Ancient Indian Warfare

Book excerpt: In Ancient Indian Warfare, the author has pieced together all the available archaeological data and made a thorough study of the entire range of Vedic literature in a bid to present for the first time as complete a picture of warfare as these sources permit. He deals with a period so far given scant attention, or none at all. He stops where virtually all the other writers on the subject begin. The Epic and Buddhist material has been used to support, elucidate and complete the picture of the rearly period. The archaeological evidence has been utilized as fully as possible to add the weight of material proof to literary testimony. The author explores the domestication of horses and elephants and their use for military purposes; the invention of wheeled vehicles and the battle-chariot; the use of metals for the manufacture of weapons; the nature of ancient arms and armour; forts and fortifications; military order and organisation; and the uneasy birth of a moral consciousness evidenced in the development of a code of war.