The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.309

c2.s5.309

We find the king of the Pāṇḍus acting the part of a driver beside the regular charioteer.* The art of the driver consisted not alone in driving well and fast, and keeping the car straight, for this indeed was but the foundation of his science. His true art consisted in wheeling and turning, in bringing the car rapidly about, so as to attack the antagonist with such speed from all quarters that the chariot seemed to advance from all sides at once. Reference has been made to this art in the paragraph on the battle-orders. The circumstances in which the knight or his driver exercises his skill are always the same, either to escape surrounding on the part of the foe or to surround. The names of the circles are apparently technical, in as great a degree as technicalities can be predicated of the transparent battle-terms employed. We have seen the ‘right’ and ‘left’ circles spoken of: that is, the ‘circle,’ maṇḍala, is the regular term for the evolution, to which we have added either yamaka, ‘the double wheel,’ or ‘left’ and ‘right,’ distributively. Either of the latter is, again, called a ‘crescent,’ ardhacandra. The Rāmāyaṇa, in a doubtful passage, uses the words vīthī and sarpagati as if a technical sense, like maṇḍala, corresponding to (yuddha-)mārga, and it may be that in the Mahābhārata also these words have escaped my notice so used; but I can cite no instance of them from the latter work. The effect of ‘circling’ was produced by ‘goading the steeds and hauling on the reins:’ directing them, of course, by the latter at the same time.†