The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s5.706

c2.s5.706

Under this heading I shall refer to the chief furniture of battle, but shall not seek to give a complete account of all the secondary trappings of the army, as my object is to convey the general impression made by the descriptions of the poem, rather than to be precise in details. We need this general impression, for otherwise we lose the shading of the Hindu artist, and the reality of the Hindu battle-field. The earrings of the knight are as necessary to the picture and to historic truth as are his bow and arrows. From one point of view, these accessories of battle are even more important than the more important factors: Chariots and bows are not national or peculiar, but pan-Aryan, or rather universal. We have only to determine what difference exists between those of the Hindu and other nations. But ornaments and objects of vanity are (universal indeed also, but) more markedly differentiated. Orient