Indian History

ref-ancient-indian-society.txt

Introduction

This article provides bibliographic information on ancient Indian society from 2500 BCE until 300 CE, with most of the relevant publications relating to the period 500 BCE to 300 CE. For both periods we are almost entirely bereft of information about secular (and indeed religious) history, or political and social matters, except as filtered through a priestly lens, and as reported as asides, in their texts. Despite this, there has been a large body of scholarly writing on ancient Indian society, especially after 500 BCE when both the textual and archeological evidence becomes more transparent. There is an abundance of material derived from both sources, yet interpretation of it has always been problematic, as the conceptual frames shaping the contents of the texts must first be understood in order to ascertain how the primary data drawn upon was to be presented. In addition, one of the problems in dealing with ancient Indian society that has become very apparent since the turn of the 21st century has been that imposed on scholars by reading contemporary Indian social problems back into the past. Under the influence of Subaltern studies, and especially of postcolonial theory, there has been a repositioning of some of the fundamental themes of ancient Indian social history. This has been especially so with the treatment of caste and has led to an increased questioning of the origin of caste and of its development in the early historical period.


Definition of Society

The study of ancient Indian society throws up countless problems of sources, definitions, and interpretation. It is not self-evident what society might have meant in the ancient period, whether it was tribal, nomadic, urban, or pastoral, or likely all these existing simultaneously. Ethnographic research on contemporary South Asian societies can be useful here, but does not tell us how societies, tribes, and so forth were conceptualized over two millennia ago. Words such as rāṣṭṛa (“kingdom”), pura/pur (“city”), grāma (nigāma, gāma) (“village”), and samāja (“assembly”) refer to spatial locations as well as to social and political groupings, but they are not defined in detail in the texts although some descriptions of them are given. Nor do we have any understandings of what a society would be like except for normative descriptions of the varṇāśrama type found in many brahmanical texts or rules governing how monks should behave with lay people, especially women. Finally, most of the items mentioned in this article closely intertwine society and social history with the development of the state, urbanization—involving transformations in the built landscape—and the technological and economic changes underlying all of these. Milner 1994 gives a brief introductory survey of the main features of Hindu society, both ancient and modern, while Wagle 1995 makes some incisive distinctions between tribe and caste in dealing with ancient Indian social groups. Thapar 2003 briefly describes various categories of society defined in terms of modes of subsistence and whether they are urban or rural, while Bailey and Mabbett 2003 argues that the most useful methodological entrée into the study of ancient Indian society is to focus on the difference between small-scale and large-scale groups. Parasher-Sen 2004 insightfully explores the difficulties in analyzing ancient Indian society from the perspective of group inclusion and exclusion, and, relatedly, Chattopadhyaya 2009 calls for a focus on studying the diversity of ancient Indian society, lamenting the sense in which the dominance of the varṇa theory has obfuscated this.

Bailey, Greg, and Mabbett, Ian. The Sociology of Early Buddhism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511488283
Chapter 2 focuses on the categorization of elite groups in the early Buddhist texts, drawing out the differences between the multiplicity of social roles incumbent upon an individual in small-scale and large-scale societies. Moves on from Thapar 2003 by attempting to define the social significance of the word “elite” as found both in Buddhist and Hindu texts.

Chattopadhyaya, Brajadulal D. “Introduction: One Blind Man’s View of an Elephant; Understanding Early Indian Social History.” In A Social History of Early India. Vol. 2, Part 5 of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. Edited by Brajadulal D. Chattopadhyaya, XXXI–L. New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2009.
A very insightful survey and analysis of the historiography of social history and studies of society since the mid-1800s. Also includes some original comments on the development of caste in relation to varṇa (pp. xxx–xxxvii) and includes an extensive bibliography on pp. xlvi–l.

Milner, Murray. Status and Sacredness: A General Theory of Status Relations and an Analysis of Indian Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Chapter 4 gives a brief overview of the key features of Indian society, relevant mainly to the period post–500 BCE. It covers Hinduism, caste and social structure, economic and political power, and purity and pollution. A useful introduction from an anthropological perspective.

Parasher-Sen, Aloka. “Introduction.” In Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India. Edited by Aloka Parasher-Sen, 1–80. Oxford in India Readings. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Very detailed survey of the historiography of ancient and medieval Indian society from the perspective of marginal groups outside of the varṇa system. Argues that Hindu society can never be seen in a monolithic sense but must always be seen as a set of discursive maneuvers where different dominant and subordinate groups interact with each other.

Thapar, Romila. The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. New Delhi: Penguin, 2003.
Divides the different groups of Indian society into hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, peasants and townsman, and gives a brief description of each as a prelude to a more extensive description of them throughout her book. Follows this with a brief survey of “The Creation of Castes.” See pp. 54–68.

Wagle, Narendra K. Society at the Time of the Buddha. 2d rev. ed. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1995.
Chapter 2 (pp. 12–47) that deals with “patterns of settlement” provides a good working definition of tribal groups and caste, and supplements these with the idea of the “extended kin group.” Though based on Pali sources, its conclusions resonate with what little is found in contemporaneous Sanskrit sources. A pioneering work (1st ed. 1966).


General Overviews

There are several overviews of ancient Indian society from 1200 BCE to 300 CE, but none take into consideration the Harappan civilization. Sharma 1983 utilizes a Marxist perspective in associating social change with innovations in technology and the use of material resources. Two books, Thapar 1978 and Thapar 1984, cover similar ground and trace the transformation from tribalism, where clan and lineage is of fundamental importance, to state formation post–500 BCE where caste begins to emerge as an organizational principal of society. Sahu 2006 looks in great detail at the relationship between iron-based technology and social change, and Chattopadhyaya 2009 is an introduction to all the important aspects of ancient Indian society and its historiography.

Chattopadhyaya, Brajadulal D. A Social History of Early India. Vol. 2, Part 5 of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. Edited by Brajadulal D. Chattopadhyaya. New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2009.
A very useful book of sixteen essays divided into 10 sections dealing with the historiography of different aspects of ancient Indian society. Each of the essays includes a comprehensive bibliography, but the essays are directed toward those desiring an introduction to the study of ancient Indian society and social history rather than to specialists.

Sahu, Bhairabi P. Iron and Social Change in Early India. Oxford in India Readings. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.
A collection of previously published essays covering the entire realm of debate about the introduction of iron technology in India and its role in effecting fundamental changes in economy, society, and polity after 500 BCE. Not so much a study of society, but of the causes behind a period of great social change in ancient India.

Sharma, Ram S. Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India. New Delhi: Macmillan India, 1983.
Searches for terms in literature, from the Ṛg Veda onward, which define economic, agricultural, and institutional concepts, and deals with the introduction of iron ore in northwestern India. Subsequent chapters take up the implications of this for the structure of society. Somewhat outdated, but stays very close to the texts and archeology.

Thapar, Romila. Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1978.
A collection of thirteen essays published in the 1960s and 1970s covering subjects such as the methodology of social history, sources of social history, genealogy, origin myths, lineages, social mobility, and the image of the barbarian. Perhaps a bit dated, but still filled with insights.

Thapar, Romila. From Lineage to State: Social Formations in the Mid-First Millennium B.C. in the Ganga Valley. Bombay and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
A synthesis of data about social, economic, and political material illustrating the transformation over a period of about seven hundred years from a society built on tribal lineages to one characterized by different forms of social organization involving large-scale societies and state formation. Tends to collate material from texts of different periods.


Sources

To actually find primary sources that deal with social interaction at a microlevel is a necessary, yet difficult task. Either the texts, in the case of many Hindu sources, are normative, or anything dealing with social interaction is incidental. Here I have suggested only a few sources, and they relate specifically to the period 300 BCE–200 CE. The third book of the Mahābhārata in van Buitenen 1975 contains considerable material about the interaction between members of the four varṇas and outcaste figures, engaging in conduct that seemingly violates correct social behavior. In the twelfth book of the same text, there is much material describing how kings should rule, but in the Āpaddharma section in Fitzgerald 2004, there are several stories involving animals that satirize unequal power relations within society. More realistic in their portrayal of social interaction and social stratification based on wealth, occupation, and prestige are a range of Buddhist texts. The Sutta Nipāta in Norman 1984 is a valuable source of information on the gahapati, an important category of landowner in the states of Northeastern India after 500 BCE, whereas the Vinaya in Horner 1938–1952 contains many anecdotes detailing interaction between monks and laypeople. The Jātaka tales in Cowell 1969 narrating the Buddha’s previous lives are texts designed for a popular audience and are a treasure trove of material for interaction between people of different classes, and the Lalitavistara in Goswami 2001, a biography of the Buddha dating to the 1st century of the common era, contains some extravagant descriptions of urban centers and of social interaction within them.

Cowell, Edward B., ed. The Jātaka; or, Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. 3 vols. London: Luzac, 1969.
Containing 543 tales of the Buddha’s previous lives, it is a mine of information about Brahmins, merchants, farmers, laborers, despised classes, and many other groups in north Indian society in the 1st century CE. Many articles listed in this article use Jātaka tales as their primary source of information.

