The general principles of war have been same since time immemorial. The aims of warring militaries have been that how to take on the armed forces of the enemy? How to crush it and how to destroy the enemy’s will to continue the war? Civilizations do change with time and the weapons of war change with technological advancement. However, the outcomes of the wars are generally affected by five essential factors.
- The terrain – Ancient India was geographically located within the confines of mountain ranges The Himalaya in the North, The Hindus Kush in the North-West and a desert and a Rann in west, and rest part was surrounded by the sea. Ideally, this should have made India secure from any external invasion. However, no Indian ruler ever took pain to control and restrict the access through Khyber Pass which was a trade route but later used by Islamic invaders as well.
Ancient Indian landscape can be broadly divided into two parts.
a) North Indian Plain – This plain is around 2600 km long stretches from Peshawar to Kolkata (Calcutta) and has many major cities like Lahore, Multan, Delhi, Agra, Lucknow, Prayagraj, Ayodhya, Varanasi and Patna located in it. This plain is a green belt and a slope of 15 cm. / 1 km. That made it an ideal target for invaders as neither there was any natural geographical defence nor any shortage of food and fodder for military expeditions. Even if fortresses were made then also it was easy for the invaders to bypass it through forest 50-100 km away.
b) Deccan Hills – Contrary to North Indian Plain, Deccan had several compartments with sustainable geographical defences. The hills of the Western Ghat, the Eastern Ghat and Sahyadri range along with the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal made several compartments with geographical defences. That was the reason that the North Indian Plain had generally been the seat of vast empires throughout the history.h
2. The character of the army – Traditionally Hindus have been overburdened with moral compass, values, and ethics. Individual valour and supreme sacrifices were preferred over desertion and deception. Their war doctrines, methods of warfare and military strategies were also subordinate to morality, values and ethics which made them vulnerable to Islamic invaders who used contrary military tactics and warfare strategies. Before Shivaji and Guru Gobind Singh Ji, no Hindu rulers or chieftain used the guerrilla warfare tactics.A
3.Arms and equipment – Ancient Indians had reasonably well-developed armours and equipment. However, early Islamic invaders destroyed their centres of education and knowledge which started an era of knowledge blind and skill less India. The skills around military needs could survive in the masses. That was the reason for the success of Babur with gun powder and that of British East India Company with guns, rifles, binoculars and reflecting mirrors for signalling etc.
4. Mobility – Mobility is very important for a reliable supply chain also for mobilising the military contingent and equipment. Hindu rulers were extensively dependent on the slow-moving elephants whereas the Islamic invaders had an advantage of using the fast-moving Arabic horses. Later, Hindu rulers also changed the tactics and switched to usage of horses. Similarly, Indian rulers (except Cholas) neglected the development of Navy. But the East India Company managed to get hold of India leveraging their naval power.
5. Weather– Except the 3-month long monsoon season, rest of the seasons were good for military expedition in North Indian plain and September to November was ideal as invaders didn’t need to bother about the supply of food for men and fodder for animals.
