Meg Iafrate

R. Masters
November 9, 2014

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Nano-Historical Research Paper

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Indian Military Tactics

Indian military were different from all the other army's I have read about so far. The
developed iconic features, including elephants, bamboo, long bows, and massive shirtless
infantry armies. There were all different regions when it came to the Indian military. they
added their own unique elements to their warfare.
India was the third civilization. The northwest were ruled by the Rajputs. They were
skilled mounted warriors. Then you had the Nepalese who ruled the north. The East was
ruled by two independent minded people called the Bengal and Assam.
There were two kinds of warfare, dharmayeddha and kutaayuddha.
Dharmayuddha is carried by principles called dharm, which means Ksatradharma or law
of the Kings and Warriors. This was approved by society in the Indian culture. Then we
had kutayuddha, which was not a warfare that was righteous or accepted by society. This
was crafty fight carried on in secret.
Both these warefares had values both ethical and valor. They made a list of ethics
which was made with the help of warriors, these principles regulating treatises of
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Kautalya, kamandaka, and sukra. They had a groups of forces which had chariots,
elephants, horsemen, and their infantry team. They created a name for this group which
was called "Caturangabala." Rumor has it that India knew about gunpowder, but they
still used arrows of naphtha.
During this time of warfare this time was called "Age of Chariots." The Chariots
were the backbone for the Indian armies. The chariots were followed by poorly trained
and equipped heavy infantry. They were heavily armed and equipped, they were lifted
four feet off the ground, the "charioteers" were also highly trained nobles, they drove with
a driver seated in the front. The charioteers were skilled bowmen. Like I said above they
also used elephants, but they were the backbone like the chariots, I would say they were
more like a big accessory! They also used a tactic called "Mahabharata" which was a
tactics that made the chariot driver try to kill the enemy's chariot horse. When they tried
to kill the chariots horse it would help slow down the opposing chariot and would usually
damage the wheels and would neutralize them. They also used spies and assassins on the
opposing side. They would also set fire to other camps by throwing fire balls!
Some tactics that were popular and were effective, but varied were army size, unit
types, terrain, the weather, positional advantage, skill level, individual battle experience,
morale, armament.

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There weapons they used were spears, javelins the you threw, bow and arrows, a
sling, spears, swords, spears, clubs, maces, axes, and knives.
They also used siege warfare which took place behinds walls they built our of mud
bricks, stone, and wood.
The Indian warfare and tactics varied from all different types of weapons to
different warfare ideas. They used spies, assassins, elephants, and chariots. They were
successful and very knowledgable warriors. They had very useful tactics, but I don't think
they were ahead of their time like some kingdoms we have learned about, but I do think
they were efficient and tactical.

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