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Armies in Ancient Age Module - I

Military History
a shield. In addition they were equipped with a bow and arrow and some with
of Ancient India
firearms or javelins (long spears).

 Commissariat : The chaturanga or the four-fold division of the army was initial
organisation of the army which was later improved to an eight fold division
which included the Commissariat and the Admiralty. The Commissariat can be
traced to the Mahabharata armies. It was basically an organization responsible Note
to provide logistic support. That is to say, armies marched to the battlefront and
the support in the form of extra weapons, rations and camping stores followed
the marching army. This also included medical support and repair items for broken
chariots etc.
 The Admiralty : The use of ships and boats were known to the vedic people
but the idea of creating a separate department to coordinate and control the war
ships was done by Chanakya. We find reference of ships in the Rig Veda,
Dharmasastra and the Puranas. Tamils and people of the East coast of India,
used ships as early as the vedic period, extensively for trade and conquest of
neighbouring lands. There were three classifications of war ships. The first was
ships with compartments to carry soldiers, the second carried the King, treasures,
animals, etc., and the third was a ship used for long distance sailing and sea-
fights.

Intext Questions 2.1

1. Name any three divisions of the Army.

2. What is a Regular Army?
2.2 A Regular Army and Mercenary Force

What do you understand by a Regular Army? The foremost characteristic of a regular
army is the soldiers who form the basic unit. We can define a good army by:-

 The Regular Army : It comprises of the troops who volunteers to fight for the
state. They are recruited from the different state. The modern day Indian army
has soldiers from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and all other states.
 Mercenary Force : A mercenary force is a temporary recruitment done for a
specific purpose. Once the task is carried out the mercenary force is disbanded.
The soldiers fight only for the money and therefore less motivated. As compared
to Regular Army they are not well trained, motivated and diciplined.

 How well a soldier is trained? Soldiers who are well trained always perform
well. It gives them added confidence in doing their task. A well-trained regular
army enjoyed the confidence of the King because of their loyalty, their skills with
weapons and their motivation.

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MILITARY HISTORY 9