Fitzgerald, James F., trans. The Mahābhārata. Vol. 7. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
The Āpaddharmaparvan (Śāntiparvan, chapters 129–167) deals with the duties of a king when everything is falling apart in the world. It illustrates various modes of behavior through stories involving animals and humans of different social classes and occupations. Many of these show how individuals in social and familial situations must have negotiated with each other. See pp. 494–602.

Goswami, Bijoya, trans. Lalitavistara: English Translation with Notes. Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 2001.
A biography of the Buddha probably composed in the 1st century CE, it contains many descriptions of palace and urban life. Though not previously used much for exploring ancient Indian society, more notice should be taken of its multitude of descriptions of social interaction for the study of social conditions.

Horner, Isaline B. Book of the Discipline. 6 vols. London: Pali Text Society, 1938–1952.
Contains many narratives about the Buddha and other monks interacting with laypeople and also tells about life in urban areas. Though a considerable part of its various texts are concerned with rules regulating monkish conduct, the stories illustrating the reason for the particular rules tell us much about social interaction.

Norman, Kenneth R. The Group of Discourses (Sutta-Nipāta). London: Pali Text Society, 1984.
An early Buddhist text in Pali that contains many individual conversion stories. It is an important source of information about the wealthy gahapati householder and of Brahmins, some of whom are ritualists, others landholders over large estates. Very suggestive of the expansion of the Brahmins into Northeastern India.

van Buitenen, Johannes A. B. The Mahābhārata. Vol. 2, Book 2: The Book of the Assembly Hall; Book 3: The Book of the Forest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975.
The Mārkaṇḍeyasamayāparvan (Āraṇyakaparvan, chapters 179–221) contains a number of short narratives, some of which depict dystopian and utopian views of society, and others that depict the education of a Brahmin by a low caste seller of meat. In these narratives there are considerable illustrations of interaction of people at different levels of society. See pp. 557–664.


Historical Perspectives

This section includes bibliographical sources as they pertain to different historical periods in ancient India. Although there may be some disagreement about the temporal limits of these periods, all the evidence from the primary sources suggests distinctive differences in the society of each period, even though there is considerable overlap at the boundaries. Of course, as time goes on and especially in the third period and beyond, the sources for determining social conditions become more abundant.


2500 BCE–1900 BCE

This covers the period of the mature and late Harappan period. While there have been many excavations and studies of Harappan sites, any inferences on social structure remain conjectural. It is clear from the archeological evidence that Harappan civilization rested on an urban-based land system based on agriculture and pastoralism, and trade between larger towns and small outlying villages, as well as interregional trade. Suggestions have been made in past scholarship that the Harappan civilization was one exhibiting a high degree of conformity, perhaps backed by a centralized ruling model of government. Recent studies have shown, however, that while there is a degree of ideological conformity implied in the material remains, this masks considerable regional variation, reflected in a social situation manifesting various status differences, partly economically based, and possibly ethnically based as well. Possehl 2002 (p. 52) admits that virtually nothing can be known about Mature Harappan social structure, but does suggest that throughout its evolution the various societies associated with the individual cities did become more variable in structure and organization. Kenoyer 2008 argues for social variability in the main Harappan cities and status differences based on wealth. Wright 2010; Chase 2010; and Chase, et al. 2014 develop Kenoyer’s views on the basis of very close analyses of landscape patterns, dietary preferences, and the different modes of identity formation based on the production of beads and other bodily ornaments.

Chase, Brad. “Social Change at the Harappan Settlement of Ghola Dhoro: A Reading from Animal Bones.” Antiquity 84 (2010): 528–543.
DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00066758
Focuses on a Harappan site in Gujarat, showing how changes in skeletal remains of animals can lead to conclusions concerning “inter-regional interaction networks.” It also shows how class differences can be inferred from the different practices involved in the butchering of cattle, as further evidenced from skeletal remains.

Chase, Brad, P. Ajithprasad, S. V. Rajesh, Ambika Patel, and Bhanu Sharma. “Materializing Harappan Identities: Unity and Diversity in the Borderlands of the Indus Civilization.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 35 (2014): 63–78.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2014.04.005
Extensively analyzes items of personal adornment and domestic practices, based on finds of terracotta ornaments and clay cooking pots, at two Harappan sites located in Northern Gujarat. Shows how both sites displayed a conformity with the broad Harappan cultural tendencies in material production, but that distinctive individual differences were apparent, reflective of social differences between the two urban settlements.

Kenoyer, Jonathan M. “Indus Urbanism: New Perspectives on Its Origin and Character.” Paper presented at the Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences, “Early Cities: New perspectives on Pre-industrial Urbanism,” held 18–20 May 2005, at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. In The Ancient City: New Perspectives on Urbanism in the Old and New World. Edited by Joyce Marcus and Jeremy M. Sabloff, 183–208. Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences. Santa Fe, New Mexico: School for Advanced Research, 2008.
A good synthesis covering the main Indus Valley cities and excavation work at Harappa, Mohenjo Daro, Dholavira, and Rakhigarhi, focusing mainly on their urban development. Points out that Harappan society was probably ruled “by competing elites, merchants, landowners, or religious leaders,” (p.195) with mercantile and possibly religious elites represented in each of the main cities.

Possehl, Gregory L. The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira, 2002.
Chapter 2 gives an excellent introduction to the Harappan civilization, detailing its historical stages from 7000 BCE, and the extent and size of the different excavated sites. Deals very briefly with Harappan society on pp. 52–53.

Wright, Rita P. The Ancient Indus: Urbanism, Economy, and Society. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Chapter 9 is a very comprehensive survey of three Indus Valley sites. By studying their landscape layout, architectural profile, and the organization required to construct well-planned towns—plus remains of ornaments and beads as well as burial practices—glimpses of different communities and differences between elites and others can be seen.


1200 BCE–500 BCE

These seven centuries cover the period in which the people who composed the bulk of Vedic literature came into Northwestern India, settled there as nomadic pastoralists, and then moved progressively to the southeast along the Ganges valley. As pastoralists, their economy was based on cattle, sheep, and horses and some trade with sedentary communities with whom they interacted and eventually integrated. Their society is usually conceptualized as kin based, with no concept of private property, and with minimal state apparatus. After about 800 BCE, it is likely that the process of integration with people from different cultures and different socioeconomic structures became intensified, eventually leading away from a tribal-based society to one that was class based. Rau 1957 offers a very careful philological analysis of all the words relating to society, economic activity, and kingship in the Brāhmaṇas; Sharma 1983 builds on Rau by using archeological evidence as well as textual, while Thapar 1984 offers a very densely written reconstruction of lineage and household relations up to about 500 BCE. Witzel 1997 focuses on the development of the first ancient Indian state with its accompanying social implications, and Proferes 2007 is mainly about kingship yet also draws out implications concerning the social implications of tribal organization in the Ṛg Veda.

Proferes, Theodore N. Vedic Ideals of Sovereignty and the Poetics of Power. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, 2007.
Argues that fire as a substance and concept unites kingship, tribe, and clan into one single group, suggesting “a network of fires spreading horizontally across the landscape, organized hierarchically in accordance with the relative magnitude of the grouping with which each is associated” (p. 25). The implications for social organization are then further developed. See chapter 2.

Rau, Wilhelm. Staat und Gesellschaft im Alten Indien: Nach Den Brāhmaṇa-Texten Dargestellt. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz, 1957.
A somewhat dated, but still valuable treatment of social forms, economic activity, and kingship up until about 600 BCE, based on the second strata of Vedic literature. Part 3 deals with the social classes in considerable detail, presenting a situation where varṇa is known but not caste as it is later understood.

Sharma, Ram S. Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India. New Delhi: Macmillan, 1983.
Chapters 1–4 deal with Vedic texts down to 600 BCE. They list terms in literature, from the RV onward, which define economic, agricultural, and institutional concepts, and cover the introduction of iron ore in Northwestern India. Somewhat outdated but shows how difficult it has always been to discern anything about early Vedic social structures.

Thapar, Romila. From Lineage to State: Social Formations in the Mid-First Millennium B. C. in the Ganga Valley. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Chapter 2, pp. 21–69 (esp. pp. 36–38) traces the development from the pastoralist society of the early Vedas to the small- and large-scale societies associated with the larger states (500 BCE and beyond). Includes a good summary of knowledge on the socioeconomic structures of early Vedic society and the increasing complexity involved when pastoralism and sedentary activity come together.

Witzel, Michael. “Early Sanskritization: Origins and Development of the Kuru State.” In Recht, Staat und Verwaltung im klassischen Indien. Edited by Bernhard Kölver, 27–52. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1997.
DOI: 10.1524/9783486594355.27
Witzel argues that a Kuru kingdom develops about 800 BCE and brings together in its realm most of the preexisting Vedic tribes. It is perhaps the earliest Indian state and foreshadows the development of later societies where the Brāhmaṇa and kṣatriya classes stand in a close relationship against the mass of the people, the viś. (Digital version.)


