Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.149

c5.149

Equipped with staffs, bows and snares, they would roam far and wide on and among the mountains and forests in search of prey.⁵ They laid a snare of twisted cord of leather-thongs set with a pole, in the deer-drives.⁶ They knew the time for deer to come down from the hills and would post themselves ‘in ambush by the road.’⁷ Some of them would form themselves in a circle with weapons in their hands and then rouse the doomed creatures by their shouts, and capture them.⁸ Others used to build platforms on the boughs of the trees at the foot of which “they found the track of deer and watch aloft for their coming to eat the fruits,” and when come, “they brought them down with a javelin.”⁹ Thus they obtained hide, claws, teeth and fat,¹⁰ all economically useful products. From elephants, whether deliberately killed or otherwise, was obtained ivory which was the raw material of a very important industry.¹¹ Panther’s skin was also a useful material.¹²