1 The golden cars.
2 Tie art of waras
3 Tnown to the ancient
4 Ilindus
5 The officers of tho
6 arniy
7 The use of firearms
8 and gurpowder,
9 38 HISTORY OF THE PANJAB.
10 to a lively fancy and poetical imagery, but there is no doubt that the
11 chariots of Vedic times were embellished.in a manner befitting the owner's
12 rank, The Réméyana and the Mahabhdrata, which are of a later date,
13 speak of pearl fringes and jewelled decorations for the chartots of great men.
14 The description of ancient Indian cars in the Puranas is still more fulsome.
15 Savitri is described in the Rig Veda. as “ mounted on his high standing chariot
16 decorated with many kinds of golden ornaments and furnished with golden
17 yokes.” The “bountiful Indra” is thanked for “the gift of a golden chariot.
18 He is invoked to bestow “ handsome golden chariots.” A “golden seat,” “ golden
19 reins,” “golden shafts,’ “golden axles,” and “golden wheels” are talked of
20 repeatedly. The passion for chariots does not seem.to have been a
21 characteristic peculiar to the ancient Hindus, The Assyrians had painted
22 and highly embellished chariots. Fifteen centuries before Christ, the
23 Egyptians obtained chariots, completely covered with ornaments and inlaid
24 with gold, from the Mesopotamians. A great number of chariots were
25 employed for military purposes. Every battalion ‘of 450 foot soldiers had,
26 according to Amarakosha, 81 ears and 243 horses, ;
27 Horace Hayman Wilson and Gustav Oppert have written excellent
28 treatises on the art of war as known to the ancient Hindus. The work
29 written by the latter on the weapons, army organization and political
30 maxims of the ancient Hindus, derives its information from two ancient
31 Sanskrit works, the Witiprakasika of Vaisampayana and the Sukranite
32 of Usanas, or Sukracaryé. Vaisampayana is introduced in the Nitiprukasika
33 as communicating at Taksasila in the Panjab to King Janamijaya the
34 nature of the Dhanurveda, or the art of using the bow, the peculiarities
35 of the weapon and all particulars connected with war and the administration
36 of the country.
37 The troops of the ancient Hindus were commanded by generals, who were
38 mostly the king’s ministers. The crown prince was generally next in
39 command to the king, and all received their pay regularly every month.
40 The crown prince received 5,000 varvas* a month; the commander-in-chief
41 drew 4,000 varvas. The first charioteer, the atirutha, was usually a royal
42 prince, who received 8,000 varvasa month; the maharatha 2,000 varvas, .
43 The Hindus connect their weapons and arms with metaphysical causes, and
44 a supernatural origin is ascribed to all armour.
45 _ According to Professor Oppert, the ancient Hindus were acquainted
46 with the use of firearms and gunpowder. They had war machines made of
47 metal or stone, out of which they hurled iron and lead balls at their
48 enemies, ‘These were doubtless discharged by means of gunpowder. The
49 ancient Indians were great adepts in the art of smelting and casting
50 metais. The Arabs, who, in old times, maintained active commercial inter:
51 course with India, received their earliest gunpowder supply from that country
52 and made some improvements on the original manufacture. M. Langhs,
53 in @ paper read in the French Institute in 1798, contended very strongly
54 that gunpowder was invented in India, and the same opinion was put
55 forward by Beckmann, in 1811, in his History of Inventions and Discoveries.
56 age ne ae a Annals of Rdjastan : - We have in the poems of
57 the a a1 poet . frequent indistinct notices of firearms, especially
58 Ananda Raa Hae a When Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni fought
59 aces cent of Lahore, in 1008, cannon (éope) and muskets (tufung)
60 ‘ ing to Farishta, employed by the Sultan. In the apocryphal
61 Se Se et ee
62 * The rarra : .
63 . was i i i
64 in gold currency, which woe gold coin (ashrajfi). All the higher officers of State were paid
65 oof of the abundance of gold in India in ancient times,
66 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com