500 BCE–100 BCE

This period is characterized by the development of urbanization, state formation, an ongoing migration of people out of Northwest India, and their integration with people from different linguistic and ethnic groups. Dating this period from 500 BCE to 320 CE, we find a dramatic increase in literary and archeological sources over either of the two previous periods. Agriculture becomes an important base of subsistence, state formation becomes the norm for political organization, and class becomes an organizing factor in society, and there is also the development of new religions, part of whose teaching is an abandonment of household society. This period corresponds especially to an increase in the size of two states, Magadha and Kosala, after the middle of the 4th century BCE, abundant information about which is given in early Buddhist literature in Pali. Much of our knowledge of ancient North Indian society after 500 BCE is then based on Buddhist literature, with normative brāhmaṇical literature coming into play about 350 BCE, and the early Upanishads giving only sparse information about society and social practices. Wagle 1995 is a very comprehensive account of society at the time of the Buddha, perhaps giving too early a dating to the texts. Tsuchida 1971 is an insightful study of types of Brahmins mentioned in Buddhist texts, and Chakravarti 1987 surveys the various social and occupational classes in the early texts. Sarao 1989 lists the number of converts to Buddhism by varṇa, and Bailey and Mabbett 2003 gives a survey of recent scholarship on social and occupational categories in early Buddhist literature. Yamazaki 2005 studies both Brahmins and kṣatriyas during this period and also gives a very comprehensive survey of the position of the vaiśya.

Bailey, Greg, and Mabbett, Ian. The Sociology of Early Buddhism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511488283
Chapters 2–6 deal with the nature of society, urbanism, the economy and state formation, and the position of the Brahmins in early Buddhist texts, all having implications for the description of social classes and interaction between the Buddha and Brahmins between 400 BCE and 100 CE.

Chakravarti, Uma. The Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987.
While focusing mainly on social data in the early Buddhist texts, she gives much information on society in general, especially social groupings pertaining to economic and political dimensions. Begins the process of using some statistical analysis to assess the importance of particular groups in a society becoming increasingly stratified.

Sarao, Karam T. Origin and Nature of Ancient Indian Buddhism. New Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers, 1989.
Studies in detail the class and occupational backgrounds of converts to Buddhism as found especially in the Vinaya. Covers some of the same ground as Chakravarti but is more comprehensive in its statistical coverage of the different social groups.

Thapar, Romila. From Lineage to State: Social Formations in the Mid-First Millennium B. C. in the Ganga Valley. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Chapter 3 deals with the period from 500 BCE to 100 CE and charts synthetically the development of large-scale societies associated with the political groupings called gaṇasaṅghas and janapadas located in the Ganges valley and Bihar. Focuses on the development of classes and landless laborers associated with large landholdings controlled by kin groups and gahapatis.

Tsuchida, Ryūtarō. “Two Categories of Brahmins in the Early Buddhist Period.” Memoirs of the Toyo Bunko 49 (1971): 51–95.
An excellent study of Brahmin ritualists and landowners in early Buddhist texts. Gives a comprehensive elaboration of their lifestyles and occupational statuses, rather than concentrating exclusively on their position as ritual specialists and vedic scholars.

Wagle, Narendra K. Society at the Time of the Buddha. 2d rev. ed. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1995.
Chapter 3 (pp. 47–82) is a thorough study of how the Buddha and different grades of monks are addressed through the titles that are used of them by different groups of people, including Brahmins and other groups. Especially valuable in demonstrating how particular titles are able to point out the exact nature of status differences.

Yamazaki, Gen’ichi. The Structure of Ancient Indian Society: Theory and Reality of the Varṇa System. Toyo Bunko Research Library 6. Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 2005.
Parts 1 and 2 deal with the Brāhmaṇa and the kṣatriya varṇas, contrasting the normative view of the Hindu dharma literature with the more “realistic view” of Buddhist texts. Part 3 deals with vaiśyas and peasants mainly from Buddhist sources, arguing for the development of a large peasant class of land-holding farmers and urban traders, and shopkeepers.


100 CE–300 CE

This period includes the culmination of the development by the Brahmins of a tight theoretical structuring of society based on the four-varṇa theory, as this is presented in the Dharmasūṭras and the two Sanskrit epics, especially the Mahābhārata. The general consensus of scholars is that the Mahābhārata in its narrative sections operates partly in terms of the vision of a tribal society, whereas its didactic books are attempting to create a vision of how a large-scale centralized state should be run. Above all, in most of its bulk, the Mahābhārata is normative, whether by creating situations where individuals act in an entirely inappropriate manner in relation to dharma, or where there are multiple statements in a homiletic style laying out dharmic behavior. Because its contents bear on the normative side, it is difficult to tease out from the material how society might have been on the ground, how people actually lived. In part this is because it is attempting to refine a document dictating how a society should operate from the Brahmins’ viewpoint. That is, it offers a vision for the future, one that perhaps enables us to glimpse a vision of what society (or societies) may have been during the early centuries (200 BCE–200 CE) of the composition and initial transmission of the Mahābhārata. Significantly, there occurs the development of the āśrama system as a theological structure for defining the progression of the life of an ideal Brahmin. The Buddhist Jātakas also provide much information for social life in these centuries and have been drawn upon in the studies listed. Fick 1972 gives a comprehensive study of society in Northeastern India based mainly on the Jātakas, whereas Ritschl 1980 collects information about Brahmin farmers found in texts of this period. Sharma 1983 collects economic and social data found mainly in the Mahābhārata, and Olivelle 1993 is the most comprehensive account of the theoretical āśrama system that defines the stages of life through which a Brahmin can potentially transit. Fitzgerald 2004 gives the sociopolitical and doctrinal background to the Mahābhārata, and Chakravarti 2006 is a collection of previously published essays based mainly on Buddhist sources dealing with this time period.

Chakravarti, Uma. Everyday Lives, Everyday Histories: Beyond the Kings and Brāhmaṇas of Ancient India. New Delhi: Rulika, 2006.
A collection of previously published essays focusing much on Buddhist literature for developing a picture of early Indian society as it was depicted especially in the Jātakas, and takes seriously the activities of people at the lower levels of society who are often neglected in other studies.

Fick, Richard. The Social Organization in North-East India in Buddha’s Time. Varanasi, India: Indological Book House, 1972.
A pioneering early study of social class, occupations, and marginalized groups. Provides the foundation for many later studies that refine the conclusions of his work, which is mainly based on the Jātakas. Partly superseded by later developments in archeological research. Translation of Die Soziale Gliederung in Nordöstlichen Indien zu Buddhas Zeit (Kiel, Germany: Haeseler, 1897).

Fitzgerald, James. The Mahābhārata. Vol. 7. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
In his introduction to the translation of the Mahābhārata’s twelfth book, outlines some of its main themes, especially those pertaining to kingship, dharma, and the Brahmin’s vision of society. It is full of information about how society might have been conceptualized both normatively and disfunctionally.

Olivelle, Patrick. The Āśrama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
An extremely comprehensive investigation of how Brahmins conceived of a model of society embodying the desired requirements of the socioreligious life. The āśrama system, as it is called, divides life for the Brahmin male into four stages, and this book examines the arguments about these stages in great detail and how it functions as a hermeneutical system.

Ritschl, Eva. “Brahmanische Bauern: Zur Theorie und Praxis der brahmanischen Ständeordnung im alten Indien.” Altorientalische Forschungen 7 (1980): 177–187.
DOI: 10.1524/aofo.1980.7.jg.177
One of the few articles detailing the social and economic basis of Brahmins beyond what the normative texts treat as primarily religious specialists. Uses as sources the Jātaka tales, the Mahābhārata, and the Laws of Manu. An important corrective to other studies that overemphasize the religious side of the Brahmin’s social role.

Sharma, Ram S. Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India. New Delhi: Macmillan, 1983.
Chapter 8 summarizes material in the Mahābhārata relating to economic and social changes, and explains how this might have been shaped by material causality. Somewhat dated, but still a very useful beginning point. Explores the tension between the kin-based tribal elements reflected in many parts of the Mahābhārata and those reflecting large-scale states.


Themes

The subsections within this section all relate to specific, but central, aspects of society that occur in all of the historical periods and so transcend temporal boundaries, especially after 500 BCE. They constitute aspects of society that provide the possibility for defining the conditions under which social hierarchy occurs, and the beliefs and practices determining who lay at the center of society in terms of prestige and who lay at the margins. Finally, the question of gender is included here as it is one pivotal point around which certain social relations have always been practiced and theorized.


Caste or Class

While caste and lineage group have been dominant categories in Indian society since at least 500 BCE, the definition of caste and its origins are still very much disputed, in part because of the difficulty in defining the precise difference between varṇa (or “occupational class”) and jāti (a lineage group within a particular varṇa). Rau 1957 offers a very careful analysis of social categories in the Brāhmaṇas, whereas Dumont 1970 develops a general theory of caste and hierarchy based on classical literary sources and contemporary ethnography. Brinkhaus 1978 is a meticulous philological study of post-Buddhistic texts pertaining to the intermixture of castes (varṇa), whereas Smith 1994 provides an up-to-date treatment of varṇa classification from the Vedas onward. Chattopadhyaya 2009 gives a brief overview of previous work on the caste system and discusses how it became a successful means of creating social inclusion and exclusion within the one social system.

