p. 70.

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The Chola Emperors had a powerful navy. With its aid Râja-râja the Great (984—1018) destroyed the fleet of the rival Chera state on the West coast, and annexed Ceylon to his empire, which eventually embraced the whole of modern Madras Presidency, Mysore, and southern half of Orissa. The army and navy of Râjendra-chola (1018—1035) won a pan-Indian and even extra-Indian reputation on account of his numerous successful campaigns. In his time the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Mediterranean, became a Chola lake. His naval engagements brought about the conquest of "countless old islands", viz., the Laccadives and the Maldives. He crossed the Bay over to the Burman side and captured the kingdom of Prome or Pegu. His navy annexed also the Nicobar and Andaman Islands. Lighthouses were constructed at the leading ports of the Chola Empire.⁵

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⁵ *Ind. Ship.*, pp. 175—177, 137; Aiyangar, 185; Ayyar, p. 15.

4. Military India in the Seventh Century

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Bâṇa tells us in his biographical story-book, the *Harṣa-charita*,¹ that Emperor Harṣa made his debut with a solemn vow. "How can I rest", declared this *vijigîṣu* (aspirant to world-conquest) of the seventh century, "so long as my feet are not besmeared with an ointment found in every continent, consisting of the light of precious stones in the diadems of all kings?" Accordingly in 606 he set out on his career of triumph; and we know from Hiuen Thsang the figures as to the strength of Harṣa's army at two dates. It was at the head of 50,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry and 5,000 elephants that the Vardhana hero went forth "conquering and to conquer. But by the end of his first period of campaigns, continuously spread over five years and a half during which he brought Northern India to subjection, he was in command of 100,000 cavalry, and 60,000 elephants.² From Bâṇa's story we know, further, that Kuntala was a chief officer of the Vardhana cavalry, Simha-nâda was a *senâpati* (general), Avanti was the supreme minister of war and peace, and Skanda-gupta was commandant of the whole elephant troop.

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¹ pp. 177, 180, 187, 188, 189. *Vide* the description of mobilization, pp. 199—201, 206—209. See Harṣa's vow, p. 188.

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² *Si-Yuki*, Vol. I, p. 213.

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But the powerful army of Harṣa-vardhana's formidable adversary, Pulakeśî II, the Chalukya *sârva-bhauma* of Southern India, who compelled the northerner to know the limits of his ambition, is remembered today only by the triumphant resistance that he offered from the mountain-passes on the Narmada to the aggressor's southward march (620). Hiuen Thsang mentions only that the *forte* of the Deccan Emperor lay in the elephants. The Maratha monarch had, besides, a "fleet consisting of hundreds of ships". Purî, the Lakṣmî (the goddess), i. e. the queen of the Arabian Sea, is known to have been reduced by him as the result of naval engagements.³

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³ R. G. Bhandarkar's *Early Hist.*, sec. X.

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In the seventh century, probably both in Northern and Southern India, as we understand from Hiuen Thsang's general summary,⁴ the military force was divided into the traditional four arms, viz. infantry, cavalry, chariots and elephants. The elephants were covered with strong armour and their tusks were provided with sharp spurs. The chariots were drawn by four horses abreast. Two attendants drove the chariot according to the command of the leader who sat between. The general issued orders from his chariot and was surrounded by a body of guards who kept close to his chariot wheels.

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⁴ *Si-Yu-ki*, Vol. I, p. 82, 83, 87.

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The cavalry spread themselves in front to resist an attack, and in case of defeat they carried orders to and fro. The infantry by their quick movements contributed to the defense. They carried a long spear and a great shield; sometimes they held a sword or sabre and advanced to the front with impetuosity. All their weapons were sharp and pointed.

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Soldiers were levied according to the requirements of the service; they were promised certain payments and were publicly enrolled.

5. The Deccan and the Punjab through Hellenistic and Roman Eyes

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Previous to the rise of the Châlukyas the dominions of the Deccan had for centuries been held by the Ândhras. Like the other nationalities of India south of the Vindhya Mountains the Ândhra monarchy was a naval power with base on the Madras Coast. A large two-masted ship¹ was the device of the coins that were struck by Yajna-śrî (*c* A. C. 173—202). It was intended evidently to be an emblem of the people's maritime importance. About five hundred years previous to this date the founders of the Ândhra Dynasty had measured their strength with the mighty Mauryas (*c* B. C. 300) only to submit to their superior numbers. The Deccan army was at this time made up of 100,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry, and 1,000 elephants, according to both Megasthenes and Pliny.²

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¹ *Ind. Ship.*, 119; For the boundaries of the Ândhra Empire see D. R. Bhandarkar's “Dekkan of the Sâta-vahana Period” in the *Ind. Ant.* (1918), pp. 150, 151, 156; See also the studies of V. S. Sukthankar for an altogether new light on the expansion of the Ândhra dominions (*R. G. Bhandarkar Commemoration Volumes*, Poona, 1920).

