India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c12.s3.5

c12.s3.5

ARMS—The general term for weapons is *praharaṇa* (IV.4.57), also mentioned in the *Arthaśāstra*. Of names of weapons mention is made of bow (*dhanush*, III.2.21), spear (*śakti*, IV.4.59), battle-axe (*paraśvadha*, IV.4.58), long and short lances (*kāsū* and *kāsūtarī*, V.3.90; *hrasvā kāsūḥ kāsūtarī; kāsūriti śaktirāyudhaviśesha uchyate, Kāśikā*) a special kind of missile called *heti* (III.3.97), and sword (*asi*; also called *kauksheyaka* from its scabbard or *kukshi*, IV.2.96). Short lances were effectively used in ancient cavalry units of the Scythians and Parthians both on their advancing and retreating tactics. In the army led by Xerxes against Hellas, the Gandhārians are described by Herodotus as bearing short spears, which seem to have been *kāsūtarī* (Raychaudhury, *Polit. Hist.*, 1950, p. 242). A bow was also called *kārmuka*, which Pāṇini derives from *karman* or action in the field (V.1.103). Sāyaṇa derives it from *kṛimuka*, name of a tree (*Śatapatha*, VI.6.2.11). According to Kauṭilya a *kārmuka* bow was made of the wood of *tāla* or palmyra tree (*Arth.*, II.10, p. 102). This agrees with Pāṇini who also refers to a bow made of *tāla*, and itself called *tāla* (*Tālād dhanushi*, IV.3.152, *tālaṁ dhanuḥ*; also mentioned in the *Mahābhārata* *tālamayaṁ dhanuḥ*). Pāṇini mentions a specially big kind of bow called *maheshvāsa* (VI.2.38). According to Kauṭilya a bow was equal to five cubits or seven and a half feet (*Arth.*, X.5, p. 372). This appears to have been the size of the big bows called *maheshvāsa* in Pāṇini and known much earlier. The Indian soldiers under Puru in the battle of the Vitastā are stated by the Greeks to have used long bows, one end of which rested on the ground and was held by the archer's foot, who shot with its string long and heavy arrows with such force as no breast-plate could withstand.