Brinkhaus, Horst. Die Altindische Mischkastensysteme. Alt-und-Neu-Indische Studien 19. Wiesbaden, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1978.
A careful philological study of the development of mixed-caste groups in the centuries following the early development of Buddhism. Based on Hindu sources and presents an increasingly complex social situation that certainly existed in embryonic form in the Buddha’s time, and becomes more formally recognized in the Dharmasūtras and later śāstras and is implied in the Mahābhārata.

Chattopadhyaya, Brajadulal D. “Introduction: One Blind Man’s View of an Elephant; Understanding Early Indian Social History.” In A Social History of Early India. Vol. 2, Part 5 of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. Edited by Brajadulal D. Chattopadhyaya, XXXI–L. New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2009.
Offers an important corrective to much earlier work on this subject by focusing on the extent to which varṇa involves establishing a reference point to those outside of the defined varṇa system. Also ranges far and wide over many issues relating to ancient Indian societies, offering new insights developed elsewhere in the same volume.

Dumont, Louis. Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications. Translated by Mark Sainsbury. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1970.
A classic work that analyzes caste as an ideological system, involving especially the opposition between king and Brahmin. It has spawned many other related studies and recently much criticism, but it is still fundamental for understanding the ideological structure lying behind caste, even where this is sometimes contradicted by ethnographic evidence.

Rau, Wilhelm. Staat und Gesellschaft im Alten Indien: Nach Den Brāhmaṇa-Texten Dargestellt. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz, 1957.
A somewhat dated, but still valuable treatment of pre-Buddhistic social forms, economic activity, and kingship. Part 3 deals with the social classes in considerable detail, presenting a situation where varṇa is known but not caste as it is later understood.

Smith, Brian K. Classifying the Universe: The Ancient Indian Varṇa System and the Origins of Caste. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Using copious sources from Vedic literature of all periods, Smith discusses (chapter 2, pp. 26–57) the evidence pertaining to the mode in which social classes are classified. In chapter 3, pp. 55–85, he discusses the origins of the varṇas and how these overlap with, and possibly derive from, other classificatory systems. More theoretically inclined than Rau.


Marginalized Groups

Thematically this relates to the section Caste or Class insofar as the existence of many of the known marginalized groups makes sense only in relation to the development of the varṇa system, which, in conjunction with other social forces, itself developed into the caste system. There is a considerable scholarship on those groups that exist below the śūdra, the fourth of the classical varṇas. Included here is a whole panoply of names—niṣāda, caṇḍāla, dāsa, karmakāra—some of whom are mentioned in Vedic literature, and others becoming more prominent in Buddhist literature while also being mentioned in Hindu texts. Whether these groups were regarded as ritually impure, whether they were ethnically different, whether they performed what were considered low-status occupations, or whether they were considered as forest dwellers—all these factors are taken into consideration in explaining the development of the so-called outcaste groups. Sharma 1958 is a classic study of the śūdra class and, using a huge range of sources, argues that they were mainly landless laborers working in agriculture. Parasher-Sen 2004b provides an excellent survey of the historiography of the relation between the varṇas and the excluded classes, and how the varṇa system successfully gave some kind of coherence to the social diversity of ancient India. Parasher-Sen 2004a explains how the varṇa system functioned both to include and exclude groups marginalized at different periods of history. Part 4 of Yamazaki 2005 deals with śūdras and caṇḍālas, contrasting the orthodox position given in Hindu literature with the “actual” situation given in Pali texts, especially the Jātakas. Chakravarti 2006 attempts to bring further precision to the understanding of slaves/servant (dāsas) who operated within the varṇa system and those who were consciously excluded from it.

Chakravarti, Uma. “Of Dasas and Karmakaras: Servile Labour in Ancient India.” In Everyday Lives, Everyday Histories: Beyond the Kings and Brahmanas of “Ancient” India. Edited by Uma Chakravarti, 70–100. New Delhi: Rulika, 2006.
An important article of synthesis analyzing the definition and status of dispossessed laborers (dāsa) and “slaves” from the Ṛg Veda down to the Arthaśāstra. Notes the development of a class of landless laborers who must be distinguished from bonded slaves, and has a section on women dasīs.

Parasher-Sen, Aloka. “‘Foreigner’ and ‘Tribe’ as Barbarian (Mleccha) in Early North India.” In Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India. Edited by Aloka Parasher-Sen, 275–313. Oxford in India Readings. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004a.
Attempts to work out “whether there were levels of sociocultural interaction and/or exclusion that did not necessarily result from the issues of domination. . .” (p. 278). Points out how processes of exclusion could eventually lead to interaction and then acceptance, even if this was outside of the normative system.

Parasher-Sen, Aloka. “Introduction.” In Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India. Edited by Aloka Parasher-Sen, 1–80. Oxford in India Readings. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004b.
In dealing with marginal groups outside of the varṇa system, she argues cogently that Hindu society can never be seen in a monolithic sense. Rather it always involved a set of discursive maneuvers where different dominant and subordinate groups interact with each other.

Sharma, Ram S. Śūdras in Ancient India: A Survey of the Position of the Lower Orders Down to Circa A. D. 500. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1958.
Comprehensive study of the origin of the śūdra varṇa, followed by a survey of the functions and roles of the śūdra after 500 BCE, including the strengthening of class differences during the Mauryan period. Also studies the interaction between vaiśyas and śūdras, and the relations between śūdras and some marginalized groups.

Yamazaki, Gen’ichi. The Structure of Ancient Indian Society: Theory and Reality of the Varṇa System. Toyo Bunko Research Library 6. Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 2005.
Part 4 deals with śūdras and caṇḍālas and follows the same pattern as previous chapters, contrasting the orthodox Hindu literature with Pali texts. Chapter 10 is exclusively devoted to caṇḍālas and contains some very extensive charts (pp. 215–218) listing the kinds of mixed caste/untouchable groups resulting from intercaste marriage as found in the early Hindu lawbooks.


Gender

It is necessary to have a section on gender, one which includes women’s roles both normative and actual, as gender relations are so central both in Buddhist and Hindu texts and the image of the woman is also fundamental in defining men’s roles. Possehl 2002 summarizes evidence pertaining to gender roles on the basis of the large number of female figurines found at Harappan sites. Sutherland 1989 studies the role of two prominent heroines, Draupadī and Sītā, in Sanskrit epic literature focusing on the choices available to them within the framework of marriage. Roy 1994 studies marriage rites in the Gṛhyasūtras and contrasts these with the description of the marriages of Draupadī and Sītā, while Chakravarti 2006 looks at the family, idealized in both epics, as a no-conflict zone. Jamison 1996 is a study of the role of women in the sacrifice and of marriage as it is depicted in the lawbooks and the Mahābhārata. Jamison 2006 studies the changing perception of women across a body of normative literature from 300 BCE to 200 CE. Finally, Roy 2009 provides a critical account of the manner in which women have been studied by earlier historians, and makes a plea to move away from the paradigm that sees the status of women as experiencing a process of continual decline since the Ṛg Veda.

Chakravarti, Uma. “Exploring a ‘No-Conflict’ Zone: Interest, Emotion and the Family in Early India.” In Everyday Lives, Everyday Histories: Beyond the Kings and Brahmanas of “Ancient” India. Edited by Uma Chakravarti, 253–274. New Delhi: Rulika, 2006.
Studies the portrayal of power relations within the family in the two epics, utilizing the themes of “emotion” and “interest.” Contrasts the normative order of the family as a “no-conflict zone” with the larger lineage-based conflicts involving royal succession. Also makes a useful comparison with the distribution of material goods within a family in the Buddhist Vinaya.

Jamison, Stephanie W. Sacrificed Wife/Sacrificer’s Wife, Women, Ritual and Hospitality in Ancient India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Superb study of the wife’s role in relation to sacrificial performance and the ritualized treatment of guests in Vedic and post-Vedic literature. The introduction contains important methodological suggestions, and the fifth section (pp. 207–250) is a very detailed study of the eight types of marriage and their portrayal in the Mahābhārata and the Laws of Manu.

Jamison, Stephanie W. “Women ‘Between the Empires’ and ‘Between the Lines.’” In Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE. Edited by Patrick Olivelle, 191–214. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305326.003.0008
Focuses on the changing perception of women reflected in the earliest Dharmasūtras (3rd century BCE) and extending to those composed up until the 2nd century CE. Notes the shift in the texts from a normative approval of women having social/familial agency to the idea of the “unmarried religious women”—a widow or an ascetic—as being a threat to men’s power.

Possehl, Gregory L. The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira, 2002.
Chapter 10 (pp. 177–183) provides many examples of female and some male figurines found in Harappan sites. Suggests some valid limits as to how these should be interpreted and argues that many of the images, apparently signifying fertility, could be seen in the same way as Barbie dolls in contemporary America.

