Yantras or Mechanical Contrivances in Ancient India c2.34

c2.34

More interesting references are made by Vālmīki to yantras on the field of battle, the continuity of which tradition we see later in the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭilya. The fortifications include equipment in the form of yantras. In *Ayodhya* 100.53, in the *Kaccit-sarga*, while enquiring about measures of defence, Rāma asks Bharata whether the fort is equipped with yantras. Laṅkā, as a city built by Maya, is naturally more full of the yantras. The city, personified as a lady, is called *yantra-agāra-stanī*, informing us of a special chamber filled with yantras. (*Sundara* 3. 18). In his account to Rāma of the fortifications of Laṅkā, Hanumān says in *Yuddha* 3.12 that Laṅkā has four big gates and that each gate is furnished with strong and huge yantras that can hurl both arrows and stones (*Upala-yantras*):