Yantras or Mechanical Contrivances in Ancient India c2.121

c2.121

The context where the description of the "yantra" occurs is the longing of the pregnant Vāsavadattā; in the Kashmirian version of Somadeva there is only a line saying that her *dohada* (longing) was fulfilled by manifold contrivances, yantras, etc., arranged by the Minister Yaugandharāyaṇa. But in Budhasvāmin's version²⁸ the context contains an elaborate digression devoted to the yantras. Vāsavadattā yearned to see the whole world from above in an aerial vehicle (Śloka 190); Rumaṇvān, the commander-in-chief,²⁹ at once ordered carpenters to manufacture a flying yantra (Śloka 196). The carpenters say that they know only four kinds of yantras, made respectively with water, stone, mud and twigs; that it is the Yavanas who know the *Ākāśa-yantras*, and that they, for their part, have not even laid eyes on them.