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² Meg. LVI; *Natural History*, Book VI, Ch. xxi—xxiii; *Ind. Ant.*, 1918, p. 70.

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From the accounts of Greek and Roman writers it would appear that in ancient times the Punjab was, what Bengal has always been, a land of navigable rivers. Like the Easterners, therefore, the Northwestern Hindus were naturally skilled in riparian warfare. The Punjab fleets were strong elements in India's opposition to Alexander. The Xathroi or Kṣatriyas³ may be described as having been by far the most noted naval architects and shipping experts.

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³ *Infra*, p. 144.

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It was, again, the boats of the various Punjab republics that made up the fleet, 800 to 2,000 vessels strong, with which Nearchos was entrusted for the voyage down the Indus and up to the Persian Gulf.⁴ It is said that 4,000 Hindu boats had been assembled on the Indus to resist the earlier invasion of India by Semiramis, the Assyrian queen, and also that in much later times Mahmud the Moslem invader had to encounter the measures of national defense organized by a Punjab fleet of the same strength.¹

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⁴ Vincent's *Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients*, Vol. I, p. 12.

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¹ Robertson's *Disquisition*, pp. 296—297 (notes). See Bejoy Kumar Sarkar’s “Water Transport in Mediaeval India” in the *Journal of the Department of Letters*, Vol. IV (Calcutta 1921).

6. Defensive Measures against Alexander

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The gallant resistance offered by the nations of India, both single and united, to the all-sweeping raid of Alexander, is obviously an important event in the annals of the Hindu army. The ancient European historians of that invasion furnish us with some figures about the troops of the various states that stood in the way of the Macedonian’s penetration into the Indo-Gangetic plains. The first formidable opposition came from the Assakenoi of Afghanistan. They defended their fort at Massaga with 30,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry and 30 elephnts.² The next defendant of Hindu freedom was Poros, ruler of the Punjab between the Hydaspes (Jhelum) and the Akesines (Chenab).³

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² Mc Crindle’s *Invasion of India* (Arrian, XXV; Curtius, X), 66, 194.

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³ *Ibid* (Plutarch’s *Alexander*, LXII), 310.

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Poros opposed Alexander with an army over 50,000 strong. At the battle of the Hydaspes (July B. C. 326) the centre of the Hindu army was occupied by 200 elephants stationed at intervals of a hundred feet from one another and probably in eight ranks. The infantry numbering 50,000 were placed behind the elephant corps, but with files pushed forward between the elephants. There were 3,000 cavalry and 1,000 chariots to defend the flanks. The *vyûha* (battle-order) of this force resembled a city, says Diodorus. The elephants looked like the towers and the men at arms between them resembled the lines of wall between tower and tower.⁴

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⁴ *Ibid* (Diodorus, Book XVII, Ch. lxxxvii), p. 274.

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The spirit of the Macedonians was abated, says Plutarch, by the combat with Poros, and they resolved not to proceed any further in India. It was with extreme difficulty that they had succeeded in defeating the small army of the Punjab hero. They, therefore, opposed their chief with the greatest firmness when they came to learn that the monarch of the farthest east on the banks of the Ganges was ready to fight the foreign aggressor with 80,000 horse, 200,000 foot, 8,000 chariots and 6,000 elephants.

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But before Alexander could finally retire from the Punjab he had to contest his way through every inch of the lower Indus valley. Incessant and severe were his military engagements with the sturdy republics.

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The Agalassoi met him with 40,000 foot and 3,000 horse.¹ The most warlike of these autonomous non-monarchical nations were the Malloi or Mâlavas. At the present juncture they happened to contract an alliance with the Kṣudrakas, their sworn enemies for ages. The combined armies amounted to 90,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry and 900 chariots.² During this period the shaft used by the Indian archers was three yards long. Nothing could resist their shot, says Arrian,³ — neither shield nor breast plate, nor any stronger defence, if such there be".

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¹ *Infra*, pp. 143—144.

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² *Infra*, pp. 143—144.

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³ Arrian's *Indika* XVI.

