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India Subcontinent
Back to 600 BC - 200 BC West Asia Map Various kingdoms existed in the Indian Subcontinent since ancient times. Yet not until 321 BC did the Maurya Empire unite much of India. This civilization lasted until 185 BC, where it fell to other civilizations in the Subcontinent, such as the Sunga Empire, who retained most of the Mauryan territory until 75 BC. These two empires shared their metalworking and armor techniques with the small kingdoms that came before them. The Mauryan Empire had Alexander the Great taking his eastern border on their northwest, yet managed to keep the Hellenistic forces out. The Mauryan dynasty fell to the Sungas, by way of coup. Seeing as how the Sungas sought to reestablish Hinduism in India; the Sunga Empire was marked with wars against interior civilizations and the remaining Hellenistic forces.
There is evidence that there was no Bronze Age in India. India moved right from the Copper Age to the Iron Age. This does not mean that India did not use bronze. The reason for this was that iron was introduced to India early, so iron became a better material to use because of the better economic proposition. Archeologists have found in their excavations iron objects with copper objects together in the same site. There has always been an abundant amount of iron ores in India, but their learning process of how to smelt and forge the material into something useful is much more skeptical.
Before the Aryans invaded India, Indian armies were mostly made up of large infantry forces, primarily armed with bows, which ran behind war elephants. These infantry's armor depended largely on the local climate, thus armor was usually not used in most places due to the heat. Iron and steel were therefore used more for weaponry than armor, seeing as how the hot climate made iron/steel armor impractical. They sometimes used slings and javelins as well for range attacks. In close combats, they used swords, axes, and spears. During the reign of the Maurya Empire according to recovered report fragments, there were 600,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, and 9,000 elephants used for their campaigns.
WAR ELEPHANTS |
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Tamed elephants were used for war. War elephants had been in use since around 1800 BC but they were not that heavily armored until the Maurya Empire. The use of elephants started to decline because of their unreliability and the dangers they imposed onto friendly allies. When they were used, they were heavily armored, and fitted with a caste that could hold archers and javelin throwers. |
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CAVALRY |
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When the Aryans invaded India, they used chariots to get around from place to place. These chariots were much bulkier and larger than the sleek Greek chariots most people visualize. Typically, two men would be driving the chariot with an archer in the back. Some chariots were able to hold more men. These were the chariots that Indian tribes adapted into their military system and used extensively in battle. The Maurya Empire did not use chariots in warfare as extensively as the kingdoms before. This is probably due to the fact that chariots were a poor military tactic against Alexander the Great. |
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INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION WEAPONRY |
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Their favorite weapon was the bow and arrow. The arrowheads were made of copper, and were 1.9 inches in length, .64 inches in breadth, and .07 inches in thickness. Another very common weapon was the sling. The way they used the sling is either overhand like bowling a cricket ball or underhand like pitching in softball. When not using small stones in the slings, they use pellets made of baked clay. Most of these pellets weighed either 6 ounces or 12 ounces. They were hand shaped and then baked. The people of the Indus Valley also had spears with thin leaf-shaped spearheads. Other common weapons were short swords, daggers, and axes, all made of copper. |
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EPIC INDIA WEAPONRY |
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Their primary weapon was the bow and arrow. Some bows are made from horn, like the Aryan’s, but others were made from bamboo. They were between four and five feet in length. The bowstring was made from cowhide. The arrows were made from a reed, cane, or bamboo as well. They were two to three feet long and tipped with metal. Spears and javelins were made of iron and sometimes oiled for smoothness. They were flung at the enemy from the warriors in the back of their chariots. Men on horseback would use the spear for thrusting. Warriors used broad and short swords made of iron. |
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ARMORS |
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An essential item in Indian warfare, silk clothing blocked the piercing arrows, the main item of war. In southern India, most soldiers only wore this, seeing as how the heat was too much for conventional armor. |
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In some parts of India, where steelmaking had been perfected early, steel was sometimes used to make armor. The armor itself was chain linked with thin ultra-high carbon steel wires, which contained about 1.5-2% carbon, from the use of both glass and graphite in production. |
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Integrative Materials Design Center - Worcester Polytechnic Institute