INTRODUCTIONfor the military potential of the chakravartin was enough for the
maintenance of universal dominance. Many such empires rose and fell in
ancient India, the last being the Gupta empire which embodied all the
splendour and the problems of this type of ancient Indian political
organisation. One important impact of these empires was the
dissemination of information about the art of governance, the style of
royal or imperial courts, the methods of warfare and the maintenance of
an agrarian base. Even though the internal administrative penetration of
the various provinces of the ancient empires was negligible, the spread of
information certainly was not. At the time of the Maurya empire many
parts of India were still so inaccessible that there were natural limits to this
spread of information, but by the time of the great Indian campaigns of the
Gupta emperors almost all regions of India were receptive to the imperial
message. Thus when the empire broke up and India’s ancient period drew
to an end, numerous regional states arose which set the pattern for India’s
medieval history. These were concentric states with a royal centre in the
core region and a periphery in which the influence of competitors also
made itself felt. Intense competition among such concentric states
stimulated the political penetration which was so ephemeral in the far-
flung empires of the ancient period. A uniform court culture spread to all
parts of India. The Islamic rulers who invaded India did contribute new
features to this pattern, but to a large extent the rulers were assimilated.
Their court culture had a different religious base but it functioned in a way
similar to that of the Hindu rulers whom they displaced.
The modern period of Indian history begins with the Mughal empire
which was comparable in size with some of the ancient Indian empires but
was totally different from them in its internal structure. It was a highly
centralised state based on the extensive control of land revenue and of a
military machine which could rival that of contemporary European states.
In fact, the size of the machine was the reason for the final collapse of this
empire which could not meet its financial needs. This was then achieved by
the British who conquered the remnants of this empire and continued its
administrative tradition and made it much more effective.
CHARIOTS, ELEPHANTS AND THE
METHODS OF WARFARE
The course of Indian history which has been briefly sketched here was
deeply affected by changes in the methods of warfare. The Aryan
warriors relied on their swift chariots which made them militarily
superior to the indigenous people but could, of course, also be used for
incessant warfare among themselves. Chariots did not lend themselves to
monopolisation by a centralised power. But the war elephants on which
imperial Magadha based its military strength were ideal supporters of a