War in Ancient India c7.s1.t3.4

c7.s1.t3.4

Each chariot was marked off by its ensign and banner. Though a reference is made to the position of the flag-staff in a car,36 its exact place is only a matter of conjecture. It may be, as Hopkins thinks, that a staff was fixed at the back of the chariot rising aloft from the floor. The main staff was fixed in the middle of this back portion and small flags flew on either side. It must be remembered that the first object of attack by the enemy’s arrows was the flag pole, which was made of bamboo, if *vaiṇavī yaṣṭi*37 means anything. If the banner fell, the hero lost his prestige and there arose confusion in the rank and file. On the top of the staff was placed the *dhvaja* or *ketu* bearing an image. Whether *dhvaja* and *ketu* were one and the same thing, or the *ketu* formed a part of the *dhvaja*, it is not possible to say. The *dhvaja* came to be so important that the army went by the name of *dhvajinī*.³⁸ The symbols were either animals or trees and flowers. Bhīṣma’s ensign was the palm. Bells and garlands sometimes adorned the flag.³⁹