Page 214 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

warfare—south asia 1991

in years. The numerous Aryan tribes—about forty are
Warfare— mentioned in the Rig Veda, a sacred text dating from the

second millennium BCE, if not earlier—were not peaceful.
South Asia They were in constant conflict with one another, mostly
over cattle, which was how they measured relative wealth
hroughout most of its long history, South Asia has and power. (The ancient Sanskrit word for fighting liter-
Tconsisted of a multitude of states, all vying against ally means “to search for cows.”) The mythical conflict
one another for power, territory, and domination. At between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, which forms the
times, certain states have expanded outward from their central narrative of the epic Mahabharata has a factual
core areas to form India-wide or regional empires, such as kernel, probably originating as a tribal war over cattle and
the Mauryan empire (c. 324–183 BCE), the Cola empire land in what is now northern Punjab.
(850–1279 CE), or Vijayanagara (c. 1346–1565 CE). When not fighting amongst themselves, the Aryan
South Asian empires have also been erected by foreign tribes fought the indigenous Dasas. We know that the
invaders, as in the case of the dynasties of the Delhi sul- Dasas had many forts, because the Rig Veda often refers
tanate (1192–1526), the Mughal dynasty (1526–1857), to Indra, the main Aryan god, as Purandaradasa—
and the British (c. 1850–1947). All these contests have “destroyer of the Dasa forts.” Dasa forts may well have
involved warfare. been wooden, for Aryan hymns often call upon Agni, the
fire god, to help defeat the Dasas. In the Rig Veda, a war
Traditional South Asian between two Aryan tribal groupings was won by a King
Warfare, 2600 BCE–1720s CE Sudasa, whose name indicates that some Dasas had
Very little is known of the military aspects of the first already been assimilated into Aryan culture. Evidence of
recorded South Asian civilization—the Harappan civi- Aryan attempts to invade and settle peninsular India is
lization (c. 2500–1900 BCE)—since its script has not yet contained in the other great Indian epic, the Ramayana,
been deciphered. That it possessed citadels and walled which tells the story of the Aryan Prince Rama’s expedi-
cities seems to indicate a need for military protection.The tion to Lanka (Sri Lanka) to rescue his wife Sita, who has
Harappans had rudimentary bronze weaponry, mostly been abducted by the evil demon king, Ravana. Rama
swords, spearheads and arrowheads. Most probably, was aided by the monkey-god Hanuman; some see in
their enemies were not formidable in terms of either abil- Hanuman and his people a reference to the aboriginal
ity or numbers.Although it was initially thought that the tribes or the Dravidian peoples of southern India.
Harappan civilization was destroyed by the invading By 500 BCE, the mixing of the Aryan and indigenous
Indo-Aryan tribes, current research posits that environ- peoples had resulted in the distinctive Varna (caste)
mental factors caused its demise, around 1900 BCE. social pattern, which most resembled the estates or
orders of Medieval Europe, and set the template for
The Coming of the Indo-Aryans what became Hinduism. Here, the second-ranking Ksha-
From about 1500 BCE, seminomadic, pastoralist, and triyas were the varna of warriors and kings.Yet, through-
Sanskrit-speaking Aryan tribespeople began penetrating out the traditional period, considerable social mobility
South Asia from the northwest.Although they possessed existed, especially in warfare. Lower varna men fought in
sophisticated military technology in the form of the light the Mauryan armies, alongside charioteers and Ele-
two-wheeled war chariot, the incoming Aryans were not phants, and by the eleventh century, it was not uncom-
a disciplined army led by a great leader on a campaign mon for men from the lowest Vaishya (merchant) or
of swift conquest. Indeed, the Aryan “conquest” was Shudra (labourer) varnas to assume Kshatriya or Rajput
more of a migration, measured in generations rather than (literally, “son of a king”) status through military service.