7. Imperial Armies: Hindu and Roman

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The mind of military India quickly shook off the nightmare of Macedonian invasion (B. C. 327—324). Nay, Hindus lost no time in rising to liberate the Punjab from the yoke of Alexander's army of occupation (B. C. 322). The force that accomplished this expulsion of European garrisons from the "land of the five rivers" was the nucleus of what in a decade or two developed into the standing army "on daily pay", as Pliny puts it, of Chandra-gupta, the founder of the Maurya House of the Magadhan Empire. And when Seleukos the Greco-Syrian had to submit to the Hindu monarch and cede Afghanistan and Baluchistan to the victor (B. C. 303) the Maurya army was composed of 600,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, 9,000 elephants and about 8,000 chariots.⁴ Excluding followers and attendants, but including the archers, three on each elephant, and two fighting men on each chariot, the whole army consisted of 690,000 men. The exact figures of the Maurya naval force are not forthcoming yet.

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⁴ Pliny's *Natural History*, Book VI, Ch. xxii; Plutarch's *Alexander*; Meg. LVI.

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Let us here place the military facts from the side of European imperialism. The temporary national militias of republican Rome became a "standing army" for the first time under Augustus.⁵ He bequeathed to Tiberius (A. C. 14—37) probably the largest army that Imperial Rome ever commanded. Besides the praetorian guards and three fleets it was made up of 25 legions (of Roman troops) and 25 legions of *auxilia* (i. e. soldiers furnished by foreign dependents and allies, comparable to the Imperial Service Troops of the feudatory or protected states in British India). And the total force numbered 320,000.⁶ It is clear that the Maurya General Staff had the ability to drill, equip, finance and manipulate more than double the man-power of the imperial-Roman war-machine.

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⁵ Arnold's *Roman Provincial Administration*, 114.

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⁶ Ramsay, 432; Arnold, 113.

8. The Maurya General Staff

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A good percentage of the national revenues must have been earmarked for the army and navy by the Mauryas. The fighting men were maintained, as Megasthenes¹ records, at the king's expense and were always ready, when occasion called, to take the field. And the pay was so liberal in Arrian's estimation that they could "with ease maintain themselves and others besides".²

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¹ Mc Crindle's *Ancient India*, p. 85.

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² *Ibid*, p. 211.

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The Supreme War Office of the Mauryas was administered by a council of thirty members.³ This consisted of six boards, with five members to each. Army and admiralty formed the joint charge of one of these boards. The second board looked after supply, comprehending transport, commissariat and war service. It was responsible for the bullock trains that were used for "transporting the engines of war, food for the soldiers, provender for the cattle, and other military requisites". It had to furnish the servants who beat the drum and others who carried gongs, grooms also for the horses, and mechanists and their assistants. To the sound of the gong they sent out foragers to bring in grass and by a system of rewards and punishments ensured the work being done with dispatch and safety. Another board was in charge of the infantry. Cavalry, war-chariots and elephants were likewise entrusted to three separate boards.

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³ *Ibid*, pp. 88—89.

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There were royal stables for the horses and elephants and also a royal magazine for the arms because the soldier had to return his arms to the magazines and his horse and his elephant to the stables. The chariots were drawn on the march by oxen, but the horses were led along by a halter that their legs might not be galled and inflamed, nor their spirits damped by drawing chariots. In addition to the charioteer there were two fighting men who sat up in the chariot beside him. The war elephant carried four men, three who shot arrows, and the driver.

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The naval arm of the Maurya war office was as minutely looked after as the military. The *nâvadhyakṣa* or superintendent of ships and boats dealt with all matters relating to navigation, not only of oceans but also of rivers and lakes, natural or artificial. His functions combined the supervision of fleets for riparian or maritime warfare with the administration of customs and harbor laws.⁴

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⁴ *Artha*, Book II, Ch. xxviii; *Ind. Ship.*, 104—112.

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The centre of eight hundred villages in the Maurya Empire was the seat of a fortress calles *sthânîya*, if the finance minister Kautilya's directions were carried out. A fortress called *droṇa-mukhya* was constructed in the centre of four hundred villages. Two hundred villages had at their centre a fortress called *khârvâṭika*. And a fortress called *saṁgrahaṇa* was situated at the centre of ten villages. Such is the strategic scheme of fortifications described in the *Artha-śâstra*.¹ From the military standpoint, then, or rather from the angle of national defense, the Maurya Empire was a thorough *federation de l'empire* i. e., a centralized organization of states or provinces. And it served to furnish all future empire-builders with the prototype of a perfect system of "preparedness" that might be the solid basis of effectual *pax sârva-bhaumica* (peace of the world-state).

