The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.588

c2.s5.588

* The iron balls are flung with clubs, as in vii. 178. 23 (quoted above). As they serve to fill the list of the city’s possessions, N. naturally translates guḍa (as usual) by golaka in iii. 15. 8, helped thereto by agni, just before. But adornment and defense are united here throughout, and saguḍaçṛṅgikā purī may as well mean ‘with ball-tipped horns’ as with a machine no one ever heard of for casting iron balls. It is useless, however, for these commentators to see that the iron balls and other ‘powder’-implying ‘machines’ are always flung by hand. This they pass, and translate always from the modern point of view of late works that have specialized these terms. As we saw above, the hot balls were probably brought boxed in baskets (on the elephants) and dropped. Oil fires and heated sands are used in mid-battle. Such a combination as saguḍā-yoguḍaprāsāḥ (carried and discharged) would alone decide the matter to an impartial judge. We have here (vii. 36. 24) simply ‘clubs, iron balls, and darts,’ as hand-missiles, and certainly, as so explained, no more awkward than a pot of snakes. Compare vii. 25. 59, pāṃsuvātāgnisalilāir bhasmaloṣṭṛtṛṇadrumāiḥ. The nooses are used as said above in ix. 45. 109 (pāçodyatakarāḥ kecit). The plough-share (sīra) is Balarāma’s pet weapon; halāyudha is a common type. In ix. 60. 9 an attack is actually made with the plough-share, lāṅgala. It is not infrequent as an ordinary weapon. Compare the list halaçaktigaḍāprāsacarmakhaḍgarṣṭitomara, vii. 112. 15. Worth noting is the omission of lavitra, scythe, enumerated among amukta in Nitip., since we find this neither as weapon nor as car-defense, though knives protect divine cars.