6_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History

256 SIX GLORIOUS EPOCHS OF INDIAN HISTORY
the submissive or surrendering warrior was to be given his
life^. Such considerations for justice and injustice were to
be actually shown on the battle-field. This ethics of war was
preached because it was honoured by both the contending
parties.
644. But, as we have already pointed out in paragraph
315, the invasions of varying magnitudes of the Persians, the
lonians, the Greeks, the Sakas and the Kushanas and the
Huns which began at the close of the Puranic period and
continued during the early part of our historic past, were all
made mainly for political ascendancy and not for any religious
enmity. Their own religions were more or less like the
offshoots of Hinduism itself. Later on, after their defeat by
our Hindu ancestors, the millions of these foreign invaders
who chose to settle here, merged into the Hindu society
completely. So during this early historical period, in the
absence of any religious aggression by these foreigners on our
religion, our ancestors fought pure and simple political wars
with them with effective strategical counter-moves and
vanquished them completely. As these wars were purely
political in nature, the question of religiosity or irreligiosjty,
of extreme kindness, truth, violence or non-violence or other
fine distinctions of principles never arose ! Naturally the
tendency to retaliate in the same fashion even on the religious
front—to face religious aggression with counter religious
offensives—to meet cruelty with supra-cruel blows, craft with
super-craft, violence with extreme violence and to consider
this war policy to be a highly religious duty of a brave
warrior—lay dormant in our national mind because there was
no occasion for them to use such wars tactics on the religious
front long after the religious wars with the Rakshasas.
645. Moreover, during this intervening period, the
different religious sects which were really the offshoots of the
Vedic religion and which had a strong propensity to Sanyas
(renunciation or asceticism) and extreme non-violence, like
the Ajivakas, the Jains, the Buddhists and others, preached
to the society that true religion meant extreme non-violence.