Fourfold defense system of ancient india
Owing to unusual geographical features, with huge rivers on the western side, mighty Himalayas on the north, Indian Ocean on the eastern/western/southern side, and inner regions covered with vast plains interspersed with forests, ancient Indian kingdoms made extensive use of four-fold defense system that comprised of cavalry, chariots, elephants and infantry. This classical fourfold system of chariots, horsemen, elephants, and infantry, was collectively known as the Caturangabala.
Chess derived from Caturangabala
Modern most popular board game of chess (earlier form known as Caturanga) is based on this classical fourfold defense system.
Caturanga was the favorite game of all kings/ministers/commanders etc. Persian word ‘Chatrang’ and Arabic ‘Shatrang’ are literary forms of the Sanskrit Caturanga. King and queen were flanked by elephants (“bishops”), who in turn were flanked by horses (“knights”), whereas the two corner squares were occupied by the chariots.
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Pawns in front of knight, bishop, and castle depict the foot-soldiers.
Fourfold system of ancient Indian army
Chariots is the oldest and indispensable instrument of warfare since the vedic times. Numerous references to chariot is found in Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, as well as Samhitas and Brahmanas.
Special hymn to war chariot is dedicated in Rig-veda as
'Lord of the wood, be firm and strong in body: be bearing as a brave victorious hero. Show forth thy strength, compact with straps of leather and let thy rider win all spoils of battle.'
Chariot were of different types depending upon the materials used for construction. Chariot for kings or prince or military commanders were specially designed with iron, with swift-moving wheels, fashionably bedecked with golden designs, gems, glowing flags, decorated umbrella and precious stones.
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Warriors of the highest ranks employed horse chariot with wheels driven by 4+ huge horses.
Comfortable seats with good leg space was provided to the warrior and charioteer. Additionally, specially designed holders or containers was provided to equip chariot with all kinds of offensive and defensive weapons.
Chariot carried a charioteer and a knight (rathi or maharathi). Charioteer main job was to drive the chariot and protect the chariot from attack of enemies while the knight job was to select powerful targets of enemy and fire arrows, thus weakening the army. Knight seated in highly armed chariot directed the foot soldiers or were directed by commander-in-chief to attack the knights of enemy. Chariots were of prime importance in army as most of the Indian kingdoms were dominated by vast plains and open fields, favorable to chariot combat. So, chariot mostly reflected the strength of the army, in addition to quantity plus quality of infantry that retained a close second-place in deciding the strength of the army.
Role of Horse-chariots was so dominating in the Vedic era that only noble warriors of elite rank had the monopoly to use them. Disadvantage of horse chariots were that it needed smooth and perfect ground surface. They can get stuck in mud, rocks and wetly surface.
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Lord Krishna explaining dual action of mind using an example of flying chariot
Infantry:
After cavalry, foot-soldiers formed the second-most important unit of the army. Arthasastra refers to the formation of special departments and officers to look into the affairs of infantry. Besides hereditary troops, mercenaries, soldiers of different groups and allies, deserters from enemy ranks and new recruits also formed the part of infantry.
Foot soldiers of ancient army
Infantry was expected to be the most populous unit of army so as to frighten the enemy and winning over the opponents mentally. Though infantry was the most populous unit, they were considered inferior and were often misused by elite warriors to bring food or weapons in the battlefield.
Infantry were a mixture of swordsmens and archers. Some soldiers were trained to be both archer and swordsmen.
Archers used longbows, usually made of bamboo and fired arrows that were tipped with iron or steel, sharp enough to easily pierce the body. Longbows and arrows were the most used weapons in ancient times as it was easy to mass produce, maintain, fire and kill.
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Among the foot-soldiers, archers were regarded as the most useful and powerful warriors as they were found highly advantageous in unfavorable terrain-areas like forests, mountain, rocky ground or hill-sides. Archers were undoubtedly the best of all warriors for the defense of army, forts and strongholds.
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Archers were usually stationed behind defensive infantry in ditches or behind stakes, from where they fired arrows in long, looping trajectories to try and break the ranks of enemy foot soldiers.
On use of bow and arrow by foot-soldiers, arrian said 'they carry a bow made of equal length of the man who bears it. This they rest upon the ground and pressing against it and their left foot, thus discharge the arrow having drawn the string backwards: the shaft they use is little short of being three yards long, and there is nothing which can resist an Indian Archer's shot - neither shield nor breast-plate, nor any stronger defense if such there be.'
Swordsmen were lightly armored with two types of swords: the long double-edged sword, and katar, a small knife-like 'punching sword', usually hidden within the armor and used to treacherously kill the enemy under extreme circumstances. Katar was also used to kill an elephant with a direct forceful blow on head.
Cavalry:
As cited in various epics like Mahabharata, puranas and Arthasastra, Cavalry formed the most important place in the army.