Roy, Kumkum. “Marriage as Communication: An Exploration of Norms and Narratives in Early India.” Studies in History 10.2 (1994): 183–198.
DOI: 10.1177/025764309401000202
Compares marriage rituals in the Gṛhyasūtras with the marriages of Ḍraupadī and Sītā described in the two Sanskrit epics. Points out how the communicative functions of the marriage in both sets of texts emphasizes different groups, whether mainly kin or varṇa groups, indicating the existence of a much wider set of marriage rituals than those codified in the normative texts. Reprinted in Kumkum Roy, The Power of Gender and the Gender of Power: Explorations in Early Indian History (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 223–240.

Roy, Kumkum. “Gender Relations during the First Millennium: An Overview.” In A Social History of Early India. Vol. 2, Part 5 of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. Edited by Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, 213–231. New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2009.
An introduction to the problems of dealing with the status of women in the post-Buddhistic period of early India. Argues against the view that their status was one of steady decline and pleads for a more comprehensive view of gender relations, including women’s role in the family, their economic role, gender definition, and position as political elites.

Sutherland, Sally. “Sītā and Draupadī: Aggressive Behavior and Female Role-Models in the Sanskrit Epics.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 109 (1989): 63–79.
DOI: 10.2307/604337
Studies how Draupadī and Sītā are treated by their husbands and how they respond to this treatment, especially when they are placed in very dangerous conditions. Though dealing with royalty, both cases do demonstrate the limited choices available to women in dealing with their husbands and wider kin groups.

ref-ancient-indian-warfare.txt

Introduction

The meaning of terms like “ancient,” “classical,” “early medieval,” and “medieval” India have been the issue of some debate, and there is no absolute agreement among scholars about the exact chronology of these relatively loosely defined periods. However, it might be reasonable to say that a bibliographical essay about ancient Indian warfare should start with the Aryan invasion (if there was one!), include the Vedic period and the early state formations, and focus in particular on the Maurya Empire and the fascinating historical evidence contained in the inscriptions of Aśoka. Reference must also be made to the age of the Guptas and to the Indo-Greek kings of Bactria and their military campaigns in India. A survey of ancient India should probably end with the invasion of the Central Asian Hephthalites, which destroyed what was left of the Gupta Empire and marked the end of the classical period of north Indian states. After the Hun invasion, the political center of gravity in India moved to the south, which is generally considered the start of the medieval era. One of the great problems in the study of war and warfare in ancient India is to read the evidence found in texts in Indian and other ancient languages in conjunction with the archaeological record. There is an enormous amount of material about war in important Indian texts like the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa, but it is often hard to say what reflects historical realities and what is simply ideology or legend. Nevertheless, an essay about ancient Indian warfare must look at these important textual sources. There is a clear time division in the scholarly study of ancient Indian warfare: before and after the discovery and publication of Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra in the early 20th century. This text revealed a completely new picture of ancient Indian society in general and of warfare in particular. Before the discovery of the Arthaśāstra, the political life of ancient India was clouded in the mythical world of the great epics, but the Arthaśāstra showed a highly realistic, and some would add cynical, side of ancient Indian politics. It should be mentioned that the study of ancient India has become politicized in recent times. For sections of the Hindutva movement, ancient India has become a battleground for an attempt to create a sanitized and revisionist vision of Hinduism, and there have been conflicts over schoolbooks and curricula both in India and in other countries. However, ancient Indian ideas and practices of warfare are not only about Hinduism. The heterodox religious movements, like Buddhism and Jainism, also were intimately entwined in the political realities of ancient India, and the texts of these traditions have important things to say about war and violence. Thus, a section about Buddhism and Jainism seems necessary. Of course, these systems are probably most famous in the West for their presumed rejection of violence, but the fact is that the debates about violence (hiṃsā) and nonviolence (ahiṃsā) were important to many of the religious and philosophical traditions in India. For this reason, a bibliographical essay about war in ancient India needs a separate section about this important topic.


General Overviews

Compared to the great number of books that have been written about the religion and culture of ancient India, rather few have appeared on the subject of politics and war. Scholars and students unfamiliar with the topic of ancient Indian warfare may start by reading Roy 2004, which contains a lot of information about medieval and modern India as well, but gives an overview of general trends. They should also be familiar with Dikshitar 1999. Singh 1997 is still among the most important of the books that aim to cover all aspects of ancient Indian warfare and should probably serve as one of the first texts to be read by students interested in the subject. As an introduction to the ideological and religious sides of war, Patton 2007 gives a broad overview of some of the fundamental ways in which ancient Indian narrative traditions treat violence.

Dikshitar, Ramachandra V. R. War in Ancient India. New Delhi: Cosmo, 1999.
An early attempt to describe Indian warfare from different angles by using the archaeological and textual evidence available at the time. The book sometimes takes a naive approach. Originally published in 1944.

Patton, Laurie L. “Telling Stories about Harm: An Overview of Early Indian Narratives.” In Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice. Edited by John R. Hinnells and Richard King, 10–38. New York: Routledge, 2007.
Patton explores how different ancient Indian traditions, from the Vedic and Upanishadic worlds to the pragmatics of the Arthaśāstra and the great narrative cosmos of the Mahābhārata, approach violence ambiguously, often relying on the ever-present concept of dharma to solve tensions.

Roy, Kaushik. From Hydaspes to Kargil: A History of Warfare in India from 326 BC to AD 1999. Delhi: Manohar, 2004.
This book gives a bird’s-eye view of decisive wars and battles in Indian history.

Singh, Sarva Daman. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1997.
This is a valuable attempt to put together archaeological and textual evidence from the Vedic period in order to explore the basic technologies and organizational forms of ancient Indian warfare. Of particular interest is Singh’s discussion of chariots and horses. Originally published in 1965.


Aryans and Non-Aryans

No student of ancient Indian warfare should be ignorant about the basic outline of the debates concerning the identity and origins of the Aryans. William Jones held his famous talk at the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1786 explaining that the Sanskrit language had closer affinities with Greek and Latin than could possibly have been produced by accident. Much later, in the 1920s, the Indus Valley civilization was discovered, and just after the Second World War Sir R. E. Mortimer Wheeler—Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India—advanced the theory that the Indus civilization was destroyed by the invasion of an Aryan people, finding what he thought was evidence for massacres and attacks on the fortifications of the ancient cities and linking this to myths about war in Vedic texts. This Aryan invasion theory has been challenged a number of times by scholars, and many now speak rather of an Aryan migration theory. Whether the influx was violent or piecemeal, the standard scholarly opinion is that the Aryans came to India from the north. However, quite a few scholars believe that the Aryans were really the same as the Indus people, and that there is no need to posit external influences to explain the birth of Vedic civilization. The whole question has been deeply politicized in recent times, and any student or scholar interested in ancient Indian warfare needs to know about the main positions. The student might start by reading Trautmann 2007, which is a pedagogical introduction to the Aryan debate taking as its starting point the three great discoveries that are the foundations of the controversy: the discovery of the Indo-European language family, of the Dravidian language family, and of the Indus Valley civilization. In order to understand the academic debates within Indo-European studies and, to some extent, within the history and history of religions, both students and scholars should probably familiarize themselves with the main ideas related to the ancient warrior function in Dumézil 1956. It is also worth looking at how these themes are developed by some later scholars, and one may start with Lincoln 1991 and Oguibénine 1998. Finally, the Aryan debate is well covered in Bryant and Patton 2005.

Bryant, Edwin F., and Laurie L. Patton, eds. The Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History. London: Routledge, 2005.
This is a useful collection of papers explaining the different positions about the Aryan question as well as the political implications of the different views.

Dumézil, Georges. Aspects de la fonction guerrière chez les Indo-Européens. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1956.
Dumézil was a controversial figure, but he offered a highly influential theory about Indo-European mythology. In this small book, he examines the warrior function in the ideology of the Indo-Europeans, claiming, among other things, that there was a basic distinction between the noble figures of Arjuna or Achilles and the ugly and bloodthirsty characters of warriors like Bhīma or Heracles.

Lincoln, Bruce. Death, War, and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology and Practice. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
This is a collection of previously published work by a scholar of the Chicago school in the history of religions established by Mircea Eliade. Lincoln is engaged with the comparative questions of Indo-European studies, which means that much of the material is not about India. Still, the volume is useful for an understanding of ideologies and symbolism surrounding war and warriors in the Vedic world.

Oguibénine, Boris L. “Notes on War and Religion among the Indo-Europeans.” In Essays on Vedic and Indo-European Culture. By Boris L. Oguibénine, 143–152. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1998.
Oguibénine attempts to place some of the symbolism surrounding the Vedic warrior within the larger field of Indo-European warrior culture.

Trautmann, Thomas R., ed. The Aryan Debate. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007.
The book includes short extracts from important historical sources and no less than five chapters about the horse as possible evidence for the identity of the Aryans with the Indus Valley people.


