War in Ancient India c7.s1.t4.42

c7.s1.t4.42

This Jātaka throws some light on the view sometimes held that there were no fire-weapons in ancient India. Certain Greek writers state that Indian elephants did not face the discharge of flaming missiles, and it has been argued from this that the animals shied thus, because they had not been used to fire-weapons of any kind, there having been none in India.⁶⁷ But the circumstances noticed by the Greek writers seem to be capable of a more reasonable explanation, viz., that these writers speak from their experience of merely exceptional occurrences in which the severity of attack on the animals was greater than could have been borne by elephants of any place whatsoever. Thus the elephant in the Jātaka wavered because the shower of missiles discharged at the animal was exceptionally heavy—not because any fiery arm was thrown at it.⁶⁸