The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.245

c2.s5.245

∗ vi. 78. 22; scene repeated in vii. 30. 7. The expression for dismounting or tumbling out of a car is *avatīrya rathāt, rathād avaplutya, plutaḥ syandanāt*: vii. 3. 8; viii. 90. 105; vi. 59. 89; 86. 35; vii. 31. 24. One descends from the front apparently in R. vi. 111. 55 (*avatīrya vimānāgrāt*: unless the *agra* be a pointed rear, which seems impossible). In xii. 38. 13, *rathāt paścād avātarat*, the adverb is temporal. The ordinary mount appears to be from the side or back. Climbing into another’s car is illustrated by vi. 48. 95 ff. (cf. 79 ff.): 78. 22; 82. 20 (father and son); 113. 18 (‘with bow destroyed, deprived of war-car, his horses slain, his driver slain, he hastily mounted the car of Citrasena’); vii. 30. 7. In vi. 58. 9 ff., the two stand and shoot together at the foe after Sātyaki ascends Abhimanyu’s car. Arjuna even seizes his son in his arms and lifts him into the car. The words employed are about the same, but not technicalities of driving, apparently. *Āruroha, adhiruroha, abhi-, āsthāya, upāruh, pratyapadyanta*, are all used for mounting; *avaruh, pratyavaruh, avaplutya* for dismounting (*yānād avaplutya*, viii. 61. 44; *avaruhya yānād*, 84. 24). *Avaplutya* has also the technical sense in fighting of retiring: thus, a knight, knowing his sword is broken, retires six paces (*avaplutya padāni ṣaṭ*, vii. 14. 74), but *āplutya* (eight paces, vii. 15. 28) is ‘advancing.’