Page:The Kural or The Maxims Of Tiruvalluvar.pdf/214



741. Fortresses are helpful to the weak who are thinking only of their defence : but they are also no less helpful to the strong and powerful.

742. Water-courses, deserts, mountains, and thick jungles, all these constitute various kinds of defensive barriers.

743. Height, thickness, strength, and impregnability, these are the four requisites that Science demandeth of fortresses.

744. That is the best fortress which is vulnerable in very few places but at the same time is spacious, and which is capable of breaking the assaults of those that attempt to take it.

745. Impregnability, facility of defence for the garrison, and abundance of provisions inside, these are the essential requisites of the fortress. Rh