The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.349.2

v1.c10.349.2

The horny bows made of the horns of the buffaloe, the Śarabha and the Rohisa are good. Bows are also made of sandal wood, ratan, the *sāl* wood, the Dhavana, (a kind of *Hedysarum*) and the Kakubha (*Pentapterā arjuna*). But the bow made of bamboos which grow in the Śaraṭ or clear season of autumn, and which are cut and taken at that time, is the best of all. Bows and scimitars are to be worshipped by repeating *mantras* capable of fascinating the three regions Svarga, Martya and Pātāla". The most remarkable fact in the above extract is that the elastic bomboo is most extolled. The black iron was probably steel, and the other metals were used as ornaments; they are too inelastic to form a bow themselves. The horny bow was greatly esteemed, and Viṣṇu claims it as especially his own. Homer refers to the horny bow in the 110th verse of the 4th book of the Iliad, and Arnold thus explains it: *Kai ta men—têkton*. The horn worker wrought (*a'skisas*) the horns, and fitted (*i'rare, aro, apto*, D.