The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.231

c2.s5.231

∗ Drawn from Zimmer's *Alt. Leben*, pp. 298 ff. † The regular divisions of the later schemes will be found Ag. P. 248. 1 ff.; see Wilson iv. 292 ff. According to this, the whole body of arms falls into five classes: 1. *yantramukta*; 2. *pāṇimukta*; 3. *muktāmukta*; 4. *amukta*; 5. natural weapons, fists, etc.; and fuller theoretical accounts of still later origin may be found in Oppert's publications, where also the Hindu gun, cannon, and other quite modern arms are described in Sanskrit verses even later than Kāmandaki's. To Mbh. i. 221. 72 (quoted above, p. 111) the commentator defines *catuṣpāda* (applied with *daçavidha* to the *dhanurveda*) as *mantramukta*, *pāṇimukta*, *muktāmukta*, *amukta*, giving only four scheduled classes, for here we have ten sorts (*vidha*) of fighting, and four kinds of weapons as the ‘feet;’ while the Agni Purāṇa gives the ‘four feet’ as kinds of fighters (chariot, elephant, horse, and foot), the (five) ‘sorts’ as the arms explained above. ‡ Bezzenberger, quoted by Zimmer, loc. cit., 251. The related *aṅkuça* means hook or guard: compare the use of *kaṅkaṭa*, vii. 187. 47: *nyaṅkāu* with *aṅkāu* in Pār. G. S. iii. 14. 6. § Pār. G. S. iii. 14. 13, *stambha*.