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¹ *Ind. Ant.*, 1905, p. 7. Elaborate details about Maurya military administration and Hindu ideas on the subject of warfare prevailing in the third and fourth centuries B.C. are to be found in the *Arthaśâstra*: IX. The Work of an invader: Knowledge of power, place, time etc. Time of recruiting, Annoyance in the rear, Loss of men, External and internal dangers, Persons associated with traitors and enemies; X. War: Encampment, March of the camp, Treacherous fights, Battlefields, Array of troops; XII. Powerful enemy: Battle of intrigue, Slaying the commander in chief, Spies with weapons, Capture of the enemy; XIII. Strategic means to capture a fortress: Sowing seeds of dissension, Enticement of kings by secret connivances, Work of spies in a siege, Operation of a siege, Restoration of peace in a conquered country.

9. "Peace Insurance" in Hindu India

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In this Maurya achievement of imperial nationalism is to be found the nucleus of the code of duties by which Vîra-sena,² the commander of the Sunga fortress on the banks of the Narmadâ, was guided towards the end of the second century B. C., as well as of the military manuals that were in use among the officers of the Vardhana General, Skandagupta, in the seventh century A. C. The curriculum of studies in the war-academies of Bengal under the administration of General Someśvara (ninth century) must likewise have accorded a prominent place to the military institutions and practices described by Kautilya. And these were no doubt adapted with modifications to the local conditions of the Gangetic Delta by Vallâla Sena's war-minister Hari-ghoṣa in the twelfth century.³

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² *Malavikâgnimitra*, p. 7.

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³ Banerji's *Memoir*, 106.

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For want of positive evidence it is not possible yet to single out a Gustavus Adolphus of ancient India as *the* genius of Hindu military science and art from among the score of "world-conquerors" down to the *Gaṅgâikonda* Chola (1013—1108). Nor can any of the extant Sanskrit texts on warfare and war-office be definitely fathered on one or other of the historic emperors, generals, or presidents of military colleges. But to all writers¹ on strategy, tactics, battle-array, fortification, and arms and accoutrements, whether for the *dhanur-vedas* and *nîti-śâstras*, or for the *Manu-Samhitâ* and the *Mahâbhârata*, the military and naval chapters of the *Artha-śâstra* must have been but the postulates of the science of warfare and national defense. And these every theorist had to accept as the A, B, C of his investigation on "world-peace", or as Stockton, the American militarist, would have it euphemistically, on "peace insurance".²

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¹ It must not be ignored, however, that some of the *ideas* and institutions described in the *Mahâbhârata*, the *Manu Samhitâ*, the *nîti-śâstras* and the *dhanur-vedas* may have been older than Kautilya. *Cf.* *Śukra-nîti*, Ch. IV, sec. vii. Note the relative proportion of the constituents of the army in lines 41—52, and the eight battle-arrays in lines 527—536; *J. A. O. S.*, 1889 (military tactics, pp. 192—219; chariots, pp. 235—262; cavalry, 262—265; Elephant riders, 265—269; weapons, 269—308). See the list of weapons in the *Râmâyana* (*Vâla-kânda*, Ch. XXVII). Some of these and other literary evidences have been used in P. Swami's pamphlet on *Warfare in Ancient India*, and in Banerjea's *Public*, 196—218. But such material has been avoided by the present author.

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² H. W. L. Hime's *Origin of Artillery*, pp. 74—85; E. A. Altham's *Principles of War*, Vol. I, p. 43; M. I. D. Cockle's *Bibliography of Military Books up to 1642*; Fiske's *Art of Fighting*, p. 47—49; Stockton, p. 203; The *Hindu Gîtâ* is cited by Maude in the introduction to Graham's translation of Clausewitz's *War*.

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The Civil Service.

1. Centralization in Tamil India

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Each of the provinces of the Chola Empire in Southern India was under a viceroy, who was either a scion of the dispossessed royal families or a prince of the blood. As a rule, it was the near kinsmen such as uncles, brothers or sons that obtained the voceroyalty.)

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Even previous to Râjarâja the Great (984—1018), royal records were preserved on palmyra leaves in the office buildings at the capital. And orders promulgated from the imperial headquarters were registered in a book of documents³ by the *mahâ-sabhâs* (central *panchâyats*) of the rural districts.

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³ Aiyangar, 175.

