War in Ancient India c6.s6.t2.10

c6.s6.t2.10

A beautiful sculptural representation of Būtuga slaying the Choḷa Rājāditya by stabbing him with a dagger, short but with a broad and curved blade of fine steel,¹⁵⁵ is noticed in a plate in *Epigraphia Carnatica* copied in Pura in the Mandya Taluk and of the date Śaka 1339.¹⁵⁶ Here one notices the high wavy sword with sharp points. There is another kind of sword resembling a flexible band, sometimes used as a belt apparently of leather. The weapon in No. 2 seems to be more rigid. Nos. 4 and 5 are copied from Varuṇa in the Mysore Taluk and are much earlier than the above, probably 960 A.D. Here the retainers are seen armed with cutlasses. There in the Middle Ages was a peculiar practice in South India of erecting Vīragals or memorial stones. Such memorial stones are even now found in great numbers in Southern India.