The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.583

c2.s5.583

∗ ¹ *anukarṣa* ; ² *tuṇīra* ; ³ *varūtha* ; ⁴ *tomara* ; ⁵ *upāsaṅga* ; ⁶ *niṣaṅga* ; ⁷ *çakti* ; ⁸ *ṛṣṭi* ; ⁹ *dhvaja*, *patākā* ; ¹⁰ *çarāsanatomara*, ‘a very heavy arrow discharged by a bow’ (not a hand-tomara, javelin); ¹¹ *rajju*, *pāça* ; ¹² *paricchada* and *kacagraha*: both are doubtful; perhaps *paristara* should be read and *karagraha*; in either case the first word is equivalent to *āstaraṇa*, blankets or coverings of some sort; and the second word, if not hair-catcher, is hand-catcher (*kaca*- is the usual word: compare vii. 36. 25, N. ‘*aṅkuça*’); *vikṣepa* is added to show that it is a weapon cast upon one (perhaps also the *paristara* is, if equal to *āstaraṇa*, the round-circling weapon, boomerang: compare Rājend., Ind. Aryans, i. 314; *āstara* is boomerang in the Nitiprak., but no form of this sort is found, I think, in the Epic as a projectile); ¹³ *tāilaguḍavāluka* and *āçiviṣaghaṭa*; ¹⁴ *sarjarasapāṅsavaḥ*, I am not quite sure of the meaning; ¹⁵ *ghaṇṭaphalaka*, on sword or spear or even shield, perhaps, *phalaka* is board or blade; ¹⁶ *ayoguḍajalopala* (the natives and admirers love to extract cannon, or at least catapults, from every mention of iron ball and stone; the commentator here explains the use of the iron balls reasonably, but thinks the stones must have been flung by ‘machines’: they were flung by hand); ¹⁷ *çāla*- or *çūla-bhindipāla* (see above); ¹⁸ *madhūcchiṣṭa-mudgara*; ¹⁹ *kāṇḍadaṇḍa*, = *kaṇṭakadaṇḍa*, or v. 1. *daṇḍakaṇṭaka*, same meaning; ²⁰ *siraviṣatomara*; ²¹ *çūrpapiṭaka* (compare what was stored in the chariot, besides quivers and breastplates, in R. ii. 39. 19 ff., *piṭaka* with *khanitra*; and ib. 37. 5, *khanitrapiṭake* . . *saçikye*, baskets with cords); ²² *aṅkuçatomara* (or javelins, as before); ²³ *kīlakavaca*, doubtful, perhaps *kīlakrakaca*, saws in wooden handles; ²⁴ *vācī* or *vāsī* (see above); ²⁵ *vṛkṣādana*; ²⁶ *ṛṣṭi* and *çṛṅga*: *ṛṣṭi* is a hand-missile used among the Dravidians, crooked, with wooden shaft (*phalaka*): *çṛṅga* is curiously defined by N. as ‘a means of freeing (killing) one bleeding when smitten with a club; but it may mean a horn to void excrements in’ (compare the weapon [?] *huḍa* or *hula*, in the list of iii. 15. 5, defined by a commentator to Manu, reading *huḍa* for *guḍa* in M. iii. 133, as a double-edged sword; but the Epic commentator, in iii. 284. 4, defines it as a privy-horn, *mūtrādyutsarjanārtham çṛṅgam*); ²⁷ *prāsa* (*bhalla*), *kuṭhāra*, *kuddāla*, *tāilakṣāumasarpis*: the last also explained as protective oil-cloth; ²⁸ *rukmajāla*.