Education in Ancient India c10.s2.2

c10.s2.2

Non-official Training Agencies: In modern times military training is usually given only by the state authorities when recruits join the army. Such was not the case in ancient India. The average citizen and villager was expected to be able to defend his own hearth and home; the *Arthaśāstra* expressly lays down that every village ought to be able to defend itself (II. 34). Villagers and citizens therefore had to make their own arrangements to get the necessary facility in the use of the weapons of the age in order to be ready for any eventuality. There were no military schools as such for this purpose; with the voluntary help of the elderly experts in the village, most of its youths could be trained in the use of the bow and the arrow, the *lathi* and the lance. That such was actually the case in several parts of India would become quite clear from the accounts of Alexander's invasion, as given by the Greek historians. In several places the Macedonian hero was opposed not so much by state forces as by the whole population in arms.¹ There can be no doubt that in many of the republican states of the Punjab, e. g. the Kaṭhas, the Mālavas, the Sibis, etc., every adult used to receive military training of a fairly high order. Probably the same was the case under monarchies, though perhaps to a less degree. Many villages had developed high military traditions and used to be exempted from taxation on agreeing to supply a certain quota to the army.²