The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.3

c11.3

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.