A Global History of Pre-Modern Warfare; Before the Rise of the West, 10,000 BCE–1500 CE by Kaushik Roy

Author:Kaushik Roy [Kaushik Roy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: military evolution, pre-colonial, warfare, Eurasia, technology, Inca Empire, Aztec Empire, Maurya Empire, Tang Empire, Eurocentrism, gunpowder, non-Western militaries, pre-modern era, military divergence
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2022-03-15T06:00:00+00:00

37). From these loopholes, the garrison shot arrows at the besiegers. This sort of curtain wall became common in later Indian fortifications.

Some ideas about the size of fortifications of ancient India’s cities and continu-

ous evolution of the defensive fortifications can be gleaned from archaeological

records. The city of Rajgir in Magadha between 500 bce and 100 ce had a

173-foot-wide wall of earth. Such massive earthen walls which protected Chi-

nese and Indian cities were not vulnerable to the stone-throwing machines used

by the Greek and Roman armies. Ahicchatra in North India was fortified during

300 bce . The rampart, which was in the shape of an irregular triangle, enclosed

an urban area of 1.5 sq km. In around 100 bce, the mud-baked brick rampart was

further protected with several rectangular towers. Between 300–200 bce, Sisu-

palgarh, located on the right bank of the Bhargaui River, was heavily fortified.

The city covered some 1.36 sq km of area. It was surrounded by a clay rampart

about 26 feet high and 10 feet wide. Bastions were constructed at the four cor-

ners, and there were eight gates opening towards the outside, two on each f lank.

In the first century ce, two brick walls further surrounded the rampart. The

city of Ujjayini had about 60,000 inhabitants. Fortifications of Ujjayini were started in 600 bce, and this trend was accelerated during 300 bce . A rampart 40

feet high and pentagonal in shape surrounded the city. The pentagonal rampart

first came in Western Europe during the early modern era – the age of Parker’s

so-called military revolution. There were eight gates. Further, the rampart was

surrounded by a water-filled moat which was 148 feet wide and 21 feet deep.

Military divergence again 127

On the left bank of the Jamuna River was the city of Kausambi, which was an

important transit point in the trade route which connected Punjab with North

India and Tamralipti harbour in South Bengal, the gateway to the Bay of Bengal.

The almost square-shaped city’s outline was protected with an earthen rampart

42.5 feet high. The rampart, which enclosed a city area of 2.3 sq km, was encased

in several layers of bricks. There were 11 gates and several towers, and the latter’s height rose to about 72 feet. Outside the rampart was a big water-filled moat

which was 475 feet wide. The moat was supplied with water from the Jamuna by

a canal. All these fortifications were completed by the first century bce, when

the population of this city came to about 180,000 persons. As a point of com-

parison, Athens’s wall enclosed an urban space of 2.5 sq km, and the population

of this Greek metropolis came to about 100,000 souls (Deloche 2007: 39–44; Schlingloff 2014: 18, 20–2, 32).

By all accounts, the biggest city in the ancient world was the Maurya capital

Pataliputra in Bihar at the conf luence of the Ganga and Son rivers. Besides the

account of the Greek (Seleucid) ambassador to the Maurya Court, Megasthenes,

archaeological excavations provide us with data on this city as it existed during

300 bce . The city was shaped like a parallelogram. The circumference of the city came to about 33.

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