State and Government in Ancient India c16.84

c16.84

We may refer briefly to the weapons used by soldiers. They were bows and arrows, spears, battle-axes, knives tridents, maces, etc. Someśvara refers to weapons impelled by machines (*yantramuktāyudha*), but their nature is not known. The firearms are mentioned only in the *Śukranīti* in some later passages. The earliest reference to their use in India perhaps occurs in Vijayanagar inscriptions of the 14th century A. D. (*E. C.*, VIII, p. 81, l. 282).