Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.56

c14.56

But, apart from cattle, the really characteristic domesticated animal of the Aryans was the horse. From the descriptions of the colouring of horses in the *Rigveda*, Ridgeway concluded that they had chestnut heads and backs, shading off into dun on the lower parts of the body, in the manner of the wild horse of the steppes known as Przewalski’s horse, and that they were of Mongolian or Upper Asiatic stock. They seem to have been kept in stalls on occasion at least, and were hobbled when put out to graze. Stallions were sometimes gelded, but mares were especially used as draught animals in war-chariots, and riding seems to have been very exceptional and never formed a technique of warfare. This may well have been partly due to the fact that the invention of stirrups seems to come unaccountably late in the development of horse-harness, and that a secure seat for a fighting man could hardly be attained without them. Military cavalry was known to the Assyrians and the Achaemenids, and the invention of stirrups must be an ancient oriental contribution to horsemanship. In India stirrup-loops appear on carvings of the second century B.C. at Sanchi in the Deccan and on an engraved copper vessel of rather later date from North India, but in any case their adoption must have been long after the early Aryan phase.