The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.490

c2.s5.490

The kṣurapra is a knife-shaped arrow: that is, with a blade-head; and, like all these broad arrows, it cuts, if need be, a head from a body. It is spoken of as excessively sharp, and seems to have the legally forbidden ‘ears,’ or prongs bending back on the fish-hook plan.* We have in Droṇa’s leadership a list of arrows comprising nārāca, vatsadanta, bhalla, añjalika, kṣurapra, ardhacandra; and again a ‘half-nārāca,’ with nārācas of iron.† The nārāca here mentioned is of iron, and is, according to another passage in the pseudo-Epic (xiii. 104. 34), distinct from the nālīka (where we also find the karṇin or ‘be-eared’ arrow differentiated from the nālīka). The expression kṣudra-nārāca is here employed, literally ‘small.’ We find an antithesis between these again expressed in the battle-scenes, and in the Rāmāyaṇa the nālīka and (bahu-)nārāca are differentiated as if dissimilar.‡