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Armies in Ancient Age Module - I

Military History
including locations of camps en-route. The terrain or geography of the area will
of Ancient India
also be studied to see good battlegrounds, local agriculture and other resources
for feeding the troops. While marching, armies follow a battle order or tactical
order of march-single line i.e one soldier behind another, was a marching order
followed when going through forests. Similarly, different marching orders were
followed depending upon the terrain. Drills were rehearsed for areas such as
Note
crossing a river or mountain where enemy can surprise the marching army by
attacking from flanks. The various marching orders have been well described in
Agnipurana. Agnipurana is a sanskrit text and is one of the Puranas.

(b) Camping - The next strategic point for consideration was the camping site to
rest the soldiers after a long march. The camp site should be big enough to
house the entire army and must have dry and level ground for all animals, chariots
etc. to enter and exit the campsite. It must offer protection from all sides. Campsite
must be near a water source such as pond or river. The camp also served as a
place for resting the troops, treating the wounded and replenishing the units.
(c) Selection of Battlefield - Strategy in selection of battleground was based on
the ease of movements of chariots, cavalry and elephants. The ground should
not be marshy or have clay soil because the wheels of the chariots could get
stuck. The ground must be big open land with soft mud to enable the army to
use the tactics of encirclement and flanking maneuvers. There was also a
consideration of space available for formations such as half-moon, arrow etc.

Fig. 2.1 Half-moon Formation

`Tactics' concerns the method of use of the army units in actual battle. The formation
that you see above (in Fig.2.1) expects the enemy to attack in the centre and the
formation will then surround the attacking enemy from all sides. The method to be
adopted to break this formation and defeat the enemy is called tactics of attack. An
army in attack mode adopts speed, flanking manoeuvre, etc., to defeat the enemy. An
army in defence adopts various formations such as the one shown above and is called
tactics in defence.

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MILITARY HISTORY 11