Yantras or Mechanical Contrivances in Ancient India c2.33

c2.33

In *Ādi* 64 (Kumbhakonam edition), the *Mahābhārata* describes the festival of Indra's banner inaugurated by Uparicara Vasu, which thereafter continued to be celebrated as a great national festival, by the Kings especially. The *Rāmāyaṇa*, which refers to Indra's Banner more than once, takes it specifically as a *yantra-dhvaja*. The Flagstaff representing Indra was an elaborate affair, with a large number of things hanging about it all around, and its raising and bringing down after a 10-day festival were impressive sights. The falling down of Bharata in *Ayodhya* 77.9 is compared to the *yantra-dhvaja* of Indra falling down. That the flag was raised and pulled down by means of fittings and ropes is known from another reference, in the *Yuddhakhāṇḍa*, where Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa lying down in Indrajit’s *Nāgapāśa* are compared to the Indra-banner after the ropes have been let loose. The full particulars of the erection and dismantling of the *Indradhvaja* are set forth by Bhoja in a chapter of over 200 verses exclusively devoted to it in his *Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra*. The central pole, the pedestal, the painted flag itself, the subsidiary fittings, the dolls to be hung on it, its outstretched arms, the six ropes attached to it and several *yantras* fitted to it for raising it and bringing it down are described by Bhoja. In the *Harivaṁśa*, a supplement to the *Mahābhārata*, there is mention of the stone-throwing machine, *Aśma-yantra*, in the battle with Jarāsandha (II. 42. 21).