Vedic Laws of War

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The Laws of War

 

When society became organized and a warrior caste (Kshatriya) came

into being, it was felt that the members of this caste should be

governed by certain humane laws, the observance of which, it was

believed, would take them to heaven, while their non-observance would

lead them into hell. In the post Vedic epoch, and especially before

the epics were reduced to writing, lawless war had been supplanted,

and a code had begun to govern the waging of wars. The ancient law-

givers, the reputed authors of the Dharmasutras and the

Dharmasastras, codified the then existing customs and usages for the

betterment of mankind. Thus the law books and the epics contain

special sections on royal duties and the duties of common warriors.

 

It is a general rule that kings were chosen from among the Kshatriya

caste. In other words, a non-Ksatriya was not qualified to be a king.

And this is probably due to the fact that the kshatriya caste was

considered superior to others in virtue of its material prowess.

Though the warrior's code enjoins that all the Ksatriyas should die

on the field of battle, still in practice many died a peaceful death.

There is a definite ordinance of the ancient law books prohibiting

the warrior caste from taking to asceticism. Action and renunciation

is the watch-word of the Ksatriya. The warrior was not generally

allowed to don the robes of an ascetic. But Mahavira and Gautama

protested against these injunctions and inaugurated an order of monks

or sannyasins. When these dissenting sects gathered in strength and

numbers, the decline of Ksatriya valor set in. Once they were

initiated into a life of peace and prayer, they preferred it to the

horrors of war. this was a disservice that dissenting sects did to

the cause of ancient India.

 

When a conqueror felt that he was in a position to invade the

foreigner's country, he sent an ambassador with the message: 'Fight

or submit.' More than 5000 years ago India recognized that the person

of the ambassador was inviolable. This was a great service that

ancient Hinduism rendered to the cause of international law. It was

the religious force that invested the person of the herald or

ambassador with an inviolable sanctity in the ancient world. The

Mahabharata rules that the king who killed an envoy would sink into

hell with all his ministers.