The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.294

c2.s5.294

† (rathān) īṣāmukhān dvitriveṇūn nyastadaṇḍakabandhurān, vijaṅghākūbarāṁs tatra vinemidaçanān api; vicakropaskaropasthān bhagapokaraṇān api, prapātitopastaraṇān, vii. 36. 31 ff. The commentator does not touch the words given above; those not given here are discussed in their place. Daçana (see P. W.) for dañçana? Its close connection with the wheel and all parts of the car would seem to refute ‘harness’ as a proper translation. From its literal meaning one is tempted to bring daçana into connection with the ‘hook’ sense of aṅkāu and nyaṅkāu, and imagine a tooth or hook on the wheels. But scythes or their equivalents seem not to have been used, or they would have played a part in the descriptions; and they can not be proved for either the Vedic or Epic age. Rājendralāla devotes himself to the proof for Vedic times, but the one passage quoted proves nothing. The aṅkāu and nyaṅkāu, ‘which run along with the wind on each side of the war-car,’ could easily by themselves be taken thus; they are by implication the protectors of the car, and abhito ratham (yāu dhvāntaṁ vātāram anu saṁcarantāu) means loosely ‘found on each side’ (not part of the side), as in Mbh. iv. 64. 33, ratharakṣiṇaḥ çerate . . abhito ratham, ‘lie on each side of the car,’ or as sharp protecting pieces fastened to the side; but this passage from Pār. G. S. iii. 14. 6 is not definite enough at the best to allow of its being used as an argument on the point.