Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c13.s2.4

c13.s2.4

Soldier in Sculpture. The literary evidence, Greek or Indian, as to the arms and weapons of Ancient India is confirmed by the available evidence of old Indian art. A nearly life-size figure of an infantry soldier armed as described by Megasthenes appears among the sculptures of Bharhut which are generally taken to date from the age of Asoka. The most accurate description, however, of the early Indian arms may be obtained from the sculptures of Sanchi and other topes of the first century A.D. described by Cunningham and Fergusson. "In one of them," says Cunningham, "there is the representations of a siege....the soldiers wear a tight-fitting dress and kilt; the arms are a sword and bows and arrows. The swords are short and broad and tally exactly with the description of Megasthenes," given above. The bas-reliefs represent nearly all the foot-soldiers as archers, which is in accord also with the statement of Megasthenes. Some of them, Megasthenes states, use darts instead of arrows. This is also confirmed by one of the bas-reliefs showing a soldier covered by a shield and holding a dart horizontally, ready to launch it forward. The same dart is placed in one of the porter's hands at the western gate. The most usual shield represented in the bas-reliefs is also long and narrow and rounded at the top, as described by Megasthenes. The shields of the cavalry were, according to Megasthenes, smaller than those of the infantry. This is also the case throughout the bas-reliefs in which the horse-man's shield is always about 2 ft. in length.