Yantras or Mechanical Contrivances in Ancient India c2.29

c2.29

One of the best creations of the most ancient architects of this country is the chariot, *Ratha*. The *Ratha-kāra* of Vedic times was ever a person of importance, according to the *Vājasaneyi-Saṁhitā*, the *Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa* and the *Atharva-veda*. To the earliest Vedic poet the Ratha, finely hewn and fitted, was the very type of a well-wrought thing; his appreciation of the skill involved in its making made him not only refer to its maker as a person of high mental equipment, *Dhīra* and *Manīṣin*, but several times compare himself and his own creation in words, the hymn, to the gifted carpenter shaping his chariot. (*Ṛgveda*, I. 130.⁶; V. 2. 11; 29. 15; 73. 10; X. 39. 14). The poet referred to himself as a *Kāru*, architect; later, the Great Epic refers to the architect Maya as a *Mahākavi*, a great poet.