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We have a few facts about the working of the Chola bureaucracy. The inscriptions point to a good deal of intervention on the part of the civil service in the affairs of the local bodies, especially in rural finance. Two imperial officials, the *adhikârin* (the magistrate) and the *senâpati* (the commandant) appear to have regularly inspected the accounts of the village assemblies. It was according to their directions that the different taxes realized by the communes were scheduled and the appropriations regulated.¹ These officers used to go out on tour of inspection through their circle, examine the rural funds, and audit the accounts. They also made allotments out of the public revenues, although of course the *panchâyats* themselves had to make the appropriations for the special purposes. On one occasion the supervisors had reasons to suspect a reduction in the expenses. The officials of the local soviet were therefore asked to "state the revenue and expenditure" "in accordance with the royal order and the royal letter". The vigilance of imperialism in the Tamil states must evidently have robbed the village *sabhâs* of fiscal autonomy.

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¹ *Ibid*, 165.

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Very rarely does the Hindu civil service seem to have been paid in money. The officials of Chola-mandala were renumerated by gifts of land or assignments of revenue.² Hiuen Thsang also noticed that the governors, magistrates, ministers and other officers of the Vardhana Empire (seventh century) had portions of land consigned to them for personal support.³ For Gupta India Fa Hien (fifth century) mentions only that the royal officials did not have to fleece the people but were maintained by the state with regular salaries.⁴

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² *Ibid*, 184.

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³ Beal's *Si-Yuki*, I, 87–88.

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⁴ Legge's *Fa Hian*, XVI, pp. 42–43.

2. Nation-making under the Mauryas

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But for the present we have more facts about the earliest epoch of Hindu imperial polity than for any others. Under Asoka the Great (B. C. 269–232), as we gather from the Edicts, the Maurya Empire was divided for administrative purposes into at least four viceroyalties. These were intended for what may conveniently be called the northern, eastern, western and southern prefectures. A pucca "imperialist" was this Asoka, a fully self-conscious *chakravarti* or *sârva-bhauma*. The "problem of the empire" was a serious concern to him; and he set before himself the definite task of maintaining "uniformity in administration and penal procedure"⁵ throughout a territory, the dimensions of which were hardly to be attained in the annals of "haughty Rome" or by the ephemeral Napoleonic empire at its height (1808–1812). The viceregal staff and office organization in each prefectural province were accordingly modelled on those of the Emperor himself. Believer as he was in Śâkya's *appamâda* (energism and strenuous exertions),¹ Asoka was personally in charge of the home government comprising the capital and the central regions. The imperial executive of the Mauryas consisted of eighteen departments.² Each of these departments was helped by a board or boards of advisers. Uniformly with the six divisions of the municipal corporation of Pâtali-putra and the six divisions of the War Office, these boards of the Executive were constituted on the literal *panchâyatic* principle of the village assemblies; i. e., there were five members on each board.

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⁵ Pillar Edict IV.

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¹ Minor Rock Edict I.

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² *Artha*, I, Ch. viii, xv; II.

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The Maurya civil service superintended the rivers, measured the land “as was done in Egypt”, says Megasthenes, and inspected the sluices by which water was let out from the main canals into their branches so that every one might have an equal supply of it. The forest officers among them had charge of the huntsmen with the power of rewarding or punishing them according to their deserts. Taxes were collected by these authorities, and the occupations connected with land, e. g. those of wood-cutters, carpenters, blacksmiths and miners, fell within the scope of their supervision. Construction of roads was one of their important functions, and in this connection it is reported that pillars were set up at every ten *stadia* (i. e. a little over one mile) to indicate the by-roads and the distances.³

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³ *Meg.* XXXIV.

3. The Domesday Surveys of the Hindus

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The principle of centralization that was observed in the management of the army and the navy was manifest also in the administration of public finance and other branches of civil government. The village was, as we have seen, the unit for purposes of military organization. It was the unit for revenue and police purposes as well. The member at the lowest step in the bureaucratic system was known as the *gopa*. This magistrate-collector was placed in charge of five or ten villages and was ultimately responsible to the *samâhartâ*, the collector-general. As the rural limb of the imperial civil service, it was the duty of the *gopa*⁴ to maintain the boundary marks not only of villages, but also of fields, gardens, roads, pasture lands, assembly halls, irrigation works, cremation grounds, charitable houses, temples, groves and bathing places.

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⁴ *Artha*, Book II, Ch. xxxv; *Ind. Ant.* 1905, p. 5.

