] 6 Some conjectures on the progress of [Jan. 



The third chapter of these Institutes, ordains, writing of purification, 

 (SI. 98) " By a soldier discharging the duties of his class, and slain 

 in the field with brandished weapons, the highest sacrifice is in that 

 instant complete ; and so is his purification : this law is fixed." 



In the Hitapodesa (ch. III.)* a similar degree of military arrange- 

 ment and precaution is inculcated, and it is curious that in this work 

 we should find the centre of the position occupied by the foot soldiers, 

 as if to them were entrusted the maintenance of the main array. " In 

 both wings let the cavalry be stationed ; by the horses, chariots ; by 

 the chariots, elephants ; by the elephants, infantry." Infantry again 

 it is remarked, are useful at all seasons, while horses and elephants are 

 not so, and it is among the foot-soldiers the king is to be in action : 

 "let the sovereign place the infantry before him and take his station." 

 It is however said, that "the elephant is the chief of the forces," and 

 "the horse the strength of armies." The author emphatically estab- 

 lishes, that — " a small army, if excellent, is a great one," an admitted 

 military axiom, the truth of which has been singularly lost sight of by 

 most modern eastern nations, with whom number has been ignorantly 

 identified with strength. Both in this work and the institutes of 

 Manu, rules are given in the chapters from which I have already 

 quoted, for the selection of strong-holds, the latter recommending that 

 the king should reside (VII. SI. 70), "in a capital having by way of 

 fortress, a desert of about twenty miles round it," or else in one of the 

 five order of fortressess, viz. of earth, of water, of trees, of men, or of 

 mountains, whereof the last is preferable. 



There is a generosity of feeling manifested in the warlike practices 

 of this early time, which bespeaks a singular elevation of sentiment : 

 thus the brahman, we evidently learn, took no advantage in the field of 

 that sacred character, which if violated " by a blow even with a blade 

 of grass" (IV. SI. 166) given intentionally, condemned the striker 

 "to twenty-one transmigrations in the womb of impure animals." If 

 even the blow be struck in ignorance of the law " so as to shed blood 

 (VI. SI. 167) from the body of a brahman, not engaged in battle," a 

 very heavy, though indefinite, punishment is assigned for it. There is 

 again a very manly and humane spirit in the following provisions : — ■ 

 (VII. SI. 90). "Let no man, engaged in combat, smite his foe with 

 * Sir W. Jones' works, Vol. VI. 



