The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.233

c2.s5.233

Over against this view of the large four-horse chariot, we have the simpler picture of a two-horse car, small in size, containing only the knight and one attendant, the charioteer. This car was much smaller, and, indeed, Homeric; for, as in the Iliad one man seeks to pick up and run away with a chariot, so we find here a knight attempting to lift a war-car alone out of a morass. Outside of the war proper we find the chariot-duel.‡ Of course impromptu meetings of two chariots and the subsequent strife between the occupants are of frequent occurrence in the battle scenes;§ but it is significant that, apart from the field of actual battle, a king proposes in one of the early books to recover his kingdom by instituting ‘a duel in chariots’ between his adversary and himself, the result of which shall establish peace.‖