War and the Nature of the Indian State

War as a historical concept (a geschichtliche Grundbegriff in the German sense) needs more attention from scholars. The modern concept of war presupposes a state-centric idea of international politics, and it is not always helpful to bring this concept along when trying to understand war in ancient India. States in ancient South Asia were not conceptualized as political spheres with clear boundaries and a high degree of political, economic, and military control from a supreme power. For the medieval Vijayanagara Empire, the Indologist Burton Stein used the concept of segmentary state to analyze the characteristics of the typical Hindu polity. It is often very difficult to say anything certain about how aspects of ancient Indian states were organized and about the ideologies that underpinned them. Still, it is important to note generally that the early Hindu concept(s) of statehood, and the ancient Indian organization of states, implied different concepts of war from those we are used to encountering in the study of European history, and we should be sensitive to such differences when working with ancient Indian materials about war. In order to get a grasp of key academic debates about the nature of the state in ancient India, students should read Thapar 1984 and fill out some of the topics by looking at the essays in Kölver 1997. For the advanced scholar, the article “Krieg” in Janssen 1982 provides important perspectives about possible conceptual pitfalls when studying war in ancient times and outside Europe. Brekke 2005 questions the usefulness of the European concept of war in an ancient Indian context; it may be read by students and scholars interested in war in general and in the comparative ethics of war in particular.

Brekke, Torkel. “The Ethics of War and the Concept of War in India and Europe.” Numen 52.1 (2005): 59–86.
DOI: 10.1163/1568527053083430
Argues that the European concept of war can be applied only with great caution to ancient Indian history and that the Indian concept of war creates norms and ideologies of war that are different from those found in the Christian just war tradition. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

Janssen, Wilhelm. “Krieg.” In Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe: Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland. Vol. 3, H–Me. Edited by Otto Brunner, Werner Conze, and Reinhart Koselleck, 567–615. Stuttgart: Klett, 1982.
This is not an article about India, but for those who read German it is extremely useful for an awareness of the concepts we bring with us as historians when approaching the phenomenon of war in ancient non-European civilizations.

Kölver, Bernhard. Recht, Staat und Verwaltung im Klassischen Indien. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1997.
DOI: 10.1524/9783486594355
This edited volume contains several important chapters (some in German, but most in English) about the development of states and politics in ancient India.

Thapar, Romila. From Lineage to State: Social Formations in the Mid-first Millennium B.C. in the Ganga Valley. Bombay and New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
An important attempt to explore the political transition that took place in the middle of the first millennium BC from a lineage system to the large-scale state formations of the Nandas and Mauryas.


Battlefield Tactics and Technologies

Archaeology is an indispensable field in any attempt to piece together a picture of ancient Indian warfare, and its results are sometimes most productive when seen in relation to textual evidence. However, one should also be aware of the fact that some scholars, both Indian and Western, have been a little too creative in their interpretation of ancient Indian sources, in the sense that they have found evidence for advanced technologies (like gunpowder weapons or flying machines) in ancient texts, and it is advisable not to spend time on the considerable amount of pseudo-scholarship in the field. The student of ancient Indian warfare should probably start out by reading Singh 1997 (originally published in 1965), as it gives a detailed and well-organized introduction to the field, as long as one keeps in mind that new data has become available since its publication. An important point of reference in the debate about the technological basis for war in ancient India is Chakrabarti 1992, which should be followed up by reading Fitzgerald 2000. Much has been said and written about the important role of the chariot in Vedic warfare, and Sparreboom 1985 is a work for those with a special interest in the subject; it may be skipped by the general student. Krishna Murthy 1966 is a short article that makes all the Sanskrit terms for weapons of war more concrete.

Chakrabarti, Dilip K. The Early Use of Iron in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992.
A broad overview of the use of iron for, among other things, weapons in ancient India, this book finds no clear evidence for steel-making in the available literature.

Fitzgerald, James L. “Sanskrit pīta and śaikya/saikya: Two Terms of Iron and Steel Technology in the Mahābārata.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 120 (2000): 44–61.
DOI: 10.2307/604884
Offers an interpretation of certain aspects of ancient Indian metallurgical techniques for making steel from the evidence of two words used for weapons in the Mahābārata and challenges Chakrabarti 1992 on this point. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

Krishna Murthy, K. “Weapons of War in the Sculptures of Nāgārjunakoṇḍa.” Artibus Asiae 28.2–3 (1966): 211–218.
This article attempts to relate the artistic depictions of weapons at Nāgārjunakoṇḍa to the numerous references to weapons of war in classical Indian texts. It contains drawings by artists of the main weapon types at Nāgārjunakoṇḍa. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

Singh, Sarva Daman. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1997.
This is a valuable attempt to put together archaeological and textual evidence from the Vedic period in order to explore the basic technologies and organizational forms of ancient Indian warfare. Of particular value is Singh’s discussion of chariots and horses. Originally published in 1965.

Sparreboom, Marcus. Chariots in the Veda. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1985.
This is a doctoral dissertation from the University of Leiden dealing with the important subject of chariots in Vedic warfare and society in general. Originally published in 1983.


Violence (Hiṃsā) and Non-Violence (Ahiṃsā)

Ahiṃsā has been an important topic to many scholars and students of ancient India, and many debates about war and warfare take as their starting point the deep tension between the ideal of nonviolence and the reality of war and violence. Ahiṃsā is an important precept in several Indian religious and ethical traditions, and in ancient Indian literature we sometimes meet with attempts to resolve the basic moral problem of war. The doctrine of ahiṃsā is old, and some have argued that the idea originated in the Indus Valley civilization. Other scholars claim that ahiṃsā is connected with developments regarding the animal sacrifices that were central to the Vedic religion that dominated India around 1000–500 BCE. Others again have seen the rise of the śramaṇa movement (Buddhism, Jainism, etc.) as the main challenge to the violence of the Vedic sacrifice. The student and scholar of ancient Indian warfare may get a good grasp of these debates from Heesterman 1984, Tull 1996, Bodewitz 1999, and Halbfass 1991. Around the middle of the first millennium BCE, significant religious and philosophical transformations took place in the society centered on the Ganges plains of northern India. Movements both internal and external to the orthodox Brahmin culture challenged the practice of animal sacrifice and the beliefs that underpinned it. New philosophers claimed that the true rituals and the true sacrifices took place inside the physical body of the person who devoted himself to religious practice. The law of karma meant that acts, and violent acts in particular, had negative consequences in a future life. From this point of view, ahiṃsā was seen by many Hindus as a fundamental ingredient of right religious practice. The idea of nonviolence colored political thought in South Asia from early times. A good king would offer ahiṃsā as a way to make his subjects secure and happy, and a proclamation of nonviolent policies was thought to produce non-fear, or security (abhaya). However, the connections between the philosophical ideas of nonviolence and the ideologies of war are complex, and Clooney 2003 may be a good place to start exploring these ideas. A more general approach to Hindu ideologies of war is found in Roy 2012.

Bodewitz, Henk W. “Hindu ahiṃsā and Its Roots.” In Violence Denied: Violence, Non-violence and the Rationalization of Violence in South Asian Cultural History. Edited by Jan E. M. Houben and Karel R. van Kooij, 17–44. Brill’s Indological library 16. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1999.
This is a useful survey of the question of the origins of ahiṃsā, in particular the question of roots outside or inside the Vedic tradition. Bodewitz points in the direction of non-Vedic origins in ascetic traditions like Buddhism after considering the arguments of previous writers.

Clooney, Francis X. “Pain but Not Harm: Some Classical Resources toward a Hindu Just War Theory.” In Just War in Comparative Perspective. Edited by Paul Robinson, 109–125. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2003.
Clooney points out how sacrificial violence is justified in ancient Hinduism because it is prescribed by the Veda, while other types of killing are generally forbidden, and explores moral norms concerning violence for the warrior caste, the kṣatriyas.

Halbfass, Wilhelm. “Vedic Apologetics, Ritual Killing, and the Foundations of Ethics.” In Tradition and Reflection: Explorations in Indian Thought. By Wilhelm Halbfass, 87–129. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.
This article explores the Vedic defense of ritual violence, but it extends the analysis to throw light on the intriguing doctrine of the saṃsāramocakas, i.e., groups who believe they help people escape from their demerit and bad rebirths by killing them.

Heesterman, Jan. “Non-violence and Sacrifice.” In Proceedings of the Scandinavian Conference-Seminar of Indological Studies (Stockholm, June 1st–5th 1982). Edited by Kungl. Vitterhets, historie och antikvitets akademien, 119–127. Indologica Taurinensia 12. Turin, Italy: Edizioni Jollygrafica, 1984.
This influential article (originally a conference paper) argues that the origins of ahiṃsā are to be found in the Brahmanic sacrificial worldview and takes the Hindu tradition of vegetarianism as evidence for this hypothesis.

Roy, Kaushik. Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia: From Antiquity to the Present. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
A military historian takes a bird’s-eye view of large themes in the conceptualization of war and politics in South Asia, with a particular focus on Hinduism.

