Military history of India: Encyclopedia II - Military history of India - The Bronze age

Military history of India - The Bronze age

Military history of India - Indus Valley Civilization

The amazing uniformity of measurement systems across a number of sites suggests that Indus Valley Civilization was a single state. However, it seems that the large cities were controlled by small groups of merchants, landowners and priests. Therefore, no standing armies were involved. The artifacts and texts from contemporaneous Egypt and Mesopotamia clearly depict battles. But the excavations at Harappan sites have not revealed a single artifact that depicts military, battles, prisoners or a human killing another human. Very few bronze weapons have been found. Fortified cities have been excavated which seems to indicate some defensive capability. Excavations do not indicate a well developed martial culture, which may be a reason for the eventual decline of the civilization.

Military history of India - Aryans

The armies of Aryans were lead by their tribal chieftain and engaged in wars with each other as well as other tribes. They used iron weapons and had horse-drawn spoked chariots, which gave them an advantage over others. Their military supremacy was further reinforced by their knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. The main share from the booty obtained during the cattle raids and battles went to the chief of the tribe. The warriors belonged to the Kshatriya varna. The ancient military art and science has been described in Dhanurveda. Earlier, most archaeologists believed that Aryan armies invaded peaceful Harappan cities and destroyed them. However, this theory has been disputed, since none of the excavations indicate battle damage to the cities.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Bronze age", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki