Honor and special facilities provided to defense personnel in ancient india
Continuing with research on well-organized ancient military science and applicability of Vedas to almost all political, foreign, military, and public affairs of the kingdom, in this article, we will go through the special services that were offered to armed forces in ancient India. In addition to that, we will also go through different military strategies and tactics followed by ancient India to defeat the enemy.
Special Honor to Brave Warriors
According to Vedas, special respect and gratitude must be honored to army men as they are the defenders of the country. Below verse honor the army-men and confirms the ancient India division of army into three categories: - land force, air force and sea force.
Respect the warrior, commander and army-men of all ranks. Special honor and awards should be bestowed to those who fight the enemy either on land, air or sea. Not mere honor, but all kinds of facilities are to be provided to army men. Special type of clothing, proper nursing, food, living accommodation, clubs, playground, hospitals, places for the prayers and educational facilities are to be provided to them.-(Yaju 16.26)
Ships of ancient Indian navy
Facilities provided to warriors
Vedas suggested the army-men to be served by all kinds of aids, facilities and materialistic comforts. Below are many mantras that describe the different types of social aids, arrangements and facilities provided to soldiers by kings, governmental organizations and general public on a whole. Besides daily pay, officers and army-men were given special allowances at the start of expedition or war. Supporting the wife and dependents of the soldiers were considered of paramount importance for kings of all nations.
A. Clubs
All facilities provided to modern army-men seems to be influenced from Vedas. Clubs and social groups dedicated to army-men is found in every nook and corners of the country
1. There should be assemblies of warriors.
2. They should be given a chance to address others.
3. They should be taught to speak a well-considered and cultured language.
4. They should perform Agnihotra(sacrificial fire)- (Rig.1.66.2):
5. They should play in playgrounds.(Rig.1.167.3)
B. Hospital, Medical Aid
In all government hospitals, free services are provided to army-men and their families. They are also provided with free routine medical checkups, Medicines etc. Additionally, there are many army hospitals, totally managed by Indian army for the service of army-men’s.
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O you Maruta! The commander will arrange for you all those medicines, which are pure and useful for the betterment of your health.
(Rig 2.33.13)
All those soldiers who are tired wounded, torn of their parts or the tainted ones should be removed immediately from the field and taken to safe places for providing them medical treatment for the dead, proper arrangements for their cremation are to be made.
(Yaju 17.48)
Medical aid of injured soldier
C. Military training
All army-men go through a rigorous military training before they are certified as soldiers of the army.
O warrior! You learn viz. training for parade etc. This whole hymn, seventh of eight mandala of Rigveda deals with the training and equipment of soldiers.(Rig.8.7.2.)
O warrior! You sometimes disguise yourself as human, sometimes as a horse and at other times as a pigeon to befoul the enemy.(Rig 5.52.11)
This mantra refers to the training of the soldiers to entrap the enemy in a winding coil like circle.(Ath. 11.9.5.)
The soldiers walk in line (parade) just as the birds do. (Rig. 5.59.7.)
O wife of the commander-in-chief! Expert in the art of archery, trained by learned person, on persuasion, go afar, encounter the force of the enemy, and achieve victory by slaying them. Let not even one of those distant foes escape.(Yaju 17.45)
Chakravyuha-The most deadliest and brilliant military formation
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D. Arrangement of Food
Free food of highest quality is provided by the government to army-men. Defense personnel are also provided with many other facilities like place of residence, quota in educational institutions for children’s, free railway tickets, food items at concessional rates for families etc.
Soldiers are served with curd. (Rig 1.64.2)
Soldiers are provided with Elixir. (Rig.1.87.1)
During journey, soldiers are to be provided with food, butter etc. (Rig. 1.85.3) Varieties of food to be given to them.
Traditional nutritious food served in copper utensils
E. Clothing (Uniform):
Arm-men have to mandatorily wear uniform during working hours.
Warriors’ bodies should be well protected and provided with uniforms to look graceful.(Rig.5.57.6.)
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Soldiers should look graceful there with their well-built bodies and good dresses. They should be provided with bulletproof jackets.(Rig 1.166.9)
F. Accommodation:
For accommodating large force of Army ruler is required to build cantonments.
(Rig.1.64.10), (Rig 1.165.1) and (Rig 5.87.4)
This indicates that all army-men lived together under the same roof.viz. barracks.
Oath Taking:
Similar to ancient way of taking oath of serving the motherland, modern soldiers also take similar oath before accepting the duty of army-men
Devoid of all misdeeds we vow to serve the motherland.(Yaju 12.12)
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Military Band
Hymns twelfth and twenty-first of fifth Kanda of the Atharva-Veda deal with the use of musical bands and drums to celebrate different occasions. Drums and musical bands were also used to give signs or indicate strategies to the soldiers during times of war.
Let the war drums, which are meant for quick victory and known to all, roar loudly like oxen marked by strength among the cattle. Let these drums pierce the hearts of the adversaries with sorrow and let our routed enemies desert their villages.
The war-drums are also useful in the battlefields as they play great part in frightening the enemy and his forces.(Ath.5.20.3)
Let the roar of the war-drums be loud spreading their noise all-around between earth and sky; let their sharp notes spread out in all directions, let them reign at the enemy to frighten him and his forces. They also encourage our army and our allies. (Ath.5.20.7)
Let these war drums be victorious in battles, loudly roaring and becoming the means of seizing whatever may be seized and be witnessed by all. Let these war drums sound wonderful note and let the army commander capture all the possessions of the enemies. (Ath.5.20.4.)
