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POLITICAL HISTORY OF N. INDIA FROM JAIN SOURCES
in certain passages seems to concede in particular sanctity to Brahmanas, but he has treated all as equal before the law. XIII. Military Administration
The rulers of some of the dynasties of our period were maintaining good fighting forces to protect their kingdoms. The strength of such power is mentioned in some of the Jain works as well as in the works other than the Jain ones. It is stated in the Aihole Jain inscription that Harsa had an army of well trained elephants (gajendranika). The Kalacuri king, Gängeya, is reported to have an army of fourteen hundred of elephants, a cavalry containing five hundred thousand of horses and 21 hundred thousand of men.2 The Paramāra king, Bhoja, encountered Gängeya with an army consisting of a cavalry of forty-four thousand horses, five hundred thousand men and two hundred elephants. The Prthviraja-prabandha refers to Prthvīräja's army which possessed two hundred thousand of horses and an elephant corps of ten thousand and man power equal to fifteen hundred thousand. Similarly, the Prubandha-cintamani states that Jayacandra Gáhadawāla had such a vast army that being embarassed by it even he could not walk; he, therefore, bore the title 'Pangu'.5 Some of these statements, however, are fortunately corroborated by foreign writers. Firista informs us that the Cāhamāna army in the battle of Tarãi comprised, besides in. fantry, two hundred thousand horses and three thousand elephants.
Army organisation: From these references it appears that the army consisted of infantry, cavalry and elephants. Though we find chariots mentioned in the Jain literature, it probably refers to the conventional four arms or caturanga of the Indian army. The disappearance of chariots from India's military system, it seems, came during our period. Hemacandra, in his Dvyasraya-kavya, refers to six-fold division of the army, presumably based on the area or source of recruitment. The șadangas of the army were the hereditary troops (maula), mercenaries (bhrta), gild levies (śrei), soldiers supplied by feudatory chiefs or allies (suhrd-balain), troops captured or won over from the enemy (dvişad-balam), and forest tribes (ațavi-balam).? The
1 El., VI, pp. 1-10. 2 SJGM., II, p. 20. 3 Ibid. 4 SJGM., II, p. 87. 5 SJGM., I, p. 113. & Brigg's tr., Vol. I, pp. 176-177. ? DV., Canto VI, V. 71.
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