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He had personally to supervise the transactions of gift, sale or mortgage of lands and other properties of the villagers. He used to keep a register giving in detail the number of souls living in each house. The people were classified by him according to castes and occupations such as agriculture, pasturage, trade, arts, manufactures, manual labor and menial service. This census¹ and vital statistics was all-inclusive. It was applicable also to slaves, quadrupeds, and birds maintained in each household. And, of course, in the same register the *gopa* had to note not only the amount of taxes and tolls that each house had to pay to the government, but also the probable dues in working men and fines.

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¹ Law's *Hind. Pol.*, pp. 106—114 (Census).

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These comprehensive inquiries made by the village officer of the Maurya Empire could be copied *in toto* in Europe over thirteen hundred years later. The items of information which William the Conqueror needed for his *Domesday Book* (1086) in order to get a complete idea of the "geldable" (taxable) resources of England were identical with those mentioned by the Hindu Richelieu. "What is the name of this manor?" as the *Inquisitio Eliensis*² or the *questionnaire* of the Norman Duke who wanted to prevent in English society the disruptive tendencies of continental feudalism proceeds, "Who held it in the time of King Edward? Who holds it now? How many acres are there? How many ploughs belong to the lord of the manor? How many belong to the villeins, cottars, slaves, freeman, and sokemen? How much woodland is there? How much meadow? How much pasture? How many mills and fisheries are there? How much has been added to or taken away from the estate? How much was the estate formerly worth? How much is it worth now? How much has or had each freeman or sokeman there? Could it be made worth any more?" There was nothing distinctively Occidental in the queries. These had been anticipated by the political genius of Asia.

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² *Domesday Commemoration* (1086—1886): *Domesday Studies*, Vol. I, pp. 7—8; Maitland's *Domesday Book and Beyond*, p. 24.

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Moreover, a curious chronological coincidence is to be noted between the East and the West. In 1086, the very year of the English Domesday inquiry, a second survey of the Chola dominions was instituted by Kulot-tûnga I. the Chola-Châlukya.³ On the occasion of this re-survey the tolls were abolished, but in certain cases we notice an enhancement of the rates. The re-adjustment was evidently in high request as some lands had been over-assessed in the previous settlement which was organized by Râjarâja about a century previous to this date. The first survey (*c* 986) was so minute that accuracy was guaranteed to 1/(50,000) th of a square inch.¹ There were two kinds of assessment. One was known as "calculated" (i. e. according to previous surveys) the other as "settled" (i. e. according to the actual yield). It was by this Instrument of Râja-râja that the village assemblies were authorized to take possession of lands whose owners failed to pay the government dues for three years. It may be observed here, in passing, that the dues were collected in kind, or in gold or in cloth.

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³ Aiyangar, 144, 149—150, 176; *Epigraphist's Report* for 1900, sec. 25, p. 10.

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¹ Aiyangar, 175—177.

4. Roads and National Unification

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Census and cadastral survey were thus normal processes in the Hindu machinery of imperial nationalism. Among the agencies by which the civil service contributed to the establishment of *pax sârva-bhaumica* (peace of the world-empire) we must also mention the roads, both strategic and commercial. These were deliberately laid out by the bureaucracy in order to bring the different parts of the empire within easy reach of one another. One such imperial thoroughfare was the grand trunk road all along the Coromandel coast (Eastern) covering about 1200 miles from the banks of the Mahânadî in Orissa to Kottaru near Cape Comorin at the southern tip of the Indian peninsula.² It was constructed by Kulot-tûnga (1070—1118) specifically for the extensive campaigns that he undertook in the north and the south. As bulwarks of his vast empire he, moreover, planted agricultural colonies along this road. Really of a military character were these plantations, as the territories were allotted to the army officers who occupied the settlements at the head of the forces at their command.³

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² *Ibid*, 188—189.

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³ *Ibid*, 143.

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It is evident that in the annals of imperial Rome nobody was a greater administrative genius than the Châlukya-Chola monarch of the early twelfth century. And Kulot-tûnga, "the highest in the family", was but continuing the tradition of the first *sârva-bhaumas* of India, the Mauryas, whose civil engineers had constructed a magnificent highway from Pâtali-putra to the Afghan frontier, a distance of 10,000 *stadia* (over 1,100 miles).⁴ Besides, in an account of the achievements of the Hindu civil service we must not omit to mention the monumental irrigation works that signalized the "developmental functions" of Indian states from at least the time of Megasthenes' observations, — in Kashmir as in Ceylon, in Gujarat as in Madras.)

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⁴ Arrian's *Indika*, III.

