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Book No. – 50 (History)
Book Name – Political Violence in Ancient India (Upinder Singh)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. Nonviolence, Victory, and Renunciation
1.1. Killing and War in Early Jainism
1.2. Kharavela, the Jaina Warrior King
1.3. War in Early Buddhist Texts
1.4. Buddhist Narratives, Textual and Visual
2. The Greeks on Indian Warfare
3. Ashoka, the Pacific Buddhist King
4. War in the Mahabharata
4.1. War as a Last Resort
4.2. The Warrior’s Dharma
4.3. The War Itself
4.4. Victory and Dharma
4.5. Warriors of the Old and the New Age
4.6. The Bhagavadgita
4.7. War, Sacrifice, and Expiation
4.8. Women and Lament
5. War in the Ramayana
5.1. The War Itself
5.2. The Compassionate Warrior and God
6. War in the Political Treatises
6.1. The Arthashastra
6.2. The Nitisara: War as Violence
7. Memorializing Heroes and Satīs
8. War in Royal Inscriptions
8.1. The Vakatakas
8.2. The Imperial Guptas
8.3. The Huna Invasions and the Restoration of Order
9. War and Warriors in Sanskrit Literature
9.1. Bhasa: Conflict and Negotiation
9.2. Kalidasa: Raghu’s Digvijaya
9.3. Vishakhadatta: Victory without War
10. War Versus Strategy in the Panchatantra
11. The Variety of Perspectives
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War
Political Violence in Ancient India – Upinder Singh
Chapter – 4
- Time feels still and heavy at Bhimbetka, where hundreds of rock shelters are adorned with paintings, engravings, and bruisings spanning from the Mesolithic to the early historic periods.
- The earliest paintings primarily depict animals, with hunters as stylized matchstick figures.
- A dramatic change occurs in the Chalcolithic age where hunting scenes are replaced by representations of farming and herding, with men riding animals and the war chariot appearing.
- Historic period paintings show battles between men, with soldiers armed with swords and shields, on foot or riding caparisoned horses and elephants.
- The rock art of Bhimbetka vividly documents the connection between the emergence of the state and war.
- The Harappan civilization is debated to be peaceful, but evidence of weapons and fortifications suggests otherwise.
- Vedic texts are filled with violence and war, with gods like Indra granting victory in war, and āryas fighting wars against dāsas and dasyus, as well as among themselves.
- Fortification walls are associated with early historic cities, showing the prevalence of warfare in northern and central India from the mid-first millennium BCE onward.
- Bimbisara, king of Magadha, had the title Senīya (“one who has an army”), suggesting the recruitment of a standing army.
- The Achaemenids controlled the northwest between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE, with later invasions by Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Pahlavas, and Kushanas.
- The transition from horse-drawn war chariots to the war elephant marked significant change in military strategies, with armies becoming more diverse, including infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots.
- War elephants were crucial, but mounted archers from Macedonians, Shaka-Pahlavas, Kushanas, and Hunas were dominant in cavalry-based attacks.
- Saddles and stirrups appear in second/first century BCE sculptures, influenced by central Asian invaders.
- The Hunas incorporated war elephants into their armies, but Indian armies faced repeated defeats by cavalry-based armies of the Turks and Mughals.
- The trade of elephants and horses was pivotal in military history, with India importing horses and exporting elephants.
- The existence of a navy in early Indian kingdoms is debated; Greek accounts mention it, but evidence is scarce, especially for naval warfare.
- Vedic warriors were armed with bows, arrows, spears, and axes, with bronze and iron gradually replacing earlier materials.
- The Arthashastra describes various weapons, including horn-bows, composite bows, swords, and armor.
- Military tactics and battle formations, known as vyūhas, were developed and discussed by authorities like Brihaspatiand Ushanas, with various formations like circle, staff, and snake being used.
- Vyūha formations were an integral part of war, discussed in Mahabharata, Puranas, Arthashastra, and Nitisara.
- The chapter’s focus is not on military technology or strategy, but on the attitudes toward war in Indian thoughtbetween 600 BCE and 600 CE.
- The chapter examines war in statecraft, religious traditions, the ideal warrior, code of honor in war, and the ethics of war through texts like Buddhist and Jaina texts, Greek accounts, Ashoka’s inscriptions, and the Mahabharata.
- Warfare is explored both as a literal and metaphorical concept, discussing the desire for peace.
Nonviolence, Victory, and Renunciation
- Religious ideologies emphasizing nonviolence emerged when violent warfare was escalating and military organization was becoming more systematized in northern India.
- It is ironic that the most celebrated proponents of nonviolence came from the warrior elite, using the warrior vocabulary of mastery, conquest, and paramountcy.
- This vocabulary influenced discourses on renunciation, salvation, and kingship.
- War is a significant metaphor in both Buddhism and Jainism.
- Mahavira is described as the “great hero” and one of the jinas (“victors”), hailed as the conqueror and universal emperor.
- In the Buddha’s teachings, the only killing he approves is the killing of anger, as exemplified by the verse:
“Having slain anger, one sleeps soundly; Having slain anger, one does not sorrow…” - Renunciation and asceticism have older roots in India, but Mahavira and Buddha connected them to the political domain through their personal histories and views on kingship and renunciation as dichotomous poles.
- Given the dominance of the political sphere, their ideas became central civilizational issues.
- Despite the emphasis on nonviolence, Jainism and Buddhism may not have entirely translated this into an antiwar stance, either in thought or practice.