Arms.
In the Rig-Veda frequent allusion is made to the use of the bow, the mastery of which was considered so important that a supplementary Veda, the Dhahur Veda, is devoted to it In the Ramayana, Rama wins Sita for his bride by bending the great bow of Siva; and in the Mahabharata the choice of Draupadi fell on Arjuna for his skill in archery* In the legendary life of Gautama Buddha we are also told that when his father sought out a wife for him among the daughters of the neighbouring rajas, they all refused, because, though hand- some, he had not been taught any martial accomplishments. Nevertheless the young Prince Siddhartha proved his prowess against all comers at the tournament proclaimed by the Raja Suprabuddha, for his daughter’s hand, and so gained the radiant Yasodhara for his wife. The Agni Purana gives a most elaborate classification of arms ; and they are represented in every variety of form on the most ancient monuments of India. Indian steel has been celebrated from the earliest antiquity, and the blades of Damascus, which maintained their pre-eminence even after the blades of Toledo became celebrated, were in fact of Indian steel* Ctesias mentions two wonderful Indian blades which were presented to him by the King of Persia and his mother. The Ondanique of Marco Polo’s travels refers originally, as Colonel Yule has shewn, to Indian steel, the word being a corruption of the Persian Hundwaniy , i.e. t Indian steel The
