Mercenaries and private military corporations in ancient and early medieval South Asia

ABSTRACT

In India, from the time of emergence of empires in circa 300 BCE till the rise of British power in eighteenth century, military mercenaries and private military companies dominated the politico-military landscape. Premodern India had both secular (military guilds) and religious (based on temples and akharas) military corporations. The mercenaries were mostly marginal peasants and demobilised soldiers. They were hired through the agency of their clan leaders, tribal chieftains or the zamindars (large landlords) in whose villages they resided. Historians argue that the presence of the mercenaries and extra state military corporations prevented the rise of strong states in premodern India. In this paper, based mostly on indigenous sources, I argue that the military mercenaries and the private military corporations of pre-British India were at the forefront of technological development. The mercenaries were the channel through which tools, techniques, and ideas of warfare were transferred. The rulers relied on the mercenaries because of their military skills and in the long run they also proved to be cheaper compared to the cost of maintaining permanently a large regular army.

KEYWORDS:

• Mercenaries
• Kshatriyas
• temples
• India
• Maurya empire
• Pallavas

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the guest editors and the editor of the journal for allowing me to contribute this essay and their comments on an earlier draft. Thanks to my two research scholars Mr Aryama Ghosh and Ms Sohini Mitra for providing me with many of the sources used in this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

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4. Samaveda Samhita, 1–65.

5. Singh, Political Violence, 245.

6. Thapliyal, “Military Organization in the Ancient Period,” 68–70.

7. Quoted from Kautilya, Arthashastra, 684.

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14. Ibid., 324–25.

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17. Purananuru, xv-xvii.

18. Sharma, India’s Ancient Past, 181.

19. Visakhadatta, Mudrarakshasa, 169–85.

20. Jha, Ancient India, 95–6.

21. Habib and Jha, Mauryan India, 30.

22. Kalidasa, Raghuvamsam, 76–81, 99, 107.

23. Mookerji, Gupta Empire, Plates 1:3, 4:3, 5:5, 6:1, 8:1,2.

24. Thapliyal, “Weapons, Fortifications and Military Training in Ancient India,” 106–09.

25. McCrindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian, 226.

26. Bhatta, Kathasaritsagara, vol. 1, 130; Chattopadhyaya, Sakas.

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29. Roy, Warfare in Pre-British India, 46–67.

30. Lal, “Sisupalgarh 1948,” 62–105.

31. Quoted from Yuan Chwang, 171.

32. Devahuti, Hsuan-Tsang, 133.

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34. For instance, Stein, India.

35. Sharma, Medieval Indian Society.

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39. Trautmann, Elephants and Kings, xiii–iv.

40. Gaudavaho, xx, xxi, xxiv-viii, xxx, xlii-iii.

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47. Ramcharit, ed. Basak.

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52. Irvine, Indian Moghuls; Rosen, Societies and Military Power; Barua, War in South Asia.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kaushik Roy

Kaushik Roy is Guru Nanak Chair Professor in the Department of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. He is also a Global Fellow at Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Norway. He has been attached with PRIO in different capacities for about a decade. Previously, he has taught at Visva Bharati University at Santiniketan and also at Presidency College, Kolkata, India. He has done his PhD from Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was also a Junior Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Studies at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. He has received Charles Wallace Fellowship, and research grants from Indian National Science Academy, UGC, etc. He is a member of Indian National Science Academy’s Research Council. Roy specializes on the Eurasian military history. He has worked extensively on both conventional and unconventional wars of pre-modern, early modern and present eras. He has published many books and chapters in edited volumes published from Ashgate, Bloomsbury, Cambridge University Press, E.J. Brill, Oxford University Press, Pickering & Chatto, Routledge, etc. He has also published articles in various peer reviewed journals like Journal of Global History, Journal of Military Ethics, Journal of Military History, War in History, First World War Studies, Modern Asian Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, Studies in History, Indian Economic and Social History Review, etc. Roy is also one of the editors of War and Society in South Asia Series and Wars and Battles of the World Series of Routledge. He is the Chief Editor of Oxford online Military History Bibliography.