FLAG
Below verses encourage the use of flag on vehicles, clothes, food or any other objects used by army-men as a mark of their identity.
May these one-minded wondrous armies holding the flag marked with sun, subjugate our enemies. (Whatever uttered herein is correct.)(Ath.5.21.12)
Let the red flag wave high in the sky when the army equipped with Trisandhi (three types of army, viz. land force, airforce and sea force) come out victorious.-(Ath.11.10.7)
Flags should fly on each vehicle carrying young commander or other warriors to distinguish as to whether it is our or that of the enemy’s vehicle.-(Ath.15.19.13.11)
Attack the enemy having flying flags.-(Ath. 11.10)
Flag of great mauryan empire
Army Tactics and strategies
Can there be a victory in war without supremely planned tactics and strategies? All army-men were supposed to be well-trained in dealing with different situations of the war. Below are the verses that deals with the planning and execution of well-defined approaches to achieve victory over the enemy.
May your arms, namely your cannons, rifles, bow and arrows, swords, spears and all other war weapons be strong and firmly wielded by you to repel the wicked foe, bent upon injuring you as well as for opposing and setting at naught the force of his machinations against you? May your army, the strength of nation, be worthy of praise.(Rig 1.39.2)
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O Commanding-chief! if the enemy makes strong hold of the physical forces (against us) and through science produces effective means of shelter (trenches, forts etc.) taking all steps for the shelter of their persons, conquer him and take necessary steps to defeat him.(Ath. 11.10.17)
Let the wings with tongues of fire and crest of smokes go conquering foe.(Ath.11.9.19)
O enemy, there are spread the trap of death or the fatal missiles, of which you can never escape, and this complicated device would smite and slay thousands of your soldiers.(Ath.8.8.16)
O Foe! get your share of the flame of death, hunger, exhaustion, slaughter and fear. Let the electricity and fire destroy you with snares and nets prepared specifically for the job.(Ath.8.8.18)
Let the army of the foe of the ground be troubled in the eyes with smoke and gases and let them cry.(Ath.11.10.7.)
O brave and winner commander! you rise with your army, breaking the nests of the enemy and surround him as snake surrounds the prey with its winding coils.(Ath 11.9.5)
In case of need use of chemicals for destroying the enemy is allowed.
Deadly poison may be mixed in the food or in the milk, or in the fruits etc.
(Ath.5.31.1)
To kill the enemy there is instructions that the powder glass be administered orally in a bomb etc. (Ath.1.16.2)
Strategizing the battlefield
Cut off supplies, including food of the enemy’s army.(Ath.4.22.6)
O commander! You make the enemy sick by use of gas or poison.-(Ath.4.31.3)
By creating weakness, misfortune, pain, fatigue, languor, drowsiness, I defeat the enemy.(Ath.8.8.9.)
Starting out:
Spring and autumn season were considered to be the best period for expedition or military operations. Cooler weather, plentiful water, foraging possibilities and readily available animal feed facilitated the movement of soldiers. No expedition would commence without the consultation from astrologers. Astrologers would decide the best starting time of the expedition. Religious sacrifice and ceremonial activities were performed before marching off to expedition. Supporting the astrologer decision blindly was the prime reason behind the fall of many kingdoms as they failed to capitalize on the obvious advantages over the enemy.
Setting out:
Infantry formed the front portion of the army. Chief-commander would lead the army. King is usually seated at the center of the army. King would be surrounded by elephants, chariots, cavalry and foot-soldiers. At the extreme back of the army, would be servants, physicians, retainers, prostitutes, drummers etc for comforts and leisure activities of the army-men. An army would march around 16 miles in a day. Camps were prepared to all army-men and special arrangements were provided according to their ranks and position. During the medieval age, bullock carts or horse-chariots were used to carry equipment, weapons, food etc.
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Formation and arrangements:
Positioning the army according to the battlefield was of paramount importance for the army-commander. Various kind of formations and arrangements were strategized for defensive and offensive purposes. War drums, tambourine, trumpet, conch shell, horn etc were blown for various formation and for giving signals to the soldiers. Rich store of medicine, herbs and surgical instruments were carried along with physicians to treat the wounded officers and army-men.
Fortification and Siegecraft:
Usually, forts and Siegecraft were built on the top of a hill as it was easily defensible against the most powerful weapon known to them. It was desirable to have flowing stream of water from at least one end of a hill. Some of the forts were constructed as a place of last refuge while others were for administration purposes to command the region. Fort were surrounded by thick layers of wall, each substantially higher than the earlier one.
Fort of great Maratha kingdom
Some of the walls were made by cutting stones as high as 15 feet. All houses inside the fort were plastered with mud as a preventive measure against the fire triggered by the enemy. Secrets walls, paths, hidden-ways, bunkers, pits and barbed wires were also constructed for both defensive and offensive reasons. Catapult and heavy mechanical machines were placed around the wall to dump large rocks and fireballs on the attacking army-men. Each fort had substantial amount of food and natural water in is store room, enough to feed all residents for at least 1 month.
Scaling ladders and battering rams were the only means available to enemy to attack such forts. Bunches of elephant were also used to batter the enemy's forts.
Summary:
Thus, we see how Vedas served as a perfect guide for military establishment, strategies, tactics etc. Though many of the rules and guidelines is not applicable in modern era, still many strategies and tactics can be applied to consolidate the defense of the nation and break the defense of the enemy. Next article will be on four-fold system of ancient military science and their historical relevance.
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