Tull, Herman W. “The Killing that Is Not Killing: Men, Cattle, and the Origins of Non-violence (ahiṃsā) in the Vedic Sacrifice.” Indo-Iranian Journal 39 (1996): 223–244.
Tull follows Heesterman 1984 in searching for the origins of ahiṃsā inside the Vedic worldview rather than in Buddhism or in other strands of the śramaṇa movement.


The King and His Authority

In classical India, the king was the person invested with the authority, the responsibility, and the right to wage war. Royal authority has been a favorite subject of many Indologists, and several aspects of this issue are very complex and still not properly understood by scholars. However, any student or scholar who wants to understand ancient Indian warfare should have a basic knowledge of classical Hindu ideas of kingship. The best way to get a grounding in this topic is probably to read what are among the most important textual sources for royal authority: the relevant passages of the Laws of Manu. An excellent translation of this foundational text is Doniger and Smith 1991. Students and scholars of ancient India will be familiar with this text already; chapters 7 and 8 in particular (pp. 128–196) should be read by anybody interested in warfare. The undergraduate student cannot be expected to read the very substantial article Gonda 1956, but it is a good place to start for the advanced student and scholar. Glucklich 1988 covers some of the same ground and should be read also with a view to the Arthaśāstra, keeping in mind that the Arthaśāstra and Dharmaśāstra contain several of the same ideas concerning the king’s use of violence. Inden 1998 is also substantial and complex and is probably most relevant to the advanced student and scholar.

Doniger, Wendy, and Brian K. Smith, trans. The Laws of Manu. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1991.
A very readable translation with a good introduction to one of the key texts about politics and society in ancient India.

Glucklich, Ariel. “The Royal Scepter (Daṇḍa) As Legal Punishment and Sacred Symbol.” History of Religions 28 (1988): 97–122.
DOI: 10.1086/463140
This is an exploration of the multivalence of the key symbol of daṇḍa and a criticism of the tendency by scholars to take daṇḍa as a simple symbol of secular military power or punishment instead of considering its great variety of religious connotations. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

Gonda, Jan. “Ancient Indian Kingship from the Religious Point of View.” Numen 3 (January 1956): 36–71.
DOI: 10.1163/156852756X00041
In a series of four very substantial and learned articles in the journal Numen, Jan Gonda explained the deeply religious nature of kingship in ancient India. The next three were Numen 3 (April 1956, pp. 122–155), 4 (January 1957, pp. 24–58), and 4 (April 1957, pp. 127–164). Available online for purchase or by subscription.

Inden, Ronald. “Ritual, Authority, and Cyclic Time in Hindu Kingship.” In Kingship and Authority in South Asia. Edited by J. F. Richards, 41–91. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Interprets the royal installation ceremony described in medieval texts and gives many details of Indian ideas about kingship. Originally published in 1978.


The Arthaśāstra

Max Müller, the great scholar of comparative philology and mythology, wrote in 1859 that India had no place in the political history of the world. Although about it was known that there was an Indian classic of political science written by a legendary author called Kauṭilya, the actual contents of the Arthaśāstra was unknown until Rudrapatnam Shamasastry published a Sanskrit edition of the text in 1909 and a translation in 1915 on the basis of a manuscript given to him by a Brahmin. It is widely recognized that this text is one of the most important sources for an understanding of ancient Indian society, and undoubtedly the most important source for any study of war in ancient India. For a long time, the standard edition and translation was the one made by R. P. Kangle in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Kangle performed an extremely important task in making this text available with a translation and a very substantial introduction. The advanced student and scholar should certainly know about Kangle’s arguments in Part III (see Kangle 1986). However, the Arthaśāstra is a difficult text with many terms that are unknown in other sources, and Patrick Olivelle has completed a new translation (Olivelle 2013) with annotations and a substantial introduction that takes into account earlier studies and offers new and convincing ideas about authorship and dating, partly on the basis of the doctoral research by Mark McClish at the University of Texas, Austin. It is a must-read for all advanced students and scholars of ancient Indian warfare and politics in general. The scholar and advanced student interested in the development of academic arguments about Kauṭilya’s dating may also be interested in Trautmann 1971.

Kangle, R. P. The Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra. 3 vols. 2d ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986.
This great work was for several decades the standard edition and translation of the Arthaśāstra. Originally published in 1960–1965.

Olivelle, Patrick, trans. King, Governance and Law in Ancient India: Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
This is now the most important translation of the Arthaśāstra and absolutely essential for an understanding of ancient Indian war.

Trautmann, Thomas R. Kauṭilya and the Arthaśāstra: A Statistical Investigation of the Authorship and Evolution of the Text. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1971.
This is an early example of the use of statistical methods to analyze ancient texts. Trautmann concluded that the work was by more than one author, that the dating of Kauṭilya to the reign of Chandragupta Maurya is untenable, and that the different sections of the work were composed in the 2nd century AD.


The Mauryas and Guptas

Between the late 7th and late 5th centuries BC, the first important territorial kingdoms were established on the plains of the river Ganges in northern India, and this was the start of the proper political history of the Indian subcontinent. This was also the time of the origins of Buddhism and numerous other religious and philosophical movements. From a large number of tribal kingdoms (janapada), there emerged sixteen dominant great tribal kingdoms (mahājanapada). The capitals of these mahājanapadas grew into large cities like Rājagṛha and Vaiśālī. During the 5th century, a new phase in Indian state formation started when Magadha, one of the mahājanapadas, initiated an aggressive policy against the others, attacking and annexing them. In a short span of time, Magadha emerged as a great empire in northeastern India. The student interested in war and politics in ancient India should start by reading Thapar 2012 (originally published in 1961), keeping in mind that the author’s dating of the Arthaśāstra cannot be maintained in the light of Olivelle’s more recent work (see Olivelle 2013, cited under Arthaśāstra). Among the rulers of Magadha, Aśoka Maurya is the most famous, for obvious reasons. He ruled over a vast empire and left behind a large number of edicts carved in rocks and pillars. These edicts give an incredibly valuable view of ancient Indian culture, including ideas and attitudes regarding politics and war. The serious student of ancient India must at some point read Aśoka’s inscriptions, and the classic presentation with commentaries is Hultzsch 1877. This should be complemented by the more recent research in Falk 2006, which places all the inscriptions in their contexts. Aśoka is important for an understanding of ancient Indian war for numerous reasons, but first of all he may be regarded as a defender of a doctrine of human dignity and human rights. The edited volume Olivelle, et al. 2012 contains a number of important new interpretations of Aśoka. After Aśoka, the Maurya kingdom declined rapidly; the next great state to arise in north India was that of the Guptas. The Gupta Empire is widely regarded as the golden age of Indian culture, and many books and articles have been written about the political system of the Guptas. Mookherji 1999 (originally published in 1943) is a useful attempt to understand Gupta political life on the basis of the Arthaśāstra, but all arguments about this text should be read in light of the introduction to Olivelle 2013, cited under the Arthaśāstra. Ali 2007 is useful in trying to understand how the vocabulary of politics in general and war in particular related to the everyday realities of the political elites during the time of the Guptas.

Ali, Daud. “Violence, Courtly Manners and Lineage Formation in Early Medieval India.” Social Scientist 35.9–10 (2007): 3–21.
Discusses the development of a new political culture and vocabulary during the Gupta period. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

Falk, Harry. Aśokan Sites and Artefacts: A Source-Book with Bibliography. Mainz am Rhein, Germany: Von Zabern, 2006.
An authority on Indian epigraphy gives a complete overview of the places and the geographical contexts of the inscriptions.

Hultzsch, Eugen. Inscriptions of Asoka. New ed. Corpus inscriptionum indicarum 1. Oxford: Clarendon, 1877.
This is the standard edition of the inscriptions of Aśoka.

Mookherji, Radha Kumud. Chandragupta Maurya and His Times. 4th ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999.
This book attempts to reconstruct the age of Chandragupta, but relies too much on Kauṭilya. Originally published in 1943.

Olivelle, Patrick, Janice Leoshko, and Himanshu Prabha Ray. Reimagining Aśoka: Memory and History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
This edited book contains many important chapters about Aśoka and the Maurya Empire. They range from the details about the edicts and the religious and political vision they expound to the uses of Aśoka in modern cultural memory.

Thapar, Romila. Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas. 3d ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077244.001.0001
This is still an important book to read because of Thapar’s discussion of Aśoka’s “policy of dhamma” and its meaning in the history of Indian politics. In later revisions, Thapar sticks to her original position regarding the connection of the Arthaśāstra to the Mauryas, and these aspects of her book must be read in light of other research that rejects this dating, like Trautmann 1971 and, more recently, Olivelle 2013 (both cited under Arthaśāstra). Originally published in 1961.