ArthaVeda speaks of dust-raising horsemen. Special department existed for the cavalry that looked after stables, horses, horse-trainers and keepers. Professional horse-trainers were called-in to handle horses that were found to be ungovernable or untrainable. For selection of horses, qualities like age, strength, stamina and size was given utmost importance. “Laksana prakasa” quotes the horses of Sindhu and Kamboja(Cambodia) as the best breed. Special horse-officers of Kamboja region were invited by other kingdoms for the training of their horses.
All horses were given names by their trainer. Horse-Rider used a whip, fixed to his wrist, to control the horses. They were also equipped with other weapons like bow, arrow, spear and sword. Before embarking to war, some trainers forced horses to drink liquor so as to make them more active, agile and energetic. The most common technique used by cavalry during battle was to speedily break into the flanks of the army by killing every other soldiers that comes into the way. Cavalry was also responsible for guarding the army, kings and political representatives in camps, forests or any entrench location. In short, cavalry were preferred in situations that demanded quick actions.
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After the Vedic age, due to improperly trained horses and inexperienced trainers, Indian cavalry were not so skillful and consequently faced defeat from the better trained, disciplined and well-equipped cavalry of Greek and Persian invaders.
Many battles in medieval period was lost by the army that had weak and inefficient cavalry. Both Megasthenes and Kautilya acknowledged the existence of well-organized and efficient cavalry force in the army of Chandragupta Maurya.
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Elephants:
Elephants constituted a major army-force in many kingdoms as they can run across any kind of surface be it muddy, rough or highly terrain area.
In fact, during the medieval times, elephant became the most important unit of army-every Indian kingdom demanded well-trained, disciplined elephants to increase the strength of their army. Coins and architectural works of many kingdoms showed the extreme use of elephants in war.
In Rigveda, elephant are mentioned as wild, terrible beasts. They were domesticated, disciplined and well-trained before brought into war. Also, there is a verse in which two elephants bends their heads before running together to attack the enemy. In Arthasastra, there is a mention of appointing a special officer as caretaker of elephants. There is also a detailed description on his roles and duties.
Indian elephants were trained to be used differently than those used by Greeks, Mughals and the Persians. They were used not only for crushing the enemy with frontal attack but also served as the archery station where group of archers would fire arrows on the enemy in all directions.
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Normally, a small team comprising of 3-4 members were mounted on elephant. One of them was mahout for directing the elephant and rest of them were either archers, javelin or spear thrower. Attacking elephants were armored to protect from attack of sword, spear, arrows and maces. Cable and pulley system were employed on elephant using which the armor of elephant was loosened or tightened to protect his body depending upon the long-distanced or short-distanced attack of the enemy. Heavily pointed blades were attached to head and tusk of elephant to terrorize the enemy from the frontal assault of the elephant
Seeing the ocean of mighty elephants of porus army along the front line on the battlefield like a wall of fortress, alexander was terrified and turned back as his army would have incurred heavy losses in fighting against such extensive employment of elephant alone. Even Chandragupta Maurya relied mostly on elephant to win the war over the enemies. Every couple of years, he kept doubling the count of elephant in his army. Chandragupta maurya ruled whole of Indian sub-continent leaving aside some areas of present Tamil-nadu. In medieval India, army without elephant was considered despicable as is the Bollywood movie with no top stars. However, extensive use of elephant was sometimes harmful as the mad elephant would not differentiate and crushes friend and foe alike.
Megasthenes describes the hunting of elephant and use of simple remedies like
Cow’s milk for curing eye-disease and pig's fat for curing sores of elephants.
Then, there is also mention of using burning naphtha balls by Turkish invaders to frighten the rushing elephants of rajputs so that they destroy their own army. Below description shred a light on use of fire-weapons for distracting the elephants
"Once a king mounted on an elephant and led an attack on the city of Benares. The soldiers who offered defenses from within the city gates discharged a shower of missiles against the enemy at which the elephant was frightened a little.” (Elliot and Dowson, vol. I).
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Military arrangements and formations
Most powerful kingdom of all times, Mauryan Empire, maintained a professional army of 8000-10,000 war elephants, 20,000-30,000 chariots, 40,000-50,000 cavalry and 75,000-100,000 infantry.
Leaders called as Nayak would command one of the elephant, cavalry, chariot or infantry “limbs” of the armies in the battle, under the direction of commander in chief. As a strategy to break into the defense of the enemy, special groups including a mix of multiple defense system (infantry+elephants+Calvalry or infantry+chariots+elephants or infantry+chariots) were formed to facilitate different military formations and arrangements
Summary:
Thus, all ancient Indian kingdoms made extensive use of four-fold system to defend the country from external or internal attack of enemies. Special arrangements and formation were employed by military advisors, commanders, ministers to strengthen the army. This four-fold defense system once again reflects the existence of highly advanced Indian civilization
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