Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/73

Rh win victory in battles. Every able-bodied man was a warrior and was ever prepared to defend his home and his fields and his cattle with his strong right arm. Every Hindu colony or tribe, while attentive to the worship of the gods and to the cultivation of the various arts of peace, was at the same time alive to the fact that its national existence depended on constant readiness for war. And the great conglomeration of Hindu tribes, which spread from the banks of the Indus to the banks of the Sarasvati, consisted of hardy, brave, and warlike peoples who maintained their footing in the land and their independence and national existence by constant struggles and a determination to win or die.