The Indo-Greeks

Alexander the Great crossed the Indus River in early 326 BC. In spring 326, he fought King Porus in the battle of the river Hydaspes, i.e., the Jhelum, a tributary of the Indus. Alexander’s conquest in today’s Afghanistan and Pakistan did not have any impact on the great contemporary Indian Nanda Empire and is not mentioned in Indian sources, but later Hellenic kingdoms in the region played an important role in the history of India after the decline of the Mauryas. In 185 BC, the last Maurya emperor was assassinated by his Hindu Brahmin general Puśyamitra. During the same years, Demetrius I of Bactria crossed the Hindu Kush mountains, conquered ancient cities like Taxila, and started his military campaigning into India. William Tarn believed (Tarn 2010, originally published in 1938) that this campaign ended in Menander’s taking the Indian capital of Pataliputra, far to the east on the plains of the Ganges, but Narain 2003 (originally published in 1957) argued that hard evidence is lacking. Civil wars in Bactria, in one of which Demetrius was killed, were a main reason why Greek military advancement into northern India did not last. Widemann 2007 gives a detailed account of these conflicts, to a large extent based on numismatic evidence. Coinage is a key source of historical evidence for the Indo-Greeks. The Greeks from the northeast, or Yavanas as they were called in India, were discussed as evil invaders in Indian sources, but ancient Indian texts often are ambiguous as historical records. However, the student should start by reading Narain 2003, the standard work. Although superseded on several points by new evidence, the author still gives the best introduction to the subject.

Davids, T. W. Rhys, trans. The Questions of King Milinda. Oxford: Clarendon, 1890.
Originally published in Pali. This text (available online in several places) is not about war or politics, but it is a fascinating record of a philosophical dialogue between the Indo-Greek king Menander and the Buddhist sage Nagasena.

Narain, A. K. The Indo-Greeks: Revisited and Supplemented. New Delhi: B. R. Publishing, 2003.
This is a classic book about the Indo-Greeks that cautions against drawing too bold conclusions about the real impact of the Bactrian kings on India. Narain claims that the Bactrian Greeks were descendants of Greek colonists before Alexander’s invasion. Originally published in 1957.

Tarn, William W. The Greeks in Bactria and India. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511707353
This is something of a classic, but has several faults and should be read primarily as an inspiring introduction to the subject of the Indo-Greeks. Originally published in 1938.

Widemann, Francois. “Civil Wars and Alliances in Bactria and North-Western India after the Usurpation of King Eucratides.” East and West 57.1–4 (2007): 9–28.
Detailed analysis of the complex history of the Greek civil wars in Bactria in the 2nd century BC. Available online for purchase or by subscription.


The Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa

The Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa are timeless classics of world literature. The Mahābhārata is an epic poem of around 100,000 verses in classical Sanskrit that was composed, edited, and reedited over many centuries between 500 BC and 400 AD, or even longer. The verses are divided into eighteen books, or parvans in Sanskrit. Although the Mahābhārata is the most important mythological and religious work in Indian literature, it is not a sacred book. The Vedas are technically revelation, while the Mahābhārata belongs to the class of smriti, i.e., what has been remembered and handed down as opposed to revealed. Moreover, the Mahābhārata is a work of (legendary) history, or itihasa in Sanskrit. It is a vast storehouse of myths and stories where the main narrative theme is the conflict and great war between two groups of cousins, the sons of Dhṛtaraṣṭra (called the Kauravas) and the sons of Paṇḍu (called the Pāṇḍavas), all of whom are descendants of the mythic ancestor, Bharata. For students and scholars interested in ancient Indian warfare, it is a good idea to read extracts from the great work, and one may start by looking at Book 6, Bhīṣma Parvan, of which the famous Bhagavad Gita is a part. This has been translated several times, but the highly accessible and very good translation in the Clay Sanskrit Library (Cherniak 2009) can be recommended. Several important academic expositions of the epic discuss the war as an eschatological conflict at the end of time or as a universal sacrifice. Are expressions like “raṇayajña” to be construed in the literal sense (a war that is a sacrifice) or in a metaphorical sense (a war that is like a sacrifice)? According to Jatavallabhula 1999, we should opt for the literal interpretation and treat the Mahābhārata war as a great sacrifice at a time of crisis. Hiltebeitel is also concerned with the theme. In spite of criticism, both scholars and advanced students should read Hiltebeitel 1976, an edited version of the author’s PhD thesis, and several of his journal articles about the Mahābhārata, but they should also look at reviews of his work. For the scholar and advanced student interested in the mythic characters of the epic, McGrath 2004 will be of interest. To get a glimpse into the Rāmāyaṇa and its warrior ideals, it is a good idea to start by looking at Book 6 (Yuddhakāṇḍa), and Goldman et al. 2009 is recommended. Brockington 1985 should be read by the advanced student as a background to the epic.

Brockington, John L. Righteous Rāma: The Evolution of an Epic. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985.
This important book about the Rāmāyaṇa is an argument about the historical evolution of the epic, but it contains a great deal of highly relevant information concerning ideas about war and warfare.

Cherniak, Alex, trans. Mahābhārata VI: Bhīṣma (Bhīṣmaparvan). 2 vols. Clay Sanskrit Library 37, 47. New York: New York University Press, 2009.
Following the example of the Loeb Classical Library, this series of texts contains English translations with transliterated Sanskrit on the facing pages. It is a large series with many contributors, and the books are highly readable. The second volume of this work is Volume 47 of the Clay Sanskrit Library series. Available online.

Goldman, Robert P., Sally J. Sutherland Goldman, and Barend A. van Nooten, trans. The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India. Vol. 6, Yuddhakāṇḍa. 2 vols. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.
This part of the epic is mostly devoted to intense battle scenes between the hero, Rāma, and his allies and the demon Rāvaṇa and his army.

Hiltebeitel, Alf. The Ritual of Battle: Krishna in the Mahābhārata. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1976.
Continuing the approach of Georges Dumézil, Hiltebeitel approaches the Mahābhārata in an Indo-European comparative light.

Jatavallabhula, Danielle Feller. “Raṇayajña: The Mahābhārata War As a Sacrifice.” In Violence Denied: Violence, Non-violence and the Rationalization of Violence in South Asian Cultural History. Edited by Jan E. M. Houben and Karel R. van Kooij, 69–103. Brill’s Indological library 16. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1999.
Jatavallabhula takes on a theme that always has interested scholars of the Mahābhārata: what does it really mean when the great war is described as a sacrifice?

McGrath, Kevin. The Sanskrit Hero: Karṇa in Epic Mahabharata. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2004.
Karṇa is a tragic hero in the Mahābhārata, but had received less attention than many other heroes until McGrath’s monograph about him. McGrath claims that Karṇa is the most important and most archaic hero, retaining many of the Aryan warrior ideals.


Warfare in Early Buddhism and Jainism

One must include the rise of Buddhism and Jainism in the discussion of ancient Indian warfare. It is a common mistake to see Buddhism and Jainism as inherently peaceful religions, and surprisingly many scholars take such an idea for granted without looking into the details of how Buddhist and Jaina ideas, symbols, and institutions have interacted with political institutions and practices through the centuries. In fact, Buddhist and Jaina symbolism and narrative have been employed to give enemies of the state evil qualities. A foreign people, or a minority residing within the borders of a religious state, can be represented as the host of Māra or as threats against a righteous order, a dharmarājya. Schmithausen 1999 and Gethin 2007 are excellent places to start for the student who wants to understand Buddhist attitudes to war. Demiéville 2010 (originally published in French) is chiefly concerned with later Mahayana Buddhism of East Asia. However, it does contain references to early Buddhism and has become a standard point of reference for other studies of Buddhism and war, and it is therefore relevant to students of ancient Indian warfare. For a study of Jain attitudes to war, Dundas 2007 is the natural starting point.

Demiéville, Paul. “Buddhism and War.” In Buddhist Warfare. Edited by Michael K. Jerryson and Mark Juergensmeyer. Translated by Michelle Kendall, 17–57. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394832.001.0001
This article, originally published in 1957 as “Le bouddhisme et la guerre: Post-scriptum à l’Histoire des moines guerriers du Japon de G. Renondeau,” has become a classic.

Dundas, Paul. “The Non-violence of Violence: Jain Perspectives on Warfare, Asceticism and Worship.” In Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice. Edited by John R. Hinnells and Richard King, 39–58. New York: Routledge, 2007.
A leading expert on Jainism explains why it makes perfect sense that Jainism, a religion famous for its doctrine of nonviolence, should be a popular religious tradition that appealed to a warrior aristocracy in ancient India.

Gethin, Rupert. “Buddhist Monks, Buddhist Kings, Buddhist Violence: On the Early Buddhist Attitudes to Violence.” In Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice. Edited by John R. Hinnells and Richard King, 59–78. New York: Routledge, 2007.
Important chapter about early Buddhism and violence.

Schmithausen, Lambert L. “Aspects of the Buddhist Attitude towards War.” In Violence Denied: Violence, Non-violence and the Rationalization of Violence in South Asian Cultural History. Edited by Jan E. M. Houben and Karel R. van Kooij, 45–67. Brill’s Indological library 16. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1999.
Useful short overview of the basic attitude of early Buddhism to war. The author also looks briefly at some of the most important transformations in later Buddhism.