Top Military Commanders of India

There is a long list of emperors who ruled India from different regions. Some of them ruled for long and controlled almost whole of India. Some did not get time to consolidate but still recognized for their military organization. Let us try to form the list of the Bests.

Please , remember only military organization and success are to be counted, not personal valors or nationalism etc. Come with logic , rather than my favourite this and that etc...

In my opinion strongest contenders for the first post are Samudragupta and Ala-ud-din Khilji. There is no need to say about Samudragupta. Allahabad Inscription of Harisena testifies military success and statesmanship to consolidate that success. But I object calling him 'Nepolion of India'. Samudragupta never lost a battle in his life time but Nepolion did.

Ala-ud-din Khilji not only defeated most of the North Indian and Deccan rulers but drove back the Mongols too. He made a drastic change in his military organization, improved defense of north-west frontier and employed effective strategy to defeat the opponent.

Now, who should be number one needs a lot of discussion. A through analysis of many aspects.

The other important rulers who were militarily successful are Chandragupta Mourya ( No.3), Asoka, Chandragupta II, Devapala,Akbar, Babur etc. There are many Deccan Kings who did not came to Aryavarta to expand their empire but were no less in Military organization.

Please contribute to construct a list of l0 from ancient India to starting of British Era.

Regards,

Top Military Commander of India?

In my opinion, Chandragupta Maurya, for defeating the Seleucid Greeks in Punjab and Afghanistan, and being the first to unite India under one government.

The second place should belong either to Shivaji Bhonsle or Babur, you decide which.

In My opinion number one should be Ashoka the great and then comes Shivaji .

There are many rulers who had better military success and organization than Shivaji. I will put Rajendra Chola much ahead of him...

Babur was not Indian. He plundered India many times and eventually went back to central Asia where he came from. Moreover, he was a fanatic and religious zealot. Aurangzeb considered Babur to be his spiritual ideal throughout his murderous reign of suppressing Indian religions and spreading Islam by force.

The top military commander from western India would probably be Shivaji and Baji Rao I.

I voted for these two rulers because they both rose from adversity. Ashoka was not supposed to be the King and had to go through a great deal to become king Similarly Shivaji also built his empire from scratch. Having an army and leading is a lot diffrent from building an army and then leading it .

I think it is difficult and probably not fair to say who was the best over such a long time.

Kanishka
Samudragupta
Chandragupta
Vikramaditya
Harshavardhan
Ashoka
Sher Shah Suri
Akbar
Shivaji
Haider Ali
Tipu Sultan

Some that i could think of as great generals.

Sam Manekshaw. It's surprising nobody mentioned him.

He is out of the time frame...up to British era...............the monarch only.........

Sorry, I skipped that bit. Well, in that case it's Emperor Ashoka, for maintaining a much larger empire than the Mughals (size of the empire reflects upon one's merit in the military).

Tantia Tope is another one.

jhansi ki rani laxmi bai,chand biwi

In the recent History of Modern INDIAN MILITARY, the best Commander is FIELD MARSHAL MANIK SHAW. He was the master-mind of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, which the INDIANS won hands-down and thanks to the great work and co-operation of the INDIAN AIR- FORCE, without whom the VICTORY was not easily achievable.

Dudes the list would be incomplete without rana pratap,& pazhassi raja ...pazhassi raja was the master of guerilla warfare who thundered east india company by many of his successful ambushes over british army ....

Some Sikh Military Commanders :


During Sikh rule/struggle of Punjab region:

Banda Singh Bahadur (http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist...ors/banda.html)

Nawab Kapur Singh (http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist...ors/kapur.html)

Hari Singh Nalua (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Singh_Nalwa)


In Indian Army:

Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuldip_Singh_Chandpuri)

I apologize for missing so many others. These names come to my mind right now. List will go on and on ..... :emot159: