Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.106

c14.106

Representations in Assyria of first millennium date show that bowmen in chariots used a composite bow: its shorter form would be an advantage over the longer simple bow. It is on the whole likely that composite bows of horn and sinew were invented in the Asiatic steppe and may have formed part of the early Indo-European armoury. Such bows may, in fact, have been used by the Aryans in India. Whatever the type, it was a well-loved weapon, with the twang of the bow-string sounding in the warrior's ear like a woman's endearments -