India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s13.3

c8.s13.3

We have already referred to various kinds of chariots (IV.3.122) drawn by different animals, as horse, camel, ass or bull, who must have been yoked in even numbers as two, four, etc. In addition to them sometimes a leader was yoked in front and called *prashṭha* (*Prashṭho' gragāmini*, VIII.3.92), for which the Vedic term was *prashṭi*, the epithet *prashṭivāhana* or *prashṭivāhin* being used for such a chariot (*Vedic Index*, II.42). In Bharhut, Sanchi and Mathurā sculptures, the chariots are drawn only by two or four horses or bulls, with-out a *prashṭha*.