War in Ancient India c6.s4.10

c6.s4.10

Among the thirty-two Mukta and Amukta weapons, Kauṭalya, as we have seen, mentions the Śakti, the Prāsa, Kunta, Bhindipāla, Tomara, bows and arrows, Paraśu, Paṭṭiśa, Cakra, Mudgara, Gadā, and the Śataghnī. The other nineteen are not mentioned. But he gives different kinds of weapons, the Hāṭaka, the Śūla, the Varāhakarṇa (another form of Prāsa), the Kaṇaya (a metallic rod), the Karpaṇa (an arrow that can go one hundred hastas in length), the Trāsika (a rod with three edges), the Kuthāra (a small one with one edge), the Khanitra (a spade), the Kuddāla and the Kāṇḍacchedana, the Yantrapāṣāṇa (stones thrown by machines), the Goṣpa-ṇapāṣāṇa (stones thrown by rod), the Muṣṭipāṣāṇa, the Rocanī, and stones, besides 27 kinds of movable and immovable machines. Apparently the other weapons mentioned in the Nītiprakāśikā had gone out of use by the time of Kauṭalya.¹⁰²