5. Administration of Irrigation Works

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(Kashmir¹ had always given small produce, as Kalhana writes in the *Râja-tarangiṇî*, because it was liable to be flooded by the waters of the Mahâpadma Lake and was intersected by many streams. But during the reign of Avanti-varman (833—58) a phenomenal economic revolution was brought about so that the price of a *khâri* of rice fell from 200 to 36 *dinars*. This marvelous result is attributed by the Hindu historian to the engineering feats of the "illustrious" Sûyyâ, the *anna-pati* (lord of food).)

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¹ Kalhana, Book V, verses 68, 116—117, 72, 90—95, 97—98, 102, 106, 109—112.

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(Sûyyâ noticed that the water-locked tracts along the banks of the river Vitastâ were chiefly responsible for the calamities and famines of Kashmir. Accordingly he addressed himself first to the draining off of the water. Next he proceeded to dam up the river by a stone structure. Finally he removed the dam. Having thus given freedom to the stream Sûyyâ constructed several "new beds for the Vitastâ", i. e. canals, "wherever he knew inundation-breaches to occur during disastrous floods".)

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Sûyyâ's operations ultimately changed the very topography of the country. (Through technical skill he succeeded in making the different streams "move about according to his will" "just as a snake-charmer does with the snakes". A new confluence of the Vitastâ with its most important tributary, the Sindhu, was artificially created by the engineer's genius, and "it will last" says Kalhana, "to the end of the world". Sûyyâ also constructed stone-embankments for about thirty miles along the Vitastâ and dammed in the waters of the Mahâpadma. Having "raised the land from the water" he founded several villages. As the water was kept by means of circular dykes the villages looked like round bowls. The previous dependence of the locality on rainfall was thus rendered unnecessary through an achievement of the human brain.)

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The activities of the Kashmirian officer did not stop at this point. The amount of water necessary for irrigation was calculated by him in an interesting manner. He began with an hygrometric examination of the different classes of land. All village lands were first subjected to a temporary inundation under certain conditions. Then he took some soil from each village and observed the time it took to dry up. The different periods within which irrigation would be required for the different soils were thus ascertained. He then arranged accordingly on a permanent basis for the size and distribution of the watercourse for each village. The Ânula and other streams were utilized for the purpose.

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The story of one irrigation-tank can be told for about eight centuries. The Sudarśana Lake at Girnar in Kathiawar near the Arabian Sea was constructed by Puṣya-gupta, a *râṣṭrîya* (governor) of the western prefecture under Chandra-gupta Maurya.¹ Sluices connecting the tank with the agricultural areas were opened out by Tuṣaspha, the viceroy of Asoka. About A. C. 150 repairs of an adamantine character were undertaken by Suviśâkha, assistant to Rudra-dâmana, a satrap probably of the Kuṣân Empire. In Skanda-gupta’s time the dam had to be repaired a second time (458). The re-building was superintended by Chakrapâlita, a governor of the Gupta Empire.² Constitutionally speaking, *pax sârvabhaumica* has to be realized from the fact that both under the Mauryas and the Guptas Girnar was a remote corner of the empire, over 1,000 miles from Pâtali-putra, the capital.

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¹ *Ep. Ind.*, 1905—1906, pp. 46, 47, 49.

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² *Gup. Insc.*, pp. 56—65.

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The Sudarśana reservoir was built by damming up a small stream. The civil engineers of the Tamils conceived another idea in irrigation. Theirs was the plan of controlling a river at the head of its delta. The principle of anicuts is the distinctively original contribution of the Cholas to mankind’s economic development. Their scheme of dealing with deltaic land has since been accepted everywhere. No nation has been able to improve upon it yet.³ The hundred-mile embankments on the Kâverî and the main channels for irrigation were constructed by Kârikâla (*c* A. C. 150). Râjendra (1018—1035) excavated a large artificial reservoir at his new capital, Gangâikonda Śolapuram. The embankment was sixteen miles long and was provided with several substantial sluices.⁴

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³ Deakin, 252.

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⁴ Aiyangar, 185—188.

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Equal, if not more, energy and funds were devoted by the civil service of Ceylon to the problem of irrigation. Parâkrama Bâhu I (*c* A. C. 1150) constructed 1470 tanks and 534 canals, and repaired 1395 large with 960 smaller tanks and 3621 canals. Today there is no part of the island, except the central mountain districts, in which the remains of canals and tanks are not to be found. And it appears on close investigation that almost all irrigation-works were links in a chain of large connected systems. There is, therefore, no hyperbole in the statement of Tennant that “excepting the exaggerated dimensions of Lake Moeris in Central Egypt and the mysterious basin of Al-aaram, the bursting of whose embankment devastated the Arabian city of Mareb, no similar constructions formed by any race, whether ancient or modern, exceed in colossal magnitude the stupendous tanks of Ceylon.”¹

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¹ Deakin, 239—242. An account of Ceylonese civil service is furnished in Coomaraswamy’s *Mediaeval*, pp. 19—20.

