Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.57

c14.57

The Aryan horses seem to have been used essentially as chariot-animals, whether in warfare, as described later on, or for chariot-racing, which was a favourite sport. It seems to have been indulged in purely for amusement and for prizes (except on a few formal religious occasions, such as the royal consecration), and the race took place along a course to a mark round which the chariots turned and came back again - the aikavartana and so forth of the Mitannian Guide to the Turf mentioned above. Such a race-course is presumably the ancestor of the Roman *circus* and the Greek στάδιον such as that at Olympia, where a race with ridden horses was first introduced as a novelty in the middle of the seventh century B.C., though chariot-racing still remained popular. One is reminded too of the ancient Celtic horse-races at the Fair of Carman and the other assemblies in Dark-Age Ireland.