The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.412

c2.s5.412

* Compare above, and v. 152. 16, *gajāḥ kaṇṭakasaṃnāhāḥ, lohavarmottaracchadāḥ*, with the like description of metal armor in xii. 100. 7-8. Compare R. vi. 111. 10, *hemakakṣyābhiḥ saghaṇṭābhiḥ kareṇubhiḥ*; and R. v. 80. 32, *kaṇṭakavarma*, of elephants. See, too, Mbh. vii. 36. 34; and the (gold) *jāla* or net fastened to the elephant in vi. 20. 7. The *kaṅkaṇa* or foot-ring, iii. (C.) 15757, is *kiṅkiṇī* (-*bhūṣaṇaḥ*) in B. 271. 22. The *grāiveya(ṇī)*, necklaces, were probably for use as well as ornaments; they are associated with ‘bells and spears’ (vi. 54. 54 : cf. 96. 69). The coverings, as in the case of the horses, go by various names, *kambala, astara, āstaraṇa*, etc., and are of wool or goat-hair (*rāṅkara*; the best woolen stuff, *āvikam*, from the mountaineers, Pārvatīya, v. 86. 9). Colored woolen blankets, *kuthā*, are also common (vi. 57. 26; viii. 24. 64). *Paristoma* may be a bolster; it is found with the other coverings on carriages and elephants, and is said to be of different colors. The elephants themselves are dark (-blue) or speckled, *gajā nīlāḥ* of vi. 59. 15, etc. Indra’s white elephant does not appear. *Padminaḥ* qualifying *gajāḥ* may mean speckled. It might also mean ‘bearing a high saddle’: literally, ‘furnished with (something like) a lotus,’ used usually of spots on the forehead. But in i. 198. 16, N. defines *padma* as an eight-cornered, eight-pillared saddle, i. e. a howdah. Compare ‘the gold-girdled, wreathed, gold-decked *padminaḥ*’ elephants of ii. 61. 15 (N. here ‘speckled’). In vii. 115. 55, *vimāna* is howdah (later *varaṇḍaka*). In the first passage the tusks are gilded. The bells are called ‘sharp-sounding’ (*paṭughaṇṭāḥ*) in i. 221. 54. Gold girdles and flags also in R.; e. g. *gajayodhā gajāc cai ’vu hemakakṣāḥ patākinaḥ*, R. ii. 101. 35. Compare Mbh. vi. 60. 4.