War in Ancient India c6.s5.19

c6.s5.19

It would be interesting to close this section with the remark that with the progress in metal culture and advance in civilisation, effective methods of warfare were also developed. If we go far back in time, we find that the primitive tribes used weapons made of stone and wood. We find in the *Rāmāyaṇa* that the monkey tribes, which may be considered one of the most ancient tribes in India, used trees and stones as implements. The civilized man just emanating from the life of a hunter used bows and arrows in war. Stones and stone weapons were in use continuously for thousands of years. Then bronze came into large use, and gave an advantage in warfare to those tribes who first obtained it.¹²⁷ In the Chalcolithic period as borne out by the numerous archaeological finds in the Indus valley, and much earlier, as is seen in the epoch of the Ṛg Veda Samhitā, copper and bronze had come to supersede stone. Though there was a large use of bronze for purposes of making implements of war, stone weapons continued to be used.