DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

298 UPPER INDIA UNDER THE GUPTAS [9.1
So, large concentrations of elephont troops could not be maintained
in settled country without far better transport than any then known in
India. This accounts for the development of the patti as a squad of
one elephant, one chariot (both useful for the senior officer), five
heavy-armed foot-soldiers, three armoured cavalrymen, and perhaps
a suitable escort of light-armed foot-guards. These minor groups could
effectively quell any resistance in the villages, while they could also be
used against robbers, without straining the resources of the countryside.
Such dispersed troops would be gathered together for a major
campaign. Their main function, however, as is clear from the
inscriptions and later references, was to “enforce iaw and order” in
the villages, not for tactical use in normal warfare as patti or gnlma
units. In a pitched battle against a regular army in the field, the cavajry,
infantry, elephants would have to be grouped separately ; the chariots
were by now useless except for the commanding officers (Beal 1. 82-3):
Efficiency would be low unless the troops had been drilled in
command and manoeuvre in these different groupings. Dispersal by
police-gulmas over the territory would inevitably lessen the
effectiveness of the troops for real war. This elucidates the technical
reasons why an increase of village settlements and general prosperity
of the kingdom led rapidly to decay of military strength and inability
to resist invasion. Of the period from the early 4th to the middle of
the 8th centuries, the first two hundred years cover the Gupta empire
which, with Vakataka allies, controlled most of the former Mauryan
domain except parts of the south and Kasmir, but included Bengal, a
most fertile and productive region which was now properly settled for
the first time. Assam was penetrated by the time of Harsa. The contrast
between the Mauryan and Gupta empires is neatly pointed by the
inscription of Samudragupta (Fleet 1) on the Asokan pillar at the
Allahabad fort. The ornate panegyric, in high classical Sanskrit, signed by
one Harisena, differs in more than language and style from the simple
Asokan rescript. It is a long recital of Samudragupta’s victories, mostly
over kings explicitly named. The kings of Aryavarta (the Gangetic basin)
were exterminated. Chinese travellers’ accounts show that this