The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.310

c2.s5.310

* yudhiṣṭhiras tu madreçam abhyadhāvat . . svayaṃ saṃnodayann açvān dantavarṇān, ix. 16. 47. † maṇḍalāni taṭaç cakre gatapratyāgatāni ca (vii. 19. 6.), ‘circles he made then forward and backward;’ evam uktvā tato . . . hayān saṃcodya, raçmibhis tu samudyamya javenā ’bhyapatat tadā; maṇḍalāni vicitrāṇi yamakāni ’tarāṇi ca, savyāni ca vicitrāṇi dakṣiṇāni ca sarvaçaḥ; pratodenā ’hatāḥ . . . raçmibhiç ca samudyatāḥ, vyacaraṇs te hayottamāḥ (iii. 19. 7), ‘circles of different sorts, double and single, (other) to left and right.’ The partial repetition in vii. 122. 66 gives us mārgajñaḥ as one who understands such manœuvres (maṇḍalāni, etc.; itarāni ca carantāu yuddhamārgajñāu tatakṣatur ratheṣubhiḥ, etc.). The same use in club-fight: compare ix. 57. 25 ff. ; 58. 22, 23; in the last example, a gomūtraka manœuvre of club-fighting diversifies the contest. I should translate ‘in an ellipse’ instead of a true circle; here arim sammohayann iva is added, the ultimate object being to confuse the foe. ‘Wheeling left’ is asavyam āvṛtya vājinaḥ; ‘wheeling right’ is pradakṣiṇam upāvṛtya, in iv. 57. 42; 64. 4; with ardhacandram āvṛtya, ‘wheeling a half circle,’ ib. 59. 10. In the first of these passages, yamaka applied to maṇḍala is defined by the commentator as ‘repressive.’ This meaning would not be impossible throughout, and is etymologically permissible. We should then translate (instead of ‘double and single’) ‘those circles meant to narrow the area of the foe’s action, and others’—that is, others that give him headway; but I prefer ‘double.’ The passage in the Rāmāyaṇa (vi. 92. 3) contains vīthī in both editions, but the verse appears corrupt in the second pāda. In vs. 6 (darçayitvā tatas tāu tu gatīr bahuvidhā raṇe) we have the simple A further trick of the charioteer is that of driving in such a way as to make a particular kind of noise. Perhaps no more than what corresponds to our individual trick of tread is meant, but we find that an unseen charioteer is recognized simply by the noise he makes in driving. This may be merely the grandeur and loudness of the sound, and it is withal in a ‘tale of old’ that the fact is mentioned;* but as a man used to the track can recognize one locomotive out of a hundred by ear alone, though bell and whistle be not used, I see no reason why in a chariot-age the same fineness of ear should not be possible, even if in one case the individuality lies in the engine and in the other in the engineer’s method. Loudness of noise alone is often approvingly alluded to (e. g. R. vi. 79. 11).