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CHAPTER XVI. MILITARY ORGANIZATION. The Artha艣astra mentions six kinds of army, viz.. hereditary (bh峁泃aka troops (maula), mercenary or hired troops (bh峁泃aka), corporation of troops (艣re峁噄), troops belonging to a friend (mitrabala), as also to an enemy (amitrabala), and wild tribes (a峁璦vibala), each preceding type being better than the one subsequently mentioned in the order of enumeration. The first three kinds belong to the state of the king and hence are naturally preferable to the last three, who come from outside the state. A friend's army is better than an enemy's and the latter is to be preferred to the wild tribes as it is under the control of an Aryan commandant. Each one of these types again consisted of four parts, elephants, chariots, cavalry and infantry. These were, as it were, the four limbs (caturanga) of the army. 66 8 The Rgveda refers to the elephant as fighting";
and Prof. Visvanatha holds that elephants were used in
the battlefield, though not so frequently. Despite the
view of Dr. Das that they were not used in wars, we feel
inclined to believe that the elephant constituted a factor
of the military organization of the Vedic Aryans. The
elephant was the most important part of the army in the
warfare of ancient India, as it could resist the onrush of a
number of cavalry and infantry, and could kill a large
section of the enemy's camp. At the time when these
plays were written, as also of the epics and the Artha艣膩stra,
the elephant was considered the most valuable asset of
the army.
1 Arthas膩stra, IX. 2, pp. 842-345. 2 Racial Synthesis, p. 44. 3 Rgvedic
Culture, p. 342.