The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.669

c2.s5.669

In all this the *dhanurveda* is no more than a more comprehensive *astraçikṣā*, or art of missiles (vi. 118. 21), and was probably at first confined to this. We even find a man spoken of as a paragon of learning ‘in the *dhanurveda* of missiles and the *brāhme veda* (science of holiness).’† When this science of weapons was extended to the chariot, and the knight was taught to ‘circle’ with his war-car, then the *rathaçikṣā* or ‘skill with the chariot’ became also a part of the *dhanurveda*. Such skill consists in doubling and returning, and, negatively, in not being made viratha, ‘deprived of one’s war-car,’ and not allowing it to be splintered to pieces by the enemy’s arms. For each knight, whether he had or had not a charioteer, was able to manage his own war-car.