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224
Lord Mahavira and His Times
the edge of the spear.1
The art of warfare together with its various tactics, stratagems, and practices, was well known in those days. Jaina texts give some interesting details of the military operations of the Magadhan forces. The sagadavūha (waggon array) and garudavūha (eagle array) are mentioned in Niryāvalirão.The army of Chedaga formed the former while that of Kūņika the latter. Kūņika for the first time made use of two secret weapons of war. The first, the Mahāśilakanțaka, was a kind of catapult hurling heavy pieces of stone. The other was the Rathamussala, a chariot which created havoc by wheeling about and hurling destruction by its attached rods.3
Siege-warfare, which was the usual mode of fighting, sometimes continued for a considerable time. Kūnika is said to have besieged the city of Vaiśāli for a long period. It was for this reason that the cities of those days were strongly fortified. Since Rājagriha was too far inland and remote to serve as an efficient base of operations, Kūņika had to construct a new base, a fort at a convenient site on the river Gangā, and thus was laid the foundation of the new capital, Pataliputra. It was constructed under the supervision of his chief ministers, Sunsdha and Vassakära.
Strategy and diplomacy played an important part in this type of warfare. Manoeuvres and novel tactics were adopted to compel the other party to surrender. We are told as to how Abhayakumāra, by a clever subterfuge which consisted in burying counterfeit coins in the enemy's camp, crcated suspicion in the mind of Pajjoya about the fidelity of his soldicrs and thus foiled his attack on Rāyagiha.5 A regular system of espionage was another feature of sicgc-warfarc. Spics were regularly employed to watch, over the activities of thc cnemy. Künika deputed his Minister Vassakāra on the nefarious mission of sowing seeds of disunion among the Lichchhavis at Vaicālr. 1. Virya, 1. 2. Ibid, I, p.. 3. Urd, II, App. pp. 39, 6); Bhag, 299 ff. 4. Asc. Chi, II, p. 173. 3. Ibid, p. 159.
