You are on page 1of 5

THE ART OF WAR IN ANCIENT INDIA

By
Maj Gen (Dr) G D Bakshi SM, VSM (retd)

The Impact of Techno-Economic and Techno-Military Triggers. Indian history can be


scientifically studied in terms of the impacts of a series of techno-economic triggers that
generated phase transitions in the historical process. The techno-military triggers ushered in
the local Revolutions in Military Affairs (RMAs) that decisively shaped the course of history. In
ancient India these techno- military triggers were provided by the use of horse Chariots by the
Aryans which gave them the military edge over the forest tribes and other adversaries.
The Mahabhartan Four Arms (Chaturanga Bala) Military Paradigm By the time of the
Mahabharata War, a four arms based military paradigm had crystallized in South Asia. It was
premised upon the combined Arms manoeuevre of four variable speed manoeuevre masses- of
the war chariots, the War elephants, the barebacked horsed cavalry and the ubiquitous foot
infantry. Tactical battle arrays and battle drills called Vyuhas were derived from
representative games like Chausar (Chess). This form of war gave rise to an aristocracy of
Kshatriya Princes who became the Maharathisor great car warriors and dominated the social
caste hierarchy as the ruling class. The Vyuhas are a characteristic Indian way of war fighting.
These not just included geometrical battle arrays or formations but well practiced battle drills
that would guide the way the combat unfolded. These were like the opening gambits of a game

of chess and were designed to exploit likely enemy reactions to these opening moves in battle.
These vyuhas, in fact represent archetypal manoeuevres of war that have been used time and
again in the worlds
military history. One of
these was the Ardha
Chandra Vyuha- or half
Moon

formation.

Incidentally , this was


used by the Indian
Army in the 1965 war
to halt the attack of
the Pakistani First Armoured Division and destroy over a 100 Pakistani tanks at Asal Uttar. Thus
basic war manoeuvres used with Elephants, horses and chariots plus infantry, continue to be
repeated with Tanks, MechanisedInfantry and modern Artillery. One of the best examples is
the Sakata/Sarbatomukha Vyuha or T-shaped formation of the Mahabharta. This has
astounding parallels with the Lagger battle drill of Field Marshal Erwin Rommels Afrika Corps in
the Second World War.

The Mauryan Paradigm Shift to War Elephants. The major RMA in ancient India however was
brought about by the massed use of war elephants by the Mauryas. The Elephant became the
Indian liet motif of war. Its use in the mass generated Shock and Awe. The War Elephant was
a far superior platform than the Chariot. It could carry 6-8 archers as opposed to just two in the
chariot. Its prime advantage lay in its tremendous mobility in any terrain whatsoever. The
military revolution was created by its use in the Mass by the Mauryas. Kautilya relegated the
Chariot to largely ceremonial purposes and created a Shock Arm of some 9000 War elephants
in the Imperial Mauryan Army. It was with this instrument that he first unified India in a vast
and highly centralized Mauryan Empire. This unification was largely accomplished in just 25
years. The Caste equations changed in favour of the Shudras who manned these war elephants.
The era of the Maharathi Kshatriya was over (Chandragupta Maurya incidentally wa of the
Shudra caste). A huge corps of War elephants was prohibitively expensive and required the
economic resources of a huge and tightly centralized empire of sub-continental proportions.
Kautilyas concept of war-fighting placed great reliance on Information- Dominance. He did this
through Humint or humanintelligence. For this he employed spies in their thousands. In fact so
numerous were these spies that the Greek Ambassador Megasthenes thought that they were a
separate cast altogether in India. Kautilya carried out detailed Net- Assessments of the
Comprehensive National Power of the enemy states. These included the personality of the

Ruler himself, the quality and integrity of his Council of Ministers (to include their personality
profiles and inter-se equations with one another and the King). It also included the size,
strength and morale of the Enemy Army as also an analysis of the economic power (Treasury or
Kosha) of the enemy states as also its border population and strength and weaknesses of its
Border Forts. Based upon this meticulous analysis, Kautilya then launched a prolonged Kuta
Yuddha, or destabilization campaign to destroy the Politico-Military balance of the opposing
state by sabotage, subversion and sowing suspicion and dissonance between the various organs
of the state. Once the politico-military balance of the opposing state was broken, Kautilya
mounted a rapid offensive to mop up in the wake of his Asymmetric Warfare campaign.
Elephants were used in the mass to generate Shock and Awe and simply break the will of the
enemy to fight. It was in this way that Kautilya managed to unite the whole of India into a
massive Empire. Not only did he unite India, but he went on to defeat the last remnants of
Greek power in Afghanistan and Baluchistan, and secured the invasion routes on the NorthWest frontier. Even the British Empire had failed to secure Afghanistan. In fact, the Mauryan
victory over the Greeks of Selukos Niketor can be regarded as the highest point of Indias
military power in the ancient period. India returned quite unconsciously to the Kautilyan War
fighting paradigm in the 1971 War for the Liberation of Bangladesh and won a resounding
Military victory. A new nation-state was created in just 14 days and 93,000 prisoners of war
(POWs) were taken. It was a classic tri-service campaign and the Indian Air Force was used to
generate shock and awe. The actual military campaign was preceded by eight months of
destabilization caused by the revolt of the Mukti Bahini.

You might also like