War in Ancient India c6.s6.9

c6.s6.9

Another interesting feature is a procession of maskers and soldiers. The men are of the Himalayan region, wearing dress and armour apparently made of leather used in that region in the time of Kaniṣka about 100 A.D. The arrangement of the scales of the armour with the curved ends uppermost, bears resemblance to similar discoveries by Stein in Khotan.¹³² We owe much to Cunningham and Fergusson for a critical study of the sculptures of Sāñchī and other places. There is a vivid representation of the operations of a siege in one of the reliefs.¹³³ The equipment of the soldiers is a tight-fitting dress and quilt. All have their swords hung on their left side. Apparently the swords are short, but very broad; bows and arrows are invariably found in the hands of the foot-soldiers. There are eleven topes in Sāñchī; and proceeding further we see that every pillar in every tope has some historical incident or other that is full of interest to us. Sieges and triumphal processions may be said to be a regular feature of the whole.