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The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t8: 8. The Maurya General Staff

The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t8

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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.

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