The Kural or the Maxims of Tiruvalluvar/Chapter 75
CHAPTER 75
FORTRESSES
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.
746. That is the real fortress which is filled with stores of every kind and which is garrisoned by men that will make a brave defence.
747. That is the veritable fortress which cannot be reduced whether by a regular siege or by storm or even by mining.
748. That is the veritable fortress which enableth the garrison to defeat the besiegers even when they exert their utmost against it.
749. That is the veritable fortress which hath been rendered impregnable by works of various kinds, and which enableth the defenders to fell down their adversaries even at the outermost enceintes.
750. But however strong a fortress may be, it will avail nothing if the defenders show not vigour in action.