6. Pax Sârva-bhaumica and Pax Romana

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The administrative history of the Ândhra, Kuṣân, Pâla, Châlukya and other Empires still awaits the minute scrutiny of epigraphists. The stray notice about the Sudarśana tank in the fifth century proves that the Gupta Empire at any rate was no less efficiently governed than had been that of the Mauryas. And what was their system of national government? The Hindu *chakravartis*, *châturantas*, *sârva-bhaumas* or world-rulers of the third and fourth centuries B. C., dictated duties to the governors of provincal capitals at Taxila on the Afghan frontier, Tosalî in Orissa, Ujjayinî in the west and probably Suvarṇa-giri in the Deccan south of the Narmadâ. They knew how to command a net-work of fortresses situated at mathematically-calculated strategic points. They built up a bureaucratic hierarchy, which emanated from Pâtali-putra and filtering through the “district” jurisdictions administered by *sthânikas* came down to the village-nuclei under the *gopas*. Their financial organization embraced in its all-seizing sweep, as we shall see later on, the destination of every material resource and the destiny of every animal and human being. Evidently the Hindus of Maurya India were past masters in the art of nation-making i. e. centralized and unified rule.

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The Oriental student of comparative politics may therefore legitimately ask: “What more was achieved by European imperialism, by the *pax Romana* of Diocletian and Constantine,² for instance? Were the efficiency and thoroughness of Maurya statesmen surpassed in any epoch of occidental polity?”

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² Frank’s *Roman Imperialism*, 353; Abbott’s *Roman Political Institutions*, 334—340; Arnold, pp. 158—162, 188, 191.

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The evidences of the Tamil inscriptions of Southern India, the Sanskrit inscription of Rudra-dâmana, Asoka’s Edicts, Megasthenes, and the *Artha-śâstra* in regard to Hindu imperial nationalism and provincial administration can be borne out by the accounts of empire-states given in epics like the *Mahâbhârata*,³ and suggested in law-books like those of Gautama, Âpastamba, and Manu. The picture of nationalities that these literary sources exhibit is that of a centripetal tendency and homo-

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³ *J. A. O. S.*, 1889, p. 84. geneous compacture of the kind systematically promoted by the Bourbons from Louis IX to Louis XIV.

7. The Richelieus of India

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Thus in Manu’s¹ scheme every township or village was presided over by a vicegerent, who was subordinate to the ruler of ten townships. The ruler of ten was subordinate to the ruler of twenty; and the ruler of twenty to the ruler of a hundred, who, again, was subordinate to the ruler of a thousand villages. The civil service could be recruited from among the priestly, the military as well as the mercantile classes. The officers were responsible for the collection of revenue and preparation of reports relating to the area under supervision. And they had to protect their territories from robbers and criminals. It was the function of the village magistrate to keep his jurisdiction free from thieves to the distance of two miles in all directions. If the township were large, the police duties of the collector were more extensive. The distance that he had to guard against robbers was eight miles of the country surrounding his station. These officers were bound to repay to the loser whatever was stolen within their district.²

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¹ Manu, VII, 115—117, 118—122, 123—125; *cf.* *Śukra*, I, lines 381—384, V, 162—169.

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² *Âpastamba*, II, 10, 26, 6—8; *Gautama*, X, 46—47.

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None of these magistrate-collectors of any grade had judicial functions. Institutionally, the judiciary of every rank appears to have been totally separate from the executive (i. e. the police and fiscal staff). In the gradually extended circle, based as it was on the decimal system, the lower grade magistrates collected revenues, received reports and passed them on to the higher grade men in succession, until the sinews of war and the news of the realm were finally focussed in the king or emperor, the lord of all.

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If it may be allowed to combine this plan of imperial constitution laid down in the *smriti-śâstras*, *nîti-śâstras*, and the epic with the few epigraphic facts, if not as supplement, at any rate, as an illustration of the channels along which Hindu administrative *śakti* (genius) worked, we have in Maurya India (B. C. 322—185 B. C.) a picture of France organized under the *Intendants* of Richelieu for an area seven times as large.³ How many such Maurya Empires can be credited to the political capabilities demonstrated in European history?

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