The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.438

v1.c10.438

According to the *Ṛgveda*, the most ancient instrument for calling troops together or conveying orders to them or exciting them to valorous deeds was the drum. Thus : “War drum, fill with your sound both heaven and earth; and let all things, fixed or moveable be aware of it; do thou, who art associated with Indra and the gods, drive away our foes to the remotest distance. Sound loud against the (hostile) host: animate our prowess: thunder aloud, terrifying the evil-minded: repel, drum, those whose delight it is to harm us: thou art the first of Indra; inspire us with fierceness. Recover these our cattle, Indra; bring them back: the drum sounds repeatedly as a signal: our leaders, mounted on their steeds, assemble; may our warriors, riding on their cars, Indra, be victorious”.²¹⁷ But Vyāsa, in the *Mahābhārata*, does not allude to it. He replaces it by *pāñcajanya*, and other forms of conch shells, with which the heroes of the Great War of Kurukṣetra rallied their several *corps d’armée*.²¹⁸ The conch shell, however, was not unknown in the time of the *Ṛgveda*, and Kutsa refers to “those appliances with which the Aśvins sound the conch-shell in the battle for their share of the booty”.²¹⁹