The Hymns of the Rigveda

11 Her tooth a deer, dressed in an eagle's feathers, bound with cow-hide, launched forth, she flieth onward.

There where the heroes speed hither and thither, there may the arrows shelter and protect us.

12 Avoid us thou whose flight is straight, and let our bodies be as stone.

May Soma kindly speak to us, and Aditi protect us well.

13 He lays his blows upon their backs, he deals his blows upon their thighs.

Thou, Whip, who urgest horses, drive sagacious horses in the fray.

14 It compasses the arm with serpent windings, fending away the friction of the bowstring:

So may the brace, well-skilled in all its duties, guard manfully the man from every quarter.

15 Now to the shaft with venom smeared, tipped with deer-horn, with iron mouth,

Celestial, of Parjanya's seed, be this great adoration paid.

11 Her tooth a deer: the point of the arrow is made of a piece of deer's horn attached to the shaft with leather strings. The butt of the arrow is feathered.

13 He the whip.

14 It: the brace or guard worn on the archer's left arm, fastened on with leather straps.

15 With venom smeared: by the Laws of Manu, that is, the ideal Code of the Mânavas, Kshatriyas were forbidden to poison their arrows. Arrows appear to have been of two kinds, one, the older and less effective, tipped with deer-horn, and the other with iron mouth, pointed with ayas, bronze or iron. Celestial, of Parjanya's seed: made of the tall reeds that grow in the Rains under the influence of Parjanya the god of the rain-cloud.

16 Loosed from the bowstring fly away, thou arrow, sharpened by our prayer.

Go to the foemen, strike them home, and let not one be left alive.

17 There where the flights of arrows fall like boys whose locks are yet unshorn.

Even there may Brahmanaspati, and Aditi protect us well, protect us well through all our days. 18 Thy vital parts I cover with thine armour with immortality king Soma clothe thee.

Varuņa give thee what is more than ample, and in thy triumph may the gods be joyful.

19 Whoso would kill us, whether he be a strange foe or one of us,

May all the gods discomfit him. My nearest, closest mail is prayer.

16 Sharpened by our prayer: whetted by charms.'-Wilson.

17 Like boys whose locks are yet unshorn: "the point of the comparison is not very obvious, but it may mean that the arrows fall where they list, as boys before they are left with the lock of hair, before the religious tonsure, play about wherever they like."-Wilson. Professor Roth separates vişikha from kumára, and translates: "Where the arrows fly, young and old; that is, feathered and unfeathered."

18 Thy vital parts: the varman, or coat of mail, protected the shoulders, back, chest, and lower parts of the body. If not made of metal, it was strengthened and adorned with metal of some kind. The Indians in the army of Xerxes are said by Herodotus to have worn εἵματα ἀπὸ ξύλων πεποιημένα, clothes made out of the bark of trees (VII. 65); but he probably meant the common soldiers only, and not the chiefs. For a full description of the arms, offensive and defensive, used in Vedic times, see Muir, O. S. Texts, V. 169, Altindisches Leben, Mrs. Manning's India, Ancient and Medieval, or Dutt's History of Civilization in Ancient India.